Long Weekend Tidbits
Here are three things I’m enjoying thinking about right now:
1) Cold weather has come to the midwest, and my Lenox furnace is grumbling away keeping me warm. Ever wonder where the natural gas comes from? Well, from the ground, of course; but how does it get to your gas meter? The complexity of that system is staggering and contains many sub-systems along the way. Read about one of those sub-systems on Mostly Cajun. It will give you a new appreciation for all the people behind your thermostat.
2) Next time someone tells you that American society is inherently violent and that we just have a sick culture, think about this report in BBC Online, about a spate of school violence in China, where there has been a string of stabbings, Columbine-style. Only… with a twist: one fellow broke into a dormatory and stabbed 8 boys to death as they slept. Is there a way to blame this on American culture? You can bet someone will try.
3) Next time someone tries to have “Intelligent Design” (which is really Creationism in drag) introduced into your school’s biology program in the name of “fairness,” wrestle with the idea that “fairness” requires giving equal time to every ding-bat idea that someone wants to expose your kids to. Over on Unscrewing The Inscrutable, a Thanksgiving-fed DarkSyd had time to explore the idea in depth.
Well, I’m off to pay bills and go see The Incredibles. At least one of those should be fun – I’m betting it will be the movie.