We’ve had conversations before, here, about this topic, especially in the context of school. We’ve spoken about how to deal with students who are trying very hard to push creationism in the classroom, where you are the teacher. We’ve spoken about what a parent of a student in school might like to do. And now, here’s an item on what can go right and wrong when this or related topics come up at your place of work.

An earthquake triggered a tsunami warning in Indonesia, which is said to have covered “Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Maldives and other Indian Ocean islands, Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore,” but the wave that rolled ashore was insignificant. However, a subsequent, strong aftershock then triggered another warning, and I’ve seen no information about that yet.

These events seem to be about 8.6 magnitude, which is high. They were at sea along the western edge of the continental plate.

This is of course in the general vicinity of the famous “Sumatra-Andaman earthquake” (aka “Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami”) of 2004.

News here

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

I was not a practicing Catholic any longer by the time I was twenty-five. I was “living in sin,” meaning I was not married to my partner at the time. I was not going to Confession to confess my sins, and I certainly didn’t feel the need for absolution. I didn’t accept any longer the fact that a man had come to earth to die under torture by the Romans to be resurrected and give me a channel to be okay with the Creator.

I don’t have an Easter Message for you, but Mike does…

… or are they?

There is a good argument that they mean exactly the same thing. With this premise, one can ask: Is one inappropriate or affected, out of use or archaic? For instance, “use” and “utilize” seem to mean the same thing but the use of “utilize” goes along with affected speech. Just ask Coturnix, he hates “utilize” and I agree.

But I’m not sure if “amongst” is an affectation where it is usually used, as much as it is a dialectical difference. In South African English, “amongst” seems commoner than “among” (and “commoner” is more common than “more common” by the way). This does not mean amongst is unaffected among friends. That would depend on where one lives.

I assume that Among and Amongst have the same meaning. Feel free to disagree in the comments below. However, I can also contradict myself and argue that Amongst may be a viable non-affected choice in some cases. In particular, “among” feels better when we are among people (among friends, among colleageus, among the Hmong) whilst “amongst” is better if we are amongst something inanimate. “As Tarquin stood amongst the great trees of the dark forest…”

What do you think?

CBS News is reporting that veteran newsman and “60 Minutes” star interviewer Mike Wallace has died at age 93.

Details of his passing aren’t yet clear, but on the CBS website colleague Morley Safer is remembering the journalist’s 65 years from Wallace’s first appearance on the network to his last, a “60 Minutes” interview with Roger Clemens.

source

The Washington Post reports that Mike Walace has died.

Mike Wallace didn’t interview people. He interrogated them. He cross-examined them. Sometimes he eviscerated them.

His reputation was so fearsome that it was often said that the scariest words in the English language were “Mike Wallace is here to see you.”

He retired as a regular correspondent in 2006, but continued to work after that, interviewing Mitt Romney, Roger Klemens, and Jack Kevorkian in 2007. Wallace was the first reporter hired when the “60 minutes” staff was first put together in 1968.

Science Debate Dot Org asks the question: In a nationally televised presidential science debate, who would be the best moderator?

I find the suggestions that have been made so far to be interesting. A lot of people seem to be suggesting people who are obviously good scientists, or good communicators, but who are not especially known for being moderators. They are not the same thing.

Go have a look, make a suggestion, or vote for the existing suggestions.

No, it is not similar because email and snail mail are not the same thing, despite the use off the letters “m-a-i-l” in spelling them.

Not really. Do people who design social networking systems really think we LIKE push notifications???????? Seriously?

By the way, I’m working at a place these days that seems to produce a correct and incorrect (and inexplicably so) result on Google Maps at about a 50-50 ratio. This means that when I tell people to meet me there I have to work twice as hard, and even with my additional efforts, a certain percentage show up late anyway. A system like that depicted in the video has to be 99.999% perfect, and it has to never change unexpectedly once it is in place. That is not how modern social networking or other information processes have evolved. As we speak my iMac is changing how the menus work on a program I use daily and will now have to relearn.

I’m showing you this animation because I think it illustrates the difficulties of explaining things that exist or occur at different scales, and because it’s kinda fun:

From NPR:

Two of America’s best-known companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a low-profile conservative organization behind the national proliferation of “stand your ground” gun laws.

ALEC promotes business-friendly legislation in state capitols and drafts model bills for state legislatures to adopt. They range from little-noticed pro-business bills to more controversial measures, including voter-identification laws and stand your ground laws based on the Florida statute. About two-dozen states now have such laws.