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(04/25/13 5:25pm)
In the midst of the explosive tragedies that have shook our nation, across the pond slightly ‘less’ tragic events have taken place.
I think this is one of those cases where shock and triviality go hand in hand. Seriously. Four rhino heads were stolen from a museum in Dublin, Ireland. Rhino heads. Who steals rhino heads? Those suckers are heavy, aren’t they?
According to ABC News, “Four rhinoceros heads worth more than $630,000 have been stolen from the National Museum of Ireland by a gang who overpowered a security guard.” I, admittedly, scoffed at this headline. A single security guard was overtaken by a gang. I was definitely expecting more than one.
I’m not very familiar with this particular museum, but it sounds like the movie Night at the Museum, where the museum only employs one night guard. I very much doubt the animals and other things on display came to life, but you know what I mean. One security guard? I would hope that our own national museum in Washington D.C. has more than one guard to protect the nation’s treasures.
Let me get back to the four rhinoceros heads. The news report stated that the heads were probably taken to supply an illegal trade of powdered horn that is used in traditional medicines. Seems legitimate, right? Sure, let’s go with that. The article does address another similar crime that took place in France. However, the theft involved was apprehended during the theft.
Apparently, late last month in France, a man broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris. He went into the gallery of comparative anatomy and used a chainsaw to remove one of the tusks from an elephant skeleton. I guess in the long run, stealing tusks from Museum is a lot easier than poaching from the wild. But still, that’s a terrible crime to commit. Animals with tusks, dead or alive, should be left alone.
What still gets me, though, when I read this article is that I don’t understand how the gang was able to get the rhino heads off the wall, carry them through the museum and into whatever getaway vehicle they planted the heads into.
Unfortunately the article doesn’t go into how the crime was committed, just that it took place. It was interesting news, nonetheless. Despite the shocking triviality of the article content, it’s still nice to know that the entire world isn’t falling apart at the seams.
Also, for those concerned individuals, there were no guards injured during the committing of the crime(s). The guard in Dublin was simply tied up, and was able to free himself to raise the alarm that there were perpetrators on the premises. Unfortunately, the thieves have not yet been apprehended.
(04/25/13 5:24pm)
With this being my last issue as both an editor and a senior undergraduate, I have decided to present to you what I like to call the pizza box conundrum.
About a month ago I was soliciting the people around me for possible topics for opinions pieces. If you saw the last issue, you might have noticed that I wrote EVERY piece for the opinions section.
I wouldn’t say anyone is at fault, but I do find it a little absurd that my name appears so much in the paper. However, I digress. During my solicitation, I was presented with the Pizza box conundrum. I was at a loss. However, after careful deliberation as to how to approach it, here we go.
So have you ever taken a look around and noticed that the entire world can be broken down into basic geometric shapes? It’s true. That’s why little kids are able to draw pretty much any recognizable object like trees, houses, people, once they master the basic shapes. Some shapes seem to go together more cohesively while others are just...well, they present a conundrum of sorts.
Take pizza. Everyone loves pizza, or did during at least some point in their life. But you’re familiar with the concept, correct? It usually comes in a square box. Unless you order a specialty pizza, the pizza is normally round, and is then cut into triangle ‘pie’ slices.
Of course, I’m referring to delivery pizza. This could apply to Digiorno, but we all know that’s not delivery.
I’ll set the stage. You hear the doorbell. Your stomach responds first, “answer the door,” it grumbles. You pay the nice delivery person and transform into a trapeze artist as you make your way from the door to the kitchen table, balancing a stack of unbalanced, shifting warm boxes.You set the boxes down on the counter. You, hardly containing your excitement, carefully open the box where your pizza lies in waiting.The feeling of shock and awe at the beauty of the pizza overwhelms you. It’s kind of like Christmas.
Once the fog accumulating on your metaphorical glasses dissipates, so does your shock and awe moment. You stare at the pizza in disbelief. “This is not what I ordered! There must be a simpler way, a way that makes more sense!” you exclaim, your hands thrown into the air. Everyone around you is giving you funny looks. You don’t care, this conundrum is more important than their unappreciative and misunderstanding glares.
Who puts a circular object in a square container? Didn’t they learn as a toddler that the circle block goes in the circle hole and the square block goes in the square hole. Sure the circle block may fit inside the square hole, but that doesn’t mean it belongs there. It’s just not natural!
I realize that I’m being completely overdramatic, but if I won’t, who will? These are the kinds of questions that we should be concerned with.
During my four years here at Mercer, I’ve learned a lot of things, but I feel entirely unprepared to adequately deal with the pizza box conundrum.
Logically, I understand the circle cut into triangles. That part of pizza makes sense. Everyone gets an equal slice of pizza and everyone is happy. Right? But, that still leaves the square box.
We aren’t being very environmentally friendly if we use the square box. You might have noticed how much wasted space is in that box, space that could have been left on the tree. Have you ever thought of that Corporate America?
Sure Papa John’s has learned to utilize this space, but that’s an isolated case. Plus, they could easily just stack their garlic sauce and pepper on top of the box to become part of the circus act that is bringing the food to the kitchen.
As a lactose intolerant patron of society, I’m going to do my part and continue not eating pizza. For those of you who will continue to eat and enjoy pizza, please recycle the box. It’s the least you can do.
(04/25/13 5:24pm)
Over the course of this school year, I have had to frequently write opinions articles to fill my section. This hasn’t been a secret for those of you who have read my section regularly.
In fact, among the Cluster staff members, the Opinions section has often been referred to as ‘Cecilia’s Opinions.” I shrug at the reference and keep on writing. I have to.
Coming up with opinions pieces has never been easy for me. I’m not a particularly opinionated person. I usually absorb both sides of an issue and become ambivalent. I’ve always been that way.
It’s not so much that I don’t care, it’s that I prefer to just stay out of it, whatever ‘it’ may be. I think it has something to do with having a very opinionated father and it made him more mad for me to not have an opinion rather than argue against him. Whether that’s a cop-out, I’ll allow you to be the judge.
As far as writing opinions pieces goes, since I’ve had to fill my section in some way or another, I’ve developed sort of a technique. I usually avoid the really controversial topics like politics, but I will venture into the realm of discussions about homosexuality and I’ve considered talking about abortion (not sure if I ever did).
I’m not going to say that the articles I write are good. I rarely think they are. There have been a select few I’ve been proud of, but I can count those on one hand which doesn’t say much.
So in response to some criticism I have received throughout the year from previous editors of this section/the Cluster, patrons of Mercer, and local businesses; yes, my pieces are often fluff pieces.
If I had more submissions, I wouldn’t have that problem. Unfortunately, Mercer’s student body isn’t nearly as opinionated as I would have hoped leaving me to fill the void.
I have no problem with that, but quality had to take the back seat in most cases, i.e. the Starbucks vs. Jittery Joes article. Of course, if you have a conversation with me, I’m going to tell you that I prefer Starbucks, but that’s my personal opinion. It happens. It’s actually, the only thing I am truly opinionated about. That, and maybe the type of orange juice I drink.
I have a bad habit of digressing. What I intended to do with this article was to explain my article writing process. I’ve gotten quite good at it; like I said, I developed a technique.
Usually, by the Saturday morning before layout I can generally come up with a number of how many articles I’m going to need to write. I need roughly seven for my section.
If I get no submissions, I write seven articles, and so on. I usually hit up Google News for topics. Recently, Reddit has entered the picture, but I usually just stick to Google.
As I mentioned before, I usually stay away from politics, so if I see Obama’s face, I usually keep scrolling. I usually pick a few articles on a specific current event that many would be familiar with.
However, my absolute favorite articles are the ones with really random and rather silly headlines. Take this one for example: New App Helps Icelanders Avoid Accidental Incest. Those are the best.
I usually pick about ten different news headlines and narrow them down to the seven or so stories that get printed in the paper. I can generate 5-7 stories in a few hours depending on how snarky I feel. So, as my final printed words to Mercer: It’s been fun!
Oh, and just to quickly address the incest prevention app, in Iceland pretty much everyone is distantly related so relatives don’t end up ‘getting together’ if you know what I mean….
The app lets users “bump” phones and gives off an alarm if they are related. Their slogan, you may ask? “Bump the app before you bump in bed.” Perfection!
I about died laughing the first time I read the article that appeared in ABC News. The original use for the app was supposed to be a genealogy of sorts.
However, over time, the app morphed into the anti-incest tool. Some citizens were saying that it may be funny but that it is a necessary app to have.
If my country was only about 320,000 people strong, I’d be a bit concerned about dating my cousin, too. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about stuff like that. And hopefully with this app, neither will Icelanders.
(04/25/13 5:22pm)
I created the title in hopes that I would be purposely vague with what Mercer changed. For one, looking around the landscape of campus these past few days, Mercer has definitely changed.
Porter Patch is now a pile of red clay and rubble. Crush and go gravel covers the pathways that were part of my daily morning running routine. The football field takes the place of a muddy drainage pit that I got stuck in my freshman year while trying to carry a snare drum and my clarinet over to the homecoming bonfire.
There is no more intramural softball field where I clotheslined a rather annoying guy at second base and got away with it. The bookstore has moved, the climbing tower has been erected, the ropes course where the new practice soccer fields are is gone.
The lofts replaced parking lots and older houses. A lot has changed over the course of my four years. I can only wonder how much of Mercer has been changed by us, and how much of us Mercer has changed.
I know that I am a completely different person than when I first walked on campus. I was a rather timid freshman, hiding behind the fact that I was living with one of my best friends of seven years. I wanted to get out there, but I wanted to relish in the comfort of the familiar.
I eventually found my own and now rarely, if ever, talk to that friend I lived with for both freshman and sophomore year.
I’ve gone through a lot of friendships since freshman year and even though there has been heartbreak, every single person I’ve come into contact with here at Mercer and each of the friendships I have formed shaped who I am today.
Mercer’s canvas and their slogan: Be the Bear, has always offered a space for me to find my own, and I could not be any more grateful than I am now.
I may be frustrated with the construction, my grades may have fallen due to a severe case of senioritis, but in the grand scheme of things Mercer is more than just a campus undergoing renovation. It’s more than a place where we receive grades and a VERY expensive piece of paper to hang up on our walls.
I don’t know if I’m speaking for others when I say that Mercer is a pseudo-home. I’ve grown up here.
I went from that timid freshman to someone who is writing these thoughts of mine in a newspaper. I’m not sure if these thoughts are very coherent, but they exist.
We each came to Mercer because of one reason or another, and for whatever that reason I want to thank you in the cheesiest way possible. The faculty and staff, the professors, the students, and the organizations I have interacted with over the last four years have made some sort of impact that has been felt.
In some ways, Mercer’s renovation can be a visual representation of the renovation going through each and every one of us.
Some days we find our self at stand stills due to climates of various natures, but eventually we get going. One day we will be that finished product. We may not know it at the time, but others will see it and bear witness.
I’m thankful for the time Mercer has given me to learn and grow. I’ve changed. Mercer’s changed, and will continue to change with each incoming class that makes an impact on our campus. That thought may be a little scary, but it’s definitely one that makes me excited about the future.
(04/25/13 5:21pm)
Pardon the terrible pun, but the events happening in Boston as well as the explosion in Waco, Texas really have me shaken up.
I’m not even trying to make light of the situation. This is seriously the first time I have really felt affected by a disaster like the Boston Marathon bombings.
I drive around town and I see the flags at half-staff in honor of those who lost their lives and the tragedy that struck this county.
Two misguided brothers decided to make an act of terror, for what? What were they trying to prove? What they did prove is that citizens of the United States know how to band together and take action when the situation calls for it.
I was looking for more information on the bombings and found a two news stories that I found incredibly touching.
The first is that five dogs who all worked at Newtown to comfort those who were suffering from the school shooting traveled to Boston to comfort all those who were affected by the blasts.
I have never really thought of dogs traveling to different cities to comfort those who are affected by tragedy. The fact that these dogs and their handlers were willing to travel to visit those who were affected really touched me.
I don’t really have anything more to say on the matter without sounding redundant so I will comment on the story that really got to me.
However, before I go into that particular story, I do want to comment on the politics surrounding this situation. I haven’t done enough research to be educated on the backgrounds of the two men who committed the crime, but I have seen pictures of them.
The one that the authorities were looking for during Boston’s lockdown looked like a little kid. He had a baby face, one that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to commit such a heinous crime.
I almost feel bad for him. He seems like the type to have followed what his older brother told him just because, without asking any questions.
I’m not saying that what he did is acceptable, nor is it forgivable, but I can only wonder what is or was running through his mind while the aftermath is taking place. His brother’s dead. If I were in his shoes, I would be terrified.
I’m deeply saddened by the events that took place and I’m mad that they happened. They shouldn’t have happened and the men responsible for the bombs going off should be apprehended.
When I came across the story of Jeff Bauman, I was kind of in awe.
Jeff Bauman suffered severe injuries to his legs that resulted in amputations below the knees. What gets me about his story is the man who jumped into action to save him. In iconic pictures from the blast, there is a man in a cowboy hat running alongside a woman pushing Bauman in a wheelchair.
The man in the cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo, can be seen literally pinching Bauman’s femoral artery closed in an effort to staunch the bleeding.
I’m a little squeamish myself when it comes to those types of things, so I couldn’t imagine the type of character Arredondo has in order to jump over the barricades, run straight to the blast, create tourniquets for a man trying to stand but has lost his legs, and pinch his artery all through instinct. It’s just mind boggling to me.
Due to the actions of Arredondo, as well as those on standby to take care of the victims of the blast, Bauman was able to survive his horrendous experience. He may be a few inches shorter, but he still has his life.
It’s stories like Bauman’s that make me proud to be an American. Despite the blast that shook our nation in a way that felt similar to that of 9/11, we all have seemingly come back together to support and take care of one another. I could not ask for more.
(04/10/13 2:09pm)
Now that spring is kind of upon us, it’s about that time to get bikini-bod ready. Spring Break was the warm-up, but now that summer is almost here we are about to run a marathon! Beach, here we come!
First thing usually on everyone’s mind is the weight that you have put on from all those late nights studying or you can just fill in the blank about how you tend to gain weight.
The key to losing weight has always been accountability. I know I’m always healthiest whenever my friends encourage me to go running or out on walks with them. That’s why things like Weight Watchers have been proven to work because they are tracking pretty much your every move.
Well, guess what? There’s an app for that -- not Weight Watchers necessarily, although I’m sure there is one out there. I’m talking about a few choices to keep you on track for your weight loss goal that can be found right in your pocket, or where ever you may keep your smartphone.
I’m taking this list of apps from a list compiled from Daily News. I haven’t tried all of these, but I have tried one or two of them and have had friends who have done the same. All of us seem to have at least one or two pounds we would like to drop. Or in the case of those lucky few, they want to put on a few pounds. These apps can probably help with that as well.
Lose It!, available for free on both the Apple and Android market allows you track nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, and fat. There is also a recipe builder and a database of activities to track how many calories you have burned.
One of my favorite apps to use is the MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter and Fitness Tracker. This app comes with a barcode scanner that helps you scan and tally up the calories you eat every day. This particular app is free and is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Phone.
iTrackBites is one that I have never used before, but is similar to Weight Watchers in that it has a point structure. Those using the app can keep a food diary and select foods with an assigned point value. This app is not free, but rather $1.99 for iPhone users, and $2.99 on the Android market.
There are plenty of others, such as Endomondo or Fitocracy. The key idea is to choose something that will work for your and for your lifestyle.
The MyFitnessPal, app seemed to work the best for me because it gave me instantaneous results. I stopped using it because certain aspects of the program made me mad. It started telling me that I wasn’t eating enough on the days that I managed to forget to eat because I was busy doing other things.
However, the interface was clean and easy to use. After a while though, the novelty wore off and I just stopped using the program all together.
I still have it on my phone, but my eating habits are so sporadic that it’s hard to tell. Maybe when I’m not a student, it will be easier to keep track of.
But if you are looking for an easy way of keeping track of what you’re eating and how active you are being, I would look into the different fitness apps that are available out there.
Another one of my favorites is the couch to 5K app that transformers novice runners into 5K running mode. It really works if you stick to the program, as is the case with just about anything.
(04/10/13 2:08pm)
As someone who only regularly started eating red meat when I got to college, I was brought up with the mantra that I shouldn’t eat red meat because it was going to give me high blood pressure. While this is true, I didn’t understand why. In fact, a lot of people didn’t understand why this was the case.
Turns out, there is a recently found chemical that exists in red meat that explains why eating so much is bad for the heart.
Carnitine, in red meat, was discovered during a study found in the journal of Natural Medicine. This chemical is broken down by naturally occurring bacteria in the gut which in turn causes a chain reaction that results in higher levels of cholesterol and an increased risk of heart disease.
This one chemical causes all of the chaos. I find red meat delicious. Although I do know a lot of people who don’t eat it or their bodies can’t process it. Maybe it’s a good thing that they stay away from it. Personally, I come from a family with a history of heart problems so it would probably be in my best interest to stay away from red meat.
However, carnitine isn’t just found in red meat. There are people out there taking carnitine supplements. These people are just as much at risk for heart disease for those who ingest the chemical through more natural sources.
The UK government recommends eating no more than the red or processed meat equivalent of two slices of bacon a day. Maybe that’s why Europeans live so much longer than Americans. They also weigh a whole lot less than Americans, on average. We have things such as the baconator from Wendy’s that features at least six pieces of bacon, and two hamburger patties. While delicious, it’s practically a heart attack wrapped in a greasy piece of paper.
Previously, saturated fats were thought to contribute to heart problems. While that is partly true, it isn’t completely at fault. Lead researcher Dr. Stanley Hazen told the BBC, “The cholesterol and saturated fat content of lean red meat is not that high, there’s something else contributing to increases in cardiovascular risk.”
Dr. Hazen explained the process of carnitine being broken down into a gas, which is then converted by the liver into a chemical called TMAO. TMAO was strongly linked to the build-up of unwanted fatty deposits in blood vessels, which can ultimately lead to heart disease.
Previous studies have often avoided TMAO, which have led to the misconception of saturated fats being mostly at fault for heart disease from red meat.
The findings of Dr. Hazen’s study have supported the idea of “less red meat is better.”
A possible solution to the problem of carnitine being broken down that is in the process of being studied is the addition of probiotic yogurt to one’s diet in order to change the current balance of bacteria found in the gut. In theory, the smaller the number of bacteria that feed on carnitine, the lower the health risk from eating red meat.
Of course, these findings, won’t necessarily change what people recommend is healthy to eat. However, this study does serve as a good reminder for the fact that we should look towards alternative sources of protein for those of us who regularly eat a lot of red meat. All in all, we should only eat red meat in moderation.
(04/10/13 2:08pm)
I can always count on BBC to produce some pretty interesting news articles. When I noticed the headline Man ‘took 40,000 ecstasy tablets,’ I’ll admit I was intrigued. Apparently, according to the article, a man was recorded as using an estimated 40,000 ecstasy pills in his life, most of which were taken between the ages of 21 and 30.
Psychosomatic Medicine, a journal, revealed that a man known as “Mr. A” was taking an average of 25 tablets a day. Doctors at St George’s Hospital, London are intrigued by Mr. A’s case because it was so extreme. Plus, the fact that Mr. A is 37 years old [demonstrates] he is a walking example of ecstasy’s long-term effects.
In my opinion, no one should take ecstasy but if one does, they should definitely not take 25 tablets a day. In no way am I advocating the use of ecstasy in the writing of this article. I am merely fascinated by the desire for this man to take so much in his lifetime.
Quoted in the BBC article, a DrugScope representative, Martin Barnes, said, “It is possible to become psychologically dependent on the feelings associated with ecstasy but heavy daily use is extremely rare and it is not thought that people can become physically dependent.” Based on this quote and my vague understanding of what ecstasy can do to one’s psyche, I can kind of understand the draw to using the amount Mr. A used given the assumption that Mr. A was deeply psychologically disturbed and was self-medicating to some degree.
Prior to Mr. A’s case, the largest reported ecstasy lifetime consumption by one person was roughly 2,000 tablets. One-twentieth of the amount Mr. A consumed. The doctors covering Mr. A’s case reported that for two years, the man took roughly five tablets every weekend, escalating to an average of roughly 4 tablets per day for the next three years. From there, he then quickly reached 25 tablets a day over the next four years. Mr. A stopped taking ecstasy only after reportedly ‘collapsing’ three times at parties.
As a case study, Dr. Christos Kouimtsidis said, “For a few months, [Mr. A] felt as if he was still under the influence of ecstasy and suffered several episodes of ‘tunnel vision’. He eventually developed severe panic attacks, recurrent anxiety, depression and muscle rigidity (particularly at the neck and jaw levels).”
While undergoing treatment at the addiction center at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, South London, he was still using marijuana and admitted to previously taking solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, and heroin.
The fact that this man is still alive after all of the drugs that have gone through his system completely amazes me. I’m sure the doctors are more than intrigued by the level of chemicals that has ran through this man’s body and the type of long-term affects they can observe just by the very existence of this man in their presence.
To contradict my own theory of Mr. A self-medicating himself, the doctors reported that there was no mental illness in his family and no previous psychiatric history of himself. The man simply liked to feel ‘high.’
What doctors have learned from Mr. A is that his case may be an “indication that daily use of ecstasy over a long period of time can lead to irreversible memory problems and other cognitive defects.”
Unfortunately, Mr. A dropped out of the study due to continued drug use. The doctors lost touch with him about a year ago. The study of Mr. A did show some patterns of long-term effects, however still not much is known of prolonged use. Short-term effects normally include impaired memory, sleep problems, and the ‘mid-week hangover.’
Overall, drug use, especially of the drugs along the lines of LSD, ecstasy, and heroin should be avoided due to their addictive psychological effects and detrimental side-effects to the human body and psyche.
(04/10/13 2:07pm)
Coming from a female’s perspective, I cannot adequately answer the following question. But I can take it with a grain of salt and chuckle. So, what would you do if you were a male president of an organization or, let’s say, a country and a group of topless women came to protest?
The Independent reports that President Putin “laughed off” the protest, and I can only wonder if they meant that literally. He was reported as jokingly stating that “he liked what he had seen” while also taking care of the serious matter of the protest at hand. What a dog. Of course he would say that he liked what he had seen. Topless women? Really.
What gets me is that the protest was a women’s rights group. This is the reason why people don’t like women’s rights because they immediately think of radical, liberal women who burn bras or just don’t wear them at all. This particular group in Russia, named Femen, has “staged protests against Russia’s detention of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot around Europe.”
Allegedly, the feminist group “stripped to the waist and shouted slogans calling the Russian leader a ‘dictator’ before being covered up and bundled away by security men.” The whole scene just seems absolutely ludicrous to me. As a female, I don’t really understand what stripping down to the waist would really do. You aren’t really proving a point other than the fact that you are very comfortable in your own skin.
Plus, the fact that Putin just brushed it all off as though it was some sort of joke doesn’t make me feel any better about the feminist movement. Putin did comment on the matter that he was probably otherwise distracted because he says, “I did not catch what they were shouting, I did not even see if they were blonds, brunettes or chestnut-haired … I don’t see anything terrible in (the protest), though I think … it is better to be dressed if one wants to discuss political matters.” I agree Putin, I agree wholeheartedly. Ladies, keep your shirts on.
As far as the reasoning behind the protest, I wasn’t quite able to dig up enough information to understand it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel did argue that the women had a right to protest, but other than recognizing their right, there wasn’t enough information to really break down why they followed Putin to Germany.
Initially, I thought it was funny that Putin laughed off this group of women, and I thought it was absurd for the women to have protested topless.
However, now I don’t really know if I respect Putin’s reaction of laughing it off. There is worse he could have done, but with his further comments about the protesters he obviously did not respect them as people. It was only until the Chancellor made a comment about the women. After all, Merkel was the only female perspective the original article featured.
Putin probably could have treated the situation with a little more class, but at the same time the women involved in the protest didn’t really leave him much room.
I think everyone in this scenario could have done better. Clothes could have been kept on and Putin could have kept his eyes where they should have been. But maybe in the end, that’s all just wishful thinking.
(04/10/13 2:07pm)
Last issue, while I was looking around for various articles to be opinionated about, I happened upon an article from the UK about children throwing pancakes at each other. I was slightly taken aback by the triviality of the article, but thought it was entertaining so I wrote something about it.
This week, I came across a similar trivial article and now I really wonder what kind of content is deemed newsworthy. I’m not sure if I’m looking at articles that are equivalent to our local news stories that we see on late night local television, but I feel like there are more hard-hitting news stories to cover.
Of course, I’m not really one to judge since I’m writing about them, but still. There seems to be some sort of disconnect between what is considered newsworthy, and something you would see on Ridiculousness. I found a story about robbers stealing Nutella off of a truck. One of the original sources was CBC news which I didn’t recognize, but another source was The New York Times. The story isn’t very long, but it’s still really bizarre.
According to the Times, the culprits took the Nutella from a parked trailer in the central German town of Bad Hersfeld. The amount stolen was worth an estimate 16,000 Euros or roughly $20,700. I would hope that they stole this much Nutella for resale value, because while there is a lot you can do with Nutella; there isn’t THAT much you can do. I’ve made a few Nutella cupcakes in my day, but these robbers don’t really sound like the type.
A German news agency reported that the thieves have previously stolen energy drinks from the same location. With that piece of information, I can only wonder if they have some sort of shop that they are trying to stock. Plus, why haven’t they been caught yet?
It’s stories like these that really make me wonder what the motivation was for stealing that much stuff. If they don’t have some sort of way to resale the stuff, I start picturing those extreme couponers that go out and buy a bunch of stuff that they just hoard until the apocalypse.
I imagine the people who stole the Nutella and energy drinks were all just sitting around in a garage one day, the walls lined with bottles of sports drinks and bags of potato chips. One of them stands up and says, “hey guys, do you know what would be a really great idea? We should go out to Bad Hersfeld and steal five tons of Nutella. Sven, do you have your pick-up?”
Of course, that is me just being ridiculous. But in all seriousness, there wasn’t much to this story that I could find online.
There were no specific details with the exception of how much was stolen. So from there, I take creative liberty and hypothesis the motivation for the crime.
Honestly, the whole scenario seems like the beginning of a really bad movie.
(04/10/13 2:05pm)
Headline: NASA plans to lasso asteroid, bring it closer to Earth, senator says.
Initial reaction: What? Are you crazy? Why in the world would you want to bring an asteroid closer to us?
Isn’t NASA supposed to blow that sort of thing up in order to keep us safe? I think the Russians would agree. They got hit with a meteor not too long ago.
So apparently, NASA is sending a robotic spaceship out to lasso a small asteroid and ‘park it’ close to the moon so that astronauts can explore it.
The asteroid is allegedly 500-tons, and about 25-feet wide. The mission is scheduled to take place sometime in 2019.
My question is: how much funding was cut from the space program, again?
According to the Fox News article, an Orion space capsule carrying a crew of around four astronauts will travel to the asteroid in 2021 for spacewalking exploration.
Senator Bill Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said that “President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget...The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.”
Personally, I’m not really sure what the importance of finding an asteroid and bringing it close enough for us to explore.
I understand the concept of exploring and learning new things to better the world, but this whole concept of manipulating space with this type of budget just seems absurd to me.
I would hope that there are other things that might be a little more important than spending $100 million on than looking for the right asteroid to poke and prod in the next decade.
I mean, the whole concept is kind of cool. Humans are manipulating space.
However, I just can’t really get over the fact that I picture boys in lab coats or with eccentric mohawks playing with really big and expensive toys.
What makes things a little more questionable to me is the fact that “last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies,” according to Fox News, “proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion.”
I find these dollar amounts that they are throwing around a little disconcerting, considering the state of our national debt.
Plus, in the article that I looked at, there was a lot of talk about choosing the ‘right asteroid.’
Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids said, “once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of ‘a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.” It’s that simple! Anyone can do it! Right?
I find this whole scenario a little ridiculous. The entire article has nothing to do with the importance of this exploration, but rather just focuses on how the exploration will be set up.
The closest the article comes to explaining the importance is when an Apollo 9 astronaut, Rusty Schweickart, is quoted saying “You’d have some interesting challenges in terms of operating in an environment like that.”
Nelson also mentions that this “mission would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one headed to Earth in the future. It also would be training for a future mission to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.”
Curiously enough, this mission has no intention of planetary defense, which considering recent events, I would think it would be of higher priority.
(04/10/13 2:04pm)
Recently the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article about a mural painted by artist George Beattie being slowly hidden from public eye.
My own interest was piqued when I noticed that the mural in question was painted in downtown Macon, just inside the lobby of the post office located on College Street.
If you’re like me, you pass by this post office rather frequently. I’ve never been inside, but I never knew that there was a huge mural covering the wall of the lobby.
I’m not sure how many Mercer students were aware of this mural, but now we may never get a chance to appreciate the local artwork.
The only mural I’m aware of in Macon is the one that is also on College street, just after the bridge over the railroad tracks. Artwork like that defintely brightens up a mundane daily commute.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution report, the mural is described as “the flowing composition of ancient and modern scenes, seven in all, graces the walls of the building’s entry hall.”
Now that the artwork is being closed off by walls that are being put up, an argument of whether or not the content is being censored due to the controversial subject matter of the murals comes to fruition.
I’m leaning more towards censorship, myself, as the goal rather than different alternatives that have been brought up by the state as well as post office employees.
The article highlights the fact that before most of the mural had been concealed, one of the post office workers mentioned that the mural “evidently offended someone.”
Personally, I can understand why people have been offended. Thinking about the subject matter, alone, is enough to offend someone. Looking at an image depicting a disturbing image is definitely enough to generate a strong emotional response.
The mural has been reported to include “Scenes [that] show the area’s first native people, its early colonizers and some of the city’s most prominent figures. Other images harken to slavery, lynching and the Confederacy. In the background of one section, a line of Ku Klux Klansmen can be seen marching into the moonlit distance.”
We live in a different time than when these murals were painted.
In the 1960s, this type of scene was not thought as so controversial, it was just how things were, especially here in Macon. People were exposed to that sort of scenario on a daily basis.
Fortunately, our society has dictated that those sorts of scenes are not acceptable and are downright disgusting to look at.
Of course people are going to be offended. However, I don’t believe offending someone is any real reason to hide away artwork by an important Georgia-born artist.
I realize I’m going out on a limb by saying that. What the post office is doing is a form of censorship. I don’t really agree with how the city is handling the situation.
I do appreciate that the city of Macon and the people inside the post office isn’t flat out destroying the artwork. It could be worse.
But people around Macon who haven’t visited the post office prior to them covering up the mural don’t really know about the artwork; they haven’t really seen it. Therefore, they live an ignorant life in regards to what is now hidden behind those walls in the post office.
Stated in an e-mail correspondence between the author of the original article, and the U.S. Postal Service, the slow process of covering the artwork was due to “post-9/11 ‘security measures.’”
The walls that the murals are on are in an area that belongs to the building’s off-limits area for security purposes.
The email correspondence goes on to state that the walls were put up in 2004 to “prevent public access to employee areas which also eliminated access to the murals.” A likely story, post office people.
I don’t doubt that security measures were necessary to put into place considering all of the 9/11 concerns. Four years later seems like a bit of a stretch to me, but I’m not going to question it. I am going to question the sincerity of their 9/11 claims.
According to what I have read, it seems to me that the post office people had a hidden agenda to keep the mural from being seen by the public eye.
I’m really just upset that they are hiding it. I mean, I know that there is probably a lot of offensive material within the mural. But I think that there is a better way to handle the act of covering it up.
Perhaps moving the areas that need to be protected by security measures?
I noticed that some sort of construction is going on over at the post office. Why not pull an act like our Cruz Plaza construction and just do everything at once?
I’m sure once it’s all over the citizens will thank you. Well, most of them. There are always those select few that disagree with anything new or different.
But back to the subject of this mural in the post office. It’s not like Beattie intended on creating a work of art that offended everyone.
Beattie’s son, Beattie III said, after viewing the mural for himself in his adult life, “My father was doing things in those murals that were very subtle, extremely subtle. His whole idea was to say, ‘Well, I’ve got to show history. How can I show it in such a way that will illuminate the consciousness of what was really going on?’”
With that last quote featured in the final sentence of the article, I have to commend Beattie for painting what he did. It takes great strength to display your beliefs in a way that is vulnerable to anyone’s opinion.
He had some of the best intentions, but now his intentions are being covered up by those who are judging him. Where do we draw the line at what constitutes as terrible enough to censor?
(03/27/13 2:01pm)
I was recently perusing the aisles of MovieStop the other day and happened upon a used copy of Air Bud. I haven’t watched that movie in forever, but it was definitely one of my favorites when I was a kid. One of my favorite parts was when the kid would set out a bunch of pudding cups so that Air Bud would come out from the bush he was hiding in.
It’s such a heart-warming tale, isn’t it? I sure thought so. I contemplated buying it, but in the end thought, “ehhh, better not.” I put the movie back on the shelf and bought The Breakfast Club instead.
However, as I was leaving the store, I couldn’t help but think, “what ever happened to Air Bud, anyway?” I think that is a valuable question to ask oneself. After all, we get all of these movies about Air Bud’s kids unrealistically traveling to space and what not, but what ever happened to Air Bud? Did his basketball career take off? Did he choose to stay at home as a trusty lap dog?
Well, I finally found the answer on the interwebs. According to a rather reliable news source, Air Bud came out of retirement. He “has signed a one-year contract for an undisclosed amount with Kolossos Rodou B.C., a mid-level club in the Greek Basket League.”
Well look at you, Air Bud, making something out of yourself. Personally, I always knew you could do it. You had the best jump shot on the court!
Air “Bud” Buddy even has himself his own agent. Buddy’s agent released a statement saying, “He [Air Bud] looks forward to meeting the fans and making whatever contribution the team asks of him, whether it’s sinking his patented three-point ‘muzzle shots’ or helping young Hellenic players find the confidence to believe in themselves.”
Unfortunately, the basketball playing golden retriever will not be starting, but Buddy has not let that put him down. Critics have stated that “the dog might simply be unable to quit the spotlight” and really know when to throw in the towel.
I would have to agree with the critics and say that I think the aging dog should just take it easy and be content with living in the literal lap of luxury, having his owner scratch behind his ears.
But since I have no real say in what Buddy does, I have to sit back and watch the ‘budding’ career that Buddy has begun in his old age.
For one thing, Buddy is reported as doing wonders for the team on and off the court. He’s a real asset to his team. “‘Like all dogs, Buddy only knows one speed -- all out,’ ESPN basketball correspondent John Hollinger said” in a recent interview. Buddy may be givin’ his all, but unfortunately his all is not what it used to be. “At press time, Buddy had played only six minutes in Sunday’s loss to Kavala, scoring five points in 2-for-5 shooting from the floor, earning two assists, and greatly helping fellow American expatriate player Ruben Boykin deal with his homesickness issues.”
I believe Air Bud has held true to his roots by signing a contract with a foreign team. He is doing something that he loves while also helping his teammates in way that a human counterpart is incapable of. We could all learn a lot from the spirit that Air Bud shows on and off the court. He shows great determination to reach seemingly unattainable goals, while still maintaining a positive attitude.
Personally, I just hope they don’t make another one of those dang Air Bud puppy movies.
(03/27/13 2:00pm)
Picture this: you are sitting down to a breakfast in the morning at your school in England. Your breakfast consists of some fruit, possibly a glass of orange juice, and some flapjacks. These flapjacks aren’t just any flapjacks, they are triangle flapjacks.
You’re all excited because you love triangle flapjacks. Well, unfortunately for you, one of your classmates ruined it for everyone and now your flapjacks will be cut into boring rectangles or squares.
According to reports, “canteen staff at Castle View School in Canvey Island, Essex” have been banned from serving “triangle shaped flapjacks after one was thrown at a pupil.”
I have only one question, who throws flapjacks hard enough to get them banned? Apparently, according to The Independent, a UK newspaper, “This is not the first time flapjacks have been banned for being a risk.”
I have read enough Onion articles in my lifetime to have this particular article raise a few flags in my brain. However, this article is completely serious.
Are the news people in the UK really that starving for hard-hitting news articles that they choose to write on kids throwing pancakes at each other?
I guess I’m here as the pot calling the kettle black since I’m writing an article about an article that talks about kids throwing pancakes at each other, but I really am hurting for hard-hitting news stories.
I can understand kids getting into trouble for starting a food fight, but getting pancakes banned is just ridiculous.
Another aspect of this story that I found unnecessarily ridiculous is the fact that these kids are being served triangle shaped pancakes in the first place. Who takes the extra time to cut a presumably round pancake into a triangle? Is there some special pan that they use over in England to make square pancakes by default that I’m just not aware of? If so, I’m a fan of square pancakes. I want this pan.
Ok, I kid. I’m just really confused with some of the specifics of this article and why they chose to write it.
At the very end of the article, a spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive was quoted saying “The real issue isn’t what shape the flapjacks are, but the fact that pupils are throwing them at each other - and that’s a matter of discipline, and has got nothing to do with health and safety as we know it. We’re happy to make clear that flapjacks of all shapes and sizes continue to have our full backing.”
If all shaped and sized flapjacks are safe, then isn’t this is a non-issue to report. Silly Brits.
(03/27/13 1:56pm)
With the Internet allowing pretty much anything we want to be just a click away, we tend to get a little overzealous with what we share with other people; predominantly on social media websites.
However, even though we share many unnecessarily details of our daily rituals, one thing we do not tend to share is personal health information.
Of course, there are those posts about family members getting sick or having health problems.
In many of those cases, the people posting are asking for prayers for the afflicted. I have absolutely no problem with this practice, and it’s not necessarily the focus of this article.
What I’m trying to get at is that most of us don’t make posts about ourselves when it comes to our health. We leave it to others to make posts about us, or we just don’t say anything at all.
But despite our lack of sharing our health status on the Internet, there is a rising number of people turning to the Internet to diagnose themselves.
According to a study conducted by Rosemary Thackery, BYU professor of health science, “more than 60 percent of Internet users go online for health help, looking for advice, digging up user experiences on social media, and consulting online reviews in hunt of health providers and health care facilities”
Thackery believes that the percentage of Internet users that are looking at this information is staggering. However, with the lack of people sharing truthful information about them, the quality of information people are finding is less than what it could be.
Despite the positives of social media in the context of ones health, self-diagnosis can be a dangerous thing.
Typically, turning to the Internet to diagnose yourself turns a common cold into some deathly foreign disease that you can only get from going to a specific place in the Amazonian Rainforest during this specific time in the year. As ridiculous as I was being with that example, you know it’s true, to a certain extent.
“Good medical advice is hard to get even from your doctor” who may have known you for years and is fairly confident in your medical history.
Try depersonalizing the experience by turning to the Internet and you get a bunch of randomly generated diagnoses based on a few boxes that you checked to indicate your symptoms.
The whole system is preposterous, but I have to admit that I’ve done it myself; most of us have.
With everything we ever decide to do, there are lists of pros and cons for conducting self-diagnosis.
I mean if we are going to do it anyway, I figure we could at least make an informed decision.
Some of the pros are obvious. You learn about yourself, you are listening to your body, and you are more aware of the way your body functions.
Self-diagnosing is a lot cheaper than traveling to the doctor’s office and paying ridiculous co-pay only for them to tell you, “eh, you’ll be fine. Here’s a z-pack. If your symptoms persist past seven to ten days, give us a call.” Thanks doc, you’re a real help!
The Internet provides you a quick way to get information even if you are just trying to get more informed about what is going on with you before you go see your doctor. Or it’s a good way to understand what your doctor diagnosed you with.
Self-diagnosis can rarely, but sometimes quickly relieve stress when you discover that your symptoms are not as serious as you thought they were.
Like I said, the pros are rather straightforward but in no way outweigh the cons, at least in my opinion.
As I mentioned briefly earlier in the article, many of the websites run on an algorithm that matches conditions, ailments, and symptoms to a fairly simple database of possible diagnosis.
Since this process is very impersonal, there is no real collection of a medical history. You simply check the box of the symptoms you are aware of.
In some cases, the causes of the condition may be absent and it may be hard to specify the symptoms. It is also difficult to find websites that deal with multiple symptoms.
My personal favorite con is that self-diagnosis frequently mistakenly suggests that you have an extremely serious disease. As a general rule of being human, we often worry and tend to think the worse of ourselves when it comes to our health, which means we tend to look for more serious ailments rather than the minor causes.
So if you experience weight loss that you can’t explain, you probably don’t have cancer. You should actually go to your doctor.
Fortunately for all of us, there is such thing as online medical diagnosis. This is essentially a service that provides access to real doctors that are available on the Internet.
These doctors will answer questions and suggest tentative diagnoses to symptoms. This service is a lot more reliable and definitely cheaper than going face-to-face to visit a doctor.
Now, we’ve all heard horror stories about going to the Student Health Center when we are sick.
Since I’m a local student, my doctor is no more than twenty minutes away from campus. However, for those who are less fortunate, sometimes the Student Health Center is the only place available.
Or, there’s always the emergency room where your friends and family have a tendency of overreacting when you have to go there.
My suggestion to you is that you should probably stay away from places like WebMD.
They can be fun to look at when you aren’t actually sick, but beyond that they cause more trouble than they are worth.
(03/06/13 3:54pm)
Do the Harlem Shake!
Colorado’s doing it, UGA is doing it, Mercer is doing it; we’re all doing it!
The ridiculous trend that swept the nation in no time has people wasting 30 seconds increments of their time just for the heck of it.
Apparently, one of the viral videos got federal attention when the antics took place on an airplane of all places.
I applaud their ingenuity, but still an airplane? That seems to be something that would cause an accident of “LOST” proportions. And no one wants that.
The video was filmed in mid-February by Colorado College students aboard a Frontier Airlines flight headed for San Diego.
After the video hit YouTube, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started raising some eyebrows at the possible safety violations within the video.
Fortunately for the Colorado College students, the staff of the airline company was involved and tried to clear up the issue with the FAA.
Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Kate O’Malley stated, “[a]ll safety measures were followed and the seat belt sign was off” at the time the video was filmed.
When questioned about why the FAA was looking into the problem in the first place, FAA spokesman Tony Molinero was quoted in the Colorado College student newspaper The Catalyst as saying, “They are still looking into it, it’s still open. I don’t know what the [investigators] were told about it, but when they saw the video they just decided to look into it because it is better to be safe than sorry.”
Maybe this is making a mountain out of a molehill, but I would be concerned about the safety of the passengers after watching the video myself.
In the video, there was the typical single individual dancing during the first part of the song, “Harlem Shake,” by New York-based DJ Baauer.
In this particular video, the student was wearing a football helmet and doing a fist pump combination - the usual.
When the bass dropped, the student in the helmet was joined by people in masks, a banana suit, random passengers dancing in their seats and in the isles.
In the bottom right corner of the screen, a child can be seen being raised into the air multiple times.
Of course, the entire phenomenon is completely pointless.
I guess doing it on a plane would make the time go faster, but it would definitely take some guts to try and get everyone (almost everyone) on the plane to join in on the fun.
Having participated in a Harlem Shake video, myself, I can say that the antics involved are a lot of fun, but can get a little intense depending on who is in the group dancing.
By this point in time, the Harlem Shake phenomenon is dying out and joining the ranks of Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ song and all of those other videos that got their two to three weeks of fame. Judging by the track record, I don’t even want to know what’s going to come next.
(03/06/13 3:50pm)
At the closing of Founder’s Day, SGA President Mollie Davis mentioned to the crowd that the students walking around campus this year will be the last group to ever play on Porter Patch. By the time next year’s group of students starts school, Cruz Plaza will be the new norm.
As a younger student, I probably wouldn’t have thought too much about Porter Patch being ripped out and replaced with something newer and supposedly better.
However, I’m a senior. With roughly 2 months left of school, I’m starting to become a lot more sentimental about my Mercer experience.
To go back to go back to Davis’ closing comment, I looked over at my friends who were sitting next to me and we all had a look of disdain on our faces.
Porter Patch served as a very symbolic area of my Mercer experience. During the first night of orientation, a bunch of freshman got together to play ultimate Frisbee.
On that fateful night, I met the majority of my friends and we have stayed pretty close since. Bearstock used to be held on the Patch, and my freshman year was the last year they did that. Oh, the memories. My entire dormroom was shaking that night.
When walking across campus, students could be seen playing a game of catch, ultimate Frisbee, football, and even the occasional game of quidditch.
The historical quad serves as the lounging spot for students, but the Patch was where everyone could play. Now that the Patch is nothing but rubble and red clay, I have no opportunity to play on the Patch one last time.
I don’t mind that the campus is doing something about the outdated aesthetics, but I feel as though the timing of construction was poorly timed.
Of course, I can’t think of a better time to do the construction, but maybe a better way of doing the construction would have allowed students a better school environment.
Currently, I’d say that campus is about 50 percent construction, with both the center of campus and the football field under construction.
I’m being kind of selfish by saying that I wish the construction wasn’t happening so that I could actually walk in a straight line to the library or the University Center, but I seriously feel that way.
I think a better way to have tackled the construction of Cruz Plaza would be phases.
Mercer did that with the Lofts and that worked out pretty well.
The construction with the football field may have been constant, but at least it wasn’t in the center of campus.
Maybe there is an argument that Cruz Plaza has been constructed in phases as there have been various maps released stating which zones are off limits.
Well, that’s cool and all, but there isn’t really an easy way to get from one side of campus to the other.
It’s an inconvenience. Students are in the construction workers’ ways and the construction workers are in the students’ ways.
What’s worse is that the senior class is subjected to deal with all of the construction with no compensation.
At least the classes below my class will get to experience Cruz Plaza in all of its glory.
Another thing, what is the purpose of the 24-hour surveillance camera that covers Cruz Plaza. Is that really necessary?
For the past month or so, there hasn’t been as much construction as there should be due to the weather, yet the camera still records.
Access to the camera can be found through Mercer’s webpage.
I’m uncomfortable with it. At one point, I was off campus at work and was showing my boss the camera’s feed. Right as I pulled up the webpage, my roommate walked through the frame.
I find that so weird, especially since pretty much anyone in the world has access to the surveillance feed.
I can rationalize the use of the camera, but that and with all of the construction that has been going on I don’t even recognize Mercer anymore.
Since I stepped foot on this campus four years ago, there have been expansions to Mercer Village, the tearing out of parking lots, and the adding of parking lots that students hate to use.
The UC arena got a new name and new sponsors, we got a football team, and built a new field. Now, Cruz Plaza is being added to the list.
I’m happy that Mercer is starting to become updated, and that we are turning our area of Macon into a real college town.
I guess since I have done so much growing in the past four years, I should expect my school to do the same.
(03/06/13 3:42pm)
Apparently Mercer’s not the only one with controversial speakers coming to their campuses.
Professor Hugo Schwyzer, invited James Deen, a 26-year-old porn actor to speak in his class on March 6 at Pasadena City College.
According to Huffington Post, “The event was originally scheduled as a public lecture but administrators stepped in and made the event private, admitting only students enrolled in the class of the professor who organized it.”
Not unlike the responses several professors had over the invitation of Erick Erickson for this year’s Founder’s Day, Schwyzer has received significant criticism from feminist groups, including a recently created Facebook page called, “Feminists Against Hugo Schwyzer” that has over 800 likes.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena City College said Schwyzer did not follow the proper protocol involved to obtain a facilities usage permit that is required of all public events -- backing their decision to make the event closed to the public. Their statement also made note of concerns about anticipated protesters.
Luckily enough for Mercer’s community, we did not have active protestors of the Founder’s Day event.
Those who wanted to say something got the chance to speak to Erickson. Those who did not approve of his message did not attend. And the overall event went over quite successfully -- well, with the exception of the attitude he expressed in his RedState.com blog entitled ‘Peddling Tolerance,’ but that’s beside the point.
Ramon Miramontes, a Pasadena Unified School District Board Member and a professor at Southwest College, said he was “flabbergasted” by Pasadena’s decision to make the event private.
The Pasadena Star News continued to report, “The bigger question is just because people in the public don’t agree who the speaker is they don’t have a right to shortchange the educational experience of the students, and they also don’t have the right to infringe on the academic rights of the teachers,” Miramontes said.
“This is ridiculous. This is an institution of higher learning.”
Schwyzer agrees with Miramontes and disputes the assertion made by the college that he did not follow proper protocol.
He also added that he has received “a whopping three phone calls and five emails in the past 24 hours from protesters, which is not unusual,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
I’d like to note the tone of sarcasm Schwyzer used in his response. Obviously this man thinks that all of the attention that this event he decided to plan is getting a little out of hand.
The Huffington Post goes on to say that Schwyzer “is no stranger to controversy.
He has blogged about his drug and alcohol addiction during the first five years he taught at PCC. He admits that he tried to kill his ex-girlfriend and himself, and he had sexual relationships with many of his students.”
I’m not condoning any of this man’s behavior, but he sure does have guts.
The class that Schwyzer invited Deen to is a class that takes an interdisciplinary look at America’s great obsession: pornography.
He teaches the class from multiple perspectives -- those who are critical and celebratory.
All the man wanted was to share a different perspective from someone who is involved with the industry.
Deen’s presence on campus might be felt but would be rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
At least that’s how it was at Mercer. Once word got out that Erick Erickson was some really controversial character, people started talking.
About one week after Erickson left, no one has really even mentioned him. It’s like it never happened.
Everyone got their free shirt so there is nothing to really complain about. Maybe Schwyzer should just give extra credit and that would shut everyone up.
Although by the sound of it, I don’t think he is concerned.
At the end of the Huffington Post article, the writer included a tweet by Deen; “I somehow accidentally pissed off hundreds of people with the mere mention of my presence. I am proud. See you tomorrow Pasadena.”
Somehow, I think Erickson and Deen would be really good friends...or not, considering Erickson is conservative and probably abhors pornography. You never really know.
(02/20/13 3:16pm)
For Lent this year, I decided to give up Facebook.
I’ve given up Facebook during the 40-day period for the past three years.
It’s a good period of time. I gain some distance from my computer, grow closer to my friends and actually manage to get some homework done.
At the end of the 40 days, I always question why I use Facebook in the first place.
Within the first month of returning, I rarely use it.
But around the end of April, my Facebook use returns to “normal.”
What is it about Facebook that keeps us so hooked?
I’ve told a few of my friends that checking Facebook is like checking the refrigerator when you’re craving something.
You know what’s in there, but you insist on checking every ten minutes despite that nothing changes.
When it comes to Facebook, there isn’t really anything on it that changes from the last time you checked -- if you check frequently like I do.
I’ve always used the excuse that Facebook is a great way to network, socialize, and stay informed.
Perhaps it’s a good networking technique, and many of the groups that I’m a member of on campus post events and updates on their group pages, but socializing?
Um, I’m gonna need to stop you there.
Socializing is about human contact.
Facebook may represent real people behind another computer screen, but are you really talking to them?
Not really. Facebook may also be a way to communicate with people all over the world, but not in the way we should be communicating with people.
There’s a phone -- not texting. There’s video chat.
We have so many different ways to actually talk to people.
What is it about Facebook? Convenience?
I do appreciate that all of my ‘friends’ are in one place and I can see what they are up to at any given moment, but...just, no.
“I use Facebook for the pictures.” Ok, creeper.
While sharing pictures is nice and dandy, there is a level of observation that goes beyond the zone of friendship and right into creeper status.
I’ve run into a few cases, especially as a freshman at Mercer, where I recognized someone from Facebook way before I met them in person.
I don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of someone knowing me better by something I posted on a website than by actually talking to me, but I take part in that activity every single day.
Our society is being run by Facebook.
If you don’t have a Facebook, people begin to assume that you are hiding something.
I don’t really advocate the use of Facebook, but I have failed at every attempt to walk away from Facebook for good.
I swear something about it keeps drawing me in.
Whatever the status of your relationship with Facebook, I believe you should take note of how often you use it versus how often you actually talk to your friends face-to-face. The ratio may surprise you.
(02/06/13 7:22pm)
Mercer’s campus has always seemed to foster an environment for an accepting community no matter what the differences are between the students, faculty and staff.
Recently, the Boy Scouts of America announced that they are looking towards eliminating the exclusion of gays from membership at the national level.
As a result, the decision to include gays is left to the local units. Of course, just as with the Chick-fil-a controversy, units associated with more religious conservative members have become “gravely distressed” by the threat of inclusion.
Personally, I don’t really understand why everyone is so up in arms about the potential of lifting the ban.
Using Mercer’s community as an example, Mercer has a very rich Southern Baptist tradition.
Much of that tradition includes the resistance against the LGBT community. Since leaving the Baptist co
nvention, Mercer has turned into what I perceive as a liberal institution; a very accepting liberal institution.
Why should it be any different with the Boy Scouts of America?
I realize I’m getting ahead of myself by using such a small example as Mercer and applying it to a much more widespread group of people like the Scouts.
However, if we take a step back from the issue for a second, there are similarities between Mercer and the Scouts that can help this issue make sense.
Based on the research I have done, the ban is being lifted at the national level, thereby giving the power to accept or exclude gays at the local units.
These local units are very similar to the relatively small Mercer community we find ourselves in.
The fact of the matter is religious affiliations are involved and of course they are butting heads with each other.
I was greatly disturbed by a quote from Roger “Sing” Oldham, spokesman for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention.
He says, “I think it’s clear that the Scouts have made a sea of change in who they are and that down the road they will be a different organization than they are today.”
This quote disturbs me because the general consensus among those of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention is typically the belief that gays don’t have a place in their affiliated organizations.
To say that the Scouts will be a different organization in the future makes it sound like they approve of the direction the Scouts want to take by lifting the ban.
I believe it would be reasonable to argue that if the ban was not lifted, the Scout organization would remain stagnant; preventing the Scout organization from making any progress in either direction.
For the Scouts to lift the ban would mean to eliminate another level of segregation that exists in our modern day society.
Barbara Jones, when interviewed about the possibility of the Scouts welcoming gay scouts and scout leaders says, “I think it’s fine because it’s a part of life and it’s a reality of life. I think it’s so important for our children to understand and value each individual as they are.”
Most boys start Boy Scouts around ages 6-8. At that age, sexual orientation is not a priority.
Will Batts, the Executive Director of the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, weighed in on the issue. “There have always been gay scouts. I was a gay scout. Obviously I wasn’t out at 11 but was starting to realize things about myself and didn’t feel comfortable in scouting at that time,” Batts said. “Diversity is spreading across the country; people are feeling more comfortable being exactly who they are and that’s what America is about.”
The movement to petition for the lifting of the ban gained a valuable ally when President Obama went public in an interview with CBS.
Anchor Scott Pelley asked the president if he believed scouting should be open to gays, Obama said: “Yes.”
The president went on to say, “My attitude is … that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life. The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and exposing them to, you know, opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest of their lives, and I think that nobody should be barred [from] that.”
I fully agree with what President Obama stated on the issue of the ban. The LGBT community is no different from the heterosexual community.
In fact, we have a lot more to learn about acceptance from those in the LGBT community than we can learn from heterosexuals.
The United States has been though this type of issue before -- segregation of blacks. We constantly want to put things in boxes; categorize and separate things while singing “one of these things is not like the other.” It’s childish.
I understand wanting to separate things out and give life order, but sometimes life doesn’t work that way.
These are people we are dealing with; people with feelings.
I’m grateful that I live in a community such as Mercer that is able to be open to accepting the differences that make us human and I can only hope that the Scouts are able to do the same.