Sage and Political Theory roundup

I haven't said anything in this space about recent developments at the journal Political Theory; by the time all the facts were in so that anything responsible could be said, there was nothing left to say. But it's worth noting that Inside Higher Ed has picked up on the story and provided an overview.

Update: The Chronicle, too. Therein a tangential comment I made elsewhere is deemed "provocative."

I'm going to live forever, part of a continuing series

Coffee, already thought to have a prophylactic effect against Alzheimer's, may actually partially reverse its effects, at the eminently moderate level of five cups per day.

Best college towns

Via Lee Siegelman: The top 5 college towns in North America.

Amherst
Berkeley
Montreal
Washington
Boston.

Montreal:

If you can handle the frigid winters, Montréal is a great place to be a college student. Located just seven hours from New York City, Montréal has the second highest number of post-secondary students in North America, making for ample opportunities to meet college students from all over the world studying at one of Montréal's two dozen institutions.

There are a few reasons Montréal trumps other North American cities in its college-student friendliness. First, studying in Montréal is a bargain. For Americans, tuition is significantly less than at other private colleges -- international students pay about $12,000 for tuition at McGill University, widely considered the "Harvard of Canada." Also, with a student ID, students can use Montreal's extensive public transportation system, the STM (La Société de transport de Montréal), at a 50 percent discount.

Second, there is really no city in the United States that so fluidly combines European charm with North American pragmatism. Because Montréal is a truly bilingual city, students will not need to enroll in French classes to learn the language. Students here are independent and do not confine themselves to their campuses; you'll see students shopping and clubbing on St. Catherine Street and sipping coffee in the Latin Quarter at all hours of the day.

Finally, Montréalers know how to throw a party. World-class jazz, film and comedy festivals and the only Grand Prix event in North America make four years in Montréal one hot experience.

Virtual housekeeping

I've done a round of cleanups on my home page, including links where appropriate to published versions of things that previously had links to SSRN drafts, complete citations, etc. Also tied 'em all up together in a single "recent papers" list, forgoing the annual sublists.

My homepage is, well, boring. I'm still basically writing the html I taught myself in January 1996; I've never acquired any knowledge of java or javascript of xml or (etc.), and I deleted the two pictures that used to be on the page. At the end of the day, I like text. I just wish I had a better eye for the presentation of text; I find my homepage intuitive but dull.

I'm aware that some friends and colleagues have fancy homepages. But it seems to me that the more bells and whistles it has, the harder it is to update regularly-- is that so? (Or is it just a matter of having appropriate software?)

The pages I know of that are both fancy and constantly updated are more of the promotional-site-for-one's-public-intellectual-career type than of the research-and-teaching-stuff type.

In comments, I encourage readers to identify particularly good examples of academics' homepages. Who's setting a high standard?