No, not that kind of skeleton. The other kind. Like the image above, see?

Bwogline: Sioux tribes and the South Dakota governor are in a dispute over Sioux checkpoints set up on roads entering Sioux land. The governor insists that the checkpoints are illegal, citing laws that state that tribes are required to get state authorization before restricting travel into the reservations. The Sioux argue that as their healthcare facilities are not equipped to handle an outbreak, the checkpoints are the only way they can assure the safety of the people living on their land. The conflict is another test of the sovereignty of the Sioux reservations, and the South Dakota governor threatens to take the tribes to federal court if the checkpoints are not dismantled. (BBC)

Study Tip: Don’t spend hours studying the same thing! I find that if I have a couple of big exams/papers to be working on, it helps to switch from one class’ material to another after about an hour or so. It helps liven up the monotony of studying and puts your mind in a different gear, especially if they’re in completely different fields (like coding versus French poetry, in my case).

Music of the Day: I’ve been listening to Lucy Dacus’ Historian during reading week, and it’s one of those albums that I listened to and immediately knew I would love. The album culminates in a seven-minute epic, “Pillar of Truth”, whose slow crescendo is one of the more satisfying things I’ve heard in a while.

Procrastination Tip: Stare at your bookshelf and think of ways to rearrange it. Why do people color-code bookshelves? When was the last time you read that book? Why does the bookshelf look like it’s kind of crooked? Look, it’s your old copy of War and Peace—should you reread War and Peace? No, you definitely shouldn’t, you have studying to do, and it’s War and Peace, who on Earth wants to read it once, let alone twice… Okay, but what if you reread it anyway?

Overseen/overheard: Children in my neighborhood practicing to be future Olympians in skeleton, except instead of a specialized sled and a frozen track, they’re just barrelling down the road lying head-first on a skateboard. I have so many questions. Their parents just let them do this? Do those kids even know what skeleton is? Why do know what skeleton is? Don’t I have work to do?

Image of an actually qualified and trained skeleton rider via Wikimedia Commons