SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

SNOWFLAKES GALORE – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:  Harvard is already penalizing students who belong to gender-affinity groups and a Christian student club that adheres to biblical sexuality.  Next on its list of enemies: instructors who make students “uncomfortable” or say “offensive” things in class.  The Harvard Crimson reports administrators are updating the Q guide, through which students evaluate their courses, to go beyond self-reported metrics such as class difficulty, work required and “lecturing acumen.”  They promised at a town hall meeting for undergraduates Thursday night to add the “uncomfortable” question and something similar to an “offensive” question that’s already available through Harvard’s School of Public Health.  Turn in your professor!  Become a certified fascist!

LONG OVERDUE – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  The Trump administration plans this summer to scrap a controversial Obama-era discipline rule forced on schools to close racial gaps in suspensions and arrests but that critics say pressures educators to turn a blind eye to escalating bad behavior.  The federal directive, issued jointly in 2014 by the US departments of Education and Justice, warned public school districts receiving federal funding — including New York City — that they could face investigation and funding cuts if they fail to reduce statistical “disparities” in discipline by race. On average, the administration noted, black students are suspended at three times the rate of their white peers.  The directive also discourages student arrests and holds districts liable for the actions of “school resource officers … or other law enforcement personnel.”  Let's not solve the crime problem in minority communities.  Let's just assume there isn't one.

NEW DIET FAD – FROM THE INDEPENDENT:  Scientists have been left baffled by a wild elephant caught on camera blowing out plumes of smoke while consuming smouldering lumps of charcoal.
Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) filmed the female elephant exhibiting the unusual behaviour at Nagahrole National Park in India.  In the video, the mammal can been seen picking up lumps of charcoal with its trunk, placing the coal in its mouth, and exhaling a large cloud of smoke.   Watch.  This will be the preferred diet in Beverly Hills by next week.  There'll be discussions about the wisdom of elephants.

March 24, 2018