Day: August 14, 2008

Georgian Journalist Shot During Live Coverage

Chris 8 Comments

It’s safe to watch if you’re skitterish about blood since she only gets nicked.

From the Daily Mail:

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia.

Tamara Urushadze took a bullet to her left arm in the flashpoint town of Gori as Russian forces continued their illegal occupation.

Bravely, or foolishly, the 32-year-old brunette continued her report after a few moments as other journalists and aid workers dashed for cover.

Full Moon During a Debate

Chris 12 Comments

Here’s the background:

An argument between two debate coaches escalates into a war of words, each showering the other with a string of obscenities before an audience of seemingly unfazed students. Before long, one coach has mooned the other, and the video — posted to YouTube — continues recording the spectacle of two communication professors stomping their feet, flailing their arms and shouting at the top of their lungs.

The video, which has racked up over 11,000 views since Aug. 2, raises more questions than it answers, such as, What prompted the head of Fort Hays State University’s cross-examination debate team, Bill Shanahan, to drop his pants and expose his rear to his rhetorical opponent, the University of Pittsburgh debate director Shanara Reid-Brinkley? Why did it take almost six months for the video hit the Web? And what was the dispute about, anyway?

While neither professor could be reached, it appears that the argument involved teams’ ability to “strike” judges they believe have historically given them lower scores. One of the teams struck a judge who was African American and female, Fort Hays State provost Larry Gould told a local station, “and that set the thing off.” While it’s unclear who started the ruckus, the video begins with an off-screen Shanahan, apparently responding to facial expressions from the off-screen Reid-Brinkley, asking rhetorically, “Is this bullshit, Shanara? Is this bullshit?”

(Thanks Ross)

Heathen – A Short Story

Chris 2 Comments

By Arturo Vivante:

I was slowly walking down the main street of the Vermont town where I taught when a man aggressively came up to me and asked me point-blank: “Are you a Christian?”

“No,” I said, unwilling to be pigeonholed, “I am a heathen.”

“Who made that tree?” he asked me sternly, pointing to a maple near where we stood. “It made itself.”

“Oh, itself, did it? Well, let me tell you, God made it.’’

I looked at the red, flame-like, burgeoning buds that would soon turn into tiny leaf, rosy at first, then broaden into lustrous green, and finally in the fall turn to fiery red, and lines from a poem of D.H. Lawrence that I had read to my class came to my mind, and I quoted them to him:

“Even the mind of God can only imagine
Those things that have become themselves.”

“Do you pray?” he said.

“No, but I do a lot of hoping.”

He looked at me as at a hopeless case. “Take this and pray,” he said, handing me a pink flier. “Read it every day.”

I looked at the words that perhaps someone of his sect had written. “When I hope,” I said, “at least I use my own words, and no one else’s. I don’t follow any dotted line.”

‘’What’s wrong with these words?”

“They are impersonal, dated. Said over and over, they become almost meaningless, while hope is new and fresh each time, and isn’t attached to any sect.”

(via Friendly Atheist)