Letter Never Sent

Handsome men have the best sperm:

researchers showed that men with the healthiest, fastest sperm were rated as the most facially attractive by women.

The characteristics of a person’s face have long been regarded as an indicator of health. But this is the first direct evidence to suggest a man’s reproductive quality correlates with his facial characteristics, say the authors.

Maria Sancho-Navarro, a team member at the University of Valencia, Spain, said that symmetrical faces were rated as more attractive by the women. And other studies have shown that people with more symmetrical features are less likely to suffer ill health.

1. Hormones Linked to Dementia in Women:
   Women who take hormones for years run a higher risk of Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia, according to yet another startling study that turns upside down what doctors have long believed about supplements.
2. Seeing Islam as ‘Evil’ Faith, Evangelicals Seek Converts:
   “Here in the Koran, it says slay them, slay the infidels!” said the teacher, who said he did not want to be identified because being a missionary to Muslims put his life at risk. “In the Bible there are no words from Jesus saying we should kill innocent people.”

   God’s invitation to the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites to the last man is an obvious example of how this argument against Islam is ludicrous. In fact, it only points out the dangers associated with religious zealotry of any flavor.

3. An American road map will lead nowhere:
   So how is Sharon going to handle Bush’s road map? He will envelop it in kind words while simultaneously slowing it down with reservations. He will try to hold out until the 2004 American presidential elections, trusting that the Palestinians will deliver the final death blow to the plan with their insane and self-defeating terrorism. Sharon is counting on Bush not to repeat the mistake of his father, who, while campaigning for a second term, took on the state of Israel and its loyal American Jews, and subsequently lost his job.

I wonder if kids are getting stupid or if it’s just changing. Are we losing something when we can’t write papers?
Boston Globe Online: Writing term papers has become a lost art:

Although some students and critics contend that teachers are lazier than in the past, many educators say they can’t grade piles of papers for overcrowded classes while trying to meet the increased demands of standardized testing, many of which involve multiple-choice questions. Other teachers believe that term papers are meaningless exercises, because the Internet has made plagiarism more common and difficult to spot. And many say long (10- to 15-page) research papers are pointless, because many students’ basic writing skills are weak and are more likely to improve with shorter and more frequent assignments.

A report released recently by the National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges, a panel of academics gathered by the College Board, found that 75 percent of high school seniors never receive writing assignments in history or social studies. The study also found that a major research and writing project required in the senior year of high school ”has become an educational curiosity, something rarely assigned.” In addition, by the first year of college, more than 50 percent of freshmen are unable to analyze or synthesize information or produce papers free of language errors.

The commission chairman, C. Peter Magrath, blamed societal changes. ”We don’t write letters anymore, because we use telephone and e-mail and watch television,” he said.