STARK RAVING MAD

The Wall Street Journal for October 27, 1994 p B1 reported an effort by some school board members in Half Moon Bay, CA to abolish homework. One member argued that homework is bad for family life, favors children of smart parents (who can help do it), and wears out text books that must be carried to and from school.

He is right that children do not need evening school work - providing they learn during their best hours earlier in the day. Unfortunately, those best hours are currently wasted in public "schools.'' For those kids that are still trying to learn regardless of socialized education, homework is the last opportunity each day.
"Ranking Japan's Life Science Research'' by S. Yamazaki in Nature 372 pp 125-126 (1994) evaluates Japan's medical research organizations "based on total output of papers and the annual paper output per head.'' This is also largely the way in which American scientists are judged in their efforts to stay "funded'' by grants of tax money. (Bureaucrats are also judged by their paper output.) The great discoveries of science are contained in a relatively few seminal publications. The war on AIDS shows the relation between number of papers and value - 77,000 papers and almost no progress.
A federal judge in Montana ruled that a man must meet the same standard of evidence for claiming self defense in killing a grizzly bear that would be required for killing a human (Pick and Shovel, July 1993); the fairy shrimp has been given government protection from humans in Sacramento (The Wall Street Journal, October 21, 1994); and a group that calls itself "Physicians for Social Responsibility'' has now endorsed radical pseudoenvironmentalism in the name of protecting humans (Technology Review, November-December 1994).

•	Conservation of Energy
•	ENERGY EFFICIENCY
•	SECRECY AND SECURITY
•	NO PLACE TO STAND?
•	SAXON MATH
•	DANGERS OF DIOXANE
•	INCREASING ACCESS TO ENERGY
•	*STARK RAVING MAD*
•	GOOD READING
•	OREGON INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

Vol. 22, No. 4

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 4

Date: December 01, 1994 02:48 PM
Title: Conservation of Energy