- Dealing with veterans isn't always an easy endeavor. Both
on positive and negative sides, those who have served in the military and may
have seen combat have both strengths and challenges that require others to be
understanding and educated, which means it makes a lot of sense that Texas
A&M University – San Antonio, with about 20 percent of its student
population of just over 5,500 associated with the military, has become the
first college or university in the nation to require all faculty and staff to
take military competency training. The school has a stated mission to embrace
student veteran and the goal of this training is to help faculty and staff to
understand and appreciate the experiences, strengths and skills of student
veterans and to assist those veterans in transitioning to life after the
military and in this case, as students. “Student veterans have learned to work
hard for a common purpose. They have a great number of skill sets; our job is
to help them leverage those skill sets and rediscover or create a new mission,”
K.C. Kalmbach, a psychology professor who led the creation of the training,
said of the new policy. Efforts to promote the hiring and appreciation of
veterans in all walks of life, including the workforce, have ramped up in
recent years and should continue for as long and as much as they are needed, so
maybe other colleges and universities with large military ties will implement
the same sort of training…….
- How ironic is it for a man whose professional life is
lived with massive mouse-like headgear obscuring everything about him from the
shoulders up to call out another recording artist for using a ghost producer on
their debut album? Not ironic enough to deter Deadmau5 from accusing The
Chainsmokers of said ghost producer usage. The DJ called the duo out on
Twitter, which has become a trendy thing to do as The Chainsmokers have become
extremely mainstream (hello there, collaboration with Coldplay!) and the duo,
comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, released their first full-length
record ‘Memories… Do Not Open’ last week. The unprovoked shot on the group came
when Deadmau5 responded to a tweet from a third party that promoted a podcast
that featured an in-depth discussion on The Chainsmokers and asked the
question, “How do you solve a problem like The Chainsmokers?” It’s debatable whether
the duo actually represents any problem at all, but Deadmau5 took the bait and
wrote, “Easy. You suck a shitload of Grammy dick and pay a ghost producer. Next
question.” It took The Chainsmokers less than an hour to respond with a tweet
of their own. “Learning so much everyday! Really feeling lucky to be in the
position we are. We catch lots of heat but we are doing what we love and have
the best fans,” they wrote. “And that’s all that matters. Not everyone is gonna
get it or like it but a lot of you guys do and that’s what pushes us. So long
story short. We aren’t going anywhere. love y’all good night!” Exactly the sort
of retort you’d expect from a happy, poppy mainstream act that’s all about
feel-good music for the masses……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Vietnam’s capital is locked in a
pitched battle at the moment between angry villagers and the communist
government tasked with oppressing them on a daily basis. The source of this
particular showdown is a land dispute that has prompted villagers in the city
of Hanoi to hold dozens of policemen in a land dispute in a rare display of
defiance against their communist overlords. The mayhem began over the weekend
in the suburban district of My Duc when police clashed with villagers who
allege their land was illegally seized for sale by a military-run telecoms
firm. Governments wresting land wrongfully from the feeble hands of overmatched
citizens is a common problem around the globe and in an Third World nation
where the majority of the populace is impoverished is especially egregious.
Several villagers were arrested in the initial burst of chaos and in response,
the villagers took some 30 people, many of them riot police, hostage. According
to attorney Tran Vu Hai, Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung assured villagers in a
phone call that six of their number had been released and promised direct talks
to address their grievances, which proves that taking a few hostages to fire a
shot at your government can work from time to time, even if they may come back
later on and burn your village to the ground in retaliation…….
- Not even hockey players are invincible. In the NHL,
injuries that would sideline athletes in most any other sport are merely a
flesh wound and players go to the training room, get patched up and return to
the ice sans teeth, with lots of stitches and in plenty of pain. However, there
are injuries that even an NHLer can’t shrug off and for that reason, Columbus
defenseman Zach Werenski will miss the rest of the postseason because of a
broken cheekbone. Granted, his team’s postseason won’t last much longer, given
that their opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, won 5-4 in overtime for a 3-0
lead in their first-round series in the same game in which Werenski took a puck
to the grill on a shot by Pittsburgh's Phil Kessel. The hardened rubber sphere
to the melon opened a gash on Werenski's right cheek in the second period and
true to hockey player form, he played a
couple shifts in the third period with a full facemask, but his eye swelled
shut and he had to sit out the rest of the game. Trying to play through it
clearly wasn’t an option when he tweeted a photo of his face after the game
that showed his eye nearly swollen shut in a grisly image that looks like a
purple blotch has enveloped about one-third of his face. Of course, if the
team’s medical staff would allow him to play, Werenski would probably try, but
at this point the Blue Jackets are in a three-game hole and would need to pull
off a miraculous four-game winning streak to win the series, so maybe it’s time
to sit this one out……
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