Monday Link Encyclopedia and Self-Promotion

~ Clarissa

Yale built an enormous School of Management building. This project was, of course, a lot more urgent than trying to make sure that Yale undergrads actually get to talk to a real professor at least once in their entire college career.

“When the Russian attack on Ukraine started, there were many predictions that the West, with its huge advantages in money and military power would have little trouble brushing Putin aside. But so far it has been Putin’s Russia that has outclassed and humiliated the West’s divided, slow moving, and deeply unimaginative leaders.”

“An East Tennessee woman convicted of child neglect in her teenage daughter’s cancer death is asking the state Supreme Court to declare that she is innocent because she relied on prayer to heal the girl. Jacqueline Crank was sentenced to unsupervised probation after her 15-year-old daughter died of Ewing’s sarcoma in 2002.” Yet another indication that children are not people. I’m horrified that we still consider it not really a crime for parents to eat their children.

“My conclusion is that, once we add “get good student evaluations” to the mix of requirements for our country’s teachers, we are asking for them to conform to their students’ wishes, which aren’t always good. Many of the students in this country don’t like doing homework (in fact most!). Only some of them like to be challenged to think outside their comfort zone. We think teachers should do those things, but by asking them to get good student evaluations we might be preventing them from doing those things.” I have no idea how one can despise students this way and still claim to be an effective teacher.

“Your harangue on how privilege allowed someone to get somewhere they otherwise would not have might sound in the swim to you, but all your unlucky listener will ever hear is: “Your life is a sham, you don’t deserve what you have, and you are personally evil.””Exactly.

“In the last few years, he reports, “scientists have begun to think that procrastination might have less to do with time than emotion. Procrastination ‘really has nothing to do with time-management,'” Thompson quotes Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University, as saying.” This is why I keep repeating that there is no such thing as laziness. What we call laziness is, in reality, a very traumatized psyche.

“Corruption and the resulting government weakness and incompetence are the core reasons Ukraine is in trouble today. If Ukraine had managed to build a strong economy and effective government in the 25 years of independence since 1990, Vladimir Putin would have no hope of breaking up the country.” Putin still doesn’t have a hope of “breaking up the country.” The so-called East vs West division in Ukraine is a myth concocted in the Kremlin and joyfully embraced by brainless Western journalists who are too lazy to research anything before publishing.

Funny: “The SAT “is a blatant class indicator,” Green tells me. “The entire system of standardized tests and higher education is completely ridiculous and ludicrous. But colleges haven’t found any other way to objectively evaluate the merits of a student. You have thousands of students applying to your school — there has to be a way to compare them to one another in terms of math and language and writing skill.”

“It is true that as a small child I was very ashamed of being such a deficient and also inadvertently mean person. I was afraid of being thrown out on the street if I made any further errors at all, or if I did not manage to function entirely at the service and for the pleasure of my caregiver. I knew that nobody else would put up with me, and my death on the street would be long and painful. I was willing to give a great deal of myself in exchange for avoiding that.” Hello, sister. I’ve had this exact same experience. Did we grow up together by any chance?

“The Obama administration this week declassified papers, after 45 years of top-secret status, documenting contacts between Jerusalem and Washington over American agreement to the existence of an Israeli nuclear option.” Gosh, what a huge surprise.

Birth control cupcakes.

Astronomical bedclothes.

“Sanctions will have no short-term impact on Russian behavior at this point. Vaunted Western “soft power” has been run over by Russian tanks. The decision for war has been made in Moscow, and it will be prosecuted until Putin achieves his objectives or the cost — rising numbers of Russian dead — becomes politically prohibitive. . . If the West wants to prevent more Russian aggression and save Ukraine from further Kremlin depradations, it must offer Kyiv armaments, logistics, training, and above all intelligence support without delay. Nothing else will cause Moscow to back down.” Putin reads “soft power” as simply “soft.” It is high time somebody understood that.

Take this test to find out which Yiddish word describes you. Apparently, I’m a kvetcher.

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Published by Clarissa

38 thoughts on “Monday Link Encyclopedia and Self-Promotion”

  1. The article says

    ” Perhaps recognizing your own procrastination tendencies can help you see your own mood-based excuses for what they are–justifications for not getting down to work rather than legitimate decisions about when it’s best to schedule a task. That, in turn, might help you resist the “procrastination doom loop.” ”

    Meaning “stop making excuses and begin working.” 🙂
    Will “a very traumatized psyche” become healed this way?

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      1. I know, I am posting on it, it is fluff but it is the kind of fluff my enemies, the academic advisors, think is profound. By the way there is a blog on chroniclevitae, I am too lazy to link to it now, but it is about bad advice given graduate students. In the list(s), I recognized some of the things I was told and have not gotten arround to attacking or deconstructing yet. It was gratifying to find someone else ranting and raving about common advice that is really off, though.

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        1. The thing is, the only advice that will actually help to solve these problems is to address one’s psychological problems, deal with the traumas that are getting in the way, remove oneself from the traumatic environments where one is existing now. But it’s the kind of advice that is too global, too major. It even sounds dismissive: go solve your psychological problems! Like it’s so easy. So people are attacking the minutiae because addressing the global stuff is too heavy. Or it might be too painful to recognize the structures of abuse and ill health that are dominating one’s life right now. Often, these structures are so dominating that there is very little of one’s actual self left underneath it. That self needs to be rebuilt. Which again requires an enormous amount of energy and effort.

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  2. I don’t think the yiddish word thing works for non-Jews….

    The first time I was a “vilde chaya(sp?)” which is a pretty hilariously wrong-headed way to describe me and the second (changing the iffy answers) I was kvetch, which again doesn’t seem right, considering that Poland, where I live is one the complainer capitals of the world (I often feel like little miss sunshine in comparison)

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    2. // I was a “vilde chaya(sp?)” which is a pretty hilariously wrong-headed way to describe me

      Me too! It doesn’t seem to work for Jews either. 🙂

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  3. (Via Mike) Demonstrates attitudes to climate change:

    WALLOPS ISLAND, Virginia – The beach has been disappearing at an average rate of 10 to 22 feet (3 to 7 meters) a year. The access road and a 1,000-car parking lot have been rebuilt five times in the past decade because of coastal flooding, at a total cost of $3 million.
    …
    The town revolted. Like many local residents, Wanda Thornton, the town’s representative on the Accomack County board of supervisors, accepts that the sea is rising, but is skeptical that climate change and its effects have anything to do with the erosion of the beach. As a result, “I’m just not convinced that it requires the drastic change that some people think it does,” she said.
    http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/waters-edge-the-crisis-of-rising-sea-levels/

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    1. Let’s not demonize this woman for a quote that is obviously taken out of context. She resists the beach being closed. That’s her job. She would be derelict in her duties if she chose not to resist this plan.

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  4. During the Second Intifada, Germany – led by Gerhard Schröder – temporarily suspended specific military exports to Israel. In recent years, pressure has accrued from left-wing Germans, some of whom have aligned with Arab states, to end the “special relationship” with Israel and stop equipping the Jewish State with German arms.

    The procurement and delivery of the Dolphin-class submarines has faced stern opposition from left-wing factions and institutions. However, under the leadership of Merkel, the German government has assented to Israeli requests for military exports.

    Earlier this year [ …] the Germans handed a fifth Dolphin-class submarine to Israel.
    […]
    The vessel is considered one of the most advanced submarines in the world and is the most expensive war vessel the Defense Ministry has procured for the IDF. The diesel-powered submarines are widely regarded as an Israeli vanguard against foes like Iran. In total, Israel has purchased six Dolphin submarines from Germany.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4568835,00.html

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  5. Now I am wondering whether we couldn’t build such submarines ourselves, both for our own use and for sale. “Israel produces 95% of its own food requirements” [wiki] and probably it’s also for national security reasons – depending on imports in times of war could be dangerous, considering all our ‘friendly’ neighbors and world’s opinion. If “Top German officials question arms deals to Israel,” may be, becoming more self-sufficient would’ve been a good idea. We are successful in exporting food, doing the same with (more kinds of) weapons could be beneficial both economically and from security pov.

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  6. A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison for obtaining so-called abortion pills online and providing them to her teenage daughter to end her pregnancy.
    …
    for violating a state law that requires abortions to be performed by physicians.
    …
    Whalen told authorities there was no local clinic available to perform an abortion, and her daughter did not have health insurance to cover a hospital abortion, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.
    . . .
    The closest abortion clinic to Whalen’s home is about 74 miles away in Harrisburg.
    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2014/09/when-abortion-restrictions-mean-jail-time.html

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    1. It does take a really strange mother to feed something like this to a 16-year-old. She is trying to solve her own problems by doing illegal things to the kid’s body. I can’t be in favor of that. It’s her problem that she can’t provide insurance or get the kid to a clinic. It’s her responsibility as an adult and a parent.

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  7. Russia’s Next Land Grab

    WASHINGTON — UKRAINE isn’t the only place where Russia is stirring up trouble. Since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Moscow has routinely supported secessionists in bordering states, to coerce those states into accepting its dictates. Its latest such effort is unfolding in the South Caucasus.

    In recent weeks, Moscow seems to have been aggravating a longstanding conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan while playing peacemaking overlord to both. In the first week of August, as many as 40 Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers were reported killed in heavy fighting near their border, just before a summit meeting convened by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.

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  9. A wonderful collection of 52 old photographs of “unusual” women: Winnie the Welder [1943], 1st American female tattoo maker, Jeanne Manford supporting her son at a pride parade in 1972, WW2 soldiers, etc. The names of the photos are in Russian, but one can use Google translate. Truly amazing.

    52 впечатляющие фотографии женщин
    http://femunity.livejournal.com/22076.html

    Clarissa, I don’t think you’ll agree with the following, but I think there is something in his argument. People are shaped by their society and regime (while shaping it too):

    Заметка №2
    ПЛОХОЙ НАРОД И ДЕМОН МАКСВЕЛЛА
    http://lleo.me/dnevnik/2014/09/12_maxwell.html#.VBLd5SJPZfk.livejournal

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    1. As usual, the Russian people keep waiting for “a good tsar” instead of getting off their asses and making their own lives. Oh well. See, here I’m not disappointed because I didn’t expect anything different.

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  16. From Mike, in case you or your readers missed:

    That’s entertainment: Fox News as dystopian fiction for the old and afraid
    http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2014/09/fox-news-as-dystopian-fiction.html

    Wolf Richter: Startup CEO (Unwittingly) Explains Biggest Problem in America’s Unemployment Crisis
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/09/wolf-richter-startup-ceo-unwittingly-explains-biggest-problem-americas-unemployment-crisis.html

    Sounds depressing.

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    1. Yesterday, I went to a party at the house of a woman who is a part-time language instructor at 2 community colleges and 1 trade school. Her husband is a manual laborer. They are raising 4 children. And they are also non-white immigrants. They live in a house and a neighborhood that in my country (and their country) only billionaires can afford. To my immigrant eyes, this is a lifestyle of princes and Hollywood superstars. Everything just looks incredibly rich.

      What I miss in the articles like the linked one is the recognition that this is the richest country in the world and that it offers its people the kind of lifestyle that most people on the planet cannot even begin to imagine. The apocalyptic tone of “OMG, there is a pothole, let’s all die now because this is intolerable” makes the piece hard for me to read.

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      1. We hired someone from France who left because the poverty here was so depressing to see, from a French point of view. But she was not talking about households where people are employed (this manual laborer has got to be one of those who are making above minimum wage, and that does definitely exist).

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  19. Am unsure what is the correct response here:

    The Ashkelon teacher whose students shared naked photos of her found on her tablet is due to return to school Tuesday.

    The school distributed tablets to the teachers this year as part of a pilot program, and the teacher, who had taken the photos on her smartphone and later deleted them, was unaware apparently that the photos had been synchronized with the tablet through the cloud system.

    The school had asked her to resign, and she opted instead to go on sick leave.
    After the incident, she filed a complaint with the police against the student who allegedly took photos of the pictures on her tablet and distributed them through WhatsApp.
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615843

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  21. How to Be Alone: An Antidote to One of the Central Anxieties and Greatest Paradoxes of Our Time
    http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/03/how-to-be-alone-school-of-life/

    I liked some quotes from Sara Maitland’s “How to Be Alone,” even though I mistrust self-help genre. For instance,

    “even those who know that they are best and most fully themselves in relationships (of whatever kind) need a capacity to be alone, and probably at least some occasions to use that ability. If you know who you are and know that you are relating to others because you want to, rather than because you are trapped (unfree), in desperate need and greed, because you fear you will not exist without someone to affirm that fact, then you are free. Some solitude can in fact create better relationships, because they will be freer ones.”

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