The eruption of Mount Merapi continues to build, with the death toll now over 150 and over 200,000 people displaced from their homes. Heavens, it might even cause President Obama to cancel his visit to Indonesia.
How’s this for teaching kids the wrong lessons: League officials have banned an undefeated youth football team from the playoffs because they are too good. The other teams in the league feared they lose if they played them again.
Update: Teaching kids the joy of winning instead of the misery of “fairness.” Key quote:
Every week you’ve been told that the important thing is just to have a good time. Well, this week it’s going to be different. The number one goal is to win; the number two goal is to have a good time. But I assure you: if you win, you will have a much better time!
An evening pause: What was happening while Thomas Jefferson was writing the Declaration of Independence, according to Broadway and Hollywood.
Freedom of speech alert: A high school production of To Kill a Mockingbird was cancelled because of the play includes the word “nigger.” The absurdity of this is incredible. Not only was this how people spoke during the time period described in the book, Harper Lee’s book was central in bringing about the end to racial discrimination.
Good news for freedom: The ACLU is suing NJ Transit for its firing of a worker because he burned Koran at a protest
More on the continuing eruption of Mount Merapi in Indonesia. Key quote:
The Volcano Mitigation and Geological Disaster Agency warned of worse in store as magma pushed towards the surface from depths of 6-8km, compared with a maximum 2km deep when the mountain previously erupted in 2006. “This is the scenario I dislike the most, because the deepest magma is pushing up now,” said the agency’s chief, Surono. “The eruptions haven’t stopped, the tremors are getting stronger and one big explosion could be the result. I’ve never seen it act like this. We don’t know what to expect.”
An evening pause: Charlie Chaplin, making glorious fun of Hitler and all egomanical dictators, in The Great Dictator (1940).
More bad news for NASA’s future: There are more indications in the House that the election results will increase the pressure to cut NASA’s budget.
Cassini went into safe mode on Tuesday, November 2nd. At the moment engineers expect it to take at least another week to get the spacecraft back to normal.
The worst volcanic eruption of Mount Merapi in Indonesia in a century has gotten worse.
Discovery’s launch is now officially postponed until no sooner than November 30.
