Oberlin Food Fight: A Cook's Perspective

You're going to want to read this.

Nerd News: Campus Protests and Free Speech

Worth a read.

Awesome: Rube Goldberg's Passover Seder

Nerd News: Diversity Initiatives vs. Asian Americans

Yet again.  One could do an entire case study on Stuyvesant in NYC:

These challenges have a bearing on K-12 schools, too, suggesting that the the bamboo ceiling may be even lower than once thought. Stuyvesant, one of New York City’s nine specialized public high schools, doesn't consider race in its admissions process; students only need take a standardized test to apply. Still, the policy has come under fire because of the student demographics that result: 73 percent of 'Stuy's' current students are Asian, while 22 percent are white. Just 2 percent of the school's population are Hispanic, and 1 percent is black.

Nerd News: San Diego State Students Mix It Up Over Gaza

What I want to highlight is the fact that there is significant, thoughtful pushback from other students.

Nerd Notes: An Interview With the Cartoonist of PhD Comics

Poking fun at grad school is a fantastic defense mechanism.

Nerd News: "Luxury College Dorms" Is A Debt-Ridden Oxymoron

Ridiculous.  A university is not a resort.

Taiwan Nerd News: Law Students vs. Chiang Kai-Shek's Statue at Fu Jen Catholic University

Here's the story.

LOL: A Prank for the Principal

Take a look (and listen!) to what the seniors of Santa Barbara High School did.

Nerd Fun: Decorated Mortarboards for Graduation

Here are 31 examples of sass, creativity, and humor from the Class of 2014.  The LEGO one is my favorite!

Sweden and the High Cost of a Free College Education

It's free, but you still end up with debt.

Nerd News: 9th Grader Runs For School Board

Nice to see young people taking an interest in their education ...

Nerd News: Harvard Headline of the Year

"Black Mass Cancelled Amid Uproar As Cultural Studies Club Withdraws Sponsorship." Seriously, this is the real headline!  Then again, some of us have always known that Hahvahd was of the Devil, hahaha!

By the way, here is the statement from Hahvahd President Drew Faust - FAUST!  Folks, I can't make this stuff up if I tried.  

Here's a piece of it (issued before the club withdrew its sponsorship):

"The decision by a student club to sponsor an enactment of this ritual is abhorrent; it represents a fundamental affront to the values of inclusion, belonging and mutual respect that must define our community. It is deeply regrettable that the organizers of this event, well aware of the offense they are causing so many others, have chosen to proceed with a form of expression that is so flagrantly disrespectful and inflammatory.

Nevertheless, consistent with the University’s commitment to free expression, including expression that may deeply offend us, the decision to proceed is and will remain theirs. At the same time, we will vigorously protect the right of others to respond—and to address offensive expression with expression of their own. 

I plan to attend a Eucharistic Holy Hour and Benediction at St. Paul's Church on our campus on Monday evening in order to join others in reaffirming our respect for the Catholic faith at Harvard and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is not censorship, but reasoned discourse and robust dissent."

Friday Fun Video: Do You Wanna Go To Starbucks?

Here's a Frozen parody fit for final exam time, fellow coffee addicts!

Nerd Notes: A Princeton Freshman Checks His Privilege

It's not what you think.  This little op-ed has blown up the Nerdverse, and plenty of people are unloading on the guy, but you should first read what he has to say.

Nerd News: 3 Thoughts

There are a few stories that crossed my path recently:

• Teacher training's favorite myths
• Taking aim at charter schools
• HERESY!  (It also happens to be the truth.)

800-Pound Snowball 1, Campus Housing 0

You've got to see the photos of the monster snowball that got away from its two math-major creators and smashed into a Reed College dorm, cracked its wall, and knocked it off its studs.  Nobody was injured, so we call safely laugh out loud at this!

I personally love this caption on one of the photos: "Runaway 800-lb snowball puts dent in RCA #7.  Math majors were involved."

You know, as a teacher I'm not supposed to say things like this about pranks that cause damage to campus buildings, but this was my honest reaction:

"I'm impressed."

Kentucky High Schoolers Sing "The Star-Spangled Banner"

I fear I've been too negative today on this blog, so here's something really wonderful:

According to Neatorama, this is the context:

The Kentucky All State Choir performs at the Kentucky Music Educators Association conference in Louisville every year, and hundreds of the best high school singers from across the state stay in the same hotel. Last year they were at the Hyatt, which has an 18-story atrium. It is a tradition during the conference that at 11PM (curfew time), everyone comes out of their rooms to sing "The Star Spangled Banner." The performance was captured in its entirety on video. This tradition has been going on for at least twenty years, maybe longer.

The 2014 conference just ended.

Nerd Fun: Hilariously Reductive Theses

The brilliant blog Lol My Thesis invites nerds to submit humorous summaries of their research projects, theses, and dissertations.  My current top 3 favorites:

3) "Screw you. Love, the Polish language" - linguistics thesis from Cornell

2) "Rats like cocaine" - a psychology thesis from Reed College

And a drum roll for the best of them all ...

1)  "Why is the Security Council dysfunctional? Because the Russians are devious liars" - a political science thesis from the University of Pennsylvania

The Great West Point Egg Nog Riot of 1826

Oh, egg nog.  Please drink responsibly.  Oh, and look who was there for the egg nog riot: Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.  Yes, THAT Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee!