I arrived in Portland, Oregon yesterday afternoon. What an amazing little city. It is vibrant, efficient, sensible, green and soulful. The light-rail and streetcar system is simply a joy to use. I miss being on foot, being able to appreciate the world on a human scale. Jacksonville, Florida should take note. Come on, people. We can do better tha settle for a silly little monorail that goes nowhere.
As reported here by Jacksonville.com, State Senator (R) Stephen Wise from our fair city of Jacksonville wants to require teachers to teach “the idea” of intelligent design alongside the “scientific theory of evolution” in order to promote “critical thinking.” The quotes are mine to underscore the utter inanity of the language used in these kinds of discussions.
Talk about missing the point. Perhaps we can teach faith-based arithmatic in Calculus. That way, we would finally be able to apply our critical math skills to solve real world problems. We wonder why we have a crisis in our public education system? It’s because our public discourse is still stuck in the last century.
I must confess I was still ambivalent about the notion of fatherhood up till the very end. And then, in a singular sacred moment, he arrived, screaming with life and beautiful; I felt the universe expand for him.
flying toy elephant, originally uploaded by ernestkoe.
This was a tough shot, the elephat was a few inches from a window; I had to point the camera towards me, at an angle and away from the sunlight. This was taken with a Nikon D5000 and a 35mm f/1.8G AF-S prime lens. I opted for the D5000 instead of the D90 on the hunch that the the flip-out LCD screen would be more useful than a better LCD resolution or lens compatibility. I am very happy with it so far, although not being able to autofocus my older 50mm f/1.8 AF is a bit irksome.
