writedit asks: "What is Scarpa smoking?"
June 9, 2009
What is Toni Scarpa smoking? He recently told The Chronicle of Higher Education that
The numbers [of RC1s] are causing concern for the present, as each application requires an average of three reviewers working 12 hours apiece, Dr. Scarpa told agency representatives.
Everyone out there who is spending 12 hours reviewing their Challenge Grants, raise your hand. Based on conversations I’ve had with investigators here at BICO (& warmer environs elsewhere) in a wide range of disciplines, they uniformly find these proposals, shall we say, unchallenging, to be kind. I’m sure Comrade PhysioProf can provide the appropriate color commentary.
Go read, writedit has a few more interesting details.
But seriously? 12 hours per critique? The CSR comes across as being seriously out of touch with the reality of review now and again, don’t they?
Celebrating Loving Day
June 9, 2009
BikeMonkey Guest PostEddie B. jumped the gun on this with the suggestion that we should celebrate Loving Day all week. Good by me. Ed posted a letter written by Mildred Loving in 2007 just before she passed away which ends with:
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.
I agree completely with Ed’s opener. The importance of celebrating Loving Day and the Loving v. Virginia victory is not just high-fiving all around (although 1967 is not so far distant for some of us). The importance of hammering away at the history, context and meaning of the Loving decision is to show how similar, if not identical, miscegenation law was to the current hot-button issue of gay marriage.
I wrote the following comments and posted them elsewhere about a year or so ago.
Mildred Jeter Loving passed away on Friday May 2, 2008 at the age of 68. Although well-known to some tan folks, many people will need to be reminded that the 1968 “Loving decision” striking down US states’ laws banning marriage between individuals of different apparent “races” was titled for Mildred and Richard Loving.
DrugMonkey 