chapter 2

the timesheet i'm keeping for my studying is definitely paying off. finally finished chapter 1 of the maths book this evening. i don't know exactly how many hours i've pit into it, but it's a lot..yesterday was the first day in over a month with zero study time. aim to finish working through the book by the end of the year.

tiernan played a great set at the lounge on sunday night. beautiful weather and good people made it a great night. most i've danced since miami. rebecca showed up fresh in from new orleans. we both had a day off doing nothing yesterday. it was great.

fridge

cleaning a fridge has got to be the worst job in the home. this means battling a foot and a half long piece of pack ice that has taken up residence in our ice box.

yesterday star wars, today the fridge.....

star wars

went to see star wars with case at the uptown. miserable, cold, wet day here in d.c, so a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

new york times & manchester united

To the Editor:

So ManU has more fans in Asia than in Manchester. Comparing a city of approx. 6 million with a continent of some 3.8 billion is hardly fair. Citing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an example of success of foreign ownership has nothing to do with international competition. World Champions? how about letting the rest of the world participate in your so-called World Series/World Championship sporting events? You end with a quip about Arizona being a lot nicer in winter than Manchester. I can hardly dispute that, but for all the true soccer fans that have put up with the miserable british weather, week in week out to support their local team..I have two questions for you; when did that last happen in Arizona? and how many fans in Asia do they have?

Mark A. Solomon

whatever happened to good sports commentators?

watched the orioles beat the white sox last night - in high def, of course. great game, but unbelievably bad commentary from the white sox station. i expect them to lean towards the home team, but at least call a decent game from the box. if you're going to question the umpire, and express your own interpretation on a play, then show the tv viewers the whole play! perhaps then all viewers tuning into the broadcast can decide whether to agree or not with your blatantly biased assessment. apart from that, the two guys in the boothe were boring, inarticulate, and downright crass.

i don't care about 12 year old jimmy's birthday (someone sent a letter in - possibly the boy's parents) "we're all thinking of ya, buddy" i do care that the people in charge of letting me know about the game unfolding have something better to say than the diatribe these guys came up with. "go on, you can do it"; ""5-2 to the good guys"- you'ld never get this on the bbc....or even on the orioles coverage. made "our guys" look consumately professional, which they are, even when a play goes against the home team, and that's what good commentating is all about!

we got a screen

yep. baseball and football will not be the same (thank goodness). got a jvc 32" flat panel yesterday - very nice. hd box delivered today. watching the orioles in high definition. playing chicago white sox at the moment. two best records in baseball.

i'm happy. so's rebecca. i don't have to bug her to get off the computer so i can watch baseball. changes the space, but at least it looks decent and now the xbox is properly hooked up...:)

scope be gone!

couldn't take it anymore.

saturn was there right out of our bedroom window. glorious. dave's telescope was wheeled into action (sic) once again. this time, though, no matter what i did, it took me 10 mins to finally get saturn to stay in the eyepiece. showed rebecca and that was it. another 10 mins to look at the brightest thing in the sky. ridiculous. everything moves that shouldn't. imagine typing an e-mail message with a screen that keeps jumping around and the cursor moving at will and you'll get some idea of what it was like. gonna have to save up and break down and get a replacement that i can actually use and enjoy instead of grimace.

as rebecca would say: it's not my fault.... :)

let's send our kids to kansas

i just sent a letter to the editor of the new york times.

here it is:

Let’s send our kids to Kansas,

State Board Wants Evolution Challenged.

I have no children, nor do I live in Kansas. I am also an atheist. What does that make me?

Trick question. It doesn’t make me anything, except that I don’t subscribe to Christianity’s view of how I and the world I live in got to exist.

Kansas State Board wants to adopt new standards allowing challenges to the theory of evolution. Really? What is then the purpose and desired role of a State Board of Education? .When it comes to the theory of evolution, allowing competing “alternate” theories suggests equal footing. To my knowledge, as a non-scientist, I can find no other competent theory that has stood the test of time. Do the proponents of these alternate theories embrace or ignore the scientific method? This is an important question. Let’s see their models. Let’s read their papers. Exactly what criteria are they using in their challenge to one of sciences most exhaustively studied subjects? In other words, on what grounds do they insist that the existing current standards are failing the children of Kansas?

I feel for all the educated science teachers, but not half as much as I feel for the children of Kansas and other states that have adopted ‘new’ standards that adhere to the beliefs of just one single religion. Why not since they’re so intent on alternate theories then teach all religious views of how our universe came to be?

I call on all scientists and teachers, regardless of position and state, irrespective of personal beliefs, to join forces and unite, and declare publicly that allowing a state board to shoe-horn in teaching practices not based on science is just plain wrong. A full page advertisement in the New York Times and every other published daily newspaper would be an excellent place to start.

Sincerely,

M. A. Solomon

P.S. I know that you will not publish this letter in full due to its length. Please feel free to edit.