The French and l'Internet

Also in the WSJ is an interesting article about how the French adopt new terms for modern technology. For example, the French word for "email" is "courriel."

To Be Prepared

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about Capt. Sullenberger and his life, written by the co-author of his new book.

Sullenberger's approach to life has stressed being prepared, helping others, making good decisions, and doing the right thing:

We need to try to do the right thing every time, to perform at our best, because we never know what moment in our lives we'll be judged on.

He also discusses decision-making:

Sully values the concept of "goal sacrificing." When it's no longer possible to complete all your goals, you sacrifice lower-priority goals. He instinctively knew that goal-sacrificing was paramount on Flight 1549. "By attempting a water landing," he says, "I would sacrifice the 'airplane goal'—trying not to destroy an aircraft valued at $60 million—for the goal of saving lives."

Nationalizing Higher Education

Robert J. Birgeneau and Frank D. Yeary, at the University of California-Berkeley, offer a possible response to the state budget crises that are affecting public universities: asking the federal government to fund them.

But not all of them: only "a limited number of our great public research and teaching universities" that qualify based on "their research achievements, their success in graduating students, commitment to public service and their record in having a student body that is broadly representative of society."

Of course, many public research and teaching universities are already receiving millions in research funding. While most of that goes to support the research directly, the universities spend nearly a third of that money (the overhead amount) to support staff and other expenses beyond the ones that the states support.

The Future of Higher Education

The Washington Post today carried an article from The Big Money by Zephyr Teachout on the future of higher education. The article argued that universities (like newspapers) will soon be under intense competition from aggregators that grant degrees by offering online courses with standardized content, with adjunct faculty grading tests. The article also claims that only the elite schools (like elite newspapers) and state-funded institutions will survive in the coming era.

Links to the article in the Post and the article at The Big Money.

Patience

Patience with others is love; patience with self is hope; patience with God is faith.

- Adel Bestavros