1. Tim Wise on the word nigger/nigga — I love Tim Wise. I think he’s smart and he nails stuff on race in a way that I really like. In this youtube clip he explains why white people shouldn’t use “the N-word.” Its probably one of the best, most teachable explanations I’ve heard. Disclaimer: Wise posted this link a couple weeks ago and I just forgot to add it to the list.
2. Our avatars, our projected selves — A Jezebel bit about how men respond to female avatars and a discussion of racism and sexism in SL. Rather predictable, I thought, but still something to talk about. What I do find humorous is a mistake made regarding the percentage of sexual content in SL. A blogger inaccurately cites another writer’s claim that 40 percent of the folks come to SL looking for sexual activity. The writer corrects the mistake – a more accurate number would be closer to 15 percent. Sorry, I call bullshit on that. If you have to buy genitals, you’re damn sure there to do something with them.
3. Seven answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense — I read it. I understand it at a surface level. I don’t think I could restate most of it, though. That’s part of the problem with this controversy. The contrarians suffer from conspiracy theory-itis, as the article rightly observes. You cannot disprove a conspiracy theory to the supporter’s satisfaction. Witness Orly Taitz. For the mythical “man on the street” who might have doubts or might even be open-minded enough not to fall for Fox talking points, I couldn’t begin to unravel the complications of this science to convince them either way. A student in my class pointed out, partly in response to our egg discussion, that credibility is really the only way to determine the legitimacy of knowledge anymore. Yet we have dozens of well respected, premiere scientists, scientific organizations, and research saying that global warming is a fact and we have millions of unconvinced folks staring in the face of that research and saying, “Gosh, it’s cold. So much for global warming.”
4. Fox New: Protecting your Children from the Liberal College Menace (Gawker) — Funny critique of a Tucker Carlson Foxist anti-liberal rant. One of the comments said it best: “Well, the obvious solution is sending your homeschooled kids to homecollege.” Lulz.
5. 6 insane coincidences you wont’ believe actually happened — Fun stuff, most of which I hadn’t heard before.
6. NYU Business School Professor has Mastered the Art of Email Flaming — Beautiful, on so many levels. Beautiful. I could write for days about the ironic slip-n-slide of education customer/provider in the email exchange and the responses, but I won’t. I wholly oppose this bullshit but secretly wish I had the pure, ego-laden fucktastic guts to do this to my students. Also, the comment rewriting the email in Mamet style is spot on.
7. BBC Comercial — hysterical. We would never have a commercial like this here.
There were more, but these were my faves.
