I've been off the Hill for the last couple of days fighting a nasty little flu bug.
When I was a kid, staying home sick meant that I got to watch a lot of daytime TV like The Price Is Right. I know Price is still hot what with Drew Carey hosting and all but, nowadays, when I get a sick day, it's a chance for me to do some e-learning.
Here's one that looks interesting — it's a quick five-week course from Stanford University professor Martin Lewis called “The Geography of U.S. Presidential Elections.” In it, Lewis challenges the idea that our American neighbours can be neatly divvied up into so-called red states and blue states.
Stanford's “iTunes U”, I should note, has a pretty broad collection of courses and lectures. One that I listened to over the summer and would recommend was a course from professor James Sheehan titled “History of the International System.” (In the iTunes store, search for “stanford sheehan” and you should see it.)
Meanwhile, on America's Atlantic coast, Yale University has released a new suite of its “Open Courses”. I'm going to check out Donald Kagen's course on early Greek civilization; Ben Polak's introduction to game theory; and John Merriman's history of modern France.
All of that brain food ought to make me feel better …