Nerd News: UK Universities Slipping In Rankings?

I personally don't put much stock in rankings, but some Brits are concerned about these new ones.

Nerd News: More Meaningless College Rankings

It's getting to the point where I basically don't even care anymore, but I keep posting these out of sheer dumb habit.  Here's the latest listing from Forbes.  According to that, Stanford and Pomona are on top of the nerd-heap.  Go and argue among yourselves.

The 2013 Global Freedom Rankings

The annual survey of political rights and civil liberties is now available (pdf).

The 2013 Index of Economic Freedom

We're Number 10, which means we rank as "Mostly Free" instead of "Free" and got whipped by

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Canada
7. Chile
8. Mauritius
9. Denmark

From the blurb about the US ranking:

The United States, with an economic freedom score of 76, has lost ground again in the 2013 Index. Its score is 0.3 point lower than last year, with declines in monetary freedom, business freedom, labor freedom, and fiscal freedom. 

Come on, people!  We have got to do better than this!

Oh, Those Stoic Singaporeans

"Polls" like this aren't good for much more than a giggle, but here is this ranking that says Singaporeans are the least emotional folks in the world.  Really?

(Now I can't get the "Clearly you've never been to Singapore" line from Pirates of the Caribbean out of my head.)

US Slips In Global Economic Competitiveness

Oh my.  Northern European countries are sailing right past us, and we've slipped for the fourth year in a row!  Blurb:

"In addition to the burgeoning macroeconomic vulnerabilities, some aspects of the country's [United States] institutional environment continue to raise concern among business leaders, particularly the low public trust in politicians and a perceived lack of government efficiency," said the WEF, a think tank that also hosts the annual meeting of global business and political leaders in the Alpine town of Davos, Switzerland.

You don't say!  The US is currently ranked in seventh place. Seventh!  Disgraceful.

Top 100 Books of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Let the debates begin about this list!  Hey, where's The Eye of Argon?  (Just kidding!)

There Really* IS* a Blog For Everything!

Behold Mondo Fruitcake, the fruitcake review blog.  No, really!  See its list of top-rated fruitcakes and never settle for awful fruitcake at Christmas again!  Oh, and it states that the gold standard for all fruitcake is this one.  Still, I just don't like the stuff.

Nerd News: Employment and College Majors

Here are 10 college majors whose students have almost 0% unemployment.  Here is the Wall Street Journal's interesting (and extensive) chart of numerous majors and employment, as well as commentary thereon.  

Throw the Book At Them: the 50 Most Hated Literary Characters

It is time to get your hate on, bibliophiles!  (Especially you, La Parisienne and Kamikaze Editor!)  See if you agree or disagree with the choices and rankings of the 50 most hated characters in literature.

I gotta say, though, this list has utterly endeared itself to me by proclaiming that the #1 spot belongs to Bella Swan and Edward Cullen and #3 to Holden Caulfield.  YESSSSSSSSSS!  (Remember my previous hating on "Twilight" here and on Holden Caulfield here.)

Here, let me give you the top 10 for you to harsh on to your heart's content:

1. Bella Swan and Edward Cullen
2. Cholly Breedlove
3. Holden Caulfield
4. Scarlett O'Hara
5. Iago
6. Anita Blake
7. Tom Buchanan
8. Heathcliff
9. Dolores Umbridge
10. Dorian Gray

For the record, I hate plenty of the people on the list, but I reserve a special nerd-rage for insufferable #43 Robert Langdon, whom not even lovable nebbishy Tom Hanks could make me love.  By the way, Satan barely makes the list at #50 ... because, I suspect, Milton did too good a job in Paradise Lost and turned the Prince of Darkness into a too memorable an eloquent anti-hero.  I mean, you gotta give props to a poet who lets Satan hold a pep rally in hell.  I'm serious!

Call Me Ishmael: the 100 Best Book Opening Lines

This list is, of course, subject to debate!  I for one cannot stand James Joyce.  Oh, here, let me give you the top 3 novel openings.  I approve of the first two, though I think the opening of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities should have ranked higher than Gravity's Rainbow.

1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)

For the record, I don't think Salinger belongs on this list.  Holden Caulfield is a loser!  Also, there are far too many 20th-century books in this list.  

Nerd News: the World's Most Beautiful Campuses

BYOOTIFUL!

Nerd News: College Rankings Based on a Survey of Employers

Via the Insta-Prof comes this fascinating perspective.  A teaser for you here:

Recruiters say graduates of top public universities are often among the most prepared and well-rounded academically, and companies have found they fit well into their corporate cultures and over time have the best track record in their firms.

Now compare and contrast with the latest annual US News and World Report college rankings.  I give you the top 25 schools after the fold:

The Couch Potato Chronicles: A Primer of 20 Classic Sci-Fi TV Shows

Here you go, kids, so have at it over the 3-day weekend!  There is, of course, lots of room for argument.  

(For instance? The writer didn't like "Firefly"'s episode "Shindig," which I absolutely adore.  And "Supernatural" isn't on the list at all ... though I'll be the first to admit it's (a) more a guilty pleasure than a classic, and (b) La Parisienne and the Kamikaze Editor and I all thought the most recent season was mostly a crashing bore.  Still, I've got a bone to pick with the list if it's going to include "Torchwood"-- and recommend the deplorable "Children of Earth" story! -- and not "Supernatural" which, at its best, gave us snappily witty, tongue-in-cheek, meta-theatrical episodes like "Hollywood Babylon," "Monster Movie," and "Changing Channels."  Also, how can "Farscape" not be on this list?!)  

I pretty much love almost all the 20 shows on the list, but if I had to choose 5 listed shows that you MUST watch, I pick the following in alphabetical order:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• the new Doctor Who (i.e., Nine, Ten, and now Eleven)
• Firefly
• The Prisoner
• Star Trek 

You still must watch "Farscape," though.  Oh, and I heartily recommend the BBC "Life On Mars" also, though it's arguably not quite as obviously sci-fi as some of the other shows on the list.  But if the list can include "Lost," then I don't see why it can't include a crime drama that plays with the idea of reality, time, and consciousness.  The new "V" is fun too, and "Journeyman" is a "Firefly"-esque sad tale of what might have been if it had lasted longer.   "Kings" is a hard-to-classify bit of actual creativity.  On the animated side, you can't beat "Futurama" with a stick.

Film Culture Commentary: 25 Sci-Fi Films That Everyone Must Watch

Let the arguing begin!  (And how many have you seen?)

RELATED POSTS: 

• Best sci-fi flicks of the decade?
• I rave about how awesome "Moon" is.

Kitchen Notes: the Best 50 Cookbooks Ever?

Here's the list.  Let the debate begin!  (Julia Child only at #21??)  Still, these kinds of lists are always subjective and overly dependent on the tastes of the people organizing them, so I would take the rankings ... with a grain of salt.  *rimshot!*

Nerd News: the New "US News and World Report" College Rankings Are Out

Every year the rankings come out, and every year there's a flap about them.  Yes, yes, everybody complains that the methodology is dodgy (and it is) and that the criteria are subjective (and they are), but everybody still wants to be ranked higher than the next nerd.  Top dog in this year: Hahvahd, with Princeton at #2 and Yale at #3.  See the entire rankings list.  More here.

Nerd News: 2 Op-Eds About Higher Education

There is a tide in the affairs of nerds, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures ... 

Lately a LOT of people, different people, have been talking about the state of higher education.  Opinions vary wildly, but the common denominator is that everyone seems to think there's something wrong with the status quo.  Here, read two new op-eds about the state of nerddom:

Nerd News: Historians Rank Presidents

Well, nobody asked me, is all I'm sayin'. Obama on a recent survey of 238 historians came in 15th, 2 places behind Clinton and 3 places ahead of Reagan. 

The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom

The new rankings are now available. (Insert here my usual caveat that all rankings are a bit subjective and methodologies open to scrutiny and debate, but this is a useful rough sketch of different nations' economic freedom status.)

The US is still in the top 10, but we've slipped in the rankings. (Technically the US ranking is no longer fully "Free" but "Mostly Free," and Canada's ahead of us now. Really?! HopeChange!)

Number 1 in the world for economic freedom? Hong Kong.

In fact, Asian/Pacific nations rule supreme: HK, followed by Singapore, then Australia and New Zealand.

Dead last in the list is also an Asian nation. North Korea, natch. I do mean DEAD last. It's even worse than Zimbabwe.

The survey has this useful little definition of "economic freedom":

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

Oh, yes.