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To: Alas Babylon!; bray
Your acid rain reference makes me recall a story that illustrates the influence of school systems on the propaganda of the day. During the peak of the acid rain scares, my daughter was required to do a seventh grade science fair project. She choose to measure the acidity of rain, and then the runoff in rivers and lakes. We lived in an area deemed highly susceptible to acid rain. The supplies were simply a bowl, and some litmus paper strips.

She found that the rain was only very slightly acidic, while the rivers and streams were quite neutral. A little research led to the observation that the acidity was likely due to carbonic acid (from the now dreaded CO2) and that it was quickly neutralized by the soil. Since this finding was quite opposed to the propaganda being taught, I thought her results were quite significant.

I had recently acquired a brand new PC-XT with a full 10 meg hard drive with one 5-1/4 inch 360K floppy drive, and a pen plotter. We plotted her results on the plotter. She also made some plots for a friend who had looked up some information in an encyclopedia, for her "science project".

My daughter received a red ribbon - the lowest prize given, with no comments by the judges. Her friend got a blue ribbon, with comments about her great graphics. My daughter's problem, obviously, was that her data defied the propaganda being spewed by the school system. The last thing they needed was some stupid student presenting facts that disputed that.

54 posted on 02/10/2013 6:50:43 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: norwaypinesavage

YOU are the one who gets the BlueRibbon!

What a wonderful way to raise a daughter! Taking on “science’ ( girls aren’t supposed to be good at that.ha).
And learning the lesson that you don’t just accept whatever they “teach”you. And learning that character and hard work and honesty is WAAAAAY more important than phony ribbons.

What a great lesson for her!


83 posted on 02/10/2013 7:35:17 AM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
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To: norwaypinesavage

As it turns out your daughter was right and the teachers were wrong. This is exactly how they work. They punish anyone who goes against consensus so the other kids will toe the line if they want good grades. It is done all the way to the PHD level and nobody challenges the theories they want promoted. Pure Junk science to promote an agenda.

Pray for America


104 posted on 02/10/2013 8:03:43 AM PST by bray (Welcome to Obamaville)
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