FOCUS: UNC

A Friday Focus Feature, on the University of North Carolina. We'll go from the locally messed up to the internationally messed up.

Local bizarrity: So, the EYM has a nice bike. Locked it up, near the Pit, 11 am. Comes back at 2 pm, both wheels have been stolen, and (this is the cool part) a "new" heavy duty lock has been added. So now the bike is locked twice, once with the EYM's lock and once with a lock placed there by .... who? The thief. Presumably so the thief can come back at leisure and finish the job by cutting the EYM's lock off and taking the frame. The EYM calls the local five-oh, who helpfully say (1) he cannot cut the alien lock off, because they are "not sure" it's his bike. (2) they will allow him to cut it off in a "few days" (not clear how many, or what the criteria for this decision are). Of course, this means he has no way of guarding the bike. After the thieves come back and take it, I suppose the five-oh will say, "What bike? There's no bike here? What are you complaining about?"

State/National bizarrity: Herman Cain continues to campaign, though it is not clear for what. Mr. Cain made an appearance at UNC Chapel Hill on Thursday. He was quoted as saying: “Look at me, I grew up in Atlanta, Ga., in the ’50s and ’60s, during the times when this nation had segregation and Jim Crow,” Cain said. “And today, not only was I able to run for president of the United States of America, I have a bus out there with my picture on it.” So there you have it: the civil rights movement, at its core, was a fight for the right to have a bus with your picture on it.

International bizarrity I: Frampton comes apart. Physics prof gets arrested for cocaine smuggling (two kilograms!) in Argentina, offers the defense of "professional jealousy." Yep, those snooty Argentine cops are famously upset if you have more journal articles than they have.

International bizarrity II: UNC student (and then student President) Eve Carson was murdered during a robbery a few years ago. But she lives on.... as a photo used to advertise how safe and fun it is to go to university in the US! Yes, kids in India see this:

Apparently the company has apologized, and removed the ads. Still, when you steal some photo off the internet to use for advertising foreign colleges, you should make sure the subject was not a murdered foreign college student.