I am a young and once-enthusiastic physics teacher. I despair at what I am forced to teach. I have potentially thirty years of lessons to give, but I didn’t sign up for this — and the business world still calls. There I won’t have to endure the pain of trying to animate a crippled subject. The rigorous of physics been torn down and replaced with impotent science media studies.

[ Stunning and extremely disturbing. I begin wondering about the politics behind this change, because I can see no other likely cause... -k]

Wellington Grey -- Articles -- A physics teacher begs for his subject back: An open letter to the AQA board and the UK Department for Education

Judge Robert Bork, one of the fathers of the modern judicial conservative movement whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, is seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, after he slipped and fell at the Yale Club of New York City. Judge Bork was scheduled to give a speech at the club, but he fell when mounting the dais, and injured his head and left leg. He alleges that the Yale Club is liable for the $1m plus punitive damages because they "wantonly, willfully, and recklessly" failed to provide staging which he could climb safely.

As my compatriot r (who is the supernicety, in these parts) says, "everyone wants tort reform until they are hurt."

The level of cognitive dissonance this kind of thing should create in Bork's brain ought to be sufficient to cause hemorrhages. Instead, selfishness and hypocrisy make such people capable of spewing forth about the evil of trial lawyers without even a hint of introspection.

What a fucking piece of work.

ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society: Leading Conservative Activist Seeks Punitive Damages

In search of the ultimate sushi experience, the author plunges into the frenzy of the world's biggest seafood market—Tokyo's Tsukiji, where a bluefin tuna can fetch more than $170,000 at auction—and discovers the artistry between ocean and plate, as well as some fishy surprises.

Fascinating.

If You Knew Sushi: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com

Now that Paris Hilton is settling into her expected 23-day stay in jail for transgressions against mankind, one can only hope that her stay in the pokey will erase, or at least dilute, the delusional and masochistic qualities that seem to swarm in her DNA.

On the red carpet, here's what Paris told us: "I feel like the media portrays me in a way that I'm not."

Huh? How's that?

Oh, you mean the sex tapes? Or the party tapes featuring Paris spewing ugly racial and homophobic epithets? Or did she mean the let's-humiliate-Lindsay Lohan "firecrotch" tape? Or was it the new season of "The Simple Life" in which the opening episode featured her and Nicole Richie as camp counselors at a so-called "Fat Camp" where they squealed in seeming delight as they administered enemas to overweight campers?

...

And served a softball, [Sarah Silverman] cranked her bat like a propeller and knocked it out of the park. After announcing that Paris was going to jail, a roar of cheers went up from the crowd as Paris squirmed in her seat. And then came Silverman's crack of the bat. "As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises."

How America turned a dumb blond who likes to do amateur porn into a star is anyones guess. Nice to see things in perceptive every now and again.

[ You'll note, however, that we're still talking about her, which is all it takes.

I don't think it's anyone's guess at all. It's pretty clear how this all came to be, and it's mostly depressing.

(pedant note, I believe you meant "perspective" ;) -k]

Paris and Prison

The first amendment is under serious attack following an incident that took place at the GOP presidential debates up here in New Hampshire. Matt Lepacek a member of the activist/alternative media group We Are Change was arrested for simply attempting to question Rudy Giuliani about different issues including the fact that he previously lied to the We Are Change group about his involvement in the events of 9/11. This event shows that we no longer have freedom of speech or freedom of press in this country.

I want more info. This is quite outrageous if true.

Reporter Arrested For Asking Tough Questions

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for TV networks but a setback for efforts to shield children from coarse language, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that broadcasters cannot be penalized for expletives that are considered impromptu.

The three-judge panel in New York repudiated the Federal Communications Commission's recent crackdown on broadcast indecency, calling its efforts "arbitrary and capricious."

Fuckin' A! Good news.

[ Agreed. This has always seemed like a market issue to me. You don't like the tone or content on a particular network? Vote with your pocketbook and your voice. Don't watch it. Don't let your kids watch it. Teach your kids that Nicole Ritchie (or, substitute your own celeb) is a spoiled, classless moron and that imitating her is a sure fire way to also look like an imbecile with no sense of decorum or grace.

I view government regulation as necessary in a number of places, but this just isn't one of them.

I will admit that the structure of TV distribution makes market solutions harder than in other industries. I can just not go to McDonalds, but with TV, such a boycott means a lot less since I have to have the channel unless I cancel all of them. Neilsen is an inadequate mechanism for analysis of this sort of issue. A la carte purchasing would help a LOT. -k]

Judges toss FCC rule on cursing | Chicago Tribune

Super-wow. Really, just, um, yeah.

agentbedhead.com - pretty fly for a white girl

"I feel awful," he said, speaking through a mask from his hospital room in Denver, Colorado. "I've lived in this state of constant fear and anxiety for a week now, and to think that some else now is feeling that, I wouldn't want anyone to feel that way.

"I don't expect those people to ever forgive me. I just hope they understand that I truly never meant them any harm."

Oh really? The only possible excuse would be not knowing you were infected prior to the traveling. But since you both did know *and* took extraordinary measures to avoid detection by border security, all the above sounds like a giant pack of lies.

You can't willfully endanger others and then say you didn't mean them any harm. At the very least, you didn't give two shits one way or another.

I'm almost completely unsympathetic to his plight.

U.S. border security scrutinized after TB patient slips in - CNN.com

Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

Ok, so, I'm missing the connection... can someone help me out?

You try to pay a bill, with legal tender, and Best Buys (stupid employees) think that they are fake, and this has what? to do with 9/11 and terrorism?

Where is the logic in this statement, and where is the law suit?

[ That's the default answer anytime anyone overreacts, of course. It's got fuckall to do with terrorism and everyone knows it, but now there's a believable bogey-man on which every indiscretion can be blamed. It's fucking bullshit. -k]

WorldNetDaily: Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills

close to home?

Wellington Grey -- Miscellanea -- Of Angels, Monkeys and Fat Men