Chris Smither, about whom I know absolutely nothing, with a song that should make you smile, about Genesis and Darwin, with commentary.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Bruce Tomaso at DallasNews Religion.
Evolution as one folksinger sings it
June 23, 2007
1 Comment | 
Darwin, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Music | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
150,000
June 23, 2007WordPress’s count puts this blog past 150,000 hits total, today.
2 Comments | Administrivia, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the Moment: William O. Douglas, 5th Amendment
June 23, 2007
The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. It is one of the great landmarks in man’s struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized. It is our way of escape from the use of torture.
William O. Douglas, “An Almanac of Liberty,” 1954.
Douglas served longer on the Supreme Court than any other justice, from 1939 to 1975.
1 Comment | Fifth Amendment, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Justice, Law | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Resources for new teachers, change provocateurs
June 22, 2007New teachers, especially teachers from alternative certification programs, have all sorts of stories about people who observe and supervise their training and work.
There is the guy whose district bought laptops for every high school student and insisted teachers use the computers daily, but whose principal refused to look at the on-line courses he had developed to meet the district’s guidelines (and whom the principal subsequently rated down for not having the lesson plans the principal refused to look at). There is the drama coach whose supervisor complained the students shouldn’t have been out of school for the state competition, which they won. There is the mathematician from the telecommunications industry whose supervisor didn’t know geometry, or algebra, or calculus, and insisted the teacher should be offering multiplication table timed quizzes to advanced math classes. The guy whose principal thought history documentaries selected from the school’s libraries were just Hollywood movies, and therefore inappropriate for history classes.
More than enough horror stories to go around.
One teacher tells a few horror stories from his student teaching days, but tells us he went on to get his school’s distinguished alumnus award. And so, he shares some of his best material, here: Horace Mann Educated Financial Solutions, “Reach Every Child.”
Go make change.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Car Family, which is really the same guy.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education quality, Education reform, Education success, Lesson plans, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Public education, School discipline, TAKS, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy birthday, Lady Justice
June 22, 2007Today is the 137th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Department of Justice, June 22nd, 1870.
Among other interesting points:
- The post of Attorney General was created in 1789; who did the serious work until 1870? There is no evidence the Attorney General personally presided over illegal torture or illegal firings of federal employees before 1870 — nor before February 2005.
- Edmund Randolph was the first Attorney General
- None of the 80 Attorneys General served as president, either before or after serving as AG
- The motto of the Justice Department comes from the Seal of the Attorney General: Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur. No one knows what the motto means, exactly, or when the seal was created. The Latin of the seal is archaic, and can’t be translated well. Among the better guesses of what the motto is supposed to mean is this: “The Attorney General, who prosecutes on behalf of Lady Justice.”
Image of Lady Justice against a sunset; FBI photo; hope remains, since no body has been found. Photo is not from a current investigation. Image at top: Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in front of The Spirit of Justice, sculpted by Paul Jennewein in 1933; photo in the lobby of the Department of Justice. Source not listed — probably a news photo.
Leave a Comment » | 1789, America's founding, Famous quotes, Government, History, Justice, Law | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
In a world of electronics, why we still learn the map and compass
June 22, 2007Why do we bother to teach map reading still, since “everyone” has a GPS?
Wholly apart from plotting the Sweet Tea Line, there is this: Batteries die. Wonderful post at the secret life of a teacher.
While you’re there, gander at his proposals for Alaska’s death-defying fishercrabmen, and a response, and a redirect. When I read it, I thought it had to be the result of a classroom exercise. What could your kids design, if you gave them a dangerous situation somewhere in the world affecting some culture, and asked them to come up with a solution?
2 Comments | Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Lesson plans, Student projects, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
New word invented
June 22, 2007I’m staking my claim here: I’ve invented a new word. You can see the usage here, at Reclaiming Space.
“BelloBellicoscenti.”
OED? I’m ready for my closeup.
3 Comments | Accuracy, Creativity, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
8 random facts
June 21, 2007Generally I avoid “meme” games. This is the second one I’ve seen which offers the grand possibility of producing some information I’d like to have about other people.
So, the tag: I hope we’ll hear from Only Crook in Town, David Parker at Another History Blog, Clio Bluestocking, TexasEd, PM Summer at Mug Shots (I hope the site’s not dead!), Michelle at Living Classroom (a fun place to learn, I think), Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen, and elementaryhistoryteacher at History is Elementary.
I got tagged by Brian at Laelaps. Here are the rules:
1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
Here are my 8 factoids:
1. I love the flavor of some stewed plum, baby food — it makes a great flavor surprise between two layers of a good cake.
2. Henry Mancini is one of my favorite composers and recording artists. I may not have the largest collection of Mancini in existence, but it’s good — thanks largely to KSL AM’s purge of vinyl from their library in the late 1970s, and a lifetime of collecting. My wife won my heart (again) when she tracked down a good copy of the Mancini-composed and directed soundtrack album for “Hatari!” It still sounds better than any CD.
3. I had a nice, rather long conversation with Mo Udall about his running for the presidency, in 1972, in an elevator at the Salt Palace during the State Democratic Convention, in Salt Lake City. He carefully detailed how no sitting member of the House of Representatives had made the leap to the presidency since, oh, the time of Isaiah, or Habakkuk, and said he wasn’t going to run. One of the great attractions of graduate study in Tucson in 1976, for me, was the chance to work on Udall’s campaign. But, they didn’t need volunteers in Tucson in 1976.
4. I was chased out of the Mormon church (in Burley, Idaho) by a woman who insisted kids shouldn’t draw pictures of dinosaurs to represent God’s creation. She told me dinosaurs were fictional. I considered the fossils I had collected (at the ripe age of 7), decided she was crazy, and dropped out with my parents’ consent. It wasn’t for another decade or so that I discovered the woman was teaching “false doctrine” for Mormons. I didn’t go back.
5. Solo hiking was a key pastime of my youth, in the area around Mt. Timpanogos, just opposite the site where a kid was killed by a black bear last week. It helped me get over a fear of being alone. I don’t think my parents — or anyone else — ever knew where I was. I also don’t think there were any bears for at least 100 miles, then.
6. See the “G” on Little Mahogany Mountain, just in front of Timpanogos? In 1970 or 1971, as studentbody president, I got a 25-year lease on that site from the Forest Service. I wish I had a copy of that lease now. 
7. I have odd areas of ignorance, and they are many. I didn’t take any biology courses until college. I never could pass calculus. I always have to look up the rule against perpetuities
8. One of my greatˆn grandfathers was a Mormon polygamist named William Madison Wall. He was the first person to drive a wagon up Provo Canyon, which he promptly claimed for his own land holdings. He drove the team up the canyon scouting a place to put a small town, now known as Wallsburg, where he put in a farm and four of his eight wives. The wives didn’t all get along, so he put four of the dissenters on the farm in Wallsburg — the canyon was impassable in winter, and he had peace for nearly half of every year. Part of Mr. Wall’s claim was the backside of Timpanogos, including a little ski resort where I learned to ski, known as Timp Haven. The end of my family that ran the ski resort didn’t open it on Sundays — interfered with church, don’t you know — and so they were happy to unload the land and the ski resort to some crazy actor who made an offer. He renamed the resort Sundance in honor of his recently-completed movie. The actor was Robert Redford. He once graciously pulled me out of a snowbank after a particularly spectacular crash. Nice guy. I ran into him for years in odd canyons and towns all over the west. He usually asked that I not identify him to other people, who had not recognized him. I’d love to have inherited a piece of that land, but Redford has done better by it than anyone ever had reason to hope was possible.
8 Comments | Administrivia, Humor, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sagebrush Rebellion slipping from memory
June 21, 2007Much of recent history does not show up in internet searches. Some of the holes are being filled, as copyrights expire and older sources get digitized — but that means that a lot of what happened in the late 1970s, in the 1980s and 1990s escapes notice of history searches.
Whatever happened to the Sagebrush Rebellion?
My view is biased — I got stuck on the front lines, knowing a bit about the environment and working for Sen. Orrin Hatch from 1978 through 1985. While working with people who think it’s good policy to aim a D-9 Caterpillar through a wilderness area has its drawbacks, there were a lot of great people and great places working that issue.
Orrin Hatch’s website doesn’t even mention the stuff any more, though it features a nice photo of Delicate Arch, which some of his supporters threatened to bulldoze or dynamite to make a point. Paul Laxalt is dead long gone from office, and (in 2011) nearing 90. Jake Garn is out of the Senate, and never really was all that interested in it. I had extensive files on the ins and outs, but I unwisely loaned them to the guy who took over the issue for Hatch after Jim Black left the staff, and they disappeared.
The issues have never died. It’s in the news again — see this article in the Los Angeles Times in April. But the old history? Where can it be found?
If you have sources, especially internet sources, please send them my way.
Poor copy of a photo from U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 1, 1980
9 Comments | Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Capturing history, Conservation, Environmental protection, Government, History, Law, Public Lands, Sagebrush Rebellion | Tagged: BLM, Capturing history, Government, Law, Sagebrush Rebellion, Sen. Jake Garn, Sen. Orrin Hatch, Sen. Paul Laxalt, Wilderness | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Draw this! See the future
June 21, 2007Can’t draw? Especially, you can’t draw faces?
Want to see how on-line and computer-based education might work best?
Go here, learn to draw faces well, in under ten minutes. (Have some fun — at the entrance page, scroll over each person and read the thought bubbles.)
This piece has been out there for two years. One might wonder what else this team has done, and where one might find it.
From the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Tip of the old scrub brush to Evangelical Outpost.
Leave a Comment » | Education, On-line education, On-line learning, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Applied geography: The Sweet Tea Line
June 20, 2007Here is a great exercise in applied geography: “The Sweet Tea Line” at Neatorama, with a link to Eight Over Five with a wonderful set of interactive maps — though, if you go to the Eight Over Five site, you don’t find any link to this particular map (can anyone explain?).
One of the maps from Eight Over Five, using data to determine the Sweet Tea Line.
What about regional variations in food, language, customs or commerce in your state? I remember discovering that “regular coffee” in western Massachusetts meant coffee with a lot of cream and sugar. Not so at Boston’s Logan Airport. Where is the line? What about the lines of where a soft drink is “a pop,” versus “a soda pop,” versus “a coke,” versus “a soda?” Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | America's founding, Brain learning, Civil War, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, George Washington, History, Lesson plans, Maps | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Gov. Perry to Texas community colleges: “Drop dead”
June 19, 2007
That headline was pre-Murdoch, wasn’t it?
It fits this situation, too. Just read. I’m too steamed to comment.
At TexasEd .
Leave a Comment » | Business Ethics, Public education, Public health, Teacher Pay, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rachel Carson’s friends chime in
June 19, 2007Anti-environmental long-knives leave the impression that Rachel Carson knew little about science, and had a crabby disposition toward business and life in general.
Go read this: “Rachel Carson: I knew her when.”
She was a poet and a scientist. You won’t learn anything about the controversy, really, other than the fact that Rachel Carson was a genuine woman, a very nice person. But it’s worth the read.
While you’re at Mort Reichek’s site, noodle around and see what else he’s got. He is a retired journalist with a lot to say. Pay attention. [New Jersey history and economics teachers: Do you realize what a resource you could have in this guy? Washington correspondent for Business Week? Hello!!???]
Update: Sadly, Mort passed on in 2011. His blog remains up as a tribute to a great journalist and early blogger.
Leave a Comment » | DDT, Environmental protection, Heroes, Natural history, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, War on Science | Tagged: DDT, History, Rachel Carson, US Fish and Wildlife Service | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Going native, going green
June 19, 2007Vicki Thaxton all by herself has saved more water usage in the Dallas area than can be contained in one of our Army Corps of Engineers water projects — say, Joe Pool Lake (yes, it really is named “Joe Pool Lake” — named after Congressman Joe Pool).
How did she do it? How did she save so much water?
Vicki advises Texans on planting their gardens, and for the 20 years or so we’ve known her, she’s been spreading the word, and sometimes spreading the mulch and fertilizer, about xeriscaping with native plants. “Xeriscaping” means landscaping that relies on natural water, rain and dew, instead of irrigation from a hose.
Vicki has been at the same place for all that time, but the establishment’s name has changed — the nursery in Cedar Hill where you find her and get advice is Petal Pushers, on Old Straus Road. (No promotional consideration, by the way.)
Plus, Vicki’s a nice lady. It’s good to see her getting a wider audience for her flower indoctrinations, even if just for a few minutes, on our local NBC affiliate, KXAS-TV, Channel 5. For at least a short while you can view this piece with KXAS’s weatherman, David Finfrock.
Leave a Comment » | Conservation, Education, Environmental protection, Natural history, Texas, Texas history, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
