Unexplained Fuzzy Math

The eco-doom mongers have decided that the oceans are rising faster than even they anticipated. But in reading this article, it seems that even if the oceans are rising at the rate they are saying, it only comes up less than 1/3 of a meter by 2100. For some reason, the “reporters” who write these articles are never very interested in following through on the math. 3mm x 100 years = 300 mm or .3 m. Why the inflated number, the article doesn’t specify.

Professor Steffen, who has studied the Arctic ice for the past 35 years, told me: "I would predict sea level rise by 2100 in the order of one metre; it could be 1.2m or 0.9m.
"But it is one metre or more seeing the current change, which is up to three times more than the average predicted by the IPCC."
"It is a major change and it actually calls for action."
Dr John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research added: "The most recent research showed that sea level is rising by 3mm a year since 1993, a rate well above the 20th century average."

Has anyone on any ocean beachfront noticed any rise in water? We are almost a quarter of the way to Al Gore's prediction of a catastrophic rise in ocean levels, but I haven't seen actual evidence of higher levels anywhere, besides people just saying that the levels are rising.

Waste of Time and Money

Now, in an effort to spend even less time doing actual school work, Twin Cities schools are teaching yoga to K–5th graders.

Minneapolis schools started practicing the Yoga Calm program in 2007. Since then, yoga instructors Kathy Flaminio and Julie Hurtubise have trained nearly 1,000 educators throughout the metro area.

"We've just had so many teachers interested," Flaminio said. "Teachers are changing the way that they teach. They're connecting to (students) on a deeper level."

With Yoga Calm, created in Portland, Ore., students learn 60 activities that help them develop skills, such as self-control, concentration and imagination. They also learn techniques for breathing and relaxation and how to monitor their pulse rate.

"They say they're feeling less stress," said Flaminio, a former Minneapolis schools social worker. "The attendances have changed because the kids don't want to miss yoga day."

Parents have questioned the use of yoga because of its religious connections to Buddhism and Hinduism. But in today's classrooms, teachers and trainers say yoga doesn't include chants or teachings about religion.

A couple things that popped into my mind while reading the article:

Despite the protests of the trainers, this seems very much like religion in public schools.

According to Wikipedia, “the Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning ‘to control,’ ‘to yoke,’ or ‘to unite.’ Translations include ‘joining,’ ‘uniting,’ ‘union,’ ‘conjunction,’ and ‘means.’” Hmm . . . to control, to unite?

Seeing the photographs of the kids lined up in poses brings to mind images of rows of Chinese people participating in public exercises.

Are public schools really hard-pressed for money? Don’t stories like this make the average person think that there is money to spare in the public school budgets? There seems to be plenty of money to spend on training “nearly 1,000 educators throughout the metro area.”

Taking Credit

It is natural for people to want to look good in front of others. This is more true when a person has recently been called out for previous lies and evasions. This is especially true when that person is a politician.

In reading an article in the News & Observer (North Carolina) linked to by Glenn Reynolds, I noticed this report of a speech by John Edwards (who was speaking at Brown University):

In his half-hour speech, Edwards noted some of the ways in which he has spent time in the past six months. He talked of how his youngest children, Jack and Emma Claire, had their tonsils out. He described a December trip to a slum in Haiti and how he helped wrap the bodies of dead children.

The trip to Haiti and the wrapping of bodies of dead children seemed kind like a unique experience, so I did a little Web search and came up an article titled, “Hollywood in Haiti,” and it tells about the trip that several Hollywood-types took to Haiti in December. The group included

Paul & Deborah Haggis, Madeline Stowe, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Maria Bello, Bryn Mooser, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Michael Stahl David, and former Senator John Edwards . . .

During their stay in Haiti, the group visited the NPH/NPFS St. Damien pediatric hospital and its little patients, witnessed a moving funeral ceremony for two children who died in the night, went to the slums of Wharf Jeremy and Cité Soleil where Father Rick has built the street schools, helped download a container of humanitarian items, and attended the kick-off of a new project, Francisville, a site where vocational workshops and job training along with production facilities will be built.

Now good deeds are good deeds, and it is obvious that this group was helping a lot, but there seems to be a slight inflating of activities from John Edwards’s speech to the “Hollywood in Haiti” trip in December. From the press release, it is certain that John Edwards attended a funeral for two children who died while he was visiting the hospital, but the claim that was reported from the speech is that he actively participated in the wrapping of the dead bodies. This may have been the case, perhaps the pediatric hospital allows visiting celebrities to prepare children for burial, but it seems more likely that he witnessed these events. Again, we should be thankful for the good work and good deeds, but why the necessity to mention how he helped “wrap the bodies of dead children”? It’s almost like he is desiring very much to look virtuous in the eyes of the audience of his speech. Would it be too much to ask a politician to not try to make political hay from an event like this? I guess so, especially when you have an image to rebuild.