I’m so sorry, Louisiana, but I’m writing you off

jindal-stupid

It’s nothing personal. It’s just that you’re doing a lousy job of teaching your children, and unfortunately for them, they aren’t getting the basic knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century. I know that some of your kids are smart enough to see beyond the drivel your teachers promote, and I really feel for them — they’re going to have to work twice as hard to get past Louisiana’s reputation.

Zack Kopplin has been doing a danged thorough job digging through records to find out what Louisiana kids are actually being taught. In way too many classrooms, the book of Genesis is being taught as a substitute for biology.

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Leave science to the scientists

santorum

The pope has been freaking out American conservatives. He keeps saying things that annoy right-wingers.

In recent months, the pope has argued for a radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation. In October he told a meeting of Latin American and Asian landless peasants and other social movements: “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.

“The system continues unchanged, since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands.

“The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” he said.

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Poor Dr Oz

Oprah Winfrey is dumping Dr Oz’s radio show. It’s about time.

One odd thing: I missed this earlier, but Oz made a bizarre argument from type size.

Oz then also claimed that his show is not a medical one. We very purposely, on the logo, have ‘Oz’ as the middle, and the ‘Doctor’ is actually up in the little bar for a reason, he said in a TV interview. I want folks to realize that I’m a doctor, and I’m coming into their lives to be supportive of them. But it’s not a medical show.

I had to look this one up. It turns out, though, that he has a couple of versions of his logo floating around.

Oz-Logo1dr-oz-logo2

So when he uses the one with the BIG “DR”, he’s speaking as a doctor, and when he uses the little “dr”, we’re supposed to just ignore it?

Next step: Space-based lasers that will disintegrate the junk

trash-vortex

It may be a bit unkind to crush the ambitions of a 19 year old, but Boyan Slat seems to mainly excel at self-promotion. He’s come up with a scheme to clean up the oceans of debris with anchored, floating booms and short suspended nets (or something — it’s totally unclear) that are laid out over ocean currents that bring the garbage to it. Did I mention that he’s 19? And not an oceanographer? And that his scheme hasn’t really been tested on any significant scale? But it’s still bringing in millions of dollars in donations.

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Reality, warts and all

I am glad that Caitlyn Jenner can be who she really is, but this image brings up a few important points about who else she really is.

rolemodel

One other thing about the cover photo bugged me: if we’re going to celebrate acceptance of her identity, shouldn’t we note that she’s older than I am (she’s 65), yet she gets the full fashion photoshop treatment to make her photo look half her age? Apparently there’s still something shameful about reaching a distinguished age.