A soft, steady rain down at home as I started off this morning, turning a bit slushy as I got up to the office.

All the ops folks in my wing are packing up to move to the other building this weekend. I have no idea when I am slated to move over there, as it's a different floor and the move coordination is being handled with all the planning, coordination, and aplomb of a bunch of three-year-olds (with IT saving the day more often than not).

Someone I've worked with for many years -- in fact, who I hired into the company -- is shifting their base of operations to the downtown office we gained in the acquisition last year. And someone else I've known here for some time is, rather goofily, being made redundant by that same office/acquisition, so I'm busy trying to figure out if I have a position in my department for them.

Last night was Family Art Night down at Katherine's school, with a (mostly) Asian Art theme. Katherine performed in a puppet play about the building of the Great Wall of China, and there were various calligraphy and painting projects, free food, Chinese dancers, dragon dancers (Katherine's favorite), and some Ultimate Martial Arts guys who were as much dancers and Power Rangers as actual self-defense masters (no matter how many degrees of black belt they claimed or how high they kicked). Good fun for all.

We're getting ready for some travel coming up. We're off to New York in a week for Doyce and Kate's wedding -- we'll be staying on a couple of days beyond so as to do some whirlwind touring (it's my First Time). Jim and Ginger are coming out on Monday to stay for a couple of weeks, including taking care of Katherine while we're gone; they have some fun touring plans, too.

While I'm glad that tomorrow's Friday, Saturday Margie's volunteered to do breakfast and lunch for 65 down at the church, Which we'll be helping her with, of course.

A busy, unsettled, changing, promising time.

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: Personal :: Religion - My Parish :: School Daze :: Travel :: Weather
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Keen.  A Canadian university is saving money and improving service by tossing its old legacy email and collaboration system in exchange for Google Aps But there's a problem ...

Eighteen months ago, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., had an outdated computer system that was crashing daily and in desperate need of an overhaul. A new installation would have cost more than $1-million and taken months to implement. Google's service, however, took just 30 days to set up, didn't cost the university a penny and gave nearly 8,000 students and faculty leading-edge software, said Michael Pawlowski, Lakehead's vice-president of administration and finance.

U.S.-based Google spotlighted the university as one of the first to adopt its software model of the future, and today Mr. Pawlowski boasts the move was the right thing for Lakehead, saving it hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual operating costs. But he notes one trade-off: The faculty was told not to transmit any private data over the system, including student marks.

It's not some sort of anti-Americanism at work, but a well-founded fear by the faculty that, under the PATRIOT Act and similar legislation, US law enforcement / anti-terror / homeland security types can willy-nilly sift through all their correspondence and research. Not to mention student academic records and grades.

At Lakehead, the deal with Google sparked a backlash. "The [university] did this on the cheap. By getting this free from Google, they gave away our rights," said Tom Puk, past president of Lakehead's faculty association, which filed a grievance against Lakehead administration that's still in arbitration. Professors say the Google deal broke terms of their collective agreement that guarantees members the right to private communications. Mr. Puk says teachers want an in-house system that doesn't let third parties see their e-mails.

Some other organizations are banning Google's innovative tools outright to avoid the prospect of U.S. spooks combing through their data. Security experts say many firms are only just starting to realize the risks they assume by embracing Web-based collaborative tools hosted by a U.S. company, a problem even more acute in Canada where federal privacy rules are at odds with U.S. security measures.

Using their new powers under the Patriot Act, U.S. intelligence officials can scan documents, pick out certain words and create profiles of the authors - a frightening challenge to academic freedom, Mr. Puk said.

For instance, a Lakehead researcher with a Middle Eastern name, researching anthrax or nuclear energy, might find himself denied entry to the United States without ever knowing why. "You would have no idea what they are up to with your information until, perhaps, it is too late," Mr. Puk said. "We don't want to be subject to laws of the Patriot Act."

Seems quite reasonable to me. And, once again, an example of how much US reputation -- and business -- has been damaged by self-inflicted wounds in the "War on Terror."

Filed under :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security :: School Daze :: ZT & PC
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Florida's state board of education has (gasp!) adopted new guidelines that (shock! horror! dismay!) require that evolution be taught in schools.

What sort of crazy-ass atheistic commie regime are they running down there, anyway?

A bitter debate over how to teach evolution in Florida's public schools ended — at least temporarily — with a compromise Tuesday. The state Board of Education voted 4-3 in Tallahassee to adopt new science standards that for the first time require evolution to be taught.

The majority selected a last-minute alternative rather than the original document created by scientists and science teachers after months of work. That compromise, introduced late last week, inserts the phrase "the scientific theory of" in front of evolution and certain other concepts.

Opponents, who disliked both options, plan to shift their fight to the state Legislature.

Remember, this was by a mere 4-3 vote.

The adopted version, as the original, spells out for the first time that evolution must be taught in schools as the "fundamental concept underlying all of biology" and one that it is "supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence."

[...] More than 10,000 people logged onto the Florida Department of Education's Web site to comment on the new standards. Many wrote that teaching evolution — the theory that all living things evolved from a shared common ancestry — was in direct conflict with their religious faith.

No doubt God will smite those 4 wicked state school board members any moment now.

I would critique the whole "it conflicts with my religious faith so it shouldn't be taught as science" thing, but my vision just goes all red whenever I contemplate it.

Filed under :: Religion :: School Daze :: Science
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Today was Science Fair day (and night) at Katherine's school. So this morning she and Margie schlepped her experiment to the school gym to get it set up, during the day she got to chat with the judges, and this evening we headed over to see how she'd done and to let her share her experiment with all the other kids (and parents).

The basic experiment was a terrarium, and the hypothesis had to do with tropical plants doing better in a terrarium than desert plants (cacti). About 2-3 weeks ago we bought a fish tank, filled it with dirt, planted the plants, watered it, plastic-wrapped the top, and watched.

As it turns out, the hypothesis was not proven over the course of the experiment, though some fallen leaves got some mold and Katherine thinks the cacti are beginning to not look as healthy. By the same token, she learned a lot about the water cycle, etc.

Over the past few days, she put together some water cycle pictures, mounted then up on a display board with some photos we'd taken and her experiment info, and ended up with a very nice display. Well done.

(It turns out that K-2 only get "Participant" ribbons, while 3-5 get either a First or Second Place ribbon. But, for my money, her stuff was pretty darned good, in general as well as within her grade level.)

Margie provided a lot of inspiration and help, and I did a few things, too, but the real work -- and, clearly, from her explaining the whole thing to passers-by, the learning -- was all Katherine's. Bravo!

Filed under :: School Daze :: Science
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Sure, a million here and a million there eventually ends up being some "real money" (as Dirkson put it), but with all the other things going on in the federal budget, you'd think Bush could manage to scrape up $26MM to keep a program that provides books to poor kids.

President Bush’s proposed budget calling for the elimination of Reading Is Fundamental’s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program would be devastating to the 4.6 million children and their families who receive free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 20,000 locations throughout the U.S.

Unless Congress reinstates $26 million in funding for this program, RIF will not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. RIF programs in schools, childcare centers, migrant programs, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, foster and homeless children, and children without access to libraries. The Inexpensive Book Distribution program is authorized under the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975.

 (Emphases mine) 

I mean, Bush can't actually go and read My Pet Goat to everyone, can he?

Filed under :: Politics & Law :: School Daze
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So Margie knows someone at work whose spouse is involved in the history department at Rangeview High ... and so (her having mentioned my academic background in history), I found myself this afternon as a judge at the Rangeview History Day, evaluating (in my case) individually-crafted 10-minute history documentaries on various subjects with the theme "conflict and compromise."

It was a fun afternoon. Got to watch (and follow up with questions) presentations on John Denver, the Japanese Internment, Korean-American Generational Conflicts, Women Spies in History, and the Negro Leagues. Some good stuff (and some not quite as good), but it was a pleasure to be able to help (constructively) critique and encourage various honors students in a field of study I particularly care for.

Filed under :: School Daze
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Being the parent of a school-aged kid, I tend to be sensitive to court rulings and the schools. But while I see possible negative issues arising from this, I also think it forestalls some potentially huge problems.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes most of New England, handed down an important and very controversial ruling this past Thursday (see full text here), siding with the school district in a case involving the question of whether parents have a right to have schools not teach things that are contrary to their religious faith.

In the case of Parker et al vs. Hurley et al, two sets of parents of elementary school children in public schools in Lexington, Mass., filed suit against the school district over their use of books that portrayed gay couples and families. The parents, who believe that homosexuality and gay marriage are morally wrong, argued that they should be given prior notice and the right to exempt their children from any material that they consider contrary to their religious views. The district court dismissed the case; the appeals court upheld that dismissal last week.

In the Lexington School District, kindergarten students are given a picture book called "Who's In a Family?", which depicts a range of different types of families, including single-parent families, extended families, interracial families and, to the distress of the plaintiffs, a family with two fathers and another with two mothers. The parents of a student in that class, the Parkers, complained several times to the school but got no satisfaction.

The second family, the Wirthlins, had a child in second grade whose teacher read a book to her class called "King and King." The book tells the story of a prince who is ordered by his mother to get married. The prince rejects several princesses before finally deciding to marry another prince. Those parents likewise complained but the school refused to allow them to exempt their child from such materials and they filed suit as well. This case decided both suits.

The court basically said that (a) there's nothing stopping parents from teaching their kids in whatever religious beliefs they want, and (b) no coersion was taking place (the kids weren't being forced to chant "Gay is Good!" or anything), so there was no grounds for the cases.

The potential problems if a contrary decision had been reached -- or if the Supreme Court (which both families say they will appeal to) overturns the decision -- are obvious.

The number of subjects from which a parent could assert a right to shield their children for religious reasons is almost limitless. Could a racist parent successfully assert the same right against the kindergarten book from this case because it depicted an interracial family? Could a Jewish or Muslim parent demand that the school not use any material that depicts the eating of pigs or shellfish?

The implications for science teaching are obvious and far-reaching. There are large groups of parents who object to evolution because of their religious views, but that is hardly the only scientific theory taught in schools that is rejected by one religious group or another. Young earth creationists also reject the Big Bang. Geocentrists reject the heliocentrism of Galileo and Copernicus. The Christian Science church rejects the germ theory of disease. Scientologists reject all psychology and psychiatry.

If the courts uphold a right to be exempted from any public school teaching that is contrary to their religious beliefs, all of these situations and many more become fodder for future court cases, and it is difficult to imagine a principled basis on which to reject any of those claims once that precedent is set.

Obviously I would have a problem if Katherine's text books included items that I found morally reprehensible (e.g., if they had racist material, or showed how it's okay that some people sacrifice puppies to Sutech). But, remarkably enough, I don't think I'd hop into a law suit. I'd offer my objections (to the teacher, the administration, and the school board), I'd ask for some sort of accommodation, and, failing everything else, I'd tell Katherine how I felt about it and how I thought the materials were not right.

But, then, I don't insist that everyone agree with me, or that things I find offensive are, per se, unacceptable for everyone else.

As a side note -- I do wonder how this ruling might affect already-existing opt-out programs, e.g., requiring parental consent before sex ed. 

Filed under :: Politics & Law :: School Daze :: ZT & PC
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Too many tabs, too many things to do:

1. This year's Beloit Mindset list of what the Class of 2011 considers a normal part of their world.
2. Let soldiers blog! Folks don't realize that it's our ability to express ourselves, even critically, that makes this country great (esp. in the eyes of the rest of the world).
3. Another case of DRM screwing consumers. Sony's closing down their "Connect" DRM site, which means that folks who licensed music from them can only listen to it until they upgrade their PCs.
4. Yeah, I'm just waiting for a TSA agent to tell me to dump all the cables out of my brief case. Yeesh.
5. Cool interview with Russel T. Davies (of Doctor Who / Torchwood / etc fame). (via Les)
6. I am not a sporting fan, as anyone will tell you. That said, watching the last quarter or so of the Super Bowl yesterday was a real kick, with a record-breaking number of score lead changes and a couple of last-minute game-winning (or near-game-winning) plays. If they were all like that, I might be tempted to watch more football.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Homeland Security :: Media - Sports :: Media - TV - Doctor Who :: Media Moguls :: Potpourri :: School Daze :: Travel
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Biography Night at Katherine's school. A real classic.

UPDATE: The (admittedly not very good) picture shows the Beethoven puppet that Kitten and Margie put together, playing the CD-case piano that I helped her with. Nobody else did any musicians, and I was jazzed (so to speak) over how well she did, and her very non-stereotypical choice.

Filed under :: School Daze
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1. A couple of inches of snow on the ground at home this morning, including on the streets.  Highway was okay, but basically tire tracks down to the pavement only ... until I got to Wadsworth on 470, and suddenly the pavement was clear and dry all the rest of the way to work.  Weird -- snow usually gets worse the closer to the foothills.
2. My Outlook/Exchange is sometimes losing file-read flags on mail.  I.e., I came in this morning to find 93 unread messages in my inbox.  I determined quickly that there were only about ten that were truly new, unread mail; the rest were old, already-read mail that had regained unread status in some way.  Strange, and annoying.  Not the first time that's happened recently.
3. After waxing lyrical over the Stash Lemon-Ginger tea I had last weekend, I bought a small case of it via Amazon -- a container of six boxes of the stuff. Which shows how much I liked it.  Except I misread the fine print (well, not so fine, but overlooked), and it actually turned out to be four cases, each with six boxes with each box having 20 bags.  That's ... a lot of tea.  Guess I don't have to reuse bags for a while.
4. I can't believe it's already Thursday.
5. Katherine has her "biography night" tonight, where we'll get to see her Beethoven puppet, hear her Beethoven report, etc.  Should be fun.

Filed under :: Food & Drink :: Job Jollies :: My Computer :: Potpourri :: School Daze :: Weather
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