Today and tomorrow is the anniversary of the worst two days of my life. There’s nothing to do but keep myself together and wait for them to end. They always end eventually.
News and links are welcome because news keep me grounded.
Another Anniversary
Clarissa's Blog 
Clarissa, I am so sorry and will be thinking of you today and tomorrow. Have you seen this text by her former NYU Department Chair about Avital Ronnel? It’s in German (wish I had time to translate), but there is an e-mail (p. 44) in English to her from a former graduate student. A trained psychotherapist, the student left.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/530b8d53e4b091b1a79671f2/t/5b8e5a9288251b17eb44e279/1536055956172/TUMULT_Herbst18_Hueppauf.pdf
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
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God, is there anybody with an ounce of brain matter in that department? Are they aware how these debates about too much Derrida look to the general public that is already not very congenial to their field?
Thank you, it definitely did distract me to catch a glimpse of this Germanic drama
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Wow! I’m not sure what’s worse, the stuff he claims went on in the department or the convoluted style of that text.
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Yesterday, I read an article by another grad student who was victimized by taking a course she didn’t want to take. The piece is 5 miles long and brimming with righteous indignation.
I think they all should stop as soon as possible because they are making asses out of themselves. But they won’t because the job list will be published in 3 days and it will be horrible for German. And they all know it.
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Anniversaries are always difficult and the middle of this month has always sucked for me almost a decade.
In my extended family in the last few days, a couple of people (my cousin’s uncle; my cousin’s mother-in-law) are seriously ill in the hospital and another person (my cousin’s nephew; I have a lot of cousins) died in a car crash. The kid was just 18.
I hope you get the support and love you need during this difficult time.
Links:
I trust your sister would never send a message on LinkedIn like these: LinkedIn Message Generator
A hexagon shaped vortex has formed over Saturn’s North Pole
A bizarre, hexagon-shaped vortex has formed above Saturn’s north pole as the planet’s northern hemisphere enters summer, data from the international Cassini-Huygens mission revealed. The unusual vortex is circulating hundreds of kilometers above the clouds in the stratosphere layer of the ringed planet’s atmosphere, a new study reported.
This warm polar vortex resembles another, previously discovered hexagon formation, also located at Saturn’s north pole, but lower in the atmosphere. But how and whether these bizarre low- and high-altitude hexagons are related remains a mystery to scientists.
“Either a hexagon has spawned spontaneously and identically at two different altitudes, one lower in the clouds and one high in the stratosphere, or the hexagon is in fact a towering structure spanning a vertical range of several hundred kilometers,” Leigh Fletcher, lead author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement.
Gordon knocks out power for thousands in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi
In my part of Florida we’re fine. Just lots of rainstorms, but thankfully nothing as bad as last week. Pensacola got hit.
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ŠŠ° Š½ŠµŠ¼ŠµŃŠŗŠøŠµ ŃŠŗŃŠ°Š½Ń Š²ŃŃŠµŠ» ŃŠøŠ»ŃŠ¼ Š”ŠµŃŠ³ŠµŃ ŠŠ¾Š·Š½ŠøŃŃ “ŠŠ¾Š½Š±Š°ŃŃ”, Š½Š°Š³ŃŠ°Š¶Š“ŠµŠ½Š½ŃŠ¹ Š½Š° ŃŠµŃŃŠøŠ²Š°Š»Šµ Š² ŠŠ°Š½Š½Š°Ń . ŠŠ°Šŗ Š¾ŃŠµŠ½ŠøŠ²Š°ŃŃ Š² ŠŠµŃŠ¼Š°Š½ŠøŠø ŃŃŠ¾Ń Ń ŃŠ“Š¾Š¶ŠµŃŃŠ²ŠµŠ½Š½ŃŠ¹ ŃŠøŠ»ŃŠ¼ Š¾ Š²Š¾Š¹Š½Šµ Š½Š° Š²Š¾ŃŃŠ¾ŠŗŠµ Š£ŠŗŃŠ°ŠøŠ½Ń?
https://trim-c.livejournal.com/2599389.html
Wanted to share and ask whether it’s a good movie. For English speakers, the movie in question is
[wiki] Donbass is a 2018 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Sergei Loznitsa. It was selected as the opening film in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, Loznitsa won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director. It was selected as the Ukrainian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.
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I liked this essay by Tim Parks:
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/08/15/the-books-we-dont-understand/
Wishing you strength for these difficult days!
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The job Americans won’t take: Arizona looks to Philippines to fill teacher shortage
…Some American public schools are turning to foreign teachers because Americans with college educations are increasingly uninterested in low-paid, demanding teaching jobs. Many teachers, struggling for a toehold in the shrinking middle class, have switched careers. And fewer college students are choosing to become teachers. The need for mathematics, science, and special education teachers is especially dire in poor and rural schools throughout the country.
āTeaching has become a much less attractive profession,ā said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute, an education policy thinktank, noting that American teacher salaries have fallen far behind those of other college educated workers.
Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, a teachersā union, said uncompetitive teachersā salaries have forced school administrators to look for ācreative waysā to fill teacher vacancies ā such as recruiting from abroad.
ā¦..When John Morris and his family settled in Casa Grande 14 years ago, the former big-city Californians enjoyed the small-town atmosphere. Morris, an automotive engineer, was immediately hired at Casa Grande Union high school. His low teacher salary led to financial pressures. Several years ago, he lost his home.
But Morris wouldnāt quit teaching. He felt his students needed him.
He now leads the schoolās Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Academy. With his new raise, Morris will earn about $60,000, still $2,000 below the average salary for an American high school teacher….
Math teacher Mark Cariquez, 28, arrived in Casa Grande from the Philippines two years ago. He found the locals ājollyā and felt welcomed and supported by the American teachers at the school. But he was stunned by the intense heat and news of mass shootings in America.
Cariquez earned about $300 to $400 monthly teaching in the Philippines. He makes about ten times more in Casa Grande. He quickly paid off the $12,500 up front costs to various agencies that helped him get the job and travel documents.
He lives frugally by renting a room in a house in Arizona City, a small town about 16 miles west of Casa Grande. He and his housemates, Noel Que and Marissa Yap, teach at the high school.
Cariquez shares a room with Que. Yap and her husband live down the hall.
Yap, 44, teaches biology while her husband works at Walmart, along with several other spouses of Filipino teachers and nurses.
Que, 50, has two kids and a wife. He canāt afford to bring them to the United States. He stays connected via Skype and sends money home every two weeks.
He often ships his family gift boxes stuffed with clothes, shoes, books and refrigerator magnets.
By living together, each teacher pays about $400 a month for rent, food, utilities and gasoline. This gives them spare cash to send home to their families and sightsee….
When teachers in Arizona demonstrated to protest their low pay, Cariquez, Que and Yap briefly joined school rallies to show solidarity. The Filipino housemates are happy with their salaries, but see a need for more educational funding.
Some Casa Grande locals who voted for Donald Trump do not support higher pay for teachers. Harold Vangilder, a 76-year-old retired army communications analyst, finds it āoffensiveā when teachers gripe about their salaries, given the poverty in the town. Vangilder, a conservative, is a build-the-wall guy. Still, he applauds hiring foreigners to resolve teacher shortages. After all, they have their papers.
āTheyāre helping to āmake America greatā by educating our kids,ā he said.
Dominick DePadre wants public education privatized. DePadre earned a graduate degree in education, and once taught at Casa Grande Union. He quit in 2006, after turning down a contract that would have paid him $39,000 a year. Now 44, DePadre owns a local landscaping company.
Teachers, he said, should get out of teaching if they donāt like their pay, and not ask āfor handoutsā. Still, he doesnāt necessarily agree with hiring foreign teachers to take vacant American jobs. But, he said, āit sounds like an act of desperationā…
Everyone in this story save for the immigrants, are immense fucking idiots. Fuck the kids, I saved .002 % in taxes! If you’re going to scaremonger about fucking immigrants taking American jobs and argue for more immigration restrictions you shouldn’t be importing a bunch of guest workers to make up for the fact you’re not willing to pay Americans enough to take these jobs. [deleted a whole bunch of scatological references]
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From a blog about Germany:
Zombie Institutions and Zombies in Institutions
https://andrewhammel.blog/2018/08/zombie-institutions-and-zombies-in-institutions.html
The Transcultural Overton Window Displacement (TOWID) on Race
https://andrewhammel.blog/2018/08/the-transcultural-overton-window-displacement-towid-on-race.html
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Tried to read about life in Iran today and found this blog by an Iranian born Professor of Economics currently working in USA:
Tyranny of numbers
https://djavadsalehi.com/
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The first day of classes always bring back to my memory the anniversary of the worst days of your life. Despite the distance and my lack of regularity communicating with you, I want you to know that I have been thinking of you and N today. I love you.
You asked for links and news, and I have little. But I have a question. Can you tell me something about actor Rustam Urazaev? You and N may remember him from movies or tv series you saw. Any information about this actor (how prestigious he is, for instance) is appreciated.
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He’s a solid supporting role actor. I know him more as a director of really popular police procedural TV series. They are total trash and portray the police in Russia as stupid, corrupt alcoholics. I love them.
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Thanks! I wanted to have a better portrait of him. Did you know he played Esteban in Humberto SolĆ”s’s movie adaptation of El siglo de las luces?
The police shows you wrote about sound great.
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I think that he is a solid actor too. Very intuitive.
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I still haven’t watched that movie so I’m clueless.
The best in these shows is that the public’s complete acceptance of police corruption is just assumed. The shows feature price lists for the service of the police. This is how much you pay for them to find a person who robbed you. And here’s the additional price for return of stolen goods. And here is a price on top of that if you want the police to beat up the criminal. Light injuries cost this. Severe injuries cost more. But these police officers are all wonderful people and positive characters. It’s truly something.
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Wow. Who needs Carpentierās real maravilloso, then?
Do not watch the movie; it is a very conventional adaptation of the novel. The novel is better, although Urazaev plays a good Esteban.
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This is no longer “news,” but I meant to link it a while back and never remembered to.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/now-trump-administration-wants-limit-citizenship-legal-immigrants-n897931
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It’s moving more towards the Canadian model where immigrants aren’t supposed to request any welfare assistance for the first 10 years. Of course, enforcing this is damn nearly impossible if everybody gets a citizenship in 3 years.
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For some unexpected apocalyptic angle, go no further than a men’s magazine:
https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero
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I’m sure that depopulation of the planet is pretty much the last thing we need to worry about. š
Thank you, this was funny.
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Iām so sorry that youāre having to face these anniversaries again. ā¹ļø
For news: Iām interested in your opinion of the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times today. Everyone is talking about it and most people are saying the writer is a shit person who, if he had any real courage, would do more than flare up Trumpās ire with the ādonāt worry, there are adults in the roomā attempts at reassurance. I was actually reassured by the op-ed, thinking āhey, Iām glad weāre shielded from the full-on craziness that Trump wants to do.ā But now that Iāve read a bunch of comments, Iām doubting my initial reaction and worried Iāve, once again, made myself look like an idiot and exercised poor judgment. Essentially I want this administration to end. So does the writer. I think that realistically no one is going to impeach Trump. So yeah, I want there to be adults in the room instead of just Trump. If we have to endure the madness, stoked ever more by the media (both social and news), then Iād like someone to do more than just bitch about it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html
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The only anniversary that I ever note ( and mostly ignore) is my birthday, reminding me that I get steadily older every year. All those other dates, whether the happy ones — my numerous graduation and award dates, the first time I found love — or the sad ones — the funerals of people that I loved, the loss of mentors who led me on my career path — are all phantom shadows, trying to call me back to to dates and memories better lost to yesterday’s darkness.
When you wake up every morning, the rising Sun moves always west: It awakens you into a tomorrow that arches into the future, obliterating the ruins of yesterday’s past images in its glow, and illuminating all the myriad opportunities awaiting youof tomorrow, before at dusk it finally takes you home to resr.
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Somehow I posted the above comment before I’d finished editing it, but I think that its meaning is sufficiently clear despite the rare typos, so I’m not going to insult Clarissa’s readers by correcting them.
Goodnight!
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I hope you’re getting through this rough period. I’m thinking of the four of you…
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Thank you. I really appreciate.
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But his emails (link to emails Booker leaked, risking expulsion from the the Senate)
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I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean.
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Kamala Harris, on the other hand, really delivered. I just saw it. She was good. I have a newfound respect for her. Plus, it’s something actually valuable that she seems to have.
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OK, here is some good or at least original gossip: my Muscovite cousins are complaining about Putin on Facebook. Guardedly of course, but it is interesting. Specifically they are complaining about how people do not complain.
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Is it the pension reform that’s getting to them? The pension reform is really hitting people hard.
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