From a press release I received this morning:

PREMIERING PUBLIC TV FILMS WITH NIALL FERGUSON, DONALD TRUMP, LARRY SILVERSTEIN, EARTH DAY WITH NATURE AND MORE…..

Economist and historian Niall Ferguson will be in Los Angeles from April 26 to May 3. He’s available for interviews for his PBS series Civilization: The West and the Rest about his argument of the West’s rise to global dominance.

Civilization: The West and The Rest with Niall Ferguson (May 22 and 29, 2012) - Six apps that made the West the master of the modern word based on Ferguson’s internationally acclaimed book. Book is available upon request. Limited quantities.

In addition to the two Harvard affiliations Ferguson lists on his Harvard webpage, he also lists affiliations with Oxford, Stanford and Muzzy Lane Software, which promotes “game-based learning”—or, as we who are not making money off it say, “video games.” He also writes for the Financial Times and Newsweek, and is co-founder of a company that makes historical documentaries.

It’s amazing, the productivity of these Harvard professors.

More seriously: The amount of outside activity undertaken for profit by Harvard professors at the expense of their commitment to teaching is something that Drew Faust could try to reform…if she weren’t making $300, 000 a year by serving on the board of Staples.

As a wise man once said, “So it goes.”