There are times where I think I would like to build a full-sized equestrian statue of Steve Jobs.

The Apple CEO responded to concerns over the slashed iPhone prices in an open letter:

“…even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

A class move. I’m well acquained with the general awesomeness of Apple. While living in London last year, I had my G4 Powerbook stolen just before I began exam/dissertation craziness. Once I stopped cursing the heavens, I immediately went out an bought an iBook. Two and a half weeks later, Apple rolled out the Macbook, leaving me with an outdated machine that I referred to simply as my ‘$1,500 paperweight’. When I raised this issue with my local Apple Store, they offered to exchange my iBook for a shiny new Macbook. Straight Up. They didn’t even charge me an open-box fee. With that one gesture, Apple bought my loyalty for life. In marketing, I believe this is what’s known as the ‘beautiful corporation’ concept.

Anyways, this is a long way of saying that Apple rocks. A lot.

Professor Norman Finkelstein’s long battle with DePaul University is over. The embattled academic announced his decision to resign from the university on Wednesday.

Depaul and Finkelstein issued a joint statement explaining their legal settlement. Here’s what Finkelstein had to say:

“I came to DePaul University in 2001 and was put on a tenure-track position in 2003. To get tenure I had to demonstrate a credible record as a teacher, scholar, and citizen of the university. During my six year stint at DePaul I consistently received among the highest student evaluations in my department. I have published five books to critical acclaim from leading scholars, and they have been translated into 46 foreign editions. I have been recognized as a public intellectual at many of the leading universities in the United States and Europe and have become an internationally recognized scholar in my academic specialties. Based on this record, I should have received tenure. Indeed, after extensive scrutiny of my academic credentials, my department voted overwhelmingly to tenure me as did the college-level tenure committee, which voted unanimously in my favor. The only inference that I can draw is that I was denied tenure due to external pressures climaxing in a national hysteria that tainted the tenure process. The outpouring of support for me after the tenure denial from among the most respected scholars in the world buttresses this conclusion.

Although DePaul’s decision to deny me tenure was a bitter blow, I would be remiss in my responsibilities if I did not also acknowledge DePaul’s honorable role of providing a scholarly haven for me the past six years. It is a fact, and I would want to acknowledge it, that the DePaul administration kept me on its faculty despite overwhelming external pressures. It is also a fact that my professional colleagues displayed rare rectitude in steadfastly supporting me. It is also a fact that DePaul students rose to dazzling spiritual heights in my defense that should be the envy of and an example for every university in the United States. I will miss them.

It is now time for me to move on and hopefully find new ways to fulfill my own mission in life of making this world a slightly better place on leaving it than when I entered it.”

For their part, DePaul stood by their decision to deny Finkelstein tenure, but also added some surprising praise:

“Professor Finkelstein is a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher. The University thanks him for his contributions and service.”

A somewhat anticlimatic end to this whole affair. Just last week, Finkelstein promised to fight DePaul with ‘peaceful civil disobedience’, and even a hunger strike. In fact, before Finkelstein settled with the university, over 100 students had gathered on the DePaul campus to protest his termination. The demonstration ended when Finkelstein read the joint statement to the crowd. Some of the assembled students cried.

I can’t say I blame Finkelstein for settling with the university. He’s an academic, and ultimately all this controversey must have been distracting from his work. Now he can move on, and try to find a university less in thrall to certain segments of public opinion. However, the larger issues of academic freedom raised by the Finkelstein case remain unresolved.

Unsettling, to be sure. I’m left to wonder: who will be the next scholar forced from academia over their work?

UPDATE [07/09/07]:

Here’s video of Finkelstein reading his statement:

More video and media reactions can be found here.

British architects Foster + Partners has won the contract to build the new terminal for Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic spaceline in the Mojave Desert.

The firm beat out 11 competitors with their design for ‘Spaceport America’. Space tourists with piles of disposable income- something around $200,000- will use the new structure as their jumping off point for a trip into sub-orbital space. That’s about 70 miles above the earth’s surface. Brief weightlessness (take that, McGriddle!) and panoramic astronaut-only views are included in the hefty ticket price.

The Guardian says the spaceport looks like a “cross between a stealth bomber and the batmobile”.

Now, I try to be open minded about modern design. But to me, and this is just me talking, it looks like two things. First, a kind of toilet seat of the future. Second…well, let’s just say it looks like something I’d rather not mention in case elderly relatives are reading this post.

Oh well. They never said the future was going to be pretty.