Stephen Dubner, of Freakonomics fame, is an alum of Appalachian State University and has been recognized by the school with a Distinguished Alumnus Award. Here's a video the school produced for the occassion.
File this under the category "Cool things to teach your kids that could get them in serious trouble if they try them at school." Just in time for July 4th celebrations around the house.
A great commencement speech, given by a high school English teacher who happens to be the son of historian David McCullough, is getting quite the buzz online. You should give yourself 13 minutes to watch it.
Today is graduation day for the high schools in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County school system. Hopefully the graduates' families will be jubilant in their support of their graduate, yet respectful of the other graduates and their families. If not the school system might decide to pull a "Cincinnati" on them:
A suburban Cincinnati high school held onto four graduates' diplomas and required community service as punishment for what it describes as overly boisterous cheering by their families during the graduation ceremony.
The mother of one of the graduates, who was one of the leading tacklers on the Mount Healthy school football team, doesn't think he should get flagged for excessive celebration.
Schools Superintendent Lori Handler said Wednesday the problem wasn't the loudness of the yells, but their long duration, which she said halted the ceremony.
After past disruptions, a new policy was implemented this year aimed at making sure that all parents can hear their children's names called and celebrated. When they ordered graduation tickets, parents agreed that "any disruptive behavior" would result in their child's diploma being held until 20 hours of community service is completed, she said.
Tennis, like golf, is one of those sports that's hard for non-players to appreciate how difficult it is to master. On the other hand, it would be hard for anyone to underestitmate the difficulty of mastering blind tennis:
Like tennis for sighted people, the game requires speedy court coverage and precise shot-making. Blind players rely on their ears to follow a foam ball filled with ball bearings that rattles when it bounces or is struck…
Other adaptations include a smaller court with a badminton net lowered to the ground, string taped along the lines and junior rackets with oversize heads. Players with some sight get two bounces, the completely blind three. Only one set is played, and an umpire calls the lines.
The first sound-adapted tennis ball was designed in 1984 by Miyoshi Takei, a blind high school student in Japan. Now, about 300 players compete in tournaments there; blind tennis is also played in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and Russia…
And for a local angle, here's a quote from a dean at UNCG:
An expert on orientation and mobility for the blind, William R. Wiener, dean of graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, said that sound localization “is so important when blind people navigate the world,” and added, “Listening to the ball, locating where it is and swinging at it probably helps you with the sport and also with your mobility.”
Be sure to check out the video that accompanies the article.
Wow. Just wow.
Gay columnist Dan Savage gets a marriage license for himself and a lesbian coworker and in the process he exposes the idiocy of laws against gay marriage:
Like I said, Amy and Sonia and I didn't show up at the county building last Friday because we were planning to sue. We came to make a point about the absurdity of our marriage laws. Amy can't marry Sonia, I can't marry Terry–why? Because the sanctity of marriage must be protected from the queers! But Amy and I can get a marriage license-and into a sham marriage, if we care to, a joke marriage, one that I promise you won't produce children. And we can do this with the state's blessing–why? Because one of us is a man and one of us is a woman. Who cares that one of us is a gay man and one of us is a lesbian? So marriage is to be protected from the homos–unless the homos marry each other.
With the exception of health related concerns, and protecting underage children from being victimized by adults trying to marry them off for whatever reason, I'm stumped as to why the state has a compelling reason to try and control who marries whom.
At Letters of Note we find this letter from Ronald Reagan to his son Michael in the days before Michael's wedding. Basically, it's about the true value of remaining faithful and in it he provides the best definition of being a "man" that I've seen:
Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music.
If you were afraid of the water after seeing Jaws, then you'll probably be totally freaked after seeing this video. Just imagine swimming along and having this thing wrap itself around you. The truly icky part shows up around the four minute mark of the video. More info about it here.
I'd so go on this ride, but I seriously doubt I could convince any of my family to go with me.
Befuddled 