I urged local newspapers to track down Norman Borlaug — oops! Turns out he’s in my town. The Dallas Morning News features a story on Norman Borlaug today.
Hey, P. Z. Myers — he’s out of the University of Minnesota system. He says seeds professors and coaches plant today can yield big stuff, but later.
Photo by Lawrence Jenkins, special contributor to the Dallas Morning News.
4 Comments | 
Heroes, History, Science | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Gro Harlem Bruntland: Recently, in Mozambique, I saw children with their eyes glazed with fever from a malaria that could have been prevented if their parents could afford bed nets. Deforestation had changed malaria from a nuisance to a curse in a matter of twenty years.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Wikiquote image.
More people are suffering from this killing and debilitating disease now than ever before, and deforestation, climate change and breakdowns in health services have caused the disease to spread to new areas and areas that have been malaria-free for decades, like in Europe.
In the Philippines, I have watched how beggars sit exhausted on the pavements convulsed with coughing. Tuberculosis, which we long believed had been brought under control by effective treatment, is on the rise again. Increasingly, we see forms of tuberculosis which are resistant to all but a very expensive cocktail of drugs.
I think that HIV/AIDS may be the most serious threat to face sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions. space. Already, the AIDS epidemic is the leading cause of death in several African countries. AIDS has reversed the increases in life expectancy we have seen over the past thirty years. The social and economic devastation in countries that could lose a fifth of their productive populations is heart-rending.
I believe we are facing this alarming situation largely because of an outdated approach to development. Our theories have to catch up with what our ears and eyes are telling us – and fast.
There was a period in development thinking – not so long ago – when spending on public services, such as health and education, would have to wait. Good health was a luxury, only to be achieved when countries had developed a particular level of physical infrastructure and established a certain economic strength. The implicit assumption was that health was to do with consumption. Experience and research over the past few years have shown that such thinking was at best simplistic, and at worst plainly wrong.
I maintain that if people’s health improves, they make a real contribution to their nation’s prosperity. In my judgement, good health is not only an important concern for individuals, it plays a central role in achieving sustainable economic growth and an effective use of resources.
As in Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, we have seen that developing countries which invest relatively more, and well, on health are likely to achieve higher economic growth.
In other words, malaria prevention grows on trees, or malaria grows with the cutting of trees.
1 Comment | Citizenship, Conservation, Current History, DDT, Disasters, Economics, Environmental protection, Ethics, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Globalization, History, Junk science, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, Travel, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
To counter the notion that “evangelical Christian” is synonymous with “conservative enough to make Attila the Hun blush,” the editor of Sojourners magazine speaks out in favor of helping the poor, protecting the environment, and generally not being so crabby about life. If you’re in the North Texas area next Tuesday, you can hear the message first hand.
Jim Wallis will speak in Dallas, at Wilshire Baptist Church, on July 24, at 7:00 p.m., part of the Faith and Freedom Speaker Series of the Texas Freedom Network. Wallis speaks forcefully for faithful people who do not share the crabby views of the religious right. This is a great opportunity for Dallas to hear a voice of goodwill from faith — some call it a prophetic voice. The TFN website says:
Rev. Wallis has boldly proclaimed that the monologue of the religious right in this country is over. In his evening lecture, he will explain how to renew the values of love, justice and community in Texas.
The Dallas organizing committee meets on July 12, 7:00 p.m., at Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Road, (see map in the sidebar). Please come!
Admission is free, but TFN asks people to click in advance to reserve seats, or call 512-322-0545 (TFN’s offices in Austin).
Pre-speech discussions among the organizers have suggested follow-up events to discuss Rev. Wallis’s ideas, and to fan the flames of freedom of faith in North Texas. In short, this will be a good networking event, too.
Who is Rev. Wallis?
Rev. Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, preacher, speaker, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. His latest book, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, was on The New York Times bestseller list for four months. He is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine — whose print and electronic publication reaches more than 250,000 people — and also convenes a national network of churches, faith-based organizations, and individuals working to overcome poverty in America.
Check out the Sojourners website.
More details are available at the TFN website. You may reserve a seat at the Sojourners website, also.
Mark your calendars: July 24, Jim Wallis speaks (that’s NEXT TUESDAY). To get to Wilshire Baptist Church, from Central Expressway take Mockingbird Lane east to Abrams Road, turn left onto Abrams, and the church is about one block farther, on the right. It’s big, it has a lot of space and a good deal of parking.
Leave a Comment » | Civil Rights, Environmental protection, First Amendment, Politics, Religion, Religious Freedom, Texas Freedom Network | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Southwest Elementary in Burley, Idaho, existed in a world far, far away from the U.S. space program. We watched rocket launches on black and white television — the orbital launches were important enough my father let me stay home from school to watch, but when he dropped me off, I was in a tiny band of students who actually made it to school. Potato farmers and the merchants who supported them thought the space program was big, big stuff.
By John Glenn’s flight, a three-orbit extravaganza on February 20, 1962, a television would appear in the main vestibule of the school, or in the auditorium, and we’d all watch. There were very few spitballs. Later that year my family moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Moonrise from Apollo 11 prior to Moon landing. For a QuickTime movie from NASA on the 30th anniversary of the landing, click here.
Toward the end of the Gemini series, television news networks stopped providing constant coverage. The launch, the splashdown, a space walk or other mission highlight, but the nation didn’t hold its breath so much for every minute of every mission. Barry McGuire would sing about leaving the planet for four days in space (” . . . but when you return, it’s the same old place.”), then six days, but it was just newspaper headlines.
The Apollo 1 fire grabbed the nation’s attention again. Gus Grissom, one of the three who died, was one of the original space titans; death was always a possibility, but the U.S. program had been so lucky. Apollo’s start with tragedy put it back in the headlines.
The space program and its many successes made Americans hopeful, even in that dark decade when the Vietnam War showed the bloody possibilities of the Cold War. That darkest year of 1968 — see the box below — closed nicely with Apollo 8 orbiting the Moon, and the famous Christmas Eve telecast from the three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William A. Anders. The space program kept us hopeful.
By early 1969 many of us looked forward to the flight of Apollo 11 schedule for July — the space flight that promised to put people on the Moon for the first time in history, the realization of centuries-old dreams.
But, then I got my assignment for Scouting for the summer — out of nearly 50 nights under the stars, one of the days would include the day of the space walk. Not only was it difficult to get televisions into Maple Dell Scout Camp, a good signal would be virtually impossible. I went to bed knowing the next day I’d miss the chance of a lifetime, to watch the first moon landing and walk.
Just after midnight my sister Annette woke me up. NASA had decided to do the first walk on the Moon shortly after touchdown, at an ungodly hour. I’d be unrested to check Scouts in, but I’d have seen history.
And so it was that on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon: “A small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind,” was what he meant to say in a transmission that was famously garbled (at least he didn’t say anything about jelly doughnuts).
Photo: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on the Moon; for a gallery of photos from Apollo 11 from NASA, click here.
2009 will mark the 40th anniversary.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) lists 11 dates for U.S. history as the touchstones kids need to have: 1609, the founding of Jamestown; 1776, the Declaration of Independence; 1787, the Constitutional Convention; 1803, the Louisiana Purchase; 1861-1865, the American Civil War; 1877, the end of Reconstruction; 1898, the Spanish American War; 1914-1918, World War I; 1929, the Stock Market Crash and beginning of the Great Depression; 1941-1945, World War II; 1957, the launching of Sputnik by the Soviets. Most teachers add the end of the Cold War, 1981; I usually include Apollo 11 — I think that when space exploration is viewed from a century in the future, manned exploration will be counted greater milestone than orbiting a satellite; my only hesitance on making such a judgment is the utter rejection of such manned exploration after Apollo, which will be posed as a great mystery to future high school students, I think.)
* 1968, in roughly chronological order, produced a series of disasters that would depress the most hopeful of people, including: the Pueblo incident, the B-52 crash in Greenland, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the nerve gas leak at the Army’s facility at Dugway, Utah, that killed thousands of sheep, Lyndon Johnson’s pullout from the presidential race with gathering gloom about Vietnam, the Memphis garbage strike, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., riots, the Black Panther shoot out in Oakland, the Columbia University student takeover, the French student strikes, the tornadoes in Iowa and Arkansas on May 15, the Catonsville 9 vandalism of the Selective Service office, the sinking of the submarine U.S.S. Scorpion with all hands, the shooting of Andy Warhol, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Buenos Aires soccer riot that killed 74 people, the Glenville shoot out in Cleveland, the cynicism of the Republicans and the nomination of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia crushing the “Prague Spring” democratic reforms, the Chicago Democratic Convention and the police riot, the brutal election campaign, the Tlatololco massacre of students in Mexico City, Black Power demonstrations by winning U.S. athletes at the Mexico City Olympics, coup d’etat in Panama. Whew!
3 Comments | 1957, 1968, 1969, Cold War, Heroes, History, Moon, Neil Armstrong, Science, Space exploration, Technology, TEKS | Tagged: Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, Gus Grissom, History, John Glenn, NASA, Neil Armstrong, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Oh, and, there’s more.
Also see Ed Brayton’s posts here:
Here’s the press release from the Liberty Legal Institute:
The ACLU put their initial complaint on-line, and may follow with more documents as the case progresses:
The Texas Freedom Network has sponsored high-level criticism of Bible study class curricula; their critiques forced changes in the curriculum used in Odessa, but the modified curriculum does not pass Constitutional, academic or Bible study muster, according to a careful report from Southern Methodist University (in Dallas) Bible study professor Mark Chancey. TFN has several reports and press releases on the general issue:
And from the local newspaper, the daily Odessa American:
Leave a Comment » | Bill of Rights, Citizenship, Curricula, Education, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, Historic documents, History, Jurisprudence, Law, Lesson plans, Literature, Plagiarism, Public education, Religion, Religious Freedom, Texas Freedom Network, Textbooks, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
In the continuing religious freedom/education drama in Texas, the school district in Odessa, Texas, approved a Bible study course using a curriculum indicted by the Texas Freedom Network’s expert-in-Bible-studies advisors as religious indoctrination rather than academically rigorous study. Citizens in Odessa sued the district to have that action declared unconstitutional.
The case is being readied for trial, with motions from plaintiffs and defendants flying back and forth. I should be watching it carefully, and I probably should be offering close coverage here for teachers, parents and administrators in Texas.
But I haven’t been able to dig into the stuff yet. In the interim, Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has been following the case closely, and providing timely blog updates. He’s made connections with the legal teams on both sides and has access to the legal documents filed so far.
Don’t wait: Get on over to Dispatches from the Culture Wars and get updated on the case.
This would be a good topic for a civics class project, too, it seems to me. You may want to capture documents as they come out for DBQ exercises in the coming school year.
Leave a Comment » | Bill of Rights, Capturing history, Citizenship, DBQ sources, Education, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, Historic documents, History, History blogs, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law, Public education, Religious Freedom, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Extensive rains delayed them a bit, but our annual cicada cycle started up with vigor sometime in the last ten days. For the past three years, we get the announcement at our house, not from the cicadas singing from the trees, but from the cicada-killer wasps that buzz our back patio area, scouting the yard for good places to bury their prey.
It started with one female burying cicadas under the patio; perhaps another joined her by the end of the first season. But last year, we had about a dozen buzzing about the yard. We have plenty of cicadas, so it should be good pickings for the wasps — so long as no one sprays insecticide on them.
These wasps are larger than most wasps, as long as 2.5 inches, and big enough to muscle a cicada around. The cicadas are twice as big, volume wise, but I suspect they weigh less. In any case, the wasps show outstanding strength and coordination in zooming around carrying their paralyzed victims to their holes — yesterday I saw a wasp rocket into a hole in the garden without the usual stop to drop the cicada and tug it in. The hole was a perfect fit. Jet air delivery.
The wasps leave us alone as we watch. We’ve never been stung, and I don’t know that these guys sting humans (unless attacked, and I assume they’d fight back).
Their ability to move dirt is amazing. We usually get a pile of soil about a foot around and three to six inches high at each hole.
Our wasps are bigger than this one. Photo from Purdue University’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory.So far as I know, down here in Dallas we don’t get any massive infestations of the the 13- or 17-year cicadas. I cannot imagine how such a feast might affect these industrious little guys, other than they might fly themselves to death. We lived through a double hatching of the 13- and 17-year cicadas in Maryland. Corpses of the cicadas made some streets slick enough they were dangerous to drive. Man, what I wouldn’t have given for a few thousand cicada killers then!
Cicada killers, or cicada hawks, sting and paralyze cicadas, then inter the still-living cicada with one egg laid in it for male larvae, or one egg with two cicadas, for female larvae. The wasp egg hatches and the larva consumes the fresh cicada; some of the wasps survive the winter, and I don’t know if the cicada is kept fresh the entire time, or if a few of the wasps hatch and go dormant.
My photos didn’t turn out as well as those from Purdue and Michigan State — the buggers are fast and restless. The photos could easily have come from our yard, with the massive blossoming of the yellow composites right now (“DYCs” in local horticultural parlance).
Watch your yard — you probably have these tiny “True Life Adventures” going on in your own backyard. You can encourage them with careful plantings, and especially by not spraying poisons (did I mention that between the predatory insects and the now-large geckoes that have taken up residence here, we don’t have cockroaches and other nasty house pests?).
The photo below shows a wasp carrying a cicada.
Update on resources (7-30-2008):
47 Comments | Environmental protection, Natural history, Point of personal privilege, Science, Texas | Tagged: Bugs, Cicada Hawks, Cicada Killer Wasps, Cicada Killers, Cicadas, Entomology, Environmental protection, Natural history, Point of personal privilege, Science, Summer, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
No, pesticides are not perfectly safe, especially when not used exactly as prescribed. Poisons are poisons. Be careful. People can die.
3 Comments | Junk science, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Traveling Texas produces its own joys. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been through Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Dalhart, Eastland, Weatherford, Abilene and Lubbock, and a couple score of towns in between.
I loved this headline last week in Texas Tech’s newspaper, The Daily Toreador: “Meat Team wins national championship.”
Who knew there is intercollegiate competition in meat judging? Why isn’t this on ABC or ESPN?
Humor aside, in beef states such skills are critical. Since I love a good steak more than the average person — and I love a good roast beef at least as well — this is the sort of competition I would probably take some interest in, were it covered in daily media outside the affected universities. The team from Tech deserves wider recognition, it seems to me, and I wish Texas newspapers like the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle would give regular coverage to such achievements — not to mention the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (is that a great name for daily newspaper, or what?)
The competition was held at the 60th annual Reciprocal Meats Conference, at South Dakota State University. Tech’s winning team had to beat another Tech team to get to the championship round, and there they faced another Texas team from Angelo State University in San Angelo (I haven’t made it there yet, this year).
Tech’s two three-person teams began the competition strong, neither losing a round until they faced each other. The team of Megan Mitchell, Travis Chapin and Austin Voyles came out on top, with O’Quinn, Landi Woolley and Matt Sellers falling into the consolation bracket. Because it was a double-elimination competition, each team had to lose twice to be out of the contest.
The Mitchell, Chapin and Voyles team lost one of their rounds later, leaving both teams in the consolation bracket. Winning their way through the consolation bracket, the two teams eventually faced each other once again, and this time O’Quinn, Woolley and Sellers won. They ended up competing against Angelo State University in the finals and emerged victorious.
“It wasn’t really like two teams,” O’Quinn said. “It wasn’t like one Tech team won and the other Tech team lost. It’s just a matter of formality. If all six of us could have been on one team, we would have. We consider ourselves all one team. The Tech team won.”
Rogers noted that combined the teams only lost three rounds.
“Two of our losses were to our own team,” she said. “It really was a group win.”
It was the third national championship for Tech in the competition in the past six years.
Don’t laugh. Does your university even have a meat judging team?
And while in Lubbock, I had a great chicken-fried steak at River Smith’s. Eat the local fruits, I always say.
2 Comments | Food history, Newspapers, Texas, Texas history, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Prehistory and archaeology fans will want to check out the latest archeaology carnival from the 4 Stone Hearth series — Number 19 is up at Sherd Nerd.
Texans may want to pay particular attention to the links to John Hawks’s blog, where he talks about the coming display of Lucy, in Houston, with further links. Hawks notes controversy among the U.S. community of Ethiopians; Texans may worry more about complaints from Texas creationists.
Either way, you need to check it out. You can link back here, to my post on stories and history, too (thanks, Sherd Nerd!).
3 Comments | Archaeology, Evolution, Natural history, Prehistory, TEKS, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The Dallas Morning News offers a column by a mensch named Steve Blow two or three times a week. Most good daily papers in America have something like it — a column by a reporter or former reporter, or sometimes just someone in the community who can write, that covers the beat of being alive in This Town, wherever this town is.
About half the time the columns stake out positions on issues that make a few people angry enough to write letters demanding the column be burned and the author be dangled by the toes from the flagpole jutting out of the third story window of the newspaper building. The rest of the time, to careful readers, these columnists tell stories of the city, or talk about people you ought to know.
On July 12, Steve Blow wrote about a guy who takes pictures of birds at Dallas’ White Rock Lake. Texas has three major bird migration flyways coursing through it, offering opportunities for Texans to see hundreds of different species through the year. J R Compton takes advantage of this, photographing birds and then posting the photos at his website.
These are great photos for use in geography, biology and environmental science classes. Heck, a Texas history course ought to note Texas’ great bird viewing, too, since it’s an important industry (if somewhat smaller than oil or auto customizing).
Most kids I see in school know almost nothing about birds. Following bird migration routes is a fun and sneaky way to get kids thinking about geography, about paths of commerce for economics and history, and just to get them looking around their world to see what’s going on.
Particularly for Dallas and North Texas, these photos offer kids a chance to see what they should be looking for, literally in their own backyards.
Compton’s photos can also be found at his websites, such as J R’s Birds, and Addlepated Birder. His chief site is www.jrcompton.com.
Especially with digital cameras so common, it is likely someone in your town is recording natural events, or pictures of the city that you can use in your classroom, too. Be sure to credit them, to set an example for your students.
2 Comments | Geography - Physical, Natural history, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Here’s a cool CD ROM on malaria — surely there is some use geography and world history teachers can put to it, yes?
Biology teachers may find it useful, too. Alas, it’s pricey, unless you’re teaching in a developing country.
The disc has 13 interactive tutorials on various aspects of malaria, including control strategies (most relevant to social studies, I think). Perhaps of most use, it’s got 900 images suitable for PowerPoint or other illustration.
At left, click the image to go to a Wellcome Trust animation of the life cycle of the malaria parasite.
Why is it the good stuff is so often expensive, and so often difficult to get for the classroom? It reminds me of Mark Twain’s line about how we value the truth so much — you can tell, because we economize on it so.
Leave a Comment » | History, Science, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Norman Borlaug, usually credited with starting the “Green Revolution,” which meant in its day the creation of new crop plants that were hardier in extreme weather conditions and resistant to fungal and insect pests, and often more nourishing than their predecessors, was decorated with the Congressional Gold Medal yesterday in Washington, D.C.
I did not realize he was still alive — he is 93 years old.
The Dallas Morning News reported:
Past Congressional Gold Medals had gone to the likes of George Washington, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.
Tuesday’s honoree, Texas A&M University professor Norman Borlaug, is credited with ushering in the “Green Revolution” in the 1960s and saving more than a billion lives by developing higher-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of wheat.
Borlaug’s brief remarks suggest it would be interesting to see a longer interview with him, especially about world food and nutrition issues, today. Is he still living in College Station? Are there any historians at Texas A&M or a local high school, or one of Texas’ newspapers, who can do the interview?
Dr. Borlaug urged scientists and public officials to continue his efforts to grow food rather than radical ideologies, especially in Africa. “Hunger, poverty and misery are very fertile soil for planting all kinds of ‘isms’ including terrorism,” he said.
Dr. Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963 and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
6 Comments | Heroes, History, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Leave a Comment » | Politics, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We hope the Tripoli 6 are out of Tripoli, Libya, soon. Libyan courts commuted the death sentences delivered to the six health workers, but the commutation was to life sentences; late news indicates that Libya has agreed to extradite the six to Bulgaria in return for payments to the families of the 400+ children who were victimized by the hospital screw-ups for which the six are erroneously blamed.
Libya claims to have confessions from the health workers. Evidence suggests they were tortured to sign hoax confessions.
For rational people who care for justice, there is a powerful moral here. Forensic evidence shows that the HIV viruses that infected hundreds of children at a hospital, infected the children and evolved well before the five nurses and one doctor got to the hospital. In short, it is physically impossible in time for the accused workers to have been responsible for the infections. They are innocent.
But of course, this evidence is based on evolutionary paradigms, the same way that all DNA evidence is. The Libyan courts waved the evidence off, essentially, convicting the workers in a second trial after a team of international scientists completed a special research project showing, with the highest degree of assurance, the impossibility of liability to the accused.
Creationism is relativism with King James language: Facts are not facts, science is not science, what is true in the laboratory and in the wild, not true in a creationist court. The Libyan courts dismissed what would have been exonerating evidence in U.S. and most European courts.
And so another international team was assembled to raise the extortion demanded by Libya, and a settlement negotiated. U.S. scientists contributed time and expertise; the U.S. government appears to have deferred to European governments.
Sadly, the people who created the conditions for infecting 400 kids with HIV will go unpunished in this creationist court.
Effect Measure over at the Seed stable of science blogs has a much more complete explanation of the case, with links detailing the heroic work of scientists, and I encourage you to read that account and follow the links.
Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.
– Deuteronomy 16:20
Leave a Comment » | Creationism, Hoaxes, Junk science, Justice, Law, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for July, 2007.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
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