How Shall We Live?

Was just reading the above book, and thought this quote was gold: “Thousands of years before the broken-window theory, the Jewish people had already captured the idea in shalom. Although popularly translated “peace,” the connotations of the term are actually much broader than the absence of hostilities. Shalom refers to peace in a positive sense, the result…

Quote of the day “I’m pretty sure you were born yesterday” edition

From the Herald. The Chifley College student also says that Casey in fact had bullied him prior to the altercation and threw the first punch. “He abused me first … he was like ‘get to class, you idiot’, all that sort of stuff,” Ritchard said. I don’t know what’s worse, the bullying or the fact…

Student Idiots

After the earthquake, we had a fantastic response by the Student Volunteer Army. Meanwhile in Dunedin, the students are making sure that that young people retain their irresponsible reputation. “Earlier on Saturday night, the fires were mostly couches related to parties. But later on, at 4 or 5 on Sunday morning, they seemed to be…

Good Post on Japan’s Nuclear Power Plants

Saw this post via twitter. It goes through what has happened, the safety measures, why they failed etc etc. The plant came close to a core meltdown. Here is the worst-case scenario that was avoided: If the seawater could not have been used for treatment, the operators would have continued to vent the water steam to avoid…

Don’t Panic

Ok, let’s take a step back. A lot of people have been trapped. But a relative few buildings are affected. A lot of people are injured, but medical resources are coping very well indeed Water is a problem, but workarounds are well under-way A lot of buildings are damaged, but they were all insured, and resources were already being mustered to assess,…

Shock – Something *not* caused by Global Warming

I feel a little faint. “The United States and New Zealand are both delighted to see the extent of the sea ice breakout this year because it does mean that we are dealing with much cleaner ice, much shallower ice in terms of ice-breaking channels, and new sea ice that freezes for the runways,” Mr…

Jaw Dropper of the Day

Via CNN, we are reminded of why the left think the right hate teachers – it’s because we don’t have quite the same view of them as they do. CNN: So in this town where the average income is $22,000 the average teacher is now making $76,000. What are the community members paying for? James…

Another teacher refusing to do their job, even after horrific injuries resulted

Well, this one tops all. “Principal John Inger wouldn’t have had them back here unless he and the board were persuaded that [the girls] had moved on.” Mr Inger said the girls would “almost certainly be looking for a different school” if they did something like this again. What did they do that threatened that…

Yet another school disinterested in doing it’s job

This makes me angry. Mr Petherick said he had assured Mr Hamilton the school was a safe place for his son. “We have spoken to all the individuals in this, and we believe that it is sorted.” Bullying was not a problem at his school. “Any bullying that happens here we deal with it. We…

“How dare the government force us to selfishly push people away”

I was wathing 3 news last night. It was so nice to see the best funded sector in education complaining bitterly that they woudn’t retain their privileged position. Funny how the teacher’s union person interviewed made it very clear that the government’s actions were the direct cause of them raising fees (and all the bad stuff that causes) and…