Atlantis Heads for Space

At about 1:30 local time this afternoon Atlantis and her crew successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida:
We were fortunate to be able to watch the launch live during my 6th period class.

Atlantis Set to Launch

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida later this afternoon. The 11 day mission to the International Space Station will deal primarily with the task of delivering spare parts that could be used to repair the ISS in the future. NASA plans to retire its shuttle fleet next year, and since the shuttle is the only vehicle capable to delivering large pieces of equipment to the space station, making sure that the ISS is well stocked with spares in the event of breakdown has become one of NASA's top priorities. As far as what sorts of spare parts are going up, NASA has this to say:

The spares are going up on two platforms – called external logistics carriers, or ELCs – to be attached on either side of the station’s truss, in hopes that wherever a failure happens, the necessary spare won’t be too far away. The ELCs carried up on STS-129 will be chocked full with two pump modules, two control moment gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, an ammonia tank assembly, a high-pressure gas tank, a latching end effector for the station’s robotic arm and a trailing umbilical system reel assembly for the railroad cart that allows the arm to move along the station’s truss system. There’s also a power control unit, a plasma container unit, a cargo transportation container and a battery charge/discharge unit. In all, that’s 27,250 pounds worth of spares to keep the station going long after the shuttles retire.

Atlantis will carry a crew of 6 astronauts and will dock with the ISS on flight day 3 (Wednesday). Astronaut Nicole Stott, currently a member of the ISS crew, will be returning to Earth aboard Atlantis after spending over two months in space.

How beautiful the enemy

This incredible piece of art is actually a 3-dimensional model of the H1N1 "swine" flu virus. It was designed by artist Luke Jerram as part of a series of microbial pathogens. Jerram has this to say about this collection:

Its great to be exploring the edges of scientific understanding and visualisation of a virus. Scientists aren't able to answer many of the questions I ask them, such as how the RNA is exactly fitted within the Capsid? At the moment, camera technology can't answer these questions either. I'm also pushing the boundaries of glassblowing. Some of my designs simply can't be created in glass. Some are simply too fragile and gravity would cause them to collapse under their own weight. So there's a very careful balancing act that needs to take place, between exploring current scientific knowledge and the limitations of glassblowing techniques.

A video of HIV being "made":
(Via Freakonomics)

Wasps

And then there's this:

CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) — More than two dozen students and teachers at a Cranston middle school were stung by wasps during a fire drill, and one child was taken to the hospital.

Cranston Schools Superintendent Peter Nero said about 30 students and teachers at the Western Hills Middle School were stung Monday morning — some multiple times — when a yellow jacket nest was disturbed as students were walking outside.

He says the school contacted the parents of all children who were stung and recommended out of caution that they be sent home for the day.

Nero said the school has canceled all physical education classes for the day, and that exterminators applied a non-toxic chemical spray on the hive.

iPod Shuffle

"Bobby McGee" performed by the man who wrote it (Kris Kristofferson) along with Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Nora Jones, and John Mellencamp. Enjoy:

Construction Update

Construction is still in full swing at the high school. Now that the roof has been placed over the new science addition, most of the work here for the past week seems to have involved the installation of plumbing and electrical lines. It looks like they'll soon be ready to start putting up the interior and exterior walls...at that point the new science wing will really take shape.

This wing will consist of three new classrooms. One will be a traditional science classroom/lab that will allow the four science teachers in our building to each have their own space. The second room will be the new home of our Pathways Program (investigating technologies classes), and the third will be the eventual house the EDTEC biotechnology program.
The other two areas of construction are also progressing quickly. The footprint of the new EDTEC center is now apparent since crews poured the concrete foundation and floors of those buildings:And work is also well underway on the new auditorium:

"The Bel Aire Collapsed"

Thanks to Mr. Bova for passing along this surprisingly fascinating video and blog post from the New York Times:

It was no way to treat a senior citizen: sending a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air hurtling into a collision with a 2009 Malibu at 40 miles per hour. As the video produced by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows, the outcome wasn’t pretty, either. [...]

“The Bel Air collapsed,” said David Zuby, the senior vice president for the institute’s vehicle research center in Virginia. “The area in which the driver was sitting collapsed completely around him.”

The test was to mark the 50th anniversary of the I.I.H.S., a group funded by the insurance industry. The idea was to show how much automotive safety has progressed in five decades.

While some people still think that the big steel bodies and sturdy frames of old cars meant stronger vehicles and good crash protection, the institute’s crash test shows that that just isn’t the case, Mr. Zuby said. Sophisticated engineering and high-strength steel give modern vehicles a huge advantage. [...]

The institute rates vehicles as Good, Acceptable, Marginal or Poor. The group looks at how well the structure of the vehicle held up and the likelihood of injuries to the head, chest and legs. The Bel Air got a Poor rating in every category.

The 2009 Malibu got Good in every category but the one for the left leg and foot, which was rated Marginal.

And what does this mean to owners of 1959 Bel Airs? Mr. Zuby said driving in a parade was probably safe because the speeds were slow and it was a controlled environment.

“I wouldn’t recommend that anybody use an antique car like this for their daily driving around,” he said.

Another part of the post admits that the crash-test-dummy in the Bel Aire "flies around like Peter Pan." I'm not sure why I find this so fascinatin...

KU bus crashes into science building

Thanks to Mr. Peltzman for pointing out this little tidbit from our local newspaper:

The comments to the story are worth reading...especially Fooboy's: "Yet another senseless attack on science in Kansas"!

Ohio delays execution due to "vein troubles"

This from the Associated Press:

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Gov. Ted Strickland ordered a weeklong reprieve for a condemned inmate Tuesday after the Ohio execution team had problems finding usable veins for the lethal injection even after the inmate tried to help.

Executioners were unable for more than two hours to find veins that would accept fluid from an IV without collapsing for 53-year-old Romell Broom, who was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in 1984. At one point, Broom covered his face with both hands and appeared to be crying.

This news just broke this evening, so I haven't had the opportunity to study Broom's case. It sounds like he is guilty of a truly horrendous crime. But to have a man prepare for death, be escorted to the execution chamber and strapped to the table, and then to try to kill him for TWO HOURS only to lead him back to his cell and tell him "Sorry for the inconvenience...what do you say we try again in a week?" If this isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is.

My thoughts and prayers tonight are with Broom and his family, as well as with the friends and family of Tryna Middleton. May they all find peace without vengence.

"Flipping" through the 'Net

I get most of my news and information from the internet. I love being able to quickly click through a diversity of pages from politics to news to sports to religion to science....you get the picture. But there's just something about setting down with a newspaper, magazine, or even a book and physically flipping through the pages. I miss that.* Once in awhile I would like to have back that physical relationship with the media I'm consuming.

And, as always, the Google Overlords** have heard my plight and are there for me. Googlelabs is testdriving a new feature called "Google Fast Flip". The idea is simple...use your mouse and cursor to "flip" through the front pages of popular websites, much like you would browse through the pages of a magazine. It's an uber-quick way to peruse top headlines and stories, and it's just a lot more fun than clicking buttons and embedded links. Try it. You'll like it.

*Full disclosure: I've been known to carry magazines around in my courier bag for weeks without ever reading them. I just like the feeling of knowing I can pull one out and leaf through it whenever I feel like it.

**Just to repeat what I've said here previously. I, for one, will welcome the rule of the Overlords when it comes.

(via, as is often the case, A. Sullivan)

This just isn't fair:

Discovery Lands in California

From NASA:

Space shuttle Discovery touched down at Edwards Air Force Base In California on Friday to end a 14-day mission to the International Space Station dedicated to outfitting the orbital laboratory with new experiments, science equipment, supplies and other gear the six people living on the station will need. Unacceptable weather conditions at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday and Friday forced the detour by Discovery to the West Coast.

"We're very happy to be back on land here in California," STS-128 Commander Rick "C.J." Sturckow said after the astronauts got off the shuttle and surveyed their craft. "It was a great mission and we just want to thank everybody for their support."

The crew of seven astronauts, including former station resident Tim Kopra, will fly to their training base at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday. Meanwhile, technicians at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, adjacent to Edwards, will take about a week to get the spacecraft ready for its cross-country flight back to Kennedy atop a modified 747.

Welcome home Discovery!

What this day Means...

I don't think most of us will forget where we were and what we were doing when we heard about it. Even those of us 1400 miles away in the middle of Kansas. I was beginning my second year teaching, and had just finished taking roll for one of my biology classes when the chemistry teacher from across the hall came into my room. She walked directly over to me and whispered in my ear, "two planes simultaneously crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon..." My first thought, honestly, was that she was telling me a joke (...so a Rabbi, and Priest, and Minister all walk into a bar...). My second thought was "why in the hell is she interrupting my class to tell me this. The look on her face confirmed that my third thought was correct: what she was saying had really happened.

Our administrators turned on several TV's in the commons area of the high school, and an open pass was given for teachers to bring their students out to watch the news as it broke. As I shuffled my class through the hallway and into the commons area, I was taken back to that day at St. John's grade school when Sister Rita Ann shuffled my 4th grade class into the hallway to gather with our schoolmates around the one TV in the building to watch the Challenger explode over and over and over again in slow motion. Now, I as moved my own class towards one of the formative moments of their lives, I caught glimpses of conversations and information from the classrooms that we passed: "...a third plane hit the second tower...Tower 1 fell...Pentagon burning..."

We got to the commons area just in time to see Tower 2 fall...the death of thousands broadcast live to millions. I remember being stunned...almost numb. It's like when you look outside on a snowy day and there's no sound, no wind, no smells...just a vast quiet emptiness. I remember some of the conversations I had with my students at that moment. Who would do this? What will the US do? Could this possibly be just a really bad accident? At one point, I simply looked at a young girl and said, "you'll remember this moment for the rest of your life." I remember the conversations with my colleagues. What's "Al Qaeda"? How does Iraq fit into this? Is it true there was a fourth plane? Nuke 'em all! And, of course, how will this affect gas prices?

I don't think that the human mind is neurologically capable of fully understanding something like the September 11 attacks in real time. It needs processing time to take such a dramatically tragic event and assimilate it into our individual worldviews. And as the true scope of what happened became apparent over the hours, days and weeks to come, each of us came to grips with the attacks in our own ways. For most of us, the feelings of helplessness that we experienced as we watched the towers fall was replaced with a feeling of helplessness as we watched the friends and loved ones of the victims search for, and grieve for, the dead and missing. The acute stinging rage of those first confused moments was replaced with a deep national pride as we witnessed an outpouring of public support and goodwill the likes of which has never been seen before.

But this coming-to-terms didn't end when that fall of 2001 turned to winter. It continued for months and years to come...it continues today. It has continued through the cleanup and the rebuilding. It has continued through the two bloody, length, and ongoing wars that were spun from it. It has continued through two Presidential elections. Indeed, it has continued even through a time when 9/11 has become more of an icon of political division and frearmongering than a solemn remembrance. It has now continued through the memorial events of eight anniversaries, and it will continue through many more of these. Much as my generation is still learning lessons from the Pearl Harbor of our grandparents, the lessons of September 11, 2001 will still be evolving when my young son reaches adulthood and has his own family,and is setting down trying to record his own thoughts about the inevitable event that will define his generation's moment in history.

The funny thing about historical events is that they happened in a time that we can't visit anymore. The hurt and the pain and the ugly of that day can never be undone. Those lost to the rubble of the World Trade Center, and the fire of the Pentagon, and a grassy field in Pennsylvania will never be brought back. And while "9/11" has become an icon of political division and doomsday scare tactics, the tragic events of that day will continue to teach us lessons as long as we remember them.

And that's why we must remember. And that's why we will remember. Always.

Mystery "M"

I haven't done this yet this year, so let's give it a try. Can you identify where this "M" comes from?
Leave your guesses as a comment...the answer will be revealed next week. Good luck!

Here's a compilation of "mystery m's" from last year.

Video and Comments from David Grann

Thanks to the Texas Moratorium Network for noticing my post from last night, and for putting together a remarkable collection of information about the Willingham case.

Talkback Tuesday: Football Wins

The EHS football team got off to a great start last Friday by defeating Spring Hill 28-0 in their home opener. They will play 8 more regular season games, and up to 5 additional games if they make the playoffs. This week's "talkback" quesion is: How many games will the EHS varsity football team win this season?

Please vote in the right-hand margin of this page, and feel free to voice your opinion in the comments.

More on Willingham

A week ago, I posted about an article that appeared recently in The New Yorker detailing the conviction, appeals, and eventual execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for allegedly starting a fire that killed his three small children. I still believe that this is an important piece of reporting that needs to be read and shared.

On August 28, John Jackson, who was one of the prosecutors in the Willingham case and who is now a federal judge, published an op-ed piece in the Corsica Daily Sun, which is the local newpaper in Corsica Texas, where the Willingham fire occurred. Jackson, obviously, takes the opportunity to defend himself:

The Willingham trial has become a sort of cause celebre by anti-death penalty proponents because it seems to be an example of outmoded scientific techniques which led to a miscarriage of justice. In fact, the trial testimony...contains overwhelming evidence of guilt completely independent of the undeniably flawed forensic report.

Jackson goes on to list seven points that are supposed to prove that justice was served in the case.

The author of the New Yorker article, David Grann, defends himself by offering a point-by-point rebuttal of Jackson's claims. Both Jackson's letter and Grann's response are worth reading...neither is very long.

One of my favorite pieces in this back-and-forth is when Jackson reminds his readers that Willingham refused to take a lie detector test which could prove his innocence:

Consistent with typical Navarro County death penalty practice, Willingham was offered the opportunity to eliminate himself as a suspect by polygraph examination. Such opportunity was rejected in the most vulgar and insulting manner...

Grann responds:

I do not know if this is true, though it may be. After Willingham was charged with murder, he stopped coöperating with authorities. (On death row, Willingham wrote to several legal organizations asking them if they could give him a polygraph so that he could prove his innocence.) But even if he refused to take a polygraph after he was arrested, polygraphs are notoriously unreliable, and are not admissible in a court of law. As a result, defense attorneys routinely do not let their clients take polygraphs. Ernest Willis, who I discuss in my piece, was also convicted of committing arson, in a case that was eerily similar to Willingham’s. He had taken a polygraph, and the results were interpreted by police and the prosecutor as a sign that he was guilty. Evidence later emerged, however, that he had not set the fire, and he was exonerated and released, after seventeen years on death row. The idea that a lie-detector test (or the refusal to take one) could be considered evidence cuts to the core of the problems in the Willingham case: a reliance on unreliable and unsound scientific techniques. (emphasis mine)

I would add one piece to Grann's rebuttal. Jackson states in the conclusion to his column that:

The Willingham case was charged as a multiple child murder, and not an arson-murder to achieve capital status. I am convinced that in the absence of any arson testimony, the outcome of the trial would have been unchanged, a fact that did not escape the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

His argument here is that, even if Willingham didn't set the fire, he would still be eligible for the death penalty because the "crime" involved the "murder" of multiple children. The point that he is blatantly missing is that, if there was no fire, then the deaths of multiple children would not have occurred. I'm assuming that Judge Jackson is intelligent enough to see how flawed his logic is and am left thinking that he's simply hoping that his readers won't notice. The emperor is naked.

At some point, the people involved in the prosecution of this case are going to run out of excuses to hide behind and admit that they most likely executed an innocent man. And when that happens, we as a society will have to come to finally look at capital punishment as the barbaric practice that it really is.

Until then, I'm thankful people like Andrew Sullivan for spreading the word about stories like this.

Daily Recap: Tuesday, 9/8

Anatomy and Physiology:
We took notes over epithelial tissues. The assignment was to construct a graphic organizer listing the name, cell shape, number of layers, locations, and functions of each type of epithelium discussed (except for glandular, which we'll discuss later).

6th period was interrupted by construction noise and didn't get all of the notes taken. We'll finish them tomorrow before we begin the epithelium lab.

Biology:
We reviewed the scientific process.

Discovery Update

Space Shuttle Discovery is now well into its 14 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida late Friday night, the crew of Discovery spent their first day in orbit on Saturday chasing down the ISS and inspecting the orbiter's heat shields for damage. On Sunday, Discovery arrived at, and successfully docked with, the International Space Station.

One of the first items of business after docking was to transfer crew members. Astronaunt Nicole Stott, who rode up on Discovery, became a member of the ISS crew, relieving astronaut Tim Kopra who will be returning to Earth aboard Discovery after spending 44 days aboard the ISS.

On Monday, ISS and shuttle crews worked together to transfer materials from Discovery onto the space station. One of the most touted pieces of equipment transferred was the COLBERT treadmill, which is named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. The heat shield inspection was also completed on Sunday, when mission control confirming that the orbiter is safe for re-entry.

On Tuesday, the first of three planned spacewalks went off without a hitch. astronauts Danny Olivas and Nicole Stott spent a total of 6 hours, 35 minutes outside of the space station.

Daily Recap: Wednesday, 9/2

A & P:
Unit 1 Test!

Biology:
We took notes covering the nature of science. These can be downloaded from the course website.

Thoughts on Death and Justice

Last night I was reading an article from The New Yorker detailing the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for killing his three young children (three daughters...a two-year-old and a set of one-year-old twins) by setting fire to their home. Cameron maintained his innocence throughout the trial, conviction, and appeals...even refusing to accept a pre-trial plea bargain that would have kept him off of death row. His final words:

The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. Form God's dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.

A report released last month by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which reviewed the cases against Willingham and another convicted arsonist (Ernest Ray Willis) found that the evidence supporting arson as the cause of the fire wasn't as airtight as the prosecution presented it at the trial, and stated that:

The investigators had a poor understanding of fire science and failed to acknowledge or apply the contemporaneous understanding of the limitations of fire indicators. Their methodologies did not comport with the scientific method or the process of elimination. A finding of arson could not be sustained based upon the standard of care expressed by [National Fire Protection Association guidelines for fire and explosions investigations] or the standard of care expressed in fire investigation texts and papers in the period 1980-1992.

In short, neither Willingham nor Willis got a fair trial. Does this new report prove their innocence? Absolutely not. But it does show that each of them, on separate occasions, got railroaded by the same flawed justice system. Willis, by the way, was exonerated and released from prison in 2004 after spending 17 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Willingham, as I've already me ntioned, was executed while maintaining his innocence. His blood is on the hands of every one of us.

A recent issue of National Geographic gave a small piece of attention to the global prevalence capital punishment. And while it brings good news for opponents of the death penalty, it doesn't paint a pretty picture of our American justice system (via Sister Helen Prejean):

In the early 1800s an Englishman could be hanged for stealing a shirt. By the end of the 1900s, growing concern for individual rights had caused the death penalty to disappear from the United Kingdom and nearly everywhere else in the Western world. Two exceptions are Belarus and the United States, although this year New Mexico became the 15th state to outlaw capital punishment. Death-penalty opponents cite the exoneration of 131 people on death row since 1973 as well as the high cost of capital cases.

Defenders argue that the penalty offers justice and cite some studies that show it’s a deterrent. The practice is strong in culturally conservative areas—Japan, Saudi Arabia, Texas—and totalitarian regimes.

So while the use of capital punishment is decreasing dramatically worldwide, America is holding out as one of the few places that still practices what most of the developed world has found to be an ineffective and excessively cruel form of punishment. According to their data, in 2008 the United States ranked fourth worldwide in state sponsored executions...behind such warm-and-fuzzy countries as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and slightly ahead of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and North Korea.

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea...these are the places that sanction the intentional killing of their citizens. Why are so many of us so proud to be counted among them? And why are we, as citizens, content to allow our government to continue to allow potentially innocent people to be put to death in the name of "justice"?

Talkback Tuesday: How scared of the flu are you?

How scared of the H1N1 "swine" flu are you? Feel free to post a response in the comments section, or vote in the left-hand margin of this blog.

Daily Recap: Tuesday, 9/1

A & P: Test prep day! We went over the first unit's progress report, and briefly discussed what will be on tomorrow's exam. The rest of the period was work time to prepare for the test.

Biology: We read Section 1.3 and completed a "contextual redefinition" worksheet over the key vocabulary.

Construction Update

Work is progressing on the new science rooms at EHS. Last week, crews poured the concrete foundation and floors, and we got the first glimpse of the "footprint" of our new space. Later in the week, they brought in a crane and erected the vertical support beams. This morning, the crane was back, and the roof beams were set in place:

With the skeleton of the new science pod now visible, it's hard not to start getting excited to move into the MUCH NEEDED new space. I'll continue to post updates and photos throughout the project.

Late Friday night, Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 14 day mission to rendezvous with the Internation Space Station (ISS):

Daily Recap: Monday, 8/31

A&P:
We reviewed the major organ systems of the body, covering the major organs and functions of each. After that, there was some work time to begin preparing for Thursday's exam. A new Physio-Phocus was also passed out.

Biology:
We spent most of the period reviewing the 8 characteristics of living things, including learning the mnemonic device "HOG RACER" to help remember them. (Homeostasis, Organization, Growth, Reproduction, Adaptation, Cells, Energy, Response) The rest of the class period was work time to get started on the section and chapter assessment exercises from Chapter 1.

In which I make worthless excuses...

I'm sorry that the posting has been slow for these first couple of weeks back. It's taken me a little longer to get "into the groove" than I thought it would...but I'm trying. I'm sorry to disappoint the one or two of you that actually check out this blog once in awhile.

I thought I'd give you a heads-up on the different regular features that you can expect here this semester:
Mondays: Weekend update...anything important that happened over the weekend
Tuesdays: Readers response/Ask Mr. Magette...I'll be soliciting your questions opinions on these days
Wednesdays: "Mystery M"...I had a lot of fun with this last year, so we'll do it again
Thursdays: Reading list/Blogroll...what I'm reading online and in print
Fridays: Friday's Final Four...the top four news stories of the week

In addition to these weekly features, I'll continue some of the other successful postings from last year. Look for the "daily recap" each afternoon, and also look for more guest posts throughout the school year.

Locked Up Abroad

I don't watch a lot of TV, but the National Geographic Channel has a show on Wednesday nights called "Locked Up Abroad." It's a documentary/reality TV show that details the stories of American citizens who end up getting put in foreign prisons. The episodes that I've seen typically involve someone who, desperate for money, agrees to help smuggle drugs across international borders. To be honest, this show is becoming somewhat of an obsession for me.

I went through the same thing a few years ago with a show on A&E called "Intervention". Missesmagette thinks that I'm drawn to these shows because I like to be reminded of how relatively simple and easy my life is. I'm not entirely sure she's wrong.

Texas Bible Class

In 2007, the Texas legislature passed House Bill 1287 into law. The law, which goes into effect this fall, requires all public schools in the state of Texas to offer elective courses on the Bible. While most of us will easily recognize this as thinly disguised religious indoctrination, there are those who will undoubtedly feel that this law is purely secular, especially when the following language from the bill is considered:

[The course] must be taught in an objective and nondevotional manner that does not attempt to indoctrinate students as to either the truth or falsity of the Judeo-Christian biblical materials or of texts from other religious or cultural traditions other than the Judeo-Christian tradition...[and] may not include teaching of a religious doctrine or a sectarian interpretation of the Old or New Testament or of texts from other religious or cultural traditions other than the Judeo-Christian tradition; and...may not disparage or encourage a commitment to a set of religious beliefs.

Isn't that nice? A school, while teaching a course on the Bible, won't be encouraging "commitment" to a particular religious belief system. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Teach the Bible without promoting a particular set of religious beliefs? You might as well try to teach the Magna Carta without mentioning English history. It can't be done. And to mandate Bible classes alone, without any regard or attention to the sacred texts of other religions, is the establishment, through favor, or a particular religious belief by a state government. And that, my dear readers, is unconstitutional.

But why stop there? Let's dig a little deeper into this little piece of legislation. The stated purposes of this class are to:

(1) accommodate the rights and desires of teachers who wish to teach and students who wish to study, as applicable, the Old or New Testament; and (2) familiarize students with: the contents of the Old or New Testament; the history recorded by the Old or New Testament; the literary style and structure of the Old or New Testament; the customs and cultures of the peoples and societies recorded in the Old or New Testament; and the influence of the Old or New Testament on law, history, government, literature, art, music, customs, morals, values, and culture.

Now the authors of the bill have done a couple of things here. First, they try to pass off this gross violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution by stating they are simply trying to accommodate the "rights" of students and teachers. Then they give a nicely detailed hierarchy of what students should learn from the class. By the time you read through that list, you're left with the impression that the courses purpose is purely secular: a chance to study the historical, sociological, and literary impact of the most popular book in history. As one teacher puts it:

"By the end of the year, what they begin to realize is that it is pervasive. You can't get away from it. The kids came back and were like 'It's everywhere,'" said John Keeling, the social studies chair at Whitehouse High School. Whitehouse already offers a Bible elective. "The purpose of a course like this isn't even really to get kids to believe it, per se, it is just to appreciate the profound impact that it has had on our history and on our government."

But if you look back at the list of what sorts of things a student would "familiarize" themselves with, you see the true intent:
1. The content of the Old or New Testament: Students will learn the content of the Bible. There's not much secular about that.
2. The history recorded by the Old or New Testament: Notice that they don't say the history OF the Old or New Testament, but the history RECORDED BY the Old or New Testament.

The other objectives are, admittedly, more secular. But it's hard to ignore the religious implications of the first two. And even harder to ignore that the law goes on to mandate that the Bible itself will be the primary textbook used in the course. Never mind the wealth of good, scholarly literature that speaks directly to the historical and cultural context in which the Bible was written, or the sociological and cultural impacts of the Old and New Testaments over the past two millenia (in all fairness the law does allow for other "supplemental" readings to be used), this mandate simply takes for granted that a student will learn everything that they need to know about the Bible by simply...reading the Bible.

This is fundamentalism. And this is state sponsored religious indoctrination. And to disguise it as something else is even worse...its brainwashing. It blatantly flies in the face of one of the freedoms that we hold dearest. It makes a mockery of public education. And in trying to fit religion through a secular loophole, it comes dangerously close to being sacrilegious.

Breakthrough

Earlier today I made a test post, and while I usually delete these (on the rare occasion that they actually work), I'm going to keep this one up. It's the first post that I made from my cell phone. (That's right, boys and girls, Mistermagette has overcome his iPhone-Deficit-Disorder (iDD) to be able to post on-the-go!) And while this might not be a big deal to a lot of people, for me it's pretty huge...and since it's my blog, I can do what I want. And right now I want to celebrate this small technological victory.

So, from now on, if you see a post that doesn't have title, and isn't tagged at the end, then you can probably assume that it was made from a cell phone and not from a computer.

Testing

Backyard ecology

We had a couple of visitors to our back deck yesterday afternoon:

It's coming...

Teachers report tomorrow. Freshman on Monday. I'll see the rest of you a week from today!

Flu update

Here are the flu numbers at the end of last week:


4,714 confirmed cases in 47 states with 4 confirmed deaths (2 in Texas, one in Washington, and the latest in Arizona). There have been 30 confirmed cases in Kansas (34 according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment). These have occured in Dickinson, Ford, Geary, Johnson, Ottawa, Riley, Saline, Sedgwick, and Wyandotte counties.

More backyard ecology

A gray tree frog:

Missesmagette found this little guy hiding in our daylillies this afternoon. There are two species of gray tree frogs found in this area, the common gray tree frog, Hyla versicolor, and the southern (or "Cope's") gray tree frog, Hyla chrysoscelis. These two species appear identical except for their calls. Interestingly, Hyla versicolor is a tetraploid species, meaning that it has 4 sets of chromosomes as an adult (most vertebrates only have two sets of chromosomes and are referred to as "diploid"). Both of these closely related species can change colors to blend into their environment, which is why this little guy is such a pretty green.

Things I like

The house is quiet, Littlemagette's sleeping peacefully in the next room, I've got the taste of salt on my lips from a really nice evening run, the window's open next to me and a cool spring breeze is blowing in, and Bailey the Wonder Dog is curled up on the floor beside me. She just started woofing in her sleep...perhaps she's dreaming about chasing robins... And with the last day of school being tomorrow I have a deep sense of accomplishment. Missesmagette is healthy and happy and carrying Babymagette inside of her...the expectation of new life to accompany this spring feeling.

Deep breath...exhale...things are good in this moment.

Robin update III: Return of the prodigal son

Yesterday (Saturday) provided another encounter with the brood of robins that hatched under our back deck. In case you lost track, here's a rundown of the current statisctics: 1) four birds hatched two weeks ago, 2) the first one to leave the nest got mauled by Bailey (the Wonder Dog) on Thursday, 3) I saw the second bird fly out of our yard later Thursday evening, 4) Wonder Dog struck again on Friday and mauled the third fledgling in the middle of a thunderstorm, and 4) the fourth bird is no longer in the nest...I have no idea what happened to it.

Since all four of the fledgling birds have now left the nest and are either dead or flying, Missesmagette and I feel a little more comfortable about letting BTWD into the back yard...but we always go out first to make sure the coast is clear before letting her out. Typically, if the family of robins is around, Momma robin will start making her alarm call as soon as we're outside. If we hear that, then we know that at least one of the juveniles is in the area, and we'll keep Bailey on leash. If we don't hear it, then we assume that all is well and Bailey can go about her business untethered.

Yesterday I spent a couple of minutes on the deck and didn't hear anything, so we let the dog out.* Bailey hadn't gotten halfway across the yard when Momma robin suddenly showed up and started making her noise. Crap. Now there's 80 pounds of black dog in the yard with a pound or two of defenseless bird. But something funny happened...when Momma robin showed up, Bailey (the Wonder Dog) actually COWERED under the deck. My dog has actually learned to be afraid of a bird. I have to admit, there's that "manly" part of me that's embarrassed for my wimpy dog. But most of me is a little relieved that maybe she's starting to learn her lesson about eating poor defenseless creatures that show up in our yard.**

I still took a quick survey of the back yard to make sure there were no baby robins within her reach, just in case her courage returned, her instincts kicked back in, or both. I was rewarded with this:
There, perched in the maple tree next to our deck was one of the juveniles. Now I don't have any way of knowing if this is the bird that I saw leaving the yard, or if it's the 4th one that I wasn't able to account for. But whichever one it was, I'm grateful that it came back to spend a few minutes with us.

*So, to answer that age old question of "Who let the dog out?...it was me.
**GREAT story about a baby opossum that she got a hold of once. Good times with that one...

Sunday update: The birds weren't around nearly as much today. I did see Momma robin several times, and heard her several more, but never saw the juvenile again. At one point I thought I caught him flying back into his favorite maple tree out of the corner of my eye. I looked and looked*** but couldn't see anything to confirm whether it actually was the little robin or not. The little buggers sure are camouflaged well.

***I can only spend so much time starting up into trees before Littlemagette starts to worry that his daddy's gone off the deep end, or Missesmagette starts to make comments about me becoming "Tarzan of the Birds".

Camelot Climate Index

It was a beautiful afternoon and evening in northeast Kansas...one of those that makes a person happy to live here. Typically, it seems that out of 365 days in a year, 100 are too hot, 100 are too cold, 100 are rainy, and the rest are windy (alot of those hot, cold, or rainy days are also pretty windy). Every now and then, though, you get a really perfect day sandwiched between the rest. And while this morning was chilly and windy, this afternoon and evening were stellar.

This reminded me of something that I read last month. Jan Null (great science name) has published what he calls the "Camelot Climate Index". Basically he's ranked 158 U.S. cities on their average year-round climate, and while it's more "fun with numbers" than hard science, it's still pretty interesting.

The top 4 cities are San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, all in California (scoring 88, 87, 86, and 85, respectively). Cities in the top 10 also include Honolulu, Hawaii, Key West, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. The city that earned the distinction as being the worst in terms of climate was Juneau, Alaska, with a score of 52.

So how does our local weather stack up to the best and worst in the nation? Kansas City comes in at number 82 on the list with a score of 65. Topeka did slightly worse, scoring 64 points and landing at number 111 out of 158.

(via weather.com blogs)

Robin update part II: More bad news, a death talk, and an empty nest

Bailey the Wonder Dog chewed up another of our young robins yesterday. We didn't mean for it to happen...it was an oversight to even let her into the back yard. You see, a pretty good line of storms moved through town yesterday afternoon and dropped about 3 inches of rain on us. For a little while, there was concern that the storms could become severe or even turn tornadic. And in the middle of it all I found myself back in the yard, in the middle of a downpour, gently scooping up the mauled remains of a second fledgling.

In all fairness to the dog, there's no way to know if the bird was dead before she got to her or not. I also think it needs to be mentioned that the fledgling had to be on the ground when Bailey got it. And a bird that small and defenseless stuck on the ground in a torrential downpour was probably doomed...BTWD might have just been speeding up the inevitable. But it still sucked.

This time I felt like I couldn't dance around the issue with Littlemagette. The "I have to clean up some Bailey poop" excuse doesn't really work when there's a storm going on. On the other hand, it could have come in handy when he goes to grade school:

Bully kid: My daddy's tough!
Littlemagette: Well my daddy's tough to!
Bully kid: Oh yeah? Well my daddy's bigger than your daddy!
Littlemagette: Oh yeah? Well my daddy runs out into thunderstorms to pick up dog poop!
Bully kid: Ooohhh....here's my lunch money...take it and please just don't hurt me.

So after conducting my second trash can solo funeral in two days, I got to have another "death talk" with Littlemagette. (As a side note, if I can handle these "death talks", the inevitable "sex talk" is going to be a piece of cake. I teach biology...I can talk about sex. This metaphysical death stuff, though, is hard.) The conversations went something like this:

Littlemagette (LM): What did you do?
Mistermagette (MM): One of the litte birds died. I had to go get it.
LM: One of the robins?
MM: Yes.
LM: Why did it die?
MM: Sometimes baby birds blow out of their nests in storms.*
LM: And they die?
MM: Yes.
LM: What happens when they die?
MM: Well, when something dies it goes to live with God.**
LM: How does it get there?
MM: I think sometimes God comes to get it.
LM: Did God come to get the little baby robin?
MM: I think he probably did.
LM: (Looking out the window at the pouring rain) How? I didn't see Him?***
MM: God usually comes when we're not looking.
LM: Did you ever see him?
MM: No.****

Notes on this conversation:
*This may make me a liar, but I don't have the heart to tell Littlemagette that our dog is a vicious killer of baby birds. He can learn the whole "nature red in tooth and claw" stuff when he's a little older. (Maybe I'll work that into the sex talk.)
**I don't wish to argue about whether or not animals go to heaven. I'm trying to explain something to a 3-year-old.
***I remember having this exact conversation with my parents when I wasn't much older than Littlemagette. A calf had died on the farm, and I spent the next morning waiting for God to fly down in a helicopter and get it.
****For the record, I see God every time I look at Littlemagette...but I'm pretty sure his head would explode if I tried to explain THAT one to him.

When everything was said and done, I decided to check the nest one last time. Empty. All four birds were gone. I can confirm that two are dead. I saw one leave the nest. I'm not sure what happened to the fourth...I hope the little guy made it.

Atlantis update

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) has now been in orbit for 4 1/2 days, so I thought this would be a good time for a little bit of an update. Most of what I'm giving you comes from NASA's website, which is posting a very detailed status blog.

After lifting off early Monday afternoon, the astronauts spent most of Tuesday using cameras attached to the shuttle's boom to inspect the heat shield for damage. This is standard protocol after the Space Shuttle Comumbia (STS-107) disintegrated upon reentry at the completion of its mission to space. Seven astronauts were killed in the disaster which resulted from damage sustained by the heat shield during liftoff. The initial inspection of Atlantis's heat shield showed only a minor defect, which at this point isn't thought to pose a risk to the shuttle or her crew. (BTW...the question I asked a few days ago relates to this. Space Shuttle Endeavor is still setting on a launch pad in Florida. There is a crew of 4 astronauts on "stand by" ready to do rescue the Atlantis crew should that orbiter be determined to be unsafe.)
The main order of business on Wednesday was to capture the Hubble Space Telescope using the shuttle's boom arm, and secure it to the cargo bay of the orbiter.

Yesterday, Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel completed the first of 5 scheduled spacewalks for this mission. The spacewalk lasted about 7.5 hours and was spent replacing a camera and a computer on the telescope, doing some maintenance work, and making preparations for subsequent spacewalks later in the mission.
Today (Friday), Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good completed the mission's second spacewalk. At just under 8 hours, this was the 8th longest spacewalk in history. (Think about that...a normal work or school day spent in a space outside of the spacecraft...) This time was spent replacing several sensors and a batteries on the telescope.

The last three spacewalks are scheduled to be completed in the next three days.

Robin update Part I: Bad news, Good news

Yesterday morning I let BTWD (Baily the Wonder Dog)out to do her thing while I ate breakfast. Typically, she'll go out, run around for awhile, and show up at the back door begging to be let back in within a few minutes. Lately, however, she's been content to stay outside and sniff at the deck boards above the robin's nest that I've been telling you about. Yesterday, she didn't even come back up on the deck...she was content to stay down in the yard. In fact, I had to call her several times to finally get her to come in. This was clue number one that something wasn't right.

I noticed clue number two when she finally came in. She was literally foaming at the mouth. Not the mad-dog-Atticus-get-your-gun type of foaming, but the frothy spit that means she's been nibbling on something pretty excitedly. Those of you with big dogs will know what I'm talking about. Those of you with cats won't.

Clue number three came when I got home from school yesterday afternoon. Momma bird was setting on the fence making her alarm call before I even let BTWD out into the yard. When I finally did let the big black beast out, momma bird was as bold as I've ever seen her, making repeated dive bomb swoops, and diligently sharpening her beak on her perch between attacks. That's when I finally realized that I should probably check things out.

Sure enough, right at the bottom of our deck stairs was what remained of one of the fledgling birds. While it's impossible to know if the bird was dead before Bailey got to it, or if it died of lab attack, what was left post-mortem was pretty torn up. So I had an impromptu little solo birdie funeral, wrapped the poor little guy up in a baggie, and gave him as dignified a burial as I could in our garbage can. All the while telling Littlemagette (who was quite curious about all of this) that I was scooping up some really messy Bailey poop.

After the Weldon Enterprises burial, I returned to the back yard and heard a new sound. It was momma robin, setting in her usual spot on the fence...but instead of the shrill alarm call I've grown used to, I heard a much deeper, throatier call. It was almost as if she was asking us a question. I listened to it for a minute before realizing that it was a searching call. She was vocalizing in an attempt to locate her missing chick. It was truly a heartbreaking sound.

Almost as if on cue, though, her searching call was answered by a short little peep which sent her zooming across the yard. When she landed on our shed, I could hardly believe my eyes. There, clinging desperately to the sloped roof, was a second fledgling robin! I got to watch him for a couple of seconds before he flapped his wings twice and disappeared over the fence and out of our lives. Momma bird followed right behind him, and while I can't be sure, I like to think that in that moment she and I felt a common emotion of grief overcome by joy.

I don't know what happened to that second little bird. The odds are definitely against him. But I have to think that being able to get out of that nest, past BTWD, and over the fence means he's a survivor that has at least a chance.

Flu update

Here's a little different look at the data. This graph shows total confirmed flu cases in the US for each day since April 23:
Can any of my biology students explain the significance of the shape of this curve?

More from the birds...

This is what I'm talking about:

Here we have Bailey (the wonder dog) trying to figure out how to get her big ol' mouth wedged down between the boards of the deck to the tasty-smelling little birds below. You'll notice behind her is the momma robin sitting on the railing making a lot of noise. I don't speak robin, but I'm sure what she's saying isn't really school appropriate...

My feathered friends

I just wanted to take a minute and update you on the family of robins that's taken up residence under our back deck. The young are either fully fledged or close to it, and will probably be leaving the nest in the next few days. I guess that's a good thing, since they're just about to outgrow it:


The mother, for her part, still doesn't like me, and at one point this afternoon I actually thought she was going to come after me. Bailey (the wonder dog) pretty much lets momma robin push her around...and after watching the bird sharpen her beak on the fence I can understand why. She can be a pretty intimidating little bird when she wants to be. The father was keeping a close eye on me also, but he isn't quite as bold as the momma. Both of these pictures are of the bird I'm referring to as the mother...

Space Shuttle question

This NASA image was take a few weeks ago at the Kennedy Space Center and shows two shuttles sitting on launch pads. The Shuttle in the foreground (on the left in this image) is Atlantis, which lifted off on Monday afternoon as STS-125. The second shuttle in the background is Endeavor:
My question is this: why are there TWO shuttles ready to launch?
And no, it doesn't have anything to do with this scenario:

Flu update

Here's the latest numbers from the CDC:
3009 confirmed cases in 45 states with 3 deaths. This rate of mortality here is consistent with typical seasonal flu strains. What's not typical is how quickly this thing is spreading. The last time I did an update was last Thursday, and the numbers then were 893 cases in 41 states, with 7 confirmed cases in Kansas.

The question I have is this: Is it, perhaps, a GOOD thing that this virus is spreading quickly? Since it doesn't appear, at this point, to be exceedingly lethal, maybe it's a good thing that it's spreading rapidly. If the virus goes away over the summer and returns in the fall as some health experts are predicting, then wouldn't it be beneficial that a large percentage of the population was exposed to it now and will therefor have a degree of immunity to it? Especially if it mutates and becomes more deadly between now and then? I don't know...it's just a thought.

For now, it's still something to be taken seriously. And by that I mean keep washing your hands and covering your mouths to cough and sneeze. If you feel sick, stay home and call your doctor. Get lots of rest and drink lots of fluids. And don't panic...we've got a long ways to go before we reach "HFC" level.

Atlantis off to Hubble

At 1:00 yesterday afternoon, the space shuttle Atlantic (STS 125) successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis is carrying a crew of 7 astronauts on an 11 day mission to service and add equipment to the Hubble Space Telescope. This will be the last shuttle mission to Hubble, since NASA will be retiring the fleet of spacecraft next year.

Here's video of the launch. For reasons that I plan on discussing later, a shuttle launch always fills me with a sense of awe. (BTW...I recommend clicking on the "HD" button that comes up once the video is playing...very cool.)

The crew spent their first full day in space today inspecting Atlantis's heat shields for any damage that might have occurred during liftoff. That inspection turned up a few minor dings which the experts at NASA will have to analyze. They are not, at this point, expected to cause a problem with the shuttle's flight or re-entry.

Atlantis is expect to rendezvous with Hubble tomorrow morning. Once the shuttle has secured the telescope, the crew will spend the rest of the mission completing 5 separate spacewalks to install the new equipment.

Daily Recap: Monday, 5/11

Anatomy and Physiology:
Work day for portfolio assembly and final exam prep.

Biology:
Portfolio assembly

Happy Monday...

Geez...there's a lot to get to this week. I want to spend some time talking about Space Shuttle Atlantis, which lifted off earlier today from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I also have some thoughts about saying good bye to our senior class this week. Of course, the swine flu statistics still need to be updated, and I've got another Mystery M for you. There are always daily updates to keep...well...updated. And I read an interesting article by one of my favorite writes that I'd like to discuss. And I have some thoughts on Manny Ramirez and steroids in baseball...

Of course it's finals week, which is always one of my busiest times of the year. It's also a week where Missesmagette is in Maryland at a conference, so Littlemagette and I are on our own for a few days. To make a long story short, it's going to be a crazy busy week...so posting might be lighter than normal. But I'll do my best to get to everything. (After all, I'd hate to disappoint the 2 or 3 people who actually read this...)

Daily Recap: Friday, 5/8

Anatomy and Physiology:
Today we worked on assembling our 4th quarter reflective portfolios.

Biology:
Ecology test

How bad is it?

Just how bad is the economy? Bad enough that pictures like this get published over at Freakonomics:

Hope is not lost

In a previous post I brought to your attention a small study that was conducted by a graduate student at THE Ohio State University showing a correlation between Facebook use and lower GPA's in college students. That little piece of research, apparently, has generated quite a bit of buzz, and USA Today is now reporting on a follow-up study conducted by a group of researchers that seems to show no correlation between academic performance and Facebook use:

The newer research, published this week in an online journal First Monday, found no "robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades. Indeed. If anything, Facebook use is more common among individuals with higher grades." Northwestern University professor Eszter Hargittai, Stanford doctoral candidate Josh Pasek and Eian More, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed three existing data sets, including a sample of more than 1,000 undergraduates from the University of Illinois-Chicago and other data involving teens and young adults. [...]

In a statement published in First Monday, the authors of the larger study said they were motivated to "set the record straight" because of the surge of public interest generated by the media. "Our primary criticism of the...study was not in reference to her results, but rather to the process of alerting the mass media without probability-based sampling, replication or comprehensive peer review."