Monthly Archives: February 2018

Two Things

  1. Robert got a new (used) baseball glove.  Woo hoo!.  New condition, totally pro, and, best of all, only $9 on Ebay.  Now he can teach his son how to throw a baseball.  Maybe.

IMG_6657

2.  “Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn’t disdain what only lives for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment . . . Life’s bounty is in its flow, later is too late.”

Tom Stoppard

Enemies of Modernity

Pretty good listen.

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/02/helen_pluckrose.html

Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay talk with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about their essay on the enemies of modernity. Pluckrose and Lindsay argue that modernity–by which they mean democracy, reason, and individual liberty–is under attack from pre-modern and post-modern ideological enemies. They discuss why modernity is under attack and encourage people on the political left and right to support modernity.

 

Very Nice

From NYT

Full Article.

SANTIAGO, Chile — They killed Tony the Tiger. They did away with Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah. They banned Kinder Surprise, the chocolate eggs with a hidden toy.

The Chilean government, facing skyrocketing rates of obesity, is waging war on unhealthy foods with a phalanx of marketing restrictions, mandatory packaging redesigns and labeling rules aimed at transforming the eating habits of 18 million people.

Nutrition experts say the measures are the world’s most ambitious attempt to remake a country’s food culture, and could be a model for how to turn the tide on a global obesity epidemic that researchers say contributes to four million premature deaths a year.

“It’s hard to overstate how significant Chile’s actions are — or how hard it has been to get there in the face of the usual pressures,” said Stephen Simpson, director of the Charles Perkins Centre, an organization of scholars focused on nutrition and obesity science and policy. The multibillion dollar food and soda industries have exerted those pressures to successfully stave off regulation in many other countries.

 

Gold Rush Days

Rory’s going to Coloma next week, for two nights stay near Sutter’s Mill.  Big school trip.  And parents are allowed to send along “secret” letters to the kids, expressing love and support during the children’s time away from home alone.  Of course, the Pierces don’t play those games . . .

New Math

Lots of word problems to be solved in 4th grade.  Here’s one from a test that Rory got right.

A store has DVDs on sale. The store has 5 racks of cartoons with 13 in each rack. It has 3 racks of movies with 12 in each rack. There were 25 cartoons sold in the first hour of the sale. How many cartoons and movies are left in all?”

We tell him he is good a math because he is a good reader.

Robert, of course, gets lost half way through.