New morning

This is the blog which temporarily achieved local fame in and around the London School of Economics in the spring of 2006. I got into a lot of trouble for what I wrote on these pages. The full story is told here. I like to think of this blog as an educational service I provided […]

Free at last

It’s February 1st and I no longer work at the LSE. I wrote a letter of resignation to Howard Davies. I worked at the LSE for some 12 years. Much of it was great. Above all to get a first proper job, to have a monthly salary, to develop courses and to interact with students, […]

10 days to go

The fall semester has now finally ended even in my part of the world. We’re off for a six week New Year’s break! It was a long slog, and I must admit I was pretty fed up already around December 24/25. That’s just the way I was conditioned. But we made it in the end. […]

In the news (again)

They are writing about me in The Beaver again, the LSE student newspaper. Yes, I did cc them in on the “Xmas Card to the LSE bosses.” An institution like the LSE must learn to live by its own rules. Btw, the Amazon.uk web page has started listing my blogging book as forthcoming. It’s just […]

The Footnotes, one year today

The Footnotes is one year today! And what a year it’s been. Lots of posts, lots of comments, and well over 70,000 visitors. As a way to celebrate 365 days of impertinence, I here republish the very first post: “A funny thing happened at work today. The most pompous of my colleagues — Oxbridge education, […]

Talking to prospective, Asian, PhD students

Dear Prospective Asian PhD student, I know you really want to go to the United Kingdom to study. There are very famous universities there — Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, and many others. This is, you’ve been told, where the best students in the world meet the best professors. If nothing else, your parents will be endlessly […]

Good luck!

My last cohort of LSE students just graduated in London. Yes that’s right, somewhat perversely the Master’s students who have their exams in the spring only graduate in December. For graduation, students from around the world fly back to London, often together with their proud parents. But not that many academics bother to show up […]

Xmas card to LSE bosses

Christmas is a time when you look back on the year that’s been and you send Christmas cards to those you remember particularly fondly. Of course I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of my bosses at the LSE. Where would I be without you? Not the owner of a semi-famous blog and not an emotional […]

My Davos blacklist

The Davos extravaganza is underway. In Davos every year the most powerful men (and the occasional woman) gather informally, to get to know each other, exchange points of view and broker deals. Some academics participate too. Clearly the powerful believe an academic presence gives them intellectual legitimacy. The atmosphere of the place is transformed from […]

Google search terms

This is kinda interesting: a list of the recent Google search terms that have taken web-surfers to this site. bigpricks US PhDs better than UK PhDs cecile fabre zlatko PhD take to court “sprung a leak” unofficial guide to lse killing Tony Blair eric ringmar lse acromegaly in horses career day speeches “ain’t no altars […]