I always thought that teacher training included basic skills in coping with wayward children. I wasn’t aware that it was acceptable practice to call the police to handcuff a 5-year old who’s throwing a tantrum. (Note that two staff were present, including an assistant principal, and a camera was rolling.)
[And yes, I know that a teacher can easily get into trouble for simply trying to enforce discipline. But this cure is worse than the disease. Mad. All mad.]
NP: Hang on Little Tomato
Discovered in Provincetown last weekend:
Hang on Little Tomato by Pink Martini. As an Amazon reviewer put it, “Somewhere between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brazilian marching street band and Japanese film noir is the 12-piece Pink Martini.” The title track from Pink Martini’s last album, Sympathique, also shows up on another CD that I bought at the same time: Hotel Costes: Best of Costes, selected and mixed by Stéphane Pompougnac.
[However those who think I may be getting too deep into this “lounge” stuff can relax: the new albums by Porcupine Tree and Al Stewart are on the way….]
Go Alonso!
Time for the 4th round in the 2005 Formula One season: the San Marino Grand Prix. (San Marino? Relax: it’s just an excuse for the Italians to get two races in the season.) Here in the US, most GPs are televised live on Speed TV, with pretty knowledgeable commentators who treat the audience as fellow enthusiasts. However four of the races are shown on network TV (CBS) instead. This was one of those, which meant (1) it was tape-delayed until 1PM EST, and (2) we had to put up with inane, hyperactive commentators who assume that the viewers know nothing about the sport. So turn the sound DOWN, and make sure you have a good book to read during the interminable commercial breaks.
Fortunately I managed to avoid hearing the results in advance, so I was able to enjoy the thrilling battle between Alonso and Michael Schumacher over the last few laps. The Ferrari was clearly quicker, but Alonso never put a wheel wrong, and he was able to make it four out of four for Renault. (Of course if Schumacher hadn’t screwed up during qualifying, he’d have run away with the race.)
(As for my man David Coulthard, let’s just say that it wasn’t one of his best days….)
Ratzinger and sexual abuse by Catholic priests
From today’s London Observer: Pope ‘obstructed’ sex abuse inquiry: “Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had ‘obstructed justice’ after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the church’s investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret…. It asserted the church’s right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger… [and] was co-signed by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone who [said] ‘In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offence of paedophilia is unfounded.’“
One might have reasonably expected that such a letter would emphasize that the bishops should cooperate fully with the police and prosecutors in accordance with local laws. Apparently some Vatican officials still have the medieval attitude that the church is above the law.
Got the car
I finally picked up my new Legacy GT this afternoon after a couple of scheduling hiccups. The Subaru dealership kindly sent a young salesman over to pick me up; unfortunately he managed to get lost in West Roxbury. I still need to get an inspection sticker on it; I’ll do that first thing tomorrow.
The car is a dream. (N.b.: this is a stock photo, but it’s the right colour.) Handling and acceleration are just awesome: it corners as though it’s on rails. It’s a 2.5L turbo powerplant giving 250 HP; I didn’t notice much turbo lag under acceleration, but it did catch me out a couple of times when the turbo came on strong before I expected it. This should be easy to adjust to, though. The transmission is a 5 speed automatic, with Tiptronic-style manual override using switches on the steering wheel (or the regular shifter, if you prefer). The sound system is pretty neat, too, with an in-dash 6 CD changer. I “baptised” it with a mix CD that started with Faithless doing God is a DJ and included Sunscreem, Groove Armada, and a couple of tracks from Free by Libera.
We celebrated by driving over to Lucy’s for dinner, taking a longer, twistier route than usual….
Penn & Teller & Dawkins
Check out this account by Teller of how he and Penn received the 2005 Richard Dawkins Award from the Atheist Alliance International. I’ve had dinner with Doug Hofstadter; next on the schedule are P&T. (Hey, I can dream.)
(Via Susan – thanks.)
The joy of minerals
This morning I took the T to Harvard Square¹ to meet Kate and Tom for lunch, after which we headed over to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Our immediate objective was the exhibit “Origins: Life’s First 3 Billion Years”, which is closing soon. (Good exhibit, a bit smaller than I expected, but worthwhile.) However it was my first visit to the museum, so we explored. The famous glass flowers were breath-taking; it was interesting that I found the extraordinary accuracy of tangled roots, stalks and leaves more impressive than petals and stamens. The dinosaur fossils were fun, as always, and the ornithological section was remarkably comprehensive.
But the exhibition that stole my heart was in the Mineralogical and Geological collection. I took quite a few pictures: here are some thumbnails:
¹ A very dangerous place: I discovered the philosophy books section of the Harvard Coop, which cost me over a hundred dollars. More on that anon.
A quiet day
Still on vacation. This morning I closed the deal on the new car: I decided to go with the Subaru Legacy GT after all. Reasons? I spent a few days observing my driving style (with as little observer-induced change as possible), read the latest Wired magazine (all about hybrids), chatted to a few Prius owners, and decided that I really didn’t have the right driving style/temperament for the Prius. Plus I remembered the advantages of AWD on our icy driveway in the winter. And finally our local Subaru dealer cut me a really nice sub-invoice deal. So I’m picking up the car first thing on Friday. (Not tomorrow, because I’ll be in Cambridge all day.)
I spent this (unseasonably warm) afternoon at Tufts, working in the library and then going to class. The end of the semester looms, along with the due date for the term paper and the final examination. Lots to think about. Later. For now, I’m relaxing at the end of the day, watching Newcastle vs. Manchester United, sipping a finger of single malt, and ripping the Claude Challe Nirvana Lounge 03 double CD into iTunes.
That loon
Here’s that picture I took at Harwichport Harbor yesterday of what looks like a Common Loon (Gavia immer).
¹ From the size of the bulge above the bill, it’s probably a juvenile, less than a year old. This is actually cut out of a much larger image, which you can find here; even that copy is flattened a bit to get it under the 1MB limit I’ve set for uploads.
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¹Back in England Loons are called “Divers”; the Common Loon is known as the Great Northern Diver. This reminds me of a wonderful series of books from my childhood, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons; the final volume was Great Northern?
Down on the Cape
No blog entries recently, because we’ve been down on Cape Cod for a few days R&R. I had planned to blog using my Treo, but every time I went online I found myself overwhelmed by trackback blogspam that needed cleaning up. (I’m writing this from the PC in the clubhouse of the time-share.)
Just got back from dinner in Harwichport; a fish restaurant overlooking the harbour. After eating, we went for a walk around the dock, and I saw my first-ever loon. (At least the first close enough to photograph.) I’ll post pics when I get home tomorrow.