Posts Tagged ‘workplace safety’
Thursday Night Ferguson Links
Some links I’ve come across on the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri, since my link post this morning:
* 11 chilling facts about America’s militarized police force.
* Why there wasn’t accountability for the police in Ferguson.
* Why Ferguson’s government is so white.
* Ferguson Mayor Defends Police: ‘I Can’t Second-Guess These Officers.’
* House Democrat Unveils Bill To Demilitarize Local Police.
* Rand Paul: We Must Demilitarize the Police.
* It’s not just Ferguson: America’s criminal justice system is racist.
* I guess we should have tried turning the police state off and on again before calling the help line.
* Peter Frase: Here are some occupations with higher fatality rates than being a cop.
* Program 1033: “Local police acquire more firepower.”
* Rubber bullets are absolutely unsafe.
* Things To Stop Being Distracted By When A Black Person Gets Murdered By Police.
* I want to suggest that there may be a strong connection between the visual style of video games and the visual style of American police forces — the “warrior cops” that Radley Balko has written (chillingly) about. Note how in Ferguson, Missouri, cops’ dress, equipment, and behavior are often totally inappropriate to their circumstances — but visually a close match for many of the Call of Duty games. Consider all the forest-colored camouflage, for instance…
Once you’ve accepted that the people sworn to protect you might just kill you, there comes a clarity.
These Are Monday Links; There Are Many Like Them, But These Are Mine
* If you’ve been following Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, there’s a new chapter out.
* A One-Item List For Tenure-Track Faculty: Do the job you were hired to do.
* The next wave of Afrofuturism.
* Kim Stanley Robinson: Science Fiction and the Realism of Our Time.
* Bring on the Snowpiercer thinkpieces! 1, 2, 3, 4.
* Even the liberal George Will: “We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America, you’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans,’” Will implored. “We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these eight-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous.”
* Identifying the bodies of those who tried to cross the border illegally.
* Halbig, King, and the Limits of Reasonable Legal Disagreement.
* There is a lizard sex satellite floating in space and Russia no longer has it under control. UPDATE: Russia Regains Control of Gecko Zero-G Sex Satellite.
* If you want to know how I do it. More links below the image!
* Iron Man Should Move to Cleveland, Not San Francisco.
* A friend said it best: Ricky Gervais is scripting Congress now.
* Star Fleet uniforms: not OSHA-compliant.
* The mask slips: Tax agency says ‘preventing poverty’ not allowed as goal for charity.
* “Our bad!” It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All.
* This is horrible: First case of ebola reported in Africa’s most populous city Lagos.
* When Tonga Was a Vast Empire.
* The Five Most Overrated Weapons of War.
* Community colleges and the art of the hustle.
* A lawsuit may determine whether “Happy Birthday” is really still under copyright, which is a bananas notion to begin with.
* Scientists: Rich People, Poor People May Have Shared Common Ancestor.
* BuzzFeed Writer Resigns In Disgrace After Plagiarizing ‘10 Llamas Who Wish They Were Models.’
* Blastr teases Grant Morrison’s Multiversity.
* Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars, says expert.
* If I major in philosophy, what are the career prospects?
* Ascension sounds… pretty good?
* The deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history is happening right now. And now the Liberian government has confirmed that a senior doctor working to fight the disease, Samuel Brisbane, has died, the Associated Press reports. That makes him the first Liberian doctor to die of Ebola in the current outbreak.
In addition, an American doctor has been infected. Keith Brantly, a 33-year-old working for American aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, has been treated and is in stable condition, according to USA Today.
This news comes just days after an announcement that the top Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone, Sheik Umar Khan, had been infected.
* And before there was The State, there was You Wrote It, You Watch It.
Friday Links, Part Two!
* Insert cheap infallibility joke here: Vatican Misspells ‘Jesus’ on Thousands of Commemorative Medals.
* Dwarf Fortress: A Marxist Analysis.
* Rutgers rejects Pearson deal.
“There’s nothing about this online business model that saves students money,” said David M. Hughes, professor of anthropology. “This is not about Rutgers trying to increase the access and affordability of its offerings. In fact, it’s supposed to bring in a great deal of revenue for both Pearson and Rutgers.”
…
According the agreement, Pearson will receive half of the tuition revenue in the first academic year. The share drops as more students enroll; if Rutgers were to meet its 2019 enrollment goal, for example, Pearson would take 45 percent the next academic year. Hughes said a growth in enrollment and tuition revenue should be accompanied by more tenured faculty members, not corporate profits.
* Breaking Away: Top Public Universities Push for ‘Autonomy’ From States.
* Here are the facts: Piedmont hasn’t turned away anything close to 100 applicants for nursing school. Even if it had, the college could not possibly squeeze the $400,000-a-year cost of instructing them out of its prison furniture purchases, which were below $100,000 last year. Piedmont is not even required to buy furniture from the state, though it must get a waiver to shop elsewhere. Great story though bro.
* An Extended Government Shutdown Threatens To Halt Rape Kits In Washington, DC. Congressman: Workers Furloughed In Shutdown Should Not Get Backpay. North Carolina Reverses Course, Promises Nutrition Assistance For Moms And Babies.
* Gun Groups Declare Newtown Massacre Anniversary “Guns Save Lives Day.“
* Google crawls into bed with ALEC.
* Tom Hiddleston IS Owen Wilson AS Loki.
Thursday Night Links
* Predictably outrageous: University endowments and teachers’ pension funds are among big investors in Sallie Mae, the private lender that has been generating enormous profits thanks to soaring student debt and the climbing cost of education, a Huffington Post review of financial documents has revealed.
* David Golumbia writes up UWM’s The Dark Side of the Digital conference.
* Pakistan Court Decision Finds US Drone Strikes Are ‘War Crimes,’ Which Are ‘Absolutely Illegal.’
* 19 Emotions For Which English Has No Words.
* Issue 4.1 of Excursions is devoted to “Science/Fiction” (including a much-needed denunciation of the Jedi).
* Millennials aren’t lazy; they’re f*cked.
* The Ghetto Is Public Policy.
* Surprising literally dozens, Snapchat photos can be retried after all.
* ABC has apparently picked up Agent of SHIELD.
* And just when you thought the culture had scraped the bottom of the barrel: 24 is coming back.
Friday Night Links
* An analysis by Thomson Reuters in association with Times Higher Education shows startling levels of gender inequality in research-intensive universities across the world. The gap persists not just in emerging nations but also in some of the world’s most highly developed countries – where the fight for women’s rights and equality has gone on for decades.
* Georgetown U. Adjuncts Vote to Unionize.
* EPA whistleblower says the West, Texas, disaster is a criminal matter.
* Falling Men: On Don DeLillo and Terror.
* And in local news: Responding to a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice warned voucher schools in Milwaukee to stop excluding, counseling out, or otherwise discriminating against students with disabilities.
Thursday Reading™
* It is very hard to accept this — the wealth gap is not a mistake. It is the logical outcome of policy and democratic will. From the streets of Cicero on up, the point was to imprison black people in the black belt and then exploit them. The goal was pursued through public policy, private action, and open terrorism. The goal was accomplished.
* Even college presidents don’t believe in MOOCs.
* “An Open Letter to Professor Michael Sandel From the Philosophy Department at San Jose State U.” A writeup at the Chronicle.
* Science Fiction in China: A Conversation with Fei Dao.
FD: Chinese sci fi has about a hundred years of history. When it started, in the late Qing dynasty around 1902, it was chiefly concerned with the problem of bringing ancient China into modernity. At that time, Liang Qichao [translated sci fi] because he thought it would be beneficial for China’s future … as something that could popularize scientific knowledge. And Lu Xun thought that if you gave ordinary people scientific literature to read, they would fall asleep. But if you blended scientific knowledge into stories with a plot, it would be more interesting. [He thought that] in this way, the people could become more modern.
* Chris Beckett wins Arthur C. Clarke award for Dark Eden. Probably the first book I’ll read once the semester is over, thanks to @shaviro’s great paper on it at ICFA.
* The Pope against capitalism.
* Obama against legal weed dispensaries, despite like a dozen promises not to do this anymore.
* See no evil, hear no evil: Republicans propose abolishing the unemployment rate.
* Previously on The Walking Dead.
* Profit Still Rare, Expenses Still Rising at Athletic Programs.
* One Woman’s Crusade Against Revenge Porn.
* Administrators are maniacs: School Conducts Surprise Shooting Drill with Real Gunmen Firing Blanks.
* Rumor: Koch Brothers to buy 8 major newspapers, including LA Times.
