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Re: [Phys-l] Bye



I am afraid this typifies what has happened in our country with increasing
polarization. I say this as a "boring pedant". Chit chat happens and just
because one person doesn't like it, that won't prevent it. Actually the
comments about pipes bursting brings out the fact that people do stupid
things, and in classrooms students come up with what we think are stupid
ideas.

As to politics it is already intruding on science classes and has always
intruded from before the Scopes trial up until now. At one time this
intrusion was across party lines, but now it is mostly confined to one
party, so evolution and global warming are labeled liberal and evidence of
falsified analysis and data. The same sort of things have been said about
PER. None of these three topics should be influenced by other political or
social paradigms, but that is happening.

This list has always had a number of topics which have been beaten to death
repeatedly and often boringly, but that happens. It is like subscribing to
a journal. You read the articles of interest, and ignore the ones that you
think are not. And letters to the journal editor are always couched in
polite terms, but can be calling others fools with educated language. The
big difference is that blogs tend to descend in to much less educated
language. Just look at what happens when a reasonably educated news story
comes out in support of global warming. The bubbas write back one liners
accusing the story of being a liberal plot and a number of replies are
actually removed by the editors because they are too vile to print.

This blog is a lot more civilized than most newspaper article replies. Even
the NYTimes gets a lot of uncivilized replies, but fewer than most other
papers. Some lists are controlled by the original person and keep control
over its members, and those lists tend to be more polite. The word for the
day should be to never accuse others of having purely political or religious
motives and stick to rebutting or agreeing with what was said. And remember
that a lot of communication is actually chatter. But the chatter and gossip
act as social lubricants. Actually supposedly dumb comments can bring up
important issues.

Remember: Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent.

Maybe we should bring in the fluffy bunnies!
"Walt Kelly was a satirist, sure, but he was also a businessman first.
Knowing that some newspapers would refuse to run the more politically
oriented strips, Kelly would prepare substitute strips for those editors,
usually involving a cast of white fluffy bunnies carrying out various cute
fluffy-bunny-type behavior. When you think about it, this was a brilliant
move on Kelly's part. Not only did this guarantee that he wouldn't
temporarily lose placement, and the accompanying syndicate dollars, in any
papers, but it also served as a tipoff to attentive readers that, when the
white bunnies showed up, maybe there was something going on in the strip
that their local newspaper was refusing to run, and maybe they should seek
out a competing paper."

John M. Clement
Houston, TX