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Feb. 4th, 2010 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amredthelectorToday was... an interesting day. Or at least one part of it was.
I go to school on an open campus. Anyone can come on campus and do stuff there. We get a lot of people registering students to vote; people will try to get students to sign petitions; and every so often, religious people will come on campus and either a) hand out pocket bibles or pamphlets or b) shout at students. Today we had one of the shouty people.
I passed by this guy three times during the day. Once on my way to public speaking, once on my way into the student union building to kill some time between classes, and again on my way back to my lab class. The first time I went past him, he was screaming about how pre-marital sex is a sin. No one was really paying attention to him, as is usually the case with these nutjobs. The second time, he'd drawn a crowd of about 20 people who were all there to heckle him. He was ranting about how smoking marijuana was a sin, and he had a sign that said 'YOU ALL DESERVE TO GO TO HELL'. At this point, people were just playfully egging him on. One stoner was talking about how he 'sees God when [he's] high', so Shouty McPious should shove off and let him practice his faith. Another guy started making fun of him by preaching the "Gospel of Harry Potter", talking about how Dumbledore died for our sins. That guy was made of win. Third time I walked past him, things had gotten tense. He was ranting about how all the students at the school would burn in hell, and that we were Satan's children and whatnot. A group of students were holding a big hand-made sign that read 'FUCK THIS GUY' and had an arrow pointing to him. A lot of people were shouting at him, and a few were verbally ripping him apart, quoting the bible and pointing out how this guy was a bad Christian. There were some campus security members hanging near by, and honestly? It felt like a riot was going to happen soon. I'd estimate by that point (it was 4, he'd gotten started around noon) there were about 50 students watching and jeering.
It was interesting, to say the least. And I saw some people taking photos of the crowd with really nice cameras, so I'm wondering if they were staff from the school newspaper.
Day 14: A non-fictional book
Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait.
This is a great read. This book is a sound debunking of various astronomical conspiracy theories, from the Moon Landing to the face on Mars. Plait keeps things simple, and doesn't bog everything down with scientific jargon. He's also very professional in his writing, never personally attacking the people behind these theories. (Which is really amazing, since you can read transcripts of radio shows he's appeared on with these people on his website, and they are always launching personal attacks against him) It's an interesting read, and I encourage it to everyone, since there really are a lot of misconceptions about astronomy.
I go to school on an open campus. Anyone can come on campus and do stuff there. We get a lot of people registering students to vote; people will try to get students to sign petitions; and every so often, religious people will come on campus and either a) hand out pocket bibles or pamphlets or b) shout at students. Today we had one of the shouty people.
I passed by this guy three times during the day. Once on my way to public speaking, once on my way into the student union building to kill some time between classes, and again on my way back to my lab class. The first time I went past him, he was screaming about how pre-marital sex is a sin. No one was really paying attention to him, as is usually the case with these nutjobs. The second time, he'd drawn a crowd of about 20 people who were all there to heckle him. He was ranting about how smoking marijuana was a sin, and he had a sign that said 'YOU ALL DESERVE TO GO TO HELL'. At this point, people were just playfully egging him on. One stoner was talking about how he 'sees God when [he's] high', so Shouty McPious should shove off and let him practice his faith. Another guy started making fun of him by preaching the "Gospel of Harry Potter", talking about how Dumbledore died for our sins. That guy was made of win. Third time I walked past him, things had gotten tense. He was ranting about how all the students at the school would burn in hell, and that we were Satan's children and whatnot. A group of students were holding a big hand-made sign that read 'FUCK THIS GUY' and had an arrow pointing to him. A lot of people were shouting at him, and a few were verbally ripping him apart, quoting the bible and pointing out how this guy was a bad Christian. There were some campus security members hanging near by, and honestly? It felt like a riot was going to happen soon. I'd estimate by that point (it was 4, he'd gotten started around noon) there were about 50 students watching and jeering.
It was interesting, to say the least. And I saw some people taking photos of the crowd with really nice cameras, so I'm wondering if they were staff from the school newspaper.
Day 14: A non-fictional book
Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait.
This is a great read. This book is a sound debunking of various astronomical conspiracy theories, from the Moon Landing to the face on Mars. Plait keeps things simple, and doesn't bog everything down with scientific jargon. He's also very professional in his writing, never personally attacking the people behind these theories. (Which is really amazing, since you can read transcripts of radio shows he's appeared on with these people on his website, and they are always launching personal attacks against him) It's an interesting read, and I encourage it to everyone, since there really are a lot of misconceptions about astronomy.
