Uproar hits Florida Confederate flag show

When artist John Sims sees the Confederate flag, he sees "visual terrorism," and a symbol of a racist past.

When Robert Hurst sees the flag, he is filled with pride as the descendant of a soldier who fought for the South during the Civil War.

Their differences have flared into a war of words, catching a local museum in the middle.

Hurst walked into the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science this past week and saw an exhibit by Sims, including a Confederate flag hung from a noose on a 13-foot gallows in a display titled "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag."

Hurst asked the museum to remove the display, along with 13 other pieces by Sims.

The museum, however, announced Friday it is standing by Sims' work, on display since Feb. 26, because it wants to inspire dialogue in the community about a symbol that engenders a diversity of strong responses.

This from Yahoo News: Story and photo from the Associated Press. This from the Kansas City Star.

Paying attention to not paying attention

Researchers are studying a pervasive psychological phenomenon in which... oh, man... we've got to finish doing the taxes this weekend ...

C'mon, admit it. Your train of thought has derailed like that many times. It's just mind-wandering. We all do it, and surprisingly often, whether we're struggling to avoid it or not.

Michael Kane, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, sampled the thoughts of students at eight random times a day for a week. He found that on average, they were not thinking about what they were doing 30 percent of the time.

Prior work has also turned up average rates of 30 percent to 40 percent in everyday life.

This from Yahoo News. ~
Photo by the Associated Press: University of British Columbia psychology student Sarah McGiven is wired for a study on mind wandering at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, Thursday, March 15, 2007. Mainstream psychology hasn't paid much attention to thisFor some students it was between 80 and 90 percent of the time. Out of the 126 participants, only one denied any mind-wandering at the sampled moments.

Attention WebMoms

The Walt Disney Co. is launching a new Web site aimed at moms who are increasingly turning to the Internet for answers.

The new site is a one-stop site for parents, especially mothers, providing everything from Internet search to user-generated articles on key topics such as education and food, and, eventually, a "ParentPedia," a compilation of information on 1,000 topics that can be expanded by users.

The site will go live later this week at http://www.family.com. Read more at Yahoo News.

Bill Gates Pushes Congress for Better Schools

Yahoo News reports - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Congress on Wednesday that overhauls of the nation's schools and immigration laws are urgently needed to keep jobs from going overseas. "The U.S. cannot maintain its economic leadership unless our work force consists of people who have the knowledge and skills needed to drive innovation," Gates told the Senate committee that oversees labor and education issues.

Verbal insults yield harassment claim - and a lawsuit

Pop Quiz: Which of the following playground expressions constitutes harassement? (Check all that apply)

1. "Do you have ten Moms?"
2. "That's so gay."

See the story about a Santa Rosa high school student who gets a warning and a notation in her file. When a few classmates razzed Rebeka Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay." Her parents sued, claiming school officials violated their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture." Parents claim the public high school employed a double-standard because administrators never sought to shield Rebekah from teasing based on Mormon stereotypes. This from Yahoo News.