A funny story about some smart kids who found a way around a silly school ban on social media.
A school textbook in math is banned in Russia for failing to promote patriotic values. (The link is in Russian.)
Liberal bloggers seem to be competing in who writes the most stupid piece on Putin. I’m getting massively disappointed in my favorite bloggers. Here is a strong contender for the prize of the idiotic outpouring of the week from Mahablog.
Now that I drive (and, by the way, I drove on the Interstate that goes to St. Louis this weekends, at 70 mph), I think these are a phenomenal idea.
Three people forwarded me this unintelligent exchange about Harold Bloom’s idea of the Western canon. I dislike Bloom, but I’m convinced that the idea of the canon is getting more and more relevant every day. It’s so obvious that I considered writing a post about this but then thought better of it because it was too boring to write something so self-evident.
And here, by the way, is a very good post about the canon: “What universities give syllabus space to is implicitly what is best and most worth learning in our culture. There is no avoiding that implication except by demoting universities to the level of technical or vocational schools, where no one can complain that their education in air conditioning repair was only a partial representation of our culture, because it was never intended to be more than that.”
I was laughing and saying “oh yes” to every word of this post.
“I suspect the GOP will take the Senate in 2014 and hold it for a while. I also suspect that Hillary Clinton will win the presidency in 2016.” It seems, for now, that both of these predictions are going to come true. Then everybody can continue blaming the other side for nothing working or getting done.
A writer residency on a train.
A very bizarre story about youngsters freaking out because they had to walk for a tiny little bit.
I love it when the unintelligent get preachy because they come up with things like this, “If you haven’t seen or experienced something for yourself, you should really hold your judgement.” I guess if I haven’t been a victim of genocide experienced murder, or seen pedophilia, I should never ever dare to judge.
How to get in the writing zone.
And another very helpful strategy for writers.
I couldn’t agree more: “iPads only do more for those who are incompetent with general purpose computers.”
This is an absolutely brilliant post about the way people are trained into obedience since childhood and can’t overcome this training as adults. Trust me, the post is much better than my clumsy attempt to summarize it.
What’s a Communist? Stories from a teacher.
FEEL FREE TO SELF-PROMOTE AND PROMOTE OTHERS.
Clarissa's Blog 
The higher-ups at our company have all abandoned their iPads. It was the rage two years ago where everyone of them desperately needed one and I had to go through hell to get them running*. Today all of them except one are sitting on a shelf in my office, all out of battery.
The current usage of the last one is particulary hilarious. My coworker uses it as an expensive digital picture frame.
* Here is a thing about Apple. Their products are not meant for business purposes. Not only do they offer no productivity at all, they are actually a lot worse than what blackberry did 10 years ago. Synchronizing them with anything is shit, the calendar is shit, the contacts are shit and I have seen better e-mail applications.
Administrating them is extremely tedious. Every device needs to be registered to one person and only that one person can make phone calls to Apple. Additionally you need to give secret answers to questions like “Who was your first girlfriend” and you need a valid payment method to register an iCloud/iTunes/Apple account, which you need.
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Islamic law is to be effectively enshrined in the British legal system for the first time under guidelines for solicitors on drawing up “Sharia compliant” wills. Under ground-breaking guidance, produced by The Law Society, High Street solicitors will be able to write Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude unbelievers altogether.
The documents, which would be recognised by Britain’s courts, will also prevent children born out of wedlock – and even those who have been adopted – from being counted as legitimate heirs.
Anyone married in a church, or in a civil ceremony, could be excluded from succession under Sharia principles, which recognise only Muslim weddings for inheritance purposes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10716844/Islamic-law-is-adopted-by-British-legal-chiefs.html
Thoughts?
– el
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I think it’s a big hullabaloo over nothing. Everybody should be free to leave their property to whomever they wish on any conditions they wish. One can leave one’s fortune to a puppy, if one so wishes, and these desires should be and are respected.
The Telegraph is creating an issue where there isn’t one.
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Thanks for the link. I have talked about your blog with my students, and told them some of your stories about growing up in a communist regime. You are quite the celebrity among my students. 🙂
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