General

Ninjas vs. Pirates The ATF! What’s this country coming to, when a good Methodist ninja can’t run across campus without the feds hasslin’ him?

Duke President Richard Brodhead sent a message out yesterday to everyone involved with Duke University regarding the University’s response to the terrible events of March 13. He lists five initiatives Duke will be taking to address the problems that have come to light: Investigation of men’s lacrosse, in regards to past patterns of behavior. Investigation of the Duke Administration response to the rape investigation. Examination of student judicial process and practices. Establishing a Campus Culture Initiative to discuss student responsibility. Establishing a Presidential Council for higher-level advice. Here’s a link to the full letter. ...

I probably won’t write much about Friday’s attack on UNC’s campus, except to note how thankful I am that no one was killed. My capacity for being surprised by the evil things that people do is sadly diminished after a few decades of living on this Earth, but my capacity for understanding hasn’t increased enough to really get why people do them. What I will say is this: No matter what reason he drove a Jeep through a popular campus gathering spot, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar could not have known who was going to be in front of his car. He didn’t know their thoughts or feelings about him, or the things that concerned him. He didn’t know where they had come from or where they were going. He didn’t know about their ambitions or fears or loves. Either he was incapable of caring about those people as individual humans; or he didn’t care; or he cared, and still decided it didn’t matter enough. In the end, they were treated as objects of lesser value than his goal. And this was by a graduate of the same school’s programs in psychology and philosophy? ...

Yep, after over a year of updating this site on a regular basis, somehow the last few months have proven remarkably challenging on that front. Just when I thought things were starting to calm down at work, and I was going to have some more time to blog, suddenly things changed. :| Anyway, long story short, I’m now managing our primary Web presence. That proved pretty busy when it was just me and our programmer handling everything. We’ve hired someone to help out, though, and that is working out well. I’m hoping I’ll have a bit more time, as I catch up all the stuff that piled up while I was too busy to think about it. ...

“People are always asking me if there’s anything they can carry or wear or hold up in front of me that will frighten or repel me. I’ll be honest with you: just about anything you suddenly hold up is going to frighten me.” Courtesy of McSweeney’s

…and me. :) I spent the day working with my department to launch three redesigned sites and a new search. So, in case anyone is wondering why I haven’t been posting much lately… :| However, the best part was coming home to my wife, who took me out to dinner and gave me presents, despite my insistence that I wasn’t really planning to celebrate it this year. It’s sometimes good when you get ignored. :) ...

In the meantime, as the evacuation efforts started, about 100 New Orleans residents decided to grab the school bus that was just sitting abandoned in their neighborhood and drive to Houston’s Astrodome. Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson took the wheel, never having driven a bus, and drove the flood victims seven hours to the Astrodome, getting there before any of the official buses. Naturally, the authorities weren’t thrilled about that. (Why do I have a feeling an SUV convoy would have been welcomed more?) While I can see the point that the evacuation effort needed some organization to it, I have to applaud the initiative and bravery it took to do so. ...

This is amazing. Michael Brown, the current head of FEMA…the man who said the federal government didn’t know there were people at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans until Thursday…was hired into FEMA after being fired from his last job running horse shows. The reason for his dismissal? Supervision failures. The result of FEMA’s disorganization and refusal of outside help? More people died. I’m sure there are many people at FEMA who are doing a good job. I’m sure that, without their efforts, a major disaster would have turned worse. What I can’t fathom, however, is that an agency so clearly needed in the homeland security apparatus is run by a person whose experience comes from horse shows. Isn’t this administration supposed to be the security administration? One has to wonder whether the quick evacuation at the end of the week was accomplished through Brown’s planning, or through the military’s organization. ...

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune newspaper staff are evacuating their building due to rising floodwaters. In case you wonder how serious the situation is down there, try to imagine your local newspaper publishing this excerpt on their website: Our plan is to head across the Mississippi River on the Pontchartrain Expressway to the west bank of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. From there, we’ll try to head to Houma. You can donate to the Red Cross here. Update: Descriptions of the devastation and chaos. New Orleans is flooding, and the Gulf Coast isn’t any better. Meanwhile, the Times-Picayune keeps on working. They have an RSS feed as well. ...

The Sydney Aquarium in Australia apparently had an accident with a giant exhibition tank. The tank exploded, allowing the water…and sharks…inside to come rushing out onto Hazel Swinden, 61, who was injured by some of the glass. She now has post-traumatic stress disorder, and is suing the Aquarium over it. I have a feeling any jury will be able to appreciate the amount of stress she was under. Of course, the sharks can just count themselves lucky they didn’t drop out on this fellow. :) ...