How to use a chair. || How to sell bread. || Biodegradable shoes. || These black holes are bigger than yours. || Suboptimal situation. || Incoming. || Kuru, the laughing death epidemic of Papua New Guinea. || How to kill weeds. || Wheelchair of note. || Wheelchair of note 2. || “He would put on the voice of an elderly woman, then ask the call handler to describe their feet.” (h/t, pst314) || Can I touch? || Candle smoke. || Cat trees. || Accidentally gigantic spiders. || Which kind of rain would you like? || Candy Wrapper Museum. || Jam session. (h/t, Darleen) || Life skills. || The sounds of learning. || Serving suggestion. || When The Pie Was Opened, 1941. || And in ever-updating pronoun news, “This makes perfect sense.”

For the last time this year, and with infinite subtlety, I’m going to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. For those wishing to express their love regularly, there’s a monthly subscription option top left. And if one-click haste is called for, my PalPay.Me page can be found here. Additionally, any Amazon UK shopping done via this link or the search widget top right, or for Amazon US via this link, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.

For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last twelve years or so, in close to 3,000 posts and over 100,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year summaries. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that.

If you can, do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.

As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company. Also, open thread. 

I’m taking a few days off in search of mojo. By all means amuse yourselves in the comments, or poke through the reheated series for things you may have missed. And don’t touch the liquor cabinet. I’ve rigged it to blow. 

California State University, Los Angeles, where the life of the mind is a thing to behold: 

It all started when CSULA’s branch of Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth organisation, announced that [conservative author Ben] Shapiro would be appearing for a lecture titled “When Diversity Becomes a Problem.” The lecture will discuss topics like Black Lives Matter, microaggressions and trigger warnings, and whether they pose a threat to freedom of speech. Ironically, several students and faculty have reacted to the notion they want to stifle free speech by savagely attacking the event, with some of them arguing it should be shut down.

In short, the standard obliviousness. But then things got a little heated:

One of those aggressively denouncing the event is Robert Weide, an assistant professor of sociology at the school. Weide posted a comment on the event’s Facebook page accusing “Young Americans for Liberty” [sic] of being a group of “white supremacists” looking to intimidate “POC” (people of colour), and predicted they would need police protection at their event to protect themselves from mob violence.

Yes, it turns out that if you dare to question the premise of microaggressions, you will be called names and there will be shoving and punching. 

Weide became enmeshed in a long-running, extremely bitter argument with supporters of the event, both on-campus and off. In the process, he repeatedly accused his opponents of “white supremacy,” and at one point suggested they show up at CSULA’s campus gym for a fight. But they had best be careful before accepting the challenge, he warned, saying “I lift bro.”

If we’re doing the whole chest-puffing thing with lecturers in sociology picking fights with students who happen to disagree – and apparently we are – why settle for just punching each other? So uncouth. Pistols at dawn, I say.

Update: 

A few words from the borderline personality cult Deep Green Resistance: