da Maus

Everybody wish Ms Fledermaus a happy birthday! (She needs the wishes after having been very sick all week.)

spring is in the air

It's around 50 degrees, it's sunny and windy. A lovely spring day. It even smells like spring.

It's supposed to be cold again this weekend, though.

antiquities

I just learned how a slide rule works.

textbooks

Texas, for example, conservatives can influence selection and sometimes force publishers to alter passages. Books that are shaped and debated in Texas then wind up in New York.

Take the 2003 editions of two social studies textbooks, Glencoe's "Our World Today: People, Places and Issues" and Harcourt's "World Regions." Glencoe wrote of ancient geological events that took place "millions of years ago," like the Ice Age, while Harcourt referred to fossil fuels "formed millions of years ago."

Lone Star State creationists complained that the references conflicted with biblical time lines. So the publishers dropped the phrase "millions of years ago" and substituted language like "in the distant past" and "over time."


From this article: http://www.mostnewyork.com/front/story/45580p-42789c.html

what's wrong with this picture?

The following is from an article about inaccuracies and other problems with textbooks.

Sept. 11 excuses

Some parents might be horrified, too, when they discover how Sept. 11 is soon to be taught to their children.

At least three schools have bought copies of "The American Vision," a 2003 high school history textbook, published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill, that was one of the first to write about the terror attacks. In a seven-page lesson on the massacre of 3,000 innocents, students are asked:

"What are the three main reasons certain Muslims became angry with the United States?"

"Why does American foreign policy anger Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East?"

I think I'm missing something.