Diversity is Chaos
Voltaire — To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Among high school seniors, interest in science varies by race and ethnicity
A majority of high school seniors in the U.S. say that they enjoy science and around four-in-ten (44%) would like to have a job in the field, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). These sentiments, however, tend to vary by race and ethnicity – a pattern that also is reflected in American students’ test scores in science. Overall, 71% of 12th-grade students agree with the statement, “I like science.” While majorities of all major racial and ethnic groups report having a fondness for science, Asian and Pacific Islander high school seniors are the most likely group to say this, while blacks are the least. Similar racial and ethnic differences emerge when 12th-graders are asked whether they want a career in science. Six-in-ten Asian and Pacific Islander high school seniors say that they would like a job that involves science and 64% say it is important that they do well in the subject to get the kind of job they want. By comparison, 45% of whites, 40% of Hispanics and 39% of blacks say that they want a science-related job, and no more than half of these respective groups agree that they need to do well in science to get the kind of job they desire. Recent studies paint a mixed picture of how U.S. students – not just high school seniors – are faring in science. Fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, have made gains since 2009, but test scores among 12th-graders have remained flat, according to the NAEP. And while some racial and ethnic performance gaps have narrowed over time, black and Hispanic students still score considerably lower than their Asian/Pacific Islander and white peers, regardless of grade level.
Black versus Gay: Ellen DeGeneres has announced via Twitter that she has uninvited gospel singer Kim Burrell from performing on her daytime talk show after video began circulating online of an anti-gay sermon Burrell delivered at a Houston, Texas church
In a recent sermon at Liberty Fellowship Church International, Burrell, who is a pastor there, said that “perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women.”
Sunday, January 1, 2017
A Mexican man who raped a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus had been deported 10 times and removed from the United States another 9 times since 2003
Several U.S. senators are demanding to see immigration records for 38-year-old Tomas Martinez-Maldonado, who is charged with a felony in the attack on September 27, 2016 aboard a bus in Geary County, near Kansas City. Martinez-Maldonado had eight "voluntary removals" before his first deportation in 2010. That was followed by another voluntary removal that same year. He was then deported five more times between 2011 and 2013. Martinez-Maldonado was charged with entering the country without legal permission in 2013. Though he was only charged with a misdemeanor, he was subsequently deported in early 2014 after serving his sentence. A few months later he was again deported and then again in 2015 — twice. He was last deported in October 2015 after he had served his second sentence.
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain has an idea of who to blame for Donald Trump's presidential victory: people like him
"The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we're seeing now," he says in a new interview with Reason. "I've spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America. There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love. When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views, however different they may be than ours, when we mock them at every turn, and treat them with contempt, we do no one any good. The self-congratulatory tone of the privileged left — just repeating and repeating and repeating the outrages of the opposition — this does not win hearts and minds. It doesn't change anyone's opinions. It only solidifies them, and makes things worse for all of us," he continues. "We should be breaking bread with each other, and finding common ground whenever possible. I fear that is not at all what we've done."
One person was seriously injured when a suicide bomber aged around 10 blew herself up in a New Year's Eve attack in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri
The girl approached a crowd buying noodles from a food vendor in the Customs area of the city around 9:30 pm on New Year's Eve and detonated her explosives. Although no one has claimed responsibility, the attack bore the hallmark of Boko Haram Islamists who are notorious for using suicide bombers, mostly women and young girls, in attacking civilian targets. "The girl walked towards the crowd but she blew up before she could reach her target," said witness Grema Usman who lives in the area. "She died instantly, while one person was seriously hurt after after he was hit by shrapnel. (Judging) from her corpse the girl was around 10 years old," Usman said. An aid worker involved in the evacuation of the body gave a similar estimate of the bomber's age. "The girl was clearly not more than 10 and this could have made her too nervous, making her to detonate the explosives prematurely," the aid worker suggested. Borno state police spokesman Victor Isuku, meanwhile, said that a second female suicide bomber had been caught and lynched by an angry mob. Her bomb was safely detonated by security forces, he said. In December 2016, two girls aged between seven and eight detonated explosives in suicide attacks on market in the city, injuring 19 people. Authorities blamed the attack on Boko Haram, whose seven-year insurgency has killed 20,000 people and displaced 2.6 million others. The conflict has spilled into Nigeria's northern neighbors.
Friday, December 30, 2016
Rwandan soccer officials have added a new rule to the game: no witchcraft
Under the new rules, players and coaches found to be using witchcraft to try to gain an advantage face fines and penalties. "Juju" has long played a role in African soccer. In fact, the Confederation of African Football previously banned witchcraft after Rwanda's national team was accused of burying a doll behind its net in a 2003 match against Uganda. But a soccer official in the country says that the traditional practice gives the nation a bad image. Hence, the new penalties. “Since there is no scientific way to prove the use of witchcraft, these measures will be based upon reports from match officials and anything that is deemed to incite witchcraft will be put under consideration," he says.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
A woman has been beheaded by a group of armed men in Afghanistan after she entered a city without her husband
The horrific act took place in the remote village of Latti in Sar-e-Pul province, which is under Taliban control. Provincial Governor spokesman Zabiullah Amani said that the 30-year-old woman was targeted because she went out alone without her husband, who is in Iran. The woman had gone to the market to shop. Under Taliban rule women are prohibited from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. They are also banned from working or education and are forced to wear the burqa.
The US military could soon execute someone for the first time since a soldier was hanged for raping and trying to kill an 11-year-old girl in 1961
Ronald Gray, a black ex-soldier, has been on military death row at Fort Leavenworth since 1988. Gray was convicted of killing five women — a cab driver, an Army private, a university student, a local resident, and a soldier's wife — and raping several others in 1986 and 1987 while stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. A civilian court gave him eight life sentences, but a military court sentenced him to death. All convicts on military death row must have their executions approved by a president. In 2008, George W. Bush authorized Gray's execution, but a federal court gave him a temporary stay. Recently, a judge ruled the stay was no longer in effect and denied any further stays. An execution date for Gray could be set sometime in January 2017. He would be killed by lethal injection. Including Gray, there are currently six former service members on military death row. However, Gray is the only one whose death has been approved by a president.
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