Friday Ephemera
“Klaatu barada nikto.” Keanu Reeves isn’t quite human. // Rooftops, NYC. // Inflatable church. // Portable fish bowl. // “Those on a meat-free diet [are] six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.” (h/t, Lasso of Truth.) // Great moments in horror kitsch: The Fly finale. (1986) // Dissecting toothpaste. (h/t, Quipsologies.) // The evolving anus. // Bits of things. (h/t, Coudal.) // Tetris tiles. Go quietly insane. // The undersides of aircraft. // Where is your surname popular? // Soundscapes of vanishing habitats. // More academic impartiality. (h/t, Lurker24.) // Presidential campaign commercials, 1952-2008. // Spanking for beginners. // One track mind. // Bond. // Obotek rayguns. // Art with extra duck. (h/t, Tim239.) // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Ms Grace Jones.
“Metro State College is investigating a professor who asked students to write an essay critical of Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them… “What the faculty’s responsibility is to provide opportunity for critical thinking and civic engagement so bringing something of relevancy into the classroom was the faculty’s goal,” said Cathy Lucas, spokeswoman for Metro State. “Should he have broadened it and included all the political figures, yes.””
Why am I not surprised?
It’s hard to say much until we get more of the story, but it does fit a pattern of sly (and not-so-sly) classroom political advocacy. As I said yesterday, you have to wonder how it is that a professor of English assumes this kind of bias is remotely acceptable. How did we get to a situation where, according to students, a professor can be “harshly critical of President Bush during his classroom English presentations” and declare – in class – that “Bush-bashing” is one of his “favourite things to do”? And this is hardly an isolated case:
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/48.html
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5346.html
https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2008/02/what-to-think-n.html
Is it because the majority of his peers feel much the same way and thus it seems normal and legitimate? It seems to me these incidents will only be curbed when parents and students start taking legal action against the would-be indoctrinators. One or two expensive payouts and some high-profile sackings should inspire a little probity.
Grace! Brilliant start to my day. 🙂
I do try to keep my patrons happy.
The ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ clip looks good. Not sure about the eco-doom bit at the end though.
“Klaatu barada nikto”?
carbon,
Yes, I’m hoping it’s not going to turn out to be a Stern Moral Lecture On Our Raping Of Gaia™. Still, it does have a badass giant robot. And the polygraph operator has a wonderful voice.
mlrosty,
“‘Klaatu barada nikto’?”
In the original 1951 film it’s some kind of ‘safe word’ or instruction to prevent the robot, Gort, from doing something unspeakable to the puny Earthlings who shot his boss. Luckily, Patricia Neal manages to say it just in the nick of time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaxSxEqKtA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto
Does anyone know of a good scifi-news alternative to IO9?
I’m disinclined to give Gawker any traffic after the Palin email thing.
There’s Filmstalker – but it’s not updated as often as i09. http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/
And maybe Superhero Hype? http://www.superherohype.com/
“The ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ clip looks good”
It’s not bad but you can’t beat the 1951 trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfpSXI8_UpY
“They came 250 million miles out of space… to hold the world spellbound with new and startling powers from another planet!”
Oh, to have been a wide-eyed teenager in 1951. But it doesn’t really sound far enough, does it? 250 million miles wouldn’t get you to Jupiter. Maybe Mars is teeming with giant rubber robots and people carrying kitchen whisks.
Saturday Verse: Crazy Jane (and the evolution of the anus)
David Thompson led us to a report about the evolution of the anus. How did critters get from one opening to two? One theory presented is that it entailed a connection between the GI tract and the reproductive system.Many animals, like birds and reptile…