All Posts Tagged With: "Harlem Shake"
‘Decolonizing Yoga,’ secret budgets & Snoop Lion
What students are talking about today (March 21st)
Lululemon Athletica/Flickr
1. If you thought yoga was just an exercise class, you’re way off. The Manitoban student newspaper reports that a local group called Decolonizing Yoga has started up with plans to “challenge racism, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, ableism, heteronormativity and privilege within yoga and spirituality.” Alana Lo, who has a graduate degree in Sanskrit, told The Manitoban the economic model of yoga “is deeply troubling.” I’m guessing that means Lululemon pants will be frowned upon.
2. It’s budget day for the federal government, which may not be spending your tax dollars the way you’d like (if see one more Economic Action Plan ad…), but at least they’re obliged to show you roughly where they plan to spend it. Sadly, your student government might not be so willing. Ryerson University is one example. The Eyeopener student newspaper reports that they have been trying to get a hold of the budget of the Ryerson Students’ Union all year—and the school year is almost over. “We have a right to see it,” writes editor Lee Richardson. “While reporting on the RSU, at the same time we’re still students paying into the union,” he adds. “For a organization advocating equity and inclusivity, restricting access to how they’re spending your money is a contradiction.” He’s right. Apparently the RSU will finally allow reporter Mohamed Omar to finally see it, but he’s not allowed to have a copy, lest he share it with you or me. I’d like to say I expect better of the RSU, but I don’t. One has to ask: What are they so afraid of their members and the public seeing?
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Dangerous Harlem Shakes, a ‘sit-in’ & a creep at Western
What students are talking about today (March 6th)
Tunisian Harlem Shake
1. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Frontier Airlines after a group of students did the Harlem Shake mid-flight. One of them said a flight attendant gave them permission. Meanwhile, in Tunisia, the Islamist education minister has condemned a fairly PG-rated version by students there. You may recall that the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year old Tunisian street vendor, inspired the Arab Spring revolutions. After overthrowing their long-time president, Tunisia now has an Islamist government and the more moderate opposition leader was recently shot dead. Speaking of dangerous Harlem Shakes, the right-wing rabble-rouser Ezra Levant did one on Sun TV’s website. He even managed to get at least three young people to do it with him. The Albatross offers it in GIF form. No word yet on what the Islamists think of Levant’s gyrating, but I bet they don’t like it.
2. A student at Lakehead University is holding a “sit-in” outside the presidents’ office because a full course in Aboriginal Studies has been replaced by a partial course in the new law program. “I’ve lost a bit of weight, and certainly I think all of our grades have suffered a little bit at this point, but y’know, until there’s a resolution of the issue, there’s no question, I’m not leaving,” Sebastian Murdoch-Gibson told CBC News. The law school’s dean is defending the changes. Wouldn’t the dean know best what kind of education law students need?
Continue reading Dangerous Harlem Shakes, a ‘sit-in’ & a creep at Western
Cyclist’s Valentine, Chris Hadfield & the Harlem Shake
What students are talking about today (February 15th)
Verizon/YouTube
1. Toronto’s Payam Rajabi had to leave his girlfriend Clare behind when he moved to San Francisco for a job, so on Valentine’s Day he did something extra special for his long-distance love. NPR reports that he “jumped on his bike, opened his iPhone to a map of San Francisco, and tracking himself with a GPS, he rode 27 miles around the city, taking 2 1/2 hours, burning 1,135 calories and carefully etching a heart shape onto a city map.” After his bike shop shared the story, Verizon Wireless called and asked him to do it again for an advertisement.The commercial is on YouTube already where it has 230,000 views.
2. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut and soon-to-be Commander of the International Space Station talked to University of Waterloo students live from space today. It’s worth watching the whole thing, but here are some highlights. Asked to describe how he felt leaving earth, he said: “My apprehension was low. I was more concerned about not going to space than going to space because there are so many complexities leaving Earth. I had a lot of eagerness to put all that training into practice. So it was with a sense of buoyant energy and readiness that I left Earth’s protective sheath.” Asked what feature on Earth’s surface he was most surprised to be able to see, he said noctilucent clouds, which are hard to see from down here too and may be useful for tracking climate change. He took photos that he says “may be one of the most enduring legacies of our time up here.” He also offered advice for wannabe astronauts: stay healthy, get an advanced education and be able to “make big decisions when consequences matter.” Oh, and don’t be boring: “Are you going to be an interesting person to go to Mars with or not?”
3. A political science professor at West Liberty University in the U.S. recently gave his students an assignment where they were to record their reactions to various new articles and the professor listed two sources they couldn’t use: The Onion, which is a satire, and Fox News because, she says, it’s “biased.” Biased it undoubtedly is but uncovering biases is sort of the point of analyzing news, isn’t it? Robin Capehart, the school’s president, thought so, telling Inside Higher Education that the professor was wrong. “Isn’t the idea that you use what sources you can and then you have to defend the facts?” he said. “To me that’s what college is all about — being able to conduct your research and conduct your own conclusions, and the professor needs to be able to challenge it.” The rule has been changed.
4. Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau continues to travel across the country stopping on university campuses. The Queen’s Journal got a shot of him looking like a sasquatch (scroll down after the link to see it) when he spoke in Kingston, Ont. earlier this week. He spent Valentine’s Day at Trent University where 250 people showed up. One interesting policy idea he floated is a gap year between high school and university during which young people could be funded to serve their country through programs like the now-canned Katimavik, in other countries or in the military.
4. The Harlem Shake trend continues to capture attention from Canadian university students. The University of Guelph’s version has now shot to first place in the competition for the most views of any student version at 1.85 million views compared to Western University’s 1.39 million. The University of Toronto is at 334,000 and Brock University is at 200,000—not bad for late entrants.
What is the Harlem Shake?
Canadian university students go crazy for dance meme
The Harlem Shake, a dance move popularized by New York DJ Baauer, may be the fastest-spreading meme on Canadian campuses… ever? The copycat YouTube videos have been made by everyone from a father-and-son duo to Norwegian soldiers, but few groups have moved for the cameras more than our own university students. Canadian students’ videos are racking up tens of thousands of views per day. The jig is simpler than Gangnam Style: one person, usually wearing a mask, flails around unnoticed until suddenly, through the miracle of editing, everyone joins in. So far Western University is leading in the competition for clicks at 170,000. But they’re about to face some challengers. More than 1,000 have signed up on Facebook for Wednesday’s taping at Brock University. More than 450 say they’ll attend at the University of British Columbia on Friday. At Queen’s University 1,200 have accepted the invitation. At the University of Toronto 700 have. At McGill it’s 500.
Western University’s, posted on Sunday, had 170,000 views by Monday.
The University of Guelph’s, posted Saturday, had 160,000 views.
This one, from Wilfrid Laurier University, has 100,000 views.
This response, from the nearby University of Waterloo, has 88,000.
McMaster University’s Deadmau5-featuring version was at 30,000 and climbing.
