Thursday, January 2, 2020
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
For Whites Only?
An excerpt from the NYTimes -
In a Homecoming Video Meant to Unite Campus, Almost Everyone Was White
The video was created to show off the University of Wisconsin. Instead, it set off a furor, and a reckoning over what it means to be a black student on campus.
By Julie Bosman, Emily Shetler and Natalie Yahr
MADISON, Wis. — The video was just two minutes long: a sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison. Here were hundreds of young men and women cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, “throwing the W” for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
“Home is where we grow together,” a voice-over said. “It’s where the hills are. It’s eating our favorite foods. It’s where we can all harmonize as one. Home is Wisconsin cheese curds. It’s welcoming everyone into our home.”
This is the story of a video that galvanized and divided a university plagued by a history of racist incidents, as told by the people who saw it happen. Black students in particular say the homecoming video crystallized a daily fact of life: They feel they are not wanted at the University of Wisconsin, where there are significantly fewer African-Americans per capita than in the state, which is mostly white. This fall, more than 30,000 undergraduates began the school year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fewer than 1,000 of them are African-American.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/us/university-of-wisconsin-race-video.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
In a Homecoming Video Meant to Unite Campus, Almost Everyone Was White
The video was created to show off the University of Wisconsin. Instead, it set off a furor, and a reckoning over what it means to be a black student on campus.
By Julie Bosman, Emily Shetler and Natalie Yahr
MADISON, Wis. — The video was just two minutes long: a sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison. Here were hundreds of young men and women cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, “throwing the W” for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
“Home is where we grow together,” a voice-over said. “It’s where the hills are. It’s eating our favorite foods. It’s where we can all harmonize as one. Home is Wisconsin cheese curds. It’s welcoming everyone into our home.”
This is the story of a video that galvanized and divided a university plagued by a history of racist incidents, as told by the people who saw it happen. Black students in particular say the homecoming video crystallized a daily fact of life: They feel they are not wanted at the University of Wisconsin, where there are significantly fewer African-Americans per capita than in the state, which is mostly white. This fall, more than 30,000 undergraduates began the school year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fewer than 1,000 of them are African-American.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/us/university-of-wisconsin-race-video.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Largest 3-D Building
From Business Insider -
This building in Dubai is the largest 3D-printed structure in the world — and it took just 3 workers and a printer to build it
By Mary Meisenzahl
https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-largest-3d-printed-building-apis-cor-photos-2019-12
This building in Dubai is the largest 3D-printed structure in the world — and it took just 3 workers and a printer to build it
By Mary Meisenzahl
https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-largest-3d-printed-building-apis-cor-photos-2019-12
Monday, December 30, 2019
Jewish Thinking
An excerpt from the New York Times -
The Secrets of Jewish Genius
It’s about thinking different.
By Bret Stephens
An eminent Lithuanian rabbi is annoyed that his yeshiva students devote their lunch breaks to playing soccer instead of discussing Torah. The students, intent on convincing their rav of the game’s beauty, invite him to watch a professional match. At halftime, they ask what he thinks.
“I have solved your problem,” the rabbi says.
“How?”
“Give one ball to each side, and they will have nothing to fight over.”
I have this (apocryphal) anecdote from Norman Lebrecht’s new book, “Genius & Anxiety,” an erudite and delightful study of the intellectual achievements and nerve-wracked lives of Jewish thinkers, artists, and entrepreneurs between 1847 and 1947. Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Kafka; Albert Einstein and Rosalind Franklin; Benjamin Disraeli and (sigh) Karl Marx — how is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/jewish-culture-genius-iq.html
The Secrets of Jewish Genius
It’s about thinking different.
By Bret Stephens
An eminent Lithuanian rabbi is annoyed that his yeshiva students devote their lunch breaks to playing soccer instead of discussing Torah. The students, intent on convincing their rav of the game’s beauty, invite him to watch a professional match. At halftime, they ask what he thinks.
“I have solved your problem,” the rabbi says.
“How?”
“Give one ball to each side, and they will have nothing to fight over.”
I have this (apocryphal) anecdote from Norman Lebrecht’s new book, “Genius & Anxiety,” an erudite and delightful study of the intellectual achievements and nerve-wracked lives of Jewish thinkers, artists, and entrepreneurs between 1847 and 1947. Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Kafka; Albert Einstein and Rosalind Franklin; Benjamin Disraeli and (sigh) Karl Marx — how is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/jewish-culture-genius-iq.html
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