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Tuesday, August 20, 2002 |
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News: Moist Towelette Online Museum (featured in June 10 Wall Street Journal) -- http://jsfrench.tripod.com/ Comment: This is pretty weird. John French hosts this site. I've met this guy...he works at Abram's Planetarium. And he lives in Holt. Not only that, he lives on Park Lane, the street I used to live on. Spooky! News: U.S. worries about cruise missile threats -- http://makeashorterlink.com/?V56F23091 Comment: Almost impossible to defend against. So, Bush is probably on the right track when he says we have to go on the offensive and pre-emptively strike against unfriendly nations before they can hammer us. Of course, we'd use common sense. We won't attack Canada just because they hate the Detroit Red Wings for winning the Stanley Cup. But when Iraq says "Death to the U.S. Satan", we have to take them seriously. News: Interesting column in Lansing State Journal on former Holt teacher and baseball coach Mark Coscarella -- http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z2AF25091 Comment: There are some cautionary lessons in this whole episode, chief of which is that with all the controversy over sexual harassment in the schools and workplace, Mark made some crucial mistakes. As the State Journal column says: "What is clear is that Coscarella knew his players were viewing inappropriate tapes and magazines in the van on the way to Florida and at the baseball camp they attended. Though he eventually told the team to put the porn away - and they complied - he didn't act quickly or decisively enough to satisfy parents and school officials." Reading between the lines, I think Mark was trying to be "one of the boys" and not crack down too hard on his players. But he may not have realized that nowadays, there is zero-tolerance in the media for any hint of sexual harassment or potential sexual abuse of minors (remember, some of the baseball players were under the age of 18). The school district had no choice but to force his resignation. What if one of his baseball players viewed the inappropriate tapes and magazines and then harassed a girl at school? A lawyer could easily claim that the district (or rather, Mark, the district's employee) had created a "hostile atmosphere" that caused the harassment. It didn't help that this case got nationwide publicity when it broke. All-in-all, it's scary how a lapse in judgment has really damaged Mark's life. News: Space elevator may become a reality someday -- http://www.msnbc.com/news/796283.asp?pne=msn&cp1=1 Comment: Thanks to Brandon for passing this along. This concept has been featured in a number of sci-fi stories. It you could get the technology (nanotubes?) to make it work, it would be a slick system. In "Green Mars", Kim Stanley Robinson wrote about a space elevator from Mars to Deimos. Terrorists cut the cable, which falls to the Mars surface, wrapping itself across the landscape with catastrophic results. Click here to see current comments and add your own. 11:32:45 AM 
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