The Olympics Spirit (BADminton edition)

Aug 092012
 
 August 9, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: ,
The Olympics Spirit (BADminton edition)

For those who don’t know, and that may be a lot of you given NBC’s atrocious coverage, eight badminton players were kicked out of the Olympics for “match-fixing.” It did not involve bribery or anything of that nature, and the players did everything that is within the rules, but they did try to lose on purpose to get the seeding they wanted (video here). Unless I am mistaken, it is allowed to suck in sports (please look no further than the school eight miles down*), and as for intentionally sucking? People do it all the time. Every year right before the massive sixteen teams playoff, there are NBA teams that wonder whether losing on purpose would give them an edge in seeding**. Professional teams in the NBA, NFL, and MLB all More…

Soccer Balls and Wedding Cakes

Jul 282012
 
 July 28, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: ,
Soccer Balls and Wedding Cakes

  Separate and equal. At least that’s the idea behind the new emerging trend of dividing boys and girls in public school classrooms. The students would be taught the same curriculum, but in different styles. (another link here) Obviously the range of this novel (or should I say, archaic?) type of education varies widely. On one extreme end, the boys and girls simply sit in different classrooms, and on one other extreme end, boys and girls are not even allowed to speak to each other on school grounds. Somewhere in the middle, however, teachers are instructed to use more direct commands and louder voices for boys and a calmer tone for girls. The trend is emerging because, well, it’s working on tests and discipline issues, or at least those are More…

The KKK Mile

Jun 272012
 
 June 27, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: , ,
The KKK Mile

    So here’s the briefing: The KKK wants to adopt a highway in Georgia; the court said no, and now the KKK is suing. And many people are upset about many things. Some are upset that the KKK did not get the right to represent itself (this group includes the KKK and the ACLU–strange alliance), and some are upset that the application was even considered (Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials). A similar case has happened before– the KKK in Missouri was able to adopt part of the highway after Missouri’s state rejection was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2005. Though the KKK sign was sawed down twice and the highway was later renamed as the Rosa Parks Highway. In the Georgia case, however, the application was denied More…

Girl (don’t) Look At That Body

Jun 142012
 
 June 14, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: ,
Girl (don't) Look At That Body

Back in May, a first grader was suspended from school due to his singing of the popular song “Sexy and I know it” to a girl at lunch while “shaking his booty” near her face (yes, that’s what the news said). His overflowing confidence was not appreciated by the school administrators and the six-year-old was slapped with a sexual harassment charge by the school. The police were not involved because they only deal with “sexual harassment offenders” aged ten and up. Though the news is disturbing and certainly controversial (the boy had been warned before), what is worrisome is that in the interview, the boy and his mother talked about how often he encountered the song by LMFAO* on the radio, at the department stores, on the TV, and on More…

Age? Gender? BMI?

Apr 182012
 
 April 18, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: ,
Age? Gender? BMI?

  A hospital in the Lone Star State has decided that not everything should be bigger by regulating potential employees based on their body mass index (BMI). However, under heavy criticism (yay puns), this hospital in Victoria, Texas, has ended the policy (or, in the very-not-eloquent words of Jezebel, “reverses the terribly dumb no fatties rule”). The hospital’s CEO justified the policy by saying: “We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.” In other words, it wanted its health workers to have professional personal appearances. The BMI requirement for this rule is less than 35 (here’s a useful chart). This policy is not illegal in Texas, nor is it illegal in More…

Grades: a D or an F? I’ll take an F please.

Apr 182012
 
 April 18, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: ,
Grades: a D or an F? I’ll take an F please.

Oh, you’ve heard the old adage that less is more. We all know that it’s wrong. Why would you want quieter speakers, a slower computer, or less money? Everybody knows that more is indeed more. But more doesn’t mean better, as some students in a California school are learning. Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch, California opened two years ago with a new premise-abolishing Ds from the grading system. And in many ways, it makes sense-nobody wants Ds, and they’re perched right between the permissible C and the dreaded F. But alas, in practice, this system didn’t work—high school students (and their parents) became frustrated with the failing grades some of them received, which lowered their GPAs. As a result, the district finally decided to add Ds back to the More…

Too Much Baggage?

Apr 172012
 
 April 17, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: , ,
Too Much Baggage?

A few months ago, Planned Parenthood put the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation under fire for withdrawing their funding from Planned Parenthood’s breast health services. The decision was allegedly made to appease pro-life supporters. Now, it’s Planned Parenthood’s turn to be scrutinized for their financial decisions. Planned Parenthood of North Texas recently rejected a $500,000 donation from our university’s very own Tucker Max (Duke Law School ’01). For those of you who don’t know, Tucker Max is a blogger and New York Times best-selling author who makes a living from being promiscuous with women and critiquing these encounters publicly. Tucker Max is a selfish jerk. But you don’t have to take my word for it, he tells you so right on his website: “My name is Tucker Max, More…

Anti-gay sentiments in Africa

Mar 122012
 
 March 12, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: , ,
Anti-gay sentiments in Africa

Every time I read an article about the growing anti-gay sentiments in Africa, I shudder in horror at the pain and violence inflicted on my fellow Africans by my fellow Africans simply because of their sexual orientations. I grew up in a homophobic society, but articles in the newspapers of violent acts against gays and lesbians weren’t as frequent as they are today. What are the reasons behind this sudden rise in anti-gay movements across Africa? One credible reason might be that people are increasingly being open about their sexual orientation. This situation is compounded by the explosion in telecommunication technology which has made it possible for events happening in one continent to quickly spread to other continents. This increase in awareness of what is happening in other continents makes More…

Eagle Dad and Tiger Mom

Mar 072012
 
 March 7, 2012  Posted by  Tagged with: , ,
Eagle Dad and Tiger Mom

A video showing a Chinese dad forcing his son to run essentially naked in the snow has gone viral recently. The boy cried for his dad to hug him and instead his father told him to do pushups in the snow. It is a “training regimen,” the self-proclaimed “Eagle Dad” told the media, for his pre-maturely born son and that he has cleared this Navy SEAL-like routine with the doctors beforehand. Quite a regimen for a crying four-year-old. I’m sure this immediately reminded many of the Tiger Mom, the Yale professor who published a memoir of her controversial Chinese parenting style,* she used to teach at Duke, too. I would be terrified to have her as a professor. In fact, though it is a small sample size and certainly biased (remember, More…

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