An incident late Tuesday night in which a UCLA
student was stunned at least four times with a Taser has left the UCLA
community questioning whether the university police officers' use of
force was an appropriate response to the situation.
Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student, was repeatedly stunned
with a Taser and then taken into custody when he did not exit the CLICC
Lab in Powell Library in a timely manner. Community Service Officers
had asked Tabatabainejad to leave after he failed to produce his
BruinCard during a random check at around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo by Richard Aronson (aronson@sierratel.com)
...In
the early seventies, Ed Whitchurch ran "his game," and one of the
participants was Eric Sorenson. Eric plays something like a computer.
When he games he methodically considers each possibility before
choosing his preferred option. If given time, he will invariably pick
the optimal solution. It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise,
in all respects, a superior gamer. Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed's game. He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange occurred:
ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo. ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it? ED: (Pause) It's white, Eric. ERIC: How far away is it? ED: About 50 yards. ERIC: How big is it? ED: (Pause) It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top. ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it. ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. ERIC: (Pause) I call out to it. ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo. ERIC: (Pause) I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way? ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo! ERIC: I shoot it with my bow (roll to hit). What happened? ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it. ERIC: (Pause) Wasn't it wounded? ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT'S A GAZEBO! ERIC: (Whimper) But that was a +3 arrow! ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo! ERIC: (Long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.) I run away. ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you. ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.
At
this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a
modicum of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo is. Thus ends the
tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo.
I won't post any more stupid videos. No more posts from me until I have something interesting to say. What do you all want to hear? More politics? Videogames? Day to day nonsense? Let me know. I'm sure I've lost all my readers, but such is life? *shrug*
I tell you what. I'll leave you with a paper that I wrote for my first semester of school. Yes, I had to take remedial English, and I am one of the most well read people I know. Funny how that works, eh?
Writing Assignment #15 Ryan Kerr Basic Writing I
The definition and process of education has changed over the years. In relatively recent history (the last 80 years or so), formal education’s face in the West has changed into what it is today. Formal education has become a process of inculcation and preparation for entry into the job market. I believe that education centers have become less about encouraging diversity and free thought and more about encouraging homogeny. Students travel from all over the world to come to our colleges, and yet I feel we have lost sight of what it is to learn.
In answer to your question about whether our education is more than what we learn at school, I believe the answer is a resounding yes. We learn how to do what we are told and we learn how to regurgitate trivia. Critical thinking is not encouraged in the institution of education as it once was. The skills that we learn while being educated set us up perfectly to succeed at being the “yes men and women” of the future. Whether that is intentional or just apathy, I do not know.
The lesson that has impressed me the most from my educational experience is the lack of thinking and the sheer amount of busy work. I find that to be highly indicative of what is required to be successful in the business world. Seeing as how I’d like to be able to provide for a family in the future, I believe this to be a very important lesson to learn. Learning how to succeed is synonymous with learning how to take instruction. Without a doubt, the most important thing to be taken from my education is a degree that I can present to someone else so that I can trade the best parts of my life to make someone else rich.
