Stars n Moons 1/17/07

Thursday, January 18, 2007

By PJH Staff

Star: Diversity champs
    Stand up and applaud the 45 high school students from the Jackson Hole Community School who decided that Wyoming Equality Day, aka Martin Luther King Jr. Day, could not pass without marking it in some way. These motivated students organized a community march through town, invited the Mayor to speak and turned out nearly 100 people for a midday rally when temps plunged well below zero. Junior Zeke Trautenberg delivered an eloquent speech – well thought out and executed – in which he reminded each of us that we have a responsibility to eliminate discrimination and promote tolerance in their own life and in their community.
    Kudos also to the Community School faculty who encouraged their students to acknowledge differences and work toward equality in our community. I don’t know about you, but my high school teachers and administrators were just psyched to have the day off.           
— Melanie Stein

Moon: Science on vacation
    The Grand Canyon is old. Really old. Geologists guess that many millions of years of carving by the waters of what we call the Colorado River have exposed layers of rock that date back billions of years,. But rangers at the national park have allegedly been forbidden to mention that it’s more than a few thousand years old, according to an article by Donald R. Prothero, professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in an article on the Web site Skeptic.com.
    “In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, says in the article.
Prothero further writes that in August 2003 the creationist book “Grand Canyon: A Different View,” which promotes the idea that every layer of the canyon can be explained by Noah’s flood, was introduced to the park bookstore. “According to records,” Prothero writes, “Grand Canyon officials rejected 22 other books for placement on the shelves in 2003, and approved only one — the creationist book.”
“This is the equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan,” Prothero writes, quoting Ruch.
— Richard Anderson

Star: Lots and lots of stars
    The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave out its 64th annual Golden Globe Awards on Monday night, and what list of winners: Helen Mirren for “The Queen,” Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland,” Martin Scoresese for “The Departed,” Clint Eastwood for  “Letters From Iwo Jima,” Eddie Murphy for “Dreamgirls” (which also won Best Musical or Comedy and Best Supporting Actress), Sacha Baron Cohen for “Borat” ... . I’m more impressed by how many very good films got made this year.
— Richard Anderson
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Stars n Moons 1/17/07 | Planet JH News Article: Stars & Moons

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