This IS True

DISEASED MINDS: Colman Chadam, 11, was “optimistic and enthusiastic and overall, awesome,” when he started classes at Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, Calif., says his mother, Jennifer. “Now he’s been told he’s unsafe.” What did he do? Nothing — other than his parents were told 11 years ago that he carries one of about 2,000 gene variations that can cause cystic fibrosis — which is true for every 1 in 25 humans. He doesn’t have the disease, or any symptoms, but the school has ordered him to transfer to another school, farther from home. The school says that it already has students with CF, and having Colman near them is “unsafe” for them. “The school district freaked out,” Jennifer said. “They made this decision without seeing one medical record on my son.” The parents are asking a court to step in. (RC/San Francisco Chronicle)…Let’s hope the judge is old enough to have had a better science education than the school administrators.
STONER GUARD: Anonymous tips brought a SWAT team to a home in Modesto, Calif. After bringing out the residents and searching the home, Martin Martinez, 51, was arrested on suspicion of marihuana cultivation, possession of drugs for sale, and weapons charges. Inside the home they allegedly found about 20 large marihuana plants, an AK-47 assault rifle, two .45-calibre handguns, and two shotguns. The house was guarded by two pit bulls — and a pig. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I have never seen a guard pig,” said interim Police Chief Gene Balentine, “but it was a pretty vicious pig.” The pig continued to lash at officers even after it was tranquilized. It took six SWAT team officers to get the pig into an animal control vehicle. It was later euthanised; the dogs were taken to the animal shelter. (MS/Modesto Bee)…That’s some pig. (With guest editor E.B. White.)
SODDING EXPENSIVE: More than a decade ago, the Pebble Creek Homeowners Association in New Tampa, Fla., observed that the grass in front of Ed and Billye Simmons’s home had died in a drought. So the HOA laid new sod and sent the property owners a bill for $2,212. But the Simmonses thought the bill unfair, among other reasons because it covered county property as well as their own, and decided not to pay it. The HOA placed a lien on the house, preventing the Simmonses from selling their investment when it was worth twice what it is now, and litigation ensued. The Simmonses spent more than $220,000 fighting the case, but won: a judge found the HOA hadn’t followed its own rules, and had targeted the Simmonses even though other lawns had also suffered from the drought, and awarded them $145,000. (AC/Tampa Bay Times)…There seems to also have been a drought of sense.
THE VERY PICTURE OF A SCHOOL
by Randy Cassingham

PROFESSIONAL: An unidentified teacher at Highland Middle School in Anderson, Ind., accidentally “synced” a photo of herself from her iPhone to her classroom iPad — and then let several students use the tablet. “We couldn’t do anything not to look at it,” said student Joshua Troutt, 13. “It just popped up when [a classmate] pressed the button.” What they saw, police say, was “from the neck down, with partial exposure” of her chest. Detective Joel Sandefur said no “criminal violation could be gleaned from the evidence as presented, [so] the matter was turned over to the school and the police investigation closed.” Assistant Superintendent Beth Clark agreed the whole situation was an accident, and there was no violation of the district’s “technology use policy.” Still, someone needed to be punished, right? That’s what outraged parents. No punishment for the teacher was announced, but the kids who saw the photo were suspended. (RC/WRTV Indianapolis)…Sounds like the parents need to sync a photo of their lawyers.
DARN THOSE ZOMBIES! “Woman Found Guilty of Killing Husband for Second Time” — KREM (Spokane, Wash.) headline
THIS WEEK’S HONOURARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Stanford Ovshinsky. You’ve probably never heard of Ovshinsky, but every day, you probably use at least one product he invented. Like what? The nickel-metal hydride battery, used in digital cameras, cell phones, laptop computers, and hybrid cars. Ultra-thin LCD displays, used in flat panel TVs. The rewriteable CD and DVD disk. “Phase-change” memory chips that don’t need power to keep their data. Thin-film solar panels that can be so cheaply produced, they come in rolls. In all, he was awarded more than 400 patents. “I’ve known great people, having been at the University of Chicago for over 40 years,” said physicist Hellmut Fritzsche, who sometimes worked as a consultant for Ovshinsky’s company, “and I consider Stan Ovshinsky the only genius I ever met.” Ovshinsky first came to prominence in 1968, when he proved that glass could conduct electricity, and argued that glass semiconductors would one day not only be feasible, but cheaper those based on silicon. Other scientists scoffed, but such devices are a reality now (The field is called Ovonics — a contraction of Ovshinsky and electronics). All this, and he was completely self-taught: he learned everything he knew by himself, starting with reading everything he could find of interest in his home town library, in Akron, Ohio. “His teachers didn’t understand him, but his librarian did,” his son said. “The librarian let him take out adult books without questioning or challenging him. He was tireless in his curiosity.” His study of the brain, for instance, led to his work on semiconductors and electronic memory. He died October 17th from prostate cancer, at 89.

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