Saturday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Maori.

Today's question is:
According to the King James Version, of what material was Noah's Ark constructed?

No Strength Of Conviction

If you're going to boycott someplace (say, California for passing Prop 8, or Arizona for passing SB 1070), then do so. You look like a wuss if you just say you're going to boycott, then don't--kind of like the Baldwin who said he'd move to London if President Bush were reelected in 2004, then didn't.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday granted itself an exemption to the city’s boycott of Arizona to keep a red light photo enforcement program operating. The program generates about $3.6 million in annual ticket revenue for the city. The day before, Oakland voted to approve a $1 million contract with a multinational advertising company with corporate offices in Phoenix.

San Jose, which has several contracts with Arizona companies cited potential economic harm in stopping short of a full boycott, voting instead for an official denunciation of SB 1070. The Arizona law allows police officers to question anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant, and makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally...

Kyser notes that a Los Angeles Police Department plan to send officers to Arizona for special terrorism training "was canceled due to the boycott,” but other actions have gone under the radar.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power awarded a contract for electric vehicle charging stations to a company in Arizona, Kyser says, “but nobody caught that"...

Others have gone scrambling to parse legal definitions – such as the difference between “corporate offices” and “corporate headquarters” – to rationalize which companies are subject to the intent of the boycott.

Learning Math By Rap

LOS ANGELES – The class of eighth graders at a Los Angeles middle school tap their rulers and nod their heads to the rhythm of the rap video projected on a screen. It’s not Snoop Dogg or Jay-Z.

It’s their math teacher, LaMar Queen, using rhyme to help them memorize seemingly complicated algebra and in the process improve their grades.

“It gets stuck in your head,” says Cindy Martinez, a 14-year-old whose math grade went from a C-average to a B. link

If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid.

Stem Cells To Help Soldiers

Those of us who have concerns with the use of embryonic stem cells view the situation as akin to one in law--the prosecution shouldn't benefit from evidence that's wrongly gained.

Not all stem cell research is bad in this view, just that which uses embryonic stem cells--which is why I cheer every time I read about about new progress using non-embryonic stem cells. Progress like this:

The US Army has granted UC Davis professor Kent Leach $100,000 for further study of an innovative new medical treatment poised to help injured combatants.

The proposed technique will regrow damaged tissue and bones using stem cells extracted from the patient's own fat.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/01/2863336/uc-davis-professor-given-grant.html#ixzz0sZgcnDrm

As the Instapundit would say, "faster, please."

Friday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Althing.

Today's question is:
What are the indigenous people of New Zealand called?

Thursday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
The Las Vegas 51s (after Area 51) are the farm team for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Today's question is:
What is the Anglicized name of the Icelandic parliament?

Kids and Condoms

(Originally posted 6/24/10, now bumped and updated.)

I've been painfully consistent on this point--schools have no business concerning themselves with the off-campus (or non-school-function) activities of students. Those activities are rightly the responsibility of parents. If some parents make choices that "the school" deems inappropriate, such is freedom.

This school district, though, is spitting in the face of freedom, saying in effect, We'll do whatever we want and the parents be damned:

Students in Provincetown — from elementary school to high school — will be able to get free condoms at school under a recently approved policy that takes effect this fall. The rule also requires school officials to keep student requests secret, and ignore parents’ objections.

Student sexual activity, as long as it's taking place outside of school, is not the school's concern. Besides, is it too much to ask that students go to the store and buy condoms?

Mike at EIA pretty much nails it:

Here’s what Michele Couture, chairwoman of the town’s Board of Selectmen, had to say about it:

“I don’t know, you don’t want to take away a parent’s right to decide what’s right for their child. But it’s unrealistic to think that a parent saying no to condoms means the child’s going to say no to sex. They’re still going to have sex; they’re just not going to have a condom.”

This doesn’t have to cause such a huge fight. If Ms. Couture is convinced of what the kids are going to do, and is so certain of it that she will overrule their parents’ decisions, then she and the district should be perfectly willing to take the next logical step.

Adopt the kids.

Don't want to do that? Then let the parents raise their children as they see fit. Ms. Couture and her ilk can raise their children as they see fit.

Update, 6/30/10: Oh, what a Solomonic and magnanimous backtrack. Not.

The superintendent of a Provincetown, Mass., school district is apologizing to parents for what she calls a misunderstanding over a condom availability policy.

In an e-mailed letter sent out on Tuesday, Superintendent Beth Singer said that the district will clarify that elementary school-age students won't be able to get a condom if they request one from the school nurse.

Again I ask: why does the school need to give out condoms at all? Are they not available in the local grocery/drug stores? It's freakin' Provincetown.

Pledge Not Allowed

(Originally posted 6/29/10, now bumped and updated)

When Sean Harrington entered his freshman year at Arlington High School, he noticed something peculiar: There were no American flags in the classrooms, and no one recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

So Harrington enlisted the aid of his fellow students, and now, three years later, they have succeeded in getting flags installed in the classrooms. But the pledge still will not be recited.

The Arlington, Mass., school committee has rejected the 17-year-old's request to allow students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because some educators are concerned that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite it, according to a report in the Arlington Patch... (boldface mine--Darren)

"If we can't find one teacher who is willing to say the pledge, then the system we have is cracked," he told FOX News Radio, noting that a number of teachers signed his petition. link

That the pledge is voluntary was decided by the Supreme Court during World War II. That a school refuses to allow it to be said--Harrington is correct, the system is cracked.

Update, 6/30/10: Oh, what a Solomonic and magnanimous compromise. Not.

Student Sean Harrington appears to have won his fight to bring the Pledge of Allegiance back into his Massachusetts high school -- except the principal's proposed solution leaves the daily honor to the nation's flag literally hanging in the hall.

Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins -- but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped.

Wednesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Scud clouds.

Today's question is:
What is the name of the minor league baseball team from Las Vegas, and with which major league team is it affiliated?

Is This A Bug, Or A Feature, Of Ubiquitous Technology In Education?

When you're done conducting your online class, you need to ensure the video feed is off before you go surfing for porn.

So, does ubiquitous technology require you to be significantly more careful (and worried) when seeking out your porn, or is it a good thing that it's so easy to get caught doing this?

Responsibility

The administration's stimulus program has failed. Growth is slow and unemployment remains high. The president, his friends and advisers talk endlessly about the circumstances they inherited as a way of avoiding responsibility for the 18 months for which they are responsible. link

Lefties also conveniently forget that Democrats have run both houses of Congress since 2006.

Now I've never been one to lay "responsibility" or "fault" for natural or cyclical crises at the fault of the president. The president doesn't have a panel of buttons that he can push to make the economy improve, gas prices go down, etc. How I judge our governmental leaders is their response to crises. Do they help, do they hinder, or do they prolong? On that scale, the president does not score well. At all.

But they want new stimulus measures—which is convincing evidence that they too recognize that the earlier measures failed.

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result? Hm. He may not be insane (although some of his ideas are), but he's certainly not the pragmatist that his fellow-travelers on the left try to make him out to be. He's the very definition of a partisan ideologue.

Sacramento Today

My son and I will be taking a little trip starting next week. Unlike his dear ole dad, son is not much into taking pictures. I think that someday he'll regret not having pictures of his childhood (besides those that dad took), but such arguments fall on deaf teenage ears.

Next week, though, we're going to a pretty exciting place. I got a new pocket camera and gave my son my old one. He doesn't seem as averse to taking pictures on this upcoming trip, but to make sure, today we went downtown so we could "practice" using the camera as well as framing pictures.

I took a couple as well. It was in the low 90s while we were there, and as you can see, the sky couldn't get much bluer.

Here's a little life on the edge of the Sacramento River:

click on the pictures to enlarge

And as I said, the sky couldn't get much bluer:

Tuesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Jim Croce.

(Post updated 6/30/2010 to add the final clause to the question below)

Today's question is:
What type of detached cloud is often irregular or wispy in appearance, and found below cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds, and whose name was popularized in 1990-1991?

The Rich Aren't Taxed Enough

The numbers don't lie. Only people do, when they try to spin the numbers and come up with the subject line.

Monday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Jeremiah.

Today's question is:
Who wrote and performed the 1973 hit song Bad, Bad Leroy Brown?

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question, the last in Political Geography Week, is:
Six states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia) and two territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Several islands are considered dependent areas.

Today's question is:
Prior to becoming president, Barack Obama worshiped for 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ, led by Reverend Wright. What is Reverend Wright's first name?

The Happy Songs CD

In this post I solicited suggested songs for a cd I want to make. What I had in mind was music that would make ideal background music for playing frisbee at the beach, and wow, did I get some great suggestions! Tentatively, here are the the ones I'm going with:

Shiny Happy People--REM
Steal My Sunshine--Len
Hey, Soul Sister--Train
I Got A Feeling--Black Eyed Peas
These Are Days--10,000 Maniacs
Mmm Bop--Hanson
The Loco-Motion--Little Eva
Here Comes The Sun--The Beatles
Walking On Sunshine--Katrina & The Waves
Club at the End of the Street--Elton John
Werewolves of London--Warren Zevon
A Little Less Conversation--Elvis vs. JXL
Noypi--Bamboo
You Might Think--The Cars
Kodachrome--Simon and Garfunkel
Say Hey (I Love You)--Michael Franti and Spearhead
Linus & Lucy--David Benoit

There were several suggested that I hadn't heard before and really like but just didn't think they were right for the cd/playlist I'm creating--California by Phantom Planet being one--but I'm getting the music anyway :-)

Thanks to all who offered ideas.

Too Much Government

Many of our friends on the American Left like to point to Europe as the gold standard in government. They point out that if nothing else, at least the Europeans get "good" government (however they define it).

I have to ask, though: what possible good comes from this silly EU rule?

Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members.

The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g. Or that a bag of white rolls has 322g inside instead of half a dozen. The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed.

Government without limits can and will do stupid things--and eventually it will do scary things. Limited government is a universally good idea based on knowing human psychology.

Update: Here's an example from much closer to home, because it is home:

California would become the first state to ban grocery, liquor and drug stores from providing free paper or plastic bags under legislation pushed by Democrats and supported by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I've said it before, I'm old enough to remember when plastic replaced paper because paper was "killing trees"--so plastic was the environmental choice!

Do you really want a government that legislates down to this level?

Saturday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Shanghai.

Today's question, the last in Political Geography Week, is:
The Commonwealth of Australia is made up of how many states and territories?

Guantanamo Bay

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/us/politics/26gitmo.html

“There is a lot of inertia” against closing the prison, “and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that “the odds are that it will still be open” by the next presidential inauguration.

I'm sure someone here will correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the president make a big production of ensuring his first official act as president was signing an ordering closing Guantanamo Bay?

As Glenn Reynolds often reminds, does anyone remember that fierce moral urgency of change back in November '08 and January '09?

This guy can't even close a military base, and he's the Commander in Chief. I wish it weren't so; I'd prefer to have a stronger president, if only for the safety of the country. But it's abundantly clear--this president is incompetent. And that makes him dangerous.