welcome to the family

Scientists have been debating for some time whether skeletons discovered on a small island in Indonesia constitute a new species of human, or just a variation of a known species, and some new evidence suggests that this really is a new human species. In some ways it is very human. The big toe is aligned [...]

wsu getting rid of rural sociology (and 8 faculty)

This note is going around. Washington State is getting rid of its community and rural sociology department. This is bad news for our colleagues, a bad precedent for our discipline, and something I think we should fight. Information is provided below. Some of you have probably heard the news … In the face of a [...]

two birds, one stone (reply to previous post)

You want free wifi at ASA? Probably too late to change anything for 2009. Besides, if ASA didn’t devote resources to providing wired connections, there would be all this fallout about how the organization isn’t sensitive to the needs of members who cannot afford laptops, etc.. However: it’s only a matter of time before there [...]

note to the asa

Now that the preliminary program is available online, I have been thinking about the meetings. I know that we’ve talked before about the problem of internet access at fancy schmancy hotels, but given that we are a ginormous conference bringing in lots of revenue, wouldn’t it be possible to appoint an ASA Special Ambassador to [...]

google scanner

NPR reports on the patented scanner that Google invented to mass-digitize books without destroying them. Given that I have recently learned that my book is being made available for free on Gigapedia, perhaps I shouldn’t think that is an absolutely amazing technological development. But I do.

classic

I’ve enjoyed reading about Fordham university law professor, Joel Reidenberg‘s recent class assignment. Basically, Justice Scalia recently scoffed at privacy protections on the internet. So Reidenberg had has class gather a bunch of information about Scalia and send the 15-page dossier to Scalia himself. “Among its contents are Nino’s home address, his home phone number, [...]

the averaged american and ontological crisis

I am perpetually behind on reading journals, so just finished reading Contexts from Winter 2009. It contains, among other things, a thoughtful review by the eminent sociologist Claude Fischer of Sarah Igo‘s book, The Averaged American. (I wrote a while ago about Andrew Kohut‘s review of the same book as well.)

buying furniture to end racism

Thank you, Jessie at racism review. This made my day. …and now I can’t stop singing “at the red house.”

facts

I’m not a qualitative researcher, but I know a lot of you are and either already know about this case and/or will have opinions about the issues it raises. I just stumbled across the matter of Jared Diamond’s New Yorker article last year telling the story of vengeance fights in Papua New Guinea based on [...]

taking offense

(I’m mostly busy writing on my overdue project. I wrote this paragraph as part of it, and am fond enough of it that I’ve decided to share it here.) When confronted with evidence of racial disparities in treatment, one reaction is to blame the measurement. It is not uncommon for agencies or officials to refuse [...]