The University of Michigan philosophy lecturer who is the Unabomber's pen pal

"David F. Skrbina, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Michigan here, read the manifesto in The Washington Post on the day it was published, he saw value in the message. He was particularly impressed by its clarity of argument and its references to major scholars on the philosophy of technology. He saw a thinker who wrongly turned to violence but had an argument worthy of further consideration." [Chronicle of Higher Education] [Links added]

Skrbina is a dreamer who only wishes he could muster the cajones to act on his beliefs like his pen pal Kaczynski did. So he does what all the rest of the academic anarchists do; he writes books.

The "leader of the free world" creates his own mini-police state everywhere he goes

And so it seems we Ann Arborites must endure another Obama visit this coming Friday. Look for DTX to be closed to take offs/landing whilst the Imperial Barge Air Force One is on the runway. Look for major highways like I-94 between Detroit and Ann Arbor to be closed to traffic and for police/feds/unidentified black uniformed goons to be posted at all the bridges, on/off ramps and on the tops of every tall building along the way. Furthermore, the immediate area around the pres will become a civil liberties free zone  and from which you can/will be barred from regardless of your business for being there. The Big Ø will zip into town in a fast moving multi-SUV motorcade, speak, and then zoom back out to DTX but even so downtown will be on lock-down for 24 hours probably starting around Thursday until the Big Ø leaves.

As you may surmise I've experienced quite a number of presidential/presidential candidate/First Lady/VIP visits to my town over the years and so I know the drill by now.

I guess we're all supposed to feel honored that he and his entourage have deigned to grace us with his presence yet again. Myself, I was hoping that with advent of the modern police state we'd only need to endure the Dear Leader's digital presence on a jumbo-tron screen rather than in person. Less disruptive.

UM divers retrieve 9000 year old wooden pole from ancient hunting camp from the bottom of Lake Huron

U of Michigan scientists found a wooden pole from a hunting camp on the bottom of Lake Huron. Carbon dating says it's ~9000 years old. Video included. Cool.

The NY Times profiles a football Saturday in Ann Arbor

And so what makes the People's Republic of Ann Arbor the Manhattan of the Great Lakes according to the NY Times? "...[It is the] the urban sophistication of this town — with its mix of restaurants, bars, boutiques, art-house movie theaters and world-class art museums — that keeps many University of Michigan alumni from leaving long after they have graduated."

Well yeah, maybe. But having around five thousand or so goofballs residents that permanently retain the outlook of a 19 year-old college sophomore hanging around town is both a joy and a curse. Mainly a curse though in my humble opinion.

First UM night game ever @ Michigan stadium goes about as expected

According to the Detroit News today 20 people were ejected and 14 arrests were made for fighting, MIPs, disorderly conduct and such. That's a pretty typical night for a football Saturday in Ann Arbor. Only this time it around it was all inside the Big House and not on the streets or in the bars over in town and so the UM cops had to do most of the order keeping work. But minor as these distractions proved to be I don't know if the AD's office would want to schedule Ohio State or MSU for night games. That could go bad real fast. Nice pic of the cops breaking up a fight with pepper spray too.

UM alumni association made $1.6 million off of credit card tie-in

Flash your school colors when you buy stuff with your plastic and help support your alumni association while your at it too. That works for a lot of us. Easy money too esp. if you have a large population of well off alumni, fans and hangers-on eh? I'll have to see if EMU has such a program (at a reasonable interest rate and with decent customer service of course).

No union for grad student research assistants at Michigan MERC* rules

Hail to the victors!

They're not "public employees" within the meaning of the term as decided in a 1981 ruling. That's a bitch. Grad student research assistants are treated like dog shit. Badly paid dog shit at that.

* Michigan Employment Relations Commission

Weblog

You just need this degree and you'll be rich!

University of Michigan business school to offer  Master’s in Entrepreneurship graduate degree (Michigan Daily)
Random thoughts: Can you really teach entrepreneurship though? Is it really worth $36-$50k for a degree like that? Bottom line: A currently hip and cool degree program that will end up being a career non-starter and a student loan debt suck hole after the shiny wears off.


Hitler associate's bones exhumed, burned, and cremains scattered 24 years after his death (Lansing State-Journal)
All because certain undesirable sorts were making Rudolph Hess' grave site into a "must visit" neo-Nazi shrine. Go figure?

Successful robbery of Detroit armored car thwarted because "mastermind" had to boast, brag, strut, tweet, post pictures on Facebook showing off his loot (The Smoking Gun)
Stupid mofo. Should have beat it out of town. Sheesh.

Boing boing blogger tries to help Troy, MI save its public library system (Cory Doctorow)
I fear it won't be enough though. This is truly sad.

Fred Reed says we should all expatriate or failing that move out to a shack in the woods. Again.
And which is kinda what he always says, but whatever. He's fun to read just for his writing style. (Via Lewrockwell.com)

An interesting profile of the billionaire mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg (Village Voice)
Third terms in executive offices tend to be disappointing legacy killers.

Maintenance and up-keep of household ceiling fans (Popular Mechanics)
Interesting. Soap and water works as well keeping them clean as expensive specialty products. Go figure?

MA man says he's  cracked the Zodiac Killer's coded messages (Belmont Patch blog)
He seems to have done it.

Metal Thieves: Vultures of a Fallen Empire (Taki's Magazine)
"Pecking at his rigid corpus [of the American Empire] are an unsavory assortment of human buzzards, scavengers, pack rats, hyenas, and scroungers—nearly all of them on meth, crack, or meth/crack cocktails—who busily pick apart the remaining sinew and marrow from his bones."

Yep. All that but it's still a decent way to pick up some easy extra beer or gasoline money too. Just don't take it too far, eh?

Ten things I hate about the right (wing) (Gavin McInnes, Taki's Magazine)
Spot on.

Observations

Now that both Michigan and Michigan State are out of the NCAA basketball tournament I'm not nearly as interested who wins it now. Odd coincidence that they both lost by three points or less too.

Some of the usual suspects at U of M are making a stink about having Michigan Governor Rick Snyder give the commencement address this spring.Whatever. They don't have to attend or they can get up and leave when Snyder starts his speech. Who cares what the grads think anyhow? They got their degrees and they'll soon be leaving Ann Arbor if they haven't left already.

Last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner enters America into yet a third war  just a year later. That  has to be some kind of record. Hope n' Change motherfuckers!

The University of Michigan's Graduate Employees’ Organization (UMGEO) AKA " the grad student slave labor gang "has arrived at a "contract" (and I use that term "contract" very tentatively here), with the University's administration that will now create lactation break areas for the GEOs that need 'em, no more assigned work after 1 AM, give GEOs seats on several important UM committees, and will create a website to help GEOs find better jobs. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about such an outcome.

weblog

Top University of Michigan officials get double digit pay increases despite money woes - AAcom
Cops can spy on your house with night-vision goggles without a warrant - VC
Brainless Dearborn, MI resident "accidentally" shoots himself while sleeping - DetNews
Is Ann Arbor drinking water contaminated?  - AAchron
Maybe, it depends on whose standards you use

Sign of the Times...

Ain't it wonderful to have the POTUS come to town! Fun, fun, fun. Fun that is if you like standing in line for two hours to have some Secret Service goon squeeze your balls and then go sit in the rain for another hour and a half waiting for the Great Man to come and give his speech. Big fun. Hope it was worth it for you guys that attended.

Sign of the Times...

President Obama is speaking at the University of Michigan commencement in Ann Arbor tomorrow. Which means that between the Secret Service and the local cops the whole town is gonna be a no-go zone complete with road closures, checkpoints, snipers on the roof and overhead choppers buzzing around. There were four of them zooming around this afternoon. The racket they make is truly deafening. And all for a short graduation speech. And I hear it may rain too. Hope all this is worth it to you if you plan to attend. But it ain't to me.

Me, I am gonna hang out somewhere else till the Pres blows town. I highly recommend if you care as less about the Great Man's words of wisdom and advice to the new grads as I do you just avoid the thirty mile zone between Ann Arbor and Detroit Metro airport altogether.