Wordless Wednesday

So this girl was petting a guy's monkey...

Read the rest for yourself:

Capital Times

Clearly the editor didn't proof-read this article too closely because it seems they missed an alternate meaning for a particular phrase.

Words for Wordless Wednesday

The picture Jason posted is from the top of the High Falls on the Baptism River in Tetteguche State Park in Minnesota on the North Shore or Lake Superior. Jason and I tool a vacation here in September of 2003 (maybe it was 2004). We had a great time hiking and taking in spectacular views. If I ever get around to putting the pictures into a flickr photo album, I will post them.

On another note, I have been so bad about posting lately but something really made me smile this week. Jay Mohr is now a writer for Fox Sports. He even mentions Rickey Henderson. I loved his column for SI.com last year. One of my columns was about sports that aren't sports.. like figure skating. After bashing the music that figure skaters perform to, he finishes an out-of-nowhere Neil Diamond tirade by saying that he would watch men's figure skating if the man were Neil Diamond in one of his sparkling shirts skating to coming to America.... priceless.

Wordless Wednesday

One Laptop Per Child

When I first heard about the One Laptop Per Child initiative, I was a bit skeptical. For those that are unfamiliar with this program, it is basically an initiative to provide inexpensive laptop computers to children in developing countries. According to the website for the program (http://www.laptop.org), "Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade. The individual and societal consequences of this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives."

Sure, there's really nothing you can disagree with in this claim. But is providing these children with a laptop computer really the best way to combat this problem? Immediately, 2 major problems came to mind.

First, wouldn't there be other aspects of education that could be invested in rather than the development and purchasing of these computers? You know, those small issues such as books, teachers, schools, etc. It seems to me that the inadequate education in these countries exists largely because the country does not have the educational infrastructure nor the resources to provide an education for its children, and not necessarily because the kids are having trouble connecting to Wikipedia. But perhaps this is a better approach, because it is apparent that the average American is outraged when someone tries to open a new school in Africa to provide a quality education for students (see Oprah - nasty blog comments). The whole laptop program also seems to have an aura of a very insular, short-sighted American mindset. It doesn't even seem like the computers are all that well-made, as the power generator hand-crank broke off in Kofi Annan's hands as he tried to demonstrate how it is used.

So this led me to my second problem with the program. The computer is a stripped-down version of laptops that you or I would be accustomed to seeing. No peripheral drives, memory supplied by flash cards, etc, all leading to a much lower price than we would be accustomed to. The goal is to get the cost down to $100 per laptop. Now $100 is far cheaper than any laptop that the western world can ever find, but it still seemed like a good amount of money for someone in a developing, third-world country - perhaps because $100 is still a decent amount of money to someone living on a postdoc salary. So I did a little research to find out how far $100 could go in an African country. With a little help from Google, I was able to find out that the average Ethiopian earns an annual income of $100. So does this mean that the average Ethiopian should do without everything for a year just to buy a laptop. Supporters of the initiative are quick to point out that these laptops would be sold to governments to distribute to children, but wouldn't this money still be better served to improve education, health care, and providing food for the population? It seemed obvious to me that these laptops would be quickly found on the black market, sold in exchange for enough money that could be used to feed a family for a year. And where would these laptops wind up? Probably some neo-hippie in Madison or Berkeley would be using one while sipping a latte made with organic, shade-grown coffee beans at the local coffee shop.

Now what I didn't consider (and I must say that I'm rather disappointed that this didn't occur to me) is that these laptops might not even be used for educational purposes. This third option should have been abundantly apparent to me, as I often spend far too much time checking out sites like ESPN.com, CNN.com, and more recently, facebook while at work. Could the children using these $100 laptops use them for something that's not education-related? I came across some news in support of this possibility the other day on Yahoo, where evidently some students in Nigeria were caught surfing the interwebs for pornography. I suppose that some might consider that to be educational....

Books on Tape

My boss swears by books on tape. She buys alot of them and she told me I could borrow some anytime for my commute or for traveling to see Jason. I took one with me to Missouri this weekend. Even though Jason was with me, he said he was tired. That way, he could sleep and I could listen to the book.

The book I borrowed was Tess Gerritsen's "Body Double." Maybe its because so many people I know are pregnant but this book freaked me out. I am so glad I didn't borrow it for a trip that I was taking alone! I think I would enjoy reading it better. Unfortunately the voice on the CD's was Anne Heche... I could think of worse voices to hear... Rosanne Barr or Fran Drescher come to mind.. but her voice became a little annoying. If you are up for a good thriller, and you are not pregnant, you could give this book a try.

Old Missouri

Jason and I headed to Columbia this weekend for Bec and Cameron's wedding reception. We had a great time and saw lots of old friends.


We got into town on Friday, headed to a BBQ, then to Louis and Jen's house (they were great hosts.. and we paid them in cheese!), then to Cooper's landing for the Thai food that I have missed since I left Columbia. I couldn't believe how much Columbia has grown since I left.. I haven't even been gone for 2 years!
Saturday we had breakfast at the old Chesapeake bagel place, now B&B. Different name, same place. They still have trivia questions for free bagles. It was so nice to have a bagel place right across the street! Then I had lunch with my old lab after they were done in the field. Then we relaxed a little before heading to dinner at Jazz (I had a fried oyster Po'boy..mmmmm) and we even saw some old friends we played softball with. Joel was playing guitar at Jazz (he and his band played at our wedding cocktail hour).

Then came the reception at the alumni center. It was great to see so many old friends and I think a good time was had by all... so good that there was an after party at the Heidelberg.. we closed it down.
Sunday we had brunch at Boone Tavern and then headed back to Cooper's Landing for a boat ride on the Missouri. I think I am still recovering from the trip but I am so glad we went!


For more pictures from our trip, click here.