1946-2020

John Prine, Hero Of 'New' Nashville, Dies After Developing COVID-19 Symptoms
NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/750894794/john-prine-obituary

IVC Emergency Fund Needs You

 

Rebel Girl is more sentimental than you may suspect. Hence she shares these photos of last year's commencement as it becomes all but certain this year's ceremony will not occur. So much loss already and more to come.

Rebel Girl tries to feel grateful for employment, for family, for health (so far) - but nothing is certain. As one of her students pointed out during their last class on campus: "We are living through history." Reb agreed and pointed out that it was the kind of historical moment one could hear, grinding its gears. She now sees those students, not all of them, only some, via Zoom meetings. They are smaller on the screen, more anxious, alone, worried. While some are working (many too much), others have lost their jobs. Their parents have lost their jobs. Their family obligations interrupts their virtual classes. Some have not returned at all.

Yesterday, IVC staff received the appeal below and Rebel Girl passes it along to you, hoping that you will click this link (as she did) and make a donation to help the most vulnerable through this time. It's not going to get better for awhile. Let's help. Most of us are so lucky.

HELP US PROVIDE EMERGENCY FUNDS FOR IVC STUDENTS AND EMPLOYEES

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Irvine Valley College Foundation has established a new Emergency Fund. Within the first two hours of announcing the IVC Emergency Fund to our campus, we received over 200 requests from frightened members of our campus community who are not sure how they are going to get through the next month or two.

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, OUR IVC FAMILY NEEDS YOUR HELP!

COVID-19 presents a new set of obstacles for our students and some employees, including: Loss of income to afford housing, food, and childcare Increased healthcare costs The need to access the internet and remote-learning technology Our new Emergency Fund will provide immediate emergency bridge funding to our most vulnerable students and employees, helping them through this challenging time.  Can you please make a contribution of $50 or more today?

Your support will enable us to meet these evolving needs. Together, we can make sure Irvine Valley College students and employees get the critical assistance they need for themselves and their families WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!

*

‘Zoombies’ Take Over Online Classrooms
Inside Higher Ed
Digital disruptors sharing racist, sexist and pornographic content in Zoom videoconferences show no sign of slowing down as “Zoombombing” trend grows.

     …Zoombombing attacks, or Zoom raids, are planned on services such as Discord, a communication platform popular among gamers. In a Discord group accessed by Inside Higher Ed, online trolls seemed to delight in the confusion and distress they caused instructors, some of whom, they gleefully reported, had burst into tears. Some members of the group described themselves as wishing to pursue “good old-fashioned trolling” and said they drew the line at “really fucked-up shit” such as sharing child pornography or repeating the N-word over and over. “That’s boring,” one user wrote….
     Dozens of resources advising instructors on how to secure their videoconference calls have been published in the past week as awareness of Zoombombing grows, including this one from the company itself. The University of California, Berkeley's information security office shared this detailed prevention guide. On Twitter, instructors also shared tips and tricks to prevent intrusions….
     The escalating problem of Zoombombing isn’t exclusive to education. AA meetings, prayer groups and book readings for children have been recently commandeered by Zoombombers. A small number of people have started referring to these trolls as “Zoombies” -- a fitting term for the apocalyptic atmosphere of a nation gripped by a global pandemic….

Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds

‘Zoombombing’ Attacks Disrupt Classes
Inside Higher Ed
Online Zoom classes were disrupted by individuals spewing racist, misogynistic or vulgar content. Experts say professors using Zoom should familiarize themselves with the program's settings.
[This is happening to instructors here at IVC.]

     Like many professors across the country who've been displaced from college campuses because of the coronavirus pandemic, Lance Gharavi suddenly found himself teaching his spring semester courses at Arizona State University online using the Zoom meeting platform. His first Zoom session for an approximately 150-student Introduction to Storytelling course went terribly wrong.
     Right off the bat, he said, one of the participants used a Zoom feature that lets a user display an image or a video in the background in order to show a pornographic video.
“I didn’t notice it until a student on chat said something about it,” said Gharavi, an associate professor in ASU's School of Film, Dance and Theater. Participants were using fake screen names, some of which he said were very offensive. "The chat window became incredibly active. Most of the comments were not on topic. They were vulgar, racist, misogynistic toilet humor. I would barely even call it humor."
. . .
     Zoom has also published a blog post on steps to take to keep would-be crashers out of Zoom meetings. The blog post gives tips on controlling access to meetings and setting up password protections and managing participants' ability to share their screens, as well as information on other options for controlling participants' activities including disabling participants' video, muting participants, turning off file transfer and annotation options, or disabling private chat functions. The company also suggests trying its waiting room feature, which it describes as "a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you’re ready for them."….

Those for whom reality is a stranger

Hilarious
(not that there's anything wrong with Adele!)

• Recording the Byrd's "Hey Mr. Tamborine Man"

• Hal Blaine, 'Most Recorded Drummer In History,' Dies At 90 (NPR)

From today's OC Register>

Ranking Academic Freedom Globally
Inside Higher Ed

AOC breaks with Bernie on how to lead the left
Politico
The congresswoman is declining to back primary challengers following in her footsteps — and working within the system in Congress.

From distraction to disaster: How coronavirus crept up on Washington
Politico
Lawmakers have ripped the administration’s bungled handling of the outbreak. But some now wonder if there’s more they could have done when it might have made a difference.