One hundred-fifty years ago, on Nov. 24, 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, shattering traditional explanations for the diversity of life on Earth. Scientific understanding will never be the same. Neither will religion.
Referees and umpires are sometimes accused of trying to correct bad calls during games with “make-up calls” in favor of the wronged team or player.
Much is said on Veterans Day about the sacrifices of our men and women on the battlefield. This is exactly as it should be. We owe everything — our country, our freedoms, our security — to our brave men and women in uniform in past and present conflicts.
It’s like an old wound that some hack doctor keeps digging at. Just as it’s healing, he goes back in. As always, with dirty hands. He is told to keep them out, but he doesn’t listen and the wound never heals.
As parents, teachers and coaches have long known, teens think differently than adults. So, it comes as no surprise that a substantial and growing body of science confirms that although adolescents may demonstrate cognitive abilities similar to those of adults, they are less capable of mature judgment.
A running gag on the 1970s sit-com Welcome Back Kotter was a series of phony notes signed “Epstein’s Mother” that character Juan Epstein penned to get out of class, telling his teacher “Hey, Mr. Kotter, I got a note!”
MRSA killed Alonzo Smith, an 18-year-old football player from Liberty High School in Kissimmee last September. Smith follows a long line of football players who have been sickened after infection with MRSA, a highly resistant superbug.
Open letter from Florida’s 11 university presidents
These are challenging times for all, and higher education is no exception. Economic stimulus dollars may offer some hope, but the University of Florida and the state’s 10 other public universities face the real possibility of severe cutbacks.
This op-ed appeared Feb. 1 in the Orlando Sentinel.
By: Francis E. “Jack” Putz
Francis E. “Jack” Putz is a professor of botany at the University of Florida.
It seems as though every time you turn around, another environmentalist is whining about yet another threat to life as we know it. Some seem far-fetched, while others appear inconsequential. [...]