The Weird, Random, and Interesting things that Fit Nowhere Else Thread..

[Gfted1]

The U.S. Is Starting to Sell Armed Drones to Allies.

 

[Calax]

 

... Oklahoma just banned AP History from High School

 

For being unpatriotic

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/oklahoma-legislative-committee-questions-legality-of-advanced-placement-courses-in/article_2b257556-b62c-5a92-862e-8e9821a29bbc.html

 

They didn't exactly ban it. Yet.

 

While some will cry foul that some crazy politicians are attempting to dumb the kids down, this is a much more complex of an issue than that.

 

As the article states, the potential banning of state funds for AP classes is tied to the state's backlash against Common Core. What the article doesn't state, and that most people who are on the front lines of the common core fight know, is that the College Board (the private company that is behind the AP exams) now has as it's President a certain David Coleman, who is often considered the chief architect of Common Core. He has stated his intention of overhauling the AP curriculum to coincide with the common core. In fact, some of that curriculum has been overhauled already (including AP U.S. History). There are a great many out there who have serious issues with the overhauls to the AP curriculum, which many are characterizing as revisionist history (in the case of US AP History) and dumbing down the curriculum (in all AP cases (and this dumbing down is also central to much of the outrage directed at common core)).

 

Note that if a school elects to not teach an AP class (due to lack of state funding for it or any other reason) as outlined by the College Board, in no way does that necessarily mean that kids aren't going to be able to learn advanced courses. There are other alternatives to the AP curriculum and it's exams, and unless they changed the rules since I took mine (which is possible) one can take an AP exam even if one hasn't taken an AP course.

 

As I said though, this is a complex issue. There's much more to it even than what I've already written.

 

It's more the fact that they're openly politicizing the teaching of history to those who are ostensibly supposed to then go out and try to make the world a better place. The rhertoric displayed in the article isn't that they're doing this "for the children's own benefit" but rather they're doing it because what is being taught within those classes doesn't conform to what the politicians think should be taught within a class. AP is about getting a college level course done at high school, and part of college curriculum is learning the stuff that isn't politically correct. You don't learn, during US history, that prior to a gay communist talking to him, Martin Luther King Jr. had a literal armory in his house.

 

Instead what these members of the committee are aiming for is a reduction in what's taught so that only their political ideology seems proper because of the omissions of information by the teachers due to the curriculum enforced. And even if they can't do that with standard history, if they continue down this path with the AP history courses, they're going to find themselves in serious trouble because their students will fail exams at the collegiate level on stuff they ostensibly "know".

[Rosbjerg]

So it seems Neil Blomkamp (director of District 9, Elysium etc) will be directing the new Alien movie coming in 2017 if rumors are to be believed.

[Blarghagh]

Looks like posting "here's the Alien movie mockups and designs I made just for fun" on Twitter is how you get people to greenlit your movie. Well played, Blomkamp.

 

Anyway, here's something that tugged at my heartstrings a little. Local theme park released 2 black swans, a male and a female, in one of their ponds about five years ago. They were inseperable, but recently the male died (infection or some such). Now the distraught female is spending her days hanging out in front of a shiny trash can in the theme park, making odd noises towards it. The shiny trascan is reflective and not having ever seen another black swan, the female regards the reflection as her mate.

[JadedWolf]

Looks like posting "here's the Alien movie mockups and designs I made just for fun" on Twitter is how you get people to greenlit your movie. Well played, Blomkamp.

 

Anyway, here's something that tugged at my heartstrings a little. Local theme park released 2 black swans, a male and a female, in one of their ponds about five years ago. They were inseperable, but recently the male died (infection or some such). Now the distraught female is spending her days hanging out in front of a shiny trash can in the theme park, making odd noises towards it. The shiny trascan is reflective and not having ever seen another black swan, the female regards the reflection as her mate.

 

Yeah, it's really rather sad. Swans mate for life, and they were only released into the park last year.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0z436q2x6k#t=72

[Blarghagh]

Really, only last year? I was sure they were released longer ago.

[Oerwinde]

Looks like posting "here's the Alien movie mockups and designs I made just for fun" on Twitter is how you get people to greenlit your movie. Well played, Blomkamp.

 

that's how Deadpool got greenlit too. I'm guessing we're gonna see a lot of that I the next few years

[Blarghagh]

The difference being that the leaked Deadpool footage was commissioned and the Alien thing having no studio involvement at all. But yeah, very true.

[Raithe]

NewYorker - Student Debt Revolt Begings

 

 

 

In the fall of 2013, Mallory Heiney returned from a mission trip to Guinea with a plan to go into health care. She enrolled in classes at a for-profit college called Everest Institute, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, expecting to graduate with a degree that would help her become a nurse. But, after less than a year, she said, her instructors stopped showing up. Corinthian Colleges, the company that owned Everest, had admitted that its finances were in trouble, and that it expected to go out of business; it later said it would shut down several campuses, including the one in Grand Rapids. Heiney graduated but felt she had learned very little. When she tells people where she went, she told me, she gets sympathetic looks. She said, “You go to school so they look at you and think, ‘Wow, this person must be educated’—not so they look at you and think, ‘Oh, this person went to Everest. They must be trash.’ ” Heiney’s student debts include more than ten thousand dollars owed to the federal government and more than ten thousand dollars in private loans; that’s what remains after she repaid some of the interest on her debts while she was in college, in part by selling her own plasma.

 

On Monday, Heiney and fourteen other people who took out loans to attend Corinthian announced that they are going on a “debt strike,” and will stop repaying their loans. They believe that they have both ethical and legal grounds for what appears to be an unprecedented collective action against the debt charged to students who attended Corinthian schools, and they are also making a broader statement about the trillion dollars of student debt owed throughout the country.

 

Corinthian was one of the world’s largest for-profit operators of colleges; at its height, in 2010, more than a hundred thousand students were enrolled in its schools, which operated under the names of Everest, Heald, and WyoTech, throughout the U.S. and part of Canada. These days, the company can hardly be said to exist. Over the past few years, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the attorney general of California, and the attorney general of Massachusetts have brought separate lawsuits accusing the company of all kinds of bad behavior: pressuring students into signing up for huge loans, misleading them about their prospects after graduation, and strong-arming them into beginning to repay their private loans before they had even graduated. Last year, Corinthian stopped filing financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and, earlier this month, the Nasdaq Stock Market sent Corinthian a letter informing its officials—those who remain—that the business would be delisted. All fourteen of Corinthian’s Canada campuses have been shut down. In the U.S., more than fifty campuses have been sold off; a dozen have been closed.

 

Corinthian’s downfall has come to be seen as a symbol of the ills of for-profit higher education—the false promises of employment, the mounting student debt, the aggressive collection tactics. But, for Corinthian students and graduates, the company’s failure has had more practical repercussions. Most Corinthian students cover their tuition by taking out federal and private loans. That debt, it turns out, is far more resilient than Corinthian itself. Students and graduates of the company’s schools are, by and large, expected to repay their federal student loans; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has negotiated for forgiveness of part of the private debt, but not all of it.

 

For anyone, student loans are burdensome; a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the student-debt problem is so severe that it seems to be reducing the formation of new households (a phrase often used as a euphemism for young people moving out of their parents’ homes) and home ownership. Adding to that, students and graduates of Corinthian-owned colleges are finding that their degrees are all but worthless; when they try to transfer, they discover that other colleges won’t recognize their course credits and, when they try to get work, they learn that employers are not at all impressed by Corinthian coursework.

 

In December, a group of Democrats in the Senate, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote to the Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, calling on the Department of Education to “immediately discharge” the federal loans of at least some students who attended Corinthian. This wasn’t a toothless press stunt. The department, the senators noted, has the power to cancel federal loans for students who attended institutions that violated their rights. In fact, they pointed out, the department’s federal-loan agreements with students go as far as to spell this out, if in fine print: “In some cases, you may assert, as a defense against collection of your loan, that the school did something wrong or failed to do something that it should have done.” Earlier this month, the attorney general of Massachusetts made a request similar to that of the senators.

 

A spokeswoman said that the Education Department “shares the commitment” of the senators and the Massachusetts attorney general “to upholding the rights of students who may have been harmed by the actions of institutions that participate in federal student-aid programs.” She said that the department has been in touch with Senator Warren and the attorney general’s staffs and is working on a response. The Education Department doesn’t have jurisdiction over private loans, which amount to far less than federal ones; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which aims to protect consumers from private-debt troubles, is seeking full relief of the private Corinthian debt, but is meanwhile urging people to continue to pay off the loans.

 

The debt strike is at once an unusual and obvious protest strategy in response to the Corinthian debt. The current and former Corinthian students participating in the strike, who call themselves the Corinthian Fifteen (Heiney is among their most outspoken members), are publicly refusing to pay both their federal and private debt. With respect to the federal debt, they plan to file legal documents with the Education Department and with the servicers of their federal loans that assert the little-known right Warren and her colleagues describe in their letter. The strike is the result of an alliance between the students and an offshoot of the Occupy movement known as the Debt Collective. Last year, activists affiliated with the Debt Collective became acquainted with Corinthian students through a campaign to buy and “abolish” large amounts of private student debt—a stunt, which I covered, that was meant to shed light on the magnitude of the student-debt problem. Together, the Debt Collective organizers and some of the students came up with the idea for the current action, drawing on some of the power-in-numbers theories behind the labor movement.

 

Debt Collective volunteers—among them, lawyers and people who had dealt with the press—are giving legal, financial, and media support to the strikers, along with training in skills like financial literacy. In addition to committing time and energy, the strikers are assuming the considerable financial and social risks—lower credit scores, embarrassment—of making it publicly known that they don’t intend to repay their loans. (More than a fifth of borrowers of federal student loans go into default, but people who default tend not to announce their status publicly.) Ann Larson, one of the main Debt Collective organizers, talked to hundreds of Corinthian students, many of whom were put off by the potential financial repercussions of striking, not to mention the time commitment and the embarrassment. But she said that she hopes—and expects—that when the first fifteen strikers go public, others who have attended Corinthian campuses will be encouraged to join.

The stakes are high for the Education Department. Corinthian has said that its students have taken out more than a billion dollars in federal loans annually. Kevin Carey, a fellow at the New America foundation who studies higher education, told me that the Education Department is likely wary of setting a precedent that could inspire students who attended other troubled institutions also to seek loan forgiveness. “Drawing legally and logically defensible lines around this situation will be tricky for them,” he told me. Still, Carey said, “In this particular case, I think there’s a pretty strong argument that they ought to forgive a lot of the debt.”

 

Heiney recently began working as a home-health-care nurse—although, she said, “only after a five-hour interview explaining why my school doesn’t reflect my knowledge or patient care.” When I asked why she was willing to make such a public statement about not repaying her debt, she told me that she hopes to influence policy changes that would help future students. “In history, in the civil-rights movement, if everyone was afraid of their own personal repercussions, no progress would ever have been made,” she said.

 

[Oerwinde]

The difference being that the leaked Deadpool footage was commissioned and the Alien thing having no studio involvement at all. But yeah, very true.

Are you sure? When he posted it it said something along the lines of "I don't think I'm working on this anymore"

[Blarghagh]

Well, that's what the article about it I read said, but I can't find it now. It was on Ain't It Cool News though, so not exactly a good track record...

[LadyCrimson]

*watches the video of the black swan*

 

[ShadySands]

 

http://io9.com/neill-blomkamps-secret-alien-movie-looks-so-good-were-f-1677082116

Neill Blomkamp to Tackle New 'Alien' Film for Fox

 

Apparently, the way to convince Fox to make a movie these days is to release concept art or footage online.

 

Following the studio greenlighting Deadpool following the online leak of director Tim Miller’s test footage for the project, Neill Blomkamp will be making his Alien movie after posting concept art from it on Instagram. The director announced the news this afternoon, fittingly, on Instagram. Accompanying a new image of the iconic xenomorph was the caption “Um… So I think it’s officially my next film. #alien.”

 

A source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Blomkamp will work on an Alien script set after the sequel to Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which remains in development. Scott's Scott Free Productions is producing the Blomkamp project. Blomkamp posted artwork from the project online a couple of months ago, describing it as “a mental stroll into the world Ridley Scott created. The caption of the first image he posted, however, suggested that it was a movie that would never happen: “Was working on this. Don’t think I am anymore. Love it though.”

 

 

 

 

The difference being that the leaked Deadpool footage was commissioned and the Alien thing having no studio involvement at all. But yeah, very true.

Are you sure? When he posted it it said something along the lines of "I don't think I'm working on this anymore"

 

 

Should say something about it in my first link

 

Last night, District 9 and Elysium director Blomkamp fired off a round of concept art on his Instagram account. The first image was of a pissed off Xenomorph Queen and had this caption: "Was working on this. Don't think I am anymore. Love it though. #alien #xenomorph." Then he continued to upload a whole lotta beautiful Alien-inspired work onto his account, commenting, "Woulda rocked. Was a mental stroll into the world Ridley Scott created." The idea looks like it took place inside Weyland-Yutani headquarters, which was currently housing the derelict spaceship, and somehow a mangled Hicks reappears (which is a great idea). Ripley can also be seen donning the Space Jockey helmet, and (of course) there's a screaming Queen Xenomorph. It looks great.

 

The art seems more like Blomkamp's personal pitch for an Alien film, and not something a studio pulled from him. Blomkamp even told one Instagram commenter, "Fox never said no." What could that mean? Did Blomkamp ever actually pitch this to Fox?

 

An unverified Blomkamp Twitter account fleshed out the backstory a little stating that "they [presumably Fox] didn't really even know I was working on it ha"

So nothing concrete but seems likely that he just made it on his own

Edited February 26, 2015 by ShadySands

[kirottu]

 

People hearing for the first time.

[Valsuelm]

 

People hearing for the first time.

 

Best video I've seen so far this year.

 

Thanks.

[ShadySands]

Porn Lovers Win: Blogger Ban on Adult Content Reversed

 

Just three days after banning explicit sexual content on Blogger, Google has given in to pressure from porn fans who were less than thrilled about the new policy. The Web giant on Friday announced that it has changed its mind and will not crack down on adult content on its blogging platform, after all.

 

The turnaround comes after Google on Tuesday said it would no longer allow "images and video that are sexually explicit or show graphic nudity" on Blogger, as of March 23. Any existing blogs containing porn would be made private, unless the admin deleted the offending content.

 

Now, Google says that porn will be allowed on Blogger, but asked people to tag pages with nudity, so that Blogger can display an "adult content" warning page before that content is served up.

 

My favorite comment on Facebook - This is not a victory for us but for our children and our children's children

[Malcador]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUcyEsEjhPEDf69RRVhRh4A

 

Youtube channel that walks through WW1

[Gromnir]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/most-popular-store-state_n_6736916.html?cps=gravity_2377_-8184544915665230297

 

am not certain what to make o' the aforementioned article.  somehow we cannot help but feel a little sympathy/pity for nevada, but mostly we wonder why anybody would bother to do the research necessary to write the article we linked... then, of course, we wondered why we read the article and bothered to link it. while banal and surreal strike us as antagonistic concepts, somehow we feel as if both apply in the present context. 

 

...

 

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/26/nearly-frozen-waves-captured-on-camera-by-nantucket-photographer/

 

woulda' liked to have seen video with decent sound.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ManifestedISO]

You got your thin summer linens, thick winter linens, spring floral linens, and the impending autumn sub-60º imminent chill danger linens.

 

Also, I think ABC stores outnumber surf shops in reality.  

[Agiel]

The toy I dreamed of getting as a kid (I eventually had to settle with the regular action figure that had limbs that articulated very poorly, and the skin browned with time).

[Agiel]

 

World War II IJN Battleship "Musashi" found.

 

I think we know the next logical step:

Edited March 3, 2015 by Agiel

[Gromnir]

well, given how the musashi and much o' the japanese fleet went down, perhaps the next logical step woulda' been a space-faring version o' this 

 

would be a better choice instead o' a japanese battleship with antiquated fire-control and a woefully insufficient anti-aircraft suite.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Agiel]

I've heard naval aviators lovingly call oversized surface combatants like the Kirov-class battlecruisers "Navy Crosses waiting to happen". 

Edited March 3, 2015 by Agiel

[Gromnir]

I've heard naval aviators lovingly call oversized surface combatants like the Kirov-class battlecruisers "Navy Crosses waiting to happen". 

even so, am admitting more than a little curiosity about adding one o' these

 

 

to the 3rd zumwalt destroyer.  destructive power and range aside, the fact that the ammo is non-explosive makes it so the chance o' a magazine explosion is, well, zero? 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gfted1]

I loved Star Blazers as a kid.