I took one class in college and didn't end up really liking Russian - didn't know it was a gendered language beforehand and I really dislike that, mostly because I'm lazy. Before taking the class, Russian cursive seemed absolutely illegible, but I got pretty good at reading and writing it afterwards.

However, I always thought it was weird we were only allowed to write in cursive in the class, where in English or other languages it's more of stylistic option. Our teacher told us everyone wrote like that and it was considered childish to write block letters instead, but she also told us everyone should read Gulag Archipelgo and that Solzhenitsyn was a great author. Was she right about the writing in cursive part though?

(Don't think this is appropriate for language learning since I'm not really asking for the sake of learning the language, so I posted in chat instead)

BBC reports on WTC 7 falling before it actually falls - mistake in reporting or not, it continues to serve as titillation for the conspiracy brain.

This was also funny

I actually remember being woken up from a nap by a loud explosion sound and then hearing the news about this the next day when I was living in East Texas as a kid.

Huh, til this mission had the first 'Israeli' astronaut, sucks to suck.

Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II, billed as The Sound and the Fury and afterwards infamously referred to as The Bite Fight, was a professional boxing match contested between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson on June 28, 1997, for the WBA Heavyweight Championship. It achieved notoriety as one of the most bizarre fights in boxing history after Tyson bit off a part of Holyfield's ear. Tyson was disqualified from the match and lost his boxing license, though it was later reinstated.

The match began with Holyfield dominating Tyson. Holyfield won the first three rounds. At 2:19 of the first round, an overhand right punch from Holyfield stunned Tyson, but Tyson fought back, immediately pushing Holyfield backwards. At 32 seconds into the second round, Holyfield ducked under a right punch from Tyson. In doing so, he head-butted Tyson, producing a large cut over the latter's right eye (although trainer Ritchie Giachetti believed the injury happened in the first round). Tyson had repeatedly complained about head-butting in the first bout between the two fighters. Upon reviewing replays, referee Mills Lane stated that the headbutts were unintentional and non-punishable.

As the third round was about to begin, Tyson came out of his corner without his mouthpiece. Lane ordered Tyson back to his corner to insert it. Tyson inserted his mouthpiece, got back into position, and the match resumed. Tyson began the third round with a furious attack. With forty seconds remaining in the round, Holyfield got Tyson in a clinch, and Tyson rolled his head above Holyfield's shoulder and bit Holyfield on his right ear. A one-inch piece of cartilage was torn from the top of Holyfield’s ear, which Tyson spat out onto the ring apron.

On 14 December 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi removed his shoes and threw them at United States president George W. Bush during a joint press conference with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq. Bush quickly ducked, avoiding being hit by either of the shoes. The second shoe collided with a U.S. flag positioned behind Bush. Al-Zaidi was subsequently grabbed, kicked, and removed from the room by security.

Al-Zaidi received a three-year prison sentence, which was reduced by two years. On 15 September 2009, after nine months of imprisonment, he was released early as he had no prior criminal record.

There have since been many other shoe-throwing incidents on an international scale.

In March 2003, the American country band the Dixie Chicks publicly criticized President George W. Bush, triggering a backlash. At a concert in London during their Top of the World Tour, the lead singer, Natalie Maines, said the Dixie Chicks were ashamed Bush was from the same state as them, and that they did not support the imminent invasion of Iraq.

The Dixie Chicks were one of the most popular American country acts at the time. After the statement was reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, it triggered a backlash from American country listeners, who were mostly right-wing and supported the war. The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by many country radio stations, received death threats and were criticized by other country musicians. Sales of their music and concert tickets declined and they lost corporate sponsorship. A few days later, Maines issued an apology, saying her remark had been disrespectful. She rescinded the apology in 2006, saying she felt Bush deserved no respect.

Some of the comments by prominent fascists at the time(cw misogyny)

On January 19, 2004, Dean's rivals John Kerry and John Edwards pushed him into a third-place finish in the 2004 Iowa Democratic caucuses, representing the first votes cast in primary season. Dean's loud outburst in his public address that night was widely rebroadcast and portrayed as a media gaffe that ended his campaign.