I am toaste

nevver: Spain

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:28:32 -0500

Spain

Christian College Demands Expelled Lesbian Student Pay Back Financial Aid

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:48:46 -0500

Christian College Demands Expelled Lesbian Student Pay Back Financial Aid:

It’s no secret that many Christian-affiliated colleges enforce very strict behavioral expectations for their students, but Danielle Powell is realizing just how vindictive a college can be when those expectations are not met. She had enrolled in Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska, but was expelled in the spring of 2011, just months before graduating, after it was discovered she was in a relationship with another woman. Now, the school is demanding she pay back $6,000, claiming she has to repay her federal loans and grants since she did not finish the semester.

The Department of Education says any money she may or may not owe the school is between the two of them and “not at all because of federal rules.” On the other hand, there are also no rules requiring the university not to discriminate based on sexual orientation when receiving financial aid from the federal government, so it’s unclear territory. Powell actually attempted to follow through on the remediation plan the school originally laid out for her, which included months of church attendance, Christian counseling, and promises not to engage in sex. She was readmitted, then promptly kicked out again because the staff’s “prevailing opinion is that those professions appear to have been insincere, at best, if not deceitful.” In other words, Grace is essentially fining a former student for not convincing the faculty she is straight enough to complete her education there.

Grace’s Student Handbook includes a litany of rules all students are required to sign and abide by. For example, students are not allowed to watch HBO, VH1, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, or any R-rated movie on campus. It also includes severe limitations on displays of affection, explicitly prohibiting activities like “extending holding or embracing one another,” “lying next to each other,” kissing, and “giving backrubs/rubbing shoulders.” “Homosexual acts” are considered “sexually immoral behavior” and thus a “Level-Three violation,” which at minimum includes University Probation and possibly fines starting at $100.

H/T: Zack Ford at Think Progress LGBT

boobsbirdsbotany: somethinginparticular: World Leaders Take...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:48:35 -0500

boobsbirdsbotany:

somethinginparticular:

World Leaders Take Most Menacing G8 Photo Ever

(Daily Intelligencer)

Angela crashed this funeral

fastcompany: Google’s Project Loon (say ‘loon balloon’ five...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:42:12 -0500

fastcompany:

Google’s Project Loon (say ‘loon balloon’ five times fast) will use solar-powered giant devices hovering 12 miles above the ground to beam Internet down to places where it’s not possible to lay cable.

Supreme Court Rules That Pre-Miranda Silence Can Be Used In Court

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:23:43 -0500

Supreme Court Rules That Pre-Miranda Silence Can Be Used In Court :

thepoliticalfreakshow:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says prosecutors can use a person’s silence against them if it comes before he’s told of his right to remain silent.

The 5-4 ruling comes in the case of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of a 1992 murder. During police questioning, and before he was arrested or read his Miranda rights, Salinas answered some questions but did not answer when asked if a shotgun he had access to would match up with the murder weapon.

Prosecutors in Texas used his silence on that question in convicting him of murder, saying it helped demonstrate his guilt. Salinas appealed, saying his Fifth Amendment rights to stay silent should have kept lawyers from using his silence against him in court. Texas courts disagreed, saying pre-Miranda silence is not protected by the Constitution.

The high court upheld that decision.

The Fifth Amendment protects Americans against forced self-incrimination, with the Supreme Court saying that prosecutors cannot comment on a defendant’s refusal to testify at trial. The courts have expanded that right to answering questions in police custody, with police required to tell people under arrest they have a right to remain silent without it being used in court.

Prosecutors argued that since Salinas was answering some questions – therefore not invoking his right to silence – and since he wasn’t under arrest and wasn’t compelled to speak, his silence on the incriminating question doesn’t get constitutional protection.

Salinas’ “Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the officer’s question,” Justice Samuel Alito said. “It has long been settled that the privilege `generally is not self-executing’ and that a witness who desires its protection `must claim it.’”

The court decision was down its conservative/liberal split, with Alito’s judgment joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented. “In my view the Fifth Amendment here prohibits the prosecution from commenting on the petitioner’s silence in response to police questioning,” Breyer said in the dissent.

Salinas was charged in 1993 with the previous year’s shooting deaths of two men in Houston. Police found shotgun shells at the crime scene, and after going to the home where Salinas lived with his parents, obtained a shotgun kept inside the house by his father. Ballistic reports showed the shells matched the shotgun, but police declined to prosecute Salinas.

Police decided to charge him after one of his friends said that he had confessed, but Salinas evaded police for years. He was arrested him in 2007, but his first trial ended in a mistrial. It was during his second trial that prosecutors aggressively tried to use his silence about the shotgun in closing remarks to the jury.

Salinas was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Texas Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction, with the latter court saying “pre-arrest, pre-Miranda silence is not protected by the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and that prosecutors may comment on such silence regardless of whether a defendant testifies.”

The case is Salinas v. Texas, 12-246.

Photo

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:27:10 -0500

"Jefferson had his own privy just steps away from his bed alcove, one of three in the house proper...."

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:26:40 -0500

“Jefferson had his own privy just steps away from his bed alcove, one of three in the house proper. He used pieces of scrap paper for hygiene purposes. (Examples were collected from his privy by a family member on the day of Jefferson’s death and now survive in the Library of Congress.)”

- DOES THE LIBRARY OF FUCKING CONGRESS OWN PAPERS THAT JEFFERSON WIPED HIS ASS ON

PLEASE TELL ME THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO INTERPRET THIS PARAGRAPH

(via strawberry-fox)

field trip

(via phocion)

probably pages he tore out of The Federalist
(via milvertons)

wired: shortformblog: amzam: futurejournalismproject: A...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:36:47 -0500

wired:

shortformblog:

amzam:

futurejournalismproject:

A Crowdfunded Investigation of Internships

ProPublica:

Late last month, ProPublica launched a Kickstarter to cover the costs of hiring an intern to help with our internships investigation. Our intern will create a microsite on the intern economy, traveling around the country to collect interns’ stories that will supplement and enhance our more traditional watchdog reports. But to do this, we need to raise $22,000 by June 27.

Our editor-in-chief Steve Engelberg sat down with ProPublica’s community editor Blair Hickman and news application fellow Jeremy Merrill to talk about our unique approach to investigating the intern economy.

“Beyond the Kickstarter, from a reporting perspective and project perspective, what’s particularly noteworthy about this is we’re starting with community and we are starting with data and news applications,” said Hickman about the project. “We’ve said from the get-go, we are investigating internships and we’re doing this in a very open way — which is a little bit different than our normal investigations. And because of that, we’ve gotten a ton of tips flooding in and we’re starting to do news reports off of that. But it’s starting with the crowd.”

FJP: This will be fantastic. Here’s a link to the Kickstarter, and here’s a podcast about the project. Reminds us of Ross Perlin’s Intern Nation, which is a fairly interesting read.

Thank you for Tumbling!!

You want to solve the intern problem? Consider donating to this pretty darn awesome idea for an investigation.

More than brilliant.

Photo

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:30:36 -0500

Bonnaroo

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:29:04 -0500

Hi Followers!

Tomorrow I leave for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, TN. If anyone has any travel/festival tips for me or my group of ten, let me know!

If you are planning on attending Bonnaroo yourself, let me know and we can catch up between shows!

shortformblog: breakingnews: Oregon county to order...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:41:38 -0500

shortformblog:

breakingnews:

Oregon county to order gender-neutral bathrooms

The Oregonian: Multnomah County in Oregon has one of the first in the country to require single-occupancy, gender-neutral bathrooms in all new construction projects for the county.
The Oregonian reported that the move, coming through an executive order scheduled to be signed Tuesday morning by county board Chairman Jeff Cogen, is intended to eliminate stigmas for transgender county employees and visitors using county-owned restrooms.

Photo: Dana Tims/The Oregonian
More from the Oregonian here.

Multnomah County board Chairman Jeff Cogen, leading the way on this issue. It’s a common criticism of the acronym LGBT that the “T” often gets forgotten, or overlooked in favor of more politically convenient, mainstream issues. But not this time, in Multnomah County, Oregon.

fuckyeahportland: Made in Oregon underwater, By Mitchal Duncan

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:21:30 -0500

fuckyeahportland:

Made in Oregon underwater, By Mitchal Duncan

motherjones: Lego figures’ heads have been getting angrier over time. That’s according to a...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:18:08 -0500

motherjones:

Lego figures’ heads have been getting angrier over time. That’s according to a serious academic paper (PDF) that analyzes the plastic figures’ facial expressions. More study may be required, write the researchers, to fully understand “the influence the LEGO Minifigures’ facial appearance have on LEGO users over time.” (h/t Smithsonian)

"Snowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:14:19 -0500

“Snowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China—which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has more on that.) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero?”

- Edward Snowden, the N.S.A. Leaker, Is No Hero (via azspot)

MERS coronavirus has potential to cause pandemic: WHO

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:12:12 -0500

MERS coronavirus has potential to cause pandemic: WHO:

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization on Monday urged health workers around the world to be on the alert for symptoms of the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), which

"We aren’t too cool for poetry; it’s the other way around. At least that’s the impression I took from..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:16:46 -0500

“

We aren’t too cool for poetry; it’s the other way around. At least that’s the impression I took from public school. The fact that these feelings would remain into adulthood is ridiculous. We all have the right to poetry!

[…]

What do [great] poets have in common? They don’t write sycophantic, roman-numeral-volumed postcards to God. They don’t get all “love-ity-love-love” either. I get the sense they imagine their audience and want to comfort them. They are so good at it they even have the ability to comfort us with scariness. Sadness too. I think that is a powerful magic. … How can we help them out? I guess we keep on needing them … .

”

- Neko Case on poetry. Complement with James Dickey on how to enjoy poetry and Edward Hirsch on how to read a poem. (via explore-blog)

good: Snoop Lion on Gun Control: End the Violence, Move Forward...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:48:36 -0500

good:

Snoop Lion on Gun Control: End the Violence, Move Forward in Peace and Love
- Snoop Lion wrote in Living, Music and Creativity

Growing up in the streets of Long Beach, I’ve seen lots of homies fall victim to gun violence. Whether they were the ones behind the barrel or in front, in the end it never worked out. As I hear more and more stories in the news about violent acts of terror and school shootings that leave innocent kids dead, it makes me upset to live in a world full of negativity. Now more than ever, I feel the need to speak up and encourage our youth to come together to stop gun violence. That’s why I started my “No Guns Allowed” movement, inspired by my song of the same name that features my nephew Drake and my daughter, Cori B.

Continue reading on good.is

kqedscience: The Gamma Delphinids Are Coming: ‘Elusive’ Meteor...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:41:50 -0500

kqedscience:

The Gamma Delphinids Are Coming: ‘Elusive’ Meteor Shower Tonight

“The gamma Delphinids are coming to Earth tonight, +NASA says, as it predicts that the early hours of Tuesday, June 11, will bring the best visibility of the meteors since they were first observed in 1930. People in North and South America may be able to spot them in areas with dark skies, the agency says.”

"A lot of the time when you tell someone that you’re bisexual, they ask for your credentials. They..."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:12:06 -0500

“A lot of the time when you tell someone that you’re bisexual, they ask for your credentials. They ask how many men have you dated? How many women have you dated? Which one do you prefer? Which one have you had more sex with? These are incredibly personal questions that you wouldn’t ask a straight or gay person, but bisexuality has “less validity” so we get asked all these stupid, intimate questions. And if you don’t want to answer then someone will make assumptions about you but if you do answer, and the fact is out of the three people you fucked two of them are one gender and one of them is the other then people will decide whether you are gay or straight, they’ll make the decision for you.”

- Bisexual Credentials-RitchandFamous (via rainbowbreathingbisexual)

mexicankitsch: #same #same

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:06:14 -0500

mexicankitsch:

#same

#same