Poster at the recent Rick Perry for Governor Rally featuring Sarah Palin:
Image from HoustonPress.com
Endorsement of public schooling from Rick Perry’s camp — unintentional
February 9, 2010
1 Comment | 
Education, Homeschooling, Humor, Politics | Tagged: Education, Homeschooling, Humor, Politics, Rick Perry, Sarah Paline | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy birthday, Boy Scouts of America
February 8, 2010No special post — I’ll be commenting all year — but today is the official anniversary date for the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.
100 million boys later, we can tell for certain it’s a good idea.
Boy Scouts paddling canoes on the Blackwater River, Virginia - Wikipedia image
4 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Citizenship, History | Tagged: Boy Scouts of America, Citizenship, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stained glass Boy Scouting: Torrington, Connecticut
February 8, 2010In honor of Scouting’s 100 years in the U.S., I call your attention to the stained glass window in Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, Connecticut, The Boy Scout Window:
Described at the church’s website:
This is one of Trinity’s most well-known windows.
It was dedicated on Boy Scout Sunday, 13 February 1966, a service of Morning Prayer that began with the hymn “We Thank You, Lord of Heaven.” The window was given “to the Glory of God and in living tribute to Troop 2 and Seymour F. Weeks on the 50th anniversary of the Troop, 1916-1966.”
Mr. Weeks had been scoutmaster of Troop 2 since 1934 and would continue to lead the troop until his death in 1967.
Troop 2 produced Torrington’s first Eagle Scout, Paul Pfistner, whose family donated another window at Trinity Church.
Behind the kneeling scout with the flag is the seal of the Episcopal Church and above that a hand raised in the scout hand sign. Flanking the Episcopal seal are the emblems of the First Class Scout and the Eagle Scout badge. The words of the Boy Scout oath form the background. The border is composed of ropes showing some of the knots Scouts must learn. In between the ropes are two of the Scout’s mottoes: Do a Good Turn Daily, and Be Prepared.
Obviously, this window does not follow the architect’s pictorial plan for a window here showing the Holy Family with Jesus as a child.
Although several of Trinity’s windows were made by Len Howard of Kent, CT, one of Mr. Howard’s former associates is nearly positive this window was not made by Mr. Howard. However, a current parishioner’s great uncle, who was on the vestry in 1966, recalls that the church was dealing with an artist in Kent, CT, and there were no other stained glass artists in Kent except for Len Howard. Until further proof one way or another, this window will be attributed to Len Howard of Kent.
To the best of my searching, Troop 2 appears to have vanished from Torrington.
8 Comments | Art, Boy Scouts of America, History, History images, Stained Glass | Tagged: Boy Scout Window, Boy Scouts of America, Stained Glass, Torrington Connecticut, Trinity Episcopal Church, Troop 2 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get e-mail (Jokers)
February 7, 2010No kidding:
Good Day:
My name is Owen Clive and i will like to make an enquiry on some bath tubs, could you advise if you have or can get me the size below bath tub?
Acrylic Bath Tub with fiberglass reinforcement
6′ x 35-3/4″ x 19-3/4″
Thank you and i await your reply.
Best RegardsOwen Clive
2 Comments | Administrivia, Humor, Millard Fillmore | Tagged: E-mail, History, Hoaxes, Humor, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Typewriter of the moment: L. Frank Baum, in 1899
February 7, 2010L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz and other stories, at work at his typewriter in 1899, the year before his first Oz book was published.
L. Frank Baum at his typewriter in 1899. Where?
Bonus: I found the photograph illustrating an essay by Kennesaw State University historian David B. Parker in the Bluegrass Express, a reprint of his 1994 article in The Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, on the claim that The Wizard of Oz was written as a populist parable.
Every history teacher ought to read that article.
http://thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2009/october2009/ozpoppycockoct09.php
4 Comments | Books, History, History and art, History Methods and Tools, Literature, Populism, Teaching, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: David B. Parker, History, Kennesaw State University, L. Frank Baum, Literature, Populism, Technology, Typewriters, Wizard of Oz | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
5 things to teach – Life lessons your supervisor doesn’t want to see on your lesson plans
February 6, 2010It’s too short to excerpt — so here’s the whole thing.
This week, teach your students:
1. To understand themselves as learners (a.k.a. metacognition)
2. That intelligence is not innate; effort matters
3. Compassion
4. The excitement of creating real things for real audiences
5. The joy of exercise, play, and healthy living
Another reminder that not all things that count can be counted.
The Elementary Educator carries interesting stuff. You may wish to check it out.
1 Comment | Education, Learning, Learning styles, Motivation, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Education, education standards, Learning, Teachers, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Eugenie Scott defends science, education, and evolution, in the Bone Room
February 5, 2010It’s 30 minutes, and 30 minutes well-spent.
7 Comments | Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, National Center for Science Education, Research, Science | Tagged: Charles Darwin, Creationism, Education, Eugenie Scott, Evolution, National Center for Science Education, Science, The Bone Room | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Typewriter of the moment: Sylvia Plath
February 5, 2010
Sylvia Plath, author and poet, at her typewriter - photographer unknown to me
Is it a Royal typewriter? Why is it so many photos of people at typewriters show them outdoors — and will there be many pictures of authors at their computers, let alone at their computers outdoors?
Mystery solved? Update December 30, 2011 — looking at the photo of Rob’s Hermes, in comments below, it sure looks to me that Plath’s machine is a Hermes.
7 Comments | Books, Literature, Poetry, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Books, Literature, Poetry, Sylvia Plath, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Oh, but the conservatives will say it’s unfair . . .
February 5, 2010
Let 'em complain it's unfair.
13 Comments | Economics, Humor, Politics | Tagged: Economics, Humor, Politics, Reaganomics, Trickle Down Economics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Colorado legislature says ‘bring the USS Pueblo home’
February 4, 2010It’s a story about a series of the grandest and bravest hoaxes by U.S. soldiers held in extremely hostile enemy prisons. Coloradans, especially those from the city of Pueblo, the namesake of the ship, have not forgotten.
U.S.S. Pueblo, moored in Pyong Yang, Peoples Republic of Korea where the North Koreans try to exploit their capture of the ship by offering tours - Wikipedia image
Spurred by its members from Pueblo, the Colorado state legislature passed a resolution on Monday asking the U.S. government to ask North Korea to return the U.S.S. Pueblo to the U.S. The spyship was captured, probably illegally, in 1968 with Capt. Lloyd Bucher and his crew, with the loss of one crewman’s life in the capture skirmish.
North Korea (more formally known as the Peoples Republic of Korea or PRK) held Bucher and his crew eleven months in that tragic year of 1968. The crew were tortured, but PRK finally agreed to release them in December.
During their capture the crew had signed hoax confessions that, while wildly embarrassing to the PRK, got the crew in hot water when they returned to the U.S.
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub officially and formally approves of any legislative action honoring the captain and crew of the Pueblo, and would like to see the ship returned.
Earlier stories on the Pueblo and its capture:
- “Remember the Pueblo . . . and the great hoaxes of 1968“
- “40th Anniversary: Capture of the USS Pueblo“
- “Penetration however slight: More on a good and noble hoax“
- “A Fine, Patriotic Hoax“
The entire story about the legislative resolution, from the Pueblo Chieftan, is below the fold.
3 Comments | 1968, Communism, foreign affairs, Heroes, History, Hoaxes, Propaganda, USS Pueblo | Tagged: 1968, Captive, Hoaxes, Hostage, Lloyd Bucher, North Korea, Perseverance, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Pueblo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Just in case you thought any climate contrarian remains sane . . .
February 2, 2010Which of these would be accurate in showing the insanity, but not so sharp as to raise the hackles of the climate contrarians?
- “Contrarians think Antarctic unworthy of protection”
- “Denialists criticize efforts to keep Antarctic clean”
- “Climate change critics’ brains have left the building”
Read these stories, and tell me.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted the delicate condition of the Antarctic with regard to its two main industries, fishing and tourism. IPCC AR4 noted that the tourism industry takes steps to protect Antarctic environments made more vulnerable by melting. (Footnote here; actual flyer here, assessment document here in Microsoft Word .doc format)
Contrarians come unglued, here at ClimateQuotes.com, and here at Air Vent.
It’s clear that the contrarians don’t have much experience in heavy documentation. If you follow the links they provide, you quickly get to the paper provided by the tourist industry noting their precautions to prevent contamination, provided to meet a request by scientists from the Australian team, and based on information well vetted to the point that it includes substantial excerpts from what appears to be a peer-reviewed journal on the types of solutions suitable for decontaminating foreign boots in the Antarctic (Polar Record, vol. 41, no. 216, Jan. 2005, p. 39-45; it is actually the official journal of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, UK). There is astounding and commendable attention to detail, much more than the contrarians can grok, it appears.
More troubling to the Boy Scout in me is the contrarians’ contempt for what is, really, Leave No Trace Camping carried to an Antarctic tourist stop. This is part of the environment protection credo of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and it is sound policy that everyone should be teaching their children.
What is wrong with that? Why do the contrarians mock wise policies? Why do they make false claims against what amounts to good Scouting?
Contratians disapprove of the ethics of environmental stewardship?
One implicit complaint is that the footnote does not provide evidence of damage from climate change, in the Antarctic. It’s clear that the critics have not followed the footnote path to see why the boot cleaning poster and directive were issued, nor to see what is the research or official government action that prompted the tourist companies to implement the procedure.
It appears in a section of the IPCC reports on effects of warming on industries in affected areas. Only two industries are noted in the Antarctic, fishing and tourism. After establishing the increased chance of problem organisms, including micro-organisms, showing up in Arctic and Antarctic areas as the areas warm, and after noting two plagues that killed penguins recently, from micro-organisms, the IPCC paper notes that concern to prevent such tragedies have so far required only boot decontamination, and it offers a link to the flyer provided by an Antarctic tour operators group.
Got that? To show that the tour operators are affected, IPCC cited the flyer put out by the tour operators showing how and why they were changing their operations. It’s a minor, almost trivial point.
At no point did IPCC’s report claim this procedure as evidence of warming, or the effects of warming. So the claims of the contrarians and denialists are completely off base, as they’d recognize except for their own shouting for the lynching of science to proceed.
Criticism of IPCC for noting the good stewardship techniques used in the Antarctic comprises more political smear than scientific enlightenment, by a huge factor. Voodoo science from the contrarians begets voodoo criticism.
Contrarians lack wisdom in posing this complaint of theirs. This is one more point IPCC got right, factually and ethically. IPCC should be commended for that.
Wall of Shame (update added on February 7)
Outlets that cite the boot reference, falsely or stupidly, as some sort of flaw in the IPCC report, and thereby demonstrate malevolent intentions, and not scientific (“malice” for you Times v. Sullivan fans):
- At the continuing Wattsgate, “Gate du Jour: IPCC gets the boot (cleaned)” at Watts Up With That
- Climate Audit, “IPCC and the Antarctic boot cleaning manual”
- .alt/energy/renewable
- Politifi.com
- George Spellwin’s Elite Fitness Forums
- Moonbattery (oh, the irony just never ends at that site)
- ROK/drop
- SiloBreaker
- Google group, rec.bicycles.tech, with the even more offense-provoking headline, “IPCC authority on Antarctica is bootblacking instruction pamphlet” (still wonder if these guys have any science as a concern?)
- WendyMcElroy.com
4 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Climate change, climate_change, Ethics, Girl Scouts, Global warming, Hoaxes, Natural history, Natural resources, Political Smear, Science | Tagged: Antarctic, Boot Cleaning, Boy Scouts, Climate change, Ethics, Girl Scouts, Global warming, Green Politics, IPCC, Leave No Trace, Political Smear | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
How to report the news
February 2, 2010This is the video version of the how-to-post-an-incendiary-blog-post piece I noted earlier. The elder son of the Bathtubs brought it to our attention a couple of days ago:
And then, just as I was posting, I got a note about this post at Tome of the Unknown Blogger.
Yeah, this has already gone viral, and well it should. Chris Clarke and Charlie Brooker have each captured the essence of knowledge and information passing in different realms. Journalism schools should pay attention.
1 Comment | Humor, Journalism, News, Television | Tagged: BBC, Charlie Brooker, Chris Clarke, Humor, Journalism, News, Parody | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Encore post: Lunch and civil rights
February 1, 2010Today is the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in. Be sure to read Howell Raines’ criticism of news media coverage of civil rights issues in today’s New York Times: “What I am suggesting is that the one thing the South should have learned in the past 50 years is that if we are going to hell in a handbasket, we should at least be together in a basket of common purpose.”
Four young men turned a page of history on February 1, 1960, at a lunch counter in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond, sat down at the counter to order lunch. Because they were African Americans, they were refused service. Patiently, they stayed in their seats, awaiting justice.
On July 25, nearly six months later, Woolworth’s agreed to desegregate the lunch counter.
Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond leave the Woolworth store after the first sit-in on February 1, 1960. (Courtesy of Greensboro News and Record) (Smithsonian Institution)
News of the “sit-in” demonstration spread. Others joined in the non-violent protests from time to time, 28 students the second day, 300 the third day, and some days up to 1,000. The protests spread geographically, too, to 15 cities in 9 states.
Smithsonian caption: "On the second day of the Greensboro sit-in, Joseph A. McNeil and Franklin E. McCain are joined by William Smith and Clarence Henderson at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Courtesy of Greensboro News and Record)"
Part of the old lunch counter was salvaged, and today is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History. The museum display was the site of celebratory parties during the week of the inauguration as president of Barack Obama.
Part of the lunchcounter from the Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, is now displayed at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C.
Notes and resources:
- See the Smithsonian’s on-line display about the decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education and the struggles for civil rights, “Separate is not equal.“
- F. W. Woolworth’s, a “five-and-dime” style store, largely closed its U.S. operations in 2001, though changing its focus to the Foot Locker shoe stores. One of its last remaining stronghold of 807 stores, in Great Britain, was shuttered at the end of 2008.
- Independent Lens program on PBS, “February 1″
7 Comments | Citizenship, Civil Rights, Dissent, History, Human Rights, Nonviolent protest, Politics, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Civil Rights, Constitution, Greensboro North Carolina, History, Human Rights, Lunch Counter, Nonviolent protest, Sit-in | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
MSM understand dangers of warming
February 1, 2010Editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, another of America’s great legacy of great newspapers:
The decade that ended in 2009 was the warmest on record, NASA reported earlier this month. It displaced the decade of the 1990s as the warmest ever. The 1990s displaced the 1980s.
Last year was the second-warmest since 1880, when modern temperature measurements began. The warmest year on record was 2005. All of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. Perhaps you’re starting to see a pattern.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Open Mind, who also notes that the last decade was the warmest ever.
Leave a Comment » | Clean Air Act, Climate change, climate_change, Global warming, Green Politics, Science | Tagged: Climate change, Cost of Green, Global warming, Green Politics, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wattsupgate: Denialists claim all knowledge is wrong
January 31, 2010It really is that bad. Climate science denialists now attack any information simply for not being what they want it to be. Lysenko’s Ghost smiles broadly.
Anthony Watts is just the most prominent of the bloggers making hoax charges of error and worse in the fourth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), because of a footnote that cites a rock climbing magazine.
Here’s the trouble for Watts: There is no indication that the citation is in error in any way. Watts’s move is more fitting of King George III’s campaign against Ben Franklin’s lightning rods, the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, the pre-World War II campaign against Einstein’s work because he was born a Jew, or the hoary old Red Channels campaign against Texas history told by John Henry Faulk. It’s as bad as the Texas State Board of Education’s attack on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Watts’ and others’ complaint is simply that Climbing magazine’s story on the worldwide retreat of glaciers suitable for climbing is not published in a juried science journal.
In other words, they indict the science, not because it’s wrong — they have no evidence to counter it — but because it’s too American Patriot correct Jewish left Texan mistakenly thought to be political well-known, too accessible, (small “d”) democratically-reported.
And of course, any comment that points that out at Watts’s blog goes into long-term “moderation,” keeping it from the light of day in the best tradition of the Crown’s defense of Gov. Cosby’s misadministration of New York (see “John Peter Zenger”). Watts said in a quote that should have been attributed to the Daily Telegraph:
The IPCC’s remit is to provide an authoritative assessment of scientific evidence on climate change.
In its most recent report, it stated that observed reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was being caused by global warming, citing two papers as the source of the information.
However, it can be revealed that one of the sources quoted was a feature article published in a popular magazine for climbers which was based on anecdotal evidence from mountaineers about the changes they were witnessing on the mountainsides around them.
The other was a dissertation written by a geography student, studying for the equivalent of a master’s degree, at the University of Berne in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.
The revelations, uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph, have raised fresh questions about the quality of the information contained in the report, which was published in 2007.
It comes after officials for the panel were forced earlier this month to retract inaccurate claims in the IPCC’s report about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.
By those standards, Watts’s own readers should eschew his blog — it’s not peer reviewed science by any stretch, and Watts isn’t an established authority in climate science (he’s not even working for an advanced degree). Consistency isn’t a virtue or concern among climate change denialists. Watt’s entire modus operandi is much more anecdotal than the story in Climbing, which was written by a physicist/climber who studies climate change in the world’s mountains.
And did you notice? They’re whining about research done by a scientist in pursuit of a degree, complaining about the second citation. That’s the exaclty kind of research that they claim the magazine article is not. Their complaint is, it appears, that a scientist in pursuit of education is not the right “kind” of person to do climate research. It’s the chilling sort of bigotry that we spent so much time in the 20th century fighting against. In the 21st century, though, it appears one can still get away with demonizing knowledge, education and research, part of the campaign to indict “elitism,” the same sort of elitism aspired to by America’s founders. Too much of the criticism against scientists involved in documenting global warming is the cheap bigotry the critics claim to find in science, falsely claimed in my view.
Topsy-turvy.
And the glaciers? Yeah, the evidence tends to show they are in trouble. Those Himalayan glaciers? The IPCC report was accurate in everything except the speed at which the glaciers decline — they should be with us for another three centuries, not just 50 years, if we can reduce warming back to 1990s levels (oddly, denialists rarely deal with the facts of accelerating warming, preferring to point to a local snowstorm as a rebuttal of all knowledge about climate).
Oh, and the research? The author of the story in Climbing magazine is Mark Bowen. Dr. Bowen’s Ph.D. is in physics from MIT. He’s a climber, and he researches climate change on the world’s highest mountains. His 2005 book, Thin Ice, focused tightly on what we can learn about climate from the world’s highest mountains. Bowen is the expert Anthony Watts would like to be.
Cover of Mark Bowen’s book defending climate science, “Censoring Science.”
Bowen’s newest book: Censoring Science: Inside the political attack on James Hansen and the truth of global warming. Watts doesn’t want anyone to read that book. It is easy to imagine Watt’s s attack is, he hopes, pre-emptive, against Bowen’s book.
I’ll wager Watts hasn’t read the article in Climbing, and didn’t know who Bowen was when he launched his attack, though. The denials of bias coming out of the denialists’ camp will be interesting to watch.
Let the denialists roll out the rope far enough, they’ll inevitably hang themselves.
More:
Do something for freedom: Spread the news
35 Comments | Accuracy, Climate change, climate_change, Ethics, Geography - Physical, Glaciers, Global warming, History, Journalism, Physics, Political Smear, Politics, Science | Tagged: Accuracy, Climate change, denialism, geography, Glaciers, Global warming, Hoaxes, Physics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 