Daily Archives: January 20, 2008

Report shows disturbing trends in US science capacities

The National Science Board this week said leading science and engineering indicators tell a mixed story regarding the achievement of the US in science, research and development, and math in international comparisons.For example, US schools continue to lag behind internationally in science and math education. On the other hand, the US is the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world pumping some $340 billion into future-related technologies. The US also leads the world in patent development.

Details here.

Minneapolis: Ritmos Unidos Tonight

The World of Emetrece Productions presents:”Ritmos Unidos”3rd Annual Afro-Latin Tribute to MLK DayFeaturing Maria Isa & CubaníaSunday, January 20th, 2008 // First Avenue Main RoomDoors 8PM // Show 9PM – 2AM // $8 Advance // $10 Door // 18+In remembrance of King’s legacy, “Ritmos Unidos” celebrates the hyphen between Afro & Latin.Advanced tickets available on-line at First Avenue & TicketmasterIn contrast to the American ‘One Drop Theory,’ of African racial classification, in Latin America there are various names for differing degrees of Blackness such as prieto, negro, mestizo, mulato, trigueño, or jabao. In general the term ‘Afro’ declaring race has been uniquely hyphenated with nationhood, such as Afro-American, Afro-Cuban or Afro-Brazilian.”Ritmos Unidos” celebrates the hyphen by bringing together Twin Cities’ artists whose musical repertoires are native to Minneapolis and St. Paul, yet speak to their national and racial afro-diasporic legacies.Hosted by former Timberwolves player Felipe López, this year’s “Ritmos Unidos” highlights the local Afro-Latin diversity. Rising Latin hip-hop and reggaetón artist Maria Isa headlines with her ten-piece band, accompanied by opening act Afro-Cuban salsa vocalists Viviana Pintado and Gloria Rivera inaugurating their folkloric fusion group Cubanía. The evening also includes a diverse range of appearances by Danza Mexica Cuauhtémoc; Casino Revolution: Cuban Salsa Expo; Drizzle’s Drummers: McNally Smith Percussion Ensemble; “Lightning and Thunder” all-stars BussOne & The Kamillion; with Back Up Plomo & Don Xaba; Omac Mountainya; and Omari Omari on the 1’s & 2’s.Ritmos Unidos – produced by Emetrece Productions, venue and tickets at First Avenue, additional sponsorship by Urban Gear Clothing and Rose Up Productions.First Avenue Main Room // 701 First Avenue North, MinneapolisInfo: 612-332-1775 (First Avenue) // 612.281.9970 (Emetrece Productions)

The Grubbs and Gibbs Memorandum: Require A Religious Reading of the Evolutionary Record in Public Schools

As promised, I have more on the memorandum written by Francis Grubbs and David Gibbs. Grubbs is some kind of quack pseudo-scientist, and Gibbs is some kind of shyster lawyer, apparently. The memorandum is interesting … the real meat of it is buried in the last several paragraphs, so don’t fall asleep reading it! I’ve reproduced it here below, having used OCR to change the PDF file into text. The purpose of doing this onerous and thankless task is so that my fellow bloggers, or anyone else, can cut and paste from my transcription and thus make more use of the document than otherwise possible. The original file is here. And following is the cover letter and the memorandum, in all it’s glory. There may be some mistakes owing to the nature of OCR. Feel free to let me know if you spot any.UPDATE: Corrections made of the OCRT scan by Sam Howard of Rational Rant Continue reading The Grubbs and Gibbs Memorandum: Require A Religious Reading of the Evolutionary Record in Public Schools

Racy new novel with Homeschooling Theme

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Home School

A big chunk of the reading world is going to have a great time devouring a Home School, new semi erotic, not-very-family values novel by the very author that gave us The Graduate (which was made into that movie with Dustin Hoffman … one of the classics). This is ironic, because the book’s plot, which continues the original story of Benjamin and The Robinson’s, is advanced partly at the expense of the self-same self-righteous Homeschoolers that will be forced, due to a neurotic sense of shame, to ban the book from their own homes.

Continue reading Racy new novel with Homeschooling Theme