More on the Question of Anonymity

On Whither the U of A, Piotr Rudnicki has criticized commenters who remain anonymous.  As I noted in the previous post, there are certain professional advantages to masking one's identity.  Here is an interesting article from the Guardian on Christopher Poole, 4Chan's founder, who believes very strongly that anonymity has distinct plusses in certain forums.

Why I Use a Pseudonymn

Here's what happens when an academic at a public university dares to criticize the anti-union behavior of radical right-wing republicans.

Update:  here is another discussion of the same story, by James Fallows of The Atlantic, and here is a story on a Republican prosecutor in Indiana who e-mailed some helpful suggestions to Gov. Walker about making the protesters look bad.

Update 2:  here is Krugman on the the Cronon story.

We're All Badgers Now

Here is a very interesting piece in a "point-counterpoint" style, but with both participants agreeing that unionization in academia was not a bad thing after all. That is especially surprising coming from Stanley Fish, a literary theorist whose writing I find generally distasteful.  (In particular, as his Wikipedia entry notes, Fish has stated that "ideas have no consequences," a truly repulsive assertion.)  Anyway, it's well worth a read.

Let's All Turn Off Our Lights for an Hour!

The U of A's Colloquy blog has a new post promoting activities related to "Earth Hour."  I have a lot of sympathy for these sorts of things, and certainly hold nothing against the Office of Sustainability.  Nonetheless, there is something disturbing about this sort of thing, much like the earlier dodgeball post.  It just seems to be all about image and gestures, but with no real long-term meaning to the institution or society.  I wish they would invest more effort into thinking about how to sustain the University of Alberta in the face of inept leadership and an anti-intellectual and criminally negligent government.

Twitter the U of A

Jeremy has a nice post up pointing out the true inanity of the latest triumphalist stupidity on Colloquy.  Apparently people tweeting the names of their favorite U of A professors at the poorly advertised and organized Festival of Teaching is a sign of how great things are going.

University's Compensation Proposal on Colloquy

Ha ha, on Colloquy Dru Marshall has posted an item about the (now public) latest offer in the salary negotiations between the University and AASUA.  I will not comment on the offer itself, at least for now.  Instead, I will note the hilarious aside that comments are disabled on that particular post "(b)ecause negotiations are ongoing, we cannot respond to questions or comments."