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3 days ago
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When a unique university on a ship sailed up to India for ‘cultural immersion'
In January 1927, a large contingent of American students from the Floating University travelled by train from Bombay to Agra, a journey of two nights and one day, to see the Taj Mahal. When Dewitt Reddick, a 23-year-old newly-minted journalism graduate, got his first glimpse of the Mughal monument, he said it was 'gleaming in the morning a dream palace from the Arabian Nights'. A few hours later, 'under the hot rays of the sun, the building was sparkling, shining like a cold sun with a glistening marble surface,' Reddick wrote in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The mausoleum clearly left the young man, as it has it so many others, awestruck. He concluded his gushing write-up, saying, 'Silently white at night, coldly white even in the blazing sun of India's noon, the Taj Mahal stands in faraway central India, a thing of grace and beauty, symbolic of the spirit of India.' Reddick was one of nearly 500 students of the Floating University – a unique educational experiment on a cruise ship that aimed to provide pupils with 'experiential learning through travel and cultural immersion' while imparting 'traditional classroom learning'. Over nine months from September 1926 to May 1927, the ship wended its way around the world, stopping at 42 ports, visiting iconic sites like the Taj Mahal and the Acropolis. The most detailed account of it appears in Australian academic Tamson Pietsch's 2023 book The Floating University: Experience, Empire and the Politics of Knowledge. Pietsch discovered the university by accident when she came across a two-page pamphlet in a book. The advertisement promised that the university would help students 'develop the ability to think in world terms…through first hand contact with places, people and problems'. Apart from a chance to experience lands far and beyond, the Floating University offered academic credits just like any land-bound university. Over 70 subjects were taught and tested on, including psychology, mathematics, history, languages (French, Spanish and German), and journalism (at least three publications were produced on board). A Holland American liner, named SS Ryndam, was enlisted for the experiment. As many as 306 young men and 57 young women, all recent graduates, signed up. Joining them on board were 133 adults, who were combining travel with education, as well as 63 faculty and staff from major American universities. The ship's crew was mainly Dutch and spoke little English. Experiential learning It puzzled Pietsch that, soon after the experiment, its story vanished from academic and popular discourse, though-study abroad semesters are still offered as part of degree programmes in the United States. Given the controversy surrounding the Floating University and its founder, Professor James Edwin Lough, shouldn't the buzz have lasted longer? James Edwin Lough was born in 1871 in Eaton, Ohio. He studied at Miami University in Ohio and taught at schools in Eaton and Stockton before joining Harvard University for a doctorate in psychology. Among his teachers at Harvard were William James and John Dewey, both educationists and philosophers who profoundly influenced Lough. From James, Lough imbibed the belief in educational psychology and pragmatism, and from Dewey, he learned to have faith in democracy and building public opinion with free exchange of ideas. Lough married Dora Bailey, a Massachusetts native, and moved permanently to the East Coast, joining New York University's school of pedagogy as professor of psychology. His initial experiments focused on getting professionals to teach students. It was only after World War I, a time when America's influence was growing in the world, that Lough conceived the Floating University. In his imagination it was to be a chance for students to spend a year abroad, exploring different lands and cultures for hands-on, experiential learning. To turn this dream into reality, Lough assembled an impressive team. Dr Charles Thwing of Case Reserve Western University in Ohio became the university president. Albert Heckel, George E Howes, William Haigh, Daniel Chase and Walter Harris served as deans. Henry Allen, the former Kansas governor and newspaper baron, oversaw the publishing of the daily four-page student magazine The Binnacle. And writer-illustrator Holling C Holling supervised the arts magazine The Student-Magellan. For reasons known to him, Lough did not disclose that he was the president of the company overseeing the visa and travel arrangements. When this conflict became public, it drew criticism and ultimately led to the withdrawal of New York University's sponsorship of the voyage. As Pietsch notes, objections stemmed over the control over knowledge and the authority to dispense it. Uninformed ideas SS Ryndam set off on September 18, 1926, moving south from New York to Cuba and Panama, then travelling west to Los Angeles, and then sailing across the Pacific towards Asia. Three months later, following visits to Hawaii, Japan, China, Manila, Siam and Ceylon, the ship docked at Bombay. Accompanying Lough on the voyage were his wife and four children. His 12-year-old daughter Dorothea or Betty, the youngest in the family, was the university mascot, the 'girl geographer' on board. His eldest son Edwin, meanwhile, was documenting the trip in the Floating University, a magazine produced on board. Edwin wrote specifically about their India visit in the newspaper Brooklyn Eagle. Agra was a highlight of the trip – the first time, Lough wrote, such a large group had visited the Taj Mahal. Equally memorable was a hunting trip that yielded an unexpected kill, a jackal. A few students made an out-of-the-way trip, several hundred kilometres east of Bombay, to Wardha, where the 'saviour of India', Mahatma Gandhi, had his ashram. In the eyes of those students, Gandhi's importance as a world figure was only as much as the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who had kept communists in check in Italy. When they saw him in Wardha, they were not impressed. He sat 'Buddha-fashion on a dais, wearing a dirty loin cloth, a shawl and a cheap nickel watch on a white cord suspended from his throat'. Opinions changed when they saw the reverence the Mahatma received: 'People dropped to their knees and many kissed the hem of his shawl.' The students who saw Gandhi compared notes with another group that had gone to meet the Maharaja of Baroda Sayajirao Gaekwad, 'a reformer who had made education compulsory in his province'. 'Gandhi's method was in general to oppose modern civilization while the Maharaja, in his own words, believed in 'keeping up with changes in the world',' Edwin wrote. In the pages of the magazine Floating University, the students recorded other observations and opinions. Bombay was 'in many ways the finest city in the Far East,' wrote James Andrews. 'Somewhat westernized architecturally and civically, it was still essentially Indian. On the streets were all kinds of people wearing all kinds of headgear and clothing.' Florence Stauffer, one of the few women students, wrote blithely: 'We had quite a time about our 'caste'. Fearing that we might do something to lower it, we were considerably exercised. Virginia had read somewhere that no members of the upper caste ever lifted their hands to do anything for themselves, a regime to which we took like ducks take to water.' For all the novelty of the experiment, the Floating University generated considerable bad press. Several newspapers reported on the expulsion of some students for drunken behaviour at the Hotel Imperial in Tokyo. The presence of young women, it was reported, encouraged romances, scandalising many readers. The New York University suspended Lough from all teaching duties citing irregularities. After a legal settlement, Lough moved to Texas, where, as president of the University Travel Association, he continued to arrange educational tours. He died in 1952. The Floating University remained a unique endeavour. When a similar Semester at Sea programme was founded in 1963, on its board was James Price – one of the students of the Floating University.
NBC Sports
13-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Dak Prescott: I want to win a championship for my personal being, my sanity
Dak Prescott is entering his 10th season. He still is looking for his first Super Bowl title. The Cowboys quarterback has a 2-5 postseason record and has never advanced past the divisional round despite being the No. 1 seed in 2016. The franchise won its last championship in 1995. Winning a championship is personal for Prescott. 'I want to win a championship,' Prescott said, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 'The legacy, whatever comes after I finish playing, will take care of itself. I want to win a championship. Be damned if it's just for my legacy or if it's for this team. It's for my personal being, for my sanity. The legacy will take care of itself.' In his nine seasons, Prescott is close to career franchise records for passing yards (2,746 away) and passing touchdowns (35 away). He has become the face of the franchise, and the NFL's highest-paid player. Prescott has done a lot and not enough at the same time. 'It's hard to be reflective,' Prescott said. 'I think you have to, especially with how [his 10 seasons] have been. Some being injured; some getting to knocking on the door and not finishing it. What it does really is just makes you grateful for the opportunity. Every day you get to walk into this building, you're healthy. Every day you get to approach your teammates. You get to approach this game that you love.' Prescott is returning from a torn right hamstring, which ended his 2024 season in Week 9.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Who Killed Amber Hagerman? What We Know About the Still-Unsolved Case That Inspired AMBER Alerts
It's been almost three decades since Amber Hagerman was abducted and killed in Arlington, Texas. On Jan. 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber and her younger brother, Ricky, were riding their bicycles around a parking lot. Ricky decided to return to their grandparents' house, but Amber did not make it back with him. Her body was found four days later near a creek roughly six miles from where she had been abducted, per The New York Times. "Finding Amber's body is a sad moment I'll never forget," Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson previously told PEOPLE. Despite efforts by investigators and her family, the case is still unsolved. In response to Amber's heart-wrenching case, a Texas mom named Diana Simone had the idea to create an emergency system for abducted children, similar to a weather or civil defense alert. After the pitch was picked up by the Child Alert Foundation, AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alerts were created. The system went into development in 1996 and is still used today. "It's a shame my daughter had to be butchered and had to go through what she went through for us to have the AMBER Alert, but I know she would be proud of it," Amber's mother, Donna Williams, told Yahoo News in 2016. On the 25th anniversary of her disappearance, in January 2021, Arlington Police held a news conference in the parking lot where Amber was abducted. They honored the young girl's legacy and assured her family and the public that they were still looking for Amber's killer. 'I miss her voice. I miss her touch. I miss her hugs,' Williams said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 'I remember everything about her. There's nothing I've forgotten about her." Here's everything to know about Amber Hagerman and how her murder led to the creation of AMBER Alerts. Amber Hagerman was born on Nov. 25, 1986, in Arlington, Texas, to Richard Hagerman and Donna Williams (at the time of Amber's disappearance, Williams went by the name Whitson). Williams left Hagerman in 1994, according to WFAA-TV. Amber was 9 years old when she was abducted. Williams described Amber to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2021 as an 'innocent and sweet little girl' who loved being like a 'little mommy' to her younger brother, Ricky. She was a Girl Scout who loved writing, Barbies, the Disney princess Pocahontas and her pink bike. Her third-grade classmates at Barry Elementary in Arlington described her as 'pretty' and 'nice," according to a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) blog post. Months before her abduction, Amber, Ricky and Williams, who at the time was a single mother working toward her GED, were interviewed by WFAA-TV for a special on welfare reform. In the piece, Amber showed off her scrapbook, which included awards for good grades and attendance, and Williams said Amber 'loved school.' "Amber was just a very sweet, innocent child, and that's the memory we got to hold onto as we investigate," Arlington Police Sgt. Grant Gildon told PEOPLE in 2022. "That this is someone who was doing something as innocent as riding a bicycle, and evil found her that day." On Jan. 13, 1996, Amber and her 5-year-old brother, Ricky, took their bicycles to a parking lot in Arlington, Texas. After a few minutes, Ricky decided to go back to their grandparents' home, about two blocks away. Before Amber could join her brother, according to one witness, a man in a black pick-up truck pulled into the parking lot, snatched Amber off her bicycle and took off. The abduction took place in broad daylight, at 3:18 p.m. local time. One month after Amber's murder, Williams visited her daughter's elementary school classmates. A boy asked what time Amber left on her bike, and Williams told him 3:10. 'It just took eight minutes,' she said, according to a 2021 NCMEC blog post. 'So you guys stay close to home, okay?' In 2016, 20 years after his sister's murder, Ricky told reporters that at the time, he 'didn't quite understand what was going on," per The Seattle Times. 'I just knew my sister was taken from us,' he said with tears in his eyes. 'She was my best friend, like a second mother.' A man named Jimmie Kevil was the only witness to come forward after Amber's abduction. He claimed to have seen the abduction from his backyard, telling police that a 1980s or 1990s single-cab black truck had been parked earlier at a nearby laundromat. The assailant allegedly drove up in the truck, kidnapped Amber and traveled away from Highway 360 towards the center of Arlington. 'I saw [Amber] riding up and down,' Kevil told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth in January 2016. 'She was by herself. I saw this black pickup. He pulled up, jumped out and grabbed her. When she screamed, I figured the police ought to know about it, so I called them.' Sgt. Ben Lopez, who was a rookie on the Arlington police force when Amber disappeared, acknowledged at a 2021 press conference that police knew there may have been undocumented residents at the laundromat who were afraid to come forward but 'if there is a witness or witnesses who have that concern, we are not interested at all in pursuing any kind of deportation.' Kevil died in May 2016. Four days after her disappearance, Amber's body was found in a drainage ditch with cuts, including to her throat. Amber's body was spotted by a man behind the Forest Ridge apartment complex, about six miles from the parking lot from which she was taken. Dee Anderson, a spokesperson for the Tarrant County police, said at the time that maintenance workers had been near the creek hours earlier, but Amber's body was not found. It was believed that her body 'moved there during a rainstorm,' according to The New York Times, and that she had been alive for 48 hours after her kidnapping. "We will find the person who did this," Anderson said. "We never want another little girl, another family, to go through what this little girl, this family, has been through." Sgt. Gildon described the area where Amber was found as 'very secluded.' "We do believe you'd have to be somewhat familiar with that area to know where that creek is," he told PEOPLE. "Was there a connection with that location? And was it someone who had a reason for turning back to the center of town? The thought has always been that the easiest way to get out of the area would've been to go to Highway 360." Police believe the suspect was a local male. Officials described him as White or Hispanic, in his 20s or 30s, under 6 ft. and with dark hair. "Based on the direction of travel when they left and then based on her being found in Arlington, being abducted in Arlington and just being in that spot, the question has always been, did somebody have a connection with that area where the abduction was?" Sgt. Gildon told PEOPLE. After Amber's murder, a local Texas mother named Diana Simone kept thinking about how Amber disappeared without a trace. "I said, 'I can't get over this child. There has to be something we can do,' " Simone told PEOPLE. There were weather and civil defense alerts so, "why wouldn't they do it for this?" Simone called a local radio station with an idea for an emergency system. The concept was that when a 911 call was placed, radio stations would immediately interrupt programming to broadcast the alert. Fourteen days after Amber's abduction, Simone wrote a letter to the station requesting that if the alert system got put into place, it should be known as Amber's plan. Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters and local police then teamed up to develop an early warning system, according to the official AMBER Alert website. The system, officially named AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert, began development in 1996. It was first implemented on July 5, 1997, and the first success story came on Nov. 10, 1998, per Nevada's AMBER Alert website. The system, which is used in 'the most serious child-abduction cases,' aims to 'instantly galvanize the community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of a missing child,' according to the NCMEC, which manages the program for the U.S. Department of Justice. The alerts are first issued by law enforcement to broadcasters and state transportation officials. NCMEC is then notified, and they re-distribute the alert to secondary distributors, which include radio, television and road signs. As of 2013, messages are sent to phones through the Wireless Emergency Alerts program (WEA), and alerts are also shared on social media via Facebook, Instagram and X. Today, AMBER Alerts are used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, parts of Indian country, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 45 other countries, according to its website. As of Oct. 31, 2024, they have saved at least 1,221 children in the U.S., according to the NCMEC. Despite how far-reaching and impactful Amber's case has been, it is still unsolved. In the three decades since Amber's abduction, police have received over 7,000 tips. Gildon told PEOPLE that they 'continue to have leads' and several that 'we continue to investigate extensively as possible suspects.' 'A lot of people will refer to Amber's case as ... a cold case,' he said. 'But for the Arlington Police Department, it has never been listed as a cold case because we've never gone 180 days without having some lead come in." Gildon also said he believes the killer is still alive. Police remain hopeful that recent advancements in DNA testing, which have been used on evidence collected in Amber's case, and new tips from the public will help solve the case. "I remain optimistic that this case will be solved," Gildon said. "I do believe there's definitely someone out there who has the answers that we're looking for and can help lead us in the right direction. So, that's why we continue to work on it. Our goal has always remained the same, and that's to catch who did this and be able to prosecute them." Williams told Yahoo News that detectives call 'when they get a hot lead or something, but nothing ever comes of it.' 'How can [the killer] get away with this? I can't comprehend how you can't catch someone like that,' she said. In 2021, 25 years after Amber's murder, Arlington Police held a news conference in the parking lot where Amber was abducted. They honored the young girl's legacy and made it clear that they were still looking for Amber's killer. Williams also spoke to the media, then directly to the abductor: 'Please turn yourself in. Give Amber justice.' Amber's mother, Donna Williams, still lives in Texas and is a child safety advocate. In 2016, she did not own a smartphone and avoided spending time online, but she did hear AMBER alerts when they came through the TV or radio. 'Of course I think of my daughter first,' she told Yahoo News. 'I have to accept that the alerts are always going to be there." Williams has faced additional tragedies since losing her daughter, including the death of her fiancé in a car accident two months after Amber's funeral, her older sister's 1998 death from a seizure disorder and, in 2009, both her husband's death from a heart attack and her father's death from cancer. Amber's brother, Ricky Hagerman, is also still in contact with the police and continues to speak out about his sister. 'Every day she's on my mind,' he told reporters in 2016. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rapper Tay-K Convicted of Murder for Shooting Photographer While Fleeing Separate Murder
Tay-K has been convicted of murder for the second time. The 24-year-old was previously sentenced to 55 years in prison in 2019 in connection to a murder committed during a botched home invasion. Now, he faces an additional five to 99 years in prison after being found guilty for shooting and killing a photographer while fleeing authorities after the initial murder. In 2017, an arrest warrant was issued for Tay-K, born Taymor McIntyre, in Bexar County, Texas. The document alleged that McIntyre was part of a group who picked up Mark Anthony Saldivar, a 23-year-old photographer in San Antonio, for a photoshoot that was supposed to take place at a nearby mall. While in the car, Saldivar is said to have been robbed at gunpoint for his camera equipment and fatally shot following the altercation, per Fort Worth Star-Telegram. More from Rolling Stone Nick Carter Sued by Fourth Woman Alleging Sexual Assault Menendez Brothers Prevail at Key Hearing, Resentencing Bid Will Proceed Soulja Boy Must Pay $4.25 Million for Assault, Sexual Battery of Former Assistant, Jury Finds McIntyre was found guilty of murder, but not guilty of capital murder, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence. When he was previously convicted of murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Ethan Walker in Tarrant County, Texas, a judge also ruled that he would concurrently serve a 30-year prison sentence for the first of three counts of aggravated robbery and 13 years each for the remaining two counts from the same robbery. He was 17 years old at the time, and went viral after releasing the video for his single 'The Race' — partially inspired by a real life event — in June 2017. After cutting off his ankle bracelet, he fled house arrest ahead of a court hearing for his part in the 2016 home invasion which occurred when he was 16. 'It wasn't part of the plan. The plan was robbery. Not killing,' Jeff Kearney, one of McIntyre's defense attorneys, told the jury in 2019. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Yahoo
Texas DoorDash driver stabbed, carjacked at Waffle House after offering to buy man food
After completing his final DoorDash delivery of the day, Jackson Oltmanns stopped at a Waffle House in Burleson around 2 a.m. last Saturday to grab a meal, but things quickly took a turn. When a man experiencing homelessness approached his car window and asked for money, Oltmanns explained he didn't have cash. However, when the man mentioned he was looking for a warm meal, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Oltmanns got out of his car to help, only for the man to attack him. Fort Worth Police Department confirmed they responded to a stabbing incident at the Waffle House on the 200 block of W. Rendon Crowley Road shortly before 3 a.m. According to the police report, the suspect stole Oltmanns' vehicle after the physical altercation. "Unfortunately, this almost cost me my life as he immediately began stabbing me," Oltmanns wrote in a GoFundMe post. "He tried to kill me, stabbing me at least 10 times. Luckily, I was able to defend myself for most of it." In the post, Oltmanns said the worst wound was a stab to his face before the man carjacked him, leaving him behind as he bled out. "I thought I was dead," he wrote in the fundraiser. "There was so much blood, but luckily, I'm still here." The man who attacked him outside was apprehended down the road about 18 miles north in the 2400 block of Meacham Blvd., where police also recovered Otlmanns' vehicle. In a later update, published on April 6, Oltsmann thanked those who contributed to his fundraiser after the tragedy. As of Tuesday, he's completed about 87% of his $2,000 goal, raising more than $1,900 between 44 people. "You all are such an incredible blessing to me and your support and contributions to far beyond what words can express in gratitude," he said. "With that being said truly from the bottom of my heart thank you." He added that he received news that he has a 50/50 chance of ever being able to move his right eyebrow and forehead again "due to a nerve being severed during the attack." The suspect was later identified as 24-year-old Quindarius Cartwright, who was arrested on the charge of aggravated robbery, according to the Fort Worth Police Department. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas man stabbed at Waffle House after offering to buy attacker food
