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As the title says, people are predicting Ragnarök, the Viking apocalypse today.
(Aka, Götterdämmerung, Twilight of the Gods, etc.)
My heritage is Norwegian, so I'm genetically inclined to give
this a little more credence than that Mayan stuff back in 2012.
If you need to brush up on what to expect, Wikipedia
is probably your best bet.
As I type, it hasn't happened yet. (I think I would have noticed the total submersion of the planet in water.) But the Norse Gods have the whole dämm day to get it done, and they may be running on Oslo time.
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But if that whole end-of-world thing doesn't happen, and you're
feeling glum about it, where might you move to cheer up? According
to Gallup,
your best bet is North Dakota. And whatever you do, stay out of West
Virginia.
My own state, New Hampshire, dropped out of the top ten, coming in eleventh place. It was eighth last year. I blame Maggie Hassan.
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On a more serious note, Jonah Goldberg's column
this week looks at the would-be-amusing-if-it-wasn't-so-sad
academic world and its devotion to muddled thought and conformity
Cancel the philosophy courses, people. Oh, and we’re going to be shuttering the political science, religion, and pre-law departments too. We’ll keep some of the English and history folks on for a while longer, but they should probably keep their résumés handy.
Because, you see, they are of no use anymore. We have the answers to the big questions, so why keep pretending there’s anything left to discuss?
At least that’s where Erin Ching, a student at Swarthmore College, seems to be coming down. Her school invited a famous left-wing Princeton professor, Cornel West, and a famous right-wing Princeton professor, Robert George, to have a debate. The two men are friends, and by all accounts they had an utterly civil exchange of ideas. But that only made the whole thing even more outrageous.
“What really bothered me is, the whole idea is that at a liberal arts college, we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion,” Ching told the Daily Gazette, the school’s newspaper. “I don’t think we should be tolerating [George’s] conservative views because that dominant culture embeds these deep inequalities in our society.”
Read the whole thing; if you believe that "children are our future", then things are glum indeed, even if you live in North Dakota.
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For example, the University Near Here recently announced:
Anne Lawing, dean of students, and Alberto Manalo, associate professor of environmental and resource economics and vice chair of the faculty senate, will co-chair the search committee for the associate vice president for Community, Equity and Diversity, a new position President Mark Huddleston announced in his State of the University address Feb. 4.
It is unclear where the AVP for "Community, Equity and Diversity" will fit into the current
rat's nestcarefully designed organization of vice presidents, assistant vice presidents, associate vice presidents, deans, provosts, vice provosts, senior vice provosts, assistant provosts, associate provosts, officers, special assistants, directors, executive directors, deputy directors, senior directors, and senior associate directors.But I'm sure the compensation will be more than adequate. And the new AVP will no doubt join the chorus of voices singing about how dreadfully the UNH is underfunded.
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If you need some cheering up after that
(especially if you live in West Virginia, or are about to be
murdered by Norse Gods), I can recommend
a WSJ-provided excerpt
from Dave Barry's new book
You Can Date Boys When You're Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About.
We live in ridiculously convenient times. Think about it: Whenever you need any kind of information, about anything, day or night, no matter where you are, you can just tap your finger on your smartphone and within seconds an answer will appear, as if by magic, on the screen. Granted, this answer will be wrong because it comes from the Internet, which is infested with teenagers, lunatics and Anthony Weiner. But it's convenient.
Indeed. Especially useful are Dave's helpful steps for grilling a steak, jump-starting your car, and surviving in the forest.
![[The Blogger and His Dog]](/ps/images/me_with_barney.jpg)
