Links, August 15

Redefining the Public University: Developing an Analytical Framework has some interesting points (via 3quarksdaily):
"The configuration of national university systems is shaped by and shapes its insertion into a global context. Again our two models of regulation and commodification reflect pressures operating at the global level. Regulation refers to the systems of global competition for place in international ranking systems. This entails nation states applying pressure to universities to compete globally along a range of indices, but most fundamentally to publish scholarly papers in major international journals, to teach and research in English, making US or European societies the reference point for everything. This draws the best university faculty into the orbit of an international community but in so doing they lose contact with national issues. While this most obviously affects the social sciences and humanities, it can also affect the hard sciences in that the medical and engineering problems faced by a country in the Global South can be very different from those faced in the Global North."

Abi on Misconduct in India and the West: A Key Difference

From a 2009 article in NYTimes The Looting of America’s Coffers (via 'The Big Picture' post The Meaning of the British Riots ):
"Sixteen years ago, two economists published a research paper with a delightfully simple title: “Looting .”
...
The paper’s message is that the promise of government bailouts isn’t merely one aspect of the problem. It is the core problem.
...
Mr. Akerlof and Mr. Romer finished writing their paper in the early 1990s, when the economy was still suffering a hangover from the excesses of the 1980s. But Mr. Akerlof told Mr. Romer — a skeptical Mr. Romer, as he acknowledged with a laugh on Tuesday — that the next candidate for looting already seemed to be taking shape.

It was an obscure little market called credit derivatives."

From Memory: I Don’t Think It Means What You Think It Means. An Interview with Dan Simons:
"Do you believe that memory works sort of like a video camera, faithfully recording your experiences so that you can go back later and revisit those memories, captured in pristine condition? Do you believe that if something unexpected walked into your field of vision you’d notice? Can forgotten memories be recalled through hypnosis?

If you’re like 50-80% of the US population, you might answer yes to each of those questions, but you’d be wrong."

From Lessons in history: Pakistan’s bright future :
"To value the progress of Pakistani Muslims, we should look at the demographics of pre-1947."

Churimuri Has the IT boom quelled Bangalore’s tensions?. What about Hyderabad?