It's a good thing you never had the chance to debate James Baldwin.

He'd own you. He'd own me. Because he owned everyone when it came to debates.

As it is the 93rd anniversary of James Baldwin's birth, here is possibly his most famous debate. It occurred in 1965 at Cambridge University with noted conservative William F. Buckley as the opposition. The debate centered on one question: "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?"

Simply said, Buckley had his share of victories in life, but the day he met Baldwin was not one of them.





The debate is an hour long, so odds are you won't watch it all in this modern day age of quick cuts and short attention spans. If needed, jump ahead and listen to any portion of Baldwin's eloquence, his patience, his ability to craft empathy out of knowledge.

Then click to 45:54 of the video and witness Baldwin's eyes lit afire, the gears turning internally while listening to Buckley's sanctimonious argument in a slick, syrupy, southern drawl.

McDonald's Hamburger University is more discerning than Oxford, Cambridge, or Harvard.

This sort of story comes out every few years, and it's popped up again.

Nearly five years ago, news came out that Harvard University, with its 5.9% acceptance rate, was easier to get admitted into than McDonald's Hamburger University campus in Shanghai, which accepts fewer than 1% of applicants.

Now, news from London's The Mirror newspaper shares the same 'duh' moment shocking revelation that Hamburger University is also more discerning than Oxford University (18% acceptance rate) and the University of Cambridge (20.8%).

I think we all know the truth that students at Oxford and Cambridge are really just future Burger King employees anyway.




When are we going to come together as a human race and collectively admit that Ronald McDonald is freaky as hell? I don't want him smiling at me. The only people that smile like that want to invite you down to their basement--and my wealth of knowledge of bad Hollywood movies proves that you never come up from the basement once you go down.

The first known printed use of an ellipsis has been discovered.

Three little dots. Three little points of punctuation that trail off or trail in, leaving conversation in limbo or joining the chat midway.

But when did it first appear in print?

While personal handwritten letters are known to show an ellipsis by 1580 and 1585, Dr. Anne Toner of Cambridge University believes she has found the first-ever printed use of an ellipsis. It appears in the form of repetitive hyphens (instead of dots) in the Roman dramatist Terence’s play, Andria, which was translated into English for a British audience by famed translator Maurice Kyffin in 1588.

Toner's new book, Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission, dives into the history of punctuation that allows writers to create dramatic tension through grammatical vagueness.

As Toner writes, "It’s interesting to think about whose idea it was to use what turned out to be a very useful resource...was it the translator of the Terence play, or the printer? Who the agent was behind the mark is very unclear."

Apparently it's not Terence, who isn't known for much in literary history, and now he can't even claim the ellipsis. Poor guy just can't win.

Everything old is new again: Possibly the oldest draft of the King James Bible discovered.

The most widely read book in English literature history now has new information as to how it came to be.

Jeffrey Alan Miller, an assistant professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey, was in England at the University of Cambridge looking for an unknown letter of a man named Samuel Ward. Ward was known to have worked as part of a collection of men commissioned by King James that translated the Old and New Testaments into a definitive English-language bible for the Church of England--but, alas, Miller just wanted to find a letter.

Instead, while combing through the archives, Miller stumbled upon a small book belonging to Ward, wrapped up and cataloged nearly 30-years ago as "verse-by-verse biblical commentary" with "Greek word studies, and some Hebrew notes." When Miller dove into the book he realized it wasn't just any old collection of biblical notes--but an early draft of portions of the King James Bible, which was published in 1611.

Ward's draft must have been worked on between the years of 1604, when King James commissioned the work, and 1608, when drafts were required to be submitted to a committee for review. That means Ward's small, humble little book is the earliest known document of the King James Bible ever to be found.

"There was a kind of thunderstruck, leap-out-of-bathtub moment," Miller told the New York Times. "But then comes the more laborious process of making sure you are 100 percent correct."

In all likelihood, Miller is correct, say his fellow scholars, and will be verified in the coming months.

And as for the unknown letter of Ward's that Miller was looking for?

He found that, too.

Prince William is studious, loves himself some agricultural management.

Cambridge University has a new student in its midst, and odds are he's expecting an A.

After completing his military service earlier this year, Prince William--the Duke of Cambridge, future king of England, and Pippa's brother-in-law--will take classes regarding agricultural management for 10 weeks in 2014 at Cambridge University. Because life gets boring as a future king.

Thus, he becomes Kensington Palace's groundskeeper's worst nightmare waiting to happen.