Last week I wrote about how Senator Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) wanted funding for political science research to be removed from the National Science Foundation. His defining its funding with as a waterboarding (fiscally speaking) of future generations was certainly the more striking aspect of his work, but apparently politician science is being given a rather thorough evaluation in terms of viability as a field of study. According to the New York Times , however, even supporters of political science acknowledge that its viability--while undeniable--can be somewhat vague.

At the University of Texas, the importance of foreign language requirements came into debate recently. A proposal had been put forth that suggested the College of Liberal Arts reduce the foreign language requirement from 16 credits to 12. In a meeting to discuss the proposal, the faculty of the college was resolutely opposed to the resolution. Randy Diehl, the Dean of the college, sent an email to faculty, withdrawing the proposal. He stated, " "[i]n three and a half hours of give and take, not one audience member spoke in favor of the proposal.... In view of the overwhelming negative reaction to the proposal, I have decided to withdraw it from further consideration."

On Tuesday, the Senate debated an amendment put forth by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn's Amendement proposed a cut-off of funding for the National Science Foundation's political-science program.

The value of an intangible is always a difficult thing to calculate. Attempts can be, at times, rather controversial. An infamous example is that of the Ford Pinto. The Pinto was Ford's first attempt at a subcompact car in the United States and so was made with cost-cutting in mind. Unfortunately, in the process, the design for the car's fuel tank was a bit ... faulty. By faulty I mean, prone to explosion if the car were to be hit from the back.

Like Cornell, Northeastern has been re-examining its academic structure in the wake of economic problems. Today, they took a major step in restructuring the University, converting two colleges into three.

If you walk along the path that crosses the Arts Quad from the libraries to between Lincoln and Goldwin Smith Halls, you will notice there are six small posters attached to stakes anchored in the ground.

The posters, clearly made by a pro-life organization, contain images of zygotes and fetuses and are accompanied by text about the image. For instance, the first one walking from the libraries is a picture of a zygote with words next to it that state:

"Hi I am Elena! Watch me grow!! I might be just 30 hours old, but I already have 46 of what my doctors call chromosomes making up my special DNA! A person's a person, no matter how small."

According to Agence France Presse, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has had a controversial moment, two weeks after itsinauguration. King Abdullah fired a hardline cleric from the Council of Senior Ulema for criticizing the University's policy of mixing genders.

Last week, Sheikh Sa'ad al-Shethry was removed from the Council, which dictates religious policy in Saudi Arabia, a week after he decried gender mixing as "evil," and "a great sin" in a television interview.

Mondays can be miserable...but whenever I think about Monday, I remember what Michael Scott from the Office said in one of my favorite episodes from the show and his profound decision to introduce Movie Mondays as an effort to boost office morale, at the cost of office productivity.

"The only cure I know for the Monday Blues is Varsity Blues."

Unfortunately I have not got Varsity Blues, but I do have some SunShine for your day.

Maybe it’s because Michael Jackson has died—it’s a sad and unnerving feeling to think that he’s gone—but today has had a very peculiar quality to it. Even for Iran, today was rather strange.

Let’s look at what’s happened.

Seems like Iran is in a state of flux, alternating between days of horrific violence and tense calm. Today is the major exam day of Iran, during which the Konkoor---Iran’s college entrance exam—is administered. It’s of a different mode than the SATs.

Much to my dismay, it looks like I’d spoken too soon about things appearing relatively calm in Iran. Today was chaotic.

The major point of incidence in Iran was at Baharestan in Tehran. Baharestan is where the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) meets. Protesters amassed there today (the 24th) in an effort to again show their rejection of the election results that had President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad overwhelming reelected to the presidency. As is now frequently the case in Iran, where there are protesters there are Basij paramilitary forces. And where there are Basiji there is sure to be violence.