Science: The Large Hadron Collider

in RAP! Talk about making physics cool:



Science is sexy, science is fun. Rock your science out to Higgs bosons and Higgs fields, matter and antimatter!

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Happy Darwin Day!

Today is the birthday of Charles Darwin, the scientist who gave us the Theory of Evolution.

Image from Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

Darwin developed his theory as a result of his voyages on the HMS Beagle (pictured above), during the course of which he observed on various islands the pressures of natural selection and how they modified creatures that had originally shared a single ancestor. Thanks to this great man of science, we now have some understanding of our own place in the vast array of living beings on Gaia our mother planet.

Today is also the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, an odd-looking human being who surpassed the limitations of being dirt-poor and unhandsome to become the President of the United States and lead the nation through some of its toughest times. In memory of which, we extend our good wishes to his fellow-Illinoisian and our current President, Barack Obama, who himself transcended similar difficulties and is now leading us at a time when we desperately need his excellent leadership.

As for Valentine's Day, bugger that commercially-created holiday, we say. Grab your sweetie right now and give them a royal rogering all weekend long. Celebrate science! The science of smelling just right to your partner, the science of airborne pheromones that make you want to do the horizontal samba.

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Assault on Free Speech, Part I

I read an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, granola capital of the world, home of mellowness) about how public school teachers were forbidden to wear their Obama buttons in school. Even scarier, they were not allowed to comment for the article, which begins with this:

Teachers at Soquel High School have agreed not to wear "Educators for Obama" buttons in the classroom after a parent complained that educators were attempting to politically influence his daughter and other students.

John Hadley, an importer of South African goods, called the school to complain Friday after his 16-year daughter Teegan returned home and reported that she had seen several teachers wearing the buttons.

Hadley said his family supports Sen. Barack Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain, but that he is opposed to teachers wearing political paraphernalia regardless of its nature.

Censorship is alive and well in the public schools. Usually, it's the students who are told they can't wear t-shirts supporting causes. Now, a school district is telling its teachers not to wear their Obama buttons. What is everybody scared of? Where are the kittens supposed to learn to discuss and respect differing opinions if the schools are giving them the message that ideas are toxic?

No wonder adults have no credibililty with kids. When you tell them not to have unprotected sex or take drugs, will they see that as a well-reasoned position, or yet another example of adult timidity? I know what I thought when I was a kitten and Mama told me not to jump the fence. Mama thought the same thing about adults back when she was a kitten, and so did Daddy. Kids shouldn't be sheltered, especially in high school. It doesn't work, and they just develop contempt for you. Not sheltering kids is different from forcing them to conform to your political views, though you must enforce standards of civilized behavior in classroom discussion.

The McCain kid in the article who complained about the Obama teachers said, "they shouldn't be stating their opinion in front of students who can't even vote." Shouldn't someone tell the kid that you can discuss things, like drinking or going to war, that you're not old enough to do? And why shouldn't the student also state her opinion? I know kids form cliques and pressure one another to conform, ostracizing racial, religious or political minorities. It is worthwhile to face this behavior head on by discussing divisive topics in the classroom under the guidance of teachers, rather than pretending it doesn't exist. Nor is there any benefit to sanitizing the teachers into insipidity, so that they appear to have no involvement in, and no authority on, real life.

Dig this quote from the article:

If teachers had been wearing buttons supporting McCain, [the student] said she would still think it was wrong but acknowledged, 'I probably wouldn't have told my dad about it.'

That child sure learned a lesson in democracy — shut down those who do not agree with you. She could have learned to discuss her opinions without losing her temper, but that apparently was not an option.

I feel strongly that kids are not being prepared for adult life in school, and the culture has changed such that the preparation they get at home is spotty. They may become adults not knowing how to intelligently eat, handle finances, have love affairs, live a clean and well-ordered life. We clearly see — after the last 8 years — that America is not turning out voters educated in democracy. Wasn't that of of the original rationales for a public school system — to educate voters? Where did that idea go?

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Activism: Sisters Doin' It For Themselves

and their community. Bambi Gaddist is a determined AIDS activist in her community of Columbia, in South Carolina. For the past 20 years, she's been working on the AIDS issue, running a mobile testing center. Founder of the South Carolina AIDS/HIV, Gaddist has brought free confidential HIV testing to people throughout South Carolina.

Gaddist says the face of AIDS has changed since the mid-1980s, when she helped run one of the first grass-roots AIDS awareness campaigns in Columbia, South Carolina, while pursuing her doctorate in public health.

"In the '80s, HIV was seen as a gay, white male disease," Gaddist said. "Here in South Carolina, it became an African-American disease."

In 2006, African-Americans accounted for 76 percent of the new AIDS cases diagnosed in South Carolina, and the state ranked ninth in the nation for those living with the disease, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

What a woman! She plans to keep fighting against the web of ignorance and shame that helps the spread of AIDS. Says Gaddist:

"When it's my time, I want my obituary to say that I have made a difference for someone and that I saved somebody's life."

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The Terminator Terminates Education

Here in California, we are faced with a severe budget deficit. Our governor, The Terminator, has proposed $4.8 billion in cuts to education resources alone. Yes, that's BILLION. Can you imagine ... I mean ... really stop for a moment and imagine what that is going to do to our schools? There's a good op ed piece in today's Oakland Tribune about this whole thing ... however, I cannot find it online. It's written by several school superintendents in the Bay Area.

Here's an excerpt:

Even in the best of times our school districts are woefully under funded. Education Week magazine recently gave the state a D+ grade for its school funding efforts. California currently spends $2,000 less per student than the national average and ranks 46th in the country in school funding -- behind such less-prosperous states as Louisiana and Mississippi. When the Governor asks California schools to make further cuts, it's like asking a poor family to stop eating to make ends meet; hardly a realistic solution.

WHY IS EDUCATION A LOWER PRIORITY THAN FIGHTING IN IRAQ?

And from other sources I've read, it seems like the Governor is not prioritizing his budget -- he's cutting everything all across the budget "to be fair." Shouldn't some things like education be given greater consideration? Isn't educating our children our top priority? Okay, if I can't win you over with moral arguments, what about a practical dollars and cents appeal to baby boomers: Don't we want these children to grow up educated so they can get good jobs, pay lots of taxes, and support us via Medicare and Social Security in our old age?

I'm really disgusted. I mean why should the Governor really care about taking $4.8 BILLION away from our schools? It's all abstract to him. Do his kids go to regular public schools?

Once again it's a case of a rich politician being completely out of touch with what regular folks go through.

And, let me say something to our state legislators: Come on, be creative! Propose something else ... some other solution so that we can save education here in the wonderful state of California!!! If you have a solution, we the people don't know about it. Speak up!! Do your jobs!!!

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