Teaching Creationism and Assaulting Your Pupils

In the UK I would like to think that no one would defend a teacher who used an electrostatic device to brand children in their class. The teacher would be sacked and no one would leap to their defense. In parts of the US it would seem that such cases are not quite so straightforward. In this news story there is a bizarre quote:

“With the exception of the cross-burning episode. … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district,”

This seems akin to claiming that apart from stabbing his guests, Norman Bates ran a perfectly good motel.

The follow-up story describes how supporters of this teacher prayed for God to inspire the school board to reach the correct decision concerning this teacher. The board sacked the teacher. Their prayers were answered, but not in the way that they wanted.

Plastic Food

Some products are obviously brilliant from the first moment that you see them, others take time for the brilliance to become apparent, some never really succeed, and then are those that time reveals were fatally flawed. Now I bring you a product so dumb it makes New Coke seem like a smart idea. Kellogg’s new fruit flavoured snack that is shaped like Lego bricks. Who could possibly think that making food that is shaped like plastic toys is a good idea? What product development team thinks that encouraging young kids to swallow something on which they could choke is the way forward? Lego shaped snacks are an accident, and this being the US, a law suit waiting to happen.