Really? Apparently, schools in Augusta County, Virginia will be closed tomorrow over the “tone and content” of messages received about a high school lesson in which students were presented with an example of Arabic calligraphy and told to try and copy it to help them understand the artistry involved. It was a World Geography class so it wasn’t like the assignment wasn’t topical. The problem: it was the shahada or statement of belief in Islam and I guess some people erroneously interpreted it as the teacher trying to convert the students even though students were not asked to translate it, recite it or otherwise adopt or pronounce it as a personal belief.
I’m sitting here scratching my head because we did this thing ALL THE TIME in my elementary and middle school classes when we studied Islam as part of world history. As far as I know, nobody ever felt the need or pressure to convert and we understood that the calligraphy was a form of art, kind of like having a lesson in which we were copying Chinese characters.
*starts making tin foil hats for all the people flipping out in Virginia*
More Islamophobia. Last week, a nasty woman made derogatory comments to some Muslims praying at Lake Chabot Regional Park, hit one of them with an umbrella, and threw coffee at them. Today, she was charged. Props to the Alameda County District Attorney for bringing charges! The woman is entitled to believe whatever the heck she wants about Islam but assaulting people over it is crossing a number of lines.
Brain chemical linked to autism. Scientists have discovered that the breakdown of the signaling pathway used by the neurotransmitter GABA is linked to autistic behavior. Wow. I guess it had been shown to be the case in animal models but this is the first time it’s been linked to it in humans.
Maybe research will eventually lead to a medication that can help avoid the breakdown of that particular pathway?
Prerequisite weather take. We’re supposed to be getting rain this weekend. I am positively giddy! Rain can be a migraine trigger for me but I still love it.
Self-promotion. I wrote a blog post about how I put together my Christmas cards every year. Go read it!
UPS is on my naughty list. My Shutterfly cards were supposed to arrive today and were even in San Jose. I logged on to the UPS site to see if they were out for delivery and got the following message:
We’ve incorrectly sorted the package at our facility. This may cause at least one business day delay.
Guess where the package is? Kalispell, Montana! That’s NOT in California, much less probably 10 miles from where I live (or wherever UPS has their sorting facility here). I’m thinking it will be at least Saturday before I can get my cards assembled… and Daniel’s last day of school is tomorrow! (In other words, I’m losing a free morning.) *shakes fist at my former employer*
One more autism study. This one links autism with moms taking anti-depressants during pregnancy. Oops! In my case, I didn’t really have a choice as taking me off of my Effexor XR caused severe nausea, panic attacks, vertigo, and other problems that led to a late night ER run and me being hospitalized to get fluids into me while they tried to get me stabilized. My high-risk doctor instructed them to PUT ME BACK ON MY MEDS WITH ALL POSSIBLE SPEED. Lucky for me, the benefit to the mom outweighs the risk for the baby so I got my Effexor XR back and they dropped me to the lowest possible dose that was still therapeutically beneficial.
As for it being the cause of Daniel’s autism, his genetic testing showed that his autism is the result of some additions and deletions on different genes so I’m off the hook for this one.
For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.