Academica Prominent academic Stephen Hawking has weighed in on a public debate. Humanitarian Disarmament Chicago PhD Candidate John Stevenson writes in Slate about why ceasefires don't protect civilians. Momentum last week towards a treaty abolishing nuclear weapons: Mexico leads charge. Anti-killer-robot campaigners on the new Robocop. Human Rights and Armed Conflict UNHCHR's report on North Korea denounces human rights condition in country. Mark Kersten on whether DPRK could be referred to the ICC. Guernica on death and resistance in Camp X-Ray. Want your loved ones to know you survived...

Dear Mr. Kristof, Since you're getting so much hate mail from political scientists this week, I thought I'd send you a fan letter. I teach international relations at University of Massachusetts. I am an avid reader of your columns, especially on human rights advocacy. You have put issues like fistula on the global agenda. You put privileged young people in touch with global issues. You are a master at boiling down complex issues to accessible human interest stories. What I have admired most about your work is that you so rarely limit yourself to complaining. So many pundits write atrocity...

For some people this has been a very good month, for others, no so much.  Tenure (and by proxy promotion) is the thing most American Professors strive for, desire, believe is the crowning moment in their careers.*  I will say for one, tenure denials, whether justified or outrageous – happen.  Our careers are determined by many things but tenure is not one of them.  It is a process filled with problems, but important nonetheless.  For me, there was some liberation in having the process go poorly.  Who I am kidding, I relished being denied.  It freed me, allowed me to work on things I was too...