Cat Tracks: November 29

Trending Up:

Chris Brown’s appearances with Rihanna: Chris Brown is still on the radar, somehow. We’re not sure why we’re still talking about this guy, but here we are.

Brown has made headlines for really, really dumb things, like a Twitter war with a comedian. And for not-so dumb things, like a shirtless photo of himself tweeted by former (and possibly current) girlfriend Rihanna. Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 for assaulting Rihanna, but the pair’s increasingly public appearances together suggest Brown’s assault is old news.

For the millions of people still interested, it sends a pretty sad message about relationship violence — certainly one too complicated for 140 characters.

Campus pride: Universities are trending up among Americans, who said they’re proud of colleges in the U.S., according to a national poll released Monday by Northeastern University.

On the other hand, they are critical of the direction higher education is moving in. To preserve its role as a global leader, American higher education needs more innovation, said 83 percent of respondents.

The survey results also reflected concerns about rising tuition costs, as 86 percent said paying for college was a significant obstacle to earning a degree. We just hope the Arizona Board of Regents pays attention when it comes time to set tuition.

Trending Down:

Legal statuses: That Facebook hoax, finally. Facebook users who don’t know how the Internet works began re-posting a chain letter in their statuses in response to “new Facebook guidelines” to declare that content they post belongs to them.

The letter stated, with slight variations, “For commercial use of the above, my written consent is needed at all times.”

Facebook issued a statement to a number of news outlets debunking the letter and saying “the people who use Facebook own all of the content and information they post on Facebook” in an email to the Huffington Post.

Similar chain letters have gone viral and proven false before too — just more proof that people really shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet.

Sexual Assault: Sexual assault on campus is hopefully on the decline, given recent revelations at yet another college.

After Amherst College’s student newspaper published an op-ed by a former student detailing her experiences after she was attacked, Swarthmore College’s newspaper published a report describing similar experiences of assault victims.

Swarthmore, in response, promised a review of policies related to sexual assault and promised to continue preventive efforts.

Given the recent revelations, it is clear that the conversation about how to prevent assault is still ongoing, and policies related to it should be examined on a regular basis.