Links for you. Science:
Biological specimen troves threatened by funding pause: Decision by US National Science Foundation could hamper research on conservation biology, climate change and invasive species. (yes, it will)
This scientist found a way to make battery parts with bread mold
Wild mice actually enjoy running on exercise wheels
The Enduring Mystery Of ‘Jawn’, Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun
The Ocean Cleanup. The newest of the new plans to remove marine plastic.
Other:
Seattle’s progressives see a Sanders win in Washington as a way to send a message to Democrats (important)
Donald Trump’s Working-Class Appeal Is Starting To Freak Out Labor Unions (same thing happened with George Wallace)
No Memory Equals No Perspective
The Bernie Sanders Moment: Brought to you by the generation that has no future
#BernieMadeMeWhite: No, Bernie Sanders Isn’t Just Winning With White People
What Happens in California Stays in California; Why $15 Will Boost Employment Statewide
HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN
Stupid Campaign Tricks (“the data coming from the primaries tell us that Clinton voters are on average both older and more affluent than Sanders voters. So much for the “privileged” argument.”)
CAN’T FIND THE WORDS TO SAY
New York is in for a sea change in education policy. Here’s what and why.
Winter in the Hamptons: food pantries, poverty and homelessness
Philadelphia’s Trinity Houses are the Original Tiny Houses
CIA-armed militias are shooting at Pentagon-armed ones in Syria
Bernie Sanders and “white states”: media narratives versus the U.S. Census Bureau
Adjunct professors unionize, revealing deeper malaise in higher ed
New rule limiting silica dust exposure makes business gag
The incredibly Washington reason drone delivery isn’t coming to D.C. anytime soon
The Free Rider Myth – Who Really Pays for the Roads?
The Long March of Bernie’s Army
mikethemadbiologist
Re adjunct faculty: SEIU’s $15k/course target seems pretty reasonable. Teach two courses/semester x 2 semesters/year and you’re at $60k w/o benefits. I wouldn’t give up my current job for that.
Now I go over and look at the MIT Professional Ed offerings over the summer – http://professional.mit.edu/programs/short-programs. Going rates are >$1000/day to attend. (I see a few under $1k/day but they’re the exceptions.) A four day class x 20 students per class… That works out to a big number. How much you figure faculty receive to teach those 4-5 day classes? (A little unfair to compare professional ed classes with undergrad classes taught by adjuncts but still.)
My neighbor is a full-time tenured associate professor who teaches 4 courses per semester and gets paid $56k. That includes service and scholarship (she just published her third book). She manages because her husband is a well-paid physician and their household income is substantial. A target of $15k per course is nice, but the supply and demand issue will thwart it, I’m afraid — summer courses of the sort you mention at MIT are explicitly cash cows, and if they can find a grad student — not the stereotypical recent PhD who is adjuncting — to teach for $1500 per course, why pay more? I am deeply sympathetic to the financial issues that adjuncts face, but an alternative to the $15k proposal might be to look to small college teaching as a standard, since adjuncts typically don’t have service and research/scholarship obligations. 4-year colleges often have a 4-4 teaching load, and pay poorly — see my neighbor’s example. Pay $6k per course, for a total of $48k per year That’s a living wage, and doesn’t pay adjunct faculty more than full-time TT faculty who teach just as much and do more in addition.
Re: The Free Ride Myth
One of the things I hate is subsidizing the cost of car parking on private parking. My local grocery store in dense downtown area of a small city (120K) has a parking lot about 1.5 times the size of the store. Every time I walk or cycle there to buy something the price I am paying some part of the cost of the the taxes and maintenance for the parking lot.