Also from Billy Blob (as the Space Probe cartoon posted here on August 15), “Bumble BeEing, Part 1: The Butterfly Effect.”
How to categorize such a cartoon: Philosophy? Science of Chaos (from which we get the hypothetical “butterfly effect”)?
Education? Religion?
Leave a Comment » | 
animation, Cartoons, Chaos, Philosophy, Video and film | Tagged: animation, Billy Blob, Butterfly Effect, Cartoons, Chaos, film, Philosophy, video | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Still from “We Are Science Probes.” Full clip of movie below.
In animation, a parable about the dangers of being intentionally ignorant of science. In the not-distant-enough future, a probe from another planet arrives on Earth after the demise of human civilization. Unfortunately, the probes land in Kansas, the land of creationism and woo. The plot thickens.
[My apologies — the version I found did not come with a “pause” button. It will play automatically when you open this post. Fortunately, it’s almost perfectly safe-for-work. If you don’t like the music, turn it off. There is no spoken dialogue in the cartoon. If you wish to pause the playing of the cartoon, right click to get to the Adobe Flash Player controls. To pause the playing click the checkmark next to “play.”]
[Update August 18 — Okay, I give up — 100% of comments I’ve been getting ran against the video without the “start” or “pause” buttons. You’ll have to go see it at another site — here, for example.]
[Years later, it’s on Youtube!]
Found it at a site called NewGrounds, which includes several other animation pieces. The piece was created by a group that goes by the handle Billy Blob.
Sure would love this group to turn their creative faculties to hard history — say, the Progressive Movement and Gilded Age. (Probably less chance of commercialization there, and perhaps less chance of awe-striking art, too.)
4 Comments | animation, Cartoons, Creationism, Education, Evolution, History, Humor, Religion, Science, Space exploration, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: animation, Anime, BillyBlob, Cartoons, Creationism, Education, Humor, Intelligent Design, Science, Space exploration, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Who was it who pointed out that, no matter what a boob this guy Alvin Green is, he’d still make a better senator than Jim DeMint?
Still true. Green would be a better senator from jail, than DeMint is walking around.
Most South Carolinians plan to vote for the bad guy in this match up, the more evil of two lessers. But for the few thousand thinking voters in South Carolina, Green’s indictment probably pulls him down closer to the level of DeMint. What to do?
What a train wreck is South Carolina politics and government.
5 Comments | Elections, Humor, Politics | Tagged: All you can do is laugh, Alvin Green, Evidence of the Collapse of the American Empire, Humor, Jim Demint, Politics, South Carolina | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
An essay from a thoughtful Christian about the controversy over building a mosque in Manhattan; Kinnamon notes some of the history that should be considered:
For thousands of families, Ground Zero in southern Manhattan is holy ground. Thousands lost someone they love in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and hundreds of thousands know someone who was directly or indirectly scarred by the collapse of the World Trade Center. The emotional investment in Ground Zero cannot be overestimated.
That is precisely why Ground Zero must be open to the religious expression of all people whose lives were scarred by the tragedy: Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, and more. And Muslims.
No one knows how many Muslims died on 9/11, but they number in the hundreds. One was Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New York City police cadet, emergency medical technician and medical student. When Salman disappeared on September 11, law enforcement officials who knew of his Islamic faith sought him out among his family to question him about the attacks. His family lived with the onus of suspicion for six months until Salman’s body was identified. He was found near the North Tower with his EMT bag beside him, situated where he could help people in need.
The point of this now famous story is simple. Not every Muslim at Ground Zero was a terrorist, and not every Muslim was a hero. The vast majority were like thousands of others on September 11: victims of one of the most heinous events of our times.
But for the family of Salman Hamdani and millions of innocent Muslims, the tragedy has been exacerbated by the fact that so many of the rest of us have formed our opinions about them out of prejudice and ignorance of the Muslim faith.
It is that narrow-minded intolerance that has led to the outcry against the building of Cordoba House and Mosque near Ground Zero. It is the same ignorance that has led many to the outrageous conclusion that all Muslims advocate hatred and violence against non-Muslims. It is the same ignorance that has led to hate crimeand systematic discrimination against Muslims, and to calls to burn the Qur’an.
On the eve of Ramadan on August 11, the National Council of Churches, its Interfaith Relations Commission and Christian participants in the National Muslim-Christian Initiative, issued a strong call for respect for our Muslim neighbors.
“Christ calls us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:39),” the statement said. “It is this commandment, more than the simple bonds of our common humanity, which is the basis for our relationship with Muslims around the world.”
The statement supported building Cordoba House “as a living monument to mark the tragedy of 9/11 through a community center dedicated to learning, compassion, and respect for all people.”
Now the National Council of Churches reaffirms that support and calls upon Christians and people of faith to join us in that affirmation.
The alternative to that support is to engage in a bigotry that will scar our generation in the same way as bigotry scarred our forebears.
Three-hundred years ago, European settlers came to these shores with a determination to conquer and settle at the expense of millions of indigenous peoples who were regarded as sub-human savages. Today, we can’t look back on that history without painful contrition.
One-hundred and fifty years ago, white Americans subjugated black Africans in a cruel slavery that was justified with Bible proof-texts and a belief that blacks were inferior to whites. Today, we look back on that history with agonized disbelief.
Sixty years ago, in a time of war and great fear, tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were deprived of their property and forced into detention camps because our grandparents feared everyone of Japanese ancestry. Today that decision is universally regarded as an unconscionable mistake and a blot on American history.
Today, millions of Muslims are subjected to thoughtless generalizations, open discrimination and outright hostility because of the actions of a tiny minority whose violent acts defy the teachings of Mohammed.
How will we explain our ignorance and our compliance to our grandchildren?
It’s time to turn away from ignorance and embrace again the words of Christ: Love your neighbor as yourself.
In that spirit, we welcome the building of Cordoba House and Mosque near Ground Zero.
Michael Kinnamon
General Secretary
National Council of Churches
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, a Disciples of Christ minister who is the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) clergyman and a long-time educator and ecumenical leader, is the ninth General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America’s Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American, evangelical and traditional peace churches. These 36 communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.
More:
Also, at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
197 Comments | 9/11, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, Politics, Religion, Religious Freedom | Tagged: Cordoba House, Freedom of Religion, Ground Zero Mosque, Manhattan, Matthew 22:39, Michael Kinnamon, Mosque, Politics, Religion, Salman Hamdani | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Go see the photos. Seriously. “The Capital was his classroom”, by David Dunlap.
Doubtless, there are other accomplished photojournalists in Washington who have won an Eagle Scout medal with bronze palm. Luke Sharrett of The Times may be the only one who earned his just six years ago.
And he is almost certainly the only photographer who’ll be leaving the D.C. press corps on Friday to start his junior year in college.
“Why are you doing that?” President Obama asked him as Air Force One was taking off the other day.
Dunlap does not say whether Sharrett earned the Photography Merit Badge. Anyone know?
Leave a Comment » | Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout, Education, Higher education, News, Newspapers, photography | Tagged: Back-to-school, Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout, Education, History, History images, Journalism, Luke Sharrett, Newspapers, photography | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dan Quayle’s son, Ben, has raised obnoxiousness and rudeness to new heights (that’s “rudity” or “rudiferousness” to Palinistas).
Quayle the Lesser is running for Congress in Arizona, the state where his family owned a huge interest in the state’s main newspaper, and the state where his father, Dan, said he learned all about California while spending time with family in Arizona growing up. (Logic? You wanted logic?)
And he’s put out this ad.
I’ll wager the ad gets more play on the internet than on television.
Sounds like Quayle is really, really desperate. Do the polls show him down that much? It’s a 10-way race for the Republican nomination, with the primary election on August 24.
Quayle has other embarrassments already in the campaign, including a campaign flyer that showed him playing with two little girls, when he was married just this past April (the girls turned out to be his nieces), and a connection to an off-color website regarding Scottsdale.
Years ago Esquire magazine named Sen. Bill Scott, R-Virginia, the “stupidest” senator on Capitol Hill. Scott called a press conference to deny it. The first question he was asked: “If you’re not the stupidest senator, who is?”
Even though his campaign website is a clear ripoff of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign site, Ben Quayle may have answered the question, “Who is the worst candidate for Congress this year?”
More (update):
2 Comments | 2010 Elections, Campaigns, Elections, Political Smear, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party | Tagged: 2010 Campaign, Arizona, Ben Quayle, Campaigns, Congress, election | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
According to the Associated Press, General Motors turned a profit of $1.33 billion last quarter. “Billion,” with a b.
Tea Partiers and Republicans have made a run on liquor stores to stock up on gin for the afternoon. News is turning against them.
First, they argued that the Obama administration was crazy to try to save GM. Couldn’t be done, won’t work. Cutting 3 million workers loose in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Texas would help depress the market for migrant fruit pickers in those states, the Republicans argued implicitly — and that would help reduce immigration troubles, which bug Republicans chiefly because it’s a sign of good economic times for working people.
Second, they argued that Obama had effectively nationalized GM and Chrysler. Nationalized companies rarely turn profits (except for tin-pot dictators). The simple reporting of a profit by the company reiterates the point that the GM rescue was not “socialism,” and was no nationalizing of the company. Obama starts to look like a hero, Tea Party dreams start to look like wet tea leaves.
Third, it means Tea Party self-enrollees may actually have to buy American. They had hoped to kill off the U.S. auto industry, so no one would complain when they drove Mercedes, Lexus, and the Kia they bought for their nephew. Now, with Cadillacs, Chryslers and Lincolns still being made, they have no excuse.
Fourth, it means there are three million voters in the American midwest who owe their jobs to Obama. While at least of million of those people may be convinced to buy the Tea Party Home Lobotomy Kit and vote against Democrats in the fall, the odds of even half of that group being suckered in are slight.
Fifth, and most important, GM’s showing a profit pulls the cloak from the platform of the Tea Partiers, and all that’s left is a naked guy with skinny legs and a sore need for a tanning bed and exercise. The Tea Party works on being against stuff. If they had to actually come up with a workable program for anything, they’d quickly be exposed.
So, that gut at the end of the bar finishing the fifth of gin and mumbling a lot? He’s a Tea Partier, praying for Chrysler to crash. Tell the bartender he is picking up your tab.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Jim Stanley.
5 Comments | 2010 Elections, Economics, History, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: 2010 Election, Economics, General Motors, History, Politics, President Obama, Tea Party | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sign on an Australian beach. Photo by Laura Hale
Tip of the old scrub brush to Laura Hale.
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Life, Travel | Tagged: Australia, Humor, Life, Swimming, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Earlier I found an idea I’ve not been able to incorporate into my classes, but which I still like: Take historic photos of your town, go to the same place today and see what it looks like.
Students could do this: Comparing historic images with places today
A Russian photographer takes the exercise further, and creates sometimes-stunning art.
Sergey Larenkov has photos from Europe in World War II. He blends parts of those images with photos of the same places today, in cities across Europe. He has images from Berlin, Leningrad, and other cities (crawl over his LiveJournal site — there’s good stuff).
Sergey Larenkov, World War II historic photo overlay on modern shot - is this Leningrad? Whose soldiers, what year?
Sergey Larenkov work, the Siege of Leningrad, and Leningrad today (reverting to the name St. Petersburg)
Ghostly, no?
The photos show the destruction of war, and how far Europe has come since then. It’s an astounding view of history. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these photo mashups are worth ten thousand words or more.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Alices’ blog at My Modern Met.
6 Comments | Education, Famous Battles, History, History images, photography, War, World War II | Tagged: Education, Famous Battles, History, photography, Siege of Leningrad, Student projects, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
One magical, fairy-tale of an evening, back in 1998, my baby sister Valerie—she is eight-years younger than myself—was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
And I was there!
She is one of the few ballerinas and/or Americans ever to be so honored.
Funny, just a few short years before in Manhattan, after my sister had performed onstage with the great Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev—yes, that one!—my mom had doused out a cigarette in the Queen’s half-empty cocktail. At a reception for members of the Dutch community in town (Walter Cronkite was there), my mom, looking around for an ashtray and not finding one nearby, spotted a half-filled drink and plopped her cig in it. A moment later, the Queen came back, after a brief newspaper interview, to finish her toddy, only to find a, well, you-know-what in it.
But back to little sister’s knighthood.
Earlier that morning, I had attended a ballet class with my sister. Ballerinas and their male counterparts take class every day of the week to brush up on their technique and such. They stretch, move to the Barre, and do sequences in the center of the floor for an hour or so. This is followed by grueling hours of rehearsals for upcoming and/or present performances. So, anyway, I was standing by the wayside watching a Russian ballerina from the Bolshoi twirl around and around and around. We made eye contact and she fainted, dead away. In my dreams, I caught her in my arms. In reality, she slumped to the floor. I like to think it was caused by my George Clooney good looks, but it was probably caused by exhaustion.
That day, for a short time, I was the talk of the company.
Her lifemate, Roeland Kerbosch, an award-winning Dutch film director, had informed me a short time beforehand what was to take place that evening. I remember smoking—of course! as they say in the Netherlands—by the stage door of the Muziektheater in Amsterdam when my sister showed to suit up. She told me that she was worried about that night’s performance. Can’t remember why. All I was thinking was: Val, this is going to be one of, if not thee greatest night of your life.
 "Utah-born ballerina Valerie Valentine, Dutch National Ballet")
Valerie Valentine, Dutch National Ballet
Later that evening, Valerie—I call her Val, sometimes Vali—was dancing onstage when suddenly everyone but herself stopped in their tracks. The conductor put down his baton. The music stopped. The performance came to a halt. My sister, in the middle of a pas de deux or whatever, looked around perplexed. What the heck is going on?
After a moment, the Mayor of Amsterdam walked on stage and bestowed upon her the Order of the Dutch Lion—the highest honor a non-military person can receive in the Netherlands—in recognition for her 25 years of “significant contribution to the art of dance.”
He read from a scroll: “Admired for her energy and dedication to her work, Valerie Valentine’s beautiful sense of line, strong technique and expressive, magical stage presence have inspired not only choreographers, but photographers and filmmakers as well . . .”
Needless to say, there was a party afterward. Cocktails, hors d’œuvres, a band, dancing, etc. I was very happy for my sister, ecstatically so. But I left the celebration shortly after it began.
I can’t remember feeling sadder.
Sitting at an outside cafe, just a few a blocks away, was my artist brother Jimmy, uninvited (and rightly so; he was literally crazy as hell), doing his best to drink himself to death, an endeavor he would shortly accomplish.
He died four years later, age 48, in Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain . . . on Valentine’s Day.
4 Comments | Art, Dan Valentine, Family, Music, Travel | Tagged: Art, Ballet, Dan Valentine, Family, Music, Queen Beatrix, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
E-mail from the Texas Freedom Network:
Tell Your Congress Member to Support Education over Politics
The Texas Freedom Network and the Texas Faith Network this week joined nearly two dozen national organizations in support of a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on the State Board of Education to stop playing politics with the education of Texas schoolchildren. We have signed on to a letter to U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, supporting House Resolution 1593. Congresswoman Johnson introduced the resolution in the U.S. House on July 30. The resolution, which has four other co-sponsors from Texas, calls out the state board for disregarding nearly a year’s worth of work by teachers and scholars who wrote initial drafts of new social studies curriculum standards. It also notes that more than 1,200 history scholars have warned that the heavily revised standards, which the board adopted in May, “would undermine the study of the social sciences in public schools by misrepresenting and even distorting the historical record and the functioning of United States society.”
The House resolution is available here. The letter from TFN and other organizations supporting that resolution is available here.
Take Action
Ask your U.S. House representative today to support House Resolution 1593 by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. You can find out who your U.S. House member is here. When you call, tell him or her:
- Teachers and scholars should write curriculum standards and textbook requirements, not politicians.
- Texas schools should give our schoolchildren an education based on sound scholarship that prepares them to succeed in college and their future careers. Decisions about curriculum and textbooks shouldn’t be based on the personal and political agendas of state board members.
- Because of the size of Texas, publishers often write their textbooks to meet curriculum standards in this state and then sell them to schools across the country. Texas should be a model for good curriculum and textbooks, not a national laughingstock.
You can do three other things to stop radical members of the State Board of Education from promoting their political and personal agendas in our kids’ classrooms:
Join the Just Educate campaign, which is working to reform the State Board of Education.
Stay informed by signing up for TFN News Clips and reading our blog, TFN Insider.
Support the Texas Freedom Network by making a special gift today.
Take Action Now
Reform the State Board of Education
In the race to the future, politicians are holding our children back. Find out what you can do about it!
Tell politicians to stop promoting ideological agendas in our public schools. JUST educate the children of Texas!
Sounds good to me. Unlikely, and rare for the national Congress to urge state action — but appropriate in this case.
Leave a Comment » | Chilling Effect, Education, Education assessment, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Textbooks, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: Education, H. R. 1593 - 111th Congress, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Texas State Board of Education, Textbooks, U.S. Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From the daily Chattanoogan website, a letter to the editor:
The Boy Scouts Are Supposed To Teach Respect
posted August 9, 2010I just watched one of the most disturbing videos I have seen in a long time. A friend posted a video on “Facebook” of the Boy Scout’s of America, jeering, and booing, the President of the United States. I absolutely couldn’t believe what I was watching.
Like most guys my in my age group, which is older than dirt, I was a Boy Scout. I never rose much above the “Tenderfoot” level, but I really have fond memories of my experiences with the “Troop.” I was taught a lot of “life’s lessons” from some of the finest men in Chattanooga, one of those lessons was respect.
The President of the United States of America is the “Commander in Chief” of our military. He also serves as the President of the “Boy Scout’s of America.” That appointment is automatic upon his, or her, swearing into office. I was taught to respect the office of the President, whether you agreed with the “office holder” or not. Whether the President is Bush, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, or Obama, he deserves the respect that title carries.
I served as both a Boy Scout and Explorer Scout Counselor several years ago. I enjoyed the time I spent with the kids I was entrusted with, and I am proud of the adults they grew to become. At the time, we didn’t have to compete with the internet, cable television, and “Twitter”, to capture the boys attention. Those days will forever stand as another Norman Rockwell painting of better, more innocent days.
Now the BSA has attempted to become another breeding ground for the religious zealots, where homophobes abound. They have even been compared to the quasi-right wing military groups. Somewhere along the way, the purpose, and usefulness, of scouting has been diminished, or in some cases, erased completely. The kids are obviously not taught respect, nor civility.
I remember, “On my honor, I promise to do my duty to God, and to my Country.” That promise didn’t say anything about respecting only Republicans or Democrat’s. In fact, politics wasn’t even brought into the equation. A Scout is “trustworthy, loyal, friendly, courteous”, and that is the oath they take. Where is the courtesy in booing?
If we can’t even try to teach our youth civility, to disagree without being disagreeable, what hope do we have for our future? From what I saw today, things look pretty bleak.
Rod Dagnan
Chattanooga
From the Op-Ed News Network:
August 10, 2010 at 09:34:27 Permalink
Time to Add ‘Respect’ to the Scout Law
The Boy Scouts owe President Obama an apology for their disrespectful conduct at this year’s National Jamboree.
::::::::
I just read that 45,000 Boy Scouts booed the President of the United States for failing to address them in person at this year’s National Jamboree at Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia. Instead of addressing the Scouts, President Obama appeared on “The View” television show.
I was a Scout myself for 10 years and received the Eagle Rank in March 1962. Later I was an adult leader. When my own son was old enough, he joined the Scouts and I was a den leader, assistant scoutmaster, and District Committee member. I think I have a pretty good idea of what Scouting is and ought to be.
The Scouts’ shameful display of disrespect at the Jamboree is not it.
Here’s a memo to the Scouts: sometimes in this life – and may yours be long and happy – things don’t go your way. You don’t always get everything you want. Life has its disappointments and setbacks. As incredible as it may now seem, there are some people and things in this world that are actually more important, or at least more immediate, than you are.
When that happens, you can boo and complain. Or you can suck it up, man up, and move on. Which do you think good Scouts should do?
Understand this: the President of the United States is an elected official. In today’s partisan political climate, he has to gauge almost all of his actions partly in terms of their electoral impact. He can’t do the job at all if his team doesn’t get elected or re-elected. And the mid-term elections are only three months away.
You may not like it but that’s the way it is.
No offense to you, but the President will gain a lot more electoral advantage from appearing on “The View” than he would by addressing 45,000 people who are too young to vote anyway. That’s just a fact of political life. Sorry, but it’s true; that’s the way our system works. It’s not a perfect system.
I am not a religious man; in fact, for more than 50 years the Scout Law has been my religion. I believe that when I come to the end of all my days, I will have very little explaining to do if I can say to the Almighty that I lived my life according to the Scout Law: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent.”
But because I am not a religious man, I have substituted for “Reverent’ in my own personal credo another “R’ word: Respectful. A Scout is Respectful. A Scout is respectful of himself and others, whether he agrees with them or not.
Maybe it is now time to add Respectful to the Scout Law.
The shameful lack of respect these Scouts showed to the President at this year’s Jamboree reflects poorly on the organization, its proud legacy, and on the Scouts themselves. They have disgraced the uniform and its heritage.
The Scouts owe the President an apology.
Rick Wise is an industrial psychologist and retired management consultant. For 15 years, he was managing director of ValueNet International, Inc.
Before starting ValueNet, Rick was director, corporate training and, later, director, corporate strategy for Travelers Corp., an international insurance and financial services firm. He lost six friends in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Rick was a Vietnam-era Navy Hospital Corpsman.
Rick holds PhD and M.Ed. degrees from Penn State. His BS is from West Chester University. He completed post-doctoral work at Rensselaer, Northwestern, Colorado, and Harvard. A native of Pennsylvania, Rick now lives in New England.
Letter of the Day at the website of the Mineapolis Star-Tribune, for August 11 (added here late on that day):
Letter of the day: Eagle Scout: Booing Obama broke the Boy Scout Law
Last update: August 11, 2010 – 6:42 PM
As an Eagle Scout, I was appalled that some Boy Scouts reportedly booed President Obama when he appeared in a taped message at the recent National Scout Jamboree in Virginia. While I can understand their disappointment at not being addressed in person, the Boy Scouts involved in this incident broke about half of the tenets of Boy Scout Law: They were not loyal, friendly, courteous, kind or obedient in the least. Their leaders should help them understand what the Boy Scout Law means and how to follow it.
TOM KELSEY, SHOREWOOD
A different view from the National Guard’s video of Day 4 of the Jamboree:
BSA’s version (go check out the comments):
You don’t need to know Morse code to send the message along:
37 Comments | Boy Scouts of America | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Jamboree, Scout Law, Scout Oath | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Another press release that will have the climate change critics pulling their hair, from Great Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change about the Carbon Reduction Commitment plan (CRC):
50 days for businesses to register for carbon cutting scheme (Press Release)
With just 50 days to go until the end of registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), Greg Barker is calling on the remaining organisations to register now.
Currently 1229 of the organisations required to register have done so.
Launched in April 2010 the CRC requires large public and private sector organisations to register with the Environment Agency by 30th September 2010.
Greg Barker, Energy and Climate Change Minister, said;
“This new Coalition Government wants to boost energy efficiency in business because we know that saving energy saves money. The CRC will encourage significant savings through greater energy efficiency and importantly will make carbon a boardroom issue for many large organisations.
My message to businesses today is to register now. I understand the original complexity of the scheme may have deterred some organisations and I want to hear suggestions as to how we can make the scheme simpler in the future.”
With just 50 days to go until the end of registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), Greg Barker is calling on the remaining organisations to register now. The Minister visited Westminster Fire Station this month to meet fire fighters and see some of the measures recently installed to improve the station’s energy efficiency.
The London Fire Brigade is one organisation that has registered for the CRC. Energy efficiency projects put in place by the Brigade have led to savings of £260,000 in 2009/10 and over £1 million since the Brigade started focusing on the need to be greener. Despite the organisation growing overall carbon emissions on their buildings are down by over 18% on 1990s levels.
Greg Barker visited Westminster Fire Station this month to meet fire fighters and see some of the measures recently installed to improve the station’s energy efficiency. Chairman and Leader of London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority Councillor Brian Coleman AM, FRSA, said:
“This isn’t just about protecting the environment, it makes excellent business sense. Last year we saved the taxpayer over a quarter of a million pounds by making our fire stations greener and reducing our energy bills.”
The CRC will help to ensure that organisations play their full role in contributing to the UK’s emissions reductions of at least 34% on 1990 levels by 2020 through improved energy efficiency.
Find out more about CRC on the DECC website
Imagine that: Saving energy both reduces carbon emissions and saves money.
1 Comment | air pollution, Climate change, climate_change, Environmental protection, Europe, Green Politics, Science, Technology | Tagged: air pollution, Carbon Cutting, Climate change, Environmental protection, Government, Great Britain, Green Energy, Green Politics, History, Science, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Terri Potts Smith showed up bright and early for work — was it in the spring? — and we talked in our first floor Dirksen Senate Office Building office about the grind we faced ahead with the hearing schedule for the Senate Labor Committee and subcommittees. Suddenly she was transfixed by something out the window.
Having just recently learned that terrorists favored that particular corner for planting bombs under cars, I started a bit. Terri explained, astonished, that a red bird flew into the tree out the window.
It was a cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), a common bird, but not one common to Utah, where both of us had grown up.
I think of that often these days, and am still constantly startled, to see green birds flit across the streets of Duncanville, Texas.
Monk parakeets. Myiopsitta monachus. Also known as the Quaker parrot.
Monk parakeets profiled in the Chinese pistache, Duncanville, Texas, August 10, 2010 - photo by Ed Darrell; more than a dozen birds are hidden deeper in the tree.
Monk parakeets are invasive in Texas — it is thought the wild flocks developed from a few dozen escapees in the past three decades. They favor nesting on tall electrical poles — the stadium lights of the high school and college football stadia host a lot, as do electrical transmission lines. At Verizon Wireless we had at least one occasion when one of our cell tower climbers was attacked by one of the birds, apparently a mother just after the chicks had hatched. Cell towers provide excellent habitat for the birds.
At the best sitings I’ve had, previously I lacked a camera. Today I happened to have the small Pentax Optio V20. 20 to 30 of the birds roosted along an electrical wire. They were happy to see me until I pulled out the camera. (Pure conjecture: They’re smart. They’ve seen people with cameras before — and frequently, shortly after that some crew appears with a cherry-picker to destroy their nests. Camera-shyness is a survival function for the birds.)
Cute little beggars.
Monk parakeets flocking -- collecting nesting materials?
All I observed was social activity and some preening, except for the one bird flitting around with a stick in its bill.
And the two who were trying to pull tape off of electrical transmission wires.
Monk parakeets working to get a charge out of life, picking at insulation on an electrical wire.
Troublemakers.
Truth be told, I’ll take the monk parakeets in greater profusion, if we can reduce the populations of starlings, grackles and cowbirds.
Is there any evidence of the parakeets preying on songbirds?
Monk parakeet in the Chinese pistache tree. All photos by Ed Darrell, use with attribution encouraged.
[Update: Oops. Looked like a locust tree on a quick look. A longer look, I wasn’t so sure. Kathryn confirmed that it’s really a Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis.]
2 Comments | Bird Watching, Natural history, Ornithology, Science, Wildlife | Tagged: Bird Watching, Exotics, Invasive Species, Monk Parakeets, Nature, Ornithology, Quaker Parrots, Science, Texas, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Boy Scouts of America reviews merit badge offerings from time to time, adding new badges, modifying requirements, retiring badges that are unpopular or outdated.
Recently Bugling was dropped as a separate badge, and made an adjunct of the Music merit badge. Bugling was a great tradition in Scouts — a music-oriented badge that required only that one be able to memorize and blow recognizable versions of several bugle calls.
Perhaps ironically, Bugling also drew the spotlight as the last merit badge earned by several of those super Scouts who earned every possible merit badge. For some reason, learning to blow the horn was just the last or toughest thing they could master.
Good news: Bugling has been reinstated.
Bugling reinstated as separate merit badge
Have your guys start practicing “Taps,” because Bugling is here to stay.
In early June, we reported that the Bugling merit badge was to be discontinued and its requirements merged into Music merit badge.
That’s no longer the case. Responding to concerns from hundreds of Scouters, the BSA’s Youth Development team has decided to reinstate Bugling as a separate merit badge.
Oddly enough, this means that Bugling will never have officially been part of Music merit badge, because the changes were never reflected in a Boy Scout Requirements book.
Bugling and Music will continue to share a merit badge pamphlet. Requirements and information for both of the badges will be contained within that single booklet.
More:
"To the Colors," one of the bugle calls required for the Bugling merit badge. Image from U.S. Scouting Service Project
Leave a Comment » | 121 Merit Badge Club, Boy Scouts of America, History, Music | Tagged: 121 Merit Badge Club, Boy Scouts of America, Bugling, Merit Badges, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for August, 2010.
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 