Saturday, October 01, 2016

Smack for a snack childcare, Tim Burton v. diversity and Polish exploring icons


- Few teams have had a better start to the college football season than the No. 6 Houston Cougars. They’re 5-0, they’ve already upset a Top 10 opponent and they have a great look at qualifying for the College Football Playoff. But not every Cougar is enjoying the season right now and two of them are having a downright ugly week despite the team’s 42-14 win over UConn on Thursday at TDECU Stadium. That would be starting middle linebacker Matthew Adams and starting outside linebacker Tyus Bowser, neither of whom played in the game because of a brawl between the two of them that resulted in an injury to Bowser that will keep him out of the lineup in the coming weeks. "Yesterday, during our weekly tradition of family Fridays, where we go out on the field and play some silly games just to loosen the thing up, dodge ball, whiffle ball, two-hand touch football, the two got over competitive and things briefly got out of hand during one of the games and resulted in a scuffle between Tyus and Matt, two brothers," Houston coach Tom Herman said. "It was a freak accident and the result of the scuffle was a broken bone for Tyus.” Nothing says family day quite like a fistfight that leaves someone hospitalized and the other guy in timeout, unable to play in the game. Herman is a good coach and this appears to be an isolated incident, but you’d just as soon not have two of your starters trying to cave each other’s faces in before a primetime game, taking attention away from what’s been an awesome season for Houston up to this point……..


- Poland is not typically a land known for launching the world’s greatest explorers. Maybe that will change now that Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski says he and his team have discovered the world's deepest underwater cave, 1,325 feet down, near the eastern Czech town of Hranice. Starnawski wasted no time giving himself a whole lot of credit and a brand new nickname, dubbing himself "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery. He and his team found the cave this week in the Hranice Abyss, which he has explored since 1998. In all fairness to Krzysztof, he did scuba dive  to a narrow slot at 200 meters' depth and made his way into the cave through a specially made underwater robot that went to the depth of 404 meters, so dude probably does deserve a bit of recognition. He wants to make sure he gets that recognition by claiming that Hranice Abyss is the world's deepest known underwater cave, beating the previous record-holder, Italy's Pozzo del Merro flooded sinkhole, by 39 feet. According to Starnawski, he was able to make his find with financial help from National Geographic, which first reported the discovery. No matter who’s footing the bill, it’s a big find in a place most folks wouldn’t be bold enough to go, and when history goes looking to label the greatest explorers of the 21st century, maybe they will remember the name of Krzysztof Starnawski……..


- Hollywood whitewashing of movie role remains a thing and now, Tim Burton is having to explain himself because of it. Burton is under fire for the apparent lack of diversity in his latest film, “Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children,” which is an adaptation of Ransom Riggs' popular fantasy novel. The project has been called into question for featuring a predominantly white cast, with pre-release publicity material presenting Samuel L. Jackson is the only nonwhite actor playing a reasonably significant part. Burton has heard the hate, felt the heat and now, he’s firing back. "Nowadays, people are talking about it more. Things either call for things, or they don't." "I remember back when I was a child watching ‘The Brady Bunch’ and they started to get all politically correct," Burton said. “Like, OK, let's have an Asian child and a black. I used to get more offended by that than just... I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, that's great. I didn't go like, ‘OK, there should be more white people in these movies.’” Part of the drama around the movie’s diversity issues was Jackson speaking about the overall lack of black characters in Burton’s movies in general. "I had to go back in my head and go, how many black characters have been in Tim Burton movies?” Jackson recalled. “And I may have been the first, I don't know, or the most prominent in that particular way, but it happens the way it happens. I don't think it's any fault of his or his method of storytelling, it's just how it’s played out. Tim's a really great guy." This doesn’t feel like an especially huge issue, but Burton didn’t do himself any favors with his explanation……..


- Every school or childcare facility has its own approach to teaching, policing and problem-solving with children. Those philosophies differ and should be tailored to the needs of children, so maybe everyone just needs to back off and show some understanding for a daycare center in Lexington, Kentucky even though officials in the area are monitoring the facility after an investigation found that employees required children to be hit before they could get a snack. An Office of Inspector General report found that two male workers at New Creation Childcare in Lexington made children line up and get hit on the legs or hands with a ruler to get some yogurt and honestly, it’s a valuable lesson for those kids. There are no freebies, no handouts and no expectation of charity or kindness even if your parents are paying good money to have you cared for and kept safe. Sure, a least two children had noticeable bruising as a result of playing "smack for a snack,” but at least these two abusive employees managed to turn it into a game. Police did cite one of the employees for assault and there were other red flags about the facility, including finding the daycare's storefront window shattered. According to employees, the window was broken when one child had knocked another into the glass. Hmm, maybe a kiddie fight club going on? To top it off, a state inspector also found that one woman was looking after 27 school-age children, 12 more than permitted under state staff-to-child ratios. All in all, a place forging new ground when it comes to raising the next generation and preparing them for the world ahead……..

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