• via Clay Spinuzzi, this great comparison of an original NY Times piece on the Beijing Olympics, and the Chinese translation for a Chinese newspaper. The new copy omits anything that could be construed as negative, and even adds in extra positives.
• My friend Eric takes students affairs to task for not adopting technology quickly enough and pushing the envelope.
• The Atlantic discusses Stuff White People Like in Intolerant Chic, which concludes:
When everything is “political,†of course, nothing is. Moreover, this way of thinking is hardly a formula for the “change†so much in vogue and for the coalition-building required of a mass politics of the progressive or any other variety. Yes, yes, we’ve reached the highest stage of capitalism, and with it the personal choice and diversity so beloved of White People. But those who strive for truly radical—that is, class-based—political change must long for the days of a crude and relatively undifferentiated popular and consumer culture, when stuff was just … stuff.
• How does discourse around food and veganism circulate and construct meat eating as normal? Today’s “Living on Earth” on NPR, in which host interviews Dr. David Pimentel, professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, about the fuel consumption around eating food. From that interview:
GELLERMAN: Do I have to become a vegan, you know a granola eating, you know, lettuce chopping….
[LAUGHING]
PIMENTEL: No. We don’t have to give up eating.
Veganism = not eating, obviously.
