First, the university e-mail system has been messed with to the point where it’s been rendered completely useless. And now the library system is down for “maintenance” until Monday.

What is this, a university for people who don’t work on weekends and in summers? 

Apparently, there are still people who find this shocking:

So a Rupert Murdoch rag claims that Edward Snowden gave the Russians his whole archive which endangered a bunch of MI6 agents.

Well, duh. Or did anybody really believe that Putin is keeping Snowden in expensive toys and flashy strippers for free?

And here is another funny quote on the subject:

It is not clear whether Russia and China stole Snowden’s data, or whether he voluntarily handed over his secret documents in order to remain at liberty in Hong Kong and Moscow.

Of course, it’s cute that people can still be so rosy-cheeked and naive. But at the same time, it’s also kind of scary.

The country of Georgia is experiencing some really bad rains that are causing quite a bit of damage. The rains have helped several animals to escape from the zoo in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi. 

In the photo, you can see Georgians try to steer a hippo back towards the zoo.

It all looks very cute but there are 6 lions, 5 tigers, 13 wolves and several more hippos wandering around the city. And the wolves are getting very upset about the situation.

If you think that conservatives are the only ones who are throwing hissy fits over tenure, think again. Here is somebody from the opposite end of the political spectrum trying to pleasure Scott Walker orally in a very dedicated manner:

Why not strip away protections professors have in their jobs, if I don’t have the same ones in mine?

If I can get fired for mouthing off to my boss why shouldn’t P. Louis Scholarly? If I can get fired for looking at my boss funny, for coming in five minutes late, for telling a customer to get bent, for being nearby while my boss has a bad day, why shouldn’t the very fine taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin and every other state be able to fire educators who are tasked with teaching the public? Why shouldn’t they be able to shitcan F. Poncey Publishable, if they don’t like the way he talks back?

It is useless to explain to somebody who is frothing at the mouth like this that tenure doesn’t protect people but the product they create.

Of course, people who have failed at life so massively and have not managed to make themselves valued as professionals at such an advanced age cannot be expected to have the intellectual wherewithal to get the difference. They want to be protected from life by mysterious external forces and fail to understand that the only real protection we can count on comes from the store of intellectual, professional, and psychological capital we have accumulated in the course of our lives.