In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Marginalization; video may autoplay at third link] More student action is taking place and yielding consequences on college campuses across the US: Mary Spellman, the Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College, resigned yesterday, following "student protests at the college, where many demanded more inclusive programs for what they call marginalized students, which include students of color, LGBT students, disabled students and low-income students." And at Georgetown, students "announced at a solidarity demonstration on Thursday, Nov. 12 that they are to begin a sit-in outside University President John DeGioia’s office on Friday morning to continue until administrators change the name of Mulledy Hall," which was "named for a former university president who sold 272 slaves to Louisiana in 1838 in order to raise money to pay off university debts." And at Virginia Commonwealth University, "student activists marched into the school president's office Thursday morning to demand the university increase the number of black professors and offer more cultural training on campus."

Meanwhile, a bunch of shitlords furiously pen hot takes about the left's intolerance and student's fragility, because they can't deal with evidence of emergent resistance to the status quo serving as the foundation on which their ivory towers are built.

Also: Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, now president of Purdue University, continues to be a fucking nightmare.

[CN: War on agency] In other campus news: "A University of Missouri doctoral student is defying an anti-choice legislator by continuing her research on the effects of the state's newly enacted 72-hour forced waiting period for abortions. The student, Lindsay Ruhr, told Al Jazeera that she stands by her research. 'I feel that my research is objective, and that the whole point of my research is to understand how this policy affects women. Whether this policy is having a harmful or beneficial effect, we don't know,' Ruhr said. ...The controversy surrounding Ruhr's research started last month, when state Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) sent an October 30 letter to the university's chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, saying that Ruhr's research seemed like a 'marketing aid for Planned Parenthood.'" For fuck's sake.

[CN: Class warfare; worker exploitation; food insecurity] And from another front in the revolution: "Tired of being left to rely on the charity of others to feed their families, Walmart workers around the country are launching two weeks of fasting in the run-up to Thanksgiving to demand livable wages and full-time schedules. 'I've had to forgo meals so my boys would have enough to eat,' Walmart associate Jasmine Dixon said Thursday on a press call organized by OUR Walmart. 'If it wasn't for food stamps I don't know what I would do.' ...'My mother grew up during the Depression and she passed along lessons on how to get through hard times. They're lessons I use today while working at Walmart,' [Walmart associate Nancy Reynolds] told reporters Thursday. 'A lot of times I've had to get chicken nuggets because that's all the money I had,' Reynolds said. She described splitting an order of nuggets in the break room at Walmart 'because my coworkers were hungry.'"

I would really love to hear Walmart executives explain how the company can justify six members of the Walton family holding as much wealth as the entire bottom thirty percent of the US population, while it pays its employees so little that they can't afford to eat.

Welp: "In new shock poll, Sanders has landslides over both Trump and Bush: In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by a landslide margin of 12 percentage points, 53 to 41. In the McClatchy poll, Sanders also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) by a landslide margin of 10 points, 51 to 41." That's not a "shock" to me. Trump and Bush are terrible fucking candidates.

[CN: Nukes] Whoooooooops: "The Kremlin says secret plans for a Russian long-range nuclear torpedo—called 'Status-6'—should not have appeared on Russian TV news. The leak happened during a report on state-run Channel One about President Vladimir Putin meeting military chiefs in the city of Sochi. One general was seen studying a diagram of the 'devastating' torpedo system. Launched by a submarine, it would create 'wide areas of radioactive contamination,' the document says. ...'In future we will undoubtedly take preventive measures so this does not happen again,' said Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov."

[CN: Death; references to self-harm] This is an amazing story recounting Salvador Alvarenga's 14 months lost at sea, the loss of his shipmate, his eventual rescue, and his survival.

[CN: Racism] "Organizers seat woman behind Trump 'because she's black'—so she silently protests by reading her book." This woman is terrific, the white couple who scolded her are assholes, and Donald Trump is the worst.

Neat! "Pulsar spotted outside the Milky Way is one of the most energetic ever seen: Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, which create pulsed emissions as their magnetic fields sweep across the line of sight with Earth. Generally, these are detected as radio wavelengths. But in rare cases, the environment around the pulsar is energetic enough to create gamma rays. Now, researchers have used these gamma rays to spot the first one of these seen outside our own galaxy. The pulsar is the most luminous ever seen at these wavelengths, with each pulse outputting 1036 ergs—a bit over 1015 megatons."

Big news, fellow haggis-heads! "Traditional haggis could soon be back on US menus amid rethink of lamb imports."

And finally! Thank you to each and every person who sent me the story about Otto the Skateboarding Bulldog, who marked Guinness World Records Day 2015 by setting "the record for longest human tunnel travelled through by a skateboarding dog." Congratulations, Otto! You should also get some kind of award for canine patience with human silliness! And for MAXIMUM CUTENESS!