Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

My favourite evolution-in-schools story this week: Apparently Michigan has at least some sense.

The State Board of Education on Tuesday approved public school curriculum guidelines that support the teaching of evolution in science classes — but not intelligent design.

…

“The intent of the board needs to be very clear,” said board member John Austin, an Ann Arbor Democrat. “Evolution is not under stress. It is not untested science.”

The rest of the article has lots of stuff to piss me off, but at least I can cling to that bit.

My favourite R’lyeh news story: Yes, they found an ancient underwater city. Really. It’s huge–like 10 square miles. Oh, and it’s so old that: “There’s a huge chronological problem in this discovery. It means that the whole model of the origins of civilisation with which archaeologists have been working will have to be remade from scratch”. I love it.

My favourite bit of movie news that comes with a gut punch: They are making a movie of Don Winslow‘s fun book The Death And Life of Bobby Z. This is a book that was written to be a movie–it’s quick, sharp, funny, and action-packed. A good airplane book. Now the gut-punch: it’s going to star blonde Keanu. Sigh. It could have been a good movie.

My favourite editorial from last month: From the Nation, “Challenging the Culture of Obedience“. A snippet:

Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.

A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President.

That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience–a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid–afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.

My favourite mental image so far this week: Jeb Bush hiding in a closet from steelworkers and anti-war protestors. Followed closely by the 4-year old terrorist.

My favourite bit of obsessive-compulsive behaviour: Do you know the Elder Scrolls games? I lost well over 100 hours to Morrowind, and I suspect that if I ever get time to play video games again that the same thing could easily happen in Oblivion. If you’ve ever played these games, you know that thre are many, many different books in the game, but only a limited number of book models. Someone whose insanities probably line up with many of mine has take the time to create an addon to the game that assign different appearances to each book in Oblivion. And not just simple changes, but lovely book designs. Apparently she had also done this previously for Morrowind. Wow. Madness, but my kind of madness.