D. James Kennedy, 76

September 5, 2007

From the Washington Post:

By KELLI KENNEDY

The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 5, 2007; 11:12 AM

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the nation’s most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, died Wednesday, a church spokesman said. He was 76.

We wish his family comfort and well.

Kennedy announced his retirement about a month ago. Coral Ridge Ministries, the church he founded in Florida, will continue. One might hope that, with regard to notorious programs he promoted with voodoo history on the founding of the U.S. and voodoo science against biology, some of the his projects will be allowed to expire with him.

6 Comments | Religion, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Truth? Try here . . .

September 4, 2007

Truth.

And if you come back to check, you’ll note that the truth changes, occasionally.

Truth is, I’m just going for the iPod.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Administrivia, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More fiddling with formats

September 4, 2007

Several complaints about the template I had been using, especially about the way it loads in Internet Explorer (switch to FireFox!).

Especially if you had problems with the last format, let me know if this one works better.

All complaints happily read.  Some even acted upon.

4 Comments | Administrivia | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Little Rock, 50 years later

September 4, 2007

Elizabeth Eckford leaves Little Rock's Central High after being denied enrollment

50 years ago today.

Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, leaves Little Rock’s Central High School after having been denied the chance to enroll. Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called the Arkansas National Guard to duty to prevent nine African American students from enrolling.  (Photo by Will Counts – see his series here.)

Elizabeth Eckford graduated*, went on to a career with the Army as a journalist, and is the only one of the nine students (all of whom graduated and did well) to live in Little Rock today. Central High school is a National Historical Monument — and still a high school.

What I want to know is this: The woman in back of Ms. Eckford, face thoroughly engaged in delivering a piece of her mind, I suppose: Who is she, and where is she, today? Does anyone know?

2 Comments | 1957, Bill of Rights, Boy Scouts of America, Brown v. Board, Civil Rights, Desegregation, Dwight Eisenhower, Education, Lesson plans, Little Rock Nine | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Sample of Texas embarrassment to come

September 4, 2007

The “Godly” mathematics curricula at a San Antonio church school, and the ridicule it’s gotten, give a glimpse behind the curtain of what could happen were the Texas State Board of Education to succumb to sectarian calls to gut evolution out of biology texts.

Mathematician John Allen Paulos — known best to educators for his book Innumeracy — does a column for ABC News’ website. His latest column details some of the history of mathematics and religious lunacy, and problems with creationism; he concludes:

. . . the curricula cited above and others like them are a bit absurd, even funny. In private schools they’re none of our business. This is not so if aspects of these “creation math” curricula slip into the public schools, a prospect no doubt devoutly wished for by some.

One hopes the board will stick with letting the textbooks describe the world the Creator actually created, as opposed to a world created in the fantasies of creationists.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Pharyngula, whose note on this blog‘s original posting of the curricula from Castle Hills First Baptist School is probably what got the attention of Dr. Paulos in the first place; a tip of the scrub brush with lots of soapy fervor.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Creationism, Curricula, Intelligent Design, Rampant stupidity, Reason, Religion | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Cuneiform in a digital library

September 4, 2007

Irony sometimes means happy surprises. Cuneiform on the world wide web?

Tablet (Cornell 78) w inscriptions to Babylonian King Sinkashid (about 1800 B.C.) The University of California system is working hard to deliver important information to scholars on the web. One of these projects is the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). Here is the official desription:

The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) represents the efforts of an international group of Assyriologists, museum curators and historians of science to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform tablets dating from the beginning of writing, ca. 3350 BC, until the end of the pre-Christian era. We estimate the number of these documents currently kept in public and private collections to exceed 500,000 exemplars, of which now more than 200,000 have been catalogued in electronic form by the CDLI.

Some of the photos demonstrate the beauty of everyday history and archaeology. These are instructional photos, but some are works of art. Examples of drawings of the writing are available, which can be used in the classroom to show students what the writing looks like.

The image here is described: The tablet . . . (Cornell 78)
contains an inscription of the Old Babylonian king Sinkashid of Warka/Erech (ca. 1800 BC). (copyright by Cornell University Library)

Translated:

Obv.
  1 {d}suen-ga-szi-id “Sinkashid,
  2 nita kal-ga strong man,
  3 lugal unu{ki}-ga king of Uruk,
  4 lugal am-na-nu-um king of Amnanum,
Rev.
    e2-gal his palace
    nam-lugal-la-ka-ni of kingship
    mu-du3 did build.”

Some sites in CDLI allow searches by topic. Students, consider these school tablets, and thank your lucky stars, inventors and the trees for paper and ink. Can you imagine lugging these things in a backpack?

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Ancient history, Archaeology, Geography - Physical, Historic documents, History, History images, Images, Technology, Technology in the classroom, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Unstrange maps: Security, health, economics

September 3, 2007

Strange Maps features odd maps, often fictional. I like the site, especially for the inherent humor in some of the maps — and since it’s such a popular site among the more than 1 million WordPress weblogs, it’s clear others share my enthusiasm.

Global map of energy security risk - Maplecroft Maps

There are a lot of unstrange and beautiful maps based on reality, too, used to give a quick, graphic image to the brains of people working on serious problems. Maps guide policy makers, and illustrate geographical range of problems, and sometimes geographical causes and vulnerabilities.

Here’s a source of interactive maps that every economics, government, history, and health teacher should bookmark: Maplecroft Maps.

Maps at this site cover a nearly complete range of issues that worry leaders of businesses and nations. I found the site looking for information about malaria.

Of special note is the wealth of information available from the interactive features. Clicking on nations or on symbols on the map provides details of issues the map covers; three tabs with the maps take the viewer of most of the maps to an extensive list of resources on the issue, and case studies, and analysis. These sources seem tailor made to help students doing geography projects.

Issue maps include disasters, malaria, child labor, climate change, poverty, land mine risk, political risk and a wide variety of others. You’ll need Macromedia Flash on your computer; there does not appear to be any way to download the maps, so you’ll need a live internet link to use these in class.

Information from these maps will be more current than any geography, history or economics book. Go see.

Maplecroft is a network of academic and business consultants. These maps are made to help their clients; Maplecroft’s description of the series is below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Disasters, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Health care, Natural resources, Public health | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Getting Newtonist ideas out of the science books

September 3, 2007

When the Discovery Institute’s campaign against Darwin succeeds, will they be content? Remember, the real war is against materialism, DI says. Will Isaac Newton and the materialist theory of gravity be next?

Here’s a parody that suggests what that campaign would look like, from Tiny Frog. It’s a parody. It’s a hoax.

I said, it’s not real, it’s a parody.  It’s a parody.
Immediate update: Pharyngula picked up on Tiny Frog’s post, too — a sign the post is worth reading, generally.

Leave a Comment » | Hoaxes, Textbook Selection, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Intelligence: Can it rub off in the classroom?

September 3, 2007

Can intelligence rub off from an intelligent classroom to the students?

Educational osmosis is one way to learn, I have found. I think a good classroom is one in which the student learns regardless what the student is doing, even daydreaming by looking out the window. How to achieve that? We’re working on it. In 2007, such a classroom should visually stimulate learning, and do so with sound and kinesthetics, too. Repetition in different media, with different contexts, aids learning and cementing of knowledge. But, I speak only from experience, having taken only a tiny handful of “real” education classes in my life, and they rank at the bottom of my list of useful courses.

Brian C. Smith blogs about education technology from the technology side, at Streaming Thoughts. Some time ago he asked teachers to tell about their ideal classroom technology (my response is here). Now he’s back with results of his survey — what technology do teachers need for educational success?

It may be my fault for failing to make the point, but I think a successful classroom also needs access to a photocopier that can turn around material in short order — a fast photocopier is preferred. Classrooms also need printers.

I also wonder if working ventilation and temperature control for comfort figures into the technology equation.

The ideal classroom technology is that set which allows the student to learn well, with speed and wisdom.

Alexander (not yet the Great) and his teacher, Aristotle; public domain image, originally from British Museum?

1 Comment | Brain learning, Classroom management, Classroom technology, Education, Education spending, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Barbara Jordan and Lyndon Johnson: An oral history

September 2, 2007

Barbara Jordan’s voice was distinctive, and commanding. “The voice of God,” Molly Ivins called it. After Jordan’s death, Francis X. Cline wrote what might be an even higher tribute, saying her voice was “as though Winston Churchill had been reincarnated as a black woman from Texas.” She spoke in complete paragraphs, usually, with words that seemed selected carefully to fit exactly the ideas she presented.

Barbara Jordan at the Johnson White House, prior to 1972 -- with Andy Biemiller, John Doar - LBJ Library photo

How delightful, then, to read (and perhaps to actually hear) Barbara Jordan describe her fear of stammering in her first meeting with President Lyndon Johnson. The LBJ Library in Austin has a series of oral histories, including this one:

I went up to what I now know was the Cabinet Room. There were other people assembled, people who were active in the civil rights movement. We sat and waited around a table for the President and the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, to arrive. Well, as I sat there really at the far end of the table, I still said to myself, “Now, Lyndon Johnson probably doesn’t know who I am or what I am about, and my name probably just slipped in somehow and got into that [list].” So the President came in, everybody stood up. He sat down, we all sat down, and we started to discuss this legislation, fair housing legislation. And the conversation was going around the table. The President would call on first one person for a reaction and then another person for a reaction. Then he stopped and he looked at my end of the table, he said, “Barbara, what do you think?” Well, I just . . . in the first place, I’m telling you, I didn’t know the President knew me, and here he’s looking down here saying “Barbara” and then saying, “What do you think?” So that was my first exchange with Lyndon Johnson. I’m startled. I got myself organized, of course, not so that I wouldn’t stammer, since it is not my habit to stammer when talking, and I gave a response and then this conversation ensued.

That was my first contact personally with Lyndon Johnson.

The glories of oral histories. How can you use this in the classroom?

Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments | Barbara Jordan, Capturing history, DBQ sources, Heroes, Historic documents, History, History audio sources, History museums, Lyndon B. Johnson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More Latin you should know

September 1, 2007

Bizarro cartoon, by Piraro, 2008 (and a discussion on why the bumper sticker is badly translated)

Bizarro cartoon, by Piraro, 2008 (and a discussion on why the bumper sticker is badly translated)

Oh, I admit it. Sometimes I troll the blogosphere looking for provocation. And sometimes my trolling nets turn up good stuff.

At Joe Carter’s Evangelical Outpost, I found a link to “Latin You Should Know” from Neat-o-rama, When Joe sticks to the factual stuff, sometimes he’s right on.

Here’s the list — but it’s very incomplete, especially for high school students. I’ll append some stuff at the end, Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | Famous quotes, History, Literature, S.A.T. and A.C.T., TAKS, TEKS, Vocabulary | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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