I'm so torn on the issue of allowing public schools to offer single-sex classes. There is clear research that, in the current western education system, girls learn more and do better in later life if they are in single-sex classes. The advantages are less clear for boys, and there's some research showing that boys do worse in all-boy classrooms. Add to that the fact that even in private, all-girl schools which are presumably dedicated to encouraging girls (unlike a federally mandated single-sex class, which may not be as strongly embraced by its school), you still find gender-biased teaching in which the mathematics, science, and computer skills taught are not up to par with those taught at corresponding boy's schools. I'm not confident that our public school system can adequately handle this additional complication. I'm not convinced the advantages will be worth the expense and effort. Add in the fact that many private single-gender schools have been going coed over the past decade because the demand for single-gender education is dropping, and I'm sceptical that this will attract many students.

Something else for the pre-order list, coming in August: Schoolhouse Rock! - Special 30th Anniversary Edition. I'm Just a Bill was always my favorite. I had no idea there were 46 of these things! [via NowThis]

I have a hard enough time with women's fashion, so I don't pretend to know anything about how men should dress, so I found this series of articles on men's fashion, covering suits, dress shirts, pants, and basic do's and don'ts illuminating and interesting. I think I'd have a problem with a guy who spent as much money on clothes as they suggest, though - my upper limit on a dress shirt price would be way below $150 - you can get very nice shirts for much less than that. I would also disagree with their assessment that if you own only one suit, go with black. Very few men can pull off black suits. Look at your career, and your style, and choose a blue or a grey. [via not martha]

I've changed my position slightly on the value of e-mailing politicians and companies as compared to using snail mail; I think e-mail is starting to be taken more seriously, though I'll still use snail mail if I'm serious about getting a response. However, the internet petition as filled in through web forms is not going to be taken seriously, particularly one supported by a site like Petition Online, which helps you author free on-line petitions and currently has "thousands of active petitions". I get the impression it's been around for a while, but I just noticed it yesterday when I got a pop-up request to sign a petiion there.

There's some accountability on these petitions since the site deletes any signatures which do not come from valid e-mail addresses. Of course, the flip side is that they store all of the names and e-mail addresses they're given, and while their privacy policy states they won't use them for mailing lists, consider Yahoo's recent change in their privacy policy and make your own decision on how seriously you want to take that.

Another selling point? Host your petition here, and you'll be in such company as A Petition to Leave Michael Jackson Alone (902 signatures), A Sea-Monkey is a Living Pet, Not a Toy petition (1073 signatures), Bill Gates, Buy the Rainforests petition (3442 signatures) and the wonderful Rename "The Two Towers" to Something Less Offensive Petition in which Peter Jackson is accused of naming the LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring sequel to capitalize off of the World Trade Center attack. The petition's main page lists it as having 3218 signatures so far, though most of them seem to have been voided as false entries, and of the valid ones, most of them aren't supporting the petition but are criticizing it. There's also Keep the Name "The Two Towers", Don't Rename The Two Towers and About the Two Towers Petition... petitions (and many, many others), in response.

With the tendancy of users to sign when they disagree to state their position, the whole site seems to be dissolving into a difficult-to-navigagte message board. And, since I suspect the site is way more interested in traffic than activism, I'm sure this is fine by them.

The slightly amusing idea to construct an actual Periodic Table (as in the piece of furniture) becomes incredibly cool when you see the quality of construction. Also appealing is the project to store a piece of every (safe) element under its panel on the table. I wonder if it actually gets used as a conference table? [Thanks JRE!]