from the all-things-must-come-to-an-end dept.
We had two Soylentils submit stories concerning the end of "non-conformist" dorms at MIT.
At MIT, Senior House is No More
This was Senior House, the oldest dormitory on campus, built in 1916 by the architect William Welles Bosworth. For 101 years it welcomed freshman and returning students. Since the ’60s it was a proudly anarchic community of creative misfits and self-described outcasts—the special kind of brilliant oddballs who couldn’t or didn’t want to fit in with the mainstream eggheads at MIT. Some did drugs and dropped out. Some did drugs and graduated. Others were proudly “straight edge,” eschewing drugs and regarding their bodies and minds as pristine temples. Many went on to create startups, join huge tech firms, and change the technological world as we know it.
Senior House was the gravitational center of alternative culture at MIT, characterized by extremes. For example, since 1963 its courtyard was the site for an annual Dionysian festival that began with a whole steer being hauled atop a pit and roasted on an open flame. The bacchanal ended three days later when there was no more mud left to wrestle in or drinks to gulp. By the time the third dawn came, friendships had been forged, tire swings had been swung, meat had been devoured, some drugs had probably been snorted or smoked, jobs had been offered, and lives had been changed.
[...] As school began again last week, Senior House was gone. It’s just 70 Amherst Street now. Was Senior House a toxic environment full of drug dealers and drunks? A respite in an intellectual gauntlet? An artistic outlet? A nihilistic void? It depends on whom you ask.
Alumni and current students describe a community that helped each other, that made people feel safe enough to talk about their real problems. Over and over again people say Senior House was the first place they’d ever not felt judged. What they are describing is, in many ways, a safe place. And yet it was the claim that the dorm was dangerous that led the administration to shut it down.
https://www.wired.com/story/a-weird-mit-dorm-dies-and-a-crisis-blooms-at-colleges
WARNING: the story is a wall of text, and our less literate friends may want to avoid it
Additionally - similar dormitories around the nation are disappearing from other campuses. One might suspect that today's college students are being forced to become conformists, or GTFO.
MERGE: At MIT, Senior House is No More
For many years there have been one or two MIT dorms that catered to the more alienated, creative, and/or radical students. Runaway has found an interesting (and sad) article on Senior House, which has filled this function for some years now.
Bexley Hall was an early leader in this respect. Conveniently for the present nanny administration, Bexley took care of itself...by falling apart structurally. Even in the '70s when I was there, settling on the underlying landfill was obvious with wavy lines of brick in the basement.
Consider a few samples of Bexley's legacy:
Around 1970, there were anti Vietnam war protests, the MIT Student Center was blockaded, tear gas was fired at nearby Bexley Hall...and the dorm residents threw the canisters back at the cops, some from the rooftop.
A little later,
https://www.americaninno.com/boston/mit-hacking-stories-history-of-mit-hacks/
…But They Can Also Outsmart the FBI
In the early 1970s, MIT’s Bexley Hall became notorious for alleged LSD manufacturing. As one could imagine, the FBI wasn’t thrilled, so they called the president of MIT to alert him of an upcoming raid — a raid he shared with the Bexley Hall Housemaster. Authorities rolled up to a “Welcome FBI” sign, as well as a painted set of footprints that led them to nothing but a plate of milk and cookies.
When the agents did start tearing the Hall apart in outrage, they discovered a chest wrapped in chains and covered in padlocks. Too bad all that was inside were three marijuana seeds — “exactly one fewer than the minimum needed for a conviction.”
During my years in the mid-70s we elected a treasurer who was missing a finger from a childhood accident, his platform? "Less fingers in the till!"
https://www.quora.com/What-was-MITs-Bexley-Halls-culture-like
Bexley students liked to rebel against the system; they would try to thwart the administration whenever they could, and they would actively do the opposite whatever was expected of dorms. For instance, while most dorms would rush, Bexley would anti-rush; they would try to scare away students from living there. Some say it is so their current residents could get rooms with fewer roommates. Others say it so the only people who would join would be those who couldn't be scared, rather than people who just wanted to be close to campus.
Bexley looked more like a gang hideout than a college dorm. Whereas other dorms (East Campus, Random Hall, Senior Haus, Burton Connor, etc) would paint murals of beautiful pictures on their walls, Bexleys murals could be more aptly described as graffiti. Bexley also was known for having a lot of people who smoked and used drugs. Basically, Bexley was the opposite of what you would expect from an MIT dorm.
Socially, Bexley was very tight-knit, possibly because they seemed so anti-social to everyone else. I heard rumors that Bexley was full of communists whose dorm president was a cat. Bexley had a lot of people who liked being different.
A lot of students think that part of the reason Bexley was shut down was because the administration hated its culture, not just because of structural reasons.
I certainly remember the anti-rush -- was exposed to it the first time I visited as a freshling and then later used it to keep my nice double-with-kitchen&bath as my own single (shared with GF).
Another aspect of social life -- most residents had a grandmaster key that fit all the rooms in the building. The layout tended to isolate each of the four 4-story vertical entries...except that with master keys you could cut through the back/fire stairs and move horizontally on any floor.
In the last days before the building was condemned, a student video documented the building,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6m8se96yyM
"We lived here, you didn't..." @ Bexley Hall, MIT
And, just to close, here are the house rules,
1. Bury your own dead.
2. No smoking in the elevators. (there are no elevators)
3. No more rules.
Further explanation on this page, http://www.boogles.com/local/Bexley/bexley-description.html
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:31PM (13 children)
From the way it's told, it's amazing that any of those "students" ever got any work done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:45PM
Like the summary says, some didn't get any work done -
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:55PM (10 children)
Genius? No, just 99% perspiration and focus. Most of us got our work done, just didn't get much sleep...what with neighbors wandering through our rooms (master key) at all odd hours.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:59PM (9 children)
What was it like to use the communal washrooms with such little privacy?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:04AM (8 children)
Fun! (and occasionally smelly...)
Actually, Bexley started life as an apartment building, when converted to a dorm the apartments became doubles, triples and quads. Each suite had it's own bathroom and kitchen. The triples had two separate rooms (double & single). Quads had a double and two singles. All very run down, building built around 1900, still had single pipe steam heat (clanging radiators), tiny kitchen and bathrooms. The back fire stairs were a very tight spiral (would be illegal now). Cheapest rent of all the ~8 dorms.
Part of the fun for students was that this old building could be modified, and most of the time the housing office looked the other way. Two roommates in a double decided they hated each other, but both had some carpentry skills. Presto, within a couple of weekends there were two single rooms where before was a double...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:07AM (3 children)
That is so interesting! Did people openly defecate and urinate in the hallways and other common areas?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @01:15AM (2 children)
We may have been poor students, but we weren't born in a barn. Back then children were toilet trained -- but what do I know, I'm an old guy with no kids, maybe that isn't required anymore?
I did shit into the room below once, but that wasn't my fault. Let me 'splain--a partial renovation was done over the summer and this included new waste plumbing and toilets. When we returned from summer holiday, not all of them had been connected properly. I flushed and it took out the ceiling of the bathroom below. RR (actual initials in case he's reading this) wasn't too happy, but it was fixed soon enough. Of course he never let me forget it!
As described earlier, there were never more than 4 people using one bathroom (in the quad suites) so it was obvious if one person was more of a slob than the rest. Peer pressure was usually enough to keep things reasonably clean.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:02AM (1 child)
Did your time in that dorm have anything to do with your celibacy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:33AM
Who said anything about celibacy? We had plenty of sex (still do), just no kids...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:10AM (1 child)
Were hobos a problem? How did you keep them out?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @01:05AM
Each of the four entry ways had a locked door that opened on a small "quad" in the middle of the horseshoe shaped plan. The quad (outside space) opened right on Mass Ave and I only remember a couple of problems with bums or other Cambridge residents. Sometime around 1990(?) there was a wall and gate built that closed off the quad--perhaps coincided with the invention of helicopter parenting?
For all our differences (cultural, ideological, etc), we were very cohesive when our group was threatened. Because of the master keys, we all knew and respected each other. And with very few exceptions we were all broke, with little of value to steal (well, there were some nice stereos).
The worst threats came from the administration...who didn't like our individualism. We fought back by pranking the dean for student affairs on various occasions. At the time this was one form of "hacking" and was generally not destructive, but could be quite involved...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:45AM (1 child)
I heard rumours of tunnels, secret rooms and passages... a video through the most twisted routes would have been nice. A tour in person, even better. So it goes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @01:59AM
The main campus buildings (not the dorms) are mostly connected...but not on ground level. Some connections are skywalks, others tunnels from (sub)basements, and some steam tunnels too. Midnight tours are given by a number of different student groups to pass this knowledge along to freshlings. Student locksmiths made keys so that access wasn't a problem to most of the locked areas. Google image search for,
Tomb of the unknown tool
to see some pictures of one of the tour highlights.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:40AM
> ever got any work done
Learning to socialize is education. Not every MIT freshman has the social chops to match their whiz kiddiness. Don't undervalue non technical advancement. Similarly, making contacts is work.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:42PM (4 children)
Although they are often confused, this is good example of how leftism is very different from liberalism. Leftists are not liberals. Liberals support individuality and non-conformity. Leftists, on the other hand, abhor such shows of individuality and creativity. Liberalism is about freedom. Leftism is about strictly following a hypocritical and contradictory narrative without recognizing and acknowledging the hypocrisy and contradiction.
Academia in America used to be very liberal. But those days are long gone. Today academia in America is leftist. The "tolerant" leftism we see throughout academia today has utterly crushed the sort of liberal individuality and non-conformity described in the submission.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:01AM
Well that is nothing new, the "leftist" bit is just your paranoia talking.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:09AM
Got expelled, did we? For thinking "different"? Very funny, you racist, sexist Nazi dude!
(Score: 3, Informative) by tfried on Friday September 15 2017, @01:52PM
Can you supply any evidence that leftism has anything to do with this? Other than all colleges are left-wing, all gubmint is left-wing, and the left is always to blame, anyway?
I skimmed TFA, and while the exact reasons for the closure remained somewhat vague, the relevant ones seemed to be
a) much higher than average dropout / academic failure rate
b) (much?) higher than usual drug consumption and / or dealing
Getting all worked up about these two issues is not something typically left-wing at all.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 15 2017, @06:14PM
I've never heard anyone call themselves a leftist. Usually the term is used to lump disparate groups together, much like "Asian" is a catch-all term that mainly refers to Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese/Thai, sometimes refers to groups with less presence in America, and isn't used for groups that are technically from Asia like Indians and Middle Easterners.
These catch-all terms have their use. It's fair to describe someone as "black" when the purpose is visual identification, or to describe a group as "hawkish" when talking about foreign policy. But they also tend to become stereotypes; everybody's landlord is a Jew (even those that aren't) that's always bugging them for rent, so Jews must all be obsessed with money right?
So: Is it possible that the "leftism" you are talking about is not a real group, but a stereotype you've developed? Could you be fighting a straw man?
P.S. The left these days is dominated by Progressives, who advocate for improving prospects for those currently disadvantaged. Liberals, who are more concerned with economic forces working against the lower classes, have lost almost all of their presence because of what "right-wing" groups have done to the word Liberal. So thank you so much for being part of the movement that caused the exact shift in politics on "the left" that you are now complaining about.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:51PM (2 children)
God, that is so deep.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:56PM (1 child)
Yeah, kids these days -- that is just from a few years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:01PM
Was that video filmed at the Mozilla offices? That's how I've always pictured them behaving there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:00PM (36 children)
There have been Fascist in power in America since Reagan at least, the war on freedom has been increased because DATA and libertarianism has been equated as some sort of anarchism instead as the total fascism that it is, so OBEY and STFU you all people that post here are responsible for the fall of freedom and western civilization
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:06PM (23 children)
What.
It is leftists who are trying to suppress free speech on campuses and online. It is leftists who are trying to push political correctness on everybody. It is leftists who accuse everybody else of racism and sexism and intolerance and bigotry. It is leftists who falsely accuse everybody else of being "Nazis", even WWII veterans who fought against actual Nazis. It was leftists who controlled politics in the US for the last 8 years.
Why are you attacking Reagan and libertarians when it's leftists who are responsible for the problems you describe?
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:39PM (5 children)
Don't fret too much, the reactionaries you call republicans do it too, even worse than the leftists.
The leftist do it "in the name of living together", the reactionaries do it "because I/God/moral/whatever say so".
The '70-ies "live and let live America' spirit" (as big or small in numbers as it was) is dead.
And, not being buried or cremated, it stinks.
I think that's a good time to relax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:54PM (4 children)
Have you ever been to a Republican oriented political rally? They're actually a lot of fun. There's often somebody barbecuing ribs and burgers and hotdogs and sausages and corn. It's a really jovial and friendly atmosphere. It's a lot like a family reunion, but it's members of the whole American family, regardless of skin color and religion and sexual preference (or whatever other attributes you can think of), coming together to celebrate in unity. Despite all of the claims we hear about Republican supporters allegedly being "racist" or "bigots" or "Nazis", their rallies tend to be inclusive, fun, family-friendly events. The focus is on celebrating America and Americans, and on elevating the community as a whole.
Democrat oriented rallies are often the opposite. They're typically full of spiteful, angry, yelling -ists of various types, trying to push their agendas, and sometimes even wearing hats and costumes that resemble genitalia. Many of these people aren't even actually American, with them being illegal aliens. Sometimes there's violence and property damage, and the events can develop into what could be considered riots. They aren't fun events. They aren't the kind of events that you'd want to take your family to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:02AM
Just don't mention Obama there, right? Or anything else sounding like heresy. Because... morals say so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:03AM
Lol, you cray cray and not like the fish. Like the mentally unstable type that is likely to be homeless and shit by slightly less crazy variations of themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:16AM
You know, some people, a lot, actually, in fact, the majority of the world, are not even actually Americans. They do have genitalia, in almost all cases. Not sure if any of them wear their's as hats, though.
Republicans, like family? You mean with extra sexual abuse? Are we taking Quivering Full of It Duggers, or the Westboro Bapist type families?
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 15 2017, @06:16PM
[citation needed]
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:45PM (3 children)
No leftists have ever had any political power in the US, ever.
There is a wealthy elite who control the Government in the US, and they divide you into groups, like left/right, black/white, north/south, urban/rural so that you will learn to hate people slightly different form you. This prevents you from figuring out you would be better off uniting and kicking them out.
No country does propaganda as well as the US and another A/C has fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:57PM (2 children)
It's pretty much leftists versus everybody else these days. It's leftists who divide people into groups based on traits like skin color and sexual preference. It's leftists who insist on flooding America with foreigners who hate American values and people. The rest of Americans are just content being Americans. They want to be left alone so that they can succeed in their personal and business endeavors. They don't want to get involved with identity politics.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:05AM
You can tell the shills and/or crazies by the shrill way they merely repeat their points.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by c0lo on Friday September 15 2017, @12:35AM
And the leftist are in no way Americans.
Because no true American [wikipedia.org] would ever think that owning a business or capitalism or multinational corporatism are not prerequisites for a balanced life.
And so, they congregate to be right together [soylentnews.org].
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:53PM (10 children)
Hmm, yes, that must be why Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein were sent to the Alaskan labor camps for reeducation while Iowan farmers were forced onto collective farms, and all the stripes on the American flag were changed to red, the blue field changed to deeper red, and the stars changed to yellow. Indeed I too have raged at 100% employment the state-owned factories mandate, and the fact that you can only get a vente latte at Starbucks whose foam has a hammer and sickle formed in it.
It's sheer socialism, I tell you.
Oh, wait...
How malformed must your political awareness be that you would think the last 8 years had anything to do with leftist politics instead of the actual people and forces that do? The people and forces that controlled politics in the US the last 8 years were the same people and forces that controlled politics in the US for the 8 years before that, and the 8 years before that, and the 4 years before that, and the 6.5 years before that (6.5 because it took Reagan a little while to overcome the forces that still carried a torch for American democracy).
Leftist politics are no cure for what ails America, to be sure, but the crony capitalist ways it's strayed into have killed it for sure. America is dead. Or, rather, undead. We're experiencing Zombie America.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:59PM (4 children)
Just because the last 8 years weren't full-blown Soviet-style or Chinese-style Communism doesn't mean they weren't leftist. They sure weren't 8 years of centrism or rightism!
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:08AM (3 children)
Actually everyone outside the US sees democrat policies as a little RIGHT of center. I guess you're a rightwing butter which is why you think this new leftist term is synonymous with communism. Idiot :)
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:08AM (2 children)
No, that's not globally true, unless by "everyone outside the US" you mean Western Europeans and only Western Europeans. The only reason American politics looks "to the right" to those Europeans is because they're so far to the left that everything appears to be to the right.
The Democrats' policies are quite left wing within the context of Middle Eastern, African, Indian, and most Asian politics. Even within Eastern European and Australian politics the Democrats' policies are quite far to the left.
Compared to the policies of the Middle East, North Africa and Japan, even many Republican policies would be seen as on the left.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday September 15 2017, @05:45AM (1 child)
I hate to break it to you, but Australia has single-payer health care, strict gun laws and a generous safety net.
The only way Australia really compares to the far right in the US (the Dems being Center-Right, not leftist at all) is their draconian and cruel immigration policies.
You're talking out of your ass AC. And it smells that way too.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @06:09AM
They're only draconian and cruel if you are unfortunate enough to not immigrate from another Commonwealth nation.
We have to keep out the riffraff from worse-off places (like the USA) coming over and sucking up all our healthcare subsidies.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 15 2017, @01:08AM (4 children)
Maybe it's because vocal leftists actually threw their support to the Democrat party? Leftists right here defend Obama and Hillary, routinely. You're perfectly right, left and right are hopelessly confused in this country. Still, everything right of Marx is attacked on sight these days. And, it is well known that "political correctness" was a tool of the Communist party in Moscow.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @09:23AM (2 children)
No, it is not, and it wasn't. Political correctness was invented by butt-hurt conservatives during the Reagan era, when they found out that people, and especially hot chicks, shunned them when they said what they really thought. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was. How is the paranoia therapy going? Did you get the Commies out from under the bed yet? Have you had your water supply checked for "floride"? You ever notice, Mandrake, you never see a hard core Commie drinking water?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 15 2017, @01:54PM (1 child)
Dude, there are a bunch of hot chicks on Faux Noise. Your liberal media? Butt-uglies. Think about it. Conservatives have always got the hot chicks. Unless, of course, you think Bradley Manning is hot!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @08:15PM
> there are a bunch of hot chicks on Faux Noise.
True. But they are carefully selected from a large population and not representative of the Republicans that I've seen (who are very well fed, to say the least).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:55PM
Defend Obama and Hillary under what circumstances? If it's against ridiculous conspiracies, that's justified because they are just not true. Calling them lesser evils also isn't much of a defense. You didn't give me much of an idea as to what you're referring to exactly.
Obama and Hillary are definitely authoritarian scumbags, being that they support unjustifiable military interventions, drone strikes that hit the wrong targets 90%+ of the time, unconstitutional mass surveillance, the TSA, and countless other nonsense that conflicts with basic liberties. I've seen a few people here who deny this (not sure how they can defend policies like that, but whatever), but "routinely"?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 15 2017, @08:20PM (1 child)
It is leftists who are trying to suppress free speech on campuses and online.
“We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people." - Donald J Trump
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 15 2017, @08:22PM
"Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner.The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!" Donald J Trump
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:02AM (11 children)
We demonstrated against Nixon/Agnew and a war where the casualties weren't just drone strikes. Maybe the lines were easier to draw when the division was between straights and freaks?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:23AM (10 children)
The Vietnam War was started by Democrats, escalated by Democrats, and eventually ended by a Republican.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @03:34AM
It began before the Americans became involved: the Viet Minh were fighting from 1945, initially against the British and the Chinese Nationalists who were supporting France's colonial claim to Vietnam.
Toward the end, Nixon escalated the war in Cambodia and Laos.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @04:18AM (6 children)
> and eventually ended by a Republican.
Yes, it was during a Republican administration, but I believe it was ended by popular opinion. The country was sick of all the kill counts on TV and the body bags coming home.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday September 15 2017, @05:40AM (5 children)
Actually, The Vietnam War [wikipedia.org] started in 1955, when Eisenhower (a Republican) was president. The Vietnam war Ended in 1975 when Lesley King, Jr. (another Republican) was president.
The war ended because the corrupt and cruel regime in South Vietnam supported by the US and its allies lost. Primarily because they were inept, cowardly and hated by their own people so much that they were happy to get rid of them.
WTF is wrong with you people? You apparently don't even know your own history. Sigh.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Insightful) by ewk on Friday September 15 2017, @07:37AM (1 child)
"WTF is wrong with you people? You apparently don't even know your own history. Sigh."
Which makes 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it' a scary, very scary vision of the future...
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Friday September 15 2017, @12:02PM
No one reads Santayana any more, so your point is lost friend.
Hell, no one really reads any more. If it's more than a couple paragraphs, most will just tl;dr or whine about "walls of text." Forget about reading an actual book.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @10:02PM
Yes those dirty 'republicans'. The same ones who just closed this MIT dorm.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday September 16 2017, @02:57PM (1 child)
Never heard of Leslie King, Jr. As president or anything else. And no one has yet commented about this piece of history. Have I just fallen into an alternate reality?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday September 16 2017, @09:02PM
Lesley King, Jr. is the name that the 38th president of the United States was born with. At some point he changed his name to Gerald Ford. He was nominated to be the Vice President by Richard Nixon after the resignation of Spiro Agnew in 1973, and his nomination was approved by Congress. He was sworn in as Vice President on December 6, 1973. He became president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon in August, 1974.
King (alias Ford) then pardoned Nixon.
I used Ford's born name because it was amusing to me. I assumed that most people would know about that. But maybe not.
Did you know that Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman? Or that Marilyn Monroe was Norma Jeane Mortenson? Or that Ringo Starr's real name is Richard Starkey?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday September 15 2017, @09:24AM (1 child)
Harry Truman made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Vietnam. Obviously, the war in Vietnam was a big, fat mistake. All right? 🇺🇸
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 15 2017, @06:24PM
Yeah right rDT. We've all seen your response to real crises in Syria and Afhanistan. You're even less sincere than Obama about ending our interventionist foreign policy. We all know you would have made the same mistakes in Vietnam and somehow managed to fuck it up even worse through the sheer incompetence you bring to everything you do.
You can only fool some of the people all of the time.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday September 15 2017, @07:33AM
No it isn't. It's a lot of text, but it's properly divided in paragraphs and sections.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday September 15 2017, @09:11PM (1 child)
I wouldn't call that documenting the building. It was a lot of documenting the people who lived in the building, but good luck trying to see any of the actual architecture from the swoopy, jumping around camerawork.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2017, @12:28AM
Thanks for watching. Bexley Hall demolition turns up this timelapse -- even with bricks falling out by themselves due to settling on old landfill, it took quite some time to knock it down,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w326_WJk17c [youtube.com]
My guess, too close to other buildings to take down with explosives (the MIT chapel is on the back side, separated only by a narrow alley. 4 stories + basement, 4 entries around a central courtyard (quad).