This is one of those times where I really like to imagine the future looking back on us. Will there be this confusion that there wasn’t a real death toll available? Will there be a lively debate over who counts as a hurricane death and who doesn’t? Are we going to have a wave of Puerto Rico trutherism? Or will history just encyst around a received truth like so many other things?

Teens Are Protesting In-Class Presentations

For many middle- and high-school students, giving an in-class presentation was a rite of passage. Teachers would call up students, one by one, to present their work in front of the class and, though it was often nerve-racking, many people claim it helped turn them into more confident public speakers.

“Coming from somebody with severe anxiety, having somebody force me to do a public presentation was the best idea to happen in my life,” one woman recently tweeted. According to a recent survey by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, oral communication is one of the most sought-after skills in the workplace, with over 90 percent of hiring managers saying it’s important. Some educators also credit in-class presentations with building essential leadership skills and increasing students’ confidence and understanding of material.

But in the past few years, students have started calling out in-class presentations as discriminatory to those with anxiety, demanding that teachers offer alternative options. This week, a tweet posted by a 15-year-old high-school student declaring “Stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to” garnered more than 130,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes. A similar sentiment tweeted in January also racked up thousands of likes and retweets. And teachers are listening.

As a smartass, smartmouth, loudmouth and all-around disruptive student, and would have had the excuse of anxiety to get out of doing a presentation in front of the class… but I might have faked it if I could have gotten out of it. But at the same time, I don’t get how something making you “uncomfortable” is a way to get out of doing things. All of school was uncomfortable, seemingly designed by sadists specifically to be so. Maybe instead investigate this crippling anxiety that these students are feeling and treat it? Nah. Let’s create an intricate series of exceptions and carve-outs and set-asides for teachers to juggle for every individual student. That’ll work out fine, I’m sure.

Norm Macdonald finally gets it right in the apology for his apology

Once again, the third time appears to be the charm when it comes to just saying some words about a controversial topic without making it sound like something everyone else at Thanksgiving dinner would just silently, awkwardly cringe at without wanting to acknowledge.

Norm Macdonald has had the kind of week that makes publicists find a back-alley doctor to supply them with a triple prescription of Xanax. First, it was some jarringly tone-deaf statements about how the victims of sexual harassment and racism don’t have it as bad as the comics who had to publicly account for their appalling behavior—statements that got him booted from a Tonight Show appearance. Next, he made an apology for those comments that got him in trouble all over again, because he chose to use people with Down Syndrome as an example of what it means to have no empathy. And while in between there were some other not-so-great takes that seem well-intentioned but still really missed the mark—in part because he thought apologies were a good time for more outdated jokes about gender—Macdonald seems to have finally just realized a simple and sincere apology is the best route at the moment.

The protracted auto-da-fé of Norm McDonald might finally be over. But he better watch his step. The Internet of Rage never forgives. The Internet of Rage never forgets. Squirrel!

Beluga whales adopt lost narwhal in St. Lawrence River

An unusual visitor has been hanging out in the St. Lawrence River for the past three years: A narwhal, more than 1,000 kilometres south of its usual range.

But the lone narwhal is not alone — it appears he has been adopted by a band of belugas.

The narwhal — thought to be a juvenile male because of its half-metre-long tusk — was filmed in July playing among a pod of young belugas, thought to be mostly or all males.

The video was taken by the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM), a non-profit group dedicated to whale research, conservation and education based in Tadoussac, Que.

“It behaves like it was one of the boys,” said Robert Michaud, the group’s president and scientific director

Aww. So adorable.

No, my black, dead heart! Do not dare to love
The lonely narwal. Back in your cold cage!
One beat, two beats, three–a rush of warm blood.
Save me, Alien Sex Fiend! Save your true son!