Get Cynical

Thanks to everyone who recommended this to me. Just watched it on Netflix. Amazing documentary.

From Gawker:

A popular community college professor was suspended after posting a photo of his daughter wearing an oversized T-shirt bearing a tagline from this season of Game of Thrones—Daenerys Targaryen’s “I will take what is mine with fire and blood.”

Francis Schmidt, who teaches art and animation at Bergen Community College in New Jersey, shared the photo on Google+, where it was seen by several of his work contacts. One of them, a dean, decided the shirt was a veiled threat of some kind.

The faculty union is currently in conflict with the school administration over promotions and tenure, and recently registered a vote of no-confidence against the school’s president. Schmidt himself had just filed a grievance after being denied a sabbatical. That may explain some of what happened next.

According to Inside Higher Ed, Schmidt got an email over the weekend from Jim Miller, Bergen’s HR director, calling him into an immediate meeting with administrators about the alleged “threatening email.”

At the meeting, Schmidt explained the shirt in the context of Game of Thrones and showed Miller that the “fire and blood” tagline has 4 million results on Google. The professor asked why his photo had caused such a reaction, and was told that “fire” could be a metaphor for “AK-47s.”

Ugh:

Police are investigating possible charges against people who staged a fake kidnapping in a park, terrifying parents and children who thought it was real.

Onlookers in the park watched as a minivan with two masked men pull up and one man jumped out, grabbed a toddler and took off. He was the boy’s father. He later returned and explained the incident was recorded to create a video for social media on child abduction prevention and awareness.

No decision had been reached as of Wednesday on whether to file charges, said Victoria Ormand, assistant to Police Chief Bill Dickinson.

Dickinson told the Peninsula Daily News at least two people were under investigation in the Saturday afternoon incident at Carrie Blake Park.

They could be charged with misdemeanor dangerous conduct or with failing to obtain a permit, City Attorney Craig Ritchie said.

Two brothers from Port Angeles posted a video Tuesday, claiming responsibility, the newspaper said. They said they had notified police minutes before, but there was no warning to people in the park.

Witness Tiffany Barnett chased the van for about a block in an unsuccessful attempt to get the license plate number.

Well, these are pretty awesome.

What the back of famous album covers should look like.