© theother press e¢ Opinions July 2003 (~ a Third Degree Kerry Evans Opinions Editor Iam getting quite tired of being the tyrant mother at all the outdoor, unsupervised activities in town. From the playground to the spray parks, I spend more time disciplining other people’s children than actually spending time with my own. Don’t get me wrong, my own child is also hell on wheels but at least I have the decency to control her in public places. I was at Moody Park Spray Park a few weeks ago, was sitting on the grass right in front of the water festivities, watching my child and eating my lunch, when a gal positioned her blanket along side me and set up her kid with some water guns, telling him to go to town. I went back to my lunch and then this neighboring kid sprays me in the face. | look to his mom for support and she laughed. I say to the kid “It’s not very nice to spray people who aren't playing and also not in the face.” He ran away and the mother went back to her cigarette. He came at me again and I gave him “the look”. He sprayed my face and pants. I was thirty seconds from taking his gun and stomping on it. I said to him “Honestly, if you spray me again I will have to find the person who runs the park and he will have to ask you to leave.” Because really, what did he know, there could be a park ruler lurking in the bushes. I gave him mom another look and she turned o the kid and said, “The lady told you she doesn’t like that”. That’s right, I didn’t. But why did I have to threaten him before she would step in? The madness continued at Queen’s Park Spray Park just last week. I had spread out my blanket, set up our lunches and sent my kid out on to the battlefields. Not five minutes later I saw two boys standing up on a bridge throwing rocks at the kids playing in the water below. I let it go because they werent actually hitting my kid, yet. The first rock hit my daughter’s arm and I throw my Subway sandwich aside and am on my way into the water. “Where is your mother,” I asked rudely. The kids looked at each other and didn’t respond. “Do you know that throwing rocks is very dangerous?” I asked. The kids, who appear to be brothers, look at each other again and one said to the other, “I told you’. Then they ran off into the distance — still throwing rocks. Why aren't parents watching their kids? Don’t they know that bad things could happen to them? Never mind kidnapping, but the wrath of a tongue lashing from me is not a pretty sight. So please, you watch your own kids and let me watch mine. Kim Meier OP Photographer Are you in support of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid? There is potential for great revenue, as well as immeaserable things such as morale. Holly Nguyen I generally don’t agree with anything Gordon Campbell does, and I don’t believe there will be any financial profit. Nicholas Candaele “The Olympics will be a darn toonin waste of taxpayer money better spent on healthcare and education. Reginald Beaufort III Science Matters by David Suzuki Science needs a makeover Science has an image problem. Not that science isn’t important to people today. Indeed, science and technology influences our lives now more than ever before. The problem is in the way scientific issues are often portrayed and communicated—both to the public and to other scientists. A common complaint from scientists is that the media get everything wrong. They sensationalize. They oversimplify. They draw unwarranted conclusions. It's not surprising that with such an attitude scientists are often skeptical and reluctant to talk to the media. Many scientists want more control over their stories. A recent European survey found that 90 percent of scien- tists polled believe reporters ought to provide full scientific details in their stories, and allow scientists to make changes before they are published. Of course, most journalists would never accept such demands, nor should they. Scientists should not receive special treatment. Imagine the kind of report- ing we would have if journalists allowed politicians to edit their stories! Reporters, on the other hand, com- plain that science stories are often dull, irrelevant or impossible to compre- hend. In an analysis published in the journal Nature, sociologist Donald Hayes used a formula called the LEX scale to rate readability of journals. On this scale, the lower the number, the easier something is to read and the more understandable it is. Dr. Hayes found that children’s books have a LEX score of about -32 (easy to read). Newspapers, on average, have a LEX score of zero. Back in the 1940s, sci- ence journals also scored about zero. Today, these journals reach LEX scores well into the +30s and beyond, mean- ing they are very difficult to under- stand. In fact, journals today are often so loaded with jargon that scientists themselves have trouble reading them. This means there’s a far greater chance that reporters and the public will mis- understand a story or never get the information at all. And this knowledge gap is getting worse, in spite of the prevalence of science and technology in our daily lives. Look at the portrayal of many Page 10 e http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca important environmental issues in the news. Anyone who regularly reads sci- ence journals knows that the vast majority of evidence indicates human activities are steadily eroding many of the planet’s life-support systems. We are changing the climate, causing species extinction and spreading pollu- tion across the globe. Yet the main- stream media largely only report on the fantastic changes, the doomsday sce- narios. A gradual erosion fades into the background and, as a result, public concern only becomes aroused when problems reach critical levels—when it may already be too late to do anything. No single group is at fault for this growing problem. Most scientists sim- ply don’t receive training in good com- munication. Plus, newspaper chains are firing reporters en masse, compress- ing beats and not giving reporters the time and resources they need to ade- quately cover science issues. There are now few reporters exclusively assigned to cover either science or the environ- ment. As a result, only the sensational makes headlines and the public contin- ues to perceive scientists as faceless lab about our world. Why is the sky blue? Why do birds do that? Why cant peo- ple fly? But many of us lose that curios- ity as adults—as though the we just too complicated to be bother asking about it. Yet, explain a scie story in a simple way to adults, a they too will often become and share in the wonder of th around us. | A new magazine started up recently called Seed and attempts to popularize science and technology by focussing on easy-to-understand prose with a dash of sex appeal. Perhaps by making sci- ence more hip, we will be able to ele- vate the general level of scientific awareness in society. That’s crucial if we are to make the right decisions to lead us into a sustainable future. To discuss this topic with others, visit the discussion forum at .