Brickbat: Fit for a King

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Kings College London blocked a lecture on free speech by one of its own faculty to the school's Libertarian Society because the speaker has "attracted controversy in the past." Adam Perkins, a lecturer in neurobiology, has defended President Donald Trump's travel ban, which earned him condemnation from the school's Somali Society as well as its intersectional feminist group. Officials said they could not guarantee safety if Perkins spoke.

Comments

[MSimon]

Death for drug dealers is an attempt to raise drug dealer profits by increasing the risk premium.

And now you know who Trump's real friends are.

[Cyto]

The energy released during a star's collapse into neutron degeneracy is intense enough to scour all nearby star systems of life.

Think about it....

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

The Siege of Narbonne took place between 752 and 759 led by Pepin the Short against the Umayyad stronghold defended by an Andalusian garrison and its Gothic and Gallo-Roman inhabitants. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context of the Carolingian expedition south to Provence and Septimania starting in 752.

The region was up to that point in the hands of Andalusian military commanders and the local nobility of Gothic and Gallo-Roman stock, who had concluded different military and political arrangements to oppose the expanding Frankish rule. Umayyad rule collapsed by 750, and Umayyad territories in Europe were ruled autonomously by Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri and his supporters.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Okay, now someone add one about mid-20th century developments in New York architecture. Or maybe eukaryotic organelle structure. Or...

[SQRLSY One]

Hameroff says that a patient under anesthesia exhibits relatively normal brain function save one thing: consciousness. Neurons keep firing, and even pain signals travel their normal routes. But that pain is never felt, never experienced. The science of anesthesia sits right at the heart of the hard problem ? allowing "easy" computational processes to continue while selectively eliminating subjective experience. But no one knows quite how.

Early on in his career, Hameroff suspected microtubules might provide an answer. Microtubules were discovered by accident in the 1960s. Over the coming decades, they proved to be among the most versatile biological structures in nature. Tubulin, a flexible protein, assembles into a long chain to create microtubules. These 25-nanometer-wide tubes ? thousands of times smaller than a red blood cell ? are found in every cell in plants and animals.

[SQRLSY One]

Microtubules act as the crucial cytoskeleton, supporting the structure of living cells; as conveyor belts, moving chemical components from one cell to another; and as movers themselves, taking on different formations and dividing chromosomes. During cell division, microtubules move chromosomes from one end of the cell to the other, then position the chromosomes in the new daughter cells. Microtubules even come into play on the outside of cells, forming into cilia and flagella that allow for cell movement. That makes these structures something like the Transformers of biology.

[Rat on a train]

My cats breath smells like cat food.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Turning HnR into an informative source of "news you can use", one copypasted Wikipedia page at a time.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Well, it isn't called Speakings College, now is it?

[SQRLSY One]

"Officials said they could not guarantee safety if Perkins spoke."

Nice little voice-box, lips, tongue, and teeth ya got there, would-be speaker. Be a shame if something happened to them all...

[Will Nonya]

"they could not guarantee safety if Perkins spoke."

But they could if he doesn't? That in itself should be impressive.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wait, Somali Society? What have the Limeys done to those free thinking individualists?

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Built them aqueducts? Improved public health? Brought peace?

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

Don't forget the roads!

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

But other than that, what have the Limeys ever done to them?

[Longtobefree]

Well, to be accurate, the Limeys were Romans at the time - - - - - -

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Going by accent, at least.

[Cyto]

Shouldn't the Somali Society be charter members of the Libertarian Society? Or, as Tel the Wand hints, have they joined the Society of Libertarians instead?

[loveconstitution1789]

Somalia is no longer a place that lefties tell Libertarians to go to find "all that freedom".

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Well, would you want to let a bunch of splitters like that speak at your college?

[Cyto]

You see LoveConstitution1789? That's how you keep a python meme thread going.

At this point you could drop something about otter's noses and still be on-point.

[Agammamon]

And the the oral sex!

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

SHHH!

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Hey, here's a crazy idea: maybe, when you can't guarantee safety at a speaking venue, you could just... let the audience be unsafe.

-gasps fill the room-

[Cyto]

One must remember that by "safety" they mean "free from offense", not physical safety from assault.

[ace_m82]

Stupid offends me (and lots of other people).

Freedom from offence means freedom from stupidity, and that's not freedom at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMhwddNQSWQ

[sharmota4zeb]

Technically, the university provides security as a convenience. It is the government's job to ensure the safety of everyone on campus. The cancellation of the program means the university does not believe in London's ability to maintain order. *Sigh* It's getting more and more tempting to go back there for a summer, but I have other things on my to do list.

I also like the idea of letting the audience be unsafe in a situation like this. Armed speakers might be appropriate.

[loveconstitution1789]

The Nazis, other socialists, and Communists have taken to the London streets, I see.

[SQRLSY One]

"Armed speakers might be appropriate."

Yes, and THIS kind of situation is where one DOES need high-capacity magazines with which to defend oneself!

[sharmota4zeb]

Closer to home, San Francisco State University cannot guaranteeing the safety of Zionists who dare to exit on campus. At one university sponsored event, students handed out stencils glorifying murder. Vandalism is also a problem.

[Rhywun]

You know how you increase violence on campus? Institute a "College of Ethnic Studies".

[Jerryskids]

A lecturer in neurobiology, eh? Neurobiology covers knee-jerk reactions, doesn't it?

[Eidde]

Good one.

[loveconstitution1789]

If this game has come to not speaking or we cannot protect you from some known violence, then the game is lost. Its time to start over.

[Conchfritters]

London: shit hole country

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Did our forebears not fight a desperate war to throw off this sort of yoke? And yet I continue to see and hear a desire on the part of some to bring it back, and more.

[Rhywun]

intersectional feminist group

I'm not even going to ask.

[Longtobefree]

Yep, that is definitely on a "I do not need to know" list; right at the top.

[Longtobefree]

OK. It is not a real thing yet.
From Wikipedia - The page "Intersectional feminist" does not exist.

[Rat on a train]

Are they the protesters who block intersections?