Horton scored his second overtime goal of the postseason on Wednesday night, waiting until 5:43 of the extra period in Game 7 to give Boston a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens and help the Bruins advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“Just getting to the playoffs is all I was really thinking about. This has been a dream come true,” said Horton, who never reached the postseason while spending the first six years of his career with Florida Panthers. “I’m really enjoying it. I’m enjoying it more every day.”
And this was despite the refs donning Canadien sweaters for most of the night.
I’ve been placed in the fortunate position of working with teens who need help. They’ve all dealt with drug issues and are trying to rehab while maturing and learning. I help in both areas, but I especially enjoy helping in the second realm.
Many of these kids have been out of school for years, so as a result they’ve missed quite a bit in life and formal education. In fact, even if they were in school, they probably have missed out on a lot of what I want to tell them. For instance, while in front of a world map, I told one kid a few basic geography facts while conveying the historic and biological significance of the Galapagos Islands. He really enjoyed it, learning it for the first time. He even enthusiastically told his peers what I told him, emphasizing how big the tortoises are on the island. But what really struck me was how interested another kid was in some basic facts about the Universe. I started by showing him this picture I’ve posted before:
This is an image taken near Saturn. The little blurry dot outside the rings on the right is Earth. A zoom of Earth is seen in the top left. It’s a great picture that really puts things into perspective quite simply. Showing it to this other person, I was genuinely impressed with the fact that he was blown away by the obvious insignificance of Earth and human life. I didn’t need to lead him to my world view.
I followed up on the image by telling him about light waves and the fact that when he sees starlight, he is actually looking into the past. Soon another “client” (I hate that word) joined us before “lights out” (aka., bed time) and I told them both about some scale-related facts, i.e., big numbers about the Universe. Not only did they love it, but I felt fantastic about it all. I love conveying science. In fact, they and I are both pretty excited about continuing the talk next week. Here’s the video I plan on showing them:
I think this is all great, from the video and beyond. These are basic facts about the Universe – everything is 13.7 billion years old, Earth is 4.6 billion years old, life has been around for 3.9 billion years, Earth is relatively insignificant, especially when compared to stars. It is extremely important that people have this frame of reference; I was so glad that, without any input from me, one client said he couldn’t imagine that there wasn’t other intelligent life in the Universe. I was more than happy to add my two cents. I mean, of course there is other life. There are too many stars, too many planets, too many opportunities. Other life is there. And his mind is already there – which makes sense. Anyone who has any degree of honesty and is fortunate enough to come to any degree of understanding necessarily recognizes how insignificant this pale blue dot is in the wide scheme of things.
I plan on more science talk, but I think the best thing I can do for these kids is bring them outside at night. If it happens to be a clear enough night, staring at the stars and contemplating the very basics of the Universe might be more than any drug rehab program can ever do.
“Only if Chief Judge Walker had unequivocally disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome of the case,” attorneys for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.
Saying Walker’s sexual orientation is cause for vacating his ruling would be like saying a black judge who rules in favor of other black people is acting improperly. I don’t think this argument will fly, especially since the ruling is being appealed anyway.
But that isn’t what’s really interesting about this. Look at the argument the bigots are trying to piece together. The only way the public could be confident of Walker’s impartiality is if “he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome of the case”. And, of course, the reason they claim he has a direct personal interest is because he’s gay. So I presume a straight judge doesn’t have a direct personal interest in the matter? So if the only way a judge would have no personal interest in this case is if he was straight, then how is it that any straight people have any personal interest? It seems to me that the bigot organizations just argued that straight people have no legitimate personal interests to raise when dealing with gay marriage.
But then, I don’t really expect any coherent arguments from these sort of people.
I don’t understand all these Facebook status updates I’m seeing about Easter. Come on, people. Let’s show some respect and at least get the name of the day and our well wishes correct.
In honor of all the Christian whines I’ve heard about how everyone should be especially respectful during Easter weekend, I’ve updated my Facebook page, as well as the FTSOS Facebook page.
McDowell is a homeless single mother from Bridgeport who used to work in food services, is now at the center of one of the very few false address cases in the Norwalk, CT, school district that is being handled in criminal court–rather than between the parent and school. Authorities are accusing McDowell of enrolling her 5-year-old son in nearby Norwalk schools by using the address of a friend. (Her friend has also been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.)
McDowell says she stayed in a Norwalk homeless shelter sometimes–but she didn’t register there, which would have made her son eligible to attend the school.
This whole case is inane. First, this isn’t even the way this sort of issue is typically handled. It’s a school-to-parent concern. Second, it all seems to be fucking resolved anyway – the kid is out of the district. Third, let’s get down to the real issue here. This is about separating the poor from the wealthy. And by those code words I really mean this is about separating minorities from whites:
The blog DropOut Nation notes that the Norwalk schools are better than those in Bridgeport, where McDowell’s last address was; the case thereby raises larger questions about why poorer families often must send their kids to poorly performing schools, in part because local tax revenues make up so much of school funding.
The only difference between this racist horseshit and the racist horseshit in North Carolina recently is that the Tea Party finally isn’t involved. The woman is being viciously prosecuted, threatened with huge fines and prison time, and none of it makes any sense. Aside from not even having an address in the first place, she actually did live in a shelter within the school district. Does an incorrect address really justify all this bluster and bullshit?
I should have posted this for Earth Day. It’s a spectacular photo taken by Cassini from next to Saturn. The little dot outside the main rings on the right is Earth, and the top left is a zoom-in of the planet.
For the Sake of Science 