Maggie's Farm

Outside a handful of majors -- engineering and some of the sciences -- a bachelor's degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

The BA degree was created for scholars, and as a foundation for the professions. It meant that you knew Latin and Greek, probably German and French, the sciences, math, and history - but it mostly meant that you wanted to be a scholarly person who intended to study stuff for the rest of your life. I think I'm on safe ground in saying that that is no longer the case. Education is such a huge, entrenched industry today that things are unlikely to change, but it's still worthwhile thinking about rational alternatives.

via Surber:

(Republican New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Doherty) has called for repealing New Jersey’s ridiculous global warming panic laws. Doherty said:

“There are many credible members of the scientific community who have questioned the theory of global warming, and now we have some scientists actually suggesting the earth’s temperatures may be entering a period of dramatic cooling. With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”

A small harborside boathouse in Wellfleet, at low tide

There are tests of your social situational sensitivity.

I know, and like, people from across the spectrum. And severely autistic people are still people. Nobody's wiring is perfect. How could it be?

From Bowyer's Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Noisy Environmentalists at TCS, one quote:

TR and his Director of Forestry Services, Gifford Pinchot created a system of 'wildlife Reserves'. They argued that it would not be fair for one generation to do all the logging and all the digging and to leave nothing behind for future generations. They didn't think of these reserves as something pristine, which would be rendered somehow ceremonially unclean by the signs of human development. They just wanted to share natural resources and beauty with future generations, like ours. In fact the shift in language from 'resources' to 'the environment' signals the shift in world-view from conservation to preservation. A resource, by its very nature, is to be used, sparingly, perhaps, but nonetheless, used.

This is why the Roosevelt-Pinchot philosophy is known to historians as the 'wise-use' movement. It's why the administration's forestry handbook contained explicit instructions for how to extract lumber and minerals from the protected lands. That's why the memorial lauds 'development', which contemporary environmentalists forbid in places like ANWR.

The preservationists of the time, like Sierra Club founder, John Muir, fought against them. While Roosevelt/Pinchot sought to make nature useful to humanity, by opening it to efficient use, and protecting it from destruction, Muir claimed that nature was to be useful to nature itself, not to man. For Roosevelt earth is for us, for people. For Muir man and land were equals. It wasn't the conservationist Roosevelt who put ANWR's oil out of our reach, but the environmentalist Carter.

Shucks, that is cute as hell. Hunter though I may be, I would never shoot one of these splendid animals. Deer? No problema.

And I love Alison Krauss too. (h/t, Theo)

Roger Kimball. Related: NYT debt heads towards junk status (h/t, Vanderleun).

The title of the eventual book will be "How to Destroy a Successful Franchise."

As we have been saying for over two years now. This quote via Surber:

The Belfast Telegraph has reported: “Based on the past Armagh measurements, this suggests that over the next two decades, global temperatures may fall by about 2 degrees C — that is, to a level lower than any we have seen in the last 100 years. Of course, nothing in science is certain. Perhaps (though I doubt it) Armagh’s old measurements are wrong or perhaps there are now other factors, such as CO2 emissions, which may change things somewhat. However, temperatures have already fallen by about 0.5 degrees C over the past 12 months and, if this is only the start of it, it would be a serious concern.”

Be very afraid.

Image via Moravec's cool illustrations.

We spoiled Americans love to bitch about things, but even without the recently dropping gas prices, fuel is more affordable than it was during the early '60s.

Sometimes I think we Americans want everything for free, a life without limits, without pain, without death and with perfect love: fairy tales and childish dreams.

Writing can confront you with odd things, like realizing that you aren't 100% certain how to spell "twelfth" when you start typing it. Lots of consonants for one small word. You can cheat and type 12th.

The Glorious Twelfth is the August opening of grouse season in the UK, mainly in Scotland. That would be the Scottish Grouse - Red and Black - legendary game birds. Driven fast-flying grouse - doubt I could hit a single one. Some day, I will try. They can reach 60 mph.

Unlike the US, in the UK you can find game on restaurant menus - and on the same day, if lucky. In the US, we found it necessary to make that illegal - market hunters were driving wild critters to extinction. Public lands, no gamekeepers.

Our grouse babies aren't even full-grown yet, and our grouse season doesn't begin until October. Brits and Scots would hate our North American grouse hunting. It entails walking endlessly, without cocktails, through alder tangles that can feel like jail cells, and with only a few shots per day. And no loaders, no drivers.

Image: Scottish Red Grouse, in the heather on the moors.

A witty friend once said that the most fashionable thing to have parked in your driveway is a green dumpster.

Well, I've had that for the last two weeks, but the mess and the cost and the dirt and the dust and the inconvenience of the demolition and slow reconstruction of the master bath isn't fun anymore. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, tile guys, new fixtures and vent fans... Turns out the leak had spread further than initially thought, so the entire bath had to be gutted. If you are interested, we did decide on a honed limestone floor instead of marble. Not just cost: it's a warmer, more homey look.

And now I see why we had that mysterious, very occasional leak in the downstairs coat closet: the shower stall had a leak too. Homeowner's insurance, I have learned, doesn't cover chronic leaks, just the acute ones. I had both.

Indeed, water and houses do not mix. Outhouses weren't such a bad idea, and outdoor showers are the best idea ever. I am inclined to cut back on a bit of my previous grand plans, not only because of the cost but because of the disruption of normal life routine. I can't find anything after having moved out of the master bath and halfway out of the bedroom.

My only question: Where's FEMA?

Bush obviously doesn't give a damn about my problems.

Photo:  Some nice limestone floor tile.

BBC. We'll see.

I think Dino has it right: Saakashvili was looking for trouble, and Russia was looking for an opportunity. More at Belmont.