Before I link to this article, let me throw out a quote from one of the participants.  This particular man is named Joel Fanti, and he’s a resident of Brunswick County, North Carolina.  His little nugget of ineptitude sparked a discussion during a meeting by the school board over teaching Creationism in public schools.  And I quote:

“I wasn’t here 2 million years ago,” Fanti said. “If evolution is so slow, why don’t we see anything evolving now?”

One would think that Mr. Fanti would be an educated person.  If he’s at a school board meeting, one would also assume he’s a parent.  In my opinion, he is qualified to be neither.  The sad thing is, Mr. Fanti was allowed to speak past his allotted time, and he ended his swan dive into stupidity with cheers from the audience.  Mr. Fanti must be proud that everyone else is apparently as stupid as he is.

Now the school board of Brunswick county, which, by the way, struggles with low test scores, poor graduation rates, and a history of inappropriate conduct, is trying to pass a measure instituting the teaching of Creationism within its schools.  They claim that it is unfair to teach Evolution as fact, because it’s a “theory” that can’t be proved.  Huh?

the·o·ry

Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural the·o·ries
Etymology:
Late Latin theoria, from Greek the?ria, from the?rein
Date:
1592
1: the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another

Evidently, the school board of Brunswick county, North Carolina needs to find a dictionary and learn the meaning of the word “theory.”

Here’s the article if you want to read it for yourself.

I’m not going to go into the whole Creationism vs. Evolution debate here.  Chances are, you’ve made up your mind (as you should) about this yourself, and nothing I say will (or should) change it, but I do want to bottom line it.

Evolution is science.  Period, end of discussion.  There should be no argument about what Evolution is, what Evolution does, and the fact that Evolution is real.  There is NO ARGUMENT.  This needs to be taught to our kids so that they can grow up to be sensible, educated and intelligent beings who exist on this planet in this age.  A theory is NOT a guess, is is a scientifically-proved fact, understood to the best of our knowledge, but subject to change if proved different.

Creationism is religion.  Religion is NOT science, and should NOT be taught as such to our children in Science class.  Creationism should be taught to our children in Religious Studies class, or Church.  Not only that, but know that there are lots of different creation stories.  Our children should have the opportunity to learn them all.  This is called “knowledge”, and this “knowledge” is hopefully what keeps our children from becoming brain-dead cretins like the school board of Brunswick county, North Carolina.

And if that wasn’t definite enough, the Constitution of the United States of America says that there is a Separation of Church and State, which in this case, in simplified terms, means that it is ILLEGAL to teach religion to our kids in a public institution.  PERIOD.

Why does this argument persist?

Saturday morning was quite the experience.  I had gotten up early (for me) because Sra and I had planned a hike in Bells Canyon in preparation for our big climb of Mount Olympus next week.  Like always, I stumbled groggily into the bathroom to take my shower, when I heard a loud BAM!, followed by a couple of smaller (but equally loud) cracks coming from somewhere outside.  My first thought was that the neighbors were shooting each other again, and at 8AM on a Saturday morning, that was just plain rude.  Subsequent screaming and shouting from the vicinity of outside somewhere further cemented this opinion, and I figured since it was none of my business, I’d just finish my shower and go about my day. 

My second thought, as I was soaping up, was that those cracks sounded pretty loud for gunfire.  Are the neighbors using shotguns this time?  That’s horribly insensitive to people who are still trying to sleep.  No, those blasts were too loud for guns.  Something’s up.  I toweled off and investigated.

Upon stepping out to my balcony, I saw about 100 people milling about and staring at a spectacle which took me a minute to digest.  The neighboring apartment across the pool from mine was gone, and in its place was a massive fireball and a thick cloud of black smoke.  Oh God!  The neighbor’s freaking apartment exploded!  I couldn’t believe it.  I just stood there dumbstruck as the Midvale fire department pulled up and finally justified the purchase of their humongous new ladder truck. 

It didn’t take them too long to put it out, but I think that’s because, at my count, there were nine fire trucks, from all the neighboring cities including Sandy, Murray, West Valley, and even South Jordan, along with various ambulances and support vehicles, and numerous cop cars in every corner of my apartment complex.  Firefighters were running everywhere, and residents (and now former residents) were just walking around in a daze.  Like me, they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.

Since I couldn’t get my car out, I walked down to the 7/11 and had Sra pick me up there for our hike.  We were both rather taken with the events of that morning, and couldn’t stop talking about it for a while.  Our hike took all day, and when I got back I grabbed my little camera and walked over toward the site of the destruction.  The area was roped off of course, but there was a news crew there doing a story.  I felt bad snapping a picture with all the (former) residents poking through the ashes of their (former) possessions, but I did manage to grab one blurry one.

The good news is that no one was hurt.  From what I understand, two teenagers went around the apartments banging on the doors and getting everyone out before the buildings went up.  They probably saved several lives by that quick thinking.  The bad news is that 35 people are now homeless and 13 apartments were destroyed.  The building itself will have to be demolished, because the fire marshal says it’s not structurally sound anymore, and as of now there’s still no known cause.

A pretty sad way to start the weekend.

I read the rules, and they don’t say anything about self-promotion, so I’ll ask a favor.

My good neighbor Trovan linked me to a web site running a little contest for horror stories in my My Dark post a couple of days ago.  I thank him for pointing me to that, and would like to shamefully ask that anyone who may have liked my story go to the site, create a little logon, and vote for me.

You don’t have to, of course.  You can vote for the other guys too.  There aren’t many entries yet, but I think one of the others is pretty good.  Check it out!

Oh, and I know my story isn’t exactly a horror story.  Still, it does have a vampire in it, so that’s not all bad is it?

I’m such a pimp.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by the Creative Director of the Wasatch Journal, an outdoor lifestyle magazine here in Utah.  She was asking permission to use a picture I took of the Spiral Jetty in the magazine to accompany an article they were preparing for the fall edition.  Of course I said yes, because after all, it’s an honor anytime someone recognizes something you’ve done, but also because the Wasatch Journal is a pretty up-scale publication and a photo credit there will boost my confidence (and my credibility) tremendously.  I’m very excited about it.

After I replied and offered to send her a higher-resolution shot, she contacted me again with payment details and the like.  I gotta say, I could get used to selling pictures.  Now I understand how some photographers make a good living doing this, and I’m really giving consideration to exploring it further.  I’m a little diminished by equipment at the moment, but you know, lenses can be rented.  Where I live has absolutely no shortage of photogenic stuff, and although it’s all been shot bazillions of times I’m sure, it hasn’t been shot by me.  I don’t mean to say I’m a spectacular photographer, only to say that my perspective is (of course) different than other people.  I’m willing to give it a shot at any rate.

So the ironic part, if you’ll indulge me for a second, is really quite amusing.  Last year, I spent a goodly amount of money on a very beautiful piece of equipment, a Canon EOS 40D SLR camera.  This is a very highly regarded camera, and I was fortunate to find one right when they were first released.  A nice DSLR is something I’ve always wanted, and I was finally able to justify to myself the expense by realizing that where I live, I could really get some use out of it.  Not only that, but I’m a control freak, and I like having the utmost control over aspect of my image.  Buying a new DSLR was a no-brainer.

So the irony… The day I went with some friends up to the Spiral Jetty, I didn’t take my uber-expensive new DSLR.  I’m not sure why exactly, only I remember expecting a full car and not much room, and I perhaps thought a bulky camera wouldn’t be prudent.  Instead, I had my trusty Sony DSC W-1 point&shoot with me.  This is my back-up camera; a little 5.1 megapixel dealie that fits right in my pocket.  An even sadder bit of irony is that I forgot to charge the batteries the night before, so I think I only got a few shots that day.  The good news is, one of those shots will make me a published photographer.

I just find it ironic that I spent roughly sixteen hundred dollars on a camera, only to have my little $400 camera usurp it.  Now I wish I had my nice camera with me that day, only because I look at the picture now and think of how much sharper and clearer it could be.  Still, I think the picture looks pretty good, and if the Creative Director of a major publication likes it, who am I to judge?