@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 02/24/95 -- Vol. 13, No. 35 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 5T-415 Wednesdays at noon. DATE TOPIC 03/08/95 Book: CYBERIAD by Stanislaw Lem 03/29/95 Video: Science in STAR TREK Outside events: The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details. MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3F-434 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 908-957-5087 j.j.jetzt@att.com HO Co-Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 n.j.sauer@att.com HO Co-Librarian: Lance Larsen HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 l.f.larsen@att.com MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3F-434 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-6330 r.l.mitchell@att.com Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-337 908-957-2070 e.c.leeper@att.com All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. A while back I reported some funny but depressing facts about the state of American education. Favorite case in point is the assumption that $.25 and .25c mean the same thing. It used to be that you saw this only on hand-painted signs. These days you see it in print on grocery stores, the Burger King near me has a big sign in the window that they have pancakes for .99c, etc. A poll of Japanese students said the first thing they thought about from World War II was Hiroshima. A surprising number of American students when asked what they thought about when they thought of Japan said Tienanmen Square. Well, in the on-going march downward come a few more examples. We had to do a currency exchange in which the teller had to figure 10% of a sum of money. She had to do it on a calculator. She got it THE MT VOID Page 2 wrong. She didn't even recognize that she had gotten it wrong. People who are supposed to be experts can't even apply what many of us would consider basic knowledge. National Public Radio recently reported that a South Dakota school teacher called a major map publisher trying to get a map of her state. The clerk she got looked quickly at the set of maps and said that they had North Dakota but didn't publish a separate map for South Dakota. "You mean you don't have maps of all of the states," the teacher asked puzzled. To which the clerk responded "Is South Dakota a state?" Executives eventually got involved and assured the teacher that they knew that South Dakota was a state. But perhaps it was only to follow a policy that the customer is always right. At James Monroe High School in New York City, fifteen students in detention were told that they would be excused if they could tell who James Monroe was. In spite of having his picture on the wall right there, none of the students could identify the person for whom the school was named. A student from New Mexico applying to a major college had the processing of his papers held up because there were no foreign student papers. Back at the University of Massachusetts a book titled INTERSTELLAR DUST, missing from the astronomy library for years, was finally found shelved in the home economics library. Perhaps the problem is that we are a culture in which selling is all-important. People want things pre-packaged and pre-digested for them. A while back when Billy Joel had a TV special to benefit the environment it was hyped on TV with the line, "The Earth is dying. Can Billy Joel save it?" And currently I am hearing on cable the announcement "Amazing. Sexual tension without any sex at all. REMAINS OF THE DAY next on Cinemax." [-mrl] =================================================================== 2. Re last week's comment on Pyramid Books in Red Bank: it's on Monmouth Street, pretty much across the street from the Dublin House. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3F-434 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com An optimist is a man who has never had very much experience. --Don Marquis