Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Gotta brag
Did I mention I *heart* my boss? He went to TAM8 this past weekend and brought me back a present. I'll be up all night reading. Are you jealous yet?
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
A communist book
One morning I took my son to his therapy session, and was sitting in the waiting room until he was done. One of the parents there was telling another parent a story.
Her son goes to public school, and her husband wants to take him out of school and home school him. The reason?
Well, one of the books of the week was called "The rainbow fish." We have some version of it too.
It's a story about a fish with shiny scales, who doesn't have any friends. Once he starts sharing his shiny scales with the other fish around him, they all become friends. Now every fish has one shiny scale, and they play happily ever after. The husband of this woman objected to the reading of this book in his son's class because it's communist. The teachers are trying to make a communist out of his son. Why should anyone want to share anything? They're his scales after all!
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister (obviously a communist)
ISBN 0-7358-1299-3
Her son goes to public school, and her husband wants to take him out of school and home school him. The reason?
Well, one of the books of the week was called "The rainbow fish." We have some version of it too.
It's a story about a fish with shiny scales, who doesn't have any friends. Once he starts sharing his shiny scales with the other fish around him, they all become friends. Now every fish has one shiny scale, and they play happily ever after. The husband of this woman objected to the reading of this book in his son's class because it's communist. The teachers are trying to make a communist out of his son. Why should anyone want to share anything? They're his scales after all!
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister (obviously a communist)
ISBN 0-7358-1299-3
Friday, April 13, 2007
Not recommended reading
With three kids (four, if you count P1, my husband), and being a full-time graduate student, I don't get much chance to read. Most of the reading I get to do is by listening to books on tape. Right now I'm listening to what is supposed to be a SciFi novel "The Second Angel," by Philip Kerr. Sadly it's a lot more Fi than Sci. I'm starting to get really bored by it. More than not being exactly fast-paced, it's the scientific inaccuracies that bother me the most.
Specifically, on tape 1, the author claims that blood provides the most convincing evidence of intelligent design. Because several proteins are required for blood to transport and deliver oxygen to the cells, the author concludes that blood is irreducibly complex, and the chance of blood having occured by "accident" very, very, very small. Conclusion: god did it. Sigh... How creationists go from A to B to C is a mystery to me. Nothing can account for this but faith, certainly nothing having to do with education, intelligence or common sense.
On tape 2, the author explains the genetic background of Thalassemia, which is a blood disease caused by a recessive gene. The author botches the description, stating that the parents of an infected child both had to be homozygous for the gene (of course that would make them very sick, instead of just carriers of the disease). He also explains to the shocked parents who had no idea that they were carriers of a genetic disease because no genetic screening is done in parents in the mid-21st century, that their background is to blame. The father is of greek descent and the mother of italian descent, and in the Mediterranean Thalassemia is much more prevalent, because it confers some resistance to malaria. Nonsense, of course, to judge from this map. Unless the Mediterranean was relocated to the southern part of Africa or something in the early 21st century, malaria is not particularly prevalent there.
So now I'm at the end of tape 2. I wonder whether to continue reading this book and to post my commentary here, or to just give up and not waste any time reading nonsense. It may be fiction, but with such egregious errors, there is not a lot of fun it. Ok, that's it. I'm returning this piece of junk and getting something good instead. Maybe something from Kurt Vonnegut (who is up in heaven) to counteract the bad taste left in my mouth by Philip Kerr.
Update: Ok, book was swapped. If anyone can think of any reason why I should go back to the library and check it out again to finish listening, just let me know.
Specifically, on tape 1, the author claims that blood provides the most convincing evidence of intelligent design. Because several proteins are required for blood to transport and deliver oxygen to the cells, the author concludes that blood is irreducibly complex, and the chance of blood having occured by "accident" very, very, very small. Conclusion: god did it. Sigh... How creationists go from A to B to C is a mystery to me. Nothing can account for this but faith, certainly nothing having to do with education, intelligence or common sense.
On tape 2, the author explains the genetic background of Thalassemia, which is a blood disease caused by a recessive gene. The author botches the description, stating that the parents of an infected child both had to be homozygous for the gene (of course that would make them very sick, instead of just carriers of the disease). He also explains to the shocked parents who had no idea that they were carriers of a genetic disease because no genetic screening is done in parents in the mid-21st century, that their background is to blame. The father is of greek descent and the mother of italian descent, and in the Mediterranean Thalassemia is much more prevalent, because it confers some resistance to malaria. Nonsense, of course, to judge from this map. Unless the Mediterranean was relocated to the southern part of Africa or something in the early 21st century, malaria is not particularly prevalent there.
So now I'm at the end of tape 2. I wonder whether to continue reading this book and to post my commentary here, or to just give up and not waste any time reading nonsense. It may be fiction, but with such egregious errors, there is not a lot of fun it. Ok, that's it. I'm returning this piece of junk and getting something good instead. Maybe something from Kurt Vonnegut (who is up in heaven) to counteract the bad taste left in my mouth by Philip Kerr.
Update: Ok, book was swapped. If anyone can think of any reason why I should go back to the library and check it out again to finish listening, just let me know.
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