onegoodmove

I'm 2 or 3 years old. I'm out in the backyard playing in the grass and my dad is just over there, working in the garden, planting tomatoes or carrots or human shrunken heads or God knows what because how the hell should I know, I'm only 3.

Like any self-respecting child, I like to dig in the dirt with my bare hands, probe, investigate the planet I currently cruise so close to. It pays off nicely. I eventually find real treasure: a big, fat, juicy earthworm. Oh my yes.

It is fascinating. It is squiggly and squishy and weird and wonderful — you know, just like life. I hold it up to the light. I hold it close to my face, my nose, my mouth. I am examining. I am expanding my tiny little brain. My mouth is possibly wide open in wonder.

Utah's typically gleaming scores on national tests could be mere veneer, a Utah Foundation report released Thursday shows. Utah's performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress ranks last among five other states with similar demographics, according to the report, "School Testing Results, 2006 & 2007: How Utah Compares to Other States."

A gliding mammal that lives in the forests of south-east Asia is our closest relative after apes, monkeys and lemurs, a DNA study shows.

Colugos are the "sisters" of primates, sharing a common ancestor some 80 million years ago when dinosaurs had their heyday, say US scientists.

There is no other area of American life where we collectively accept such a bad deal. We spend the more than any other nation on our military, but our military is unquestionably the mightiest in the world. We spend the most on our universities, but our universities are the best on the planet. But we spend the most on our health care -- twice as much as anyone else -- and our health system is mediocre-to-poor, with 47 million of us lacking the insurance necessary to easily access it. It's not surprising that Americans want change.