the impartince of good speling

On one of the mailing lists I'm on, the following "conversation" took place yesterday:

... sent out a memo about using there name as a generic name for air ambulance. At our place the reporters were told to use "Air Ambilance"

then someone asked what an "Ambilance" was.

A third person chimed in with "So now we're complaining about spelling error's??"

Oy, vey.

Part of the reason the rest of the world (rightly so) sees Texas as a hillbilly backwater is because the vast majority of natives here can't spell (or grammar) their way out of a wet paper bag. In the first two sentences above, there are two errors. In the last sentence, there is one. I didn't see the use in correcting "error's" but couldn't help but feel sorry for the writer.

When I read something (whether online or in print) it's distracting to deal with the near-constant grammar errors, misspelling and misuse of punctuation. I don't understand how students can get a diploma when they can't complete even one sentence without an error that those of us with half a brain will trip over as we try to understand what they're saying.

Then, as seen in the second sentence above, someone else has the audacity to defend these errors under the guise that "smart people can figure out what he's trying to say". It's enough to make me want to take away "they're diploma" [sic] until they can converse like rational adults.

Perhaps they were home schooled, and their parents were incapable of correcting the errors, or didn't want Little Joe Bob to have poor self esteem, so they gave them a passing score although it was undeserved.

All of us make occasional typos, but with the ubiquity of spell checkers and grammar checkers, there's no excuse for such clumsiness; it simply breeds more and more bad behavior, until communication devolves into what passes for Acceptable via Text Messaging.

Texas Schoolchildren Am Doomed

Just for the record: Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley (R-Beaumont) is an embarrassment to Texas.

Why? He is a biblical creationist who rejects the science of evolution, and now he wants to shove his asinine views ("the world is 6000 years old, dinosaurs and humans coexisted" and other stupidity) into Texas school children's heads. Good luck with any of them ever getting jobs outside a fast-food drive-thru window, with that kind of "knowledge". Employers: please do yourself a favor and hire science graduates from ANY other state .. the ones here will be a waste of your time.

Honestly, it's a shame that anyone who can fog a mirror (without so much as a literacy test) -- without any education credentials AT ALL -- can get elected to the state board of education. The chairman (Dr. Don McLeroy) is a dentist, for cryin' out loud .. and another creationist.

The morons of Bradley's district (Texas SBOE #7) elected this moron to the State Board of Education in 1996, then moronically re-elected him to the board in 2000, 2002 and 2004. I hold each of them personally responsible for the damage this moron is about to inflict.

Texas: where we am stupid an proude of It!

Today's must read: Texas education board passes new English, reading standards shows that we am gonna English like are fundamelnatlist Don McLeroy (a puppit of Guvinir Pretty Hair Perry).

An the Bes Part is that theses new Rulez! will be in plaise for the nexst TEN YEERS!

Neck Stop: Science! Let's see how Fundy Don McLeroy guts that (we All No the worlds 6000 years old rite) ?!?

Parents - if you live in Texas nows the time to move to a more edjicated stait. The good news am that there is 49 the chose from, incluiding Alabama and Misssisipi. Thin again, there is one way to be efen dummer: you could hoam school yer Childern so thay don't half to micks with Meksicans an Nigras (jusst like in real life!).

Clintonomics: effect on Indiana

Go ahead, Hoosiers .. vote for Hillary (and her summer gas tax holiday*). By the way, as a result, 6000 of you (construction workers) are now out of a job. Are you happy now?

Honestly, did none of you ever go to school? Hopefully you learned more than the average Texas student, whose only post-graduate ability is taking TAKS tests.

* the calculated 30 cents a day savings will buy you enough more gas** to drive about 1.3 miles (in the GOP Dream Machine Chevy Tahoe, which gets 16 miles-per-gallon on a good day). That assumes today's average $3.62/gallon price.

** Everybody Knows(tm) you're not going to use your 30 cents to pay rent, or buy food. Maybe you'll put it in your savings account, where it'll earn 1 cent interest by the end of 2008.

By the way, did you see the report which said that Bush's Reading First plan (a $1B part of No Child Left Behind) has accomplished absolutely nothing? What a great (Republican) waste of my tax dollars.

and you wonder why Texans are so stoopit

A quarter of Texas teachers work second job, study finds (Associated Press, 20 April 2008)

more details are on the Capitol Annex blog (complete with the unintentional typo in the headline)

math thesis

For the past several weeks, I've collected all my change and tossed it into a container. During this collection process I was careful not to use any change during the day .. merely to add the coins to the pile as randomly as they arrived.

Today, my container overflowed, so I can stop my experiment. Here's the tally:

244 pennies  (1c)
059 nickels  (5c)
135 dimes    (10c)
140 quarters (25c)

My question: given random numbers and all that rot, is this an expected distribution?

I fully expect hordes of math majors (eager to complete their doctoral thesis) will apply themselves to this problem, post haste.

And now, we wait.

Extra credit: This container of change equals $53.89 .. what is the probability that future containers will be within ten (10) percent of today's total?

what a deal! (unless you can do math)

I just got an email from Baskin-Robbins, saying:

Participating Baskin-Robbins stores will reduce prices of small ice cream scoops to 31 cents.*

*2.5oz scoops are 31 cents plus tax where applicable. Limit 10 scoops per person, per purchase. Available Wednesday 4/30/08, from 5pm to 10pm, at your local Baskin-Robbins while supplies last.

Before you think "what a deal!" be advised that's some very expensive ice cream (versus just buying a gallon).

The math: there are 128 ounces/gallon, hence 51.2 of those 2.5 ounce scoops per gallon. At 31 cents each, that means the ice cream is $15.87 per gallon (not including sales tax). That makes $4/gallon gasoline look attractive.

Deep thought: I wonder if anyone ever made gasoline-flavored ice cream?

Full disclosure: there's a charity involved, so it's not like they're totally evil:

A donation of $100,000 will be made by Baskin-Robbins to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. At select stores throughout the country, you may also have a chance to donate to your local fire station.

if it ain't the rain, it's the lack of children

It rained upwards of four inches here yesterday, so my evening meeting was canceled mostly due to concerns that others wouldn't be able to attend. Now, tomorrow night's meeting is also in jeopardy but for another reason: it's Spring Break Week and many people are out of town. Guess it's time for me to gather all my tax stuff and schlep it to my CPA.

Ever notice how many illiterate people work at airports? During the television coverage of DFW's shutdown (they effectively canceled their entire schedule and decided to Mulligan today), the TV monitors showed row-after-row where the flight was "CANCELLED" (there's no such word in the USA, but okay in Britain where they still spell [color] with a U, among other peculiarities).

Huzzah spot of the day (kudos, 23/6): When Fox "News" sees a black man, they cross the street and file a report on gang violence

Dallas' darkest day?

In what may go down in history as the darkest day in Dallas history, Southern Methodist University (most famous for a huge football scandal in 1987) announced that construction of the George W. Bush Presidential Liberry will begin on their campus next year, to be completed by 2014.

The site is generally located west of the intersection of US-75 (Central Expressway) and Yale Boulevard.

SMU might as well close its doors now; no self-respecting student could ever attend there again, after this disastrous maldecision.

focus shift

Noteworthy: if the recent poll taken in St. Petersburg is any indication, the true center of American Stupidity has shifted from Kansas to Florida. Ref: Faith trumps science

what is is?

Last night, Judy-Bob dragged me to a biweekly session of the Dallas Philosopher's Forum which meets at a local IHOP. My last exposure to philosophy was a Philosophy 101 class I took to satisfy a freshman college requirement. I decided not to pursue this field then, and now - 30 years later - I remember why. To document last night's excursion, I made a few notes:

1. IHOP doesn't tolerate meetings well - they had no way to independently turn off music in the meeting room without shutting it down for those who dined in the main room


2. this group has been meeting for many years; they take a summer vacation partly because "it's too hot to meet"


3. $4/meeting or $25/6 months (a $48 value - WOW!!!)


4. tonight ~25 people (including 6 women)


5. The lecturer was a professor from the University of Dallas, whose topic was "Religion and Aesthetics"

   "Both religion and aesthetics follow from the bipolarity of human existence, grounded in the sensory and ontologically referred to the Whole. Religions provide the umbrella of meaning by showing how we fit into the Whole. From ontological distance, we can learn to appreciate sensory surface aesthetically either by itself or as mediating wider meaning. The interplay between the sensory and the space of meaning is where art occurs. We will examine a few specimens of how religion and aesthetics interpenetrate in the work of art."

6. it was a discussion of art, without any visual aids - he had trouble with a photocopier, apparently


7. the microphone had an apparent "speaker filter" which amplified others' voices, but not his


8. the overhead projecter (remember those?) pointed to the ceiling during most of the lecture


9. the speaker read his ~20 page paper, but encountered noticable delays when changing pages. Didn't he number them?


10. Wikipedia has lots of pages on philosophy, according to a pre-lecture discussion we overheard. I confirmed that later - see Wikipedia's philosophy page for example


11. most used word: ontological - 31 times


12. least used word: teleological - zero (I remembered it from my Philosophy 101 class)


13. most unexpected repetition: putative - used 5+ times


14. NeoPlatanism ("the synthesis of Christianity and Platonism into a single system")


15. Unexpected outburst of the evening
    • Speaker:"we are conceived in (something) of animal lust"
    • YEAH!! shouts a woman


16. Philosophers referenced: Martin Heidegger; Jean-Paul Sartre; Augustine; Aristotle; Søren Kierkegaard; Friedrich Nietzsche; Socrates; Aquinas ("a philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition"); Herocles of Ephesus


17. Literary references: Walter Pater ("English essayist and art and literary critic"); William Blake ("an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker"); Plato's Republic


18. Stuff it would've been handy to know before the lecture: Apollonian and Dionysian; Byzantine; Pythagoreanism; Galen; The Whore of Babylon


19. Art references: Piet Mondrian; Matthias Grünewald's "The Crucifixion"; LeRoy Neiman


20. Music references: Richard Wagner; Socrates and "the study of harmonics"


21. Speaker's big laugh for the evening: "you can't stop rock and roll" related to the Berlin Wall (this had the crowd rolling on the floor)


22. Q & A
    
    
    • q- "where would you publish this paper?"
      a- (baffled)
    
    
    • q- what do you mean by "heart of hearts?"
      a- "fundamental orientation of self to the whole"
    • discussion of "inate sense of perfection"
    • "notion of a heart" - metaphoric analysis
    • ancient iconoclasts and destruction of religious symbols
    • European cathedrals as a "portal to the divine"
    • observation: philosophers can't do basic math (4/3 v 3/4) or standup comedy
    • visible/intelligible dichotomy

Conclusion: the chicken sandwich at IHOP was edible.

Texas 34, Kansas 2

Entertaining spot today on the Red State Rabble blog: Somewhere in Texas. Indeed, it's been my experience that Kansas is waaaay behind Texas when it comes to religious zealots making educational policy.

Don McLeroy's appointment is just another example of Governor PrettyHair's pandering to His base. Kansas is starting to look saner and saner all the time.

pond scum sinks to the bottom, right?

From time to time, I've opined here about the correlation between a Fine Texas Education and the likes of Karl Rove; Tom DeLay and George W. Bush (collectively determined to destroy this country). This is not to ignore the current crop of pond scum working its way into the national limelight .. their day will arrive soon enough.

Granted, Texas isn't completely filled with vacuous neanderthals, since this is also home to Ann Richards; Molly Ivins; LBJ; Dan Rather and Bill Moyers* (to name a few) .. but, the statistics presented in January's "Texas on the Brink: How Texas Ranks Among the 50 States" are certainly chilling.

* okay, Bill Moyers was born in Oklahoma. But he was Raised Up here in Texas.

And it ain't a gittin' any better, given what I've read about the 2007 Texas Legislature and the new cavalcade of insanity that is about to be laded upon us, like so much cream gravy. With that in mind, I hereby point out today's recommended reading: A Race To The Bottom. Amazing.

If you have the time for more, yesterday's post on The Bush Library Blog ain't half bad, either.

The Mathematics of Revelation

Well, isn't that special?

Not only are Texas legislators considering gutting the public school system, so that Rich White Christians can channel their money to School Vouchers (and private, White Christian Schools) but now they want to mandate an elective course in the Christian Bible in Texas schools.

House Bill 1287 would mandate that every high school in the state offer an elective Bible course. Unbelievable. I guess they must think that their own White Christian education every Sunday isn't enough, so they now must encroach on the public school system (or whatever is left after James Leininger and his School Voucher Nazis take every last dime).

When was the last time you heard a realtor say "your property values will increase because this neighborhood has a great private school system? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Wouldn't it be easier to mandate a law where English and Trigonometry are taught by the White Christian schools? Certainly Real Texans don't want Liberal Readin' Rightin' and Rithmetic (the Texas 3 Rs) to be tot in non-Christian schools? Oy, vey.

I'm guessing that these new White Christian classes will not teach how to add 666 and 666 together?

awkward !

Whaddaya bet Monday's call between Pastor Ted and President Quagmire is a bit strained? If you've been under a rock the past 36 hours, here's an entertaining missive: What Wisdom Did Haggard Share with Bush Every Monday?

Quagmire: So you let your peepee touch his peepee?

Pastor Ted: Yes, your Excellency. And more.

Quagmire: How much more?

Pastor Ted: I'd rather not say. I will say: "I did not inhale."

Quagmire: I won't tell Laura.

<click>

Pastor Ted: What's that clicking sound? Is this call being recorded?

Quagmire: All calls are being recorded, P.T. Welcome to America. Do you hate freedom?

Footnote: the MSM keeps repeating the claim that Haggard's evengelicals account for 30 million members. Since the USA just passed 300 million in population (it was in all the papers), this means that 1 of every 10 people belongs to Haggard's church. Sounds to me like he's also guilty of LYING. For shame, P.T .. for shame!

---

Interesting spot: VOTE411.org: "launched by the League of Women Voters Education Fund in October 2006, VOTE411.org is a one-stop-shop for election related information"

(normally I'd toss that on my Sundry on Thursday blog but this is time-sensitive).

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Earlier today, Michelle and I moseyed to downtown Dallas where (after 13+ years here) I finally took in the #1 tourist attraction: The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (a/k/a the building formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository). There's a lot of great video and 1963 artifacts on display; it was well done. Trivia: the "Sixth Floor Museum" now occupies both the sixth and seventh floors of the building. The first floor is used by the Dallas County Commissioners Court (John Wiley Price et al). The second through fifth floors are office space at "411 Elm Street". There's a webcam at The Sniper's Perch on the 6th floor.

After the tour, we moseyed downstairs and watched some antiwar protestors who arrived at The Grassy Knoll in time to be viewed by the commuters leaving for home, and listened to a street vendor hawking newspaper-style photos of the assassination. I wonder if he's ever been inside The Gift Shop to see what he's up against?

Deep Thought: did Texas do away with issuing school books after November, 1963? If so, that could explain why we're 49th (of 50) in education.

(here's a closeup of the plaque on 411 Elm Street; someone's emphasized the word "ALLEGEDLY", since conspiracy theories continue to this day)

Mayberry has been bulldozed

It's over 1050 miles from Cazenovia, Wisconsin to Everman, Texas* .. but I couldn't help but draw a parallel between them today.

* about 50 miles from my home in Dallas

Yesterday, a high school principal - John Klang - was shot & killed in Wisconsin after a 15 year old (Eric Hainstock), who felt he'd been teased by other students, decided he had to kill someone.

Coincidentally, the New York Times published an article today about Everman, Texas principal Anthony Price, who has decided that "corporal punishment" (spanking) is a proper way to instill discipline in his middle school.

One of the problems with corporal punishment in 2006 versus 1972 (when I was the age of the Wisconsin shooter) is that it's now (apparently) socially acceptable to bring guns to school, with the intent of killing as many of your classmates/teachers as possible. I can imagine one of principal Price's students, after receiving a spanking, going home to collect her parent's gun and returning to end the life of the man who humilated her.

I don't have an answer to this problem, but those who think they can turn the clock back to The Days of Mayberry are simply delusional.

Dallas: the White Metropolis

I can't say I make a habit of attending AuthorSpeaks. Tonight, I moseyed to the downtown Dallas Public Library to hear Michael Phillips, author of White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001

This event was sponsored by Howard Dean's private club, Democracy For America.

One of Phillips' premises is that, if mankind began with one male and one female, there were no races. He suggests that the concept of "race" was concocted by Europeans in the 1500s, saying that 99% of human genes between Asians, Europeans, Hispanics, Africans are identical.

Phillips clearly has contempt for George F. Will, reading a passage from his 5 June 2006 Newsweek column: White Guilt, Deciphered which freely quotes one of the only black men that Will admires, Shelby Steele (a possible Oreo).

Other discussion ensued:

• Does institutional racism still exist?
• Another author's work -- Jerrold Ladd of the 1970s-era Dallas Morning News -- was mentioned: "Out of the Madness : From the Projects to a Life of Hope"
• the 1865-8 Freedmen's Bureau in Dallas, when the whites sought to permanently enforce a black underclass.
• the correlation between education & prosperity (premise: blue states are liberal, more educated, more prosperous than red/conservative/stupid states).
• Says that, under the Jim Crow education system, textbooks used by blacks couldn't later be use by whites. Says the 1860s era school year sent blacks for 60 days, and whites for 100 days. Most school was oriented as a vocational effort, teaching the blacks to be servants to the white masters, effectively.
• W.E.B. Du Bois' history books.
• Texas textbooks 1890-1970, explicit racism throughout.
• Historically altered descriptions of post Civil War Reconstruction.
• Tarzan's movie lessons (where is this mysterious White Tribe of Africa?).
• Why aren't Egypt and Morocco considered African, instead of Middle Eastern?
• An assessment of FOX "News" target market: over 70, simpletons.
• The fallacy of Atlanta's former slogan: "the city too busy to hate".
• Mentions of TSU (Texas Southern University) - an historically black university near downtown Houston.
• How Dallas white population were "better organized elites" than other cities, hence the huge racial divide present today.
• Houston v Dallas' labor history
• Example of the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union)
• Highland/University Park where the organized white elites live today, virtually Hispanic/African Free.
• Prominent black Dallas leaders, historically: A. Maceo Smith; Juanita Craft

Finally, someone mentioned a Dallas Peace Center series on eliminating racism. And then, adjourned. Whew, a lot of ground covered. Maybe I should attend these Author Things more often?

Insurgency? What insurgency?

I had to run an errand today: drop off some stuff at the Bulk Mail Facility. Each time I've been there, I noticed the TV in the waiting area

(you didn't think people in queue at the post office have to wait?)

is tuned to Fox "News". It's been that way for the past 2 years. You'd think that once in awhile it would be on one of the networks, which (I think) air soap operas and their ilk all afternoon. Or maybe the Discovery Times channel, or Animal Planet. Or heck, even CNN Headline News. But nope .. it's always tuned to Fox "News" (network of the Radical Right Wing).

So, I listened about 90 seconds while VP Dick Cheney stupidly excused his assininity in proclaiming that the Iraq Insurgency was on its deathbed, over a year ago. (Hindsight being 20/20, and all that). I suspect I laughed out loud, then realized that a 19-year old Muslim-killing-wannabe (his T-shirt imprint, buzz haircut, and open-mouthed gaze were the giveaways) was also in line, and was Eating Up Cheney's Every Word, as if he were watching a divine creation speak.

I hold no illusion that, when these mental giants (obviously a product of the Texas education system - 49th in the country) vote in upcoming elections, the most anti-immigrant anti-gay anti-choice anti-flagburnin' (anti-anti?) candidates will continue to win.

Lesson learned: remind me not to return to the post office without my earplugs.

now ain't that phat?

What a way to spend a Saturday. Inside the Dallas Convention Center with 600 people I'd never met before (well, except for Mayor Laura). This was part of Shaping America's Health .. the next seven hours in a surprisingly fast-moving 21st Century Town Meeting® called Shaping America's Youth.

Turns out this is the 2nd one of these ever held. The first was in Memphis, earlier this year. Dallas had over 1046 registrants but only 600 made it to the event. I guess that's a good turnout, especially on one of the 4 nice weekends in Dallas every year (otherwise it's too hot/wet/cold).

The meeting itself was reasonably hi-tech. Each table (10 people) had a Mac iBook connected on a wireless network to a Think Tank near the stage. As we Solved World Hunger, our ideas were passed to this group which cut-and-pasted them into a presentation, offering near-immediate gratification.

The session leaders were David Campt and Julia Sullivan; they did a commendable job staying on their feet the entire time. Many of the attendees (37%) were Hispanic; several accepted the offer of earpieces for a Spanish translation (see also: Avance Dallas). We were handed wireless "voting gadgets" which had a USB interface at the top; the thing was called an "OpinionCounterIQ" (sadly, I didn't think to take a photo of it).

Random stuff:
0- Texas is the 6th fattest state; 63% of Texans are overweight or obese.
1- 35% of school-age children are overweight or obese; only 11% attend PE [Physical Education] classes.
2- David Campt (session leader) said that overweight Americans will die 19 years early, on average.
3- an upcoming TV show is due to be broadcast here on May 27th (channel 11); "The Biggest Generation" will be a good thing to TiVo.
4- Coming soon (April 27th): Bike & Walk to School day. Yeah, like parents will leave their SUVs at home to escort Junior to school. Right.
5- The Cooper Institute has program called "Promoting healthy behaviors in children"

Other speakers:
6- Bradie James (a Dallas Cowboy);
7- Alex Wolens - the mayor's 15-year old daughter;
8- Terry Wade regarding Marathon Kids (Richardson ISD);
9- Dr LeAnn Kridelbaugh, of the Dallas Area Coalition to Prevent Childhood Obesity (probably an offering of Children's Medical Center of Dallas)