Word: systemics
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...creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can't even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming - our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy...
...These shortcomings of the “lame-duck” UC should be remedied by reconvening representatives from the previous year each fall. Certainly, this system of representation has its pitfalls: Houses with senior representatives last year would lack a direct voice on the Council, and last year’s freshman representatives would now live in Houses instead of the Yard. But even such an imperfect solution seems superior to a system that deprives students of representation altogether. Since UC efforts often continue through the summer and into the following year, an interim assembly could easily focus...
...very different story among Republicans. To be sure, there are honorable conservatives, trying to do the right thing. There is a legitimate, if wildly improbable, fear that Obama's plan will start a process that will end with a health-care system entirely controlled by the government. There are conservatives - Senator Lamar Alexander, Representative Mike Pence, among many others - who make their arguments based on facts. But they have been overwhelmed by nihilists and hypocrites more interested in destroying the opposition and gaining power than in the public weal. The philosophically supple party that existed as recently as George...
...comparing all 1,400 schools. We're dividing them up into 10 categories, like national universities and liberal arts. We assign a weight to each of the variables. The peer survey, or the academic reputation, is the highest-weighted variable - it's 25%. (Read about a new college-rankings system...
What tells you how heavily to weight each factor? Our accumulated judgment. Our rankings aren't social science in the sense that we're not doing peer-reviewed rankings; we're not submitting our conclusions and our weighting system to a group of academics and letting them decide if they are right or wrong. We do meet regularly with academic experts about the relative importance of the factors that we use. And we have been doing this for 25 years...