Late Night Monday Links

* Government shutting down because everything is terrible that’s why. Federal workers who check their e-mail during a shutdown will be breaking the law.

* Shock at Berkeley: Campus officials declare emergency following explosion around California Hall.

* What kind of society emerges when it is governed by the market-driven assumption that the only value that matters is exchange value, when the common good is denigrated to the status of a mall, and the social order is composed only of individuals free to pursue their own interests?

* Instead place of high-stakes testing, Bard is letting its students hand in a high-stakes homework assignment. The system sounds like it’s just begging to be gamed by wealthy students. 

* Towards a History of the Professional: On the Class Composition of the Research University.

* Vince Gilligan talks Breaking Bad alternate endings. This Is What Everyone Is Writing About Breaking Bad Today. And even more links.

* Adjuncts Should Do As Little Work As Possible.

* Memo: CUNY is Moving David Petraeus Seminar to Avoid Protestors.

* “Warning! The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.”

* Before the Muppets, Jim Henson Tried to Build a Futuristic Nightclub.

* Color, Chromophobia, and Colonialism: Some Historical Thoughts.

* The Fantastic Four (1961-88) was  The Great American Novel. (via)

* NASA’s abandoned plan for a re-usable, nuclear powered moon shuttle. (also via)

* And it turns out 2-to-1 of the people in this city are totally insane. Oh man.