Last night, I watched the Donner Party on American Experience. It seriously creeped me out. I always vaguely knew about the tragedy, but not that much. I could barely sleep last night! I looked on the web to try to answer some questions it raised, but didn't find much to satisfy me, in spite of a couple of good (and strangely sympathetic) websites on the topic. I guess it is too long ago to have really concrete information. Anyway, despite the ick factor, I do think that subjects such as this should be covered more in school. Instead, time is wasted memorizing Greek and Roman gods, because supposedly, kids love that material. I know I didn't, if anything, I had zero interest in it. Then there was the metric system. Not that it is useless or anything - I remember the elaborate justifications about how we would all have to know it - oh, I forgot. It did turn to out be useless for all us non-natural scientists. Today, I have a feeling Harry Potter is one of those waste of time subjects that kids are supposed to love.