My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute.
To take on the jobs of tomorrow, students must become more than good test takers. They need to become makers who design, sketch, build, and prototype. And their classrooms will need more than a chalkboard and a set of textbooks.
I write stuff down. I have a chalkboard in the kitchen where I will scrawl stuff down if I have a faint outline of an idea. And I'll go into my office or whatever. But that goes from format to format.
Gene Kranz: [agreeing to shut off the LEM's power] Now, in the meantime, we're gonna have a frozen command module up there. In a couple days, we're gonna have to power it up using nothing but the re-entry batteries.
GNC White: That's never been tried before.
R.E.T.R.O. White: Hell, we've never even simulated it before, Gene.
Gene Kranz: Well, we're gonna have to figure it out. I want people in our simulators working re-entry scenarios. I want you guys to find every engineer who designed every switch, every circuit, every transistor, and every light bulb that's up there. Then I want you to talk to the guy on the assembly line who actually built the thing. Find out how to squeeze every amp out of both
of these god damn machines.
[going to the chalkboard and drawing a dotted line from where the crew currently is down to Earth]
Gene Kranz: I want this mark all the way back to Earth with time to spare.
Kaffee: [while looking through his refrigerator] Were you able to speak to your friend at the NIS?
Lt. Weinberg: Yeah, she said that if Markinson doesn't want to be found, we're not gonna find him. She said I could be Markinson and you wouldn't know it.
Kaffee: Are you Markinson?
Lt. Weinberg: No.
Kaffee: I'm not Markinson. That's two down. What?
Lt. Weinberg: I'm just wondering, now that Joanne's in on this, you know, I was just wondering if you still needed me.
Kaffee: They were following orders, Sam.
Lt. Weinberg: An illegal order.
Kaffee: You think Dawson and Downey knew it
was an illegal order?
Lt. Weinberg: It doesn't matter what they knew. Any decent human being would have refused.
Kaffee: They're not permitted to question orders.
Lt. Weinberg: Then what's the secret? Huh, what are the magic words? I give orders every day nobody follows them.
Kaffee: Sam, we have
softball games and marching bands. They work at a place where you have to wear camouflage or they might get shot! I need you. You're better at research than I am and you know how to prepare a witness.
Galloway: [Galloway arrives] I have medical reports and Chinese food. I say we eat first.
[pause, Weinberg is pondering, remains silent]
Galloway: [confused] What?
Lt. Weinberg: You got any Kung Pao chicken?
Kaffee: [pointing to their chalkboard with his baseball bat] Alright, here's our defense. Intent, no one can prove there was poison on the rag. Code reds, they're common and accepted in Guantanamo Bay. The order, A, Kendrick gave it, B they had no choice but to
follow it. That's it.
Lt. Weinberg: What about motive?
Kaffee: We're a little weak on motive they had one.
Galloway: Just because a person's got a motive doesn't mean they're guilty.
Kaffee: Relax, we'll deal with the fence line shooting when it comes up. For now, let's start with intent. I don't know
what made Santiago die, I don't want to know. I just want to show that it could have been something other than poison. Jo, talk to doctors find out everything there is to know about lactic acidosis. Sam, find out who else was in the emergency room that night.
Clayton: [Draws a crude gorilla on Jane's chalkboard and points to it with the chalk] Gorilla.
Tarzan: [Takes the chalk and examines it] Gor-illa.
Professor Porter: [Excited] Oh! Oh! He's got it!
Tarzan: Gor-illa!
[Proceeds to scribble wildly on the chalkboard]
Tarzan:
Gorrrrr-illllla!
Professor Porter: Oh, perhaps not...