http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Mon, 9 Jan 2006 11:13:10 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/01/09/111310.php bhwLast week, a fellow Blogcritic, Mark Sahm, alerted the Blogcritics community that WordPress 2.0 (WP) had been released. I investigated the details and learned that 2.0 includes an improved import tool for Movable Type (MT) posts.I've wanted to migrate from MT for a while, and the improved import feature was just what I'd been waiting for. While it was technically possible to import MT entries into WP 1.5, the process required file hacking and other work-arounds that I just wasn't willing to try.I've now successfully migrated my MT posts into a new WP 2.0 installation, but the process was not without a few hiccups, one of which required me to download and install a patch for the MT import file (mt.php).Here's an overview of what you need to do for an easy migration from MT to WP 2.0.Download and Install WordPress You can download WP 2.0 from the WP site. I had my web host install WP for me. I've actually installed older versions of WP before just to explore a little, but this time I wanted someone on the geek side to do it. I actually plan to use the software this time around, so I thought it worth $15 to have an expert set things up correctly.Download and Install the MT Import Patch The released version of WP 2.0 has a couple of bugs in the MT Import tool. Unfortunately, I didn't learn about two of the bugs until after I imported my MT entries, and then I found myself starting over.The first noteworthy bug: The MT Import tool appears to be importing your comments with each entry, but it actually doesn't. All your posts will show up in WP, but none of them will have a single comment with them.The second noteworthy bug: WP creates a new user for each text file you import, even if that user name already exists in WP. So, for example, after installing WP, I created the bhw user name. When importing my files, I selected bhw as the name to associate those posts with. But WP still created a new bhw user name for imported each file, so that I ended up with 9 users called bhw. Nine. With the exact same name. Oddly enough, WP assigned all the imported posts to the very first bhw user name, as I'd requested during the import. All the other bhw's had no posts assigned to them.Luckily, a helpful soul, Rami Kayyali, has created a patch for the MT Import tool and made it available on the WP support forums. It fixes both of those bugs. Just replace the existing mt.php file on your server with the patch version and then import your MT files. Works like a charm.Export Your MT Entries Export your MT blog entries using the MT export feature. It's simple to do and it creates a text file of each entry and all its comments and pings.Chop Up Your MT Entries The first time I tried to import my MT blog entries, WP ran out of memory. So I had to break my file up and try again, as the message on the Import page indicated. I have no idea how big a file WP can handle, so I created a bunch of text files with fewer than 5000 lines of text each, just to be safe. I ended up with 8 text files. My blog is pretty small compared to some: if you've been blogging for a long time and have a very active comments community, you might have to break your MT entries into a TON of smaller files.Import Your MT Files In WP 2.0, the Import feature is accessible from the main toolbar. Simply click Import, select Movable Type, and then associate the imported entries with the appropriate WP user.That's It! As soon as the importing is finished, you're all set to go. As long as you have the patch, the process is as simple as pie.But if you don't have the patch, as I didn't, then the process becomes a little more complicated. I can't see why WP 2.1 hasn't been released yet with that patch included. At the very least, WP should put something on its download page alerting users to the bug and the patch, so that others don't run into my problems. Surely the WP folks must want to help MT defectors like me.So after I first imported my set of 8 text files, I was horrified to see that no comments had been imported. I searched the WP support forums, and very luckily found the patch. The patch worked, but it came with a few annoyances, none of which have anything to do with the patch but with WP: In order to re-import my MT entries, I had to delete all the posts I'd just imported and start over. And I had to delete all the extra bhw user names. As a new WP user, I had no idea where to do either of those things. The Manage page doesn't seem to let you delete posts in batches, just one at a time. I finally saw that I could delete the posts and the user names on the same User administration page. You can delete all posts associated with a user name by deleting that user from the system. But what if I'd wanted to delete a lot of posts assigned to a specific user but not all of them or the user him/herself? I still have no idea how to manage large numbers of posts in WP. Could it be that MT has the upper hand in this area? In retrospect, it would be great (new feature request!) if the MT Import tool would give you the option of overwriting previously imported posts, so that you wouldn't have to delete the posts to import a "newer" version of them. Right now, the tool is smart enough not to import the same post twice. Well, that's very handy if you want to avoid accidentally overwriting posts you've already imported. But what if you DO want to overwrite them? You can't, as far as I can tell. In order to re-import the MT posts, I had to recreate the bhw user name. Unfortunately, the numbering for the user names and posts picked up where it left off the last time. So on a completely new installation of WP, I was up to user ID 11 and my first post started with #300-something. I hated that. It was just so messy. So I asked my web host to blow away my installation and database and do a fresh install. There goes another $15. But it was worth it for the fresh start. As for WP itself, I don't have much to say about it right now. I like that you can preview a post while writing it. In MT you have to launch a separate tab or window to see a preview, but WP displays your post at the bottom of the Write Post page.And here's a problem I just noticed: some funkiness with the new WYSIWYG rich text editor. I wouldn't rule out user error, but sometimes WP is putting in a div class=post tag when I hit Enter to make a paragraph break. Then it shows my text with new paragraphs starting on a new line but with no blank line between them. But sometimes it doesn't do that and the text displays properly. I can't figure out a pattern for when DIV tags are being produced and when they're not (and if they belong at every new paragraph, why they're not giving me a blank line between paragraphs, like the p tag does). So I've just now turned the rich text editor feature off and removed all the extra DIV tags. Things look okay now, but it would be nice to be able to use the rich text editor.So I'm not sure how my WP experiment will work out, but I do know that I wouldn't even have bothered if not for the improved MT Import tool. And I wouldn't have succeeded without the patch.Also posted at the WP-powered, but not yet (and perhaps never to be) redesigned, Bitch Has *Word*. Sci/Tech42038@blogcritics.org Mon, 9 Jan 2006 11:13:10 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/11/11/134000.php bhwWell, isn't this special? Pat Robertson, self-proclaimed mouthpiece of God and hurricane interventionist, has warned residents of Dover, Pennsylvania, that God may be coming after them and that they shouldn't bother to ask for His help anytime soon.What have these Godless heathens of damnable Dover done? On election day, they removed the entire eight-member public school committee and replaced them with people who won't confuse science with religion. The ousted board had "ordered schools to read students a short statement in biology classes informing them that the theory of evolution is not established fact and that gaps exist in it." Science teachers also had to mention that intelligent design is an alternate theory to evolution and point students to a book for more information.The town, with the help of the ACLU, has taken the school board to court. The Pennsylvania supreme court will rule on it in the next few weeks. Apparently, Dover voters weren't in the mood to wait for the decision.Of course, to the ever moderate Robertson, this vote indicates that Dover rejects God entirely, thus earning them his and His wrath: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club.""And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there," he said. Now, I haven't read any stories about churches being shut down in Dover as a result of the recent election. I haven't seen any headlines proclaiming that residents don't want God in their town or in their lives.In fact, the new school board plans to include intelligent design in the Dover schools' curricula. So God isn't even been removed from the schools, never mind the town itself. The new board just wants to move him out of the science wing and down the hall to a comparative religion classroom, where he belongs.I'm not surprised Robertson is misrepresenting the Dover vote. But at least he's honest about one thing: he admits that intelligent design is about God. Most intelligent design proponents play possum and pretend that it's not, just so they can sneak it into science classrooms without violating the prohibition on preaching religion in public schools. They proclaim, curiously, that the designer of the universe and life itself could be, you know, anybody -- it doesn't have to be God.All I can say is THANK GOD the Dover residents didn't have anything to do with gays in this vote. Because, frankly, gay people have caused the biggest tragedies on our soil in the past five years. Hurricane Katrina? That's what Louisiana gets for ... um ... the choice of Ellen Degeneres as a TV awards show host, even though they didn't actually choose her, she's just from New Orleans. Terrorist attacks in NYC and Washington? Also Ellen Degeneres' fault. "This is the second time in a row that God has invoked a disaster shortly before lesbian Ellen Degeneres hosted the Emmy Awards," Robertson explained to his approximately one million viewers. "America is waiting for her to apologize for the death and destruction that her sexual deviance has brought onto this great nation."Can you imagine? One woman's orgasms -- so powerful, they can destroy a city and fly planes into buildings. So if some tragedy befalls the good people of Dover, Pennsylvania, at least they can suffer God's wrath knowing that it would have been a lot worse if Ellen Degeneres had "come" to their town.[Also posted at Bitch Has *Word*.] Sci/Tech39400@blogcritics.org Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:40:00 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/18/192248.php bhwI feel lucky that I work only part-time. I enjoy the best of two worlds: I maintain a professional career and I spend some weekday time with my children. My daughter, who is in first grade, doesn't have to go to an after-school program, and my son attends a pre-K class three days per week and spends the other two weekdays at home.This past Tuesday, my son and I enjoyed a great day together. The weather was blissfully warm, dry, and breezy, which always puts me in a good mood. [Translation: I'm usually not in a good mood from November through April. You might want to keep that in mind in a few weeks.] The boy and I sauntered through the day doing just what he wanted: making a volcano out of an empty apple juice bottle, vinegar, baking soda, and dish soap; playing with his little friend from across the street; playing board games, including a rousing set of junior Yahtzee in which he pummeled me time and again; swinging ["will you push me on da swings?"]; and watching a couple of kid shows.We had no place to be, no schedule to keep, and no chores to do, except the ones I ignored. No hustle. No bustle. No stress. Incidental learning happened with everything we did -- no planning required. And I don't even remember when we ate lunch or what we had. The meal just uneventfully melded into our day.[It was one of those days that makes you think, "I love my kids. This is fun -- and easy. We should have more!" Then you look in the mirror and see the gray hairs springing out of your head and the crows' feet bracketing your eyes, and you realize that, if anything, you need to double up on the birth control.]No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye Our Tuesday exemplifies how children, especially very young ones, should spend all their days: relaxed and following their whims.But most American children spend at least part of their week in child care outside of their homes. As good as many of these centers are -- and I've been beyond satisfied with our provider since my daughter started there as a 12-week-old -- they can't offer the kind of laid-back, do-just-what-I-want day my son had on Tuesday.Even though some kids never go to day care, almost all kids eventually attend public school, where any hope of learning and playing in a relaxed way is scheduled out of them. Schools chunk each day into 30 or 40-minute segments -- just long enough to get fully engaged in something before stopping on a dime and starting something completely unrelated. Start-stop. Start-stop. Start-stop. Even if you're not done or are really interested in what you're doing, it's time to stop and do something else -- because the schedule says so. And the schedule rules the day.Of course, lunch and recess aren't allotted 30-40 minutes each on that schedule. Today's kids are lucky to get a single 30-minute period split between lunch and recess. But many don't even get that. In some Massachusetts schools, for example, lunch has been reduced to an absurd 15 minutes [link requires registration]. That's the entire lunch period, even for the kids who buy lunch or for those whose teachers don't get them to the cafeteria on time.Nadine Binkley, the superintendent of Peabody, MA schools, claims that her district's 20-minute lunches are just right. She rationalizes, "If we had to keep kids in lunch for an extra 10 minutes, for some kids, just sitting that long is really difficult."Really? Then how does Ms. Binkley explain that these same kids are expected to sit still and QUIETLY for longer stretches than that throughout the day? If they can't handle 30 minutes in the cafeteria --where they're free to talk and wiggle around -- how in the world do they manage 30 minutes of math every day?Lunch periods are being shortened because they're the only thing left for schools to cut. In many schools across the country, recess has been eliminated altogether. In others, it's been reduced to 10 minutes immediately following lunch. Children inhale their lunches and then hurry outside to play for a few minutes before hustling back to the classroom for more of that sitting still they're supposedly incapable of.And how much would you like to bet that when you take away free play and exercise, kids actually have a harder time concentrating and sitting still in the classroom?If It's Not on the Test, Leave It Behind Massachusetts State Representative Joyce A. Spiliotis is sponsoring a bill that would require schools to give at least 30 minutes for lunch. How sad that a reasonable time for lunch needs to be enacted into law, but obviously the adults running our schools can't be trusted to work out a solution on their own.Some blame the shorter lunch periods on teacher contracts and state laws governing instructional time. In Massachusetts, districts must offer 900 hours of instructional time per year. Of course, teacher contracts, which are negotiated on a district-by-district basis, also limit the hours per day that teachers work on-site. So school superintendents claim that they're caught between a rock and a hard place: inflexible state laws and equally inflexible teacher contracts.But that doesn't explain why school lunch periods in a town near me were reduced this year when teacher contracts and state laws haven't changed. School starts and ends at the same time this year as it did last year. The same number of instructional hours are required this year as last year. And the teacher's contract has the same requirements and restrictions as last year. So why has the lunch period been shortened this year?One word: MCAS, the Massachusetts standardized test that's used in the No Child Left Behind evaluations. Scores in these schools were not up to someone's expectations last year, so the district is frantically looking for a magic bullet to raise those scores.First, the district scrapped the math curriculum, which had been in place for only one year. Student math scores not high enough in 2003? Get a new math curriculum for 2004. Math scores still not high enough in 2004? Get another new math curriculum for 2005. Oh, and cut five minutes from lunch -- that'll show those lazy 7 and 8-year-olds that they need to work harder.Not convinced NCLB and standardized testing have influenced lunch scheduling? Well, the severely reduced lunch times is a recent, national phenomenon, much like the NCLB act itself:In just two years, the average lunch period in elementary schools across the nation has decreased from about 30 minutes to 23.7 minutes, according to the School Nutrition Association in Alexandria, Va. The association recommends 26 minutes for lunch and another four minutes to get to the cafeteria.Now that standardized tests results are the sole barometer of school quality, schools are abandoning everything that isn't on those tests, to the point that meals and exercise are virtually expendable. Thanks to NCLB and similar state-level test-score fetishes, schools consider nutritional health, physical health, and social development unworthy educational subjects.We'll see what the future holds for children who are so rushed and pressured through their days. My guess is that the results -- and I'm not talking about standardized test results -- won't be pretty. Culture36423@blogcritics.org Sun, 18 Sep 2005 19:22:48 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/28/082728.php bhwWhen ideas fail, words come in very handy. --Johann Wolfgang von GoetheA few days ago, my husband tried three times to post a comment to my blog. Each time, his comment was rejected because it looked like spam. The poor man was completely perplexed. What had he done to appear as if he were spamming my site? He had no idea, but like the little train that could, he just kept typing away and eventually wrote a comment that was not rejected by my spam filter.The first three times, he had apparently used a dirty word. But not any old dirty word, a BHW dirty word.My spam filter, MT-Blacklist, works by screening comments for text strings, URLs, and regexes [fancy geek-speak, I think, for a method of matching sequences of characters or words] that are on a blacklist. I can set each blacklist entry to either block the comment or force it into a queue where I have to approve or reject it. MT-Blacklist also forces moderation for comments posted to old entries and for suspicious-looking comments, such as those containing a bunch of URLs.Make no mistake, MT-Blacklist is a censorship tool. In addition to banning URLs, I have had to ban specific words from the comments to keep my site from being overtaken by spammers. I hate banning any words at all. But if I don't use MT-Blacklist, I might as well shut the whole site down because it would become nothing more than a huge gambling-prescription-drug-mortgage-refinancing-dick-stiffening advertisement.Oddly and pleasantly enough, however, George Carlin's seven dirty words are still legal. So go ahead and comment to your heart's content about shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Say 'em loud and say 'em proud, motherfuckers.But don't you dare write about casino, credit, equity, online, poker, or Texas. Those are the new dirty words, the vilest of the vile. Put just one of them in a comment on my blog, and feel the wrath of the BHW anti-spamhole rejection message, beeotch.To recap, fuck is in, Texas is out.Has anyone noticed what's missing from my list, by the way? I have not one word specifically targeting the killer app of the Web: porn. I think the blacklist regexes are catching most of the porn spam, so I haven't had to add any individual sex words to the list. Thank goodness.Trust me, I wouldn't use a blacklist if I didn't have to. I thought I might wax philosophic tonight about the slippery slope of Big Brotherhood. But who wants to hear that crap? Besides, spammers suck. They basically spray paint their ads on my website, some of them hundreds of times. So they need to be stopped.Look at these numbers. Since May 3, MT-Blacklist has blocked 11,419 spam comments on BHW. And it has sent another 730 to the moderation queue, all but about ten of them spam. [A big hello to my five remaining readers.]2200 blocked comments contained URLs with variations on "texas-holdem." Apparently, spammers think people like to gamble.And how many comments have my dirty words stopped? A lot. Keep in mind that I manually added these six words to the blacklist this month, and none of them has been on the list longer than three weeks. Casino: 405 blocked Credit: 140 blocked Equity: 100 blocked Online: 739 blocked a week ago; today, 3035 blocked Poker: 566 blocked Texas: 125 blockedClearly, online is a good catch-all spam term. Spamholes use it in just about every spammable product out there: gambling, pharmaceuticals, sex, loans/credit, whatever.So when you comment, think euphemistically if you need to write about online-texas-poker-casino-equity-credit. Consider it as a creative vocabulary building exercise, if nothing else.But feel free to cuss like a sailor.--------------Also posted at Bitch Has *Word*. Sci/Tech33264@blogcritics.org Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:27:28 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/19/105224.php bhwFor the past seven years, I've been driving a stereotypical suburban mother's car: a minivan. We bought it when I was pregnant with our first child, having decided that my ten-year-old Dodge Daytona -- my very first car -- with its two long, heavy doors, impossible-to-use "passive restraint" seat belts, and low frame that had you practically sitting on the pavement, would be to our disadvantage once my belly popped, not to mention once the baby arrived.A few years ago, after being trapped in the soul-sucking minivan for a few years, I decided that my next car would be a convertible. I knew I'd be over 40 years old when I got it, but that was part of my rationale: drive the minivan for as many years as possible so that when it's time for the next car, the kids will be older and we won't need quite so much soccer mom space in the back.My husband basically shoved reality back in my face. "They don't make convertible minvans," he said, pointing out that my next car will still need to be a minivan. I tried to fight back with, "I know," meaning that I wasn't planning to get a minivan. But my husband and I both knew better: I'm probably stuck in a minivan for at least on more go-round at the car dealer.Aside from wanting to drive something just slightly more cool, I also want to drive something slightly more "green." So we have since concluded that I'll be driving my current minivan at least until some hybrid minivans come on the market. If I'm going to be stuck in another mom-mobile for ten more years, I've told myself, at least I'll be driving a car that will help decrease emissions and our country's dependence upon foreign oil. I've been living with that happy assumption for about two years now.Today, I learned that my assumption is wrong. According to a story in the New York Times, larger hybrid cars aren't significantly more fuel efficient than their non-hybrid counterparts. Instead, they're significantly more powerful. The hybrid engine is being used in larger and higher end cars to provide more power when accelerating, to "get more work out of a gallon of gasoline," rather than to cut back on the number of gallons used.According to the NY Times:The 2005 Honda Accord hybrid gets about the same miles per gallon as the basic four-cylinder model, according to a review by Consumer Reports, a car-buyer's guide, and it saves only about two miles a gallon compared with the V-6 model on which it is based. Thanks to the hybrid technology, though, it accelerates better....The Accord hybrid is not alone in using technology for power; the Toyota Highlander and the Lexus RX330, two premium vehicles, both gained horsepower when they were produced as hybrids. When Lexus created a hybrid version of the RX330 it kept the same 3.3-liter engine, but to get across the idea that the hybrid had as much power as a vehicle with a 4-liter engine it named it the RX400h.Cars like the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius are still available for people who want to buy a car primarily for its fuel economy. But these cars are much smaller than what I need. The Insight is only a two-seater. And even though the Prius a five-seater, it's still a small car.I want a car with the size and features of a minivan, but with Insight- and Prius-like fuel economy. I don't expect to get 70 miles per gallon in a minivan, but I would like to get 40 or 45. I don't need to accelerate faster; I'm used to a car that can't get off the line quickly. I want fuel efficiency and size.The problem with large cars IS their fuel consumption. Why won't car makers actually produce cars that are both fuel efficient and a larger size? Why do they always opt for increasing POWER over fuel economy? Because that's what Americans really want. They wouldn't make them if they couldn't sell them. For all of our talk about ending our dependence on foreign oil, we sure are unwilling to give up a single convenience to get it. Sci/Tech32824@blogcritics.org Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:52:24 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/12/091723.php bhwWe'll probably never know for sure, but I'm pretty certain that the evolution v. intelligent design debate will rage on.Blogcritics is keeping you up to date on the latest happenings with the attempts to alter Kansas' science education curriculum in the name of ... well ... they say it's "objectivity."Diluting Evolution The Bible, which has not been updated in over 2000 years, is most decidedly not a science book. Charles Darwin's controversial 1859 bestseller, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the... Posted to Culture by Margaret Romao Toigo on May 12, 2005 09:59 AMIntelligent Design Proponents Attempt Experimental Science Intelligent Design theorists attempt to mate humans and chimpanzees, hoping to show that none of the women will become impregnated, thus refuting Darwinism. Satire. Posted to Culture by a-[e] on May 11, 2005 07:51 PMWhy Bother with Kansas The real issue for these people is their belief that evolutionary theory undercuts religious faith. Does it? For some it probably does though knowledge of evolution isn't required for either atheism or agnosticism. In fact, evolution alone isn't even a good argument for disbelief since the question of God is entirely a metaphysical question. Posted by a-[e] on May 10, 2005 12:39 PM'Intelligent Design' in Kansas: The Right's Attack on Families There is a deep irony in the attempt to excise evolution from the science curriculum, just as there is in the move to allow prayer in schools or to have the Ten Commandments posted in classrooms. The very groups that advocate so-called "proper" parenting seem to want to cede parental responsibility to the state, turning Uncle Sam into a surrogate father. Posted to Culture by Pete Blackwell on May 09, 2005 08:06 PMKansas school board endlessly debates evolution A Kansas high school student weighs in. "When you're having a scientific debate, a 'balanced picture' is not based on a referendum of the opinions of the general populace. It's not based on the opinions of church leaders. Science is not decided by referendum, it's decided by scientists, and to try and make it into a public referendum issue is idiotic and medieval." Posted to Politics by Leoniceno on May 06, 2005 07:39 PMKansas Board of Education Much Less Evolved Than Previously Thought, Says Researcher "In fact, some of these people have actually devolved during the 80 years since the Scopes 'Monkey' trial," says Bill Thornton, chief DNA specialist with the National School Board Evolution Analysis Project. Posted to Culture by Robert Brady on May 5, 2005 09:36 PM Sci/Tech29403@blogcritics.org Thu, 12 May 2005 09:17:23 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/10/013445.php bhwOne of these days, I'll start writing real posts on education topics. But, oddly enough, school is getting in the way of that right now.So in the meantime, I thought I'd toss together a few links to noteworthy education stories from the past week.I Have an Idea -- No, Wait, It's a Theory!Of course, we must begin with the debacle in the Sunflower State: the great Kansas evolution devolution covered elegantly on Blogcritics by Pete Blackwell and Leoniceno.Scientists in Kansas are starting to worry that they'll have trouble recruiting top-notch colleagues, professors, and students because of the state's anti-science reputation. And if the school board votes to water down evolution coverage, aspiring scientists who pass through Kansas public schools might have have a stigma to overcome when applying to collegiate science programs outside Kansas.This evolution "debate" is happening in a state whose official website says: "Although Coronado is believed to be the first traveler to Kansas, it is also believed that Native Americans were the first inhabitants." [emphasis mine]These people aren't even sure who was there first? Does anyone really know anything for sure in Kansas? Teachers Doze While Computers Do Their WorkI have to say, this story just plain chaps my ass. If you're a teacher and you can't be bothered to read and grade the assignments you give your students, you should be fired. It's that simple. Go find another line of work -- maybe one where a computer can do your job for you -- you lazy fuck. [I hope to write more on this story later.] Whiffle Golf -- Looks Great On Your College ApplicationHere's the poster child for what's wrong with the idea of one-size-fits all education: Isabel Gottlieb, a NH high school senior, will not graduate next month, even though she gets decent grades, takes AP classes, and has been accepted to college. The school is denying the diploma because Gottlieb, who transferred from another school last year, is missing a single physical education credit. The school told Gottlieb that she should drop a class, such as one of her AP classes or her calculus class, to make room for gym. She smartly declined -- she plans to major in biology in college.So Gottlieb will take the GED exam to satisfy her college's entrance requirements, and her mother is giving her a "non-graduation" party. 11-Year-Old Arrested for Bringing Weapon to SchoolActually, he brought 9 weapons: 3.5 inch nails, left over from a weekend Scouting trip. Obviously, this little sociopath needed arrestin'. After all, he was found with the nails jingling threateningly in his pocket. You Wanna Pizza Me? I Wanna Pizza U!Ave Maria University, the Catholic university opened in 2003 by Dominos Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, graduated its first class last Saturday.When asked what she learned at Ave Maria, one student replied, "I learned that Dominos Pizza is a lot like sex with college boys -- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good!"And Dominos is always pretty bad.-----------------------------Also posted at Bitch Has *Word*. Culture29258@blogcritics.org Tue, 10 May 2005 01:34:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/08/022919.php bhwI'm sure by now that you've heard about the salt stain in the Chicago underpass that some people think looks like an image of the Virgin Mary. Since the stain was "discovered" a few weeks ago, thousands of the faithful have come to pay homage to the false god image.Most visitors keep it spiritual: they light candles and say a few prayers, creating probably the largest collective set of Hail Mary devotions ever heard in the US during the football off-season.But at least a handful have gotten a little touchy-feeling with the Holy Mother. In a not-so-platonic worshippy way. This lady seems to be afraid to get too close, and as a result, awkwardly reaches in Mary's cleavage.This lady seems to have slightly more romantic feelings for Mary, which she expresses by dragging her index finger gently downward, between Mary's bosom. What a tease! This fellow gives Mary's right boob a nice honk for the camera. [Hey, she's had a kid -- that's about where they hang afterward.] This woman teaches her son that only bad men honk the Mother of God's boobs. Good boys pet them gently. "Make nice with the boobie, make niiiiiiiice." Holy shit -- the Holy Grail!After Mary received all this ... attention ... someone decided to deface her craven image by writing "Big Lie" on it. Then the maintenance crew painted over the entire image in brown paint, miraculously revealing ... A giant. brown. penis. Complete with prominent vein. And what's with the sign saying you can't cross yourself in front of the penis-god-mother?Obviously, these photos call many things into question, not the least of which is whether Mary was Jesus' mother or father. But at least we finally have an answer to the question of skin color.--------------------------------------Also posted at Bitch Has *Word*. Culture29164@blogcritics.org Sun, 8 May 2005 02:29:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/18/131330.php bhwJust when you think women are considered equals to men in American society -- if you even do think that -- something always crops up to reinforce that we're really not. Sports is one arena where the inequities can still be seen quite clearly.Title IX is under attack because, heaven forbid, it gives girls and women equal opportunity to play sports. And once they're actually out there playing, girls and women are still considered an afterthought to boys' and men's programs. Look at women's college team names, for example, names like, Lady Volunteers or Lady Tigers. The men's teams don't need qualifiers in front of their names. They're just the Volunteers or the Tigers, not the Gentleman Volunteers or Gentlemen Tigers. If you put a qualifier in front of only one set of names, you immediately signal that there's something not quite fully authentic about that set. The real teams are the men's teams -- you know this because their team names have no qualifiers. Now, look at this photo from today's Boston Marathon, and then tell me that the real runner isn't the man, defending men's champion Timothy Cherigat of Kenya. He's obviously the authentic #1, while the woman standing next to him, defending women's champion Catherine Ndereba, also of Kenya, is merely a female #1. I'm sure some of you will argue that, after all, Cherigat was the very first runner to cross the finish line at last year's marathon and that Ndereba was simply the first female to cross the finish line. Her overall finish was 13th. That's a valid point. But I wonder: some day, if a woman finishes first overall -- and some argue that it's possible because women's times keep closing in on men's -- will she get the plain #1 and the man an M1?And why can't Cherigat simply hold a sign that says M1 right now? If we have separate men's and women's categories for the race, why is only one of those categories labeled? Once you get past the elite runners, many women start crossing the finish line sooner than men do. Why are those women wearing an F in front of their number and the men not wearing an M?In order to be equals in society, women need semantic equality included in the package. Otherwise, the special names given to women simply reveal their unequal status in the eyes of sports writers, sports fans, athletic directors, sports promoters and owners, and more importantly, even society at large.------------------------Also posted at Bitch Has *Word* Sports28300@blogcritics.org Mon, 18 Apr 2005 13:13:30 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/15/182621.php bhwToday in a Salt Lake City courtroom, Mark Hacking pleaded guilty to murdering his 27-year-old wife and dumping her body in a trash bin in 2004. Hacking told the judge, "I intentionally shot Lori Hacking in the head with a .22 rifle on July 19."This guy is obviously a sociopath. He fooled his wife into believing that he had graduated from college and had been accepted to medical school in North Carolina, when neither was true. Investigators theorize that Hacking killed his wife when she uncovered his web of lies.So the good news is that a murderer has been captured and will go to jail. But what is the minimum sentence you think Hacking can get for his crime, first degree murder? Go ahead, guess. Ten years? Fifteen?How about six years. That's the minimum sentence he could receive on June 6, although the prosecution will press for a life term. I'm not a fan of mandatory minimum sentences, but when lawmakers think a first degree murderer might deserve only a six-year sentence [in fact, the lowest term is 5 years, but Hacking used a gun, so an extra year is automatically added on], I understand them. Isn't a six-year term more appropriate for manslaughter? Or embezzlement? Heck, Martha Stewart's pal, Sam Waskal, was sentenced to seven years for insider trading.I'm sure you'll be relieved to learn that at least Hacking can't get probation. The lead prosecutor actually had to make that point clear, that Hacking would indeed spend time in jail for the murder. But how much time? Well, that's where the other "p" word comes in to play: parole. Hacking will be legible for parole after six years.Of course, Hacking will probably be sentenced more than six years, if not a life sentence. He'll still be eligible for parole in six years, but he probably won't get out right away on that, either. But I still really don't understand the sentencing guidelines on this charge. How can we have such wildly tame sentences for murder in some states, while in others, people who sell pot get locked up for 55 years? Culture28204@blogcritics.org Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:26:21 EDT