typewriter, originally uploaded by blueblythemonster.
Don’t have an antique Underwood? Make your own. That’s what Blythe Church did.
Her typewriter will never be used to write a novel, but it’s novel enough on its own to merit a look. It’s made from custom-dyed felt, and embroidery.
A soft answer turneth away wrath? Here’s your source of soft words, then, eh?
You can see other works by Ms. Church at her website.
2 Comments | 
Art, Humor, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Art, Humor, Technology, Typewriters | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Rev. Michael Dowd has a book out, ThankGod for Evolution, and he wrote an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News on July 1 (as I understand it — wasn’t in Dallas that day).
I don’t vouch for the book — yet, at least. I’ve not read it. I find the study of science, and especially of evolution, offers no barrier to my faith, nor does my faith offer any barrier to my study of science. My faith, which requires an ethical life, offers barriers to creationism — a subject of other posts. But thank God for Charles Darwin? Sure.
“Thank God for Charles Darwin.” T-shirt design from Redbubble
We also need to thank the federal courts, where the First Amendment is enforced, keeping unreasonable fables from diluting science education in public schools.
Watch that suit.
Rev. Dowd’s essay, courtesy of Sam Hodges and the Dallas Morning News Religion Blog, below the fold.
5 Comments | Biology, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Public education, Religion, Science, Separation of church and state, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Education Agency (TEA) | Tagged: Charles Darwin, Creationism, Evolution, Religion, Science, Texas, Texas Education Agency | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Three decades out of Utah, who could have seen this coming?
Utah beer brewers make good beer, and they have a wicked sense of humor. Yes, that’s “Provo Girl,” as in the town where the LDS Church’s Brigham Young University calls home. And that winsome woman is smiling before Bridal Veil Falls of Provo Canyon. Let’s just say there’s a lot of history in that drawing.
Face it, brewing beer in a Mormon-dominated state is spitting into the wind anyway (Mormons don’t drink beer, for religious reasons).
Brewers must make money from non-Mormons, and from tourists. Maybe that explains the proliferation of labels that rather stick it to the local religious authorities. Humor seems to be a favored marketing device.
Other labels to watch for :
6 Comments | Food history, Humor, Travel | Tagged: Beer, food, Humor, Provo Girl, Travel, Utah | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Instapundit loves to roil waters, but he’s low on content, and everytime I see it, low on accuracy, too.
This is the entirety of Glenn Beck’sReynolds’s post linking to the rabidly anti-Rachel Carson, RWDB with a rant about DDT that lacks several key points of accuracy:
THE HIGH COST OF fighting malaria.
Six words and he’s wrong already. That’s quite a skill to be dead wrong in six words.
Our friend, Mr. Beck, at RWDB, has a news report from Uganda, and rather than note it and check for accuracy, he uses it as a tee for numerous shots and mulligans against science, scientists, environmentalists, health care workers, the EU, and anyone else who inhabited his latest delerium.
The story out of Africa is that a buyer of organic cotton refused to buy Ugandan cotton due to DDT contamination. True to the line of recent events, it’s not environmentalists who do anything , though the news story finds a way to blame them in the last paragraph. Instead, it’s a businessman.
But here are problems with the story:
Are we to believe that marauding anti-insect people roam Uganda, forcing farmers to steal DDT from health authorities and spray it on their cotton instead, against the farmer’s better interests?
Neither Glenn BeckReynolds at Instapundit nor the other Beck at RWDB bothered to check the facts, nor even to see whether the first face story passes the smell test. Where would DDT contamination come from? Why would a buyer refuse cotton if there’s no DDT contaminant? Why wouldn’t there be tests? Where are the test results? If EU is so down on DDT on cotton, where is the document that says so?
The company in the news story, ineptly named as it is, Bo-Weevil, does exist, it appears, either there or in the Netherlands. That surely is not the only cotton buyer for the EU. The first BoWeevil isn’t an EU company, since it’s headquartered in Tennessee. From their website:
Welcome to Bo-Weevil Eco Sportswear Mfg. LLC., nestled in the hills of Tazewell, Tennessee.
Producers of the most earth friendly clothing on the planet.
Bo-Weevil Eco started manufacturing and supplying clothing with one main vision: “Provide our customers with the highest quality clothing that integrates current fashions with timeless style, to create lifestyle clothing that brings awareness to care what you wear.”
We are a company that practices to restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony. Doing so by being at the forefront of U.S.A. factories producing a line of women’s, men’s, kids and k-9 apparel made by pre-consumer recycled fibres. We are working to create change in the textile industry; to offer one step on the path to more sensible and sustainable use of resources in the production of basic commodities.
So, how does the EU get into this story at all? The second company, I can find listed only through a post at Pesticide Action Network, a source that is not always reliable on such issues.
Smell test: Does this sound accurate to you? When was the last time you saw anyone at Wal-Mart demand organic cotton?
The use of DDT has now affected cotton prices in the region. Patrick Oryang from Lango Cooperative told All Africa, “We are buying cotton at sh500 per kilogram instead of sh750. The country will lose about US$20 million because EUREP-GAP, an EU exporters body, has suspended buying products from the region because the consumers in Europe and America want purely organic products.”
What’s the real story?
Neither Beck nor Reynolds seems to care. They get a dig at environmentalists, so what if Ugandans get malaria?
Update, sorta: News from Uganda, in New Vision, seems to indicate that the EU has okayed the wise use of DDT in Uganda, contrary to claims of an EU ban (July 10 story). You can’t help but wish there were some good, clear reporting of this issue, from BBC or Reuters, or someone in Kampala besides these few, shallow news dailies.
12 Comments | Africa, Business, Business Ethics, DDT, Environmental protection, Science | Tagged: Africa, Business, DDT, Environmental protection, EU, Rachel Carson, Science, Uganda | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fireworks on the Mall, Washington, D.C.
July 4, 2006
Iwo Jima Memorial in the foreground; Washington Monument in background
1 Comment | Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Patriotism | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fourth of July, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
1 Comment | Family, Personal | Tagged: Birthday, Family, Fourth of July, Point of personal privilege | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Remember to fly the flag on July 4, 2008, the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (Postcard above, from 1907, from collection of James R. Heintze)
Flags may be flown sun-up to sun-down. The U.S. flag should be run up the pole quickly, and be left to fly unfettered in the breeze. The flag may be left flying after sundown, if it is lighted.
Resources:
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Freedom - Political, History, History and art, History images, Patriotism | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Fourht of July, Fourth of July, History, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yes, it’s Hunter Thompson. Yes, it’s an IBM Selectric. No, I don’t have any other information on this photograph.
5 Comments | Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Hunter S. Thompson, Senseless Violence, Technology, typewriter | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Battery died in the camera — photos sometime later this week, after I charge the batteries, and if I can get back to a place to post (how wired is Southern Utah?).
But with all the great food we’ve eaten in Salt Lake City today, it’s worth noting that we go the best sushi in the U.S. at Takashi, on Market Street. Two hours of sumptuous, eye-opening dining.
First day of the trip and we get a U.S. best. What a great start!
5 Comments | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Again at Café Philos, the anti-Darwin fifth columnists do their best to continue distortions of history, in this case, in high irony, claiming NOT to defend John Freshwater.
Not in defense of Freshwater’s walking over the Constitution and zapping burns on students in the shape of a cross? Why bother to go after Darwin? No explanation is necessary. It’s like the story of the frog and the scorpion. Creationists are like scorpions. It’s in their nature. (I believe it is a corruption of human nature that creationism visits on those who allow the demon in.) (“Paging Bobby Jindal! Creationist Demon Possession in the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion; what? You’re already there? When’s the exorcism this time?”)
In a cartoon, Darwin bans “Laissez faire,” a shorthand for “Social Darwinism,” and eugenics from his house. Unknown cartoonist, from a short essay on Northwestern University’s discussion book, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, by David Quammen.
Here’s the exchange. If you find it boring, my apologies. I do weary at the prospect of having to do this again, and again. On the crashed hard-drive of my first laptop, I have files now 15 years old discussing this same silly claim. I’m posting here for the record, for my easy reference, with hope that someday it will not be necessary to post this stuff at all. You may need some of these links some day, and here they are, below the fold.
23 Comments | Accuracy, Books, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, History, Racism, Science | Tagged: Accuracy, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Rampant stupidity, Science, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for July, 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 
