The countdown to the super-hyped Madonna episode has begun but what to do between quittin’ time and 9:00 PM?  How about swinging by PPL at 7:30 to get your double dose of culture for the night!

Poet C.K. Williams reads from his forthcoming PUP book On Whitman , book two in the Writers on Writers series.  Known around campus and town as “Charlie,” our award-winning author will answer your questions and sign copies of his newest release AND have you home in time to catch Sue Sylvester vamping it in those Gaultier cones.

C.K. Williams @ PPPL  7:30 PM reading/Q&A/signing

When all else fails and you long to be
Something better than you are today
I know a place where you can get away…

It’s called the library! VOGUE. 

Andrei Markovits tackles a fascinating question over at The Huffington Post — why have sports become the last accepted bastion of “separate, but equal”? Football, baseball, and basketball — prominent sports are a boys only club for the most part, and have been allowed to continue this way in spite of demands for equality in virtually ever other arena. Markovits writes:

Short of certain religions (an arena in which, too, the struggle for equality has had some remarkable successes), one would be hard put to point to any institution of such importance in our society in which such “sexual apartheid” (to use Paul Hoch’s apt terminology though I prefer “gender apartheid”) is not only tolerated but actively enforced, perhaps even feted as progress.

Why is this and are there solutions? Markovits continues:

If we continue to define “the best”, which is such an integral part of any sport, by our current criteria, then this separate but equal world will never change. But if we construct alternate logics to what constitutes “the best” – include metrics of cooperation and style, for example, in computing winners and losers, or create truly gender-integrated teams in which the women’s output would be weighted more heavily (e.g. assign five points to baskets scored by female players as opposed to the two by males) thereby creating real incentives to have the women be welcomed as positive additions to these teams, as has been the case in the aforementioned intramural contests — then we might actually arrive at a truly integrated sports world which would thus be congruent with virtually all important public institutions of our contemporary democratic world.

Markovits is  is co-author with Lars Rensmann of the forthcoming book Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culturein which the issue raised in this article — as well as others of the sports worlds in Europe and North America — are discussed in detail.

Never fear! The Carnegie Council has posted audio from Derek Bok’s April 15th event as well as a print transcript. Head over to their site to have a listen.

Princeton University Press and Credo Reference entered into an agreement that will integrate 5 Princeton University Press reference titles into the Credo General Reference collection. Credo users will now have access to these outstanding books:

The Princeton Companion to Mathematics (CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles, 2009)
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book, 1993)
The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
The Handbook of Economic Sociology
The Princeton Guide to Ecology

In a press release distributed by Credo last week, Priscilla Treadwell, Princeton University Press Electronic Publications Marketing Manager, noted that this agreement furthers the Press’s mission to disseminate knowledge.

“Integrating key titles such as these five into Credo Reference’s intuitive, user-friendly platform brings us closer to that goal as more peoplewill have access to our authoritative, comprehensive content,” said Treadwell.

“Credo Reference carefully chooses the most highly respected titles to add to our award-winning service, helping researchers make sense of the ever increasing range of information available,” added John Dove, Credo President. “These are the first Princeton University Press titles to be made available on Credo and they will be a significant addition to our offerings.”

As part of our Math Awareness Month celebrations we interviewed previous faculty member of the United States Military Academy at West Point and current Associate Professor of Mathematics at Muhlenberg College, Dr. Mike Huber. Although Huber teaches courses ranging from Statistics to Calculus his real passion is sabermetrics, the computerized measurement of baseball statistics. Huber finds that he is able to relate to students most through sabermetrics because he is able to show that what he is teaching in the classroom is relevant to the students’ passion of sports. He is also the author of Mythematics: Solving the Twelve Labors of Hercules

Hope you can come out to see Steve give an entertaining talk on string theory, followed by a book signing for his new book THE LITTLE BOOK OF STRING THEORY, tomorrow night (4/20) at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ.  The event will begin at 5:30 PM.  For more information, please visit the Labyrinth Books website.

Town Hall Seattle often hosts our authors for events, so please consider helping them out by voting in this poll. More info after the jump.

The New York Review of Books has revamped their Web site. On a nostalgic note, I kind of miss the old site. While this version is much easier to navigate and really highlights the lead articles, I am saddened that the NYRB now looks like every other media web site. What do you think?

As a reminder, this is closer to what they used to look like (screenshot is from 1998 so there were some intermediaries between then and now).

Suppose that something really good happens to you today: you win the lottery, your child gets admitted to Harvard, or someone you’ve been interested in asks you out. Naturally, you feel happy, but what does this happiness amount to?

Paul Thagard probes this basic question in an insightful post at Psychology Today. He describes the current scientific assessments — cognitive appraisal and physiological perception — and then leads reader to his proposal for an EMOCON model of emotional consciousness.

And, now to move from one huge philosophical question to another — from happiness to meaning…

There is a terrific review at New Scientist of Thagard’s new book The Brain and the Meaning of Life. The reviewer writes of the book:

“Paul Thagard’s book is a thoughtful and well-researched attempt to answer that most fundamental existential question: why not kill yourself? Or, to give it a positive spin, what gives life meaning?“

From U.S. News & World Report:

When Claire Booyjzsen finished her master’s degree at the University of Witwatersrand in her native South Africa, the world was her oyster. Intent on pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry, she consulted global university rankings, corresponded with professors and students to narrow down her list, and ultimately applied to 11 universities. After the acceptances came in, she traveled to Coventry, England, to become a doctoral student at the University of Warwick, where 1 in 5 students comes from overseas. “I’ve met people from all over the world,” says Booyjzsen.

Booyjzsen is among the nearly 3 million students who now study outside their home countries, an increase of 57 percent in the past decade alone. The trend is growing among faculty, too: Three quarters of young economists in top U.S. universities earned their undergraduate degrees in another nation. As globalization comes to higher education, students and professors increasingly pick and choose universities like shoppers in a worldwide academic marketplace.

Click over to read the complete article from Ben Wildavsky, author of The Great Brain Race.

The Princeton Club New York will host an evening with Derek Bok on April 15th. Join Dr. Bok at 6:30 PM for a discussion of his new book The Politics of Happiness. Details are below, or you can visit the Princeton Club New York’s site and read their membership newsletter.

Description:

There have been numerous isolated happiness studies in recent years from economists, sociologists, and political scientists, but no one has brought this research together and asked how the findings can be useful to government. In The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being former Harvard president Derek Bok undertakes exactly this mission. Mr. Bok reveals that most Americans don’t really know what makes them happy, so correctly identifying what will make us happy is the first step. Then, Mr. Bok discusses the political policies that make the most sense. For example, if families make us happier, then it follows that the government should support family-friendly policies like extended paid maternity leave and marriage counseling. Mr. Bok also undertakes serious questions about the accuracy of happiness research and whether happiness is substantial enough to be a goal of government.

Details:

April 15, 2010, 6:30 PM

PRINCETON CLUB OF NEW YORK
15 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Join Thomas Barfield, author of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, today for an afternoon presentation at 4:00 P.M. at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

Co-sponsored by The Asia Program and The Middle East Program, the event will also feature commentary from J. Alexander Thier, Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. Institute of Peace, and William B. Wood, Faculty Advisor at National War College and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (2007-09).
The Details:

ESTABLISHING POLITICAL LEGITIMACY IN AFGHANISTAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010      4:00 P.M. – 5:30 P.M.

Speaker:
Thomas J. Barfield
Professor of Anthropology, Boston University

Commentators:
J. Alexander Thier
Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. Institute of Peace
William B. Wood
Faculty Advisor, National War College,
And Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (2007-09)

Throughout its history, Afghanistan has demonstrated an ability to recover its political equilibrium after foreign invasions and state collapse. The situation today, however, appears quite different. Dr. Barfield will discuss how current efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan have lost sight of historical parallels; how past rulers derived their legitimacy; and whether U.S. definitions of political legitimacy in Afghanistan today have weakened, rather than strengthened, America’s role in the country.

5TH FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

RSVPs are NOT necessary.  Please allow for routine security procedures when you arrive at the Center. A photo ID is required for entry. The Center is located in the southeast wing of the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. The closest Metro station is Federal Triangle on the blue and orange lines. For detailed directions, please visit the Center’s website.