The Algorithm March is Back

This would not work in Attica. No way, man.

Tags

More like this

Elizabeth J. Laden, a few years ago. Some of my earliest memories are of my sister, BJ, who later preferred to be called Elizabeth. Each of my three siblings, all older than me, had a measurable influence on my life, influences that happened when I was little when they, much older, were mostly…
In linguistic communication, a pattern generally emerges whereby the speaker or the listener (but not both) work extra hard to make the communication happens. This work (or lack thereof) consists of enunciation, use of contractions, various other things. You know about this because you make such…
I finally saw the movie Iron Man. It was good. I feel that I am qualified to evaluate the movie. When I was in high school, I was totally into comic books. Mostly Spider-man, but I still have a significant collection of Iron Man comics. Ok, now you know I am not an Iron Man attacker. I will…
This guest post comes to us from a colleague and friend, Dr Michael Wolfe. Enjoy! The simultaneous celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin today offers a special opportunity to reflect on the state of our democracy and the status of science in our…

Nothing more funny than watching prisoners forced to reduce themselves to children for the enjoyment and ridicule of a crowd.

Unless I'm missing something here (and in which case I'm sorry), this is plain revolting.

By Eyal Ben David (not verified) on 03 Dec 2007 #permalink

This is actually their daily exercise. Apparently the warden was sick of just marching them in a circle for an hour a day and started teaching dance lessons. Eventually it turned into massive dance routines that everyone actually enjoyed doing. They've done Thriller, Radio Gaga, and a couple others.

The warden claims that a few of the prisoners became professional backup dancers after getting out of the joint.

He put the videos on Youtube to share his ideas with other wardens and promote a more exciting daily exercise.

I don't know Eyal, it actually sounds kind of cool!

Well, that definitely shut me up.
Maybe it is viewed different in their culture. I know in the west this would pass as a sadistic abuse of the prisoners.
As someone who served in an army and was forced to do these kinds of routines, I can imagine how I would feel if my sergeant would've wanted us to do thriller for his amusement.
Oh well...

By Eyal Ben David (not verified) on 03 Dec 2007 #permalink

You did the Algorithm March in the Army?

(I would have thought this more likely for the navy...)

Hehe, we did much weirder stuff than the algorithm march.
The whole routine becomes exponentially more complicated when you add a rifle to the mix.
But it was never to this kind of music, only marches. Which felt less humiliating, although not by much.

By Eyal Ben David (not verified) on 04 Dec 2007 #permalink