#emphasis mine

[sovpologist]

"While the exact details of Sony’s deal to acquire Bungie remain unknown to the public or employees, sources say they were told by leaders that the current split board structure is contingent on Bungie meeting certain financial goals. If Bungie falls short of certain financial thresholds by too great an amount, Sony is allowed to dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company."

"According to those still with the company, employee frustration and sadness in the days and weeks following the layoffs was met with a surprising amount of indifference or even outright flippancy or hostility from management. Several people we spoke to told us that leaders had reiterated, across multiple meetings, that they couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be more layoffs, with two specifically recalling chief people officer Holly Barbacovi outright stating that layoffs were a “lever” the company would pull again."

"Others said they were rebuffed repeatedly and discouraged from even discussing the layoffs whenever they tried to ask questions. Employees in one department recalled a post-layoffs Q&A session where a department head was asked if leadership taking salary cuts to prevent layoffs had been considered, only to respond that Bungie was 'not that type of company.'"

"Several people we spoke to expressed anger at the layoff of Bungie general counsel Don McGowan, who played a key role in Bungie winning an historic suit against a player who harassed a Bungie developer. Others laid off included a noticeable number of members of Bungie’s DE&I clubs, including co-heads of Pride@Bungie, Women@Bungie, and Accessibility@Bungie. When combined with other recent resource cuts, these dismissals have led to fears these clubs might be shut down."

"'I’m angry. I’m upset. This isn’t what I came here to do,' one person said. 'It feels like many higher ups aren’t listening to the data and are like, "We just need to win our fans back, they still like us." No. They don’t…We got rid of some of our most knowledgeable beloved folks who have been here for 20+ years. Everyday I walk in afraid that I or my friends are next. No one is safe.'"

#emphasis mine #destiny 2

[cheekedupwhiteboy]

There is no one federal agency that specifically regulates the radioactivity brought to the surface by oil-and-gas development,” an EPA representative says. In fact, thanks to a single exemption the industry received from the EPA in 1980, the streams of waste generated at oil-and-gas wells — all of which could be radioactive and hazardous to humans — are not required to be handled as hazardous waste.

#emphasis mine #seems fine

[natequarter]

I—you know it was killing me twice that you weren’t there, right? You must know it was destroying me to be there in your body, trying to keep your thumbs on, and I couldn’t even hear your damn voice?

something, something, orpheus and eurydice?

#gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #the locked tomb #emphasis mine

[snoopylovessoup]

#quotes #oppression #racism #Palestine #free palestine #Israel #elie wiesel #emphasis mine #facism #colonialism #colonial violence #colonization #quote #neutrality #holocaust

[scrapironflotilla]

The beginning of every campaign is always difficult. Neither officers nor men had been taught that war is not glorious but a sordid affair, and it is only one’s pride that enables a man to do his duty.

From the private memoir by Major-General Beauvoir de Lisle.

#emphasis mine #my research #history #beauvoir de lisle

[a-room-of-my-own]

A Church of England school teacher told a pupil she was “despicable” after she refused to accept that her classmate identifies as a cat.

The 13-year-old girl and her friend were reprimanded by their teacher at Rye College, in East Sussex, on Friday at the end of a Year 8 class on “life education” in which they were told they can “be who you want to be and how you identify is up to you”.

The row, which has infuriated parents, was allegedly sparked by one of them asking a fellow pupil: “How can you identify as a cat when you’re a girl?”

Their teacher told them they were being reported to a senior leader and were no longer welcome at the school, part of the Aquinas Trust, a Church of England network of 11 schools, if they continued to express the view that only boys and girls exist.

‘They are genuinely unwell – crazy’

The Telegraph has heard a recording of the heated exchange taken by one of the pupils, in which the teacher starts by saying “how dare you – you’ve just really upset someone” by “questioning their identity”.

The pupil responded: “If they want to identify as a cat or something then they are genuinely unwell – crazy.”

The teacher then asks the girls “where did you get this idea from that there are only two genders”, adding: “It is not an opinion.”

The teacher said that “gender is not linked to the parts that you were born with, gender is about how you identify, which is what I said right from the very beginning of the lesson.”

She added that “there is actually three biological sexes because you can be born with male and female body parts or hormones” and “there are lots of genders – there is transgender, there is a gender who are people who don’t believe that they have a gender at all”.

The girls said they “don’t agree with that” and that you “can’t have” a gender because “if you have a vagina you’re a girl and if you have a penis you’re a boy – that’s it”.

The teacher interjected in a raised voice: “What do you mean you can’t have it? It’s not a law ... Cisgender is not necessarily the way to be – you are talking about the fact that cisgender is the norm, that you identify with the sexual organ you were born with, that’s basically what you’re saying, which is really despicable.”

The teacher suggested they were homophobic and confused, which the girls denied. When the pupils said their mothers would be on their side, the teacher responded: “Well that’s very sad as well then.”

The teacher said that “if you don’t like it you need to go to a different school”, adding: “I’m reporting you to [senior staff], you need to have a proper educational conversation about equality, diversity and inclusion because I’m not having that expressed in my lesson.”

‘The shutting down of debate’

The Telegraph has contacted the school and the trust for comment.

The parent of the pupil who took the recording expressed fury online and thanked “those who have been kind and supportive” to her daughter.

A parent of another Year 8 pupil at the school who has received the same lesson told The Telegraph: “I understand the point the teacher was attempting to make, what bothers me is the shutting down of debate in such a threatening and aggressive manner, which I don’t believe is appropriate in an educational setting.

“Regardless of the subject, education should serve to build awareness of differing points of view to widen the understanding of a subject. It shouldn’t be a case of indoctrination.”

The Church of England trust that manages the school along with others in East Sussex, Kent and south-east London reportedly told its teachers earlier this year to “re-educate” those using “negative language” such as “that is mental” and “stop acting like a girl”.

A spokesman for Rye College said: “We are committed to offering our pupils an inclusive education. Teachers endeavour to ensure that pupils’ views are listened to, and encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussion. Teachers also aim to answer questions sensitively and honestly.

“We strive to uphold the highest standards across the school. We will be reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.”

#gender critical #transgender #now catgender is Validt™️ #radfem please interact #emphasis mine

[banji-effect]

Calvin Coolidge’s meet-cute is just one of the book’s many revelations. We learn that the famously cruel Andrew Jackson was also an insufferable cheeseball who wrote his beloved the nauseating sentence “May the Goddess of Slumber every evening light on your eyebrows and gently lull you to sleep, and conduct you through the night with pleasing thoughts and pleasant dreams.” We hear of Dolley Madison’s habit, late in life, of hefting her elderly husband onto her back and romping around the room with him, “whenever she particularly wished to impress him with a due sense of man’s inferiority.” We are shocked to discover poetry pouring from Richard Nixon’s pen. And sometimes we are not surprised at all, as when a young Theodore Roosevelt sends his intended, Alice, an almost incoherently giddy letter that includes an exhortation to exercise. In addition to having perhaps the year’s best title — drawn from a letter of Woodrow Wilson’s — “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?” contains what may be the year’s best sentence: “If it’s sex you’re looking for, Warren G. Harding will meet your expectations.” Harding provides the book’s raciest reading — “I hurt with the insatiate longing, until I feel that there will never be any relief until I take a long, deep, wild draught on your lips and then bury my face on your pillowing breasts,” he writes his mistress Carrie Phillips. But aside from the adventures of Jerry and Mrs. Pouterson (Harding’s nicknames for his and Phillips’s genitals), most of the missives are on the chaste side. History’s lustiest letters, sadly, tend to get burned.

#emphasis mine #if it's sex you're looking for - warren g. harding will meet your expectations #@the presidential tumblr ladies #must-reads

[theoutcastrogue]

[Please note that this paper is a relic from 2003, i.e. before several crucial developments, from wikipedia passing 100k articles (it’s 60 million now) to universities adopting plagiarism checkers to AI-generated text and whatnot.]

The notion that plagiarism is morally wrong is a common perception in western academia. Kollich (1983) describes how he pursued offending plagiarists “like an avenging god” and describes what they have done as “deception”. He views the act of plagiarism as an insult against the teacher and sees the need for punishment against what he views as a crime. These views, while seemingly extreme, are all too common in western academic circles. Different cultures have different perceptions of morality and these are determined by ideological perspectives which have generally developed and changed over time. (Hofstede) The morality of plagiarism is linked to the western ideological perspective of the ownership of texts. Scollon (1995) says that in the treatment of academic plagiarism there is a presupposition of a common ideology of thinking which assumes that the author is the sole creator and originator of his/her texts. In western ideology therefore, plagiarism is a violation against the author and consequently viewed as morally wrong.

Pennycook (1996), argues however, that plagiarism cannot be viewed as a black and white issue but that it is a far more complex phenomenon relating to the relationships between text, memory and learning. He suggests that the way cultures understand the notion of authorship and ownership of text determines their definition of plagiarism. Pennycook (1996) says that the notion of ownership of text is a particularly western concept which can be attributed to a paradigm shift in thinking in western society during the Enlightenment era. [...]This modernist era placed man as the subject and the human replaced God as the creator of the imagination. It became, therefore necessary to attribute work to specific authors and so consequently the notion of individual ownership of texts developed. [note: I think the shift did happen around that time, but it had nothing to do with god and everything to do with printing presses, and the educated classes who had access to them: at that junction, both the emerging bourgeoisie and the declining nobility were DESPERATE to make a name for themselves] Angelil-Carter (2000) agrees with this notion of development of ownership of texts and says that the introduction of copyright laws in the 18th Century helped this ideological perspective to take hold. The idea of originality in writing has been highly valued since this time. [and that, I think, is the most important factor: individual creativity was always celebrated, people had poetic contests for millennia, even if plenty of anonymous material was also circulating; but the notion that you need a licence to copy a work was truly unprecedented]

[...] It is evident that the western notion of plagiarism is not clear cut. Pennycook (1996) discusses some of the tensions and ambiguities surrounding this issue. There is a historical precedence for plagiarism from the Roman era, through the Renaissance to present times. Pennycook discusses how difficult it is to be original and at the same time give respect to previous authors. He concludes that language and text may be seen as the circulation of words and ideas rather than a linear production of original and creative work. He also suggests that the western emphasis on attribution may be a devise to retain the status of authorship within academic circles. The emphasis in writing is on the author rather than on the text itself.

Other ambiguities areas when writing practices in fields outside academia are considered. Kollich (1983) is concerned that there are different standards in writing practices for academic institutions and those in what he terms the “real world”. He questions why there is moral outrage regarding plagiarism in academic circles while it is common practice in business circles to reuse previous texts for reports etc. Deckert (1993) also mentions the ambiguities of western notion of plagiarism. He asks why is it acceptable for politicians to use professional speech-writers without giving credit but not acceptable to use others work in academic circles. These discrepancies with regard to what is and what isn’t acceptable use of text in a western context obviously cause difficulties for students and particularly those from different cultural backgrounds.

The ideological concepts of ownership of text influences the way an author writes. From a western perspective, arising from the modernist view of the individual being the creator of ideas and words, there is a need to attribute particular texts to particular authors. This perspective has developed over the last few hundred years into what is now considered acceptable academic writing practices across the western academic world. The idea of plagiarism as a violation against academic norms has therefore developed from this particular cultural worldview. Since a high value is placed on originality and ownership of text then to violate this is deemed morally wrong.

Students from non-western cultural backgrounds may have different interpretations of the ownership of texts and therefore different interpretations of plagiarism. — Lucas Introna, Niall Hayes, Lynne Blair & Elspeth Wood (Lancaster University, 2003)

So here’s what I think about plagiarism in academia.

It is 100% desirable to ALWAYS know who wrote what (and when and where and under what conditions, ideally). If we don’t, we can’t properly evaluate it, because we lack that crucial piece of information, the POV. So attribution is non-negotiable. But plagiarism isn’t only using somebody else’s paper and slapping your own name on it. It’s also extensively quoting somebody else’s paper without rephrasing it. So to be clear, you CAN actually use other people’s work (which should be self-evident: research can’t possibly happen if you can’t do that, the whole point of scientific communities is to build on each other’s work), but you can’t use their exact words. And I, for one, think this is ludicrous. What a pointless waste of time and effort and energy.

Instead of quoting, with attribution, two paragraphs which to your estimation already convey perfectly a piece of information that is relevant to what you’re trying to build, you have to rephrase them, otherwise the professor will have a stroke, the ethics committee will hunt you for sport, the Machine That Goes Ping! plagiarism checker will go ping! and black helicopters will come and take you away to an undisclosed location. Or something like that. But if you shuffle words around and find synonyms and equivalents to say the exact same thing, ’s all good. This makes... no sense at all. This is a self-imposed restraint which just... restricts, it doesn’t promote knowledge in any meaningful way.

If there’s already an existing phrasing that gives all the information, why jump through hoops to come up with another one? Who benefits? Because humanity’s common pool of knowledge does not, and what the fuck is academia FOR if not to tend to humanity’s common pool of knowledge? The only possible beneficiary is the author’s vanity. “Oooh look at me, I made something totally new, yes sir, and now it’s all mine and nobody else’s. That’s what science is about, right?” This is some pointless, petty bullshit. And if the author happens to be vain (I got nothing against vanity per se) in a more exciting manner than this bullshit, literally no one benefits.

Science and culture is, by definition, building on other people’s work. Let’s just do that, then! With attribution of course. But like a common. Not like a fenced and hedged property.

#theory #information wants to be free #trs #emphasis mine #Lucas Introna

[hollowwhisperings]

The Oath of Fëanáro

Be he foe or friend, be he foul or clean, brood of Morgoth or bright Vala, Elda or Maia or Aftercomer, Man yet unborn upon Middle-earth, neither law, nor love, nor league of swords, dread nor danger, not Doom itself, shall defend him from Fëanor, and Fëanor's kin, whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh, finding keepeth or afar casteth a Silmaril. This swear we all…Death we will deal him ere Day’s ending, Woe unto world’s end! Our word hear thou, Eru Allfather! To the everlasting Darkness doom us if our deed faileth…On the holy mountain hear in witness and our vow remember, Manwë and Varda!

#the oath of feanor #tolkien #silm #feanorions #emphasis mine #i am intrigued by the use of “day” here bc the oath predates the sun #the sun is anachronistic #so that's likely “translation” at work #to anyone who actually tries reading this aloud: it's probs not binding to humans bc we fans are but mortals of no relation to fëanáro #that & the oath here is only a “translation” (the premise of the legendarium is memoirs turned story turned historical text turned myth) #so the ENG is several languages removed from the “original” wording #i.e. noldorin qenya #i am counting “westron” as several languages bc it would evolve over the [time] between “translations” while elven languages remained stati #qenya to westron to [time] to ENG (bilbo had access to the original qenya bc his historical source was elrond) #similarly to the use of “day” is the anachronistic use of “feanor” rather than “fëanáro” #i doubt that feanor ever spoke sindarin prior to his death by Every Balrog At Once #the sun didn't rise until some 30-ish years after feanor's death #the qenya ban took effect 50-ish years after the first sunrise #don't be a tolkien nerd: there's too much math & nouns can be out of character

[tulowitzki]

"mikko's the best power.... forward"

#emphasis mine #avs lb

[shirkers2018dirsanditan]

“In his testimony, Depp copped to some bad stuff, but this too was a play for sympathy, of a piece with the charm and courtliness he was at pains to display. That he came off as a guy unable to control his temper or his appetites was seen, by many of the most vocal social media users, to enhance his credibility, while Heard’s every tear or gesture was taken to undermine hers. The audience was primed to accept him as flawed, vulnerable, human, and to view her as monstrous.

Because he’s a man. Celebrity and masculinity confer mutually reinforcing advantages. Famous men — athletes, actors, musicians, politicians — get to be that way partly because they represent what other men aspire to be. Defending their prerogatives is a way of protecting, and asserting, our own. We want them to be bad boys, to break the rules and get away with it. Their seigneurial right to sexual gratification is something the rest of us might resent, envy or disapprove of, but we rarely challenge it. These guys are cool. They do what they want, including to women. Anyone who objects is guilty of wokeness, or gender treason, or actual malice.

Of course there are exceptions. In the #MeToo era there are men who have gone to jail, lost their jobs or suffered disgrace because of the way they’ve treated women. The fall of certain prominent men — Harvey Weinstein, Leslie Moonves, Matt Lauer — was often welcomed as a sign that a status quo that sheltered, enabled and celebrated predators, rapists and harassers was at last changing.

A few years later, it seems more likely that they were sacrificed not to end that system of entitlement but rather to preserve it.”

#emphasis mine

[mxtxfanatic]

She had been physically abused so many times. Perhaps she had run away before, but she was hauled back by her hair. She suffered all these for a long time—long enough that the abuses started even before the war. What was Yan Junxun doing before the war? He forgot. But that did not matter. His memory was not worth mentioning. In any case, the murderer endured it for a very long time.

—Chapt. 24: Clarity

What a beautiful piece of foreshadowing!

#human reads time limited hunt #time limited hunt #emphasis mine #i'm very glad to be picking up these clues #in a reread #stories like this always benefit from a revisit #what is this alluding to? #well you’ll just have to read it and see 😉

[djuvlipen]

Italy is inciting hatred against Romani women

This month, both online far-right trolls and ‘post-fascist’ legislators in Italy have Romani women in their crosshairs, as the government moves ahead with its blatantly racist ‘Security decree’, and social media ‘vigilantes’ wage a hate campaign stigmatising all Romani women as thieves. This is what racism looks like at the intersection of ethnicity and gender, when the most vulnerable are targeted and hate becomes normalised. The government has just voted for yet another 'security decree' directed against Romani women accused of theft, that allows for the detention of mothers with children under the age of three. Judges will decide on the advisability of detention, and whether it is better for the detainees’ minor children to be placed in a ‘more suitable family’.

#Italy #emphasis mine

[catenaaurea]

Adam’s fall involved the whole human race in ruin; for his sin and its consequences were transmitted to all mankind, so that now we all come into the world infected with sin. This is called original or hereditary sin, because we have not personally committed it, but have inherited it from the founders of our race. In speaking of sin we must distinguish the sinful act from the sinful state resulting from it. Adam was guilty of the sinful act, but his descendants are affected by the state, viz., the loss of original sanctity and justice. Adam, the founder of the race, sinned, and so the family inheritance of innocence and grace was lost.

F.J. Koch, A Manual of Catholic Apologetics

#not catechism #emphasis mine #i keep thinking about the run ins i had with orthodox on my last blog about this question #and i really do think it comes down to terms and the failure to distinguish #among another thing but i dont want to start a fight right now

[ayliffe]

The University of Stamford was an academic institution founded in 1333 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, by a group of students and tutors from the University of Oxford, including Merton College and Brasenose Hall.

After lobbying by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, King Edward III suppressed the institution in 1335 and the tutors and scholars were returned to Oxford. All Oxford graduates until the 1820s were required to take an oath not to lecture in Stamford.

#lol??? #this shit happened in northampton as well like what was in the water in oxford in the 13th/14th century #emphasis mine