You Can Still Rock in America

This week's Take Me Back Tuesday from The Music Memoirs:

In honor of Memorial Day in the US, all these questions relate to American artists.

1. List your three favorite American artists, with songs by each.
  Toto - Stranger In Town
  Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son
  Rocket Scientists - Oblivion Days

2. List three songs with the word 'America' or 'American' in them.
  "American Pie" - Don McLean
  "Calling America" - ELO
  "America" - Neil Diamond

3. List three influential American songwriters.
  Lowell Mason - He composed over 1000 hymns, including "Nearer, My God, To Thee"
  Stephen Foster - Also very prolific. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Squirrel Nut Zippers, Camptown Ladies never sang all the doo-dah day.
  Jimmy Buffett - Hey, 20 million parrotheads can't be wrong!

Those Wacky French Folks

On Sunday, French voters rejected by a 55%-45% margin the proposed new constitution for the European Union. Hours later, the EU moved to shelve the constitution, probably for several years.

French Voters Reject First EU Constitution

EU to put new treaty on ice after French No

I found particularly interesting this line from the first story:

• "This is a great victory," said Fabrice Savel, 38, from the working-class suburb of Aubervilliers. He was distributing posters that read: "No to a free-market Europe."

A free-market Europe is apparently a bad thing for French workers. I would not have guessed that, but I suppose it makes sense. After all, look at how well workers are doing in those countries that still have a command economy. You know, for example, China. Cuba. North Korea. Places like that.

And to think that we were worried about the Russians for all those decades.

With this vote, xenophobes among the French people essentially killed the idea of a politically and economically united Europe, at least for the foreseeable future. Is this a bad thing? I don't know. But I saw that the value of the Euro dropped after the vote, and the rest of the continent can't be happy with that.

We've known for a long time that the French don't like us Americans. They don't like our culture, our politics, or (apparently) our economics. But now it seems they don't like their neighbors either. Of course, that's not entirely unexpected, given their history with those neighbors—especially their military history. (One can only take so many humiliating defeats and remain gracious.)

At least we know now that it's not just us anymore. That's a relief.

Living in Better Days

Today was a good day. This is due primarily to the fact that I spent it in the company of a dear friend, who also happens to be a beautiful brunette.

The day started with choir practice before church. She met me in time for Sacrament service, during which the ward choir performed. Then, in Sunday School, I taught a lesson of the "What is our eternal destiny?" variety. I got a great deal of cooperation from the class and a lot of good comments afterward.

From there we went back to my house where we enjoyed a summer-themed lunch of BBQ boneless pork ribs with salad, home fries, and limeade. Then we went to her meetings, where a lot of her ward members—including her bishopric—made comments about the amount of time we seem to be spending together. We came back home from there and enjoyed some multicolored rotini with canned spaghetti sauce and impromptu garlic bread, followed by her homemade brownies. And then we took a little walk around the neighborhood.

Throughout the day, we spent time talking and getting to know one another better. We had the house to ourselves for pretty much the whole day, with one roommate arriving just as I was walking her out to her car. And we're going to spend a little time together tomorrow, too.

Life is good.

Friday's Feast: The Sequel Without Equal

Friday's Feast, 27 May 2005.

Be warned, I'm in a mood today. -Ed.

Appetizer What job would you definitely not want to have?
Side-show freak. Too many memories of high school.

Soup Oprah calls and wants you to appear on her show. What would that day's show be about?
Today's show: People Who Don't Watch Daytime TV and the Idiot Daytime TV Hosts Who Are Obsessed With Them.

Salad Name 3 vegetables that you eat on a regular basis.
1. Corn. I love corn, especially fresh corn on the cob. By the way, is corn actually a vegetable or a grain? I've never figured that one out.
2. Lettuce. I've been trying (off and on) to eat more salads.
3. Potatoes. Mostly of the fried variety, I'm sad to report. But I did have potatoes (along with yam, carrots, and red onions) with the roast I made last weekend. Crock Pots rule.

Main Course If you were commissioned to rename your hometown, what would you call it?
Enigma, Colorado. (Reason: Why does the town even exist? There's nothing there, and it's not on the way to anywhere. It's a mystery.)

Dessert If you had a personal assistant, what kind of tasks would you have them to do?
I'd love to have someone do all the paperwork that I have to do at the end of our weekly (now semi-weekly) training sessions. Actually, I could probably get someone to do most of it right now, but then I'd stress about whether it was done correctly. No, that's not a reflection on the people I work with. Much.

...It's my birthday too, yeah!

Okay, the perceptive reader will note than my actual birthday was last Tuesday. But today is my blogging birthday. Yes, loyal reader(s), it was one year ago that I tried to make a comment on Derek's blog, and in the process of doing so, ended up with a blog of my own.

At the risk of sounding clichéd, what a long, strange year it's been.

As I have mentioned before, I print out my entries at the end of each month and put them into a 3-ring binder, which serves as a sort of journal. I recently took a look back at what I've written over the past year. A lot of it is quizzes, memes, and other such fluff. But there have been some significant posts as well. I've posted jokes, personal observations, rants, raves, and the occasional insight into what's really going on inside my head. I've used this space as therapy on numerous occasions. I've even started an argument or two here. Through it all, you've kept reading, kept making comments, kept offering encouragement.

Thank you.

So, happy blogday to me! Here's to another year. I look forward to sharing it with all of you.

The Empire Strikes Back

This week's Take Me Back Tuesday from The Music Memoirs:

In honour of it being Victoria Day Weekend here in Canada, it's all about the Brits.

1. Name your three favourite British bands and a song from each of them.
  a) Mike + the Mechanics: Another Cup of Coffee (Beggar on a Beach of Gold)
  b) Asia: Free (Aura)
  c) Yes: Love Will Find a Way (Big Generator)

2. Name your three favourite British front men.
  a) Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues) - Nobody in the world has a voice like his. Nobody.
  b) Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) - A solid voice, plus guitar skills that are brilliant without being pretentious.
  c) Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) - Must they all be front 'men'?

3. Name three bands from the original British Invasion in the late 50's early 60's.
  a) The Dave Clark Five
  b) Donovan
  c) And, of course, the Beatles.

Happy Birthday to Friday's Feast!

Friday's Feast, 13 May 2005.

Appetizer Approximately how many hours per day do you spend watching television?
The only time I usually watch TV anymore is in the mornings while I'm getting ready for school; I'll catch some of the news or Sportscenter. So I probably average around an hour a day, or less. Of course, this doesn't count DVDs of TV shows I've borrowed, or the total would be about double that.

Soup Which colors decorate your kitchen?
White walls and cabinets, white tiled countertops with maroon trim, and off-white floor tiles with maroon trim.

Salad Name 2 brand names you buy on a regular basis, and what do you like about them?
 Tia Rosa^TM Flour Tortillas — I love tortillas! I use 'em the way most other people use bread. I buy a pack of 30 pretty much every week.
 Bath and Body Works^TM Soothing Face Conditioner — I like the scent, and it's good for my face after shaving.

Main Course What is your biggest fear?
This may sound strange coming from someone who's six-foot-three (190 cm), but I'm afraid of heights.

Dessert If you could wake up tomorrow and find yourself in another location, where would you want to be?
I believe it's possible to find peace and happiness wherever you may happen to find yourself. But a trip to the mountains wouldn't be bad.

Bonus Birthday Question What's your favorite flavor of birthday cake?
Blueberry cheesecake, dating back to a birthday in my teens when we got hit by a blizzard and had no electricity. But I also got a vanilla pudding cake with strawberry glaze for my birthday this past week, and it was wonderful!

Strange Mathematics

For some reason, the number 37 keeps running through my head today. I've thought about it a little, and it's actually a rather fascinating number. Consider:

• 3 + 7 = 10
  
• | 3 - 7 | = 4
  
• 3 × 7 = 21
  
• 3 ÷ 7 = 0.42857
  
• 7 ÷ 3 = 2.33333
  
• 3⁷ = 2187
  
• 7³ = 343
  
• 37 is a sum of squares: 1² + 6² = 37
  
• 37 is a difference of cubes: 4³ - 3³ = 37
  
• 3! = 6; 7! = 5040; 3! × 7! = 30240; and 37! = 1.37637 × 10⁴³ (roughly)
  
• [ 3 × ( 7 + 3 ) ] + 7 = 37
  
• XXXVII is 37 in Roman numerals.
  
• 100101 is 37 in binary numbers.
  
• 37 is the 12th prime number.
  
• There are 26 letter keys and 11 symbolic keys (i.e., `-=[]\;',./ ) on a standard keyboard, making a total of 37.
  
• Curtis has an electronic keyboard with 37 keys (~3 octaves).
  
• Seattle Seahawks running back Shawn Alexander wears number 37.
  
• So does Rockies pitcher Joe Kennedy.
  
• Rubidium (Rb) has an atomic number of 37.
  
• Normal human body temperature is 37º C.
  

Wierd stuff, huh?

Darth Marr

At one point in Robert Asprin's book Phule's Paradise, one character complains that he "doesn't like" what his employer, the local underworld, is asking him to do. To this, his boss replies, "You're not supposed to like it. If you liked it, we wouldn't have to pay you to do it."

Last week at work was one of those weeks.

Let me preface my account of last week's festivities by saying that I've been reading The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster recently, as has my friend and co-worker, Allen. He told me last Tuesday night that this author's writing style reminded him of me, and that he thought I could (under the right circumstances, I presume) make a pretty good Sith lord. I didn't know whether I should feel flattered, or whether I should just crush his trachea with my thoughts. I decided to let it slide. If he can be turned, he could become a powerful ally.

When I arrived at work on Tuesday, I had no reason to expect anything but a routine shift. We were only running one new job, and that one was very similar to one we'd run a few months ago. We had a couple of new people, but nobody working for the first time that night. And we had temps, but Jack (the quality manager) was acting as Overlord, so I wasn't worried about that.

But there were a couple of issues we had to look out for. We handed out a memo to the interviewers that day reminding them about certain policies that several people seem conveniently to have 'forgotten'. You know, things like taking breaks without signing out, wasting time between calls, taking 10-15 minutes after signing in for the day before starting to take calls, eating on the call floor — things we cover in training, things employees sign off on when accepting employment, and, quite frankly, things anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature ought to know anyway. But people get bored and forgetful, I suppose. There was a little grumbling, especially when we started enforcing these things last night — taking food away, for example. But everything seemed to be operating within normal parameters.

Then the fun really started. Elizabeth, the building's cleaning 'lady', showed up in the front office asking demanding to speak with Jason (the call center director). When I indicated what he was gone, she wanted to know who was in charge. Lucky me. She took me into the men's room where I saw, to my considerable chagrin, that one of the walls had been tagged. Yep, gangster graffiti in the workplace. She proceeded to spend ten minutes telling me what a disgrace it was and how the building was going to Hades in a handbasket and it was all our (my company's) fault. Pointing out that there were/are other businesses that use that restroom was worse than useless; it just got her more fired up. She ended her rant by saying that the owner ("Harry", let's call him) wanted to see me. Now.

So I spent the next fifteen minutes hearing exactly the same thing from Harry. He brought up everything from the graffiti to our employees who smoked too close to the building^a to parking areas^b to overcrowding on the call center floor^c. Basically, he blamed everything that was wrong with his precious building on us.^d Just lovely — twenty-five minutes of my life that I can never get back. By the time I left, he might have felt that I wasn't showing him the proper respect. Well, when someone thinks it's okay to grill me about issues that he already knows I have no control over, it bugs me. And when I try to answer an objection, just to be cut off and then have the subject immediately changed, I get a little irritated. And when things like these happen repeatedly, I tend to lose respect for the idiot individual doing them. So yeah, if he felt a little dissed at the end, it doesn't break my heart.

Harry closed our little lecture meeting by demanding that I have Jason call him tomorrow so that they could set up a meeting "with the whole group".^e When I asked Jason about it the next day, he told me that he had called Harry and left him a couple of messages but had never heard anything back. Figures.

By the end of that experience, I was having a bad day and was ready to make sure that anyone else who irritated me would have a bad day, too. But I took a deep breath and carried on. I had a little conversation with one of our interviewers who is also a musician — a real, honest-to-goodness, actually played with Elvis musician. I commissioned him to write me a song. I gave him the title^f and let him work from there. When I talked to him on Friday, he already had three verses done and was ready to talk about residuals. I laughed and told him I just want to be there when his blues band premieres it.

That was pretty much the end of the difficulties on Tuesday. If there were any other problems, I seem to have repressed them.

Wednesday, as usual, was training day. I had a class of 14 scheduled, of which 10 showed up. The class went just fine, and all the contestants passed the skills test at the end. But it took too long. Even with a large group, I should be able to finish up at least half an hour faster than I currently seem able to. I'll have to look at things more clearly and see if I'm spending too much time on things that they can learn later on.

Friday brought another surprise. One of our long-time problem children employees had apparently been caught making long distance calls on the company phone. To England. Repeatedly. The main office had faxed over a copy of the phone bill, and it showed more than three dozen different calls, all to the same number. So part of that night's festivities involved checking her time cards for the days in question to see if she had even been on break when she'd made the calls. For the most part, the answer was no. Needless to say, she has been terminated, and all expenses, including the excess break time, will be deducted from her last paycheck.^g

There is one bright spot in all of this, though. The offending interviewer is part of a group that always sits together, a group we fondly refer to as 'Zone H'.^h If we've been living right, some or all of these people will either leave with her or decide to resign in protest. We can dream, can't we?

Fortunately, time passes, and things tend even out. That is the way of the Force, I suppose. With any luck, there won't be quite so many things pushing me toward the Dark Side this week.


--
^aEveryone else who works in that building is always at least 25 feet from any door when they smoke, apparently.

^bOur parking area is out in the sticks, at the far end of the property. And there is no handicapped parking, so some of our older, less mobile employees park closer to the building. Not that we ought to have people with disabilities working there anyway, really, because there is no elevator in the building. I swear, when I finally brush the dust of that place from my shoes, I'm going to be sorely tempted to call the ADA office and give them his name.

^cHe asked me how many interviewers we had there. I told him, and then he went on this little tangent about what the capacity of our area 'should be' and how he had tried to help us 'solve the problem' by renting us more space. He kept bringing up this topic, usually finishing by saying, "If there's a fire in there, it's going to be on you, not me." I'm touched by his concern.

^dExcept for the fact than in two full summers, going on three, his people have never got the air conditioning working properly. It must have slipped his mind.

^eHarry also alternated between saying that he wanted to solve the problem 'in house' and making thinly veiled threats about calling the owner of our company. I don't know WTH he wanted. Maybe he thought he could intimidate me. Heh. Bring it on, buddy. I'm training to teach high schoolers.

^fI suggested that we call it The 'People at Work Had Better Start Acting Smarter or Somebody's Gonna Lose a Spleen' Blues.

^gWe have had interviewers do a lot of dumb things, but this is as dumb as anything I've ever seen here. Did she think that nobody was ever going to look at the phone bill?

^hThink 'Preparation H' — as in, 'these people are a bunch of pains in our collective backsides'.

Shameless Plug

Hey, just a word of advice for the curious. Stop fooling around with Netscape and Internet Exploder. Switch to Firefox. It's faster, it's more secure, and it's not nearly such a resource hog. You'll be glad you switched.

Now back to your regularly scheduled surfing.

Friday's Feast 2½: The Smell of Blog

Friday's Feast, 13 May 2005.

Appetizer Whose intelligence do you find intimidating?
I had a math professor at BYU who was a certifiable genius. Unfortunately, his method of teaching involved writing equations and derivations on the board almost faster than he could erase what was already there. This was in a huge class—hey, what's better than taking Calculus with two hundred of your closest friends, right?—and I think everyone but a dozen or so people sitting front and center was intimidated, including me.

Soup Name something you've done that surprised yourself.
Getting married was something of a surprise to me; getting divorced was even more so.

Salad List 3 people whom you have only "met" online, but consider good friends.
The difficulty here is that I keep meeting people in real life that I've met online: Tiffany, for example, and also Cindy. There is one person I've known only online for several years, though, and her name is also Cindy. She's been going through a lot of problems recently, and I hope she's doing all right.

Main Course Where is the dirtiest place you've ever been?
I remember a certain house in the backwoods of West Virginia where they kept the doors open and had chickens and other livestock coming in and going out at will. We made it a point to meet with that family outside.

Dessert What is the best example of "perfection" that you can think of?
Spending a day in the company of a good friend is the closest thing to perfection that I know.

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

Mundane Activities

With no classes to go to for the next week and no work this evening, today has been pretty much mine to do with as I pleased. I did manage to accomplish a few things today.

I started the day by sleeping in. I made it all the way until 7:15 or so. Pretty rare, for me. Even after a late night, my body won't usually let me sleep past 6:40 or so. Fortunate, I suppose, considering the 8:35 class I had last semester. I was a little stiff when I woke up, so I spent about 20 minutes stretching. I should do that more often.

I spent a couple of hours on campus this morning getting ready for my last two semesters. (Wow, that sounded great!) I met with my advisor to check my progress and see where I stand with regard to graduation. He checked my DARS report for additional classes I need to take (or retake). Everything seems to be in order. I have twenty-one hours of classes remaining, which I'll split over Summer and Fall semesters. That will give me all the credits I need and fulfill the various requirements for the university and the department.

My advisor also printed a financial aid verification letter for me for Fall semester, as well as an application for graduation. I took those over to the Student Services building (no, that's not entirely an oxymoron) and turned them in to the respective departments. Information to the effect that I was graduating at the end of Spring Semester (i.e., last week) had somehow made it into the system by mistake, and that was holding up my financial aid for Summer. So I did a little interdepartmental reconnaissance and got the issue resolved. I'm sure the fine folks at Financial Aid will need more documentation before all is said and done — they always do. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I hit the bookstore to look for the book I'll need for this semester's business class, Business Finance and Investments. Unfortunately, I found it. It's a new edition of the book, meaning that this is the first semester they're using it, meaning that there are no used ones available. All of this means that the $90 price they listed for used copies is there just to mock me. It looks like I'm going to have to pony up the full $121.35 (plus tax) for a new one. Alas, Amazon appears to be no help in this situation. The difference in price is not enough to justify waiting up to two weeks to get it. Grumbles and other such comments.

While fooling around at Amazon, I also put my Biochemistry book up for sale. I'll feel no sorrow letting that thing go. I don't sell all of my books. I keep the ones that either are interesting or that I think will be useful later on. I kept my GenChem book, one of my Physics books, several of my Education books, and the like. And I've decided not to sell my Calculus book. But I do sell most of the books I don't see myself desperately needing as a high school teacher. Organic chemistry, for example. I sold that sucker the day I finished the final exam. And my Physical Chemistry book will share the same fate.

I also made myself a couple of CDs today. They are as listed:

Old-School Prog Hits
Yes: Roundabout
Emerson Lake and Palmer: Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression Part 2^*
Genesis: I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Jethro Tull: Aqualung
Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
Emerson Lake and Palmer: Lucky Man
King Crimson: The Court of the Crimson King
Yes: Starship Trooper
Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb
Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick
The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin

ProgPop
Asia: Heat of the Moment
Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
The Moody Blues: Your Wildest Dreams
Kansas: Dust in the Wind
Rush: Tom Sawyer
Genesis: I Can't Dance
Styx: Mr. Roboto
Queen: Another One Bites the Dust
Kansas: Carry On Wayward Son
Yes: Love Will Find a Way
Genesis: Abacab
Asia: Only Time Will Tell
Styx: Babe
The Moody Blues: I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)

While my computer was creating these CDs, I watched an episode of Babylon 5 called "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father". Scary stuff. Psi Corps are a nasty bunch, and Bester is the nastiest of the lot. I don't care if the guy in question was involved in the death of a Psi Cop, you can't just space someone because he's a mundane. Good thing we don't have telepaths in real life. Or do we....?

Okay, that's it for now. A couple of phone calls, a little reading, and off to bed. Be safe tonight, all.

--
^*As Curtis pointed out to me, "Nobody knows it by title but that is the one that starts:
  Welcome back my friends
  to the show that never ends
  we're so glad you could attend
  come inside, come inside."

Matthew 5:7½

Yesterday I gave an impromptu lesson in Sunday School — again. Okay, the story: a few weeks ago I was sitting in my usual Sunday School spot, that is to say, the front row. (There's always room there.) And I found myself sitting next to one of the teachers. It was not his week to teach, though, and we couldn't see the person whose week it was. The Sunday School president (Russ) is my home teaching companion, and he was looking in my/our direction. And I had the distinct impression that I ought to take a moment to review the lesson again. Sure enough, the regularly scheduled teacher didn't show, and we ended up (tag-)team teaching the lesson. It went well, and I was asked to substitute for the following week, but with a few days' notice.

Anyway, I gained something of a reputation in the ward after that experience. And of course Russ always knew he could call on me to fill in. He did so last Sunday, asking me to preside over the class as he was out with the flu. No big deal.

During our Sacrament Service, I had the distinct impression that I needed to review the week's Sunday School lesson. I normally do this anyway, but this time I felt the need to. So I did. As we were all leaving the meeting, one of the men in the Sunday School presidency asked if I had seen Russ, and I hadn't. So he said, "Go ahead and get things started again this week."

So I waited for the teacher — any of the three teachers, actually — to show up. As the time came to start class arrived, none of them had. So I stood up, got things started, and asked, "Does anyone know who's supposed to teach this class today?" There were mumblings, giggles, whispers, and a few bemused looks, but no, nobody knew who was supposed to be teaching that day's lesson. So I said, "Well, I guess I am, then."

And I did. I had a lot of help from the class, with many comments and shared experiences. And I got to slip in one of those apocryphal J. Golden Kimball stories, and that kept everyone interested.

I am convinced that when scholars in the employ of King James were collecting and translating the Bible, they left the following out of the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

Amen.

Haiku Day

Morning clouds subside.
Rainbow to the south and west
Welcomes the new day.

-Michael, 5/7/05

Junk Science: Noun or Verb?

Okay, so people struggle with science. I can understand that. I’m majoring in it, and I struggle with it. It’s just a part of the subject, I suppose. But when textbooks are more concerned with pushing a political agenda than in educating students about scientific essentials, that’s just wrong.

We’ve heard a lot of complaints recently about the mingling of science and religion in schools. Articles on intelligent design, evolution, and other such issues are readily found in many reputable publications and on many reliable news sites. And while I believe in the concept of intelligent design, I don’t think it belongs in public schools. (Not under current laws, anyway.)

But there is another side to the issue. It would appear that those on the right are not the only ones trying to mold science in the image of their own gods.

In an article called A Textbook Case of Junk Science, I read that a 2001 study found “500 pages of scientific error in 12 middle-school textbooks used by 85 percent of the students in the country”. The author, Pamela Winnick, points out several specific errors, some mundane, some mind-boggling. How do such errors make it into textbooks? She quotes John Hubisz, a physics professor at North Carolina State University:

"Thousands of teachers are saddled with error-filled physical science textbooks. Political correctness is often more important than scientific accuracy. Middle-school text publishers now employ more people to censor books than they do to check facts." (Emphasis added.)

This leads to an interesting question: What are science teachers really supposed to teach?

Science teachers should teach science. They should teach scientific skills such as how to make calculations, experimental procedures, and the Scientific Method. They should teach what scientists know about the universe around us, and they should teach about how we have come to know these things. They should teach how scientific theories are formed, tested, and occasionally rejected. All of these things require that science teachers teach something of the history of science.

The fact is that much of what we know of science was, if not actually discovered, then at least recorded and preserved by white males. The history of science is full of white males simply because, due to the socioeconomic conditions of most of the last five centuries, those were the people most often in positions to make and record such discoveries.

It's a matter of emphasis. Much effort is made to promote the accomplishments of non-white-male scientists. (I can’t think of another description that won’t sound condescending or nonsensical.) That is good. But if Einstein is moved aside in favor of someone whose main scientific accomplishment is being a person of color, then I think we’re no longer really teaching science.

Are white males better at science than women, people of color, and so forth? Absolutely not. I know of many people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and genders who are much better scientists than I am. I respect them for this. And my respect for them is not diminished by my respect for those who came before us, even though they were mostly white males.

The author concludes her article with this statement:

“Members of the scientific elite are occasionally heard blaming religion for the sorry state of science education. But it isn't priests, rabbis, or mullahs who write the textbooks that misrepresent evolution, condescend to disadvantaged groups, misstate key concepts of physics, show the equator running through the United States, and come close to excising white males from the history of science.”

Admittedly, the tone of the article reveals that Ms. Winnick has a political axe to grind with this article. But that’s precisely the problem. People with political agendas get so caught up in talking about the how science should be taught that those who actually teach science don’t seem to have much of a voice any more.

Enough.

Here’s a radical idea: How about if we teach students science – actual scientific facts and the most widely-accepted theories of the day – in Science classes, and let them learn politics in their Social Studies classes? Isn’t that what we pay Social Studies teachers for?

--
This article was brought to my attention by the good people at Fark.com. Keep up the good work, folks!

Friday's Feast Part Deux

Friday's Feast, 6 May 2005.

Appetizer Name a store or restaurant you no longer visit because of a bad experience you had there.
Benihana. It's where we used to celebrate our anniversary. So I guess it's not because of a bad experience I had there, it's because of good experiences I can no longer have there.

Soup If you could own any building in existence, which one would you want?
I don't need anything fancy. I'd settle for a home that was my own, with room enough to keep a Labrador retriever.

Salad What's your favorite commercial these days?
I love Geico's "Tiny House" commercial. Anything that mocks reality TV is okay in my book.

Main Course When was the last time you felt guilty about spending money, and what was it you purchased?
I felt a little guilty buying groceries last week, because I bought them at the local Wal-Mart Supercenter. Yes, I know that Wal-Mart is the Great Satan. I'm sorry.

Dessert Friday's Feast is going to be having it's First Birthday in 2 weeks. What should we do to celebrate?
Let some of your regulars suggest the questions for the week!

Reflections on General Conference

It's been four weeks now since General Conference. In today's Testimony meeting, several people made reference to Elder David A. Bednar's talk in the concluding session. Then, in Priesthood meeting, our instructor taught from the Priesthood session talks given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and President Gordon B. Hinckley.

All of this got me thinking about the notes I took while watching Conference, and I read through them again. Here are some of the things — one per talk, for the most part — that stick out in my mind, now that nearly a month has passed.

• We must remain humble despite our successes
  
• The scriptures have answers to things we need to know
  
• It is a privilege and a responsibility to have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
  
• Teaching children requires both desire and discipline
  
• Dedicated faith, hope, and love qualify us to enter God's presence
  
• The world is a perilous place; we cannot afford to be complacent
  
• Something as small as an unkind word can have lifelong, even eternal consequences
  
• Teach the Gospel with conviction and invite the Holy Ghost to confirm that teaching
  
• If you have been wronged, be ready to forgive
  
• Sacrifice is never convenient for the natural man
  
• The universal power of the Spirit transcends time and space
  
• Returning God's love through sacrifice and service
  
• Standing more often in holy places
  
• Practicing self-discipline and avoiding the low road through the world's evils
  
• Jesus' life was not free from trials or suffering, but it was free from fear
  
• The Lord often touches us through the hands of a friend
  
• Begin by doing the simple things
  
• The Book of Mormon is a tangible witness of both Jesus Christ and of His prophet, Joseph Smith
  
• A sincere desire to know the truth changes us
  
• The test of what is evil is not its degree, but its effect
  
• Our life is a work in progress in the hands of God
  
• Love is not just a word or a declaration, but a commandment
  
• Trials are not necessarily punishments
  
• The power of testimony as given by those of great wisdom and advanced years
  
• Faithfulness, obedience, and humility invite the Lord's tender mercies
  
• "It means God knows who I am."
  
• God does not keep a list of favorites, to which we can only hope our names will one day be added
  
• All mankind is our neighbor
  
• We work to assist others without worrying about who gets the credit
  

As I said, these are just a few of the ideas that resonated the most with me. I'm sure I'll come up with more as I re-read these talks over the next few months. And then it'll be time for Conference again.