The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: ab_grp on March 17, 2024, 10:06:48 AMI am interested to see what the next doctor (David Tennant) does with the role. 

Some people hold that one of the David Tennant episodes, "Blink," is the best single episode of any TV show. I'd agree that it is certainly the best single science fiction episode of any TV show. Of course maybe I'm overselling it. But see what you think.

Been doing some creative writing and I keep getting newspaper assignments.

But I am posting this here so I will make myself do it: tomorrow I will open up that revise-and-resubmit and readers' comments and make a plan.

Quote from: kaysixteen on April 22, 2024, 06:16:54 PMAll this is true.   Doesn't mean that Israel isn't a settler colonialist state, though.

Don't forget the Biblical connection, however.

All this is true.   Doesn't mean that Israel isn't a settler colonialist state, though.

I really did not need the Department drama that happened today.

I watched the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, including the final episode, over the last couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun and ended on the right note. It also gave Seinfeld the send off that show deserved. As a long-time fan of both shows, I was actually a little moved.

LD is a comedy legend, Curb is one of the GOAT shows, and the finale was pretty pretty pretty good.

I have never used a bidet. I hear great things, but seems so messy.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 22, 2024, 03:23:14 PM

QuoteIf voters are upset at an election results, can they blockade a railway, port, or major highway until it gets overturned?

Sure. And, as you know from past discussion, I'm absolutely happy to extend the same courtesy to the other side, even when I think their cause is moronic. And that's because I firmly believe in the right to free speech (although, again, you'll recall that I'm not a Millian absolutist).

Sure, but free speech is a distraction here. It's about who owns the street. Power settles the argument. Annie, get my gun.

I've heard of shells and invertebrates in travertine, but I wouldn't have expected quite that. Makes for a hell of a conversation piece.

Quote from: spork on April 22, 2024, 11:07:37 AMI was being, as my immigrant Arab Muslim wife would put it, facetious.

There haven't been protests against wars in Ethiopia, Sudan, or Ukraine. Gaza is a cause célèbre.

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on April 22, 2024, 01:24:00 PMThe standard answer is that Israel is an important ally in an oil-rich and unstable part of the world.  It makes the news.  We have many people who have relocated here from Israel and Muslim countries.  They also make the news with their extremism.  Africa? 

Crucially, Israel is a client state which receives enormous subsidies from the United States--along with the very weapons they are using to willfully murder Palestinians and annex their land, and not to mention the extensive diplomatic cover the US has given them at the UN. That's just not true of Ethiopia, Ukraine, or Sudan. It's entirely appropriate to try to exert pressure on one's own government when that government (1) is so heavily (if indirectly) involved, and (2) has the diplomatic power to affect the conditions in question.

Remember, also, that public officials in Texas have to swear an oath to Israel. That alone shows that the relationship between the two countries is not the usual kind of thing between foreign countries.

Quote from: marshwiggle on April 22, 2024, 11:24:04 AMSo if I'm upset that my boss didn't give me a raise, can I blockade the doors to her kids' daycare (with her kids inside)  until she changes her mind?

That's a non sequitur, and you know it.

In the case of a strike, what you can do is band together with the other employees who are upset and refuse to work--or to allow replacements to work--until the management negotiates with you. You can block access to the workplace to encourage others not to undermine your strike (though you obviously may not physically remove anyone who wishes to cross your picket line). If it's just you, you're shit out of luck. If it's a couple hundred of you, the boss had better listen.

QuoteIf voters are upset at an election results, can they blockade a railway, port, or major highway until it gets overturned?

Sure. And, as you know from past discussion, I'm absolutely happy to extend the same courtesy to the other side, even when I think their cause is moronic. And that's because I firmly believe in the right to free speech (although, again, you'll recall that I'm not a Millian absolutist).