Tuesday, September 18
Moral solutions
The work of UVA psychology professor Jonathan Haidt is the focus of a major article in the Science section of today’s New York Times. Haidt’s book The Happiness Hypothesis explores the evolutionary basis of morality—in other words, the idea that we have moral codes because they benefit the societies we social animals create. In his view, we actually have two separate moral systems, one more rational and one more intuitive, and the human mind is like a small rider (conscious reasoning) on the back of an elephant (“subterranean moral machinery,” as the Times puts it). Haidt has also written about the way these moral systems connect to religion and politics.
Wednesday, September 19
Would-be Ivy cribs Hoo research
A Korean newspaper, Donga, reports today that a Korean woman named Shin Jeong-ah is falsely claiming to have graduated from Yale University, and is passing off the doctoral dissertation of a UVA student as her own. The story quotes Zilla Linstein, a Yale PR flak, as saying, “This is a very regretful situation”—apparently even more so for Shin, who is a former professor at a Seoul University and, according to a second Korean newspaper, actually faces arrest for her untruths. Plus, says a Donga source, “It could humiliate all Koreans.”
Thursday, September 20
Gimme all yer investors
According to Harrisonburg’s Daily News Record, Charlottesville multiple property owner Richard Spurzem is suing Pioneer Bank—which has seven branches in Virginia—to obtain a list of its shareholders. Spurzem holds about 10 percent of the company’s stock, which represents about $2.5 million, and, believing that the bank could be better managed, says he wants to communicate with other shareholders about how to increase profits. Among other problems, he believes compensation for CEO Thomas Rosazza—$199,482—is excessive. Rosazza, in turn, says that turning over the list of shareholders is not in the bank’s best interest.
Stark view of tasers
Mike Stark is not amused–but nor is he surprised—by the tasering of an outspoken student at the University of Florida.
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Charlottesvillian Mike Stark, who’s earned as much fame for his involvement in a scuffle at a 2006 George Allen rally as for his left-leaning blog, “Calling All Wingnuts,” tells NBC 29 today that a University of Florida student shouldn’t have been surprised by the heavy-handed police tactics employed against him at a forum featuring Senator John Kerry on September 17. Andrew Meyer asked Kerry a few tough questions, was led away by police and eventually tasered. “You are using police power to repress speech and that is a very simple concept,” said Stark. “I don’t understand why any one [sic] would have trouble seeing the slippery slope that presents.”
Friday, September 21
Satellite-goers roll in late
Can you handle it? Girl Talk burned down the house at the Satellite Ballroom last week.
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An event Thursday night at the Satellite Ballroom, according to those present, rocked on a scale that proved overwhelming to at least one attendee: C-VILLE’s own Brendan Fitzgerald reports that, after a certain amount of time spent drifting through a sea of more than 100 dancers onstage, while groove-maker Girl Talk performed in shorts and moistened towels to beat the heat of the sellout crowd, he (Fitzgerald) just had to get out. Check out his account of the evening at here.
Saturday, September 22
Burmese dissident watches from afar
Today’s Daily Progress profiles Zaw Min, who spent 13 years in a Burmese prison in connection with his pro-democracy activism in that country. Min and his wife and daughter settled here about a year ago with the help of the International Rescue Committee. Many of the democracy advocates arrested last month in Burma are friends and colleagues of Min; he would like to return but is certain to be arrested if he does. “I am angry because I am here,” he said to the Progress. “I wish I was still inside Burma.”
Sunday,September 23
Freud, the flawed patriarch
On this, the 68th anniversary of the death of Sigmund Freud, UVA English prof Mark Edmundson writes in the New York Times op-ed section about the great psychologist’s relationship to authority. Part of Freud’s approach to therapy was to encourage patients to “dismantle their idealized image of him,” says Edmundson: In other words, if patients could get past the need for perfect love from Freud, they’d be able to deal more effectively with other people in their lives. Concludes Edmundson, “We need to see him as a great patriarch, yes, but as one who struggled for nothing so much as for the abolition of patriarchy.”
Monday, September 24
New Old Rag mag
This month sees the publication of the inaugural issue of The Piedmont Virginian magazine, a regional glossy with the motto “Serving and celebrating America’s Historic Heart.” That heart comprises counties from Nelson to Loudoun; “Serving and celebrating” appears to mean features about equestrian pursuits, the Civil War and Old Rag Mountain. The magazine comes right out of the gates with an unforgettable cover headline (“Fashion statement: What your fencing says about you”) and a feature entitled “Death of a Horse”—which is exactly what it sounds like.
