Memorial Day, Poll Results and BP Ad.

Three quick things for today:

1.  Happy Memorial Day everyone.  Today is especially important to me as my father is a Colonel in the Army and presently stationed in Iraq.  I would like to say thanks to the troops currently serving and those who have ever served.

2.  Poll Results.  We had our first poll addressing the question: What Is You Opinion On Stem Cell Research? We had 31 people vote and the majority, 54%, favor all forms of stem cell research, including embryonic.  The above graphic shows the breakdown of the percentages for the poll.

3.  BP Lives Up To Its Mantra.  Lastly, I would like to point out BP has been very successful living up to its claims.  Just take a look at one of their advertisements they ran in 1999:

Again, have a happy Memorial Day!

Disneyland And Celebrating The Holidays.

I mentioned on a comment a couple days ago that I have season passes to Disneyland.

Today I went for the first time in a while to see what they set up for the holidays.  I was specifically interested in how they handled celebrating the holidays without offending people's religious views.

I have to say I was impressed.    Disneyland handled the situation the way I believe it should: they celebrated everyone's version of religious/non-religious holidays:

1. They not only mention Christmas explicitly, they even go so far as to play songs, such as Silent Night, making references to Jesus Christ. (Though I saw no nativity scene.)
2. They played songs from other religons too.  For example, they played Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.
3. They showed things like how the Chinese New Year is celebrated, showing how different cultures ring in the New Year. (I'm not sure if this has religious overtones, but it fit in nicely with everything.)
4. They even showed popular traditions/festivals from cultures that are not religious.

Anyways, it was very professionally done.  I can tell Disneyland has a lot of money and talent.

But, I was really impressed how, like the world famous ride It's A Small World, Disneyland shows that all cultures and beliefs have value and can be enjoyed no matter who you are.

Happy Independance Day!

For all those readers in the US I say Happy Independence Day.

Given recent world events, I have paused to marvel at how amazing our forefathers were. It seems like very few countries today, living under oppressive rule, are successful in taking their country from such rulers and setting up such a free, stable and liberating society all by themselves.

Sure we got some very small help from other countries, but by and large, American freedom was bought by Americans. There was no "other countries" removing dictators for us, "other countries" bringing us stability, "other countries" making a conducive environment so we can set up a successful government.

Note to world: We did it ourselves! And are still the greatest, richest, most free and stable country in the world today. I am proud to be an American.

Happy Groundhog's (marmota monax) Day

The common groundhog (marmota monax, other wise known as the woodchuck or whistlepig) is a small furry woodland creature that is the largest rodent in the squirrel family. According to popular culture (popular in a small town in Pennsylvania who's name I can't spell) if the woodpig comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow on the first cross-quarter day of the new year, then he gets scared and the whislechuck's rapid withdrawal back into his burrow creates a butterfly effect that determines the weather for the next 6 weeks. If the groundchuck does not see his shadow then he stays out of his burrow altering the very sensitive initial conditions of the complex, chaotic system of weather on this planet, there by altering the course of the weather and PROMOTING GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!

As a side note: In Spanish the word for groundhog is marmota (similar to the latin), but in Argentina they also use "marmota" as a slang term for "stupid" or "idiot". I have two friends who's birthdays fall on Feb. 2 and I told them about the holiday in the US (I didn't know that "marmota" was slang for "idiot" yet) so when I told them, the translation came across as "Idiot's Day". They then explained the slang to me and we all laughed that their birthdays were on "Idiot's Day" ("El dia de la marmota" -- "Groundhog's day").