Heather MacDonald reports on the latest academic breaktrough in gender equity. Naturally, it occurred in California.

Another day in academia, another twist in the bizarre world of identity studies. The Center for the Study of Sexual Culture at the University of California, Berkeley, is presenting a talk next week on “Queering Agriculture,” dedicated to the proposition that “it is absolutely crucial queer and transgender studies begin to deal more seriously with the subject of agriculture.”

Queer theory has taken over student life on many campuses. Now that gay identity has been thoroughly institutionalized, declaring oneself “trans*,” “genderqueer,” “pangender,” or any of the other rapidly multiplying alternative sexes has become the last frontier of self-engrossed agitation available to students. But apart from the odoriferous leavings of female ginko trees, the “problem” of gender and plants did not seem to be a pressing one, making the application of queer theory to agriculture an innovation that even the most dogged observers of identity studies might not have seen coming. The talk’s presenter, a Ph.D. candidate in American studies at the University of Maryland, will allegedly show that “the growing popularity of sustainable food is laden with anthroheterocentric assumptions of the ‘good life’ coupled with idealized images and ideas of the American farm, and gender, radicalized and normative standards of health, family, and nation.”

Cornell scientists spent 18 months collecting and identifying DNA samples collected on the trains and at 466 open stations in the New York City Transit System.

They found lots of bacteria, including those responsible for Anthrax and Tetanus.

Wall Street Journal:

Among the pathogenic and infectious bacteria, the Cornell researchers identified DNA related to strep infections at 66 stations and urinary tract infections at 192 stations. They found E. coli at 56 stations and other bacteria related to food poisoning at 215 stations.

A multidrug resistant bacterium called Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, associated with respiratory ailments and hospital infections, turned up at 409 stations. Another antibiotic resistant infectious microbe, called Acinetobacter baumannii, turned up at 220 stations.

New York Times:

..fragments of DNA associated with the bubonic plague were found at three stations in disparate parts of the city: on a garbage can at the 103rd Street station on the No. 6 line in Manhattan; a stairway railing at the 111th Street station of the A line in Queens; and another railing at the Winthrop Street station of the No. 2 and No. 5 lines in Brooklyn.

But you’re perfectly safe, the WSJ reports:

We think the rats are the likely carrier [of the plague bacteria], since we see plenty of rat and mouse DNA,” said Dr. Mason.

They also found a trace of anthrax DNA on a railing at one station and on a handhold in a subway car. “The results do not suggest that the plague or anthrax is prevalent, nor do they suggest that NYC residents are at risk,” the researchers reported.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “strongly” disputed that the bacteria were correctly identified. “The interpretation of the results are flawed, and the researchers failed to offer alternative, much more plausible explanations for their findings,” a department spokeswoman said in a written statement. “The NYC subway system is not a source of plague or anthrax disease, and the bacteria that cause these diseases do not occur naturally in this part of North America.”

Data links here.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.

John Purcell (on Quora):

Java: USA — optimistic, powerful, likes to gloss over inconveniences.

C++: UK — strong and exacting, but not so good at actually finishing things and tends to get overtaken by Java.

Python: The Netherlands. “Hey no problem, let’sh do it guysh!”

Ruby: France. Powerful, stylish and convinced of its own correctness, but somewhat ignored by everyone else.

Assembly language: India. Massive, deep, vitally important but full of problems.

Cobol: Russia. Once very powerful and written with managers in mind; but has ended up losing out.

SQL and PL/SQL: Germany. A solid, reliable workhorse of a language.

Javascript: Italy. Massively influential and loved by everyone, but breaks down easily.

Scala: Hungary. Technically pure and correct, but suffers from an unworkable obsession with grammar that will limit its future success.

C: Norway. Tough and dynamic, but not very exciting.

PHP: Brazil. Full of beauty and flaunts itself a lot, but secretly very conservative.

LISP: Iceland. Incredibly clever and well-organised, but icy and remote.

Perl: China. Able to do apparently almost anything, but rather inscrutable.

Swift: Japan. One minute it’s nowhere, the next it’s everywhere and your mobile phone relies on it.

C#: Switzerland. Beautiful and well thought-out, but expect to pay a lot if you want to get seriously involved.

R: Liechtenstein. Probably really amazing, especially if you’re into big numbers, but no-one knows what it actually does.

Awk: North Korea. Stubbornly resists change, and its users appear to be unnaturally fond of it for reasons we can only speculate on.

Jerry Toner, Director of Classical Studies at Churchill College, University of Cambridge and the author of The Roman Guide to Slave Management: A Treatise by Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx, argues that modern managers can draw lessons from the methods used by Ancient Roman masters to get the best service from their slaves.

Owning slaves and employing staff are in a simple sense a million miles apart. A comparison of the two is going to provoke, but similarities do exist. It is an uncomfortable truth that both slave owners and corporations want to extract the maximum possible value from their human assets, without exhausting them or provoking rebellion or escape. At a deep level, managing others always involves finding solutions to the age-old problems of assessing people from limited information, then incentivising, disciplining and rewarding them, to finally being rid of them. However much we might prefer to disguise the harsher side of wage-slavery behind a rhetoric of friendly teamwork, we could benefit from some straightforward Roman honesty. Everyone knew where they [sic] stood then – even if, sometimes, that was in the line for crucifixion.

Read the whole thing.

Did you know that Grand Central Terminal’s spectacular ceiling is backwards? Or That there is a secret bar, a secret tennis court, and a secret platform? Untapped Cities:

Track 61 still serves as a means of clandestine transportation. There is one track at Grand Central that sits abandoned in the midst of the busiest train terminal in the world. That is Track 61, or the Waldorf Astoria track, originally built for freight and as a loading platform for a powerhouse that sat above it. After being decommissioned, it served as a private railroad station, a clandestine way for distinguished guests of the Waldorf Astoria to enter and exit the city. This track is famously thought to have transported Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to hide the fact that he was wheelchair-bound due to polio. Today, the track continues to provide a clandestine means of transportation; it is kept up and running when the President visits town, in case he needs a means of emergency egress from the hotel. Read even more about this abandoned platform here.

From the People’s Cube.

IJReview:

New information shows that the method of his death was likely brought about through a Twitter campaign created by ISIS.

Just days following Kasasbeh’s capture, after his plane crashed into the Islamic groups territory on December 24, thousands of ISIS supporters took to Twitter where they responded to an outgoing tweet.

The post asked followers to answer this hashtag:#SuggestAWayToKillTheJordanianPilotPig.

Thousands of ISIS supporters responded to the hashtag with inhumane ideas. Included in those responses were both ways in which Kasasbeh was executed.

Via Ratak Monodosico.

Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein was educated at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and at Britain’s Sandhurst Military College. He has also studied at Pembroke College, Oxford and at Georgetown. The king is a 43rd generation direct descendant of Mohammed.

Daily Caller reports rumors from a variety of Middle Eastern sources which claim that the King of Jordan will personally fly sorties against the jihadi state.

Jordan’s King Abdullah ibn al-Hussein, who has trained as a pilot, may fly a bomber himself on Thursday in the country’s retaliation against the ISIS.

Several Arabic-language newspapers reported late Wednesday that the monarch would personally participate in bombing raids on the terrorist group, citing his vow Tuesday to “strike them in their strongholds.”

The king was in Washington when news broke Tuesday of pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh’s demise at the hands of ISIS extremists. Meeting with the House Armed Services Committee shortly before leaving for Amman, he reportedly quoted the Clint Eastwood’s film “Unforgiven” and said that Jordan would pursue the jihadis until it ran “out of fuel and bullets.”

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There is a Twitchy page devoted to the rumors.

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i24news reports that Jordanian air operations against ISIS are already underway:

The Jordanian air force carried out air strikes against Islamic State targets in Mosul, killing 55 including a top IS commander known as the “Prince of Nineveh,” Iraqi media reported Wednesday.

The strikes came just hours after Jordan’s King Abdullah II vowed a “severe” response to IS after it burned alive a Jordanian fighter pilot captured in Syria.

“The blood of martyr Maaz al-Kassasbeh will not be in vain and the response of Jordan and its army after what happened to our dear son will be severe,” the king said in a statement released by the royal court.