I am becoming increasingly down on public schools. I think they are failing. Steve Olson talks about How the Public School System Crushes Souls.
Category: Health
Women Need to Understand Internet Porn
The Bathroom Door Rule explains that men look at porn. "If a man has an internet connection, he looks at internet porn. " In their article, "What every woman should know about internet porn," they explain why you might find certain references to bizarre websites on his computer.
This is a simple factof life but if you see something unsettling maybe you should talk to him about it before you make wild assumptions or accusations. Don’t just assume your loved one is a chubby chasing pedophile with an Asian fetish, talk to him. If you see something uncharacteristic of him, confront him on it… [Source]
An online friend of mine commented last night, "my wife was asking me why my porn was 8 months or more old. I told her it had just lost the thrill." He said she replied, "You’re just geting old." So, for my friend, I present a new thrill! The Horny Manatee and its story.
In a line Mr. O’Brien insists was ad-libbed, he mentioned that the voyeur … was watching www.hornymanatee.com. There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, which concluded at 6:30 p.m., no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it.
In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.
[Source]
PC Purge – PC World writer goes 20 days no computers
I often threaten to turn off the cable, all the computers, and lock away the video games for a week or a month. David J. Lake of PC World went 20 days without a computer at his editor’s request. 20 days was not long enough to draw any strong conclusions but the experience was pleasant enough that he may do it again. I like that by day 5 his child is outside playing instead inside on video games.
Instead of playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and cruising skateboarding-magazine sites for video clips, he actually skateboards and reads. [Source]
Homeschooling seems like a better idea
For reasons like suspending a 4 year old for sexual harassment, er, hugging (btw, that story pushed our little E TN news webpage onto Reddit.com). The child’s hugging is appropriate for continued emotional development.
Emotional Development
Most children aged four to five will:
- Still rely on caregivers, while no longer needing or wanting as much physical contact with caregivers as they received in infancy and as toddlers
- Continue to express emotions physically and to seek hugs and kisses
- Socialize with peers, begin to develop relationships, and learn to recognize some peers as friends and others as people they don’t like
- Have more opportunities to interact with peers, either through school or recreational activities, and will play with other children
[Source]
Today I get the pleasure of having a meeting at Noah’s school. I requested a meeting with one teacher and I ended up with a meeting with all his teacher’s and the vice-principal. This kind of ridiculousness makes me regret not homeschooling Noah this year.
Update: The meeting ended up being 5 women and me. The teacher and vice-principal were only interested in rhetoric and bureaucracy taking exactly the defensive posture I tried to get everyone to put aside. Btw, the meeting was called because at the beginning of the year my son lost a $9 book that my wife offered to replace and it was never replaced so while the rest of the class had books they could write in, my son had to do all his work on a loose leaf paper using a borrowed workbook. I found out about this last week. Absurd statements rolled from the primary teacher’s mouth such as "from the meeting with your wife I gathered the only reason your son is in school is to be a safety." She is a hateful person and I have less respect for her after my meeting than I did before.
This meeting also reinforced my belief that we made a mistake not homeschooling Noah for the fifth grade. One approach some friends used with their children was to home school only in the fifth grade. This gave the child some one-on-one time with the parent at a non-critical year. For instance, to do the one year in the sixth grade would potentially harm the child’s social opportunities through middle school. I think Noah would have learned more this year and had a better time at home. A home schooled child can have plenty of time for social interaction through community activities/sports, home school social networks, and home schooled group classes (that’s right, homeschooling does not imply a child locked away in a closet).
Molly does not have cancer
Molly had to go to the pet ER and vet while Noah and I camped in the Smokies. We just heard yesterday that she is ok! The vet feared cancer but it turned out to be an inverted papilloma (that’s a great link!) I am very relieved!
Picture of United States Population Density
Time Magazine has put together a picture showing US population density. 80% of the US live in metropolitian areas. Notice the great emptiness in Nevada. Can you say, "nuclear test site?" I knew you could.
In other charts, we have the cancer survival rates. Basically lists a bunch of cancers and shows the percentage of people that have survived 5, 10, 15 and 20 years with the diagnosis.
Now if we could create a chart that shows population density, cancer survival rates by region, and incidents of cancer by region, I think I could decide where to move.
Self-esteem – don’t look to the ads
We should show this to our children, repeatedly.
TIA
Cathy feels that within 12 months I will have a life altering event.
They can occur days, weeks or even months before a major stroke. In about half the cases, the stroke occurs within one year of the TIA. [Source]
What’s a TIA?
A TIA is a “warning stroke” or “mini-stroke” that produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage. [Source]
And the symptoms:
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body (see the last point with the target reference – that was sudden!)
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding (Sarah)
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes (see)
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination (June 19, 2007 actually)
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause (Click, Kneed and death)
Guess I better play a littler harder this next year.
Quiet Down Class – Don’t Make Me Shoot My Gun!
Ah! Our reactive society thinks throwing guns at the teachers is going to make our schools safer. Ok. Maybe it will. At what cost? Our future is in the schools now. I am already disturbed by the overwhelming influence that the schools have on the upbringing of our children. I mean, for the bulk of their day we place the development of a human being – morals, ethics, beliefs, integrity, etc – into the hands of burnt out strangers or naive youth. What message are we communicating to the students when suddenly every adult in the school has a sidearm? Either a) we don’t trust you or b) you can’t trust the world. Regardless, we are bringing up our children to not trust and to believe that it is better to unquestionably close ourselves off (ie. lose liberties) in the name of safety. When we are pinching pennies in our retirement homes, what decisions will our youth be making for us as our political leaders?
I am not saying that arming teachers is wrong. Maybe it is necessary. But make it a responsive decision as opposed to a reactive decision. Respond by weighing pros and cons. You know, our airlines would be safer if we instituted strip searches and body cavity searches on ever passenger then sent them naked with their sore orafices to their cold seats. But that is not going to happen is it?
Today’s Irony – Let’s Burn Fahrenheit 451
A Houston parent wants Ray Bradbury’s 1953 classic "Fahrenheit 451
"It’s just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." [Source]
Uh, hello?! Don’t you have to read a book to pass judgement upon it? These are the same people that are making it illegal for you to buy sex toys. His rationale for the reconsideration of curriculum:
He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God’s name in vain. He said the book’s material goes against their religions beliefs. [Source]
Incase you have not read it or have forgotten, Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. Firemen no longer fight fires but burn books.
"Fahrenheit 451" is a science fiction piece that poses a warning to society about the preservation and passing on of knowledge as well as asks the question about whether the government should do the thinking for the people… Other themes include conformity vs. individuality, freedom of speech and the consequences of losing it, the importance of remembering and understanding history and technology as help to humans and as hindrances to humans… [Source]
Coincidentally, we just passed banned book week which is celebrated the last week of September of every year.
Knoxville Juggler’s Club
The Knoxville Juggler’s Club meets the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Tuesdays of every month at the downtime YMCA. Enjoy these pictures of some club members. All are welcome. If you don’t know how to juggle, you will after visiting!
Doctors Without Borders
Good stuff from Rocketboom today. If you don’t watch the video, at least visit the Doctors Without Borders website. There is no hardship or challenge that I face which can compare to the issues Doctors Without Borders takes to hand.
Freeclimbing 3000 feet
I love rock climbing. Gym climbing and real rock are two entirely different experiences. Dan, Jan, and Jill took me under their wings and gave me good lessons. I met Lou Whittaker when he was in his early to mid-seventies and I have an autographed copy of his bookHe was more alive than some people will ever be. He died on Mount Rainer and that is how he would have wanted it. (I thought I read that he died on Rainer a couple of years ago but I can find no obituary or any information to substantiate that therefore I am going to assume he is still alive.)
Lou’s philosophy is simple: "When it comes to dying," he says, "I want to know what it is like to have really lived." [Source]
Dean Potter has a video out demonstrating a solo, freeclimb The Nose of El Capitan at 3000 feet. I think Lou Whittaker would disagree with this type of climbing.
"…Remember, there are old climbers and bold climbers, but no old, bold climbers…" [Source]
Dan Osman (seen in the video below) was a speed climber and controlled freefaller who died November 23, 1998 when a last minute change to plans caused undue stress on his rigging which broke and sent him plummetting to the ground below. Read more here.
There is also an 11 minute video tribute to Dan Osman [Update: Video removed due to copyright claim by Eric Perlman Productions. You’d think YouTube or "we don’t understand marketing" productions would at least provide a link to where the video could be viewed or purchased.]. Speed climbing and Parkour share a lot of similarities. I can certainly relate to the thrill!
Bumpy hands
Ah! The first bump shows up on my left hand. My right hand showed minor damage yesteday. Not bad so far considering I ripped down both poison ivy and poison oak with my bare hands.
Uninsured is scary!
Of working-age U.S. residents who sought individual health coverage in the last three years, 89% were rejected for medical reasons or felt that the available plans were unaffordable[Source]
The problem is deeper than just cost. Quality of services is impacted when you don’t have insurance. When you say "cash pay" at a doctor’s office they sneer at you, make you wait longer, then let the interns experiment and get their experience on you while the insured go straight to doctors with less wait. Being uninsured isn’t just a financial problem, it is in iteself a health problem. The stigma of being uninsured is daunting despite 42.6 million American people (10million being children) being uninsured [Source – US Census Bureau] and those figures are 1998-99.
