Weird News Stories

[Azdeus]

 

Testicle size 'link to father role'

 

 

Researchers at Emory University, US, said those with smaller testicles were more likely to be involved with nappy changing, feeding and bath time.

 

 

The study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, looked at the relationship between testicle size and fatherhood in 70 men who had children between the ages of one and two.

 

I've heard that the youth of today get it on early, but daymn!

Edited September 11, 2013 by Azdeus

[NOK222]

Orson Scott Card got appointed to the PBS board in NC

[ShadySands]

most times I don't miss North Carolina at all

 

this is one of those times

[ShadySands]

Miss Kansas is a deer hunting, tattoo-wearing sergeant in the U.S. Army

 

[Raithe]

Prince William to take Conservation role as he leaves the military

 

 

 

The Duke of Cambridge is to expand his conservation work after leaving operational duties in the armed forces, Kensington Palace has announced.

The prince will be the president of United for Wildlife which, the palace said, will "bring together some of the world’s largest environmental organisations and harness the resources and expertise of global leaders in business, communications, technology and the creative industries to tackle a common, universal challenge."

 

The illegal wildlife trade will be the initial focus of the new alliance, which also involves the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

 

The news comes as it was announced the duke had completed his tour as an search and rescue helicopter pilot based at RAF Valley in Anglesey. He is leaving the military after more than seven-and-a-half years of full-time service.

 

The Duke of Cambridge said: “The threats to our natural heritage are extensive, but I believe that this collaboration of the best minds in conservation will provide the impetus for a renewed commitment and action to protect endangered species and habitats for future generations.

"At the root of the illegal wildlife trade, for example, is the demand for products that require the deaths of tens of thousands of these animals every year, pushing them further towards extinction. We must work together to prevent this catastrophe and allow our children the opportunity to experience wildlife in its many beautiful and varied forms."

 

The seven conservation organisations involved in the United for Wildlife grouping are Conservation International, Fauna & Flora International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF-UK and the Zoological Society of London.

Prince William, who completed his last RAF shift on Tuesday, will continue to carry out royal engagements but is not expected to increase his number of public duties - with sources saying the second in line to throne is in a "transitional" year.

 

In an earlier statement, Kensington Palace said Prince William – who became a father earlier this year – would continue to support the work of the Queen and the royal family through a programme of official engagements, at home and overseas, with his wife.

 

“The duke will work closely over the next 12 months with the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. He will expand his work in the field of conservation, particularly in respect of endangered species,” added the statement.

He will continue to work with his charities on issues relating to children and young people, veterans and serving members of the armed forces.

 

The Duke of Cambridge has served in the military for seven-and-a-half years

“The duke is currently considering a number of options for public service, a further announcement on which will follow in due course,” said Kensington Palace.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their son, Prince George, are expected to move into their official residence at Kensington Palace within the next few weeks.

 

Following the announcement, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford, chief of the air staff, said: “Flight Lieutenant Wales has been an integral part of the Royal Air Force’s Search and Rescue Force, as a Sea King pilot on No 22 Squadron, based at Royal Air Force Valley for the past three years. Throughout his tour his airmanship, often in the most demanding of conditions, has contributed directly to saving lives in the mountains of north Wales and from the ravages of the Irish Sea.

"He has earned the respect of all who have worked with him as a highly professional and competent pilot," he added.

 

 

[Raithe]

A Boy Makes Anti-Muslim Comments In Front Of An American Soldier. The Soldier's Reply: Priceless.

 

 

 

This powerful social experiment set out to show us a glimpse of the disturbing discrimination many Muslims sadly face every day in America. I began watching this video thinking I would be left feeling disheartened and angry, but the words the soldier says at 5:05 are so powerful that I wish all people who held prejudice could hear him speak.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueT79ZPY9IM&feature=player_embedded#t=289

 

[Malcador]

Wonder how genuine that is.

[Serrano]

Isn't that the sergeant from Saving Private Ryan?

[Raithe]

Well, not so much weird but still..

 

BBC News - Voyager Prove 'leaves the solar system'

 

 

 

The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System.

Scientists say the probe's instruments indicate it has moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving in the space between the stars.

Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home.

This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth.

Voyager's epic journey

 

"This is really a key milestone that we'd been hoping we would reach when we started this project over 40 years ago - that we would get a spacecraft into interstellar space," said Prof Ed Stone, the chief scientist on the venture.

"Scientifically it's a major milestone, but also historically - this is one of those journeys of exploration like circumnavigating the globe for the first time or having a footprint on the Moon for the first time. This is the first time we've begun to explore the space between the stars," he told BBC News.

 

Sensors on Voyager had been indicating for some time that its local environment had changed.

The data that finally convinced the mission team to call the jump to interstellar space came from the probe's Plasma Wave Science (PWS) instrument. This can measure the density of charged particles in Voyager's vicinity.

Readings taken in April/May this year and October/November last year revealed a near-100-fold jump in the number of protons occupying every cubic metre of space.

 

 

 

Scientists have long theorised such a spike would eventually be observed if Voyager could get beyond the influence of the magnetic fields and particle wind that billow from the surface of the Sun.

 

When the Voyager team put the new data together with information from the other instruments onboard, they calculated the moment of escape to have occurred on or about 25 August, 2012. This conclusion is contained in a report published by the journal Science.

 

"This is big; it's really impressive - the first human-made object to make it out into interstellar space," said Prof Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa and the principal investigator on the PWS.

 

On 25 August, 2012, Voyager-1 was some 121 Astronomical Units away. That is, 121 times the separation between the Earth and the Sun.

Breaching the boundary, known technically as the heliopause, was, said the English Astronomer Royal, Prof Sir Martin Rees, a remarkable achievement: "It's utterly astonishing that this fragile artefact, based on 1970s technology, can signal its presence from this immense distance."

Although now embedded in the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars, Voyager still feels a gravitational tug from the Sun, just as some comets do that lie even further out in space. But to all intents and purposes, it has left what most people would define as the Solar System. It is now in a completely new domain.

Nasa's Voyager probes

• Voyager 2 launched on 20 August 1977; Voyager 1 lifted off on 5 September the same year
• Their official missions were to study Jupiter and Saturn, but the probes were able to continue on
• The Voyager 1 probe is now the furthest human-built object from Earth
• Both probes carry discs with recordings designed to portray the diversity of culture on Earth
   

Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.

The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.

They were then steered towards deep space. It is expected that their plutonium power sources will stop supplying electricity in about 10 years, at which point their instruments and their 20W transmitters will die.

 

Voyager-1 will not approach another star for nearly 40,000 years, even though it is moving at 45km/s (100,000mph).

"Voyager-1 will be in orbit around the centre of our galaxy with all its stars for billions of years," said Prof Stone.

In 1990, Voyager-1 looked back and took a picture of Earth - a "pale blue dot"

 

The probe's work is not quite done, however. For as long as they have working instruments, scientists will want to sample the new environment.

The new region through which Voyager is now flying was generated and sculpted by big stars that exploded millions of years ago.

There is indirect evidence and models to describe the conditions in this medium, but Voyager can now measure them for real and report back.

The renowned British planetary scientist Prof Fred Taylor commented: "As a young post-doc, I went to [Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory] and worked for a while with the team that was doing the science definition study for the Outer Planets Grand Tour, which later became Voyager.

 

"It seemed so incredible and exciting to think we would see and explore Jupiter and Saturn close up, let alone Uranus and Neptune.

"The idea that the spacecraft would then exit the Solar System altogether was so way out, figuratively as well as literally, that we didn't even discuss it then, although I suppose we knew it would happen someday. Forty-three years later, that day has arrived, and Voyager is still finding new frontiers."

 

 

The Sun sits in an extensive bubble of hot gas called the heliosphere

• Solar wind: The stream of charged particles blown off the Sun and travelling at "supersonic" speeds (white arrows)
• Termination shock: Area where particles from the Sun begin to slow and clash with matter from deep space
• Heliosheath: A vast, turbulent expanse where the solar wind piles up as it presses outward against interstellar matter
• Heliopause: The boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar wind, where the pressure of both are in balance

 

 

[Raithe]

Heh, for that random interest..

 

Everything Wrong with America in one single graphic...

 

 

When a country places more importance on sports than on academic achievement, its decline is inevitable. The American Decline is real and this is where it comes from.

 

 

This is why intelligence and knowledge is disparaged in the country that reached the Moon. These days, intellectuals are mocked as “faggy” and unmanly as if brute strength somehow contributed to the technical prowess, economic agility and innovation that made America a superpower.

This is why our politics are a disaster. When you raise a generation to believe that throwing a ball is more important than fulfilling their civic duty to make informed decisions, you allow charlatans to sell their lies to the public unchallenged.

 

This is where the Steubenville and countless other sports town rapes comes from, the vast majority of which are covered up and ignored. We literally worship at the altar of sports. The rape of young women is a small price to pay for glory immortal.

Until we get our collective head out of our ass and treat teachers and cops and sanitation workers and firefighters and the men and women we send into combat as the priceless resources that protect our lives, care for our children and make our country worth living in, we’re doomed to a future of self-centered stupidity and civic ignorance.

Bread and Circuses brought Rome to its knees. Will our epitaph be “Football and Junk Food?”

 

 

[Amentep]

Looking up the exact data, they're counting "media appearances, apparel contracts, and fundraising" which undercuts their point. Because at the point you start counting non-public money you're moving away from the "highest paid public employee".

 

Under their method Arnold, when he was governor, would have been counted for both his governor's salary and any residuals he was making from his past movies/books or appearance fees he might get.

[Raithe]

Maybe not so weird, but since the Firefly/Serenity discussion went on a bit on the other thread, I thought it might be of interest to a few:

 

Dark Horse - Can't Stop the Signal

 

 

Dark Horse Comics will relaunch "Firefly" with art from longtime Joss Whedon collaborator (and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" artist) Georges Jeanty.

 

2005's Serenity brought the story of Joss Whedon's Firefly to an end -- kind of. Following up on a number of teases, Dark Horse Comics has confirmed that it will be launching a new Serenity comic that takes place following the movie, with art by Buffy the Vampire Slayer artist Georges Jeanty.

 

Comic Book Resources broke the news today, explaining that when the series opens, the remaining crew of the Serenity will have to deal with the fallout of their actions: "With River Tam in the co-pilot chair and a very pregnant Zoe reeling from the death of her husband, Wash, Mal is finding himself and his ship in greater danger than ever."

 

For Jeanty -- who has worked on Joss Whedon's two comic book "seasons" of Buffy -- switching to another Whedon series presented a problem that most may not have considered. "When I was drawing Buffy, I could start from scratch," the artist told CBR. "Sure, I had to keep in-line with how the characters looked, but everything [else] was up for grabs. Sunnydale was destroyed, so I didn't have to keep in-line with the architecture. With [Serenity], there are seven characters and a ship to consider. When they're on Serenity -- fans know what every inch of that ship looks like, so I have to be very meticulous with my depiction."

 

Alongside the television series and movie, Jeanty is casting his net wide when it comes to influences on the new series, mentioning Blade Runner, Outland and Alien as important visual touchstones, as well as comic book artists Walt Simonson, Geof Darrow and Moebius.

 

The series -- the launch date and writer of which are both still under wraps -- is "definitely a learning experience," Jeanty said. "I have a very small window to master these characters, and I'll probably be finished with the series before I get there!" Expect more news about Serenity's relaunch at next month's New York Comic-Con.

 

[BruceVC]

A Boy Makes Anti-Muslim Comments In Front Of An American Soldier. The Soldier's Reply: Priceless.

 

 

 

This powerful social experiment set out to show us a glimpse of the disturbing discrimination many Muslims sadly face every day in America. I began watching this video thinking I would be left feeling disheartened and angry, but the words the soldier says at 5:05 are so powerful that I wish all people who held prejudice could hear him speak.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueT79ZPY9IM&feature=player_embedded#t=289

 

Wow that movie was really brilliant, very reassuring actually that most normal people won't accept blatant discrimination.

[Walsingham]

 

Prince William to take Conservation role as he leaves the military

 

 

I think Harry should take on a conservation role, in his apache strike copter.

[Raithe]

Alabama Elementary School asks Parents for Permission to Hit the Kids

 

 

 

When Alabama mom, Wendy Chandler, opened her daughter's "Back to School" packet, she was shocked to discover that among the many papers sent to her, was a "Corporal Punishment Parental Consent Form."

 

The permission slip, which has been making the Internet rounds since The New York Times reported the story this week, reads in part:

"According to Leeds City Schools Public Policy, parents or legal guardians who do not want corporal punishment to be administered to their child/children must inform the principal of the school on an annual basis."

 

The document also states that if parents fail to fill it out and hand it back to administrators, the elementary school will regard that as implicit consent to administer physical discipline. But as for what that entails exactly, and what infractions would warrant that discipline, the paper doesn't specify.

 

Chandler explained to The Huffington Post that she originally thought the form had to have been some sort of mistake. But realizing that her daughter's new school was serious about hitting students, she ticked off the "No" box and wrote this response at the bottom of the form:

"I can not imagine how it would ever be okay to show violence towards anyone. Hitting a child is beyond disgraceful. Anyone who could hit a child should be thrown in jail."

 

Now Chandler has started a Change.org petition asking President Obama and other government officials to ban the use of physical force in public schools nationwide.

It sounds like an argument straight out of the 1950s, but surprisingly in 2013, 19 states still allow public schools to administer corporal punishment to children. And since the story broke, Internet commenters have brought up the old "spare the rod, spoil the child" arguments in favor of what many others consider to be a barbaric practice.

 

According to a 2008 report by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, students in states that allow corporal punishment are often hit with objects like paddles, and for minor infractions like chewing gum or dress code violations. As a result, "many children are left injured, degraded, and disengaged from school."

 

Chandler told HuffPo her new mission to eradicate corporal punishment from schools goes well above and beyond the short-term safety of her daughter. "My immediate concern is for all those other kids [whose parents checked yes on the form] because those children are my child’s future colleagues and neighbors."

 

 

[Walsingham]

*rant condensed*

 

Sometimes kids do things which hurt other people. The best way to teach them that's not nice is - for serious issues - to hurt them a little bit.

 

I got hit twice as a kid. I remember what did I did wrong each time (breaking other people's things), and I'm very very conscientious now.

[Hurlshort]

I'm not sure about the school playing a role in that though.  Lessons need to be learned, but there are so many other ways to teach them without resorting to physical harm.  

 

Now as a parent, I've given my kids a smack on the rear or grabbed them roughly when they've thrown a tantrum or are doing something dangerously bad, but I would hardly expect that type of reaction from an educator in a school setting.  I couldn't imagine doing anything of the sort as a teacher.  Do I have students that deserve it?  Absolutely!  But it is still not my place and I have many other tools to use in order to get my lesson across.

 

Basically I am saying educators need to be held to a higher standard.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/21/spider-mans-bond-set-at-50000-and-ordered-to-have-a-mental-evaluation/

[NOK222]

*rant condensed*

 

Sometimes kids do things which hurt other people. The best way to teach them that's not nice is - for serious issues - to hurt them a little bit.

 

I got hit twice as a kid. I remember what did I did wrong each time (breaking other people's things), and I'm very very conscientious now.

 

Who gave you the smack? The people that spawned you or some strangers at a building you're sent to learn stuff from? I don't mind a smack or two from parents (as I have) but any other person initiating physical violence should be prepared to face physical reprisal either form the victim or the family.

[Lexx]

Never got a smack, and I don't think that I "developed wrong" due to this.

[Raithe]

Oh for those physical workout experts out there.. this one might be of interest:

CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

 

 

Everyone has an uncle they’d rather you not meet.
 

Please allow me to introduce you to Uncle Rhabdo, CrossFit’s unofficial and disturbing mascot. Uncle Rhabdo is a cartoon commonly referenced in CrossFit literature and representative of a troubling trend among CrossFitters.

He’s a clown. Literally.

 

The “Uncle Rhabdo” cartoon depicts an exhausted, yet well-muscled clown, connected to a dialysis machine standing next to some workout equipment. Concernedly, his kidney has fallen out and lies on the floor underneath him, along with some portion of his bowel. He’s left a pool of blood on the floor below him, but it’s not clear if this is from the disembowelment, the kidney’s arterial supply, or the collection of fasciotomies he appears to have endured. Uncle Rhabdo, of course, has Rhabdomyolysis.

 

Rhabdomyolysis, apart from being a subtly pleasant and melodic sounding word, is an uncool, serious and potentially fatal condition resulting from the catastrophic breakdown of muscle cells. We’ll get more into the specifics in just a bit, but first let’s begin with a story.

 

A Tale of Rhabdomyolysis

One day, a very fit, young, physical therapist colleague of mine went to CrossFit. She had been many times before. On this warm Texas evening, she performed a partner workout, where each would trade off performing sets of 10 for each exercise. The workout consisted of pushups. Lots of them. Copious amounts of overhead press were also included.

 

She performed hundreds of repetitions of each. She was a champ!

“I didn’t want to not match my partner. Normally I may have rested a little, but the partner workout kept me going.”

Most people who experience exertional rhabdomyolysis are very fit. This is not a case of out-of-shape newbies doing too much.
 

Both of these activities heavily involve the triceps muscles and so she wasn’t surprised to have her beautiful, sculpted arms feel like poorly set bowls of JELL-O® on the way home from CrossFit. Perhaps it was the heat. Maybe it was the sheer number of exercises she did. Her muscles were in crisis. She iced and hydrated when she got home, like a good little exerciser, but the damage was already done.

 

As physical therapists, we’re finely tuned detection machines looking for normal versus abnormal response to exercise and activity. “Is this supposed to hurt?” is a question we respond to hundreds of times in a week. Sometimes the answer to this question is yes and we encourage the individual to press on, and other times it’s a signal to initiate some rest and recovery. This signal detection is one of the things that’s deeply embedded into physical therapists. We can’t help it. And so when my friend awoke the next morning, her abnormal response alarms were blaring. She couldn’t bend her elbows! She couldn’t even reach her mouth to brush her teeth.

 

Still entrenched in the CrossFit culture of deplete, endure, repeat, she quieted the alarms and stoically pressed on to go to work. It didn’t take long to realize she not only couldn’t bend her arms, they also had no strength. She wasn’t able to treat her patients. By that evening, her slender arms had continued to swell into plump hotdogs of ache and regret, and she was starting to come to the realization that the morning’s danger alarms were legitimate.

Unbelievably, it took another 24 hours for her professional sense to break through the grip of the CrossFit culture, and seek medical attention. She was diagnosed with acute rhabdomyolysis, and ended up in the hospital for over a week. While in the emergency department they tested her creatinine kinase (CPK) levels. Normal is about 100. Her CPK levels were more than 45,000, a number that indicated damage to the kidneys.

 

While in the hospital, she called to cancel her CrossFit membership. As is standard when something is cancelled, the CrossFit coach asked the reason for her decision. She replied, “I’m in the hospital.” The instructor quickly asked, “Is it rhabdo?”

 

And here we have arrived at CrossFit’s dirty little secret. The coach was unusually familiar with what is normally a very rarely seen disorder. It’s so rare that one study reported the overall annual incidence of rhabdomyolysis to be 0.06%. That represents single digits of cases out of hundreds of thousands of patients. How, I wondered, is it possible that the layperson exercise instructor is on a first-name basis with a serious, yet rare medical condition? Is this a thing with CrossFit? It turns out it is.

 

Rhabdomyolysis: As Told By CrossFit?

A quick search of the Interwebs reveals copious amounts of information about rhabdo purveyed by none other than CrossFit trainers. Scouring the scientific literature in mainstream medical journals, however, reveals a only a few peer-reviewed papers. The science confirms that exertional rhabdomyolysis, as this form is sometimes referred to, is uncommon and normally reserved for the elite military trainee, ultra-endurance monsters, and for victims of the occasional psychotic football coach. Rhabdomyolysis isn’t a common condition, yet it’s so commonly encountered in CrossFit that they have a cartoon about it, nonchalantly casting humor on something that should never happen.

 

So what is rhabdomyolysis exactly? Under extreme conditions your muscles cells explode. They die. They leach protein out into the blood stream, including one form called myoglobin. Ever stalwart, your kidneys take up the job of clearing these dangerous proteins from the blood. Why? It’s just what they do. Unfortunately, myoglobin proteins aren’t designed to be in the blood in the first place and they can easily overload the kidney. This can produce injury or death to all or part of the kidney in a short amount of time, and is potentially lethal. Locally, the muscles are left damaged and dying. Swelling ensues and weakness occurs as pressure builds around the remaining muscle cells. Your body’s systems that normally can assist with this local muscle damage are now offline trying to help you not die. If you get to this stage, you’re in serious trouble.

 

In some cases, acute compartment syndrome ensues, which is an emergency condition that can result in loss of a limb unless your connective tissue is slashed open to release the swelling , a procedure called a fasciotomy. None of this is something that people should be handling in such a cavalier manner.

So what gives? As early as 2005, the New York Times documented rhabdomyolysis associated with the culture of CrossFit in a piece entitled, “Getting Fit, Even If It Kills You.” The article included this gem of a quote:

What does CrossFit’s founder, Greg Glassman think of this?“Yet six months later Mr. Anderson, a former Army Ranger, was back in the gym, performing the very exercises that nearly killed him. “I see pushing my body to the point where the muscles destroy themselves as a huge benefit of CrossFit,” he said.”

Fast forward to 2013 and this culture has changed little, perhaps even accelerated. As fellow Medium writer, Jason Kessler pointed out in “Why I Quit CrossFit,” the elitist, push yourself to the limit culture of the discipline has increased in light of commercial interests taking hold. Regarding culture, Jason points out,“It can kill you,” he said. “I’ve always been completely honest about that.”

In another psychotic example of how the overwhelming culture of CrossFit can diminish professional common sense, one gynecologist was quoted dishing this nonsense:“If you ask a CrossFit coach, the injuries were all my fault. In a culture that drives you to go as hard and fast as possible, it’s difficult not to get caught up in the hype. You’re supposed to push yourself to the limit, but when you hit the limit and pay the price, you’re the idiot who went too far.”

No, peeing during a workout is not alright. Ever.“Ladies, in my professional opinion, it is okay to pee during double unders.”

 

To underline the point, MoveForwardPT.com, the official consumer information website of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), hosted an online radio show specifically responding to CrossFit’s irresponsible glorification of stress induced urinary incontinence.

The Impact of Rhabdomyolysis

Sometimes rhabdomyolysis gets better with treatment. Sometimes it lingers. Sometimes your kidneys are never the same again. One message board commenter remarked,

“ I seem to “flare” after any resistance training. I came into this by over training- I was in phenomenal shape. I have gained weight. I get swollen and puffy. I feel as though the quality of my muscle tissue decreases on a daily basis- more so than the lack of weight training- seems to be disintegration.”The effects of rhabdomyolysis can persist beyond the initial crisis phase.

My friend experienced a similar, though thankfully less severe long term effect. It’s been several months and her triceps strength is not back to normal. Her sculpted arms are gone, replaced by semi-swollen giggly tissue. Once a muscle tears, damaged, fatty scar tissue replaces the injured muscle tissue. The result is a permanently damaged muscle, and a decreased ability to strength train. The irony of pushups causing flabby arms underscores the age-old mantra: There really is too much of a good thing.

 

Crossfitters, largely unaware of the rhabdo risk, will continue to charge ahead, pressured and happily coerced into exercising to depletion and exhaustion. My prediction: in a few years, the peer-reviewed scientific literature will be ripe with articles about CrossFit and Rhabdomyolysis. Health providers will be there to scoop up the pieces, but who is there to protect those people unknowingly at risk?

 

Exercise is just about the best thing you can do for your body, but in the case of Crossfit, we’re left to ponder the question, is this workout worth the risk? Can the culture adapt to one that embraces safe training principles? Do coaches truly have the ability to detect what a proper training load is for their athletes? Only time will tell, but the future of CrossFit may depend on it.

 

Edited September 23, 2013 by Raithe

[Walsingham]

That last article made me confused and hungry.

[Malcador]

"I can not imagine how it would ever be okay to show violence towards anyone. Hitting a child is beyond disgraceful. Anyone who could hit a child should be thrown in jail."

Pretty damn weak imagination on her part. Still recall when I was in Sea-tac, kid actually bit his mother when she was telling him to calm down, she cuffs him and he wais, her response of "Cry louder. No one cares" got a good laugh from people nearby.

[Malcador]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/mpaa-school-propaganda/

 

Listen up children: Cheating on your homework or cribbing notes from another student is bad, but not as bad as sharing a music track with a friend, or otherwise depriving the content-industry of its well-earned profits.

 

That’s one of the messages in a new-school curriculum being developed with the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the nation’s top ISPs, in a pilot project to be tested in California elementary schools later this year.

 

A near-final draft of the curriculum, obtained by WIRED, shows that it comes in different flavors for every grade from kindergarten through sixth, to keep pace with your developing child’s ability to understand that copying is theft, period.

 

“This thinly disguised corporate propaganda is inaccurate and inappropriate,” says Mitch Stoltz, an intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who reviewed the material at WIRED’s request.

 

“It suggests, falsely, that ideas are property and that building on others’ ideas always requires permission,” Stoltz says. “The overriding message of this curriculum is that students’ time should be consumed not in creating but in worrying about their impact on corporate profits.”

 

The material was prepared by the California School Library Association and the Internet Keep Safe Coalition in conjunction with the Center For Copyright Infringement, whose board members include executives from the MPAA, RIAA, Verizon, Comcast and AT&T.

 

Each grade’s material includes a short video, and comes with a worksheet for teachers to use that’s packed with talking points to share with students.

 

An entrepreneurial schoolyard artist finds her business selling dragon drawings is ruined after a fellow third-grader takes a photo with her cell phone.

 

In the sixth-grade version, (.pdf) teachers are asked to engage students with the question: “In school, if we copy a friend’s answers on a test or homework assignment, what happens?”

 

The answer is, you can be suspended from school or flunk the test. The teachers are directed to tell their students that there are worse consequences if they commit a copyright violation.

 

“In the digital world, it’s harder to see the effects of copying, even though the effects can be more serious,” the teacher worksheet says.

 

The material is silent on the concept of fair use, a legal doctrine that allows for the reproduction of copyrighted works without the rights holder’s permission. Instead, students are told that using works without permission is “stealing.”

 

“Justin Bieber got started singing other people’s songs, without permission, on YouTube. If he had been subjected to this curriculum, he would have been told that what he did was ‘bad, ‘stealing,’ and could have landed him in jail,” says Stoltz.

 

“We’ve got some editing to do,” concedes Glen Warren, vice president of the California School Library Association, the non-profit that helped produce the material with the Internet Keep Safe Coalition and industry.

 

The Internet Keep Safe Coalition is a non-profit partnering with various governments and some of the nation’s biggest corporate names like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Target, Xerox, HP and others.

 

Its president, Marsali Han****, says fair use is not a part of the teaching material because K-6 graders don’t have the ability to grasp it.

 

The curriculum, she said in a telephone interview, “is developmentally consistent with what children can learn at specific ages.”

 

She said the group will later develop material for older kids that will discuss fair use.

 

A 45-second video for second graders, for example, shows a boy snapping pictures and deciding whether to sell, keep or share them.

 

“You’re not old enough yet to be selling your pictures online, but pretty soon you will be,” reads the accompanying text in the teacher’s lesson plan. (.pdf) “And you’ll appreciate if the rest of us respect your work by not copying it and doing whatever we want with it.”

 

Han**** said the lessons were developed with “literacy experts,” and that some of the wording and kinks may still need to be ironed out.

 

She said the material has not yet been approved by the Center For Copyright Information, the group that commissioned the curriculum.

 

The Center for Copyright Information is best known for working with the White House and rights holders to forge an internet monitoring program with some of the nation’s biggest ISPs. That program provides for extrajudicial punishment of internet users who download copyrighted works without permission. Commenced earlier this year, the program’s punishment for repeat violators includes temporary internet termination and throttling connection speeds.

 

Han**** said the center is expected to be briefed on the proposed curriculum — dubbed “Be a Creator” — perhaps as early as this week.

 

The center’s executive director, Jill Lesser, told a House subcommittee Wednesday that she hoped the program would be integrated in “schools across the country.”

 

She testified that it’s best to attack piracy through youth education.

 

“Based on our research, we believe one of the most important audiences for our educational efforts is young people. As a result, we have developed a new copyright curriculum that is being piloted during this academic year in California,” according to her testimony.

 

“The curriculum introduces concepts about creative content in innovative and age-appropriate ways. The curriculum is designed to help children understand that they can be both creators and consumers of artistic content, and that concepts of copyright protection are important in both cases,” Lesser testified.

 

She said the CCI’s board is expected to sign off on the program soon, although she cautioned that it currently is in “draft” form.

 

“We are just about to post those materials in the next week or two on our web site,” Lesser said in a telephone interview.

 

Gigi Sohn, the president of Public Knowledge and an adviser to the CCI, declined to comment because she said she hasn’t seen the curriculum.

 

Overall, the curriculum’s message is anything but “sharing is caring.”

 

“We all love to create new things—art, music, movies, paper creations, structures, even buildings! It’s great to create — as long as we aren’t stealing other people’s work. We show respect for other artists and their work when we get permission before we use their work,” according to the message to first graders. (.pdf) “This is an important part of copyright. Sharing can be exciting and helpful and nice. But taking something without asking is mean.”

 

The fifth-grade lesson introduces the Creative Commons license, in which rights holders grant limited permission on re-use. But even in explaining the Creative Commons, the lesson says that it’s illegal to make any copies of copyrighted works. That’s a message that essentially says it’s even unlawful to rip CDs to your iPod.

 

“If a song or movie is copyrighted, you can’t copy it, download it, or use it in your own work without permission,” according to the fifth-grade worksheet. (.pdf) “However, Creative Commons allows artists to tell users how and if their work can be used by others. For example, if a musician is okay with their music being downloaded for free — they will offer it on their website as a ‘Free download.’ An artist can also let you know how you can use their work by using a Creative Commons license.”

 

Warren, of the library association, agreed that it’s incorrect to tell students they can never use copyrighted works without permission, as the fifth-grade worksheet says. He said some of the package’s language has been influenced by the rights holders on the Center for Copyright Information.

 

“We’re moving along trying to get things a little closer to sanity,” Warren said in a telephone interview. “That tone and language, that came from that side of the fence, so to speak.”

[Raithe]

Heh, from an author's blog.

 

On Being A Teenager in a Digital Age

 

 

 

Instead of complaining more about book and writing, today I will tell you a story of a fifteen year old we’re going to call Aaron.  Aaron was kind of pudgy in middle school and was often teased. Aaron’s father, a pastor, very much wanted Aaron to succeed at sports, so he did whatever he had to do to make that happen, like buying socks for the entire athletic team.  Predictably that made Aaron the target of more teasing.

 

Aaron struck Gordon and me as a pretty good kid.  He’d been to the house and Kid 2 kind of felt bad for him because popular kids were sometimes mean to him.  However, Aaron always had a bit of a mean streak himself.  One of Kid 2′s friends – we’ll call her Lisa – dated Aaron and the break up was ugly.  So ugly that Lisa didn’t want to go to the same high school as Aaron, because she was afraid he would bully her. To be fair, Lisa is very conflict-averse due to her family situation and more than a little bit dramatic.  I got a call from Lisa one time close to midnight.  She had a fight with her grandmother, who is her legal guardian, and was “running away.” But there was something there, enough that Kid 2 decided to not invite Aaron to the house anymore.  Although Lisa had been assured numerous times that no bullying would occur and that her friends and Kid 2 would stand up for her, she was relieved when she was placed into a small private school instead.

 

Then Aaron went with his family to Africa to “minister” over the summer. He had an awesome time.  When pressed for stories about Africa, he mostly described how he handed out stickers to kids in line for Bibles and T-shirts.  While in Africa, the Neville thing happened.  Aaron grew a few inches and thinned out.  He came back tan, athletic, and the girls in school suddenly realized he was good looking.  Meanwhile Kid 2, who once felt sorry for him, began to make fun of him, because apparently when Aaron opened his mouth, Africa came out.  He said things like, “My real home is in Africa, man,” which Kid 2 and some of his other former friends found a bit ridiculous as he was over there for less than three weeks.  But Africa lines must’ve worked, because Aaron started getting a lot of traction with preppy Christian girls.  (There is a clique of preppy Christian, apparently.  There is also Country Christian.  They wear cowboy boots.  It’s a large high school.)

 

So Aaron happened to be attending a highschool football game.  Lisa also was at that game.  Football is big in Texas.  Somehow it got around to Aaron that Lisa liked a certain kid.  Aaron couldn’t let it go.  He walked over to her and told her that he was going to go over to this kid and show him pictures of naked girls he had on his phone.  Lisa told him, “Don’t do that.  I like him and you need to leave him alone.”  So Aaron walked over to this kid and showed him a picture of a naked girl with her face cut off and declared that it was Lisa.  This was the last straw.  Lisa ran down where they were and attacked Aaron.  It needs to be pointed out that Lisa is tiny, while Aaron is not.

 

She beat his ass.

 

She beat his ass so badly that police – there are always a ton of cops at the football games – felt the need to intervene and break it up.  Aaron’s phone was confiscated as evidence and was discovered to contain fifty-two pictures of naked girls from Kid 2′s high school. Pictures these girls voluntarily sent to him.

 

Under Texas law, possession of a digital image of a nude minor, even if it’s by another minor,  is classified as possession of child pornography.  Aaron is looking at registration as a sex offender and criminal charges.  Aaron was arrested and spent seven hours in jail.  It’s not clear if the girls will be charged but technically they could be.

 

This is the one time in my life when I am relieved that our girls are a little bit self-conscious, as ninety five percent of teenage girls are, and taking naked pictures of themselves, let alone sending them to anyone, is pretty much out of the question.  To no one’s surprise, Aaron had distributed these pictures to all of his jock buddies.  The local Best Buy is doing a  brisk business.  Apparently a lot of phones got mysteriously smashed, wiped, drowned, and the replacement memory cards are flying off the shelves, because nobody wants to be caught with child pornography on their phones.  Nobody wants to be arrested or go to jail.

 

As an interesting aside, last year a picture of a naked girl was mass-sent to most of the kids attending the high school as a spam message.  Kid 1′s phone was cracked very shortly after and had to be replaced and Kid 1′s boyfriend happened to somehow smash his phone on the ground.

 

And that’s what it’s like to be a teenager in a digital age.  Let’s pause for a second and consider what it’s like to be a parent of a teenager in a digital age.  Yeah.  O_O