🐱 Interesting clickbait, op-eds, fluff pieces and other smaller stories

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."

 

[Thank Fuck For Evil Otto]

As Colleges Move To Do Away With The SAT In The Name Of Diversity, Detroit High School Valedictorian Struggles With Low-Level Math

The valedictorian of a Detroit high school is reportedly struggling with basic math in college.

dailycaller.com

As Colleges Move To Do Away With The SAT In The Name Of Diversity, Detroit High School Valedictorian Struggles With Low-Level Math

The valedictorian of a Detroit high school is struggling with low-level math at Michigan State University, where 1 in 8 students were in remedial math.
Universities have loosened their requirements to attempt to increase graduation rates and diversity.
The University of California system may abolish the SAT and ACT as a requirement for entry, saying the standard screenings lead to “inequity” in student populations.

The valedictorian of a Detroit high school is reportedly struggling with basic math in college.

The development comes as colleges have increasingly rejected objective admissions criteria in the name of “equity,” with University of California poised to no longer require the SAT because of the racial impact it has on admissions.

“Marqell McClendon has struggled in the low-level math class she’s taking during her first semester at Michigan State University,” the news outlet Chalkbeat reported Nov. 15. McClendon, the valedictorian of her graduating class at Detroit’s Cody High School, was used to getting all A’s, but found herself asking strangers to help her with her college coursework, it said.

MSU has pushed for admitting more racial minorities in the name of diversity. Its “incoming freshman class is predicted to be the largest and most diverse in the school’s history, with more than 8,400 anticipated students,” the school stated in May 2018, noting that black enrollment was up 24%.

But nearly half of graduates from Detroit’s main school district must take remedial courses when they get to college, Chalkbeat reported.

In 2016, MSU removed the requirement that all students at least take algebra in either college or high school. Algebra is taught in eighth grade in many schools. Meanwhile, Wayne State University in Detroit dropped its general-education math requirement altogether.

Bob Murphy, the director or university relations and policy for the Michigan Association of State Universities, told Inside Higher Ed that not requiring math will ideally “lead to more successful graduation outcomes.”

Nearly 1,000 MSU students a year — or 1 in 8 freshmen — took a remedial class course called MTH 1825 that didn’t count toward a college degree and covered material students should have learned in high school, the Lansing State Journal reported in 2018.

It said MSU stopped offering that class and added MTH 103A and 103B, which spread out algebra over two semesters and count toward a degree. MSU said MTH 103 is “accessible to visual learners.”

Students who don’t want to take algebra can take “MTH 101 Quantitative Literacy I and MTH 102 Quantitative Literacy II” instead. The course website for MSU’s Math 101 discusses topics such as “Side-by-Side and Stacked Bar Graphs” and “percent change.”

McClendon, who could not be reached for comment, said she is majoring in biomedical laboratory science, which requires her to pass classes such as calculus, organic chemistry and advanced clinical chemistry. It will take her five years to complete the four-year program.

She’s scheduled office visits with her professor, gone to math learning centers and joined an intensive program of mostly students from “underrepresented communities,” Chalkbeat said.

“Sometimes when I’m in class and I’m learning, some things start to feel familiar from high school and I’m kind of like, ‘I learned this already but I don’t really understand it,’” she told Chalkbeat.

Believing she would fail, she asked a stranger in her dorm to help her for an hour and a half and got a B on her midterm.

The juxtaposition of her performance in high school and college suggests that GPAs are flawed when comparing college applicants from different high schools. The average SAT score at her high school was about 800 out of 1600.

Yet top leaders of the University of California system said in November they support dropping SAT and ACT exams as admissions requirements. “They really contribute to the inequities of our system,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ said.

Advocacy groups are attempting to force the change. “These tests are incredibly sensitive to socioeconomic status and race and have nothing to say about the individual,” Alisa Hartz, an attorney with the group Public Counsel, said.

The College Board, which runs the SAT, told USA Today, “The notion that the SAT is discriminatory is false.”

Opponents of the test said wealthy students pay for classes to help them prepare for the SAT. A study from Harvard contended that the SAT’s written questions were culturally biased against black students; the College Board rejected the study as flawed.

Lee Bridges wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Times that the SAT served as a great equalizer in his case, measuring raw intelligence even when family problems prevented him from performing regularly when it came to high school classwork.

Thomas Ostwald, a former UC Santa Barbara official, wrote to the LA Times that “Not mentioned in the discussion of the unfairness of the SAT or ACT to students of color or poverty is the UC policy called Eligibility in Local Context. Students can gain eligibility to the UC system if they have a GPA in the top 9% of their high school class on the required courses for UC and California State University admission. They must take the SAT or ACT, but their scores cannot disqualify them.”

His observation implied that one goal of the proposed change might be to prevent the collection of statistics that would show the extent of unpreparedness by college students.

The K-12 and college academic industry has taken steps to lead to statistics that indicate more “equal” results across the country, without necessarily improving measurable scores of poor and minority students.

Critics like Elizabeth Schultz, a Republican school board member in Fairfax County, Virginia, said these efforts are aimed at helping administrators boast of on-paper improvements — not at setting kids up for success.

In the academic industry, much of the rhetoric around allege racism stems from the idea that wherever there is a difference in results by racial group, racism is implied, known in education lingo as “inequity.” (RELATED: School Districts Push A Return To Busing, Despite Their Own Data Suggesting It Won’t Reduce The ‘Achievement Gap’)

School districts have turned “equity” initiatives over to for-profit consulting firms like Corwin and the Crescendo Education Group.

Joe Feldman, CEO of Crescendo, wrote in 2017 that not only is it prejudiced to grade based on whether a student gets the right answers, it’s inherently prejudiced to penalize a student for not doing his homework at all.

“We often grade in ways that reward students who have privilege and punish those who don’t. Let’s return to homework,” he wrote. “For those who don’t grade homework for accuracy, we often grade for completion. We want students to attempt the homework even if answers aren’t correct. The problem is that homework completion is more often a reflection of a student’s income, language and family, and this grading approach places underprivileged students at a huge disadvantage.”

Seattle public schools in October unveiled a “framework” to inject “math ethnic studies” into all K-12 math classes, teaching “how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”

Tracy Castro-Gill, the Seattle schools' Equity Manager. Government photo https://www.k12.wa.us/award/2018-2019-regional-teacher-year-tracy-castro-gill


Tracy Castro-Gill, the Seattle schools’ equity manager, is pictured. Government photo

In New York City, a panel the mayor appointed proposed in August to eliminate the city’s gifted and talented schools and programs in the service of racial integration. The proposal would end the practice of gifted and talented schools screening students by exams and grades — and block considering students’ attendance records at their previous schools. It also said it was unfair that students who were not fluent in English were “underrepresented” in the most rigorous academic programs.

“If you get rid of testing, you’re open to subjective decision-making … you’ll see a lot of parents send their children to private schools, and you’re just furthering the income gap,” David Lee of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance told New York’s CBS affiliate. (RELATED: As School District Implements Busing Over Near-Unanimous Opposition, Chinese Immigrants See Communism)

Lowering the barrier to gaining admission to, or graduation from, prestigious schools might improve top-line statistics; however, it’s unclear what will happen to students who are passed because of the policies.

Bonus the cursed photo from a link in the article:

Mathematics department charts a new course for college algebra

More than 2,500 incoming MSU freshmen interested in a STEM career have a new route to success, thanks to a team spearheaded by MSU math instructor, Jane Zimmerman, and associate professor of mathematics, Teena Gerhardt.

msutoday.msu.edu

 

[JosephStalin]

FIVE years to complete a four-year program? Shit, more like fifteen. Just another affirmative-action waste of space.

 

[AnOminous]

As Colleges Move To Do Away With The SAT In The Name Of Diversity, Detroit High School Valedictorian Struggles With Low-Level Math

The valedictorian of a Detroit high school is reportedly struggling with basic math in college.

dailycaller.com

Bob Murphy, the director or university relations and policy for the Michigan Association of State Universities, told Inside Higher Ed that not requiring math will ideally “lead to more successful graduation outcomes.”

I suppose that's for certain values of "successful." If the purpose of school were to turn out retards incapable of performing basic functions, then this would be success, but I'd consider turning out adults who can't add two and two by just giving them a fake diploma a gigantic failure, personally.

 

[Dr. Sexbot]

Tracy Castro-Gill, the Seattle schools’ equity manager, is pictured. Government photo

This is the second time this idiot has reared her ugly head in A&H.

She seems to have plenty of lolcow potential, but I didn't find much of an online presence last time I looked (Twatter). Each post had only a couple reactions; i.e. she's a nobody online, and she's broadly disliked even within her peer group.

I can't quite put my finger on why I despise this fattie as much as I do, but I want her to turn threadworthy so badly.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

What is it with actors, and thinking people actually give a shit what they think?

I mean let's be real. We got so many holes and loops in the economy that just further feeds into a collapsing infrastructure. That some $30m of those go to a person who try to make some kind of change isn't all that bad. Let's say he spent all his money changing the world, then what? It'd once-more go directly into the same loop and we'd have one less advocate for fixing the economy.

The alternative is another Kardashian who doesn't give a shit. I doubt Emma Watson has achieved fuck all more than he has and she made it her one task in her life. I'm not saying they change shit, but he could be worse off with those $30m. That's what, 1/950 of the Amazon chad's wealth?

 

[Ahriman]

Five Italians drugged and gangraped holidaying Brit mum, 50, then shared video on 'Dirty Habits' WhatsApp group

FIVE Italian men drugged and gangraped a British mum while she was on holiday, before sharing the video to a “Dirty Habits” WhatsApp group. The mum-of-one, 50, who cannot be named for l…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[bippu_as_fuck_ls400]

Spoiler

View attachment 1037490

Five Italians drugged and gangraped holidaying Brit mum, 50, then shared video on 'Dirty Habits' WhatsApp group

FIVE Italian men drugged and gangraped a British mum while she was on holiday, before sharing the video to a “Dirty Habits” WhatsApp group. The mum-of-one, 50, who cannot be named for l…

www.thesun.co.uk

Pics of the 5 from a previous article:



I wonder why they choose the 50yo mom over her 26yo daughter?

 

[Thank Fuck For Evil Otto]

Illinois city approves using marijuana taxes to fund reparations program

Lawmakers in a Chicago suburb earlier this week approved using taxes from recreational marijuana sales to establish a local reparations program.

www.foxnews.com

Lawmakers in a Chicago suburb earlier this week approved using taxes from recreational marijuana sales to establish a local reparations program.

The money will go toward job training and other benefits for Evanston's black population, the Pioneer Press reported.

“We can implement funding to directly invest in black Evanston,” said Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, who proposed the reparations bill.

Simmons said the source of the funds was especially appropriate, citing the "war on drugs" that has led to increased incarceration rates among African-Americans, particularly for marijuana-related offenses.

Lawmakers in Evanston, Ill., will use taxes from recreational marijuana sales to fund a local reparations program. (National Institute on Drug Abuse)
The 8-1 vote comes as the city's black population has dipped from 22.5 percent in 2000 to just under 17 percent in 2017, the paper reported.

Supporters of the program say it will help address the lingering effects of slavery and discrimination, per the Pioneer Press.

The fund will be capped at $10 million, while the city estimates that the taxes from recreational marijuana sales could generate between $500,000 and $750,000 annually.

The idea of reparations to compensate the descendants of slaves has gained traction among progressives while a majority of conservatives oppose it.

Marianne Williamson, a spiritual advisor and 2020 presidential candidate, unveiled a formal reparations plan earlier this year.

The long-shot Democratic candidate has called for between $200 and $500 billion for a "payment of a debt that is owed."

 

[ASoulMan]

U.S. Birth Rate Drops for Fourth Year, Remains Below Replacement Level

The United States' birth rate has continued to decline for the fourth consecutive year, newly released federal data reveals.

www.breitbart.com

 

[Cat Menagerie]

This was a few weeks ago, but Eyeball is one badass eagle.

Spoiler: Eagle released after hit by car

Bald Eagle Released After Being Struck By A Car In Muskogee
Friday, November 15th 2019, 4:59 PM CST
Updated:
Friday, November 15th 2019, 6:07 PM CST
By: Mallory Thomas


TULSA, Oklahoma - A bald eagle was released back into the wild Friday morning after it was hit by a car last month.

“She had a horrible concussion. She had been hit in the face probably by a car,” said Annette King with Wild Heart Ranch.

King said back on October 19th she received a call about a bald eagle in Muskogee that had been hit by a car. King said they rushed the eagle to the Tulsa Zoo where they were able to help heal the eagle’s injuries.

She said they also nicknamed the eagle “Eyeball."

After recovering for almost a month, “Eyeball” was released back into the wild.

“The orb around her eye was fractured. One eye looked like it was not savable,”
said King.

“She flew away like she never had a bad day,” said King.

King said the fall and winter months are the busiest times of the year for calls about injured eagles. They have two more they are helping recover.

Learn More About Wild Heart Ranch

Bald Eagle Released After Being Struck By A Car In Muskogee

A bald eagle was released back into the wild Friday morning after it was hit by a car last month.<br/><br/>

www.newson6.com

 

[WarJams]

Judge Dawn Gentry faces misconduct charges. Here's what happened and what happens next.

There's a lot to follow in the Judge Dawn Gentry investigation. Here's a guide about who's who, what happened and what's to come.

www.cincinnati.com

Kentucky family court judge and alleged-whore Dawn Gentry hires a band's guitarist for a crony position at her court.
Fucks him on the job.
Ropes the secretary into a threesome.
Starts stashing booze at the courthouse and drinking on the job.
Invites another woman onto a panel to protect abused children only so she could solicit her for sex and attempt to get her to seduce her husband (pro-tip: the guitar player IS NOT the judge's husband).
That annoying fucking guitar faggot wont stop fucking playing the guitar during court, FUCK!
"Encourages" staff at the court to contribute to her re-election campaign.
Failure to contribute to her campaign will result in termination.


Now she's facing misconduct charges. This ho will probably land a gig as the host of a daytime television court show by next season.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

Pics of the 5 from a previous article:

View attachment 1037547

I wonder why they choose the 50yo mom over her 26yo daughter?

British middle aged vs 'young' woman.. maybe the former was less fat?

Alternatively, the former was DTF and the latter is just making up stuff to help her mother avoid shame.

 

[CheezzyMach]

While you're not quite wrong, the 1% elite he's talking about isn't making capitalism any better.

It doesn't help to talk about capitalism when you're worth $30 million. Capitalism is the most successful economic propensity, don't expect it to go away anytime soon.

Capitalism isn't the problem; the people that take advantage of it is the problem.

I laugh my ass off when I see rich actors and billionaires bitch about capitalism.

It's a wonder they don't self immolate by hypocrisy.

 

[mr.moon1488]

An oldie that I don't think I've seen before:

View attachment 1036491

Half of Sweden's population overweight or obese: study

51 percent of the Swedish population aged between 16 & 84 are either overweight or obese, according to a new Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten) report containing figures for 2017.

www.thelocal.se

View attachment 1036492

Obesity - The Public Health Agency of Sweden

Around 50 % of adults in Sweden are overweight or obese. Obesity is among the main five risk factors in Sweden for healthy years of life being lost.

www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se

So not only they're cucks, they're OBESE now?!

My sides are on another galaxy

Lol as much as I pity Sweden, there is a certain schadenfreude value which comes from their misery when you consider how many lefty college professors hail them as the modern ideal society.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Lol as much as I pity Sweden, there is a certain schadenfreude value which comes from their misery when you consider how many lefty college professors hail them as the modern ideal society.

The shadenfreude ends when you realize they still believe their ideas are utopia and it's everyone else's fault it didn't go right. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

@bearycool they say your name at the start

Udderly Enamored: Cow Can't Stop Licking Dog on Queensland Ranch

A cow at Riverside, a cattle station near Moranbah in central Queensland, took an unusual interest in one of the dogs working at the property.

Video posted to Facebook on November 25 shows the friendly bovine nuzzling and licking the pooch as it rests near a vehicle.

Courtney Robinson, who recorded the video, posted it to the Killili Contracting & Working Dogs Facebook page and her personal Instagram with the caption, “When your girl is a stage 10 clinger.”

Robinson and her partner Randall Fincham work for Killili Contracting & Working Dogs “a livestock handling and education team” in the Northern Territory. They travel around Australia for their work.

On November 20, Killili Contracting & Working Dogs posted another video of the cow licking the dogs paws.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/udderly-enamored-cow-cant-stop-175929803.html

(Yes I know it's old, but it was only reported in reputable news sources recently)

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Lolcow Styx vlog about the NY Times who did a hitpiece on Alex Jones.

Despite being blanket deplatformed across the visible web Infowars probably still reaches more people than the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/magazine/alex-jones-infowars.html ( http://archive.ph/pWdq3 )

Some comments gived me some chuckles.

Guido Cifelli
You can tell it’s fake cause it came from the NYT

nicosogrecos
Exactly ,the same as CNN is now just a cult with less viewers than Styx.

 

[bearycool]

@bearycool they say your name at the start

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/udderly-enamored-cow-cant-stop-175929803.html
View attachment 1041391
(Yes I know it's old, but it was only reported in reputable news sources recently)

now that's some very cool content

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Dead baby found in restroom at airport in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- A lifeless baby was found in a restroom of Manila's international airport on Sunday, the state-run Philippines National News Agency reported. The baby, reported to be "a full-term baby girl" according to the Manila International Airport Authority, was found at about 7...

fox6now.com

Dead baby found in restroom at airport in Philippines
POSTED 10:19 AM, DECEMBER 8, 2019, BY CNN WIRE SERVICE

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Passengers arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 in Manila on October 19, 2011. The Philippine government pledged on October 19 to improve the country's main airport after it was named the world's worst following complaints of thieving staff, dirty toilets and a collapsing ceiling. AFP PHOTO/NOEL CELIS (Photo credit should read NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)
MANILA, Philippines — A lifeless baby was found in a restroom of Manila’s international airport on Sunday, the state-run Philippines National News Agency reported.
The baby, reported to be “a full-term baby girl” according to the Manila International Airport Authority, was found at about 7 a.m. local time with underwear wrapped around her neck, PNA reported.
The Authority’s medical team provided the baby with basic life support even when she was seen “with no sign of life.”
Police in Manila are investigating the incident, and the airport authority has ordered that all CCTV from Terminal 3 be reviewed.

 

[Thank Fuck For Evil Otto]

Kentucky woman busted after selling her baby for $2,000

A Kentucky woman, Maria Domingo Perez, was busted in Bowling Green for selling her baby to another couple for $2,000.

nypost.com

A woman in Kentucky was arrested for selling her infant after an elementary school called police and said the mother gave her child away, a report said.

Maria Domingo Perez was busted in Bowling Green for selling the baby to Pascual Jose Manuel and Catarina Felipe Jose for $2,000, according to Fox News.

Investigators interviewed Perez, who gave conflicting stories, but eventually admitted she agreed to give the couple her baby.

Manuel and Jose told police they agreed to pay $2,000 for the child, according to the report.

Perez’s four other children were taken from her after the arrest.

The trio were busted for selling and purchasing a child for adoption, which are felonies, Fox reported.

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a squatemalan selling babies in Kentucky forever.