More, equally quick linkspam

[cleolinda]

Ex-deputy arrested in 1964 race case. "A white former sheriff's deputy who was once thought to be dead was arrested on federal charges Wednesday in one of the last major unsolved crimes of the civil rights era — the 1964 killings of two black men who were beaten and dumped alive into the Mississippi River."

Military shows off new ray gun. "The military calls its new weapon an "active denial system," but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire." AHHHHHHH.

Chavez says Cuban leader is up, walking. "Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is recovering and has been up and walking - in fact 'almost jogging' - in recent days, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday." Oh, Mr. Chavez, why don't I believe you?

Police in Tijuana issued sling shots. There's a joke about shot glasses in there that I just can't get to come out right.

Japan's PM wants students to buckle down to work. "Japanese students need to work harder, spend more time in school and face stricter discipline, advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday in a report the premier described as 'wonderful.'" Good God.

From sapphires13: A sex offender went unnoticed attending middle school by pretending to be 12 years old.

Nation's college elevators scrutinized. As well they should be--there was a terrifying elevator in the one girls' dorm I think I didn't end up living in.

Microwave experiments cause sponge disasters.

Dreams come true for boy at British toy fair.

Van Halen reuniting with Roth for summer tour.

omgwtfbabybear! EEEEEE.

Comments

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

From sapphires13: A sex offender went unnoticed attending middle school by pretending to be 12 years old.

Pst, that link is b0rked.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Eeek, fixed.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_re_us/sex_offender_ruse_3

Your link to the story doesn't work, this does.

And my 'favorite' part is how the security gates are now going to have locks. Cuz I guess most bad guys can't push.

[detective13.livejournal.com]

This is ridiculous! How short would the guy have to be to pass himself off as a 12 year old? Also, there is absolutely NO WAY that he looks 12... WTF???

[delle.livejournal.com]

"He was quiet," Cagle said of Rodreick. "He turned in his homework. There were no discipline issues. He was never sent to the principal's office. By most accounts he was aloof and kept to himself."

Gee.... YA THINK????

Of COURSE a 29 yr old posing as a 12 yr old child is going to be well-behaved and quiet. DUH.

I'm wondering why the school allowed him to attend "sporatically" from August to November before kicking him out for poor attendance. I'm not blaming them for missing that he's an adult - obviously the men he was living with thought he was a preteen too, so he's very good at what he does. But how many days does he miss before parents/guardians are contacted? Before he's sent to the office to talk to the principal? Before someone looks at him closer? Letting him go for 3 months with sporatic attendance seems to me to be ... lax, at best.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

I went to public elementary school in Phoenix and was out sick a lot. It took three years at a single school with pretty sporadic attendance for the Principal to even get involved, and it lead to my becoming homeschooled instead rather than any disciplinary actions or conversations with teachers or the like (though my 4th and 5th grade teachers were both aware and up-to-date on why I was out and suggested the homeschooling, so that's probably why it was so smooth).

[delle.livejournal.com]

my mom (back in the dark ages!) missed almost all her 3rd grade because of her asthma/bronchitis. I can truly understand that a child might miss copious amounts of school due to health reasons - but the school would be kept in the loop, yes? I don't know that there's reason for the Principal to become personally involved given the teachers are kept aware and have probably kept the Principal updated.

What I'm questioning is - and, granted, this is a just a short article and we don't really know - that it sounds like this so-called kid was frequently absent and no one in the school questioned it or attempted to contact his 'guardian' or anything.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

Keen link to the Elevator Thing. We had an elevator at my University that was *very* scary for me- I got on it one afternoon, alone and felt very strongly that I was being watched. Turned around- and there was a very large Dugite (Perth's most common venomous snake) curled up in a corner at the back of the lift. Needless to say it was a tense (if short) ride to the next floor, where I immediately called the campus snake buster to come get it (Snakes are quite common in the Uni grounds in Summer, as it's a very bush-intensive campus)

Cute Polar Bear Cub! I hope the US government declares them an Endangered Species and legislates to save them before this little guy's wild buddies drown...

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

In the Psych building, there's a scary elevator that only has a Down button, and I need it to get to the third floor. And sometimes it doesn't come at all. And it creaks. And ticks. And it's probably some human experiment in fear and anxiety, and there's a hidden camera and a room full of psych students laughing at me for freaking out.

I'd take the stairs, but the building also has freakishly bizzare and depressing architecture--the urban legend around campus is that it was build to resemble the human brain, and that's why people keep getting lost in it. We're probably going to find a starved and wasted corpse in an abandoned hallway one of these days. It was always a fight to find my way out of that building, humming to myself distractedly and trying not to think about the Dionaea House.

Must be every Uni ever...

[xander77.livejournal.com]

Seriously, the first text example text we did in academic reading dealt with skeletons of students lost in the winding corridors of the humanities building.

[starlady42.livejournal.com]

When I first started reading the article, I thought it was about my uni. We had an almost-identical fatality my first year here. Now there are teeny tiny signs in every elevator warning us to "STAY IN THE ELEVATOR" if it breaks down and "IF YOU HAVE A CELL PHONE CALL THIS NUMBER." I find them a bit silly, because 1) as previously mentioned, they're tiny and 2) elevator incidents in dorms are NEVER going to involve students so drunk they think packing 24 people in is a great idea, right? So they'll totally be able to read those signs and be coherent enough to follow instructions, yes?

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

See, as someone who works in education here, I know that the Japan situation is really difficult. On the one hand, most kids spend all their time in school and THEN nearly all of them go to extra lessons at a private school. I see them on the train going home from cram school at 10pm, still in their uniforms, and I feel awful for them. A lot of them have really miserable lives because there's so much pressure to do well. They have no fun AT ALL, and on top of that they get constant messages from the media telling them how much they suck. It's just awful.

On the other hand, from what I've heard (I don't teach in a secondary school myself), there is an awful discipline problem at a lot of schools - and while I obviously don't think they should bring back physical punishment, I don't think it's right that teachers can't give out any punishment. I mean, kids can't get suspended or even get detention, and you can't even send them to stand in the hall as a punishment. A kid can bully someone else until they commit suicide, but the teachers have literally NO way of stopping it or punishing the bully. And that's not fair on anyone.

I don't know the details of what the report specifically recommends (there are different accounts on different websites), but they do need a way to enforce some sort of discipline. At the same time, they also need to stop destroying the kids through overwork, because at the moment they don't really have a childhood unless they decide to just drop out and become an all-out delinquent. It's not more time in school that they need - they just need a school environment that actually functions properly.

Heck, I've only been here five months but I know that nothing on earth could induce me to put any child of mine through the Japanese education system.

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

Huh. Did Abe not go to public school?? Japanese school kids are overworked, but ironically, not learning anything. But that's the school system's fault, not the kids. You can pass on failing grades. The kids can get by doing crap, so they do. The system gives them no credit and has no faith in their ability. One japanese poet has compared the japanese school system to bonsai -- never allow the tree to reach its full potential.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

...Why is Castro punching the baby bear in the throat?

[miyabiarashi.livejournal.com]

I currently teach at a secondary school in Japan, and they really need stricter discipline. We had a huge problem with the first-years here because they kept getting into fights, walking out of the classroom and generally behaving badly, and the teachers could do nothing about it. Heck, there was a class where all the kids called me names the entire time, and the teacher in charge begged them to stop instead of saying, "hey, NOT COOL."

A friend of mine told me how one student was upset at a teacher for giving him bad grades, and threw a chair into his car's windshield. No punishment, even though he could've killed the teacher.

It's illegal to send them out of the classroom, suspend them or expel them because here, kids have a right to their education, and doing any of the above actions is denying them that. This makes it really difficult with bullying, especially, since not only have the suicides gotten higher, there's been a 'futouko' trend where kids will simply stop going to school so they don't have to deal with it. There are three to four students at my school like this--they learn in the teacher's room because otherwise they wouldn't go to class.

With respect to their education, I don't think working harder is the answer, either. One of the problems is the curriculum is so rigid that kids are terrified of making mistakes, and are upset or confused if the answer isn't exactly right (with learning English, at least). I was told to say 'how many points did you get' instead of 'how many did you get right?' because the students didn't understand at all. It was mind-boggling. They're so focused on the details that they lose sight of the big picture. Everything has to be the way the textbook says, or they don't get it.

The curriculum needs to be more flexible. Right now they're all focused on what's going to be on the entrance exam, which is important, but I don't think they're really learning in the end. It's not about working harder at all.

I have a feeling that if they bumped up the discipline, the work ethic might improve. Right now, kids in junior high school can get Fs in everything and still graduate. You can't hold them back--all that really matters in the end is how they do on that entrance exam.

[fiberaddict.livejournal.com]

Military shows off new ray gun

Yup - the military has managed to deliver menopause. *eg*

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

I got stuck in my dorm elevator a few weeks ago, and it was the last time I've been in it. I called security from the emergency phone and then the doors opened, but still, it was very claustrophobic. I take the stairs now; I'm on the third level, so it really isn't that bad.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on this. Yesterday I got in the elevator and the door slooooooowly started shutting. And then it stopped about two inches away. Just wouldn't move. The other girl in the elevator and I bolted for the stairs. (The other elevator? Has also been broken for about half the time we've been here. Way to go, school!)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ravengirl/]

*mesmerized by icon* :O

[jasonbeast.livejournal.com]

Police in Tijuana issued sling shots. There's a joke about shot glasses in there that I just can't get to come out right.

Yes, but are they Jose Cuervo slingshots?

Sorry, best I can do first thing in the morning ...

[count-01.livejournal.com]

This joke would have worked a lot better if the dateline had been Singapore...

[madlori.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's about time those slacker Japanese got serious and quit goofing off all the time. Can't they make something of themselves, for crying out loud?

*eyeroll*

[madlori.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm reading the other comments, and I am clearly uninformed. I've been hearing all my life about how great the Japanese school system is and how infinitely superior they are to Americans in every way.

When did this change? Is this new? I mean, our education system has its flaws, too, but if the issues in Japan are as serious as other commenters say, how is it that Japan is still a world leader in science and technology?

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

After these kids get out of school, they might no longer be leaders in technology. :p But you could say the same thing about the US.

Japan puts a huge emphasis on being competent and mastering your craft, so I trust that people who are developing new technology are well-trained for their jobs. Most people goof off in college, but technical schools might be different. I don't know exactly, but I taught a lot of engineers and I got the impression that they actually did work in college. People who know what they want to do for a living probably work hard to achieve it, especially since there is so much pressure. It's like anywhere else, I guess -- half the people in the US these can't master basic English grammar, but they're not going to be the ones writing the MLA style manual. Terribly flawed school system or not, they're one of the wealthiest countries in the world and almost everyone receives at least a basic education.

[irishabastard.livejournal.com]

"Military shows off new ray gun. " I have actually seen this thing in action when it was in the final testing and fielding stages. It's crazy science fiction cool and scary. You really want to be somewhere else when it gets turned on.

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

Lucky me--my dorm only had eight flights of stairs up to my room.

[artemis-archer.livejournal.com]

My dorm has 22 floors and our elevators get really packed. They usually work okay but we do have a wonky one that will randomly just go up and down without stopping at any of the floors. Whenever it comes back to the ground everyone runs off because they think it'll plummet or something. I try not to get on if it's too full and just wait for another one. I'd never heard about that kid dying though, that's awful =/

That polar bear is the cutest. I love when they have polar bear shows on Animal Planet and the babies get all close to the camera to sniff it. I dunno, it's just wicked cute!

[prncssaurora.livejournal.com]

Wait, is microwaving sponges to disinfect them a new thing?

Also, EEEEE BABY BEAR!!

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm in my second year at OSU, and last year I was dating a guy who lived in the building where the elevator accident happened. That is a really old building and the elevators were always doing wonky things...like the doors opening before the elevator had arrived fully at the floor, or the elevator moving after it should have stopped.

Of course, after the accident happened, the university freaked out and ran tests on all of the elevators, the result being that my building, where the elevators have always worked just fine, suddenly had elevators that refused to work properly. In a building with 23 floors. Sigh.

[stardustshine.livejournal.com]

Eee hee, baby bear!! Also, adorable icon!! Is it stealable?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, I stole it from somebody else. : )

[morgan-c-hoax.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I go to OSU, and lemme tell you, the state of the elevators here really hasn't improved since that happened. Hell, the elevators at the last college I went to were constantly malfunctioning, too. Sadly, I think someone's going to have to get sued for anything to get done.

[r-a-black.livejournal.com]

I WANT THAT BEAR!

[ritzyblonde.livejournal.com]

What kills me about the sex offender is that the two men he lived with also thought he was 12 and were having sex with him and were upset that he was 29. I about died.

BTW>>> Your icon makes the world a happier place.

[marcusisabadass.livejournal.com]

heh. which elevator are you referring to? Goodwin?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah. I was in there one time with another girl, some girl I'd never met before, and she was seriously afraid we were going to die or something.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEE polar bear cub!

Also, did you hear? Apparently, Jared Leto had to choke a hobbit (http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-01-25/) (scroll down for story).

[redmapletree.livejournal.com]

That toy story is ridiculously adorable.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

In my dorm, you have a 50-50 chance on any given day that either elevator will be working. If one is, you then have a 60-40 chance that you'll get stuck in it when it decides to break halfway between your floor and the ground floor.

And I live in one of the newer buildings. :-(

The single most awesome linkspam ever

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

Cleo, you simply must link to this. I couldn't breathe for thirty minutes after I listened to it.

http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/asinine/transcript-verizon-doesnt-know-how-to-count-220723.php

[aki.livejournal.com]

That baby bear is surprisingly proportional.

[lenamoster.livejournal.com]

Remember that link I sent you a few weeks ago, calling for a retrial for Nazanin Fatehi, the Iranian girl sentenced to death for defending herself against rapists? Well, rejoice, for good news has come from it!
http://www.helpnazanin.com/
http://chocodance.livejournal.com/27155.html