Grade School/High School Revisited

One of the things that I hated about grade school and high school is the whole "one person ruining it for everyone else" scenario that teachers seemed fond of enacting. One person coould not be quiet so no one gets the treat. Sometimes the offender would just go ahead and ruin it for everyone because they have nothing to lose.

Flashforward to 2006: I read a blog at Alter Peek that informs me that prior to tonight's State of the Union address the Republicans and the Democrats have been using Wikipedia to shore up their positions by shaping entries to suit their positions. Apparently the Republicans in particular have been adding slanderous information against the Democrats and taking out anything that criticizes the current administration's policies.

Gadzooks.

I would be the first to say that Wikipedia is not the end-all in terms of a resources for researchers but it is a good start and it is a great idea. Why does anyone from either side feel the need to tamper with it?

If your political platform is sound, you don't need to stoop to such behaviour to win your position. That kind of behaviour is what takes place in grade school and high school.

So now it seems that both parties have made it rotten for everyone.

Sites that I go to from time to time-2

I happened across this cool customer-driven blog about customer service at everyone's favorite fast food chain-McDonalds:

McChronicles
http://mcchronicles.blogspot.com/

It is not a blog that just engages in bashing what is amounts to a state religion in the United States and the rest of the world. It also highlights McDonalds restaurants that get it right. This blog also includes photos to illustrate its commentary.


Not to be outdone, joining the bandwagon of business blogs that are usually about reinforcing the "brand" of the company is McDonalds. Their blog can be found here.

Happy B-Day Wolfgang!

I wonder what he would make of his popularity today...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart

Remembering those lost explorers

It was 20 years ago that the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up as it ascended into the sky. I remember that I was in the library with a classmate (who was called Bobby Brady until about 5th grade, when he started going by the more mature Robert Brady, largely because he wanted not to be taunted about it) to do a report on some topic that I can't even remember. A librarian told us that Challenger was gone. We could not absorb it fully. After all, we were born after the lunar landing and the Apollo 13 almost disaster. We witnessed as tots the flawless flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. We even saw Challenger's first flight. It never occurred to us that of NASA's missions would fail.

And it never occurred to us that anyone would die.

Die they did, and we learned real quick that this space business was serious and that it was not like on Star Trek or Star Wars even.

The event was made all the more poignant because a teacher died. She was not military and she surely was not obscure by the time she boarded Challenger. Her name was Christa McAuliffe and she was living out a teacher's dream.

Let us all take a moment to remember them on Jan. 28th:
Commander Dick Scobee
Pilot Mike Smith
Astronaut Ellison Onizuka
Astronaut Judy Resnik
Astronaut Ron McNair
Astronaut Greg Jarvis
Teacher Christa McAuliffe

NASA will be holding a Day of Rememberance for the Challenger crew as well as for the Apollo I crew and the Columbia Crew.

Here are some articles marking the 20th anniversary:

• Remembering Challenger 20 Years Later
• NASA's account of the Challenger accident is here.
• An update on Barbara Morgan, Christa McAuliffe's understudy is found here.
  
  
  I think that one of the casualties of the Apollo I, Virgil "Gus" Grissom said it best in regards to space flight and disaster:
  
  

  "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope
  that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of
  space is worth the risk of life."
  

  -Virgil I. Grissom, after the Gemini 3 mission, March 1965
  
  

Sites that I find here and there

While reading about John Adams (again) on Wikipedia, I found an interesting website in the External Links section. It is a website where a thoughtful person decided to compile the medical histories of the American Presidents. The website is in fact called, "Medical History of American Presidents."

John Adams' profile is here. His son, John Quincy Adams, is here.

Sites that I go to from time to time

I have been a reading the Boston Phoenix for a long time. Every since it transitioned from a paid newspaper to a free one with a better, more portable version.

I was cruising through the website and found the following job listing for an "Executive Receptionist." I quite love it because it just "keeps it real."

Just another day in the USA

It's not "Domestic Spying," it's "Terrorist Surveillance." That is what our nation has come to. There is a terrorist in every pot and a killer around every corner. For a country that spent most of the 1970s and 1980s going after the former Soviet Union for such behaviour all I can say is "hypocritical!"