Stopping Campus Rape - NYTimes.com

Stopping Campus Rape - NYTimes.com: First, our lawmakers could reduce the legal drinking age to 18 from 21. The key problem in college sexual culture right now isn’t drinking per se; it’s blackout drinking, which follows from binge drinking, which is more likely to happen when a drinking culture is driven underground.

Undoing the federal government’s Reagan-era imposition of a higher drinking age is probably too counterintuitive for lawmakers to contemplate. And obviously it wouldn’t eliminate the lure of the keg stand or tame the recklessness of youth. But it would create an opportunity for a healthier approach to alcohol consumption — more social and relaxed, less frantic and performative — to take root in collegiate culture once again.

Will California's Ruling Against Teacher Tenure Change Schools? - Dana Goldstein - The Atlantic

Will California's Ruling Against Teacher Tenure Change Schools? - Dana Goldstein - The Atlantic: Here’s where the judge is right: It is difficult—actually, close to impossible—to argue that California’s teacher-tenure system makes sense. Research shows that most first-year teachers are mediocre at best. But good teachers tend to make huge jumps in effectiveness by the end of their second year on the job, and those improvements are often visible through classroom observation and students’ rising test scores. Yet California evaluates teachers for tenure in March of their second year of work, before two full years of student-teacher data are available.



 This means that under current California law, principals are forced to make high-stakes decisions about teachers without enough evidence. This disadvantages students, who might get stuck with sub-par instructors, but it also hurts teachers, who aren’t given enough time to prove their skill. Once a teacher earns tenure, it can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars—and countless administrative and legal man-hours—for a district to permanently remove him from his job. And in the event of budget cuts or school closings, California law mandates that the least experienced teachers be laid off first, even if they are more effective than their older colleagues, a policy known as “LIFO,” or “Last In, First Out.”

What's still wrong with the job market, in two charts - Vox

What's still wrong with the job market, in two charts - Vox: "When there are a lot of jobs and few job candidates you'd think that time to fill a position would be higher. And that's what this indicator is telling us now," he says.

That could mean that there's a skills mismatch, he says. That is, it could mean that employers can't find people qualified enough for the openings they're posting.

But it could also mean that employers are, for whatever reason, deciding to take their time in hiring. One theory here, as Catherine Rampell wrote in the Times last year, is that employers are still feeling cautious from the downturn — don't make a mistake in hiring, the idea goes, because it could be costly to pick the wrong person.

Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.? - NYTimes.com

Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.? - NYTimes.com:

Annie Lowrey writes
in the Times Magazine this week about the troubles of Clay County, Ky.,
which by several measures is the hardest place in America to live.

The
Upshot came to this conclusion by looking at six data points for each
county in the United States: education (percentage of residents with at
least a bachelor’s degree), median household income, unemployment rate,
disability rate, life expectancy and obesity. We then averaged each
county’s relative rank in these categories to create an overall ranking.

(We tried to include other factors, including income mobility and measures of environmental quality, but we were not able to find data sets covering all counties in the United States.)

The
10 lowest counties in the country, by this ranking, include a cluster
of six in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky (Breathitt,
Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin), along with four others in
various parts of the rural South: Humphreys County, Miss.; East Carroll
Parish, La.; Jefferson County, Ga.; and Lee County, Ark.

overview for xkcd

overview for xkcd: It's more that you should be aware when you're making these jokes, or bringing up the topic, that just the word 'rape' feels like a punch in the stomach to a pretty large group of people, and these are often people who would never in a million years give you feedback. The people in this group aren't just rape victims. A lot of them are just ordinary members of a gender that's always been a little more afraid to walk around at night or go to parties by themselves, knowing in the back of their minds that no matter how they dress or what they carry, they always have something that some bigger, stronger person might decide to take violently. Guys making jokes who weren't brought up with this fear don't always appreciate that.

So if you want to be a decent human being, take that into account when deciding what jokes to make to what audience.

If you want to go for it anyway, that's completely up to you. You have the freedom to say anything you want. I just suspect there are a lot of people who cheerfully make these remarks and don't realize how their words are going to be received. (And if you aren't interested in how your words are going to be received, why are you talking in the first place?)

Tesla’s Radical Patent Move is a Plot to Take Over the Road - The Daily Beast

Tesla’s Radical Patent Move is a Plot to Take Over the Road - The Daily Beast: With Tesla, Musk isn’t just trying to build an electric sports car. He’s trying to build a network that relies on electricity for transport: cars, batteries, supplies and components, charging stations and equipment. That’s an enormously expensive undertaking, and one that Musk and Tesla have largely shouldered alone.

Despite the company’s supreme self-confidence and demonstrated competency, Tesla is coming to realize that it can’t take on the world by itself.

June 2 is the most important day of Obama's second term - Vox

June 2 is the most important day of Obama's second term - Vox:



Adopt a rule that's too lenient, and the president will miss a unique
opportunity to make an impact on one of the most important issues
facing the world today. Adopt a rule that's too strict and he'll risk a
congressional backlash that could ultimately undermine the EPA's ability
to do anything. Republicans are sure to cry "overreach" no matter where
the administration comes down, but they would need Democratic defectors
to really change anything. Yet energy issues are highly regionalized,
and the risk of an anti-Obama backlash from Democrats representing
coal-dependent areas is real. Striking the right balance will be tough,
and regardless of what the rule looks like it will be some time before
we know whether Obama's done it.




But either way, make no mistake this — not the Keystone XL pipeline or congressional Benghazi hearings or clearly doomed transportation plans — is the political story to watch of our time.

The Issue of Tenure for Teachers | Mike the Teacher

The Issue of Tenure for Teachers | Mike the Teacher: Tenure protects teachers’ livelihoods when we stand up to corrupt or incompetent administration. Some of you hate the new standards? An experienced teacher with tenure can shield your kids from bad standards by doing what they know is best without fear of losing their jobs. Without teacher tenure, most of us can’t afford risking our jobs, thus your kids have little-to-no protection from the whims of politicians who have no training or experience in Education. Again: you take away teacher tenure, you take away teachers’ ability to stand up to corruption and incompetence in Education. Believe me, it’s there, and teachers are the last line of defense from your kids being harmed by that corruption and incompetence.

I love teaching, but if I leave it, a large part of it will be because brain-dead rulings like this ensure I will not be allowed to make a living as a teacher when I am old. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

The Exorcists Next Door - D Magazine

The Exorcists Next Door - D Magazine: Ruth morphs into another person altogether when Larry commands these spirits to manifest. Either she is an Academy Award-winning horror-film actress, with Ferrari-smooth shifts of body and voice, or she is encountering something in a subconscious realm. At one point, she speaks the name of a demon in a distinctly foreign voice: “Ba-al.” Later, in casual conversation, the pronunciation comes out differently: “Bail,” with a bit of a twang—the name of a Canaanite god mentioned numerous times in the Bible.

She describes the experience as sitting in a passenger seat, watching things unfold beside her as though another part of her brain controls them. “It becomes our little scavenger hunt,” Ruth says cheerily. “What’s the crazy little person inside me going to say next?”

IranWire | Did Revolutionary Guards Rig the 2009 Election?

IranWire | Did Revolutionary Guards Rig the 2009 Election?: A video posted on Facebook appears to support claims that Iran’s 2009 presidential election was rigged.

The clip, which was apparently leaked, shows Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari giving a speech about the Guards’ crucial role in Iranian politics and arguing the case for military intervention in the election. The date of the speech has not been verified.

In the video, Jafari concedes that there is widespread doubt about the election results. “The situation became complicated and many of the authorities and even many clerics still have doubts,” he says. “Many still have objections, and if things had continued the way they were going, a run-off election would be needed.” He also said that, if the election advanced to another stage, “it was not certain how things would turn out.”

Today’s Clean-Cut Teens: Less Sex, Less Drugs - The Daily Beast

Today’s Clean-Cut Teens: Less Sex, Less Drugs - The Daily Beast: I was thus pleased—but not surprised—to see that the current generation of American adolescents has been making better health-care decisions for themselves than any previous cohort since the Centers for Disease Control started collecting data. According to a massive new report on trends in health statistics recently released by the CDC and handily summarized by Vox, teenagers are less likely to do drugs, have unprotected sex, or (according to the Guttmacher Institute) get pregnant today than adolescents in previous decades.

Adjunct Responsibilities on College Campuses Extend to Mental Health | New Republic

Adjunct Responsibilities on College Campuses Extend to Mental Health | New Republic: This happens because I am in a position of authority, but I am also deeply non-threatening for being a young, blonde woman who smiles a lot. I can’t strike fear into anyone’s heart, and certainly this has a great deal to do with my age and gender, but it also means that I benefit from a very specific kind of privilege. White male privilege means the gift of easy authority and confidence, among other dubious rewards. White female privilege means being viewed as harmless, innocuous, and safe to confide in. For a teacher, this is both a blessing and a curse. But mostly, I’ve found, it is a blessing. My students write about who they really are and what they really care about, without fearing I will censor or question them or reprimand them for their candor. I like to think this makes them better writers. I know it makes me a more generous and more thoughtful human being.

NSA: Our systems are so complex we can’t stop them from deleting data wanted for lawsuit - The Washington Post

NSA: Our systems are so complex we can’t stop them from deleting data wanted for lawsuit - The Washington Post: The National Security Agency recently used a novel argument for not holding onto information it collects about users online activity: it's too complex.

2014 Virginia primary: How David Brat won - POLITICO.com

2014 Virginia primary: How David Brat won - POLITICO.com: Cantor’s aides take pride in running a strong race against any candidate — Democrat or Republican. But the $2 million Cantor spent to brand Brat as a liberal professor may have had the reverse effect, people close to him and Brat say. It showed voters there was an alternative to Cantor -and that was exactly what many voters wanted.

(Also on POLITICO: For Jewish Republicans: Oy veh)

“The negative ads calling me a liberal professor at first they started off with kind of comic strips,” Brat said in an interview here late Tuesday night. “And everyone kind of liked them. Me and my boy watched them the first night and kind of died laughing. We thought they were funny.”

“They gave me $1 million in name ID and I think that got us going, I think. I’m not a political expert on that, but I think they kind of saw that was happening and they made those a little darker, and they were black and green and looked like a Star Wars thing by the time they got done with it – it made me look like a pretty serious guy.”

Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger, in Primary Upset - NYTimes.com

Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger, in Primary Upset - NYTimes.com: WASHINGTON — In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, was soundly defeated on Tuesday by a Tea Party-backed economics professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative.

The result delivered a major jolt to the Republican Party — Mr. Cantor had widely been considered the top candidate to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner — and it has the potential to change both the debate in Washington on immigration and, possibly, the midterm elections.



With just over $200,000, David Brat, a professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., toppled Mr. Cantor, repeatedly criticizing him for being soft on immigration and contending that he supported what critics call amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally

Hundreds Gather to Remember 6-Year-Old Victim of Brooklyn Stabbing - NYTimes.com

Hundreds Gather to Remember 6-Year-Old Victim of Brooklyn Stabbing - NYTimes.com: In a rousing, wide-ranging eulogy, the Rev. David K. Brawley, the church’s lead pastor, said, “I’ve been grabbing all the babies this week. And one of the babies said to me, ‘My mommy said when you preach on Friday you’re going to be mad.’ Well, I am mad. But I’m equally sad about what happened to this community and this family and this child.”

He went on, “We’re here to celebrate P.J.’s life but we must acknowledge that his life was ended way too soon.”

He said, “We should be comfortable with God, but there’s no way we should be comfortable with what happened. You should not be comfortable in this community until our children have safe spaces.”

The more you like Obama, the less likely you are to vote this year - The Washington Post

The more you like Obama, the less likely you are to vote this year - The Washington Post: Across nearly every demographic category - age, race, gender, ideology - groups that lean Republican and tend to disapprove of Obama are significantly more likely to say they'll show up to vote this November. This isn't a new phenomenon - midterm electoral demographics have historically favored Republicans. Democrats are acutely aware of the issue and are actively working to reshape the 2014 electorate along 2012 lines.

But if these numbers are any indication, Democrats still have their work cut out for them. As E.J. Dionne and Bill Galston write in their analysis of the PRRI data, "it is hard to miss the similarities between mid-2014 and the political terrain four years ago." This year, Republicans are likely to add a few seats to their already comfortable House majority, and may be poised to take control of the Senate as well.

Interstellar 8-Track: How Voyager’s Vintage Tech Keeps Running | Science | WIRED

Interstellar 8-Track: How Voyager’s Vintage Tech Keeps Running | Science | WIRED: As long as they are still functioning, both Voyager spacecraft will continue to collect data and send it back to us through at least 2020, and possibly until 2025. Even if something breaks and they are suddenly unable to hear anything from Earth, they will keep sending data back, repeating the same sets of observations until they run out of power.

But the radioisotope batteries on Voyager 1 and 2 are diminishing, putting out four Watts less per year. Mission managers will one day have to prioritize which instruments are most important during the voyage through interstellar space, shutting them off one by one as the years go on. After that, both probes will remain within range of our antennas until perhaps 2036. Though scientific data won’t be returned, engineering data could still come back if there is enough power to send a signal. All this means that the mission isn’t yet done.

“We’ve just stepped into interstellar space,” said Dodd. “We’re just going across the horizon line and there are many more discoveries to come.”

German man locked up over HVB bank allegations may have been telling truth | World news | theguardian.com

German man locked up over HVB bank allegations may have been telling truth | World news | theguardian.com: A German man committed to a high-security psychiatric hospital after being accused of fabricating a story of money-laundering activities at a major bank is to have his case reviewed after evidence has emerged proving the validity of his claims.

In a plot worthy of a crime blockbuster, Gustl Mollath, 56, was submitted to the secure unit of a psychiatric hospital seven years ago after court experts diagnosed him with paranoid personality disorder following his claims that staff at the Hypo Vereinsbank (HVB) – including his wife, then an assets consultant at HVB – had been illegally smuggling large sums of money into Switzerland.



 Mollath was tried in 2006 after his ex-wife accused him of causing her physical harm. He denied the charges, claiming she was trying to sully his name in the light of the evidence he allegedly had against her. He was admitted to the clinic, where he has remained against his will ever since.

Why I Miss Being A Born-Again Christian

Why I Miss Being A Born-Again Christian:





During my master’s degree program, my plan of going on to do a Ph.D.
gradually dissolved — Exhibit A: me working full time at BuzzFeed, hi! —
but something else materialized: a swelling doubt about the faith I’d
set out to preserve, which hinged almost solely on believing the Bible
to be the literal, inspired word of God. As I learned ancient Greek and
Hebrew and pored over the biblical text in its original languages, and
read it in larger quantities than I’d ever read it at church, its
discrepancies began to shine a hot and uncomfortable spotlight on my
personal religious views. Pieces of the gospels contradicted each other,
I realized. Greek words, like the ones we’ve translated 2,000 years
later to mean “homosexuality,” didn’t quite mean what modern
evangelicals wanted them to mean. Early Christians disagreed up to the
fifth century on which portions of texts should even be in the biblical
canon.





More and more, I realized that the Bible was a flawed, messy, deeply human
book — and that in treating it as an unimpeachable guidebook for life
in the 21st century, many conservative Christians were basing their
entire worldviews on a text that, in my opinion, wasn’t that much
different from any other historical collection of letters and stories. I
was forced to confront the fact that I’d converted into a pre-fab
worldview: one hatched largely in recent American history from Jonathan
Edwards and the theology of the Great Awakening, and one that “family
values” politics has buoyed through modern decades.