world's greatest Ph.D.

read this! look at that!

"hey, you forgot poland."

reality used to be a friend...

for the last remaining person unable to find this clip, i present you a link to jon stewart's hilarious/insightful interview on crossfire the other week.

and finally: ashlee simpson, you may need to talk to bush's aides about this whole "reality" thing.

AAA meetings in peril

if you're presenting a paper at the annual AAA in san francisco, then you've probably already heard. due to a strike of the hotelworkers union, the AAA is seriously considering cancelling or moving the meetings. we anthropologists are always considering the greater good, the bigger picture. which is great. i just wish the AAA had notified us of the greater good one day earlier, the day i bought my airplane ticket to san francisco.

i'm always the last to know

rice anthropology has a new homepage. ahem, we are now the RdA.

corruption stories developing in russia

the russian government announced today that it would sell a section of state-owned oil company yukos. according to the wall street journal, the sub-company's oil output is equivalent to that of malaysia. yukos is the company that made news earlier in the year when its president Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed, possibly or probably because of his vocal criticisms of the putin administration. the charges were related to tax evasion and embezzlement, but came amidst Khodorkovsky's purchase of a Russian newspaper.

the problem is valuation of the subsidiary. it will be put on the market at $10 billion, but it's actual value is at least $15 billion, possibly even $30 billion.

additionally, who will buy? because of the tax charges, the russian government has taken over the sale, arguing that the subsidiary should be sold to pay the back taxes. this is a typical situation ripe for a corrupt deal in which the company gets sold to a friend of the state.

meanwhile, in another russia story...

the us government sued harvard prof. andrei shleifer 4 years ago for seeking corrupt profits while head of a foreign aid program through harvard to restructure the russian economy in the 90's. while he was head, his wife, his associate deputy, and himself invested in the russian market. this summer, a judge ruled that shleifer did conspire to defraud the us government by making these investments. harvard could owe up to $34 million for breach of contract.

right now, harvard's governing board has to make a decision what to do with shleifer.

but not only does it look like shleifer will get around paying anything - it looks like harvard will pick up any lawyer fees and fines - but he probably won't even get fired or lose tenure. his good friend lawrence summers, also harvard president, wants to keep the star professor. but will the conflict of interest case have any bearing on shleifer's academic credibility? it remains to be seen.

houston wins something

make good with carole and tell her how happy you are that the astros finally won their first postseason series.

after a 40-something year slump of october failures, the killer-B's finally deliver.

but i'm still picking the sox to beat the curse. call me a millenarian.

deconstructionist meets the creator

props to derrida, he was 74.

he may have passed on, but will continue to torment rice anthropology Ph.D students for years to come.