Little anti-green devils

April 2, 2009

Just when you thought things were looking up for getting the facts out — I mean, even Sen. Tom Coburn lifted his hold on the bill to name the post office after Rachel Carson — along comes Green Hell Blog.

Green Hell Blog?  It looks like a vanity site for Steve Milloy, the polluting company shill who has maintained the unholy dudgeon against Rachel Carson, against health professionals, against malaria fighters, and for reintroducing DDT to poison Africa.  Milloy has a new book published by Regnery (couldn’t you have guessed the publisher?).   Title of Milloy’s book:  Green Hell.

Holy mother of pearl!  Here’s Milloy’s flatterer (Milloy himself?) railing away at educating kids at nature centers.

Can you believe it?  He’s complaining about people like Boy Scouts as threats to the environment.  One might have differences with Boy Scout officials, but criticizing Boy Scouts themselves is just beyond the pale.

One might ask, tongue in cheek, why does Mr. Milloy hate America, America’s natural resources, and America’s history so?  What does Milloy have against kids?  Then there is the creeping, nagging thought:  What if it’s not parody?


Libraries as safety nets and counselors

April 2, 2009

“I guess I’m not really used to people with tears in their eyes.”
ROSALIE BORK, a reference librarian in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Read the story here in the New York Times, “Downturn Puts New Stresses on Libraries.”


April is the most poetic month . . .

April 2, 2009

National Poetry Month. April.  Good stuff.

Farmschool lists great stuff going on, including Gottabook’s 30 Poets/30 Days.  “A Little Poem for Poetry Month.

Are you subscribed to Poem-A-Day?

Have you asked your city to issue a proclamation?  No?  Get the proclamation and start lobbying!

Get ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day (April 30).

History teachers will crack out the “Concord Hymn” and tell the story of Paul Revere, of course.  Maybe a little Joyce Kilmer to reveal the tragedy of World War I, or “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” depending on how far the world history or U.S. history courses are.

What are you going to do for National Poetry Month?


Feynman’s last chalk boards

April 1, 2009

Amazing the things you stumble into.

The boards in Feynman’s office, at his death.  From Physics Today, 1989.  Image posted at H. Kleinart’s site.

(Click on the image for a much larger view.)

Feynmans last boards

Feynman's last boards

Tip of the old scrub brush to Codex reperio.


Happy Birthday, too

April 1, 2009

Still.


Happy Big Bang Day!

April 1, 2009

Discovery of the Day reminds us of the importance of April 1 — no, not April Fools:

Let’s Start With a Bang

April 1, 1948: A paper published in the Physical Review proposes that the universe was created through a massive event that caused it to expand rapidly. This idea, developed by physicist George Gamow and his graduate student, Ralph Alpher, was later ridiculed as the “Big Bang” theory, although it never mentioned an explosion. Follow the debate between “Big Bang” and the competing “Steady State” theory of the universe. And check out the inside joke included in the Physical Review paper.

And when you click on that last link to see the joke, be sure to scroll down to Dr. Victor Alpher’s response, in which he suggests the joke may not have been exactly as I described it earlier.


Quote of the moment: Einstein on nature’s secrecy

April 1, 2009

Einstein

Einstein

Nature conceals her secrets because she is sublime, not because she is a trickster.