A Curious Statistical Anomaly

When I saw this article on BoingBoing, I could not believe it.

Evidently, the laptops that students received from the school also contain software that allows school administrators to spy on them and their families. There is now a class action suit against the district because:

The issue came to light when the Robbins’s child was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

I find this creepy in the extreme. What is it with people who believe that they have the right to spy on others anytime they want. This is an invasion of privacy at the least, and child pornography on the part of school officials at the worst — since I’d imagine many of the students have the laptops in their rooms.

What’s even less appealing is that the school said:

The school district admits that student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams, but denies wrongdoing.

NOTE: There are links in the BoingBoing article to the filings and letters and other documentation.

I’m just stunned that not only did some at the school spy on the students but that they don’t see anything wrong with this. There is no excuse for spy on the students at home. Even if there was a reason to do so, the school does not have the right to do so, since the parents are responsible for their children.

How can you expect to raise and educate children and young adults if you don’t even understand the basic principles of privacy, fairness, and respect. The school district is in the wrong and there’s no excuse for their actions and every adult involved needs some lesson in how to conduct themselves in society.

When Al Gore wrote Inconvenient Truth about the dangers of global warning, he couldn’t have found a name for his book that could be any more indicative of many people’s reactions to global warming, its possible causes and potential results.

Today, I came across an article in the guardian.co.uk entitled, “Utah delivers vote of no confidence for ‘climate alarmists’“. I figured it was just another bit of ranting about how could global warming exist if it snowed and we had winter. These types of stories happen a lot in the US as many people can not or rather will not grasp the concept of “global” in the phrase “global warming”.

Nope. I was wrong. The state of Utah has proved to the world that the United States has, in positions of power, some of the most scientifically uneducated buffoons on the face of the Earth. Note that the vote on this bill was 56 to 17 — only 17 people could see that this was a bad piece of legislation. Utah Legislature HJR012 says in its General Description:

This joint resolution of the Legislature urges the United States Environmental Protection Agency to cease its carbon dioxide reduction policies, programs, and regulations until climate data and global warming science are substantiated.

Obviously, members of the Utah legislature need a refresher course in General Science 101. They also need to pay attention to what has been coming out of the Climate Change Summits over the last several years. They may also need to watch Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth DVD a few times. No matter what government legislates or believes, facts are facts. Our weather is changing. We can work to mitigate those changes but denying the existence of the facts isn’t going to make them go away.

The scientific community is not in doubt about the need to reduce carbon dioxide emission or that global warming is taking place or that human activity is a part of the equation causing global warming. Utah believes that since they want it not to be true they can simply demand that all the data has to be done again and again and again until they get the results they want. Because at heart, that’s what they’re really trying to do.

It might also be noted that Utah is a solid Republican state. That’s important because the Republican party has been the party of wishful thinking for quite a few years. If they don’t like a fact they try to make out like it isn’t a fact. If they don’t like a law that is passed they try to repeal it. If that doesn’t work they try to make it impossible to enforce or use that law. If they don’t like something, they consistently try to denigrate it, besmirch it, or make fun of it. One thing they never ever do is try to come up with a better way of doing things or helping the country or its citizens achieve their potential.

Unfortunately, passing frivolous legislation and showing a total lack of understanding of scientific data to the world is not going to make global warming go away. Passing legislation that denies the existence of gravity and calling it a passing fancy of Newton will not cause you to float if you should trip over an apple peel. Facts are what they are and denying them and asking for more and more proof of their existence when most countries of the world have already determined the facts to be only arguable in degree not in actuality, only shows that here in American we have discovered a way to live on denial to the detriment of our economy and our country.

I cringe to think what this effort on the part of Utah to maintain its place as a oil and coal producing state in the face of such inconvenient truths will do to the standing of the United States on the world stage whenever science and facts are being discussed. It’s fairly obvious that wishful thinking rather than scientific inquiry rules in at least one state of the union.

My busy day I’ll admit is not the same as most people’s busy days. But for me I did a lot. (Remember I’ve got that whole lack of spoon things still going on.)

Well, I did the wash, dried,  folded, and put it away.

I made bread. Okay so we’ve got a bread machine but it’s now old and wonky but I managed to get it to produce a loaf so we could have it with the chili for supper.

I managed to gain on the email. Answered, sorted, handled, responded, entered in forms, whatever. It got done. Managed to weed the backlog down to under 100 — hopefully tomorrow I’ll get the rest of it taken care of.

By then the headache was starting so switched to reading some of the stuff I need to get done for March.

After supper we watched a movie and knitted on my sock — the plain vanilla one not the sock club one. I’m doing the cuff now and should finish it tomorrow. Then I get to start the next one of this pair.

See. Not much. But I feel right now like I ran a marathon. Sigh but still that’s improvement.

Today is Valentine’s Day and I suspect that many people will be sending cards or ecards to their special someone. Most will have X’s on them to represent kisses. I found this bit of an article on Valentine’s Day at How Stuff Works interesting:

How about the “X” sign representing a kiss? This tradition started with the Medieval practice of allowing those who could not write to sign documents with an “X”. This was done before witnesses, and the signer placed a kiss upon the “X” to show sincerity. This is how the kiss came to be synonymous with the letter “X”, and how the “X” came to be commonly used at the end of letters as kiss symbols.

Whether you deliver your Valentine his or her kiss as an X or in person, I hope everyone enjoys the day with someone special — family, lover, special friend, children, grandparents — whoever gives your heart joy.

Hyperion and I will spend the day together — just enjoying each other’s company. We’ve been married 20+ years and we still love to just spend time together. That is a gift I treasure.

It’s difficult to put into words just what one person can truly mean to another, and have it make any sense to a third person. When I say that Gayle completes me, I’m not insinuating that I couldn’t live without her, or any such silly sap as that. Obviously I managed to live for a couple of decades without her before she came into my life. But rather, I mean that being with her magnifies the joy life provides. Her strength gives me the courage and determination to do things that I simply wouldn’t have tried without her. Ten years ago we took a trip to Australia and toured half the country. Would I have bothered to do that alone? No, I’d have saved the money. But with her, it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Would I have the job I have today without her? No, because I knew I was completely unqualified for it, and never would have applied without her encouragement.

So, to Gayle, who brings richness and belief in the impossible to my life … happy V-Day!

“You are my sun, my moon, my star-lit sky. Without you, I dwell in darkness.” And it will never go away.

Today we made cinnamon-ginger donuts. Came out pretty good and we remembered to get them in containers before they could dry out.

Then it was some housework and picking up, followed by going out to do the shopping. We checked three stores looking for the 20 watt halogen lights that fit in our kitchen fixtures (4 of the 8 are burnt out — can’t believe how bright it still is). Anyway, decided it was time to get the replacements and some extras. All we could find were 50 watt ones. We got the fixtures at IKEA so I guess we’ll head up there tomorrow. I like lots of light in the kitchen.

Finished reading A Night Too Dark by Dan Stabenow. I’ll be writing a review for Gumshoe Review’s March issue. It’s another Kate Shugak — short version, I really liked it.

Didn’t get anything done on the sock during the last three days.  I’m up to turning the heel and I’m still hesitant about the directions.  They seem perfectly clear but for some reason I can’t wrap my mind around the stitch numbers.  There are more stitches to be knit than are on my needles so I guess I need to look at the directions with the sock in my hands and with the photo.  Maybe I just need to take a leap of  faith.   Faith leaping is best done on Sunday anyway.

We woke up this morning to this only with more fog…

The front yard with lots of snow and fog

The fog has lessened a bit but the sky is so grey.  The snow is light but the wind is blowing so it’s hard to focus on anything out there except what’s close to you. The birds have been crowding the feeder, we had refill it already today.

Hyperion drove down to the mailbox to check if we’d gotten anything. It’s also a way to scrap the snow off the middle of the road where it hasn’t been shoveled or plowed from the first storm so that the two wheel ruts will still allow us to get out of here if necessary. He found a plastic bag with a box and several big mailing envelopes in the snow bank that was for us but no mail in the box. He re-shoveled the mailbox out but with this wind it won’t stay clear.

The wind is really howling through the upper branches of the trees. So far none have come down. It’s hard to tell how much snow we’ve gotten so far. In some places about 6 inches in others just 2 — but with wind and drifts it could be anything in between.

Government is closed again today, so Hyperion’s is home. It’s nice having him around. I’m still working because — well, gee I work from home. I’m taking more breaks to sit with him but then I read (so I’m still working since the books are ones I’m reviewing for the next issue). But we’ve also watched a few movies over the last few days. I’ve got most of the foot done for my first sock from the Rocking Sock Club. I had to unknit about an inch because I didn’t read that the heel started earlier than I expected (I usually start 2 inches from the heel making the extra increases and this one is 3 1/4 inches from the heel. Looks good though.

We had a heck of a bad storm over the weekend. It started snowing on Friday and ended late Saturday night. For the first time in just about forever, I managed to take photo before the storm got going.

As you can see, we do have some snow left from the 1/2 to 1 inch dusting we’d gotten a few days before this bit storm. Here’s a photo taken during the storm.

Bird line up to eat during the storm

Note all the birds on the railing and at the feeder. It seems our local birds know where to get food when it storms. The minute the snow started on Friday they came knocking on the sliding deck doors. Then gathered to eat from the feeder. I say they knocked on the door but depending on the bird they peck at the glass or flap against it to get our attention. They tend to do this when the feeder is empty, especially when it’s snowing.

Here’s a photo of what it looks like today. The railing had been cleared off by the birds already.

The same view after the storm

There’s some glare in all the photos because they were taken through the glass doors but you get the idea.

In total we got about 2 feet of snow. When we woke this morning, we found that the neighbors plow guy had come through and plowed the main dirt road we all use. That means we only have to shovel from the carport to the road that was plowed — about 500 feet. So far Hyperion has shovel a single shovel width from the house to the car and then cleared off the car. He started doing two single shovel widths for the tires to the road. Actually the snow is too deep for body of the car to clear it (and it’s a pretty high clearance on that Honda). So, after he gets the two wheel lanes cleared he’ll start on the center strip. I really wish I could help but last time I threw out my back so I’m just a cheerleader this time.

We’re really lucky. We didn’t lose power and a lot of people in Maryland did. We didn’t lose any trees that we know of and another friend had two trees go down in their neighborhood and they’re stuck at home until the trees get taken care of.

Meanwhile for added fun, the weather people are predicting another storm midweek. I hope we get shoveled out from this one by then.

A Contest: The Sourcebooks, the publisher of Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, is willing to support a giveaway for the US and Canadian readers of this interview. Leave a comment on the post and I will chose a random comment author on Sunday February 7th. I’ll contact the winner to get their snail mail address. Winner will receive one set of three books in the Darcys and Bingleys series).

Marsha Altman continues the story of The Darcys and the Bingleys in Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, bringing us to 1812. This is book three of the series following The Darcys and the Bingleys and The Plight of the Darcy Brothers. The books are a delight, continuing the lives of some of literature favorite characters Elizabeth Bennet Darcy and Fitzwilliam Darcy. One reviewer said that “that [these books] would please even Jane Austen.” The more I read about Austen’s wit and humor, the more I do believe that she would appreciate Marsha Altman’s continuation of the story.

It may be Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape but you gave the women a very big role this time. Just how much fun was it to pair up the unlikely duo of Elizabeth and Caroline?

Marsha: A lot of fun, but also a little tricky. Even though nine years have passed since the events of Pride and Prejudice, these women still haven’t completely warmed to each other. Elizabeth is still witty and stubborn, and Caroline has to retain a certain edge to her for her to remain Caroline Bingley, even if she’s now Caroline Maddox. It’s not my attempt to make these characters unrecognizable, even if they do evolve significantly as they go through milestones in their lives, particularly marriage and children. Nor was it appropriate to have them constantly sniping at each other, because their journey was very serious. So I had to find a kind of balance there. Darcy and Dr. Maddox actually have more time to bicker, because they have few ways to pass the time while they’re waiting to be rescued.

So much of this resonated with Bram Stoker’s Dracula only without the vampires but with all the Gothic scariness. There’s even a ninja. Did you intend such a homage? Or am I just seeing a connection you didn’t intend?

Marsha: Just a straight-out correction here: There are two vampires in this story. The book just never says it outright, but the hints are hidden in the details. They reappear in other literature I’ve written that’s not Pride and Prejudice related and is either going to be published soon or I’m hoping will sell later this year. And there are no ninjas, only samurai (book 8 has ninjas).

The homage is entirely intentional, but more for the reader than the characters. To them, Transylvania is a place they’ve never heard of and can’t locate on a map before this story begins, except within the context of Brian Maddox having mentioned it was in Austria somewhere in the previous book. Let’s remember that Dracula by Bram Stoker wasn’t published until 1897, and that book was the formation of the modern vampire legend and its association with Transylvania, whereas previously the legends about vampires were less centralized to a place and more nebulous. Vlad the Impaler, on whom Dracula the character is supposedly based, was actually from Wallachia, not Transylvania, and his legend wasn’t widespread until the book was published. So the name “Transylvania” wouldn’t strike instant fear into the hearts of people in 1812. It would be intimidating for being so far east, beyond the known and safe world of the European Continent even if it was technically part of the Austrian Empire at the time, because of its remoteness. The fear comes from leaving familiar Regency England and traveling into a dangerous backwater area, where the “other” is the real scare, not the supernatural.
Nonetheless I chose Transylvania because it has an instant connotation for my audience, and it does have a wealthy historical tradition of folklore to draw from in the scenes that use it. When you’re in a mysterious place, it’s an easy step to be drawn into the foreboding local tales that might surround it, so it’s a simple jump from “scary count who kills people” to “vampires, witches, and warlocks.”

I should remark that this isn’t totally fair to Romanian history. Transylvania had plenty of European, cosmopolitan nobles who had encountered the Enlightenment and were beyond this nonsense (there’s one in the book), but the villains are particularly backwards to heighten the experience.

It seems with each book that Mr. Darcy has to face some of his inner devils or at least learn to broaden his view of the world and the people in it. Do you enjoy tormenting him? Have you got much more torment in store for him?

Marsha: This is as bad as it ever gets for Darcy. Seriously, I let him off easy from here on. He’s better equipped to deal with strife that involves his family lineage in future books after his experiences in this book. This book was my attempt to stretch as far as I could my interpretation of Darcy. In many circles, there are two schools of thought to explain Darcy’s actions in Pride and Prejudice – either he made his mistakes because he was “proud” and then genuinely learned from his actions and changed his characters, or he was “shy” and misinterpreted, causing multiple misinterpretations on both ends that needed to get cleared up before the right people could get married. Austen provides fodder for both explanations: Mrs. Reynolds, on Elizabeth’s visit to Pemberley, goes out of her way to proclaim that her master has always been good and kind to everyone, and Darcy admits at Rosings that he’s not good in making easy conversation with strangers, leading to the “shy” interpretation. Then you have Darcy at the end saying that he was spoiled as a child and expected only the best, leading to the “proud” interpretation. I’ve always sided with “shy” because it makes Darcy a better man – he’s not a jerk who reformed so much as someone who made bad decisions and then corrected them.

Today we have a larger understanding of people who are uncomfortable around other people, myself being one of them, and don’t have an easy time making new friendships or retaining old ones. For people like this, parties full of strangers can feel like living hell. In extreme examples, you have Social Anxiety Disorder, where people can actually develop shortness of breath in the presence of too many people, and you have medication for it. I don’t believe that these problems didn’t exist in the past, they just weren’t acknowledged or understood. I am not, for the record, diagnosing Darcy with SAD (his symptoms don’t match), but pushed to the edge as he is in this book, the darker side of whatever makes him an unsocial person comes out in full force, and coupled with a genetic predisposition you have a serious problem on your hands that tests not just him but everyone around him. It’s a pretty radical interpretation of Darcy, but I like doing new things.

It appears that Gregoire may be learning to relax a bit. You’ve taken all the characters in new directions that wouldn’t have been expected just one book ago. But, it all feels so consistent with their growth. Can you tell us in some very general terms what we might have to look forward to in future volumes?

Marsha: G-d willing, this series will keep being published by my benevolent publisher Sourcebooks, and the next book will be mostly concerned with Grégoire, and his spiritual evolution after some events force him to return to England. Grégoire is like his half-sister Georgiana in that he believes in the good in everyone, but he’s a Darcy, so that makes him stubborn as hell about the way he wants to live his life, even if it seems in direct conflict with the way a modern person (in Regency terms) should live their life. In the fourth book you also have the emerging characters of the children. George Wickham (the third), Darcy’s half-nephew, is old enough to be in University, and Geoffrey Darcy is about to leave for Eton, and Georgiana Bingley is getting ready to enter society, so the shape of their characters as adults is starting to emerge, and the parents have to take a greater hand in trying to guide them into adulthood, where potential fortune or disaster awaits depending on their behavior. When they’re little kids, you can kind of let them run around and occasionally give them instruction, but the stakes become much higher much faster in their teenage years.

The fifth book, which a lot of my readers on the internet feel is the best book so far (nobody’s had a chance to weigh in on the last book and the Velociraptor-related ending), is the one where most of the children have entered society or are about to do so, and they become instrumental to the conflict and resolution in the story. There are still a lot of young kids running around, but the main cast of the next generation has emerged as players, sometimes to their parents’ disapproval. I didn’t want to write a series where BOOM! the kids are all adults trying to get married and the adults haven’t changed except that they have more gray hair and wear glasses. Books skip ahead a few years to key events, but the evolution is steady and somewhat mapped. Nobody ever stops evolving, because people are always growing, even in their later years.

What’s been the biggest surprise about response to your series?

Marsha: That people who have not read Pride and Prejudice have read it and enjoyed it. My parents re-watched the movie and that helped them out. I really should have included a summary of Pride and Prejudice in an introduction to the first book.

Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape—in stores February 2010

Hilarious and action-packed, this installment brings the Darcy and Bingley families to the year 1812 and the intrigues of the Napoleonic Wars. Darcy and Dr. Maddox go in search of Darcy’s missing half-brother and land in a medieval prison cell.

Much to his dismay, Charles Bingley is left to hold the fort at Pemberley while his sister Caroline, Elizabeth, and Col. Fitzwilliam traverse Europe on a daring rescue. Meanwhile, Lady Catherine de Bourgh kicks up a truly shocking scandal. One never knows what might happen next between the estates of Rosings and Pemberley.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marsha Altman is a historian specializing in Rabbinic literature in late antiquity, and an author. She is also an expert on Jane Austen sequels, having read nearly every single one that’s been written, whether published or unpublished. She has worked in the publishing industry with a literary agency and is writing a series continuing the story of the Darcys and the Bingleys. She lives in New York.