Dan Harmon Poops: HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING? -
Well that’s bullshit. I love Community—scratch that, I lovED Community.
Kids:
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because…
Occupy Movement Wins Spate of Legal Battles -
jeffbridges: Police arresting political protesters under demonstrably false charges, threatening physical violence, and “disappearing” people for 12 hours—in Chicago. When this happens anywhere else in the world, the US demands economic sanctions. What’s happening to my country?
[video]
[video]
Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot -
Way to give an honors student serious trust issues.
More fun from the self-loathing society: This American Life had a show about how young female undercover cops infiltrated a high school and flirted with boys to entrap them into selling pot, so they could charge them with felonies and destroy their lives at an early age.
Last year in three high schools in Florida, several undercover police officers posed as students. The undercover cops went to classes, became Facebook friends and flirted with the other students. One 18-year-old honor student named Justin fell in love with an attractive 25-year-old undercover cop after spending weeks sharing stories about their lives, texting and flirting with each other.
One day she asked Justin if he smoked pot. Even though he didn’t smoke marijuana, the love-struck teen promised to help find some for her. Every couple of days she would text him asking if he had the marijuana. Finally, Justin was able to get it to her. She tried to give him $25 for the marijuana and he said he didn’t want the money — he got it for her as a present.
A short while later, the police did a big sweep and arrest 31 students — including Justin. Almost all were charged with selling a small amount of marijuana to the undercover cops. Now Justin has a felony hanging over his head.
Sick: Young, Undercover Cops Flirted With Students to Trick Them Into Selling Pot (Via Aurich Lawson :somepolitics :ladyalexandria)
(Source: anticapitalist, via think4yourself)
“I hugged a man in his underwear. I think Jesus would have too.”
Beautiful post about a group of Christians who went to a Pride parade with signs that read, “I’m sorry.” Read it here, and feel overwhelmed with joy:
Watching people recognize our apology brought me to tears many times. It was reconciliation personified.
My favorite though was a gentleman who was dancing on a float. He was dressed solely in white underwear and had a pack of abs like no one else. As he was dancing on the float, he noticed us and jokingly yelled, “What are you sorry for? It’s pride!” I pointed to our signs and watched him read them.
Then it clicked.
Then he got it.
He stopped dancing. He looked at all of us standing there. A look of utter seriousness came across his face. And as the float passed us he jumped off of it and ran towards us. In all his sweaty beautiful abs of steal, he hugged me and whispered, “thank you.”
(via jeffbridges)
“Rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm. If I could offer advice to a young rebel, it would be to rummage the past for a body of thought that helps you understand and address the shortcomings you see… Effective rebellion isn’t just expressing your personal feelings. It means replacing one set of authorities and institutions with a better set of authorities and institutions. Authorities and institutions don’t repress the passions of the heart, the way some young people now suppose. They give them focus and a means to turn passion into change.” — David Brooks, “How to Fight the Man,” New York Times, 2/2/2012.
Duke professor wants to replace term papers with blog posts. -
Having written both myself, this is totally absurd. The academy exists to teach people how to think critically and express those thoughts in a clear, nuanced way. Blogs exist to persuade and convince through rhetorical force. Clear and nuanced arguments can contribute to this end, but rarely constitute the core of a post. From the article:
Because, say defenders of rigorous writing, the brief, sometimes personally expressive blog post fails sorely to teach key aspects of thinking and writing. They argue that the old format was less about how Sherman got to the sea and more about how the writer organized the points, fashioned an argument, showed grasp of substance and proof of its origin. Its rigidity wasn’t punishment but pedagogy.
Exactly right (aside from the strange reference to Sherman, which doesn’t make sense even in the full context of the article). But there’s no reason blogs and papers can’t coexist. From a professor at Standford:
Professor Lunsford is playing to student passions. Her writing class for second-year students, a requirement at Stanford, used to revolve around a paper constructed over the entire term. Now, the students start by writing a 15-page paper on a particular subject in the first few weeks. Once that’s done, they use the ideas in it to build blogs, Web sites, and PowerPoint and audio and oral presentations. The students often find their ideas much more crystallized after expressing them with new media, she says, and then, most startling, they plead to revise their essays.
I like this approach, which helps to ensure that the arguments being made in those blogs and tweets are well-considered. But, then, I didn’t compose a 5-page paper before writing this post, so I could be wrong…
(Source: jeffbridges)
“The officer repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain.” — Rev. John Helmiere, on his encounter with Seattle Police at an Occupy protest earlier this week. (via jeffbridges)
(via jeffbridges)