Saturday Link Encyclopedia

Is Netanyahu a greater threat to Jews than Iran?

It’s weird that people would confuse upspeak and vocal fry. The former is weak but the latter is not. The two speech patterns serve very different purposes.

Poor sad Russian – speakers will twist themselves into the weirdest contortions to avoid placing their uniformly horrible parents under critical scrutiny. In reality, there’s no problem for a healthy Russian – speaker (e.g. me) to say “I’m proud of myself for this.” I say it a lot because I do have many things to be proud of.

Jeb Bush is doing all he can to tank his candidacy.

The UN Human Rights committee directs the UK to outlaw beating children.

Well, it makes much more sense for the UK to start looking out for its children instead of wasting resources on arbitrating disputes between Russian bandits.

Professors can also be very special little snowflakes whose feelings are hurt by existing in an adult reality.

People keep wondering why all of the mass shooters are always male. That’s because women experience this kind of murderous rage vicariously, through men, and connect with it sexually.

A great way to help yourself fall asleep. I’ve been using it forever.

The myth of the skyrocketing childcare costs.

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43 responses to “Saturday Link Encyclopedia”

Stille (@aperfectbalance)

July 25, 2015

I don’t actually blog on my tumblr, so I tend not to link it around in polite company, but I’d like to leave this post here.

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xykademiqz

July 25, 2015

That article from Inside Higher Ed, the professor huffing and puffing about being evaluated and crapping all over K-12 teachers in the process was surreal.

I am happy to have anyone come to any of my classes at any time. What’s the big deal? If you are doing something that cannot survive scrutiny, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it.

I teach topics in the sciences, so there is hardly any offensive stuff. Perhaps it’s more of a problem in the humanities or social sciences, where topics can be controversial. Still, I think an engaging and empathetic teacher will be able to challenge students and make it a positive, growth experience, in which case such teaching will be recognized by the majority of students and random observers as effective.

For goodness sakes, I wish people would care more about teaching and we’d come to each other’s classes — I would like to “steal” people’s tips and tricks. We do peer evals of teaching on the tenure track, as the university requires it, but past tenure we no longer do it (except for the current chair who’s a teaching enthusiast and makes us do group exercises etc kicking and screaming).

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Clarissa

July 25, 2015

I agree completely, totally and utterly with every word of this comment. I love having people over to observe my classes. It’s great to share experience and get feedback. My university requires teaching observations after tenure if you are planning to go up for Full, and I think it’s great. Why people whine so much about being observed is a mystery to me.

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David P. Bellamy

July 25, 2015

“That’s because women experience this kind of murderous rage vicariously, through men, and connect with it sexually.”

Women do sometimes violently murder their children.

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Clarissa

July 26, 2015

Yes. Female rage is kept in the realm of the private.

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Shakti

July 26, 2015

<a href=”http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009061.html>The 400-year-old Westphalian System doesn’t approve of my lifestyle, although it’s increasingly common, especially among people half my age. It’s stressful to live glocally. Not that I myself feel stressed by this. As long as I’ve got broadband, I’m perfectly at ease with the fact that my position on the planet’s surface is arbitrary. It’s the nation-state system that is visibly stressed by these changes – it’s freaking out over currency flows, migration through airports, offshoring, and similar phenomena.

What’s in your kitchen cabinets? Pots and pans and handheld graters and hateful trash that’s preventing you from calling your estranged sister. Throw them all away. Replace them with a single sunflower seed.

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Shakti

July 26, 2015

To fix the link:
The 400-year-old Westphalian System doesn’t approve of my lifestyle, although it’s increasingly common, especially among people half my age. It’s stressful to live glocally. Not that I myself feel stressed by this. As long as I’ve got broadband, I’m perfectly at ease with the fact that my position on the planet’s surface is arbitrary. It’s the nation-state system that is visibly stressed by these changes – it’s freaking out over currency flows, migration through airports, offshoring, and similar phenomena.

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Shakti

July 26, 2015

The Brazilian Town Where The Confederacy Lives OnFor miles around the graveyard, unfiltered sun beat down on sugarcane fields planted by the thousands of Confederates who had rejected Reconstruction and fled the United States in the wake of the Civil War—a voluntary exile that American history has more or less erased. Their scattered diaspora has gathered annually for the past 25 years. The party they throw, which receives funding from the local government, is the family reunion of the Confederados, one of the last remaining enclaves of the children of the unreconstructed South.

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Clarissa

July 26, 2015

Hah. This is really curious. I feel for Brazil but I also wouldn’t mind exporting the rest of our Confederacy whisperers over there.

Just saw a confederate flag on a private residence in a neighboring town.

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cliff arroyo

July 27, 2015

I’d read about Confederate emigrants to Brazil and their descendants before (many, many years ago in the New York Times IIRC – where their existence was treated as an interesting anomaly and not a moral outrage. At that time they still maintained English as a home language (which was starting to erode).

Interestingly AFAICT Brazil has a lot of these immigrant descendant communities that lead double lives, fully Brazilian in public while maintaining the language and culture of the home country in private spaces. I’d heard of German and Japanese groups in particular.

On Polish tv I saw a documentary on descendants of Polish emigrants who were still speaking recognizable Polish among themselves even though most of them had never set foot in Poland (nor had their parents or grandparents). It sounded weird, kind of archaic with elements of non-standard peasant usage and the whole thing overlayed with a Brazilian accent – but it was understandable.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 27, 2015
  
  I heard there was also a Ukrainian community there.
  
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cliff arroyo

July 27, 2015

I’ll also point out that I agree with a comment at that article. A story about the confederate descendants in Brazil would be interesting, so would a story about modern slavery in Brazil. Trying to combine the two resulted in a confused mess.

And, while here, I’m assuming that the decline of the nation state is going to mean a resurgence of slavery in much of the world (it’s been going on for about 20 years and I expect the tempo to only increase).

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  July 27, 2015
  
  Without much trouble I found this on youtube (about ukrainian immigration to Brazil)
  
  I didn’t watch much though I found I could understand the old lady who starts speaking at 2.50 pretty easily.
  
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2. Clarissa
  
  July 27, 2015
  
  Ok, you’re scaring me. I haven’t heard of the resurgence of slavery.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    July 27, 2015
    
    To be fair, it’s technically not labelled as such, but it’s rife throughout the arab gulf states and parts of north Africa and the Indian sub-continent. It’s never gone away in those places just some of the surface names have changed.
    
    If governments are going to leave citizens to fend for themselves in the liquid future then it’s easy to imagine lots of collateral damage and slavery (whether it’s called that or not) is a likely source.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      July 27, 2015
      
      Yes. You are absolutely right. And I’m not seeing anything other than the desire to kick the nation-state in the shins to get it to collapse as fast as possible.
      
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  2. cliff arroyo
    
    July 27, 2015
    
    Here’s a link:
    
    http://www.freetheslaves.net/about-slavery/slavery-today/
    
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July 29, 2015

Финское образование давно и стабильно занимает лучшие позиции во всевозможных рейтингах
…
В общем, есть какая-то тайна, разгадать которую пытаются педагоги разных держав. Финны ничего не скрывают и с удовольствием делятся опытом, организуя семинары, как в своей стране, так и по всему миру.
http://terve.su/zagadki-finskoy-shkoly-menshe-uchi

Several things seemed strange.

\ – Поддерживающее обучение «слабых» учеников – то, чем в России занимаются частные репетиторы. В Финляндии репетиторство популярности не имеет, школьные учителя добровольно справляются с дополнительной помощью во время урока или после него.
AND
\ Учится тот, кто хочет учиться. Педагоги постараются привлечь внимание ученика, но если у него начисто отсутствует интерес или способности к учебе, ребенка сориентируют на практически полезную в будущем, «несложную» профессию и не будут бомбить «двойками».

So they help a little and then “сориентируют на … «несложную» профессию” and stop helping? I began wondering how much those teachers work for free. My mother once told me that in FSU she was supposed to help children after lessons for free too, but, as I understood, nobody did that.

\ Все школы подключены к государственной электронной системе «Wilma», что-то вроде электронного школьного дневника, к которому родители получают личный код доступа. Педагоги выставляют оценки, записывают пропуски, информируют о жизни ребенка в школе

In Israel there is something similar too.

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Clarissa

July 29, 2015

What do you mean, nobody did that? My mother spent a crazy number of hours helping students after class, visiting them at home, taking them to the movies, the zoo, the theater, etc. Obviously, nobody paid her extra for that.

Electronic report books have always seemed very disturbing to me.

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July 29, 2015

Israeli court rejects child’s plea to end chemo
16-year-old boy from a religious family fled his treatments at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, and was forced back against his parents’ wishes following a court ruling.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4685005,00.html

Today’s top news are:

1) High Court orders destruction of Beit El buildings amid continued riots
Controversial structures in West Bank settlement to be torn down by Thursday; hundreds clash with police overnight; settlers return to evacuated town of Sa-Nur.

2) Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to be released in November
Parole board decides to release convicted spy after 30 years; Israeli officials deny claims that development is linked to the deal with Iran over its nuclear program.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4683705,00.html

I don’t understand why the press made such a deal out of Pollard. Because he is a Jew in (not-Israeli) jail (partly) because of passing info to Israel? Would it hurt Israeli attempts to find future spies, if he was forgotten?

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July 29, 2015

Regarding Pollard, I tend to agree with the comment:

// The sight of his manicured ‘santo’ image,
makes me -a patriotic israeli’- , sick. With yarmulke, without yarmulke, no question he did it for the money & Israel comes out as a shamefully thankless beggar ‘ally’. I dread the thought of a nationalistic pig party receiving him in Israel providing further spiting in America’s face. Totally shameful and nauseating

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July 31, 2015

Horrible –

Palestinian baby dies in ‘price tag’ arson attack
Two houses set ablaze in West Bank; parents and four-year-old hospitalized; ‘price tag’ graffiti found; IDF searching for perpetrator; thousands of troops deployed for fear of riots as Hamas plans ‘Day of Rage’; PM condemns ‘clear terrorist attack’; Abbas: We will take this war crime to the international courts.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4686046,00.html

Today is Jewish Valentine day and yesterday in Jerusalem –

6 stabbed in Jerusalem gay pride parade
Arrested suspect identified as Yishai Shlissel after six marchers in Jerusalem evacuated to hospital; attacker previously wounded three in stabbing at 2005 Jerusalem gay pride parade.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4685917,00.html

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July 31, 2015

Jewish Israeli teens lean right, many support ‘price tag’
…
only 28% of Jewish respondents said they condemned so-called price tag attacks associated with religious, far-right Jewish groups, with students from a traditional home surprisingly more likely to decry those attacks than their secular peers.

Such incidents of violence or vandalism target Palestinians or Israeli security forces and are asserted to be payback for actions against the settlement enterprise.

Of the students who identified as right-wing, 48% condoned or said they understood the rationale behind such attacks.

The support for price tag attacks seem to run contrary to the widespread condemnation for the activity that has been voiced by senior Israeli officials from across the political spectrum.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-israeli-teens-lean-right-many-support-price-tag/

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July 31, 2015

I hope Israel disappears, says Palestinian teen Merkel brought to tears

Reem Sahwil hit headlines after German leader told her she could not prevent her family’s impending deportation
…
Reem, who was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon and currently lives in the eastern German city of Rostock, said she does not consider Germany to be her home.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/i-hope-israel-disappears-says-palestinian-teen-merkel-brought-to-tears/

Ironic. After getting special permission for her family to stay in Germany after a video in which she cried, she says Germany won’t become her home.

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Clarissa

July 31, 2015

Teenagers, man. It’s a losing proposition to listen to them. Around teenagers, it’s best to do the monkey thing: I see nothing, I hear nothing, I say nothing.

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July 31, 2015

A newly developed vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus is “highly effective” and could help prevent its spread in the current and future outbreaks, the World Health Organization said Friday.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/31/health/guinea-ebola-vaccine/

// Teenagers, man. It’s a losing proposition to listen to them. Around teenagers, it’s best to do the monkey thing: I see nothing, I hear nothing, I say nothing.

I disagree. Teens reflect society in which they live and I doubt many change opinons upon adulthood. This girl repeats what her parents taught her, Israeli teens’ political views reflect both our present and future, as far as I can see.

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Clarissa

July 31, 2015

Teenagers don’t have opinions. They have hormones. 🙂 🙂 It’s very strange to me that people would write articles and start a whole huge drama about what a 14-year-old said. Gosh, at 14 I was all about boys and clothes and would have slaughtered anybody who suggested that it was important to study, read, etc. And look at me today. 🙂

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August 1, 2015

There is one thing the stabbing at the gay pride parade on Thursday, the arson that led to a Palestinian baby being burned to death early Friday, and the arson at the Church of the Multiplication several weeks ago all have in common. These are not hate crimes, this is religious-messianic terrorism, committed by people who view themselves as acting according to God’s true will. In simpler words – this is Jewish jihadism, identical in every detail to Islamic jihadism, except that, fortunately, this is not a mass phenomenon, the likes of which we have been seeing both in our region and in Europe.

It may only be a handful, perhaps even 200 Jews, but in a small country like Israel – which exists atop a volcanic crater – such a handful is enough to tear Israeli society apart from within, and lead it to war with our neighbors the Palestinians as well as the Muslim world at large. The Jewish Sicarii, the fanatic political assassins in the Second Temple period, have already led to the destruction of the political and religious Jewish entity, and sent us into exile. This could happen again.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4686218,00.html

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Clarissa

August 1, 2015

Great piece. I also think this is a great danger. Not right now but with time it might become very massive and very serious. Developing a very strong and attractive secularism is the only way to combat the spread of this.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  August 2, 2015
  
  Nice idea, but human beings don’t have much experience in developing strong and attractive secularism as a philosophy of life.
  
  Angry gods with the manners and morals of small, yippy, snappy dogs tend to win out every single time.
  
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August 2, 2015

Via feministe:

How a group of students spoiled my celebration of inclusiveness
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/how-a-group-of-students-spoiled-a-teachers-celebration-of-inclusiveness/article25114909/

What should the teacher have done? I would not have ” told them I wanted them included in the photo” and “brought them back to the group.” Also this reads weird:

// “Are they … protesting?” colleagues asked.
No way, I thought. These girls were generally polite and compliant.

I don’t see any contradiction here. They are polite as long as you don’t cross some line.

May be, they should have gotten the explanation that “my idea of a rainbow included them, too” before the photos and then given a choice whether they wish to or not. Also, their parents may have forbidden them to participate, so “a stern lecture from the principal” was completely misguided. I am sure it hasn’t helped at all, if not made the matters worse, as in “we are persecuted because of our religion.”

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Clarissa

August 2, 2015

The teacher sounds a bit unstable. I don’t see anything here to be so upset about. If some students are not into this particular activity, that’s their right.

Of course, I’d ban all symbols of female debasement upon entrance into the country but since they are not banned, everybody will have to bear the presence of debased, resentful, angry women everywhere.

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August 2, 2015

This comment seems to describe the thing well:

it’s not that they’re hijabi, it’s not that they’re Muslim, it’s that their parents are so set on keeping her out of Canadian culture that they’ve kept her from music class. It’s that her parents appear to have bullied the parents of the other girls to make them be kept from music class. I guarantee that the girls do not get to ‘giggle and listen to Justin Bieber’ at home. Even later in the article it’s clear that Basma is bullying the other girls, smirking at the poor teacher while they look down in shame for making her so upset.

Muslim, shmuslim, the girl is a bully and her parents are just the same.
https://voat.co/v/Canada/comments/327913

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cliff arroyo

August 2, 2015

Thank multiculturalism. Traditionally part of the bargain of immigration is handing the job of socializing your children to your new country.

Now, parents get to pass on their culture shock trauma to their children unimpeded by any requirement to assimilate to the new society guaranteeing that their kids (and their kids’ kids) will remain marginalized and angry at the society instead of getting on with productive activities.

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1. Evelina Anville
  
  August 2, 2015
  
  I don’t know. I agree with Clarissa above. Putting aside the issue of Muslim conservatism, this teacher seems unstable and weirdly controlling. Maybe I missed it but when did the girls even indicate that this was an anti-gay statement? I am not anti gay but I would not want to wear a weird purple outfit so that an adult can fulfill her bizarre hobby of being a rainbow enthusiast. (Maybe it’s just me but when she rhapsodized about her “lifelong love of rainbows,” I thought the teacher seemed insane and immature.) I don’t even think I own purple clothing and I certainly don’t have a head to toe purple outfit. Did the teacher expect her students to buy new clothes so they can wear the requisite rainbow color?
  
  These are 13 year olds. They are trying to figure out their place in the world and their identities. This teacher seems to have no sensitivity or understanding of that. She even said that one girl wore black all the time. So it seems really strange to expect the student to change how she dresses (again disregarding why she dresses that way) soley to be part of some strange rainbow picture.
  
  It’s also crazy to me that this brought the teacher to tears. I used to teach junior high. If this is the most distressing thing the teacher ever sees, then she is either totally unaware of anything beyond her limited interests or teaches robots. Her horror that one girl “smirked” at her was just too much. Junior high school girls love to smirk and roll their eyes. It’s what they do.
  
  And the suggestion that somehow these 13 year olds are “bullying” their teacher is ridiculous (not to mention that the teacher never seemed to ask the girls why they didn’t want to participate in the activity.) I don’t know. I am not saying that this has nothing to do with religion. But 13 year old girls– of any religion or culture– rarely want adults to dictate their fashion choices.
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    August 2, 2015
    
    Oh I think the teacher is a messed up weirdo too. If you want to do something like that the announcement should have a lot of disclaimers like “if you want to participate…..”‘ and “if you have any trouble with your assigned color for any reason…” so the teacher should not be allowed near teenagers (who she is clearly no match for).
    
    “Putting aside the issue of Muslim conservatism”
    
    Well part of that is hatred of music (it’s in the koran or hadith, I forget which) so it’s a little hard to put it completely aside. The getting out of music class is related to that of course, defining yourself antagonistically by what’s around you. Multi-kult, it makes everybody dumber and more hostile.
    
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August 2, 2015

Shira Banki, 16, who was critically wounded after being stabbed during the Jerusalem Pride Parade on Thursday by a Jewish terrorist, has succumbed to her wounds after a three-day battle for her life. Banki is an orgran donor.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4686669,00.html

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Clarissa

August 2, 2015

Horrible. What a tragedy.

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cliff arroyo

August 2, 2015

Can they try (and fry) the freak who killed her for murder?

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1. el
  
  August 2, 2015
  
  \ Can they try (and fry) the freak who killed her for murder?
  
  Israel doesn’t have death penalty. As far as I know, only Adolf Eichmann was executed as a special case.
  
  Recently right-wing parties tried to push death-to-terrorists law. Of course, they meant only Palestinian terrorists. Not gay-killing Jews or (assumed) religious-nationalistic fanatics, who set fire to Palestinian house and killed a baby. (See link above, if interested.)
  
  I hope this death-to-terrorists law fails. Army specialists are against it, thinking it will only create more martyrs (executed for killing Jewish civilians, including babies).
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    August 2, 2015
    
    I have no problem with executing murderers.
    
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August 2, 2015

Revenge on Isis: Chechen women con Islamic State out of thousands of dollars posing as jihadi brides online
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/chechen-women-con-isis-out-thousands-dollars-posing-jihadi-brides-online-1513184

Unfortunately,

// the women could now face fraud charges, with sentences ranging from fines to six months in jail, Russian media reports.

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Clarissa

August 2, 2015

Yes, there is a lot of talk about it in Russia. It’s not just Chechen women, either. There were a few Russian women who joined in on the scam. And good for them, I say.

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