I was cleaning out my file cabinet and came across this jewel of a photo from the mid-1980s, probably from Time magazine. I need to hit a library with a Readers’ Guide set from back then, since none of my online resources can go back that far. The article title was retained, thankfully: “Taking the Test for Teachers”.
Yes, we all need more intruction. I was just saying to the missus that I need to start intructing.
The funny thing was that nowhere in the article was this sign mentioned. I can’t imagine that the photo editor didn’t do it on purpose, and certainly Chow Wong, the Houston Chronicle photographer who took this gem, knew what he was doing.
Sorry about the quality. It was at one time pasted to something and the adhesive bled through.
Sure, Yule, April showers bring May flowers, but we’ve had so much precipitation this last winter that the ground is still soaked. Or as the National Weather Service says, “hydrological conditions are favorable for flooding”. 1-5 inches (2.5-12 cm) is a lot of rain in 24 hours. It’s not San Antonio’s 35 inches (89 cm) in a week but it’s still a lot of rain, considering that this was one of the North End’s wettest winters on record (in total precip).
And then we’re to get sleet and snow on Saturday.
To make up for all this wonderful water, we’ll probably have a drought all summer, of course. Lots of rain to make it impossible to plant, and then no rain when we need to water the crops. Right when it’s a great time to be a farmer, what with food prices doubling.
I’m sure that you’re enjoying your weather.
Baghdad fell to US-led forces on this date in 2003. For a war where we supposedly won five years ago, this sure has taken a long time. This is like saying that because we still have troops in Europe that the war has never ended. Didn’t the Iraqi government get conquered?
We actually need to send more troops to Iraq, not pull out the ones we have. Institute a draft, spend the next five years with 250,000 or more American troops (not contractors) destroying all resistance and ensuring stability, and then get out.
Not that we can afford that, of course. Ron Paul was right in 2003: invading another nation is stupid because no people wants to be invaded. Liberated, maybe, but occupied, no. Maybe McCain will solve these problems when he gets elected — oh wait: he won’t win because Americans haven’t elected a combat veteran since 1988.
Ah, well. At least sixteen years of draft-dodging moral bankruptcy will be over, even Clinton wins. I mean, she didn’t avoid the draft by leaving the country or “serving honorably” in the National Guard for children of the wealthy. Then we can settle back into just moral bankruptcy.
At least McCain understands that we will be in Iraq for as long as we had to stay in Europe and Japan after WWII. Too bad he won’t win just because he has combat experience.
Ralph D. Stacey, Douglas Griffin & Patricia Shaw. 2000. Complexity Management: Fad or Radical Challenge to Systems Thinking?. Routledge: New York, NY. (Part of the Complexity and Emergence in Organization Series.)
I’ve had this book for a long time (~2003), having scored it from Powell’s near the U of Chicago and I’ve yet to be able to plow through it. But I spent four months working intensively with Warren Kinston, a highly accomplished Systems thinker. Maybe I just needed more exposure to systems theory in order to understand the argument.
Not that the writing has helped. It’s a thick book, written in dense text. But the topic itself is dense. I missed out on Philosophy 301 at Trinity of Texas (maybe because I slept through my classes for a semester) but I really didn’t have the background to get the teleological arguments. After getting through Kinston’s Working With Values I’m more prepared for these types of density and philosophical arguments.
Philosophy matters, of course, especially in management theory since so many managers are Pragmatists in their decision-making approach.
A sample of the discussion:
This deals with sexuality and may not be suitable for younger readers.
It’s amazing how hard this number was to find.
From “Behavioral, Biological and Structural Components of MSM STI Morbidity” by Steven Goodreau and Matthew Golden, University of Washington CFAR. Presented at the 2004 National (USA) STD Prevention Conference, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [PPT]
In this slide from their talk (and probably a summary of their findings reported later in Sexually Transmitted Infections (2007;83:458-462).
- MSM = Men who have Sex with Men
- UMHS = Urban Men’s Health Survey, c. 1998, “a telephone interview of a probability sample of men who have sex with men (MSMs) living in four cities – San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. An MSM was defined as any male who reported same sex contact since age 14 or who self-identified as gay or bisexual.” [Sociometrica]
- NHSLS = National Health and Social Life Survey (“The Sex Survey”). 1992
So around 25% of all males have had more than two partners in the past twelve months, while among just MSM it runs around 65%.
The problem is that NHSLS is representative of the nation as a whole. UMHS only surveyed urban men, and the methodology seems flawed to me, skewing towards MSM who would be heavily sexually active.
This still doesn’t say what the median or modes are.
The new church had a meeting to move forward in our start-up. There are a lot of issues that need more frank airing and dealing with (mostly it has to do with money and what having a functioning church would probably require, realistically). It seems obvious to me that we are not going to be an “outreach” church or “seeker sensitive”. We’re moving towards “teaching church”. If you are going to be a teaching church, you will not be focusing on evangelism.
And that statement needs some unpacking.
You see, there are some things that any small religious organization that needs to add to its numbers must do. Spiritual training, developing its people, choosing certain values against other ones, specifying group boundaries, evangelizing, marketing the ideas, keeping the members focused, etc.
We’ve been moved from the dark ages to Movable Type 4.x and I can already say that it sure is nice to live in modern times. This is a major improvement from where we were.
Of course, it also means that we will have lots of hiccups in the next few days as we sort out what the effects are on our templates. (There are several of us who blog at this bloghost under the old Process Write, Inc. site, may it rest in peace.)
If you notice anything strange, let me know through a comment.
I’m in the midst of cleaning up the mess I’ve made of my writings (and doing a lot of necessary cleaning).
But next up: a big set of “Help! I’m An Adult Underachiever!”
And I promise real answers, not just platitudes.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, today is the the Iraq War’s fifth birthday!
U.S. President George W. Bush ordered air strikes against Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, thus launching the Second Persian Gulf War to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Happy birthday, Iraq War! Trillions of dollars, 4,000 Americans dead, many more permanently wounded (but we’re not going to take care of them!), atrocities by all sides, and oil prices are still going up! We’re proud of you for making it all the way to Five Years Old.
Occupation, war — who cares! You’re now in kindergarten!
Just remember: we won’t always be at Not-War with, um, you guys We’re likely to pull out any day now, just like we left the Philippines, the DMZ and Western Europe!
Marcy asks a pretty good question:
What is Good Friday about? Or, to put it another way, if you were planning a worship service to be held on Good Friday, what would you include, emphasize, focus on, etc?
She seems to be asking because her church is emphasizing service to the poor on Friday:
On Friday there will be a Good Friday service, including Communion. At this service the money we have been setting aside for a partner church in Peru, and a mission trip there, will be collected, and we will have what the pastor is calling a hunger meal, which sounds like it might be a dinner typical of what a family in poverty might eat.
It’s worth looking at her discussion about the poor and Christ, something we’ve had to deal with in the PowerPoint Church, but for now, let’s answer the primary question: What is Good Friday all about?
