And then there's Duck dicks, and the women who love them...

A seriously interesting article on the evolution, and counter-evolution, of duck genitals. If you read it right, or take a few paragraphs out of context, it's also incredibly funny.

That'll Be 10 Cents Per Page

Just yesterday I saw that my 7yo, Dulce, and my 4yo, Alejandrita (alay-hon-dri-ta), were playing "mail delivery" with each other. I pondered, "What are they using for mail?"

We don't own a computer printer, but I buy a ream of paper (500 sheets) for them to draw on. Each drawing gets numbered and put into their folders so they can see their own progression (as well as me).

I found that they were using the white copy paper. I smiled and said "Okay, but I have to warn you, Dulce, you owe me 10 cents for every page."

She paused.

"500 sheets of paper costs money, sweetie. That's why we don't bother to have a printer - the cost of ink plus paper makes it better just to read the computer screen."

Dulce said "But my mommy took all my money."

Maria, my 10yo, added a clarification "That's because you left it in your pockets."

House rule: any money left uncared for is claimed by the finder - hence why dad never has any money on his person - but that works both ways.

I said "Then you'll have to do some chores to earn some money to pay me back." I started counting folded paper with scribbles on it, and Maria said "I'm not getting you out of this one, Dulce."

I counted up 32 sheets of paper. The cost of her expending resources for fun visibly sank into her. "I'm going to have to work for a whole day to earn that (bit exaggeration, but close)." she said.

"Okay." I said. "You can use more paper if you want, but that'll cost you. I give you the paper for free because I want to see your drawings and creative work, or school work."

My girls have plenty of games that don't involve wasting anything - it was a perfect opportunity to...

1. Make sure the paper isn't wasted.
2. Teach my little girls the value of things they see as magically replenish able.
   

Maria has saved up enough money to buy that much paper 10 times over - somewhere around $50 - but she immediately clarified for her 7yo sister that she wasn't going to bail her out of her own problem, whereas I've seen Maria buy Dulce a $20 toy before, so I knew it wasn't selfishness, but rather Maria knew Dulce had created her own problem, and she's learned the hard way that solving her sisters' problems for them only makes them do it again.

I thought Dulce had $8 but, apparently, she left it somewhere and her mother found it. My wife will really keep it, too - treats herself to a thrift store. And these girls don't get an allowance, any money they have is either earned or, less likely, found in my pockets.

It might sound hard but - my 10yo went through the same process. Now she doesn't lose her money and doesn't spend it quickly or frivolously, either.

At any rate - play with my kids, I tickle them, rough-house, chase them around, have them all try to wrestle me to the ground (my hamstrings are a favored target), and even my 10yo girl isn't embarrassed to sit in my lap and talk an hour away, though sometimes I have to ask her to shift her weight to some other part of my lap that still has blood circulation.

It's great to know I'm on the right train track. I run into too many parents these days who act shocked that we make our children work - and I keep wondering "What do you think they are going to do when they become teenagers? Magically become hard workers who handle things for themselves one day?"

Battlestar Galactica - is it based on Mormonism?

More accurately ...is it based on Mormon themes?

When confronted by things I don't know, rather than say "I don't know" or "It's all based on conjecture" I try to see if I can find the truth. This is merely a thought exercise - can I find the truth? Did Glen A. Larson, a prolific writer and TV series creator, make this particular project based on elements of his religion, Mormonism?

In my gathering of research material, I found one interview with the new Battlestar Galactica executive producer that clinched the whole deal:

Interviewer:

"Glen Larson, creator and producer of the first show, is a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints. He based much of the first series on Mormon cosmology. Was there a concerted effort to move away from that in this version?"

Ron Moore:

"Not specifically, no. I looked at the original series as mythos and the way it dealt with religion as sort of a global sense. I was aware that Glen had used Mormon influences and how he had created the cosmology, but I'm not that familiar with Mormon belief or practice. To me there were things that were sort of obvious, the twelve tribes, the twelve tribes of Israel."

Unless Ron Moore is lying, he's acknowledging that the old series was, indeed, based on Mormon themes, and that while the new series is not expressly based on Mormon themes, no effort was made to change the mythos of the old show.

The article goes on to reveal that, in the new version, Ron gave the Cylons their own belief system, and it was monotheism, whereas the humans had polytheism, which created parallels - he said - with the Romans and the way Pagan religions fell to monotheistic ones.

So it is safe to say that the new series, however based on the mythos of the old, is going its own direction. It is also safe to say that the old series really is based on Mormon themes.

Research Material

• Battlestar Mormonica - Deals directly with whether or not the series is based on Mormon themes.
• Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism - another article.
  
• Battlestar Galactica Frequently Asked Questions - First created: May 24, 1994, Last modified: November 26, 2002 - this means this FAQ is a good snapshot of "Before the new series"
• Articles and Interviews about the old series - lists "FORD, James E. “Battlestar Galactica and Mormon Theology” Journal of Popular Literature. A Professor at BYU takes a close look at Mormon ideas in BG." Also cited as: Ford, James E. “Battlestar Galactica and Mormon Theology.” Journal of Popular Culture 17 (fall 1983): 83–87.
• The Souls of Cylons - Ron Moore, executive producer of Battlestar Galactica, talks about the theology behind the Sci Fi Channel series.
• Observations on the correlation between Battlestar Galactica and the LDS Church - this is what first clued me into the question.
  

More about the Author

• Glen A. Larson at the Internet Movie Database
• Glen A. Larson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Glen A. Larson on Wikipedia
  

I originally found the first article on Bill Otto's page. I was there because his home page has synopses on the Connections series by James Burke.