News of the day

[oloriel]

joyful_molly, you'll never guess what I read in our paper this morning!

A short article about the eternal fight for the eternal light of Näfels, that's what. XD LJ KNEW IT FIRST!

(For those who missed it: Apparently, over 650 years back, a Swiss farmer was involved in the death of another Swiss dude. To make up for it, he promised the local church (ST. HILARIUS. OF ALL NAMES.) to donate walnut oil from his trees to keep their eternal light running forever. His heirs did the same. And then everyone who ever lived on his grounds, except at some point the contract was changed to "electricity bill" instead of "walnut oil" because, after all, modern times. Now the latest owner of those lands refused to pay, and even though various groups offered to pay because of traditions, the church refused those offers and dragged the land-owner to court. Where the judge said "Dude, that's the coldest of cold cases, no, he doesn't have to pay, now shut up and pay your lawyers". Oh happy Switzerland.)

There was also a remarkably pointless article about how researchers in Colorado found out that if teachers correct tests not with red ink but with blue or green, students will automatically think more highly of those teachers, not just concerning their grading habits but also other aspects of their personality. Up to this point, it's just informative, but then cometh the conclusion: Accordingly, teachers would do well to switch to blue or green ink if they want their students to like them.
I'm not certain whether there's actually a rule about this, but it's certainly a very strong custom that teachers grade stuff in red. Unless they're also headmaster of their school, in which case they may use green. Blue is right out because blue and black is what students use and teachers need to use a contrasting colour. Congratulations - your advice just reveals your lack of reflection.
(Now, this concerns German school customs. I'm sure that over in Colorado, these findings can be applied usefully. But it was a German newspaper article, and the advice appeared to be directed at German teachers, who probably collectively rolled their eyes this morning and went VERY FUNNY, HA HA. And then took out their red pens and went looking for spelling errors out of pure spite.)