august: cleveland county

I've decided to start doing a monthly German post to show some stories and videos that I read or watched - a bit of news, a bit of things related to my research, a lot of time wasters. Xaiver Naidoo (who you might know from being one of the three musicians that every German teacher recommends to beginners) was in the press when German broadcaster...

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I don't know about you, but I grew up in a part of the world where we had fire drills and tornado drills twice a year at school. To experience an earthquake, you had to go to the simulator at the Omniplex (now Science Museum OK). In the last few years, however, Oklahoma has become a hot spot for earthquakes - if you...

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The German television station Das Erste's news program, tagesschau, has started a version of their 100 second news broadcast online with subtitles in Arabic and English for migrant and refugee viewers. Both are silent with subtitles, but it is a welcome gesture nonetheless. The broadcast will be updated twice a day on weekdays and once a day on weekends and holidays. The original...

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Today, many leading officials from many states have come to the conclusion that it is too difficult to sort Syrians seeking asylum from terrorists in disguise. These people think that the United States is putting itself at risk by accepting refugees from Syria. Perhaps they are right; you can never say never about these sort of things. However, these people, who include my governor and...

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This morning, I went to a vigil/protest about the recent terror attacks in Paris as well as ongoing terrorism in the Middle East, especially Lebanon.  One of my colleagues in my program was a co-organizer for this event. It was originally focused around Paris, but students from other parts of the world wanted to expand the scope of the protest. It was a...

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When a terrorist attack happens in a first world country, the response is usually the same. News outlets spend their entire program looping grainy footage of the event, questionable reports are spread via social media, and many people take to social media to express their outrage and heartbreak. I find the events that took place yesterday in Paris to be horrible and tragic,...

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Today after a grueling google search for "blogger layouts," I discovered a template that I actually like, which increases the probability that I'll start blogging again. Since I'm entering the final months of my academic career and am looking to find a job in the next six months, I'm going to try to start blogging a bit more with an emphasis on my...

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