Scientists at Duke University have developed a way for rats to communicate with one another, using only the electrical transmissions of their brains.

They have created a brain-to-brain interface that would let one rat transmit information to another rat, allowing the rat on the receiving end to perform behavioral tasks without being trained to do them. Scientists first trained a group of rats on complex tasks involving reacting to light and pushing levers, or poking their noses through the correct hole to get water. They then connected a transmitter to the rats' brains, and paired them up with a second group, fitted with receivers, who were familiar with being told instructions based on the frequency of electrical stimulation. The first group were known as the "encoders", the ones whose brains were being recorded. The second group, the "decoders," were the rats who would receive the electrical stimulation and the information from the encoding group.

That's when things get really cool:

The researchers found that the decoder rats could learn to perform the same movements, and successfully complete the task, guided solely by the information they received from the brains of the encoder rats. Likewise, when the implants were embedded into the somatosensory cortex, the decoders could use the sensory information they received to mimic the encoders' actions and poke their nose into the right hole to get a drink. They could also transmit the information over the internet in real time, so that the brain activity of an encoder rat in the lab at North Carolina could guide the behaviour of a decoder animal in Brazil.

Scientists believe this research will help pave the way for advances in treating patients with motor disorders like Parkinson's disease, or people recovering from strokes. Those treatments might just the beginning however, believes Miguel Nicolelis, one of the researchers on the project. "This could lead to organic computers that perform heuristically instead of using algorithms. I have no doubt that human brain nets will be possible in the future, but I certainly won't see this in my lifetime."

Human brain nets? We are now one step closer to our glorious Borg-like future.

[Image via Shutterstock.]

In his first interview since losing the presidential election in November, Mitt Romney criticized the President, telling Fox News' Chris Wallace that Obama could have avoided the sequester with more of a Romney-like leadership style, and that "I don't see that kind of leadership happening right now."

While declining to go into specifics about the shortcomings of his campaign, Romney did discuss why he thought the Obama campaign had the advantage. "The president had the power of incumbency. Obamacare was very attractive, especially to those who did not have health insurance, and they came out in large numbers to vote," he said. Up until election night, he was "convinced" he would win.

Reflecting on the current sequester and stalemate in congress, Romney told Wallace that "It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done. It's hard."

Romney did step back from his statements he made about the 47% of Americans who he said were "dependent on government" while at a private fundraising dinner. "It was a very unfortunate statement," Romney told Wallace. "It's not what I meant. I didn't express myself as I wished I would have. You know, when you speak in private, uh, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted. And it could come out wrong. … There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign."

Romney is slowly reemerging into public view, explaining that "Sitting on the sidelines when so much is at stake is just not in my nature." However, he also acknowledged that "as the guy who lost the election, I'm not in a position to tell everybody else how to win."

[Video courtesy of ThinkProgress]

They call it "the nasty effect."

Strong-worded comments can change a readers understanding of an article, especially when it comes to science reporting. Writing in today's New York Times, a group of researchers found that readers who read the same news story about a new technology, but were exposed to different sets of comments, one set fair, one set nasty, had completely different responses to the story:

The results were both surprising and disturbing. Uncivil comments not only polarized readers, but they often changed a participant's interpretation of the news story itself.

In the civil group, those who initially did or did not support the technology - whom we identified with preliminary survey questions - continued to feel the same way after reading the comments. Those exposed to rude comments, however, ended up with a much more polarized understanding of the risks connected with the technology.

Commenter anonymity and the ability to strongly attack a story without recourse or the need to back it up, it turns out, has had an ill effect on what we consider to be factual or fair:

Our emerging online media landscape has created a new public forum without the traditional social norms and self-regulation that typically govern our in-person exchanges - and that medium, increasingly, shapes both what we know and what we think we know.

Some sites have "devised rules to promote civility or have actively moderated reader comments." Paul Krugman even turned comments off after his article on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Other sites have tinkered with commenting systems, trying to find the right balance between relevant discussion and a proper amount of skepticism (hello down there!).

Still, the researchers ask us to beware "the nasty effect" when it comes to news consumption. God knows what ideas some poor souls would emerge with after a full exploration of a Gawker comments thread.

Following complaints by West Bank settlers that Palestinians posed a "security risk" to fellow bus riders, the Afikim bus company will begin running separate buses for settlers and Palestinians traveling into the State of Israel, beginning this Monday morning. The bus plan has been in the works since last fall. Israeli officials insist that this segregation of bus passengers is not actually segregation:

Transportation Ministry officials are not officially calling them segregated buses, but rather bus lines intended to relieve the distress of the Palestinian workers.

The distress of the workers that they are most likely referring to is the reported harassment of Palestinian workers by Israeli police officers. Machsom Watch, an advocacy group that monitors the checkpoints that Palestinians must pass through on their way to work, reported a typical scene of harassment:

"Police officer Advanced Staff Sergeant Major Shai Zecharia stops the bus at the bus stop. Soldiers order all the Palestinians off the bus. The first thing they do is collect all their identity cards as they get off. One by one, the Palestinians are told to go away from the bus stop and walk to the Azzun Atma checkpoint, which is about 2.5 kilometers away from the Shaar Shomron interchange. All of them responded with restraint and sadness, at most asking why. Here and there they received answers such as, ‘You're not allowed on Highway 5' and ‘You're not allowed on public transportation.' Advanced Staff Sergeant Major Zecharia gave some vital information to one of the older Palestinians who had arrived there, telling him: You should ride in special vans, not on Israeli buses."

Several bus drivers told the Israeli news website Ynet that "Palestinians who will choose to travel on the so-called 'mixed' lines, will be asked to leave them."

When the Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery, Alabama in May of 1961, they were greeted and beaten by a mob at the Greyhound station. The civil rights activists were not welcome in the deep south, and local law enforcement failed to protect them from violence and intimidation as the activists attempted to end race discrimination almost a century after the abolition of slavery.

Yesterday, current Montgomery police chief Kevin Murphy apologized to the Freedom Riders, including Georgia Representative John Lewis, at the historic First Baptist Church, offering the congressman his badge and admitting that the police department had enforced unjust laws while the Freedom Riders protested in Montgomery.

The police chief told NBC News that, "I think what I did today should have been done a long time ago. It needed to be done. It needed to be spoken because we have to live with the truth and it is the truth."

Rep. Lewis, who was in town as part of the the 13th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama, was moved by the apology, which was the first one he had ever received from law enforcement in the south. "I teared up. I tried to keep from crying," Lewis said. Lewis was beaten by the mob in Montgomery as police officers ignored the violence.

Chief Murphy said, arm in arm with Rep. Lewis that "there's still a lot of work to do, we know that. We, the police department, needs to make the first move to build that trust back in our community that was once lost because we enforced unjust laws."

Researchers at a major AIDS conference in Atlanta announced today that a 2½ year child in Mississippi born with HIV has been cured of the virus after taking an aggressive regimen of drugs since birth. The child, whose mother had stopped giving her medication, is the second confirmed case of a human being cured of HIV, after a man was cured in 2010 when he received a bone marrow transplant.

Researchers are cautiously optimistic about the development, which might profoundly alter the way HIV is treated in newborns, especially among middle and lower-income communities. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told the Associated Press, "You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we've seen."

The child was given an unusually strong treatment for the child, even before tests could confirm the child did in fact have HIV. Scientists believe that the strength of the treatment "knocked out HIV in the baby's blood before it could form hideouts in the body."

The child, who was initially treated at a rural hospital, was given the stronger medication only because the hospital did not carry the proper treatment for infants. The mother of the child was only found to be HIV-positive during labor.

While the number of American newborns with HIV is now fewer than 200, between 300,000 and 400,000 children are born with AIDS HIV every year, 90% in sub-Saharan Africa.

While researchers caution that they have a long way to go before recommending the treatment for all HIV-positive newborns, Dr. Fauci expressed optimism about the findings,"It opens up a lot of doors."

Early Sunday morning, a young man and his pregnant wife were killed in a hit-and-run car accident in Brooklyn. The couple, Nachman and Raizel Glauber, both 21, were rushing to the hospital in the back seat of a livery cab after Raizel, who was seven months pregnant, complained of pains. At an intersection in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a gray BMW collided with the livery cab, ejecting the pregnant Raizel into the street and trapping Nachman inside the car, where first responders used metal cutters to remove him. Nachman was later pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital; Raizel was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency C-section before she died. The couple's baby, a boy, is in serious condition at Bellevue and is expected to survive. Update: According to a community spokesman, the baby has died.

The driver of the livery cab, Pedro Nunez Delacruz, was also taken to Bellevue and is listed in serious condition. Police are still looking for the BMW's driver and passenger, who fled the scene of the accident on foot.

The victims were part of Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. Hundreds of Orthodox Jews gathered Sunday afternoon for the couple's funeral (a scene captured in this amazing photo in the New York Times). Isaac Abraham, a friend of the couple, said the tight-knit communty was rallying to support the family and ensure the baby's health. "Most of the resources are going to the child to make sure he gets all the medical attention he needs," Mr. Abraham told the Times.

[New York Times, New York Daily News/Image via CNN]

After Rahmell Pettway spent several weeks away from home without telling his girlfriend where he was, the 36-year-old probably knew he was in trouble. So Pettway, whom the NYPD describe as a career criminal, came up with a plan: he would fake his own kidnapping as an excuse. Brilliant idea? Eh, not so much.

Police found Pettway between two cars in Harlem, apparently looking like he'd been beaten, with his mouth, hands and feet duct taped together. After initially telling police he couldn't remember what happened, he then said he'd been kidnapped in Brooklyn by two men driving a light blue mini-van. The storty might have worked if Pettway had remembered to cut the duct tape roll from his wrist, but either he forgot or wasn't able to. The NYPD became suspicious and Pettway later confessed to his scheme.

"He's a total moron," said one law-enforcement source told the New York Post. "It was a pathetic attempt to pull the wool [over] her eyes."

Pettway was arrested and charged with filing a false report. No word on his girlfriend's reaction.

[New York Post, CBS New York/Image via Shutterstock]

Christine Svenningsen is a rich, New York widow who enjoys collecting and remodeling estates in Long Island Sound. She is also, apparently, a rich, New York widow who enjoys collecting—I'm sorry, adopting—children from China, only to give them up for readoption once she tires of them. According to a report in the Daily News, Svenningsen has given up not just one adopted child—as previously thought—but two.

The first abandoned child, Emily, was part of the Svenningsen family for eight years, including over a year while Svennginsen's husband, John, a party supplies magnate, was still alive. Svenningsen gave Emily up for readoption in 2004 and then sued to have the girl removed from her husband's $250 million will. That attempt was shot down in a state appeals court last month, but not before Svenningsen's terrible treatment of Emily came to light.

As the Daily News reports:

Once in 2003, as punishment for "disobeying major house rules," Emily was forced to sleep in a tent for a week, according to court papers. She was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital; a witness said she was covered in bug bites.

Svenningsen, asked at her deposition what rule Emily had broken, said she couldn't remember. Campbell's filings say Svenningsen also separated Emily from her siblings at dinner.
...

In 2003 - the same year Christine paid $22.3 million for one 8-acre island with a 27-room mansion, a tennis court, a pool and a golf course - the cold-hearted widow shipped Emily off to a boarding school for kids with special needs in Connecticut with a diagnosis of "reactive attachment disorder," a condition in which people can't relate to others.

Svenningsen left Emily at the school on weekends, while the rest of the students would go home with their families, the court filings say.

Svenningsen said she did bring Emily home on Christmas Eve, but when the girl threw a fit about being back home, she drove her back up to school the next day - Christmas morning.

Emily was put up for adoption shortly after that incident and was taken in by Maryann Campbell, who worked at Emily's boarding school with her husband and had bonded with the girl. Campbell and the school determined there was nothing wrong with Emily and discontinued her medication. She was then moved to another school and, according to Campbell, is doing fine.

During the deposition for that case, it was revealed that Svenningsen had adopted another baby from China shortly after she adopted Emily. This baby, named Eric, was given up almost immediately after Svenningsen returned to the States. Her reason for giving up Eric:

"I couldn't handle seven children," Svenningsen answered.

It remains unknown why she thought it was a good idea to adopt Eric after she already had six children, including one, Emily, who she apparently thought was a mistake.

"Maybe I should not have gone to China. Everyone advised me not to continue with the adoption, but I just wanted things to go on as planned. My world was falling apart. My husband had cancer. Somehow I thought if I stuck to the plan, everything would be okay," she said.

Of course, based on a recent interaction with Campbell, Emily's new mother, it seems likely Svenningsen lacks the basic skills necessary to be a decent parent, or person.

Campbell's filings say Svenningsen turned a cold shoulder to the girl even after she'd been readopted.

Campbell said she had a "chance encounter" with Emily's former mom, and told her Emily would love to see her and her former siblings because she missed them.

Svenningsen said no.

[Daily News, image, of one of Svenningsen's homes, via AP]

Keith Olbermann, famed observer of reckless drivers and occasional Gawker emailer, is reportedly testing the waters at ESPN, the station he left in 1997 in a typically bridge-burning/napalming fashion. Several times over the last year, the former Current and MSNBC host reached out to ESPN president John Skipper with friendly "Gee, I would love to have dinner" emails, and finally, some time a few months ago, the two dined together at New York's Four Seasons restaurant:

"Keith Olbermann, both personally and through a couple people I know, reached out to say, ‘Gee, I would love to have dinner,' " Skipper said. "I agreed to dinner with Keith because I assumed he'd be provocative and witty and fun to have dinner with, and he was indeed lots of fun. We talked sports and politics, and we had a nice chat. He is very interesting.

"Clearly he was looking to see if there was an entry point to come back."

Olbermann confirmed the meeting, though he refused to go into specifics. "I had the privilege to spend some time with John Skipper," he told the New York Times. "His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic."

Sounds like a nice dinner! An ESPN executive and someone close to Olbermann confirmed to the Times that Olbermann's reps have been inquiring about a job at the network for some time now. However, despite the campaigning by Olbermann's reps and the lovely-sounding, compliment-inspiring dinner, no job offer is imminent.

"After the dinner, at that point, there was no real appropriate place for Keith to come back, nor did I feel like I was prepared to bring him back," Skipper said.

"We don't have a policy that says we won't bring somebody back. We're running a great business, and when we think we can get quality content, there's no such thing as a condemned list. That said, this is not an easy place to get back into. There are not that many successful examples of people who have come back, in part because it's like water filling a vacuum. When somebody leaves, somebody else fills their place."

Poor Keith. If you want to talk, you can always email us.

[New York Times/Image via AP]

Now-former Miss Delaware Teen USA Melissa King initially denied any connection to the recently surfaced porn video that forced her to resign her crown, telling The News Journal it was "absolutely not" her.

She has since taken to her Twitter account to ease into admission by retweeting expressions of support from fans that suggest she was more than just "allegedly involved."

But the porn company behind the video in question has volunteered to the process up by releasing a clip over the weekend (NSFW) showing King acknowledging her identity while reading a standard consent form prior to the shooting of the film (see below).

GirlsDoPorn.com has also revealed additional details about King's video, including that the beauty queen reached out to them, and that she was paid $1,500 for services rendered.

$1,500 also happens to be the amount of money King was looking to obtain at the time to cover travel expenses related to her participation in the Miss Teen International 2012 pageant.

A rep for GDP told TMZ that King was willing to shoot additional scenes, but due to the "frigid" nature of her first attempt, the pornographers passed.

Though King has yet to speak publicly about the affair, YouPorn.com has already extended her an offer of $250k to promote their brand as the very first Miss YouPorn.

[screengrab via gdpmovies.com (NSFW), video via WWTTD]

A senior living facility in Bakesfield, California, says one its nurses was just doing her job when she refused a 911 dispatchers repeated pleas to perform CPR on an elderly resident who ultimately passed away.

87-year-old Lorraine Bayless suddenly collapsed last Tuesday morning inside the dining room of Glenwood Gardens' independent living facility, and a staff nurse who happened to be in the area phoned 911.

A few minutes into her conversation with Bakersfield Fire Dispatcher Tracey Halvorson, the nurse — identified only as Colleen — was instructed to begin performing CPR.

But, much to the dispatcher's shock, she refused.

"Yeah, we can't do CPR," Colleen tells Halvorson, referencing a Glenwood policy which prohibits staff members from performing CPR on residents of the independent living facility.

Halvorson tried over the next several minutes to convince Colleen to hand the phone to someone — anyone — who was willing to perform CPR on Bayless.

But the nurse maintained her adherence to protocol.

"I cannot have our other senior citizens who don't know CPR do it," she told Halvorson, who insisted that she could walk a perfect stranger through the procedure.

In a last-ditch effort to get the dying Bayless some assistance, Halvorson tried to assure Colleen that she would not be held responsible if something went wrong and that "EMS takes liability for this."

"I understand if your boss is telling you you can't do it," Halvorson can be heard telling the nurse in harrowing audio of the 911 call. "But if there's any...it's a human being...is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

To which Colleen responds: "Not at this time."

Emergency crews eventually arrived and Bayless was rushed to Mercy Hospital Southwest, but it was too late.

In response to the outcry, Glenwood executive director Jeffrey Toomer released a statement saying the facility's practice in the event of a health emergency "is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives."

Toomer told Channel 17 that, unlike clients of Glenwood's skilled nursing facility and assisted living facility, elderly individuals who reside at the independent retirement facility are not eligible for medical help, and they are made aware of that when they move in.

Bayless's daughter, a nurse herself, confirmed that her mother did not have a do-not-resuscitate order, but said she was satisfied with the way Glenwood handled the situation.

[screengrab via KGET]

A "portly" individual wearing a Batman costume surprised authorities in the Northern England city of Bradford when he arrived unexpectedly at a local police station to drop off a man wanted for burglary.

The real-life superhero hung around long enough to ensure that the suspected burglar was arrested and properly charged with handling of stolen goods and other fraud related offenses, but then quickly made away into the dark without leaving a trace.

Police released a short statement confirming that a man "dressed in a full Batman outfit" did in fact bring a known fugitive to justice, but said his identity remains unknown.

Of course, if comics have taught us anything, it's more than likely that Bradford's Police Commissioner knows exactly who this guy is.

[CCTV stills via West Yorkshire Police]

The "Knife Game Song" isn't all that new: It first appeared online way back in 2011, and even managed to garner over 100k views shortly after it appeared on YouTube.

Still, somewhere between then and now, interest in the Cups Cover from Hell died down, and it seemed that the "Knife Game Song" was one potentially lethal dare meme the Internet was content to sit out.

That is, until an unassuming teenager from Norway named Hanna Fylling Ellingseter managed to bring the five-finger-fad-that-never-was back from Oblivion with a twee rendition of the ill-advised "challenge."

The Ellingseter-assisted revival of the "Knife Game Song" has flooded the original version with views, more than doubling its count overnight.

Given the Internet's penchant for imitation and one-upmanship, the same will mostly likely be said about America's emergency rooms before too long.

[H/T: Reddit]

A Siberian woman has been arrested and charged with murder for stabbing her husband to death after he attempted to kill her cat with a rake.

The 56-year-old woman and her husband had, surprisingly, been drinking together when the cat became the subject of an argument. (Backstory, such as it is: "the cat... had moved to their livestock farm in the republic's Zakamensky district after its owner from a nearby farm died.") As so often happens in this situations, the man tried to kill the cat with a rake, and then:

"In a move to protect the animal, the woman seized the rake from his hands and then snatched a knife from the table in a fit of rage, and stabbed the man three times in the chest," a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said.

Rule number one for successful relationships with cat owners is "do not attempt to kill your partner's cat." Last September, a woman in Texas was charged with assault for shooting her husband in the stomach when he tried to kill her cat.

[RIA Novosti, image, of a Belarusian cat, via AP]

7-year-old John Welch of Baltimore still isn't quite sure why he was suspended from Park Elementary School, though he understands it had something to do with his breakfast pastry's slight resemblance to a weapon.

"All I was trying to do was turn it into a mountain but, it didn't look like a mountain really and it turned out to be a gun kinda," the second grader told local Fox affiliate WBFF.

It was another morning in the life of a little boy with ADHD who loves art. Josh was munching on a strawberry Pop-Tart, when his creativity got the better of him, and he decided to reshape his breakfast by nibbling on its edges.

"It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn't," he said.

But his teacher though it definitely looked like a gun, and, what's more, she claims she saw Josh hold on to his food and utter the words "bang bang."

His Pop-Tart was confiscated and he was immediately suspended for two days.

"I would almost call it insanity," said Josh's father B.J. "I mean with all the potential issues that could be dealt with at school, real threats, bullies, whatever the real issue is, it's a pastry.., Ya know?"

The school stands by its decision, and even sent a letter to other parents explaining that a student was suspended for using food "to make inappropriate gestures."

[screengrab via WBFF]

Just when the stock market recovers and public optimism returns and you start to lose faith in the power of American capitalism to constantly repeat its past mistakes in the form of foreseeable boom-and-bust cycles that always end in massive losses, the system steps up to reinforce your belief in humanity's fundamental unwillingness to learn from past mistakes, ever. Hello, looming student loan meltdown!

You may recall the last financial meltdown we had, less than five years ago, occurred when the system issued too much housing debt to people unable to repay it, and then packaged that debt into securities and sold it off to investors hungry for "yield" who didn't really care about how fundamentally sound that debt was, like a game of debt hot potato, so that every single layer of person involved in the process was only concerned about their own short term gain, and no one had much incentive to stand up and point out that the whole thing was bound to crumble. Now, the exact same process is happening with our nation's huge and ultimately unsustainable pile of student loans. Not to worry—everything is different this time.

The WSJ reports today on just how well student debt is following the script: it's being bundled and sold off as securities to yield-hungry investors, despite its inherent riskiness. Just like those subprime housing loans were! Who cares? Dance until the music stops!

SLM Corp., SLM +4.22% the largest U.S. student lender, last week sold $1.1 billion of securities backed by private student loans. Demand for the riskiest bunch-those that will lose money first if the loans go bad-was 15 times greater than the supply, people familiar with the deal said...

Investors' hunger for risky loans shows the lengths they are willing to go to generate returns in a period when interest rates are hovering near record lows.

Note that just last week we received our latest update on the ever-growing shakiness of America's student debt load—balances are going up, along with delinquencies. It's all getting worse at the exact same time that investors are piling in. What timing! What flair! What perfectly predictable repetition!

This is all the product of trained investment professionals. Have no fear: they've been through this before.

[WSJ. Photo: Shutterstock]

All other toy commercials could stand to learn a thing or two from this Russian ad for a talking hamster doll called "WoodyOTime."

The robotic rodent is capable of repeating a person's sentences back to them in "hamster speak," so, naturally, the toy's retailer decided to use it to mess with a police officer during a routine traffic stop.

The exchange ends far better than expected, with the stoic policeman letting a smile slip out before allowing the driver to go on his way under one condition: "Next time, no talking animals."

[H/T: Arboroath, Viral Viral Videos]

A figure "wearing KKK regalia" was spotted at Oberlin College this morning, the culmination of a month of racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic graffiti being discovered on buildings around the Ohio liberal arts college's campus. In response, the school has cancelled all classes and non-essential activities, instead holding "a series of discussions of the challenging issues that have faced our community in recent weeks."

"A person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit" was reportedly seen near the African Heritage House on the Oberlin campus early this morning. This is the latest in a string of hate-related incidents at Oberlin, beginning with the February 9 vandalism of Black History Month posters, in which an unknown person changed the word "black" to "nigger." These incidents, and more, are catalogued at the blog Oberlin Microagressions, from which the photos in this post are taken:

Oberlin Microagressions also links to "Adolf Krislov," a Nazi-themed account "parodying" Oberlin President Marvin Krislov:

The account appears to be one of those 18-year-old-thinks-he's-taking-a-political-stand-by-saying-"nigga" things, and claims not to be associated with "hate messaging"

The Oberlin Review has a list of the incidents—which include the discovery of swastika and "faggot" graffiti; the weekend of February 16 was particularly bad:

Feb. 16; Students found a number of offensive notes written around Burton Hall. "Whites Only" was written above a water fountain, "Nigger Oven" was written inside the elevator and "No Niggers" was written on a bathroom door.

Feb. 17; The Office of Safety and Security released a Special Alert of a strong-arm robbery of a student near West College Street and Cedar Street. The student reported that he was approached by an individual who made a derogatory remark about his perceived ethnicity and then physically knocked him to the ground.

Oberlin professor Ann Trubek notes that while hate incidents "happen every few years," this is the first time the situation has reached a level that requires canceling classes:

Update: According to a person with access to the faculty mailing list, faculty members had been told—"unofficially," (i.e., not through official channels)—that "the investigation into this incident was dropped when it was discovered that the person responsible was someone within the MRC [the Multicultural Resource Center], who would be disciplined internally"; according to conversations with other members of the Oberlin community, this appears to be a widespread, and widely-believed, rumor. (The same source, who asked to remain anonymous, claims that the MRC, whose former director, Eric Estes, is now the Dean of Students, has been criticized for the amount of student college money it receives, and that its leadership has "had trouble justifying how many campus coordinators they have on staff.")

This source also speculated that the incident is likely related to Oberlin's infamous "no-trespass list," "a list of townies and college alumni who are banned from all college property," managed by the college and kept secret from the town. The college has long denied the list's existence—but last week it was leaked to the local paper by the Oberlin Police Department, with whom the list was shared. This list contains a number of "successful and well-connected" alumni, and we've heard that Oberlin's legal counsel is "reeling" over the leak of the list, which was meant to be kept confidential.

That being said, several—really, several, please stop emailing me—students have emailed to object to our source's characterization of rumors and discussions on campus: "The MRC has not been criticized for the money it receives and there is no campus conversation about the number of staff people in that office," one writes. "I think that what [was] said about the MRC's funding is either BS or seriously taken out of context," writes another. "Every single year, there are campus-wide arguments about... funding. There is a faction of students who basically claims... that anything that has any anti-oppression or political intent shouldn't be funded by the student activity fee."

"Whoever is passing on this information is likely involved and perpetuating these falsities in an act of hate in itself," one student wrote. Another: "But we, the students, are communicators, friends, activists, poets, and our voices are louder. How dare you contribute to the promotion of an oppressive act and the desecration of a sacred space."

Other students have objected to the connection of the hate incidents to the One Town campaign:

I'm not sure what your source thinks the No-Trespass List is, but it has absolutely nothing to do with incidents of hate speech on campus. Protest surrounding the list is concerned with issues of racial profiling and a lack of transparency from College administration - how exactly that has anything to do with a person wearing a KKK hood is beyond me. Incidences of hate speech started before the One Town Campaign gained any steam, so your source really had to stretch to make a connection there. It seems to me that someone upset about the list would be standing in solidarity with minority communities, not terrorizing them.

So: to be exactingly clear. No one has officially been found responsible or reprimanded. A rumor circulating the faculty and administration holds that an MRC member is responsible. It is just that: a rumor. The MRC has a large and vocal backing in the Oberlin community, many if not most members of which fully support it and believe that it receives the proper amount of funding.

Students, faculty and staff received emails this morning from administration and the student center, letting them know that classes and activities were canceled for planned solidarity demonstrations and a teach-in. "When faced with difficult situations," writes President Marvin Kislov, "Oberlin has consistently met the challenges and affirmed its commitment to the highest quality of education and the noblest aspirations of its community members."

The emails are below.

To the Oberlin community:

Early this morning, there was a report of a person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit between South and the Edmonia Lewis Center and in the vicinity of African Heritage House. This report is being investigated by both Safety & Security and the Oberlin Police Department. This event, in addition to the series of other hate-related incidents on campus, has precipitated our decision to suspend formal classes and all non-essential activities for today, Monday, March 4, 2013, and gather for a series of discussions of the challenging issues that have faced our community in recent weeks.

We hope today will allow the entire community-students, faculty, and staff-to make a strong statement about the values that we cherish here at Oberlin: inclusion, respect for others, and a strong and abiding faith in the worth of every individual. Indeed, the strength of Oberlin comes from our belief that diversity and openness enriches us all, and enhances the educational mission at its core.

We ask that all students, faculty and staff participate in the events planned for today:

12PM | Lord Lounge, Afrikan Heritage House
Teach-in led by Africana Studies Department

2PM | Wilder Bowl
Demonstration of solidarity

3:30PM | Finney Chapel
Community convocation: "We Stand Together" (previously scheduled for Wednesday 3/6 at 12PM)

When faced with difficult situations, Oberlin has consistently met the challenges and affirmed its commitment to the highest quality of education and the noblest aspirations of its community members. We believe that today's events—and our ongoing work and discussions—will strengthen Oberlin and will strengthen us all.

Marvin Krislov
President

Sean Decatur
Dean, Arts & Sciences

David Stull
Dean, Conservatory of Music

Eric Estes
Dean of Students

From: Oberlin College Student Senate
Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Subject: All - Campus Events Today in Response to Race and Bias Attack
To: studentlist

Dear Students,

We are here to notify you all that there has been yet another bias and racist event on campus. A person wearing KKK regalia was spotted on South Campus around midnight near the ELC and South. This has been another event in a string of several reflecting a terrible pattern of racism, prejudice, queerphobia, anti-semitism and other bias attacks that are happening on Oberlin's campus. At this time, advocacy, support and solidarity are necessary emotionally, physically and spiritually.

There will be several events taking place on campus tomorrow in response to this event. First, all classes and student organization meetings on campus have been cancelled (both College and Conservatory). Several students will be rallied around campus buildings like King, the Science Center, Peters, and other class buildings in a constructive effort to notify students of the event and lobby fo support and solidarity. At this time, solidarity between all us Oberlin students should reign supreme and it should be our main objective to inform our fellow students and our professors and administrators about this event and the effect it is having on valued members of our community. Beyond that, it is important to strongly encourage others to take part in the programs scheduled for the day aimed at community building and support. We have the opportunity to unite as a body without limits and without the distraction of classes in order to focus on how we as a community play a crucial role in changing and revamping the way Oberlin's campus culture has looked and is looking now.

In addition to the cancellation of classes, there will be a Teach-In/Sit-In in Lord Lounge at 12 PM hosted by the Africana Studies Dept. Following that, there will be a campus rally beginning in Wilder Bowl at 2 PM, and extending throughout the rest of campus via Main Street. We would strongly encourage all of the student body to attend both of these events to further support the effected community and make strong and constructive effort towards the unification of Oberlin's campus through awareness and advocacy around these events that have previously gone far too unnoticed.

In addition to all of the following, there will be students meeting all morning in the WOBC Radio Station to make announcements on radio shows about the bias event and about the actions taking place on campus in response to the event.

Finally, the all-campus convocation that was originally scheduled for Wednesday at noon has been moved to Today at 3:30 PM. All student attendance is highly encouraged. It will take of all of our support to rethink Oberlin's campus culture and to take significant strides in reshaping and renewing it.

In all, the following movements are happening tomorrow:

1. Radio Show announcements at WOBC all morning
2. Cancellation of ALL CLASSES ON CAMPUS - Con and College
3. Action Planning/Banner Making in MRC at 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM http://www.facebook.com/events/581714131841521/?notif_t=plan_user_invited
4. Teach-In/Sit-In in Lord Lounge at Noon hosted by the Africana Studies Dept.
5. Campus Rally at 2 PM starting in Wilder Bowl
http://www.facebook.com/events/226064054201283/226072977533724/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity
6. All Campus Convocation in Finney Chapel at 3:30 PM
6. Dinner for Solidarity in Afrikan Heritage House

We hope to see all of the student body present at these events tomorrow to stand in unity and in collective awareness.

In Unity, Advocacy and Support,
Oberlin College Student Senate

Eliza Diop '14
Liaison to the Student Senate

Three weeks ago, The Roosevelts nearly broke the Internet when they released the first-ever supercut of goats yelling like humans.

In honor of the original video surpassing 10 million views on YouTube, RSVLTS went back to the goats yelling like humans archives and produced a slightly longer sequel to their super-viral supercut.

Normally sequels play like cheap knock-offs of their predecessors but it seems the secret to a quality sequel has finally been uncovered: Goats yelling like humans.

[video via RSVLTS]