The June 2010 issue has an excellent article, “China’s Caves of Faith,” presenting hundreds of caves along a former Silk Road route that hold centuries of Buddhist art.
The pictures are beautiful, representing vibrant art in a multicultural blend of styles. The story, meanwhile, explores the tension of past exploitation by the West balanced against the need for foreign experts to help preserve these treasures.
I was saddened to read this morning that legendary UCLA (and South Bend Central) coach John Wooden had died. He was 99 years old, so his passing was perhaps little surprise. But it reminded me of all the stories I’ve read about him over the years, and how his great character asserted itself in every one.
This Rick Reilly column was my introduction to Wooden, and Sports Illustrated continued to offer some great coverage on him over the years. I’ve always intended to read his book, “They Call Me Coach.” The great thing about books is that I can still hear from him there, even after he’s gone.
In “Study Finds Blacks Blocked from Southern Juries,” the New York Times writes about how prosecutors’ dismissals result in racially imbalanced juries throughout much of the former Confederacy.
The reasons given aren’t that great, either:
The district attorney, Robert Broussard, said one had seemed “arrogant” and “pretty vocal.” In another woman, he said he “detected hostility.”
Mr. Broussard also questioned the “sophistication” of a former Army sergeant, a forklift operator with three years of college, a cafeteria manager, an assembly-line worker and a retired Department of Defense program analyst.
I tried to read Jonathan Franzen’s latest story in the New Yorker, “Agreeable,” and I had to abandon it on the first page. I usually try to soldier through with the fiction, but he’s shameless in loading the deck for his protagonists, employing characterization that’s about as nuanced as a Snidely Whiplash appearance on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
The Project on Student Debt, a research and advocacy organization in Oakland, Calif., used federal data to estimate that 206,000 people graduated from college (including many from for-profit universities) with more than $40,000 in student loan debt in that same period. That’s a ninefold increase over the number of people in 1996, using 2008 dollars.
The New York Times has an excellent article on ballooning student loan debt. I’ve long thought higher education will be the next bubble to burst; people are leveraging themselves beyond what their college degree will give them the ability to pay.