Plain Dealer comes out against Chief Wahoo

wahooThe Cleveland Indians baseball team uses for promotional materials the image of the execrable Chief Wahoo that I said should have been removed a long time ago. But on Sunday the ,em>Plain Dealer, a big booster of the local sports teams, came out with an editorial saying it was time for it to go. They pointed out that the team has very slowly reduced its prominence and it was time to take the final step. This was the first time they had taken a stand on this issue, which itself tells you about how sensitive this topic is in this area, and it was clear that they were wading very gingerly into the fray, trying to find a gentle way to give the fans a way to change their minds.
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How to come out to your parents

It must be quite nerve-wracking for an adolescent to tell her parents that she is gay. 15-year old Laurel decided that it would be easiest to tell her parents with a cake and an accompanying note. Neetzan Zimmerman tells us what the cake and the message were and what the response of the parents was.

As a lover of puns, I enjoyed Laurel’s approach.

The strange world of virtual reality

My experience with the vast world of both gaming and virtual worlds is almost zero. I have played some basic computer games (the most sophisticated being Halo) and am terrible at them. My thumb dexterity is low and my approach is too cerebral and not instinctive enough. By the time I decide what to shoot at and what weapon to use, other players have easily killed me. I have come to the conclusion that the main effect in my playing these games is to enable my children to run up their scores.
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Squatter becomes a model resident

The collapse of the real estate bubble exacerbated a problem that some older mid-western cities like Cleveland faced in that decreasing population had left many homes empty. Since the real estate bubble resulted in the ownership of many homes being held by shell companies that were hard to trace, these building feel into disrepair and became eyesores since no one was being held responsible for their upkeep. This led to the problem of urban blight and some cities have tried to solve it by demolishing the buildings.
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Apple security flaw alert

Those of you who use any Apple products should take steps to fix a major security flaw that has been exposed. This flaw implicates a breakdown in its SSL protocols and so enables a third party to intercept communications between you and any site that you visit. Apple has issued patches to fix this for its iPad and iPhones and you should immediately install them by going to Settings->General->Software Updates.
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Death penalty facing well-deserved crisis

The death penalty is in trouble. It is not because of public opposition to this barbaric practice but due to technical reasons. It turns out that the drug company in the US that made one of the three drugs that go into the cocktail that makes up the lethal injections decided to stop producing it because of the negative image it gave of a drug company being in the death business.
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Report sheds light on football locker room culture-and it isn’t pretty

You may recall the case of Jonathan Martin, the football player for the Miami Dolphins who walked off of the team in the middle of the season because he could not tolerate any more the hazing that he was being subjected to by his teammates, principally Richie Incognito, and some coaches. I wrote about it here, here, and here.
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The skeleton

I am a very risk-averse person. It is not just about risks to myself but also risks to others. This is one reason why I never watch high-risk sporting events live because I just can’t bear the tension of wondering if something will go horribly wrong and result in the competitor suffering serious injuries or even dying. Fortunately this rarely happens in the Olympics where the athletes know what they are doing (I hope).
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