No updates in several months — the only thing I can conclude is that the blog, Adam Smith Lives!, is dead.
Gone from the blogroll.
I’m interested in finding good blogs on economics, world history, and government — Dear Reader, which ones have I overlooked?
7 Comments | 
Administrivia, Economics, Weblogs | Tagged: blogging, blogs, Economics, Weblogs | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd is one of my favorite books of all time. I first read it when I was in college, but it was a toddler favorite of both of our sons, and it rapidly became one of mine, too. Reading it to them at bedtime helped calm them down and put them to sleep. There is from the book a feeling of safety, of warmth, coziness, and love. I may have liked reading it to them more than they liked being read to.
With our youngest off to college this fall, I wish there were some book to give them that would reproduce those good feelings of nearly 20 years ago.
::sigh::
Here’s what we have instead. Goodnight Bush.
This image is scary enough (see the bugging microphone? the burning ballot box? the tilted scales of justice? the polluting smokestacks?).
Cover of Goodnight Bush
This is the one that makes the more serious statement:
Goodnight human rights, everywhere
A story on this book at NPR was the “most e-mailed” last week.
Images by Gan Golen and Erich Origen, Goodnight Bush, copyright © 2008, Little, Brown and Co.
4 Comments | Books, Elections, History, Human Rights, Political cartoons, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: Books, Cartoons, Elections, Human Rights, Political cartoons, Politics, President Bush | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
How do you apply this information in your lesson plans?
Even babies chunk data for memorization. That is, even babies find it easier to remember things if the new items include chunks of already familiar information.
Not Exactly Rocket Science discusses new research that shows infants as young as 14 months use this memorization trick.
Which of these strings of letters is easier to remember: QKJITJGPI or BBCITVCNN?
Chances are, you chose the latter string, where the nine letters are the combined names of three television networks. This neatly illustrates a fundamental property of human memory – that we remember long strings of information more easily if we can break them down into bite-sized chunks. In this case, a nine-letter string can be divided into three lots of three letters. You probably use similar strategies for remembering telephone numbers, credit card details, or post codes.
Now, Lisa Feigenson and Justin Halberda from Johns Hopkins University have found that infants just 14 months old can use the same technique, delightfully known as “chunking” to increase the limited scope of their memories. Their work suggests that this technique isn’t something we learn through education or experience – it’s more likely to be a basic part of the way our minds process information.
Much more, here.
Leave a Comment » | Brain development, Brain learning, Education, Learning, Learning styles, psychology, Research, Teaching | Tagged: Brains, Education, Learning, Learning styles, Lesson plans, psychology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Thus spake Gaius Sallustius Crispus, the Roman historian known as Sallust (86-34 B.C.):
From The War with Catiline, 1
Statue of Sallust near the Austrian Parliament, photo by Haslinger Willibald
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license
Leave a Comment » | Education, Famous quotes, History, Quotes | Tagged: Education, Famous quotes, History, Quotes, Roman History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for the day Monday, July 21st, 2008.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
