Archive for August, 2006

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Autumn

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

On the way home from work today, I noticed a couple trees with some yellow leaves mixed in. Its FAR too early to be seeing that. ☹

Speaker Phones

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

<work rant>My office is two floors, but admittedly, none of the doors are closed anywhere, and the walls are rather thin. That being said, there is a fair amount of computer noise being generated downstairs, and I hear very little of it. So the office is far from being an empty cave in [...]

Single-Sex Schools

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

The National Catholic Register has a very interesting article on single-sex schools for this week’s edition.[1] Taking an in-depth look at the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) campaign against them, it also covers in some detail the research refuting the ACLU position. Of particular interest to me was a school that randomly assigned [...]

A note for the CCD kids

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Having been told that rap is 90% of the music out there, I wonder what my CCD kids last year would think of the rules at Ave Maria University.[1] ;-) Not that I think there is much chance that many if any of them would choose to go to Ave Maria, but it would [...]

borrowed quotes

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

yay for a recent meme in the community that generates a plethora of quotable quotes. ☺ Two more for the collection:

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.” —George Orwell

“All of the books in the world contain no more information [...]

Quotes

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

“Beware the man of one book.” —Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.” —G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” —George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

“The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.” —William Cowper [...]

Thoughts on the EU and recycling

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

Three local governments (councils) in the United Kingdom are trying to encourage recycling.[1] To do this, they want to install RFID chips in the trash cans, and have the trucks calculate how much trash is in each can.  Residents can thus be charged by volume.  As the recycling bins would be exempt from this, [...]

It is official!!!

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Lauren, the most wonderful girl in the world, is no longer my girlfriend: she is now my fiancée!!!!

update 2006-08-28 1904 EDT Some pictures are up here. None of the ring yet, as we were using Lauren’s camera, and she prefers not to be in pictures. As a result, many of the ones [...]

Science says schools need more pornography

Friday, August 25th, 2006

The Mexican government has proposed new text books for biology. They are quite graphic. They reportedly contain an explicet statement that homosexuality and masturbation are “acceptable” behaviors. They also apparently encourage students to download pornography.[1] This is bad enough in and of itself; I would be up in arms anyway, simply [...]

The inconsistency of the European Union

Friday, August 25th, 2006

Finland argued that the convention is a broad statement of principles and not intended to cover specific medical situations such as end of life issues. Ironically, they argued the opposite when supporting the inclusion of “reproductive health services” that address beginning of life issues.[1]

It is indeed ironic. Unfortunately, no one in the main stream [...]

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