* Shit sorority girls say; this is depressingly accurate.

* “The average health care insurance premium today is over $15,000 and by 2021 it may be headed to $32,000 or so (admittedly that estimate is based on extrapolation);” that’s from “The median wage figure and the health care costs figure.”

* Related? “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work.”

* Why the video pros are moving away from Apple. And I can’t blame them, given Apple’s behavior.

* On the Beach:

I wrote, a couple of months ago, about the ways that being exposed to the free market as a professional writer has helped bring into focus some of the injustices at work in academia: the dishonesty, the cronyism, the hidden agendas. What I didn’t say is that they also treat you like an equal in the market. It isn’t just an endless series of hazing rituals. You’re a potential partner, and there are always other people you can work with. But in academia you are forever trembling, like a figure out of Kafka, before the next tribunal: graduate admissions, graduate courses, orals, chapter conferences, dissertation committee, hiring committees, peer reviews for publications and grants, promotion reviews, tenure review, more peer reviews and promotion reviews. And because it’s always up or out—you can’t just muddle along at the same level, the way you can in other occupations—everything is always on the line; every test is existential.

* Are the grammar books all right about alright?

* Counterintuitive advice for literary critics: don’t read other critics before you write your review or criticism.

* How Amazon is killing publishers.

* The Internet won the Congressional battle again censorship. This time.

* Preservation Push in Bohemian Home Stirs Fear of Hardship; bizarrely, there is no mention of supply, demand, or city-wide housing costs:

The East Village is arguably America’s bohemian capital, home to the major countercultural waves of the second half of the 20th century [. . .]

New York City is trying to honor the neighborhood’s legacy and preserve it, as well as the signposts of earlier generations that housed and entertained the immigrants, artists and political radicals who peopled the coarse-edged streets.

This is another way of saying, “The housing will be so expensive that 21st century artists and political radicals won’t be able to afford the East Village.” Which they already can’t. See further my review of Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

* How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life recapitulates Murray Sperber’s Beer and Circus: How Big-Time Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. College sports should start by paying players, since it’s obvious that players are big football and basketball programs are professionals.

* What you (really) need to know; see also Student choice, employment skills, and grade inflation.

* Key to productivity: Choose phone calls [and interviews] carefully. When I interview someone, I try to be the exact opposite of this Michael Zenn guy.