Ray Charles plays chess with trumpeter Tony Horowitz. Circa 1973, photo from Tony Horowitz
One more indication of the extreme genius of Ray Charles. How does a blind person play chess? Very well, it appears.
Tip of the old scrub brush for inspiration to Grandmaster Raymond Keene and Bishop Berkeley. They also call our attention to this photo — on a school bus?
Ray Charles and chess board - Life Magazine photo
8 Comments | 
Chess, History, History images, Music | Tagged: Chess, History, Music, Ray Charles, Tony Horowitz | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Dara O’Briain? Never heard of him before.
But he’s spot on here, isn’t he?
(Warning: Not exactly safe for work or school — the “f” word is spoken aloud.]
An ironic tip of the old scrub brush to Gandolf, in comments at Dunamis Word, in an otherwise futile discussion with creationists who claim to have an ounce of rationality left in them.
3 Comments | Evidence, Health care, How do we know what we know, Humor, medicine, Reason, Religion, Science | Tagged: Dara O'Briain, Evidence, Health care, Homeopathy, How do we know what we know, Humor, medicine, Nutritionists, Reason, Religion, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
As expected, people are finding historical and other errors in David Barton’s critique of the Texas social studies standards.
I noted this in a comment at Texas Freedom Network’s blog, The Insider:
This isn’t exactly an error, but it creeps me out. Barton goes on at length about incorporating the views of a scholar of economics — but he never names the guy, and Barton seems overly affected and concerned about the guy’s residence and Jewishness.
See the section of Barton’s report talking about free enterprise (page 7). The real experts, the social studies teachers and professors whose work the Board appears to have rejected, suggested bringing the economic discussion into the 21st century and use “capitalism” instead of “free enterprise.” This would make the Texas curriculum correlate with the studies in the area done by social scientists, especially economists, and more accurately and precisely describe the system.
That is one reason given for rejecting their work, that the Board doesn’t want to mention capitalism. They don’t want to call capitalism by the name economists use.
But look at Barton’s suggestion. He veers off on a tangent about ethics in capitalism — I would venture that Barton never took any economics courses he can remember, and he’s never read Adam Smith, judging from the nature of his complaint (ethics is very much a discussion in economics). But it just gets weird. He refers to a paper, without citation, by a “Jewish economist” in the “Pacific Northwest.”
Barton doesn’t name the paper. He doesn’t say where it was published, nor offer any other citation by which it might be tracked down. Most creepily, he keeps referring to the “Jewish economist” as if his faith or ethnic background has any relevance, without ever naming the guy.
That isn’t scholarship. He almost makes a good point, but any valuable point is completely overcome by the bigoted lack of scholarship, the mere convention of naming the author of the paper and offering a citation.
Expert? No, certainly not in manifestation. That’s just creepy.
Here is the section I’m talking about:
Comment D: Free-Enterprise & Capitalism
Throughout the TEKS, the term “free enterprise” has been followed by the parenthetical “(free market, capitalism)”.By including the terms capitalism and free-market as synonyms for free-enterprise, perhaps it is now time to consider the merits of an observation concerning capitalism raised by a Jewish economist in the Pacific Northwest.In previous generations, capitalism and the free-market system was universally operated on the unstated but unanimously assumed foundation of general societal virtue – there was a general set of assumed values and ethics that remained at the basis of transactions.
For example, to this day we assume that when a waiter brings us a glass of water that he did not spit in it before he delivered it to us. We assume that when we get the oil in our car changed that the mechanic actually changed the oil rather than just put a new sticker on the windshield. We make many Golden Rule type assumptions in the operation of the free-market system of capitalism.
When these general societal principles of ethics and morality are observed, the Free Enterprise System works as it should; but when these principles are ignored, the FreeEnterprise System breaks down and produces Bernie Madoff, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Dennis Kozlowski, John Rigas, Joe Nacchio, Gregory Reyes, James McDermott, Sam Waskal, Sam Israel, Bernie Ebbers, and many others recently convicted of fraud, theft, corruption, and other white collar crimes that bilked clients of billions of dollars. The traditional Free Market System will not operate properly if the guiding premise is the egocentric Machiavellian principle that the end justifies the means.
We are now at a point in our history where we can no longer assume that the previously universally understood ethical basis of the Free Enterprise System will still be observed, understood, or embraced. Therefore, the Jewish economist in the Pacific Northwest has proffered that rather than using “Capitalism,” we instead begin using the term “Ethical Capitalism,” for it captures the historical import of the system and identifies an underlying principle without which the free-enterprise system will not work.
Therefore, I recommend that when we have the phrase “free enterprise (free market, capitalism)” that we instead consider using “free enterprise (free market, ethical capitalism).” It is an accurate recognition of what is one of the unspoken but indispensable elements of the free enterprise system. This change also reinforces the long-standing premise of political philosophers across the centuries that the continuation of a republic is predicated upon an educated and a virtuous citizenry.
Who is he talking about? What is he talking about?
More information:
5 Comments | Economics, Education, Education assessment, First Amendment, History, Politics, Texas, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Constitution, David Barton, Economics, Education, First Amendment, History, Social Studies, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Evolution Expert Philip D. Gingerich to Speak at SMU on Oct. 7
Philip D. Gingerich, a leading expert in the evolution of primates and whales, will speak at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Dallas Hall’s McCord Auditorium.
Philip D. Gingerich
Gingerich’s lecture on “Darwinian Pursuit in Paleontology: Origin and Early Evolution of Whales” is part of SMU’s year-long celebration of naturalist Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his world-changing publication, On the Origin of Species.
Gingerich, the Darwin Year Visiting Scholar for SMU’s Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, is Case Collegiate Professor of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. He also is professor of geological sciences and director of UM’s Museum of Paleontology. A recipient of UM’s 1997 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, he teaches courses on primate and mammalian evolution and supervises undergraduate and graduate student research on mammals and evolution.
His research focuses on vertebrate paleontology, especially the origin of modern orders of mammals and quantitative approaches to paleobiology and evolution.
A winner of numerous awards, Gingerich is a member of the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, associate editor of American Journal of Science, and co-editor of Causes and Consequences of Globally Warm Climates in the Early Paleogene. In 2001 he was a scientific adviser to “Walking with Prehistoric Beasts,” a television documentary produced by the BBC and aired on the Discovery Channel.
Leave a Comment » | Charles Darwin, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Science, Texas | Tagged: Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, Lectures, Philip D. Gingerich, Science, SMU, Texas, Whale Evolution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
BOSTON, MA—This fall, NOVA celebrates the 200th anniversary year of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book the Origin of Species with three evolution-themed programs.
Each film will approach the topic of evolution in a different way. To kick off NOVA’s fall season on October 6, Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) and Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park) star in “Darwin’s Darkest Hour,” a two-hour scripted drama that presents the remarkable story behind the birth of Darwin’s radically controversial theory of evolution and reveals his deeply personal crisis: whether to publish his earthshaking ideas, or to keep quiet to avoid potential backlash from the Church. In November, NOVA premieres “Becoming Human,” a three-part special on human evolution. The series combines interviews with world renowned anthropologists and paleoanthropologists and the most recent, groundbreaking
discoveries with vivid images of our earliest ancestors to present a comprehensive picture of our human past. Then, on December 29, “What Darwin Never Knew” reveals answers to evolutionary questions that even Darwin couldn’t explain. Scientists are beginning to expose nature’s biggest secrets on the genetic level, with the hope of one day answering the crucial question: How does evolution really work?Following are descriptions for NOVA films in fall 2009:
Darwin’s Darkest Hour (2 hrs) – Tuesday, October 6
NOVA and National Geographic Television present the extraordinary human drama that led to the birth of the most influential scientific theory of all time. Acclaimed screenwriter John Goldsmith (David Copperfield, Victoria and Albert) brings to life Charles Darwin’s greatest personal crisis: the anguishing decision over whether to “go public” with his theory of evolution. Darwin, portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), spent years refining his ideas and penning his book the Origin of Species. Yet, daunted by looming conflict with the orthodox religious values of his day, he resisted publishing—until a letter from naturalist Alfred Wallace forced his hand. In 1858, Darwin learned that Wallace was ready to publish ideas very similar to his own. In a sickened panic, Darwin grasped his dilemma: To delay publishing any longer would be to condemn all of his work to obscurity—his voyage on the Beagle, his adventures in the Andes, the gauchos and bizarre fossils of Patagonia, the finches and giant tortoises of the Galapagos. But to come forward with his ideas risked the fury of the Church and perhaps a rift with his own devoted wife, Emma, portrayed by Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park, The Importance of Being Earnest, Steven Spielberg’s “Artificial Intelligence”), who was a strong believer in the view of creation and honestly feared for her husband’s soul. Darwin’s Darkest Hour is a moving drama about the birth of a great idea seen through the inspiration and personal sufferings of its brilliant originator.Hubble’s Amazing Rescue – Tuesday, October 13
In the spring of 2009, NASA sent a shuttle crew on a risky mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. Hubble has enthralled scientists and the public by capturing deep views of the cosmos and a wealth of data from distant galaxies. It has helped lead the search for alien planets and is a key tool in cosmology’s quest to investigate and map the universe’s mysterious dark matter. The astronaut servicing team carried out the first-ever in-space repairs of Hubble’s defective instruments, a task that required ingenious engineering fixes and the most intensive NASA spacewalk ever. From training to launch, NOVA presents the inside story of the mission and the extraordinary challenges faced by the rescue crew.Lizard Kings – Tuesday, October 20
Though they may look like dragons and inspire stories of man-eating, fire-spitting monsters with long claws, razor-sharp teeth and muscular, whip-like tails, these creatures are actually monitor lizards, the largest lizards to walk the planet. With their acute intelligence—including the ability to plan ahead— these lizards are a very different kind of reptile, blurring the line between reptiles and mammals. And even though these bizarre reptiles haven’t changed all that much since the dinosaurs, they are a very successful species, versatile at adapting to all kinds of settings. Lizard Kings will look at what makes these tongued reptiles so similar to mammals and what has allowed them to become such unique survivors. But while the creatures can find their way around many different habitats, finding them is no easy task. Natural loners, and always on guard, they sense anything or anyone from hundreds of feet away. NOVA will follow expert lizard hunter Dr. Eric Pianka as he tracks the elusive creatures through Australia’s heartland with cutting-edge “lizard cam” technology for an unparalleled close encounter with these amazingly versatile “living dragons.”Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors – Tuesday, November 3, 10, 17
NOVA presents a three-part, three-hour special—investigating explosive new discoveries that are transforming the picture of how we became human. The first program explores fresh clues about our earliest ancestors in Africa, including the stunningly complete fossil nicknamed “Lucy’s Child.” These three-million-year-old bones from Ethiopia reveal humanity’s oldest and most telltale trait—upright walking rather than a big brain. The second program tackles the mysteries of how our ancestors managed to survive in a savannah teeming with vicious predators, and when and why we first left our African cradle to colonize every corner of the Earth. In the final program, NOVA probes a wave of dramatic new evidence, based partly on cutting-edge DNA analysis, that reveals new insights into how we became the creative and “behaviorally modern” humans of today, and what really happened to the enigmatic Neanderthals who faded into extinction. Shot “in the trenches” where discoveries were unearthed throughout Africa and Europe, each hour of Becoming Human unfolds with a forensic investigation into the life and death of a specific hominid ancestor, such as “Lucy’s Child.” Dry bones spring back to vivid life with stunning animation, the product of a unique NOVA collaboration between top anthropologists and a talented team of movie animators.What Are Dreams? – Tuesday, November 24
What are dreams and why do we have them? NOVA joins the leading dream researchers as they embark on a variety of neurological and psychological experiments to investigate the world of sleep and dreams. Delving deep into the thoughts and brains of a variety of dreamers, scientists are asking important questions about the purpose of this mysterious world we escape to at night. Do dreams allow us to get a good night’s sleep? Do they improve our memory? Do they allow us to be more creative? Can they solve our problems or even help us survive the hazards of everyday life? NOVA follows researchers like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Matthew Wilson who is literally ‘eavesdropping’ on the dreams of rats and takes viewers into a sleep lab for a first-hand look at how scientists do their best to eavesdrop on human dreams. From those who violently act out their dreams to those who can’t stop their nightmares, from sleepwalking cats to people who can’t dream, each fascinating experiment contains a vital clue to the age-old question: What are dreams?What Darwin Never Knew (2 hours) – Tuesday, December 29
Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go? The source of life’s endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin’s revolutionary idea of natural selection, which he showed could help explain the gradual development of life on Earth. But Darwin’s radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? And how did we evolve?Now, on the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s the Origin of Species, NOVA reveals answers to the riddles that Darwin couldn’t explain. Stunning breakthroughs in a brand-new science—nicknamed “evo devo”— are linking the enigma of origins to another of nature’s great mysteries, the development of an embryo. To explore this exciting new idea, NOVA takes viewers on a journey from the Galapagos Islands to the Arctic, and from the Cambrian explosion of animal forms half a billion years ago to the research labs of today. Here scientists are finally beginning to crack nature’s biggest secrets at the genetic level. And, as NOVA shows in this absorbing detective story, the results are confirming the brilliance of Darwin’s insights while exposing clues to life’s breathtaking diversity in ways the great naturalist could scarcely have imagined.
9 Comments | Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, Science, Television | Tagged: Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, NOVA, PBS, Science, Television | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
America woke up on October 4, 1957.
Sputnik model, at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (Wikimedia image)
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit. After successfully putting the shiny ball into orbit, the Soviets trumpeted the news that Sputnik traced the skies over the entire planet, to the shock of most people in the U.S. (Photo of the model in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.)
New Scientist magazine’s website provides significant details about how awake America became, including very good coverage of the Moon landings that were nearly a direct result of Sputnik’s launch — without Sputnik, the U.S. probably wouldn’t have jump started its own space program so, with the creation of NASA and the drive for manned space flight, and without the space race President John F. Kennedy probably wouldn’t have made his dramatic 1961 proposal to put humans on the Moon inside a decade.
Sputnik really did change the world.
Much of the progress to the 1969 Moon landing could not have occurred without the reform of education and science prompted by the Soviets’ triumph. With apathetic parents and the No Child Left Behind Act vexing U.S. education and educators from both sides, more than nostalgia makes one misty-eyed for the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), a direct product of Sputnik-inspired national ambition. Coupled with the GI Bill for veterans of World War II and Korea, NDEA drove U.S. education to be the envy of the world, best in overall achievement (and also drove creationists to try to block such improvements).
(Today NDEA gets little more than a footnote in real history — Wikipedia’s entry is short and frustrating, the U.S. Department of Education gives little more. Educators, you have got to tell your history.)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) lists 1957 as among the dozen dates students need to know in U.S. history, for Sputnik. It is the only date Texas officials list for U.S. history that is really an accomplishment by another nation. (The first time I encountered this requirement was in a meeting of social studies teachers gearing up for classes starting the following week. The standards mention the years, but not the events; I asked what the event was in 1957 that we were supposed to teach, noting that if it was the Little Rock school integration attempt, there were probably other more memorable events in civil rights. No one mentioned Sputnik. It was more than two weeks before I got confirmation through our district that Sputnik was the historic event intended. Ouch, ouch, ouch!)
Sputnik was big enough news to drive Elvis Presley off the radio, at least briefly, in southern Idaho. My older brothers headed out after dinner to catch a glimpse of the satellite crossing the sky. In those darker times — literally — rural skies offered a couple of meteoroids before anyone spotted Sputnik. But there it was, slowly painting a path across our skies, over the potato fields, over the Snake River, over America.
Sputnik’s launch changed our lives, mostly for the better.
Resources:
Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy provides a series of links teachers can rely on for good information, especially if you’re composing a lesson plan quickly.
New Scientist’s broad range of coverage of the space race, up to the current drive to go to Mars, is well worth bookmarking.
Google’s anniversary logo, in use today only, gets you to a good compilation of sources.
Fifty nano-satellites launched in honor of the 50th anniversary of Sputnik.
NASA’s history of the event. You can listen to a .wav recording of the telemetry signal from the satellite there, too.
How will you mark the anniversary?
[More links below the fold.]
More resources:
Also see at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
Help spread the news:
4 Comments | 1957, Cold War, Education, Education reform, Space exploration, Space Race, Technology, Turning Points | Tagged: Cold War, Education, History, Space exploration, Space Race, Sputnik, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Rod Dreher, the conservative editorial writer for the Dallas Morning News, notes at his BeliefNet.com blog, Crunchy Con:
This just in from an irate reader:
I just finished reading your article regarding Glenn Beck. … What a joke. Your article should be associated with Hitler’s Communist Manifesto.
If you ask me, what this country needs are better educated cranks.
If the political fellow travelers with the cranks notice these people are cranks . . . is that a good sign, or a bad sign?
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Poe's Law, Politics, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Cranks, Politics, Radicals, Rampant stupidity, Rod Dreher | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
John Lennon's manual Imperial typewriter, used when he was a teenager - now owned by Steve Soboroff - Image from Playa Vista Today
Steve Soboroff, CEO of Playa Vista Capital in Playa Vista, California, collects celebrity typewriters on the side. Earlier this year he acquired the typewriter John Lennon used as a teenager, according to Playa Vista Today.
Lennon’s Imperial (The Good Companion Model T) was among the late Beatle’s possessions originally auctioned by his Aunt Mimi to a Liverpool charity involving musical therapy. Soboroff came across Lennon’s writing instrument during an estate sale overseen by Bonhams auction house in England. The portable was originally auctioned through Sotheby’s in 1999. However, the owner succumbed to the economic downturn and put it up for sale earlier this year.
‘I was going to get on an airplane to go get it,’ Soboroff says regarding his summer purchase, which was probably used in the late Beatle’s first attempts at songwriting as a teenager. ‘He was living with his aunt when he owned it,’ he says.
And here’s a photo of John Lennon working at a typewriter other than the Imperial:
Autographed photo of John Lennon working at a typewriter - Image from Playa Vista Today
Soboroff also owns typewriters used by sportswriter Jim Murray, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, and Jack London.
Leave a Comment » | Books, History, Music, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Beatles, History, Images, John Lennon, Music, Steve Soboroff, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We have the privilege, sometimes, of having Rod Dreher sitting on the editorial board of our local newspaper, The Dallas Morning News.
Is it a privilege today? You be the judge: Dreher’s column in the “Points” section today, “When science meets pop culture: Darwin’s example shows that scientists can’t do much to stop the public from abusing their work.”
In contrast to Dreher’s previous defenses of intelligent design and other sciency woo, in this piece he mostly gets Darwin correct — which, alas, means he doesn’t talk much about what Darwin actually said. That makes the errors more glaring, to me. But, what do you think?
For example: Dreher discusses abuses of Darwin:
Take Charles Darwin. In 1859, the publication of his On the Origin of Species was an event so earth-shaking that 150 years later, the trembling still reverberates. In their recent book Darwin’s Sacred Cause, Adrian Desmond and James Moore argue that the Darwin family’s deep roots in the British anti-slavery movement caused young Charles to start asking questions about the common origins of humanity. “It is the key to explain why such a gentleman of wealth and standing should risk all to develop his bestial ‘monkey-man’ image of our ancestry in the first place,” they write.
The authors make a case that Darwin, who was never himself a social activist, undermined racial prejudice with his discoveries. That is true – to a point.It is also true that Darwin’s work on evolution and natural selection, as it became popularized, inspired scientists and laymen to take more interest in racial differences, an intellectual passion that would have sinister consequences in the science of eugenics – founded in the late 19th century by Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton.
Did Dreher read Desmond and Moore? Did they get the events right? Britain’s abolishment of slavery occurred when Darwin was a young man. It was a hot controversy while he was asea aboard the Beagle. Was it that controversy that caused Darwin to ask whether humans have a common origin? At the same time, Darwin was quizzing “Jeremy Button,” a dark-skinned native of the area around Tierra del Fuego, who had been essentially kidnapped on a previous voyage of the ship, and who was being returned home on the voyage Darwin was part of. As I’ve read Darwin, I see that he finds hard evidence of evolution in plants, in sea creatures, in other animals — and then wonders how humans could have been exempt from such actions. I don’t see Darwin starting from slavery and reasoning backwards.
But second, I still wait for someone to point me to any clear indication that eugenics advocates were particularly inspired by Darwin, or that eugenics was related in any serious way to the genocides of Europe in the early 20th century. Hitler didn’t think he was improving any race, but was instead getting rid of people he didn’t like. The link from Darwin to genocide gets particularly strained for the genocide of the Armenians in 1915 (regardless the cause). When asked to justify genocide against German Jews, Hitler didn’t refer to Darwin, but instead asked who remembered the Armenians, 25 years later. The question wasn’t, “Is this the thing to do to improve the race,” but was instead, “Can we get away with it?”
It makes me lament again the DMN’s having killed their once-great science section. A newspaper that doesn’t do enough reporting on a subject never feels compelled not to comment on it, but such commentary always suffers from its reading audience having little background in the topic. Full of sound and fury, as Shakespeare wrote.
Leave a Comment » | Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, History, Newspapers, Religion, Science | Tagged: Charles Darwin, Darwin, Darwin's Legacy, Evolution, History, Religion, Rod Dreher, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stacy Conradt writes about ten authors and their typewriters, at Mental Floss. Some we’ve seen here at the Bathtub, some we haven’t: Steinbeck, Hemingway, Kerouac, David Sedaris, Mark Twain, John Updike, George Orwell, Hunter S. Thompson, David McCullough, P. J. O’Rourke.
Leave a Comment » | Banned Books, Books, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Authors, Books, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I saw a story on the earthquakes in Indonesia yesterday that said in one city they had telephone service back in operation in a few hours.
We’ve gone without AT&T telephone service at our home for three weeks now. Odd that repair service in Indonesia, with an earthquake, is better than repair service in Dallas, with . . . rain? Sunshine? I’ll bet you can call Padang or Pariaman, Indonesia, before you can call our home in Dallas. I fear that will be the case.
Worse, it’s almost impossible to telephone AT&T or contact them by e-mail — they ask a lot of information entered that most people won’t have handy before they respond at all (I don’t know the three mystery numbers in some odd corner of our phone bill, for example, and I don’t want to go rummaging through the files just to tell the company that their service doesn’t work, especially since I’ve already told them that three times — if I’m calling from a different phone, the bill isn’t even in the building, okay?).
If the customer can’t complain, AT&T doesn’t have any complaints to worry about, right?
“AT&T phone service held hostage, 21 days.”
How many more? I wonder if they’ll make ransom demands.
1 Comment | Business, Business Ethics, Customer Care, Technology | Tagged: AT&T Repair Services, Bad Customer Service, Business, Business Ethics, Customer Service, Service Complaints, Technology, Telephone Service | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wondering what to do while you’re in Wichita Falls, Texas?
Through March 2010, you can view a display commemorating Scouting’s 100th anniversary in the United States, featuring nearly 100 years of Scouting history in Wichita Falls.
Stephanie Wood, assistant curator of the exhibit “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years,” hangs Boy Scout uniforms at the Museum of North Texas History. Photo by Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News
History teaches us if you learn from the past, you’ll be better prepared for the future. But being prepared is a quality also embraced by another organization — the Boy Scouts of America.
And so it seemed fitting that when the Boy Scouts reached their 100th anniversary this year, the Northwest Texas Council would commemorate the event at the Museum of North Texas History.
The downtown museum will open its latest exhibit, “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years,” with a preview dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday at the dowtown museum, 720 Indiana, though more than 400 visitors got a sneak peek of the display Saturday during the Wichita Falls Museum Coalition’s Stroll ‘N’ Roll Museum Day.
The $40 preview dinner will include a viewing of the exhibit and a talk by Jim Hughes, George Adams and Darrell Kirkland.
Hughes, the Boy Scouts Chartered Organization Representative at Floral Heights United Methodist Church, has been involved in Scouting for about seven decades. A lot of his Scouting memorabilia peppers the exhibit, such as his Order of the Arrow badges and Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Explorer awards.
One of the most valuable pieces of memorabilia in the display, he said, is a flag hand-sewn by Scouts in 1913.
“Boys didn’t have money back then and had to make their own flag,” Hughes said.
Another impressive contribution to the exhibit is Bill McClure’s Eagle badge. McClure received his Eagle rank — the highest rank that can be achieved in the organization — in 1921. He was the first Eagle in the Wichita Falls Council to do so. He earned 21 merit badges and would eventually become a journalist for the Times Record News and sold advertising for KWFT before his death in 1982.
Hughes said what he treasures most among his scouting collection over the years is his own Eagle badge.
The exhibit, curated by Betsy O’Connor with Stephanie Wood as assistant curator, also includes a Pinewood Derby track on which visitors can race wooden cars, along with a display of a tent and camp fire.
Visitors will see Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Webelos uniforms on display, as well, such as the 1930s-era uniform of Billy Sims, the 1961 outfit of Tim Hunter and the 1998 uniform of Cory Wood, along with the “brag vest” of Cole Watson.
One area features information about Philmont Scout Ranch, a 137,493-acre ranch in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico in the Sangre de Christo Range of the Rockies, donated by Oklahoma oilman Waite Phillips.
Posters in the exhibit show various ropes and knots Scouts learn to tie, and things Scouts can do in nature conservation.
From left, Betsy O’Connor, curator, and Stephanie Wood, assistant curator, set up a camping display in the “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years” exhibit at the Museum of North Texas History. Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News
Other items to look for: Carl Watson’s walking stick, an Order of the Arrow Native American headdress and Eagle Claw necklace and photographs of local scouts.
The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on Feb. 8, 1910, by William D. Boyce and others. It was modeled after an organization in Great Britain founded by Lord Baden-Powell.
In 1911, Dr. J.L. McKee, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, organized the first troop in Wichita Falls with 27 members before the troop disbanded after McKee left town. But two years later, four more troops were organized. The Wichita Falls Council became the Northwest Texas Council in 1937.
All three of Jim Hughes’ sons, like their father, earned the rank of Eagle Scout. So has one of his grandsons. Another grandson is a Cub Scout who is continuing the tradition of Scouting in the Hughes family.
“I got so much out of it,” Hughes said. “I wanted to have my kids have the same experience.”
Following the exhibit’s opening, “Boy Scouts of America” can be viewed through March 2010.
Do museums in your area have Scouting exhibits planned, or already up? Let us know in comments.
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Leave a Comment » | Boy Scouts of America, History, History museums, Museums, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, History, Museum of North Texas History, Museums, Texas, Texas history, Wichita Falls | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Pleasant to watch, this time-lapse composition highlights the light pollution aspect of increasing urbanization across the United States. The photographer, a Dutch architect, notes that each streak of light represents a city, as he flies across the American Midwest to touchdown in San Francisco (SFO). It’s a visual definition of urbanization, isn’t it?
On my night time flight back to SF from Amsterdam, I noticed that the lights from cities were making the clouds glow. Really spectacular and ethereal – it was really seeing the impact of urban environments from a different perspective. Each glow or squiggle represents one town or city!
Luckily the flight was half empty, so I was able to set up an improvised stabilizer mound made up of my bags, pillows, and blankets for my camera to sit on.
We were around the midwest at the beginning of the clip, and there were fewer cities once we hit the rockies. the bridge at the end is the san mateo bridge.
Technique: 1600iso; beginning – 1 (30sec) exposure / 45secs; end – 1 (4sec) exposure / 10 secs; total elapsed time: around 3 hours?
Equipment used: Nikon D300 (interval shooting mode), Tokina 12-24mm.
Music: Bloc Party – Signs
Stunning, beautiful and troubling at the same time.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Can you use this in your classroom?
Tip of the old scrub brush to One Man’s Blog.
Share the light with your friends:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
I used to love math tests. And math homework. When I knew the stuff, I’d start hearing Bach in my head and get into a rhythm of solving the problems (though I didn’t know it was Bach until much later — “Aha! That’s the math solving music!”).
But eventually my brain ossified, before I got calculus into it. I believe (this is belief, not science) that at some point rather early in life our brains lose the ability to pick up new math ideas. If you don’t have most of the stuff you need already in there, you won’t get it. I frittered my math ability away in the library and traveling with the debate squad, not knowing that I’d never be able to get it back. In my dual degree program, I ran into that wall where I had five years worth of credits, but was still a year away from the biology degree with a tiny handful of core courses for which calculus was a prerequisite. Worse, I was close to completing a third major.
And I’d failed at calculus four times.
So I graduated instead, didn’t go to grad school in biology.
Earlier this last evening I sat with a couple of new teachers in math at a parents’ night function for seniors. They commiserated over trying to make math relevant for students. One said he couldn’t figure out how history teachers survive at all with no mass of problems to solve at the end of each chapter (that was refreshing).
It’s a constant problem.
Then I ran into this story by Jennifer Ouellette at Cocktail Party Physics:
Students need to feel inspired, particularly when it comes to a difficult subject. While I was at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics last year as journalist in residence, I got to know UC-Santa Barbara mathematician Bisi Agboola, who generously shared his own story with me. Bisi was educated in the UK and failed most of his math classes through their equivalent of high school. “I found it dull, confusing and difficult.” As a child, he was determined to find a career where he wouldn’t need any math, finally announcing to his skeptical parents that he would be a woodcutter. He was crushed when they pointed out that he would need to measure the wood.
But one summer he encountered a Time-Life book on mathematics –- Mathematics by David Bergamini -– that offered “an account of the history of some of the main ideas of mathematics, from the Babylonians up until the 1960s, and it captured my imagination and made the subject come alive to me for the very first time.” It changed his mind about this seemingly dry subject. He realized there was beauty in it. He wound up teaching himself calculus, and told me he is convinced most physicists also do this. Today he is a PhD mathematician specializing in number theory, and exotic multidimensional topologies. Ironically, he still doesn’t much like basic arithmetic: “I find it boring.”
Jennifer is writing a book on calculus, how it’s real-life stuff. I hope it’s a great success. I hope it works. I hope some student is inspired to get calculus before her or his brain gets ossified.
More information:
Tip of the old scrub brush to Decrepit Old Fool.
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3 Comments | Books, College, Education, Learning, Mathematics, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Calculus, College, Education, Learning, Mathematics, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Do we really need proof the political right has run out of ideas? How about the Cato Institute’s jumping the shark?
Newish widget link to Cato Institute
Oh, hell, they may have jumped it earlier — I don’t track Cato as a rule, because they come up with so much silly stuff.
This button, above, goes beyond simple ideological purification claims, though. It’s propaganda pure and simple, based on how they hope to scare people, and not based on even their own claims.
Worse, I suspect they know it. No plan puts the government in the health care biz. An accurate propaganda piece would have Uncle Sam in the insurance company’s garb. That might convince people to support the plan, though, I reckon, so Cato went for a scarier, less accurate version.
Cato Institute spokesman preparing for television interview on health care reform?
We’ll need to watch to see whether Ted McGinley joins the staff of policy analysts at Cato.
Gun the boat, be sure to clear the shark:
2 Comments | Government, Health care, Politics, Propaganda | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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