FBI rounds up corrupt police officers

"FBI agents arrested scores of Puerto Rican police officers Wednesday for allegedly aiding drug dealers in what authorities said was the national agency's largest-ever police corruption investigation."

CBSnews

The social fabric of the nation is incredibly broken by a corrupt, oligarchic government, one that violates people's civil rights at the drop of a hat (or, most likely, a march or a strike). It is very easy to fall into despair at seeing the nation becoming increasingly ungovernable.
So many of us have experienced abuse at the hands of the police or seen them do highly illegal stuff while hiding their badges and threatening anyone that does anything to stop or report them.
So, for all my misgivings about the federal presence on my nation, due to the decades of abuse the citizenry has suffered at their hands, I'm really happy something is being done about the blatant corruption of the Puerto Rican Police officers.

Before you Die

Porcelain and alabaster
Decaying ever faster
Unaware of imminent disaster
Open up your eyes

As you ruminate the hopeless sands of time
Did you wander out your days lost and resigned
Or recreate the universes in your mind?

Everybody is a bastard
My world is like plaster
Crumbling apart from pressure from the blaster
Waiting for a sign

And the momentary pleasures take their turn
As a wistful boy runs out of things to learn
The episodes of yore are never to return

Scare up some hope, you're gonna need it just to cope
You are the decision, numbers don't lie
When you bite the dust, was it for purpose or for trust?
You'll never relive it, think before you die
Yeah, think, think before you die

Deficit and deprivation
In the wake of desperation
Rewrite the morals, rectify the nation
Now may be your time

As you ruminate the hopeless sands of time
Do you wonder how your life has been defined?
You know eternity can't ever change your mind
You know eternity can't ever change your mind

So think, think before you die
Woah, think, think before you die

I'm a Robotz!

While I was doing a practice ITC run and quite bored, Brit posted a quirky personality quiz and I did it. Well, I was hoping for a result as awesome as hers, Smartass, but it was not meant to be. So here's what I got:

Robot

You are 100% Rational, 29% Extroverted, 43% Brutal, and 14% Arrogant.

You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact, this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem human. For instance, you are very humble and don't bother thinking of your own interests, you are very gentle and lack emotion, and you are also very introverted and introspective. You may have noticed that these traits are just as applicable to your laptop as they are to a human being. You are not like the robots they show in the movies. Movie robots are make-believe, because they always get all personable and likeable after being struck by lightning, or they are cold, cruel killing machines. In all reality, though, you are much more boring than all that. Real robots just sit there, doing their stupid jobs, and doing little else. If you get struck by lightning, you won't develop a winning personality and heart of gold. (Robots don't have hearts, silly, and if they did, they would probably be made of steel, not gold.) You also won't be likely to terrorize humanity by becoming an ultra-violent killing machine sent into the past to kill the mother of a child who will lead a rebellion against machines, because that movie was dumb as hell, and because real robots don't kill--they horribly maim at best, and they don't even do that on purpose. Real robots are boringly kind and all too rarely try to kill people. In all my years, my laptop has only attacked me once, and that was only because my brother threw it at me. In short, your personality defect is that you don't really HAVE a personality. You are one of those annoying, super-logical people that never gets upset or flustered. Unless, of course, you short circuit. Or if someone throws a pie at you. Pies sure are delicious.

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.

3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.

4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Class Clown.
Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Hand-Raiser, the Emo Kid, and the Haughty Intellectual.

Take The Personality Defect Test

The only thing wrong with the test was its inability to accurately detect my emotional programing, probably because my rage module is incredibly sophisticated.

Carl Sagan: A Universe Not Made For Us

Y llaman Universidades a criaderos de mutantes

Puerto Rican police beats parent for bringing food for his son

My alma mater has been on strike for the past few weeks due to proposed changes in services and increases in fees and tuition. Unlike mainland US, access to higher education is considered a right in PR, and increasing tuition (because the state cut about $100 million in funds for the university) would decrease access to working class and poor students.
The University of Puerto Rico plays a vital role in increasing social mobility. Plenty of us that are now in prestigious graduate and medical schools in mainland US wouldn't have had any higher education if it weren't that accessible.
The police department, however, has had a strained relationship with the university and the students since the 1960's. They have been banned from entry to the Rio Piedras campus since the Riot Police shot and killed a student that was in her apartment balcony shouting at them to stop beating the crap out of protesting students in 1970.
As I've posted earlier, it is quite common for the police to beat up UPR students for no reason. My husband was at the receiving end of one of those beatings when he was a freshman.
Unsurprisingly, this strike has been peppered with accusations and video evidence of police brutality against the students. In this instance, the police beats up a parent for bringing food to his son that is striking inside the campus.

Waking Up

So, slowly but surely I'm coming out of my depression. However, my social anxiety is still pretty crappy. For some reason I can either talk to people face to face or through email/text, but talking on the phone really freaks me out! But whatever, things are getting better.
On the crappy side of things, I gave up on my thesis project on my 5th year. That protein is simply not suitable for that type of experiments and I just have to deal. But it fucking blows - 2 more fucking years here. Thankfully my new project is with a protein that knows how to behave.
Also, I'm going back home in a week! And for the first time my youngest sister is old enough to drink and drive (obviously not both at the same time!) and so now all three of us can leave our respective parents (and their dramas) at home and go chill out at the beach.
It's so weird to have my 'baby' sister grow up - but it's also very awesome. My middle sister has always been one of my best friends, and more and more so as we grew older. But the age difference was 6 years, so as soon as she hit about 16 we could, you know, talk about stuff. But my baby sister is 12 years younger than me! And in addition, we are from different marriages so we never had the opportunity to live together for very long. I have only seen my sisters sporadically the last 5 years, since I've been stuck here in grad school. And during this time she has grown up to be a pretty awesome almost-adult! I'm really, really looking forward to go back home and spend some time hanging out with them both and get to know my youngest sister better. There are few people in this life I love as much as I love them.
So here I am, waiting for the storm to get the fuck out and hoping for Spring to bring some good times.