Years ago I had a student named Hunter who asked to get a drink of water two or three times everyday. When he wasn't asking to get water, he was asking if he could go to the bathroom. I thought he was just avoiding P.E., but I later found out that he was doing the same thing in the classroom.
The boy went to the doctor. The doctor determined that he had Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes is a disease of the immune system in which cells that produce a hormone called insulin, die. Without insulin the human body is unable to turn sugar into energy. Two of the most common symptoms of untreated diabetes are dry mouth along with unquenchable thirst and a constant need to use the bathroom. Diabetes is not contagious, has no known cause and, while treatable, no known cure.
Anyway, a few months later, another student, Ashley, also developed diabetes.
Whenever something unusual happens kids will race out to P.E. and try to be the first one to tell me what happened. If kids can't be the first, they'll either repeat what has already been said, or add details.
On the day the kids in Ashley's class learned of her diagnosis, the first group came running out to class shouting: "Mr. T, Ashley has diabetes!"
"Yeah," said a member of the second group, "She got it from Hunter."
"No," I said, "diabetes isn't contagious."
"Right," nodded another student, wisely, "she got it from drinking too much water...."
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Controversial Construction Halted, Again
MILL VALLEY, CA, February 8, 2108:
Odd Discovery Forces Construction of Megatower to Stop
Since its inception, the 110 story Blithedale megatower has been plagued by controversy over such things as its location, proposed use, non-human labor force and quality of construction. Protests on site have delayed the start of the project for months. Now, just weeks after construction finally began, the project has been delayed again. This time the delay was caused, not by a protest, but by a discovery.
On Tuesday, an excavation droid clearing space for the building's foundation uncovered a trove of artifacts. In accordance with Marin Megalopolis Historical Preservation laws, this brought construction to an immediate stop. Construction will resume once the artifacts are examined and removed.
A preliminary examination by an archeologist suggests that the artifacts are food carriers of a type once commonly used by primary school students. This is not surprising, give the site's former use as a school.
While some of the objects are made of aluminum, most of the artifacts appear to be made of nylon and polycarbonate, man-made products derived from petroleum. This indicates that they were from the late 20th or early 21st centuries, when oil was still plentiful and before the discovery of cold fusion and hydrogen synthesis. This too, is no surprise, for "plastics", the name given to the petrochemicals use to make these artifacts, are not biodegradable and are known to last for centuries.
What makes this discovery interesting is the fact that all of the artifacts, enough for 10 or 11 people, have the word "Colburn" handwritten on them.
"We can't quite figure out what this means," said the archeologist, "back in those days, the average family had 2 kids. We've found so many things labeled Colburn that it isn't likely that these artifacts all belonged to kids from one family."
"Perhaps there was once an extended family of Colburns here," he continued, "maybe one adult Colburn moved here and liked it enough to convince brothers and sisters to join them and all of their kids went to school here at the same time. We'll never know, of course, but it's fun to speculate."
All photos of the artifacts were taken in situ (in the positions in which they were found).
Odd Discovery Forces Construction of Megatower to Stop
Since its inception, the 110 story Blithedale megatower has been plagued by controversy over such things as its location, proposed use, non-human labor force and quality of construction. Protests on site have delayed the start of the project for months. Now, just weeks after construction finally began, the project has been delayed again. This time the delay was caused, not by a protest, but by a discovery.
On Tuesday, an excavation droid clearing space for the building's foundation uncovered a trove of artifacts. In accordance with Marin Megalopolis Historical Preservation laws, this brought construction to an immediate stop. Construction will resume once the artifacts are examined and removed.
A preliminary examination by an archeologist suggests that the artifacts are food carriers of a type once commonly used by primary school students. This is not surprising, give the site's former use as a school.
While some of the objects are made of aluminum, most of the artifacts appear to be made of nylon and polycarbonate, man-made products derived from petroleum. This indicates that they were from the late 20th or early 21st centuries, when oil was still plentiful and before the discovery of cold fusion and hydrogen synthesis. This too, is no surprise, for "plastics", the name given to the petrochemicals use to make these artifacts, are not biodegradable and are known to last for centuries.
What makes this discovery interesting is the fact that all of the artifacts, enough for 10 or 11 people, have the word "Colburn" handwritten on them.
"We can't quite figure out what this means," said the archeologist, "back in those days, the average family had 2 kids. We've found so many things labeled Colburn that it isn't likely that these artifacts all belonged to kids from one family."
"Perhaps there was once an extended family of Colburns here," he continued, "maybe one adult Colburn moved here and liked it enough to convince brothers and sisters to join them and all of their kids went to school here at the same time. We'll never know, of course, but it's fun to speculate."
All photos of the artifacts were taken in situ (in the positions in which they were found).
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