More Noted Things ...

Endow This! Let's say you've got $1,000,000 to invest and you'd like a good 10% secure return per annum. Here's the deal: you endow a chair at a state university and it gets $750,000 matching funds from the state. You are then hired to fill the chair and draw $100,000 a year in salary, without having to do any work to show for it. Everybody wins, right? Scott Jaschik is on the case.

Getting to the Program: At Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell offers some practical advice about submitting proposals for presenting papers at professional conferences. Some of Henry's suggestions have less relevance than others to history convention programs, but the advice on the whole is quite good.

Shortell: Scott Jaschik's"Withdrawal at Brooklyn," Inside Higher Ed, 8 June, discusses the announcement by Timothy Shortell of Brooklyn College's Sociology Department, after weeks of controversy, that he will not become his department's chairperson.

Technology and Evil: Even as we rush madly into greater technological complexity, it remains unclear how our dependence on and use of it will be judged by our descendants, except that we can almost be certain that they'll be even more dependent on it. But it's heartening to hear positive reports. At zdnet, there's a remarkable story about technology's redeeming effects -- a family reconnected -- sixty years after the Holocaust. Thanks to Jon Dresner for the tip.

Three Diversions: If you're up for this sort of thing, the BBC's In Our Time is sponsoring an election for the world's all time Greatest Philosopher. You can vote on it! Word is that Karl Rove has signed on to manage Machiavelli's campaign. Thanks to Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber for the tip.
Or, at PSoTD's"The Relatively Obscure Historical Figure Motion Picture", you're invited to assume that you run a major motion picture studio. Who would you choose to be the subject of a major motion picture? Thanks to Jon Dresner for the tip.
But Europhobia's sponsored conversation about Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendelum looks to be more nourishing. It's to convene on 20 June at Europhobia. As a great fan of The Name of the Rose, I'm intrigued at the suggestion that Foucault's Pendulum is"perhaps Eco's best" and I love the description:"it's basically The Da Vinci Code if it had been written by someone literate, intelligent, with a superb grasp of character and plot, and who had actually bothered to do some original research." Thanks to Sharon Howard at Early Modern Notes for the tip.

Utopias: Terry Eagleton,"Just My Imagination," The Nation, 26 May, reviews Russell Jacoby's Picture Imperfect. Thanks to Martha Bridegam at Horizon for the tip.