www.plannedparenthoodaction.org
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
another one
For those of you keeping track, I have a new love in my life.
Vital Stats thanks to Voices of the Olympics interview:
Name: Timme Hoyng
Birthdate: August 7, 1976
Player of Hockey Club Amsterdam and the Dutch National Team.
Winner of the 2006 Champions Tropy 2006 and European Campion 2007
Profession: Photographer
He even blogs: http://timmehoyng.blogspot.com/
Just because he's a professional field hockey player in the Netherlands doesn't mean we can't make it work. I mean, I can learn Dutch. And I love tulips. It's meant to be.
Vital Stats thanks to Voices of the Olympics interview:
Name: Timme Hoyng
Birthdate: August 7, 1976
Player of Hockey Club Amsterdam and the Dutch National Team.
Winner of the 2006 Champions Tropy 2006 and European Campion 2007
Profession: Photographer
He even blogs: http://timmehoyng.blogspot.com/
Just because he's a professional field hockey player in the Netherlands doesn't mean we can't make it work. I mean, I can learn Dutch. And I love tulips. It's meant to be.
Friday, August 15, 2008
sniff
Lots of articles on scent today....
Sniffing for Mr. Right
A possible effect of birth control on a woman's attraction to particular men.
Smell Me
Does over-application of perfume or cologne say something about the wearer?
Sniffing for Mr. Right
A possible effect of birth control on a woman's attraction to particular men.
Smell Me
Does over-application of perfume or cologne say something about the wearer?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
UC can deny religious course credit
A CA court recently ruled that the University of California (UC) system can deny course credit for classes based on religious texts that teach religious views only, not science or critical thinking. The ruling, in theory, should not keep students from Christian high schools from attending UC schools; it simply will not give them credit for taking, say, a biology course that only teaches creationism and not evolution.
As someone that fights for good science education, I can't say I disapprove of the ruling. Science is one thing and faith is another. And I do not believe that religion belongs in the public school classroom, or any science classroom. But I am surprised.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
....But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.
UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.
For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
Read the full article.
As someone that fights for good science education, I can't say I disapprove of the ruling. Science is one thing and faith is another. And I do not believe that religion belongs in the public school classroom, or any science classroom. But I am surprised.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
....But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.
UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.
For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
Read the full article.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
smart girls ride bikes
And smart boys, of course.
SmartBikeDC has officially arrived in the Capitol. Clear Channel Outdoor collaborated with the District Dept. of Transportation (Ddot) to set up ten bike rack locations throughout the city.
The program exists in multiple European cities, but this is the first of its kind in the US. Anyone over 18 who wishes to use the bikes signs up online (SmartBikeDC.com) and pays a yearly membership fee of $40. You get an access card which can be used to unlock a bike from any of the racks in the city at any time -- as long as there is one on the rack. Clear Channel has a team that "redistributes" bikes between racks so there are always some available and always some empty spots on each rack to park a bike...at least that's their plan. But you can check online at any time to see how many bikes and empty slots are on each rack.
Bikes can be rented for up to three hours, after which you are supposed to return it to a rack. However, if there is another bike available you're allowed to rent it out immediately after you return the first one. If you don't return a bike within 24 hours, you'll receive a bill for $550.
This is a great program. For $40 a year, having access to a good bike pretty much whenever you want it is a deal. If enough people sign up, maybe they'll even add more racks throughout the city. However, if you want to spend time with the bike away from a rack, bring your own lock. Because the bikes use special locking mechanisms to attach to the custom racks, there is no way to secure the bike to a pole outside a shop or the railing near your friend's house.
Oh, and for safety's sake, wear a helmet.
SmartBikeDC has officially arrived in the Capitol. Clear Channel Outdoor collaborated with the District Dept. of Transportation (Ddot) to set up ten bike rack locations throughout the city.
The program exists in multiple European cities, but this is the first of its kind in the US. Anyone over 18 who wishes to use the bikes signs up online (SmartBikeDC.com) and pays a yearly membership fee of $40. You get an access card which can be used to unlock a bike from any of the racks in the city at any time -- as long as there is one on the rack. Clear Channel has a team that "redistributes" bikes between racks so there are always some available and always some empty spots on each rack to park a bike...at least that's their plan. But you can check online at any time to see how many bikes and empty slots are on each rack.
Bikes can be rented for up to three hours, after which you are supposed to return it to a rack. However, if there is another bike available you're allowed to rent it out immediately after you return the first one. If you don't return a bike within 24 hours, you'll receive a bill for $550.
This is a great program. For $40 a year, having access to a good bike pretty much whenever you want it is a deal. If enough people sign up, maybe they'll even add more racks throughout the city. However, if you want to spend time with the bike away from a rack, bring your own lock. Because the bikes use special locking mechanisms to attach to the custom racks, there is no way to secure the bike to a pole outside a shop or the railing near your friend's house.
Oh, and for safety's sake, wear a helmet.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
energy conservation turns me on
A piece by Tom Friedman on how energy efficiency and clean energy technologies has been incredibly beneficial for Denmark.
Some excerpts:
Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent.
In the last 10 years, Denmark’s exports of energy efficiency products have tripled. Energy technology exports rose 8 percent in 2007 to more than $10.5 billion in 2006, compared with a 2 percent rise in 2007 for Danish exports as a whole.
“It is one of our fastest-growing export areas,” said Hedegaard. It is one reason that unemployment in Denmark today is 1.6 percent. In 1973, said Hedegaard, “we got 99 percent of our energy from the Middle East. Today it is zero.”
Because it was smart taxes and incentives that spurred Danish energy companies to innovate, Ditlev Engel, the president of Vestas — Denmark’s and the world’s biggest wind turbine company — told me that he simply can’t understand how the U.S. Congress could have just failed to extend the production tax credits for wind development in America.
Why should you care?
“We’ve had 35 new competitors coming out of China in the last 18 months,” said Engel, “and not one out of the U.S.”
Some excerpts:
Unlike America, Denmark, which was so badly hammered by the 1973 Arab oil embargo that it banned all Sunday driving for a while, responded to that crisis in such a sustained, focused and systematic way that today it is energy independent.
In the last 10 years, Denmark’s exports of energy efficiency products have tripled. Energy technology exports rose 8 percent in 2007 to more than $10.5 billion in 2006, compared with a 2 percent rise in 2007 for Danish exports as a whole.
“It is one of our fastest-growing export areas,” said Hedegaard. It is one reason that unemployment in Denmark today is 1.6 percent. In 1973, said Hedegaard, “we got 99 percent of our energy from the Middle East. Today it is zero.”
Because it was smart taxes and incentives that spurred Danish energy companies to innovate, Ditlev Engel, the president of Vestas — Denmark’s and the world’s biggest wind turbine company — told me that he simply can’t understand how the U.S. Congress could have just failed to extend the production tax credits for wind development in America.
Why should you care?
“We’ve had 35 new competitors coming out of China in the last 18 months,” said Engel, “and not one out of the U.S.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
