It's hardly surprising and scarcely his fault. How quickly rich, famous, young, pretty people are drained of any value they might have amassed in their brief experience!
What is this unfortunate lad supposed to do with the rest of his life?
March 31, 2014
Is Drudge amusing you or scaring you with his "UN: No One Will Be Spared"?
The link goes to an AP piece about the new UN study on global warming, which quotes John Kerry saying "the costs of inaction are catastrophic" and one of the study's authors saying "If we don't reduce greenhouse gases soon, risks will get out of hand... the risks have already risen," and another study author saying "We're all sitting ducks," though ducks, of all animals, do well in floods, like the one depicted in the box-office smash "Noah," whence Drudge nicked the photo to illustrate his scare paraphrase — his scare-a-phrase — of the UN's warning.
There's something else Drudge is doing here, because here are the headlines he puts above the photo, and they do not relate to global warming but to immigration:
Internal 'Homeland' Document Revealed...The links go to the government document and to a Breitbart and a Daily Caller article about it. The picture of the rampaging horde takes on different meaning, and the UN's warning is repurposed. Or maybe it is thematically connected as we are supposed to picture refugees from horrendously overheated places to our south frenzied in desperation, clamoring for access to our ark.
ICE released 68,000 convicted criminal aliens last year...
872,504 ordered removed by immigration authorities have not left...
Maybe it's funny, maybe it's scary, and maybe it's some offensive xenophobia.
"There's a bigger issue in terms of being an African-American athlete, and the box people try to put you in..."
"And it's always a struggle to step outside of that," says Kobe Bryant, in the excellent (but subscription-only) New Yorker article titled "The Fourth Quarter, Kobe Bryant confronts a long—and possibly painful—goodbye." The article is by Ben McGrath, who continues in this paragraph (on page 45 of a piece that goes from 38 to 49):
When I brought up LeBron James posting online a photo of the Heat players dressed in hoodies, with their heads bowed, in solidarity with Trayvon Martin, as political expression, Bryant seemed nonplussed. "I won't react to something just because I'm supposed to, because I'm African-American," he said. "That argument doesn't make sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we've progressed as a society? Well, if we've progressed as a society, then you don't jump to somebody's defense just because they're African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won't assert myself."
Should students switch from laptops to handwritten notes to enhance their understanding and memory?
A study suggests that the answer is yes.
The problem with laptops seems to be they facilitated verbatim note-taking, so the mind is less engaged in processing what is heard and extracting material, which is what you have to do in handwriting.
In real life, as opposed to in studies, a student — at least a law student — would need to edit these typed notes down into an outline that can be studied. Even handwritten notes — which is what I had when I went to law school — must be rewritten into something much more compressed. In the study, the subjects were tested on their understanding right after they took notes. They didn't have an outlining and study period. Another difference from real life is that the subjects don't seem to have done readings before the lecture. A real student — again, I'm assuming a law student — should have carefully read the material and taken notes before class. Class notes should be adding to pre-class notes.
When I was a law student, I took class notes that were basically annotating my pre-class notes, confirming understanding developed prior to class. Then after class, I would rewrite everything as clearly and concisely as I could, producing an outline that could be studied. Handwriting may have helped, because in annotating and rewriting things, your mind is strongly engaged in an effort to boil it down. We had no computers in those days, and computers make writing and rewriting much easier, but perhaps there's too much mental ease, too much open-endedness... I say as I blog... typing out the words....
Maybe I need to start a handwritten blog... or have a handwritten blog-post of the day/week on this blog. Years ago, I had a series of posts that reproduced marginal doodles from old notes, but they were more about the drawings than the text. I've put up photos of handwritten text for one reason or another now and then. But it always seems to be about some casual charm or mystery, not for special powers of thought realized through handwriting. It's more of an art project than a writing project, and that seems to be the case when it comes to other blogs that feature handwriting.
Obviously, on the web, if you really care about the words that are written, you want the words to be searchable text, so to write a handwritten blog — unless you rewrite everything in digital text — is to choose obscurity. It's twee and introverted. Marginalia.
The problem with laptops seems to be they facilitated verbatim note-taking, so the mind is less engaged in processing what is heard and extracting material, which is what you have to do in handwriting.
In real life, as opposed to in studies, a student — at least a law student — would need to edit these typed notes down into an outline that can be studied. Even handwritten notes — which is what I had when I went to law school — must be rewritten into something much more compressed. In the study, the subjects were tested on their understanding right after they took notes. They didn't have an outlining and study period. Another difference from real life is that the subjects don't seem to have done readings before the lecture. A real student — again, I'm assuming a law student — should have carefully read the material and taken notes before class. Class notes should be adding to pre-class notes.
When I was a law student, I took class notes that were basically annotating my pre-class notes, confirming understanding developed prior to class. Then after class, I would rewrite everything as clearly and concisely as I could, producing an outline that could be studied. Handwriting may have helped, because in annotating and rewriting things, your mind is strongly engaged in an effort to boil it down. We had no computers in those days, and computers make writing and rewriting much easier, but perhaps there's too much mental ease, too much open-endedness... I say as I blog... typing out the words....
Maybe I need to start a handwritten blog... or have a handwritten blog-post of the day/week on this blog. Years ago, I had a series of posts that reproduced marginal doodles from old notes, but they were more about the drawings than the text. I've put up photos of handwritten text for one reason or another now and then. But it always seems to be about some casual charm or mystery, not for special powers of thought realized through handwriting. It's more of an art project than a writing project, and that seems to be the case when it comes to other blogs that feature handwriting.
Obviously, on the web, if you really care about the words that are written, you want the words to be searchable text, so to write a handwritten blog — unless you rewrite everything in digital text — is to choose obscurity. It's twee and introverted. Marginalia.
"The modern university doesn’t believe in a curriculum."
But then there is the idea of the Experimental College...
[F]ounded by educator Alexander Meiklejohn in 1927, the program presents itself on its website as a “college within a college” that fosters an “integrated understanding of the great themes of human inquiry and expression” through its interdisciplinary courses and certificate program—a “more cohesive alternative” to the traditional approach of earning a degree....Here's the full text of Meiklejohn's book "The Experimental College." More here:
[A]s intentional communities organized around specific learning objectives, LLPs [living-learning programs] had their beginning with Alexander Meiklejohn’s experimental college... at the University of Wisconsin.... LLPs took hold during the expansion of higher education in the 1950s and 1960s, and a few of the early comprehensive programs still exist today, notably the University of Illinois’s Allen Hall/Unit One and the University of Michigan’s Residential College.I attended the University of Michigan's Residential College. That was back in 1969.
"What is it about porn stars that bothers you so much? Why do you hate us? What is it about us that you don't like?"
Says porn actor Conner Habib, who professes to dread the question — when he's out on a date — "What do you do?"
Quite aside from that, you're suddenly conveying the information that you have sex with other people and you're going to continue to do so because it's your job. That affects the other person's idea of you as relationship material. Note that the 2 men were on a relationship-y type of a date at "this bourgeois tea and food place," with "a statue of Buddha," a menu that was "all platitudes," and teas with "names like 'Goddess of Wisdom' and 'Ocean of Mercy.'" Conner sounds awfully judgmental about the things Alex likes, Alex having ordered the Oceans of Mercy and Conner having limited himself to a glass of water.
Well, I said to Alex, I'm a porn star.Let me stop you here, Conner. You just called yourself a "star." If you were a "star," Alex wouldn't have had to ask. What's with porn actors always being referred to as "porn stars"? Actors in conventional movies aren't always called "stars," even when they actually are so well-known that if we had the chance to converse with them, we wouldn't resort to the old "What do you do?" small-talk staple.
Quite aside from that, you're suddenly conveying the information that you have sex with other people and you're going to continue to do so because it's your job. That affects the other person's idea of you as relationship material. Note that the 2 men were on a relationship-y type of a date at "this bourgeois tea and food place," with "a statue of Buddha," a menu that was "all platitudes," and teas with "names like 'Goddess of Wisdom' and 'Ocean of Mercy.'" Conner sounds awfully judgmental about the things Alex likes, Alex having ordered the Oceans of Mercy and Conner having limited himself to a glass of water.
The end of "hopes of a Big Ten-flooded Final Four next weekend."
A phrase from a Lansing State Journal article titled "State of despair: Spartans, Wolverines both fail to make NCAA Final Four." That's the view from Michigan, where Big-Ten pride ought to make them all Badger fans for now.
"And this was a mob, inebriated out of its mind by sports mania and alcohol."
"When one young man perched on a fence was asked what was going on, his thoughtful reply was simple: 'Beer!'"
ADDED: "There were people on top of the walkway covering in front of the construction, on the bus stop roof, and on basically every open surface. Even with windows closed, the sounds of singing and chanting were booming and clear. People were crowd surfing through the street." Said a woman who had a view overlooking State Street, whose tweeted view of the crowd went viral:
AND: Meanwhile, in Tucson, selfies at the riot.
ADDED: "There were people on top of the walkway covering in front of the construction, on the bus stop roof, and on basically every open surface. Even with windows closed, the sounds of singing and chanting were booming and clear. People were crowd surfing through the street." Said a woman who had a view overlooking State Street, whose tweeted view of the crowd went viral:
Wow! What a Badger celebration! Be safe Madison! Thanks @rhymeswrachel for the pic! http://t.co/FjrUM1OUJR pic.twitter.com/Gl7Sfk3ncO
— WKOW 27 (@WKOW) March 30, 2014AND: Meanwhile, in Tucson, selfies at the riot.
March 30, 2014
"Exactly 50 years ago Thursday, in Alaska, the second largest earthquake in recorded history, magnitude 9.2, remade the Last Frontier State."
"What had been gravel beaches rose to become 30-foot cliffs. What had been forests at sea level were submerged, leaving only the ghostly silver tips that you can still see. In Anchorage, 42,000 people were left homeless."
From a column by Timothy Egan titled "A Mudslide, Foretold," which is mostly about the recent mudslide in the Stillaguamish Valley in Washington.
From a column by Timothy Egan titled "A Mudslide, Foretold," which is mostly about the recent mudslide in the Stillaguamish Valley in Washington.
"Merger marriages are what you tend to see on the weddings pages of the Sunday New York Times..."
"... highly educated couples in their 30s, both people well on their way to success. Lots of things can be said in favor of merger marriages... But let me put in a word for startup marriages, in which the success of the partners isn't yet assured...."
Writes Charles Murray in The Wall Street Journal, dispensing 5 rules for a happy life, beginning with "Consider Marrying Young." Just consider, note. There are, of course, also many reasons to consider not marrying your college sweetheart. For one thing, marriage entails only 2 parties, is intended to last for a human lifetime and tends to include children. So it's not like mergers and startups, which can last for short or long periods of time — whatever works — and involve multiple entities coming and going as suits the needs of whoever wields more economic power. It's a really bad analogy.
Writes Charles Murray in The Wall Street Journal, dispensing 5 rules for a happy life, beginning with "Consider Marrying Young." Just consider, note. There are, of course, also many reasons to consider not marrying your college sweetheart. For one thing, marriage entails only 2 parties, is intended to last for a human lifetime and tends to include children. So it's not like mergers and startups, which can last for short or long periods of time — whatever works — and involve multiple entities coming and going as suits the needs of whoever wields more economic power. It's a really bad analogy.
Brass knuckles... the feminine version.
Poster for a new, mainstream movie, pointed to by JohnJEnright in the comments on this morning's post about brass knuckles. He says:
I suppose this is a good example of where one can be funny about female-on-male violence, because it is male-on-female violence that is normally viewed as the bigger historical problem.Yes, and part of it is also that we don't believe women really are going to inflict serious harm, even though obviously they can and sometimes do. The man is often displayed as manly precisely because he endures a woman's beating him. It was an old movie/TV cliché for a woman to pound on a man's chest furiously until she broke down crying and then he would hug and comfort her. Another comedy meme is attempted violence, especially where the effort to harm another backfires on the would-be assailant. That's why "Home Alone" was funny. It's also supposed to be funny when the target of the violence deserves it enough. This is often done badly, and I'll bet that "The Other Woman" is one of these female revenge fantasies where — speaking of beating — they beat us over the head with how much we're supposed to hate this male victim whose pain and fear is supposed to amuse us.
"I have no doubt there will be repercussions for me for talking. They'll figure out a way to do it."
"But it's going to be harder for them to try to do that. If they put me in jail at least people will know exactly what they are doing... I'm not telling my story to help [Scott Walker], or to hurt him.... I don't care who is doing it, the right or the left. I don't want this to happen to anyone. I'm hoping that by telling my story I can wake people up to realize what's happening."
Kelly Rindfleisch speaks (to The Wall Street Journal).
Kelly Rindfleisch speaks (to The Wall Street Journal).
Junta, migwm, articulation, knoke, golonka, nudillo, nocca, boğum, zglob, lankstas...
It's lankstas for gangstas in Lithuania... according to the European word translator, into which I chose to enter the word "knuckle," because I'd just spent the previous hour thinking about knuckles.
I got to that first link through Metafilter, where many people are reporting on whatever word it was that they thought of seeing in lots of European languages.
I was fascinated to see that "junta" as a translation of "knuckle" (in Portugal, but not Spain). Thinking about the English word "junta" — influenced by all that thinking about knuckles in a physical attack — I picture a punch, but the English word "junta" relates to government by a committee. A committee? What is the connection between committees and knuckles?
It's right there in the word "junta." Look at it.
I got to that first link through Metafilter, where many people are reporting on whatever word it was that they thought of seeing in lots of European languages.
I was fascinated to see that "junta" as a translation of "knuckle" (in Portugal, but not Spain). Thinking about the English word "junta" — influenced by all that thinking about knuckles in a physical attack — I picture a punch, but the English word "junta" relates to government by a committee. A committee? What is the connection between committees and knuckles?
It's right there in the word "junta." Look at it.
"Brass knuckles, also sometimes called knuckles, knucks, brass knucks, knucklebusters, or knuckledusters, are weapons used in hand-to-hand combat."
So begins the Wikipedia article on brass knuckles, which is illustrated by this picture of the brass knuckles that were carried by Abraham Lincoln's bodyguards:
I got there because I was googling "who uses brass knuckles" after reading this news story about San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, who "was arrested Friday after he allegedly struck a bicyclist, attempted to flee the scene and then threatened a witness with brass knuckles after he was cornered." What sort of person, out driving, finding himself suddenly confronted, would have brass knuckles immediately at hand?
I got there because I was googling "who uses brass knuckles" after reading this news story about San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, who "was arrested Friday after he allegedly struck a bicyclist, attempted to flee the scene and then threatened a witness with brass knuckles after he was cornered." What sort of person, out driving, finding himself suddenly confronted, would have brass knuckles immediately at hand?
"Althouse, who do you root for when Wisconsin faces Michigan?"
Asked Chuck, in the comments to the post on last night's basketball game, which the Badgers won. The Wolverines still need to win tonight, but if they do, the next game will be Wisconsin vs. Michigan.
My one-word answer was easy and instantaneous: "Wisconsin."
Chuck's reply:
When she was here, how long ago had she been at Ohio State? At this point in my life, 40 years separate me from my Michigan student self.
But let me tell you about my Michigan student self. These were hippie days, Vietnam War protest days, days of the "10 for 2" "John Sinclair Freedom Rally," days of a student strike to demand that the Michigan regents adopt a policy of affirmative action. If you had told Student Althouse that one day she would be a law professor teaching about a Supreme Court case that said the University of Michigan regents violated the Constitution by doing affirmative action, it would have perplexed the hell out of her. What bizarre turns of events would need to occur for that to become reality? If you had told Student Althouse that later years would find her living in a hovel, tending a subsistence garden, and selling tiny ink drawings on the street, she'd have recognized a future that flowed — organically — from this education at the University of Michigan.
I'm lucky they let me into law school after that. (Thank you, NYU, and thank you, LSAT.)
So spectator sports have not had much of a place in my life. In 30 years living practically on campus at the University of Wisconsin, I've gone to exactly one event — a football game where the Badgers played Purdue, and that was to go with Meade, who has longstanding ties to Purdue. (He grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana.)
But I do feel the mood of my environment. I get the vicarious experience of the emotion people around me in my city feel about what happens to the Wisconsin teams. From my house, I hear the cheering in the football stadium. For decades, the sound of the marching band playing "On Wisconsin" has drifted up from the practice field over by the lake to my windows. I like it when the people of Madison, Wisconsin feel good.
I don't like it enough to want my fellow citizens to get their way in politics. But unlike the outcomes of elections, there are no consequences to the outcomes of sports events. There are winners and losers, some people will be happy and some will be sad, so I can safely and easily prefer that the people who are happy are the people in my immediate proximity. I know the Madison citizenry feels aggrieved politically, and this grimness sometimes affects me and I deal with it.
But to walk down the street in the real, physical space that is Madison, Wisconsin is — on most occasions — to see the great satisfaction we feel in our long-term relationship with the Badgers.
My one-word answer was easy and instantaneous: "Wisconsin."
Chuck's reply:
I can't imagine that; a Michigan undergrad rooting for a conference rival. I know a former UW prof who used to live in your neighborhood. She's an Ohio State undergrad/University of Chicago Ph.D. Even as a Wisconsin faculty member, she knew who to root for. No doubt; no hesitation.Key word: "former." How long was she here? I have been on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin for 30 years.
When she was here, how long ago had she been at Ohio State? At this point in my life, 40 years separate me from my Michigan student self.
But let me tell you about my Michigan student self. These were hippie days, Vietnam War protest days, days of the "10 for 2" "John Sinclair Freedom Rally," days of a student strike to demand that the Michigan regents adopt a policy of affirmative action. If you had told Student Althouse that one day she would be a law professor teaching about a Supreme Court case that said the University of Michigan regents violated the Constitution by doing affirmative action, it would have perplexed the hell out of her. What bizarre turns of events would need to occur for that to become reality? If you had told Student Althouse that later years would find her living in a hovel, tending a subsistence garden, and selling tiny ink drawings on the street, she'd have recognized a future that flowed — organically — from this education at the University of Michigan.
I'm lucky they let me into law school after that. (Thank you, NYU, and thank you, LSAT.)
So spectator sports have not had much of a place in my life. In 30 years living practically on campus at the University of Wisconsin, I've gone to exactly one event — a football game where the Badgers played Purdue, and that was to go with Meade, who has longstanding ties to Purdue. (He grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana.)
But I do feel the mood of my environment. I get the vicarious experience of the emotion people around me in my city feel about what happens to the Wisconsin teams. From my house, I hear the cheering in the football stadium. For decades, the sound of the marching band playing "On Wisconsin" has drifted up from the practice field over by the lake to my windows. I like it when the people of Madison, Wisconsin feel good.
I don't like it enough to want my fellow citizens to get their way in politics. But unlike the outcomes of elections, there are no consequences to the outcomes of sports events. There are winners and losers, some people will be happy and some will be sad, so I can safely and easily prefer that the people who are happy are the people in my immediate proximity. I know the Madison citizenry feels aggrieved politically, and this grimness sometimes affects me and I deal with it.
But to walk down the street in the real, physical space that is Madison, Wisconsin is — on most occasions — to see the great satisfaction we feel in our long-term relationship with the Badgers.
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