Types of capitalism

Steven Pearlstein's article on capitalism highlights the following forms:

• robber barons
• corporate (managerial) capitalism
• state capitalism
• entrepreneurial capitalism
• worker capitalism
• shareholder capitalism
• financial capitalism

Joy

A meditation on joy by Daniel J. Heisey, with references to the "relatively obscure Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Paul VI, Gaudete in Domino (1975)." Heisey concludes

we do well to ponder the joy of doing one’s duty, whether a gold star is in the offing; the demanding joy of sacrifice, whether anyone notices; or the austere joy of a job well done, simply because anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Manufacturing zippers

Article about YKK, the "mysterious" Japanese company that dominates the zipper market. Their zippers are much better but only slightly more expensive. (This also appeared in The Washington Post.)

Academic busyness

First Thoughts post about how universities and colleges are very busy saving the world:

We must recommit to “citizenship” as a foundation of the academy and model citizenship by addressing the real problems of our state, national and global communities.

Skillful writing of an awful research paper

This editorial by Royce Murray at UNC is good advice to avoid. Rule 3 is particularly good:

Diagrams are worth a thousand words, so in the interest of writing a concise paper, omit all words that explain the diagram, including labels. Let the reader use his/her fertile imagination.

Hat tip: my colleague Elisabeth Smela, who posted a copy on the bulletin board outside her office.