26 April 2006

Skool Choys

This was always my argument against school choice and vouchers:
"Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What's left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer.  There's been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn't stopping now."
School choice is great for involved parents and motivated students - also for students who want to play sports on a different team or go to school with a boy/girlfriend - but they don't do anything for the VAST majority of poor, inner city students.

19 April 2006

Christianity in the US

Map of dominant churches by county in the US.

Links to maps for each major religion - with Christianity broken down by denomination.

Interesting to me, at least. I grew up a Catholic (nominally, at least) in Tennessee. Recently we've started attending a Lutheran (ELCA) church in Minnesota. There's also a map of Religious Adherents which suggests how the coastal power brokers might have a little trouble understanding and relating to those of us in the fly-over states.

04 April 2006

Very cool medical stuff

It's not sci-fi anymore - they're actually cloning organs and re-implanting them. Excellent.