Forever my Sensei

Actor, comedian Pat Morita, starred in 'Karate Kid'; at 73

LOS ANGELES -- Actor Pat Morita, who offered the famous advice ''wax on, wax off" to a young karate student in his performance as the wise Mr. Miyagi in ''The Karate Kid," has died. He was 73.

Mr. Morita died Thursday at his Las Vegas home of natural causes, said his wife of 12 years, Evelyn. She said in a statement that her husband, who first rose to fame with a role on ''Happy Days," had ''dedicated his entire life to acting and comedy."

His role in the 1984 film defined his career. As Kesuke Miyagi, the mentor to Ralph Macchio's ''Daniel-san," he taught karate while trying to catch flies with chopsticks and offering such advice as ''wax on, wax off" to help Daniel improve his skills while doing his chores.

''It was both my honor and privilege to have worked with him and create a bit of cinema magic together," Mr. Macchio said in a statement. ''My life is all the richer for having known him. I will miss his genuine friendship."

''Forever my Sensei," Mr. Macchio added, referring to Mr. Morita's role in ''The Karate Kid."

Hot Damn!

Fla. teacher pleads guilty in sex case

Jiminy Christmas! Who was I just talking to about how these stories always involve hot teachers? Obviously these relationships aren't good for the kid's emotional or social development, but can you blame him?

I wonder how often a homely teacher propositions a student and the kid is like, "uh, no thanks lady."

Fitzgibbons said in July that plea negotiations had broken off because prosecutors insisted on prison time, which he said would be too dangerous for someone as attractive as Lafave.

Voting their conscience

Interesting follow-up to the post about execution: the numbers of death sentences and executions have been in steady decline for the past few years. Last year Texas executed 23 prisoners, with Ohio (7) a distant second. On Sept. 1, a law was passed that will allow jurors in Texas to consider life without parole as an alternative to the death sentence, something the other 37 death-penalty states already allow. It will be interesting to see how this affects the number of death sentences handed out in Texas.

Tags:

• society
• politics

If it's going to be that kind of party

Passed hors d'oeuvres:	free
Open bars:	free
Xbox stations:	free
Science Fiction Museum admission:	free
Amusement park rides:	free
Sheryl Crow plays to an audience of engineers:	priceless

So I'm out here in Seattle this week for SC|05, the international supercomputing conference. Bill Gates wants to get Microsoft more involved with supercomputing, so he delivered the keynote address. Based on this admittedly small sample, I'd say Bill's parties are a lot more entertaining than his keynote speeches.

The Microsoft party was hosted at the Experience Music Project, which is right next to the Space Needle. Upon arrival, I quickly located the main stage, along with the most accessible bars and appetizer spawn points. While I was waiting for the main event I entertained myself at the Science Fiction Museum, which I enjoyed more than I care to admit.

At 10 pm sharp Sheryl Crow took the stage. They made an announcement that there would be no photography during the show. Of course we were all like, "yeah right," but then some big angry dude wearing an EVENT STAFF t-shirt started karate-chopping people with cameras. That and the lighting prevented me from getting a good picture but I did manage to take a short video.

Sheryl put on a good show, but I could tell she felt a little uncomfortable. Right away she asked, "Have you guys been locked up all day?" Well, actually, yes, Sheryl, it's called a job. We can't all be rock stars. Quickly sizing up her audience of mostly male engineers, she followed with, "After this, we bring out the strippers!" Where did that come from?!

I may have been reading too much into her demeanor, but I don't think so. These are more actual quotes from Sheryl in between songs:

"You're all nerds!"

"You're making me really nervous."

When she came to the end of her show, Sheryl's prejudices were sadly borne out. She gave it the old college try by trailing off on the last verse, hoping the audience would pick up the vocals. We didn't. After Sheryl and band made a quick exit, the big screens continued to show the darkened stage. As every concert-goer knows, this is when you cheer for an encore. Well, you could hear a pin drop in that arena. Actually, that's not quite true. I think I heard low murmurs of "Microsoft" and "cluster computing." Somewhere, I imagine Bill Gates was nodding in approval.

There but for the Grace of God

When I first heard about the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to approve the teaching of intelligent design, my knee-jerk reaction was that the inmates are running the asylum in Kansas. And I was somewhat reassured to hear that a Pennsylvania school board was recently purged due to their pro-intelligent design stance.

But then I read this article, which reports that the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association have refused to publish the Board's proposed curriculum changes. The author finds it troubling that "the NAS and NSTA are using their copyrights to bring wayward Kansas educators into line," and I strongly agree. There are important Freedom of Speech implications here.

Just because we disagree with an idea doesn't give us the right to silence the ideologues. Surely we've learned that lesson by now. And we who consider ourselves scientists have an obligation to keep an open mind and consider all possibilities. It is important to bear in mind that the Theory of Evolution is precisely that - just a theory, not proven fact. There should be room in people's minds for other theories.

Of course, that doesn't mean that every individual or group with an opinion should be able to change the education curriculum to be whatever they want. In the Pennsylvania case, "the eight new school board members ran on a pledge to 'discuss intelligent design in the proper forum.' They define that as philosophy or religion classes."

Values a la Carte

So now we're saying it's not okay to torture suspected terrorists (or anyone else)? Well, I believe that's a good thing, but it makes me wonder if it is still okay to execute convicted terrorists (or serial killers or anyone else). Is this a question of policy (innocent until proven guilty) or morality (love thy neighbor, thou shalt not kill)? If it's the former, I guess that makes sense. But in deciding to end a life I don't see how questions of morality can be avoided.

I'm philosophically opposed to state-sanctioned execution, if only for the utter hypocrisy of it all. "It's wrong to kill, and if you do it, we'll kill you." Now I have a new philosophical point to ponder: If we believe we have the right to decide to end someone's life, then why is torture such a big deal? Which is worse?

Tags:

• ignorance
• fear

As smart as we think he is

Personally, I agree with a friend who thinks Epstein was simply smart enough to get out while he was still revered. With a questionable pitching staff, yet another Manny trade demand ("And this time I really mean it!") and a probable team makeover that does not involve Carson Kressley, the likeliest short-term direction for the Red Sox is down. Perhaps Theo shrewdly decided to leave now as a saint rather than wait until talk radio started complaining that he was a moron.

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