Stunning photo of a snowy owl, taken by Frank K. Schleicher (who holds the copyright), and shared by the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association.
Most stunning in the photograph: Look behind the owl.
Photo of snowy owl, looking across New York Harbor, by Frank K. Schleicher
1 Comment | 
Bird Watching, History, Ornithology, photography | Tagged: Bird Watching, Frank K. Schleicher, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, History, photography, September 11, Twin Towers | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Flags at the Washington Monument fly at half staff, with the dome of the U.S. Capitol in the background. Fly your flag at half-staff today, Patriot Day.
Federal law and presidential proclamation urge Americans to fly flags today at half-staff, in honor of patriots and those who died in the attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
President Barack Obama issued a declaration yesterday:
PATRIOT DAY AND NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE, 2013
– – – – – – –BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Twelve years ago this month, nearly three thousand innocent men, women, and children lost their lives in attacks meant to terrorize our Nation. They had been going about their day, harming no one, when sudden violence struck. We will never undo the pain and injustice borne that terrible morning, nor will we ever forget those we lost.
On September 11, 2001, amid shattered glass, twisted steel, and clouds of dust, the spirit of America shone through. We remember the sacrifice of strangers and first responders who rushed into darkness to carry others from danger. We remember the unbreakable bonds of unity we felt in the long days that followed — how we held each other, how we came to our neighbors’ aid, how we prayed for one another. We recall how Americans of every station joined together to support the survivors in their hour of need and to heal our Nation in the years that followed.
Today, we can honor those we lost by building a Nation worthy of their memories. Let us also live up to the selfless example of the heroes who gave of themselves in the face of such great evil. As we mark the anniversary of September 11, I invite all Americans to observe a National Day of Service and Remembrance by uniting in the same extraordinary way we came together after the attacks. Like the Americans who chose compassion when confronted with cruelty, we can show our love for one another by devoting our time and talents to those in need. I encourage all Americans to visit www.Serve.gov, or www.Servir.gov for Spanish speakers, to find ways to get involved in their communities.
As we serve and remember, we reaffirm our ties to one another. On September 11, 2001, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family. May the same be said of us today, and always.
By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress has designated September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day,” and by Public Law 111-13, approved April 21, 2009, the Congress has requested the observance of September 11 as an annually recognized “National Day of Service and Remembrance.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2013, as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance. I call upon all departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States to display the flag of the United States at half-staff on Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance in honor of the individuals who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I invite the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and interested organizations and individuals to join in this observance. I call upon the people of the United States to participate in community service in honor of those our Nation lost, to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities, including remembrance services, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to honor the innocent victims who perished as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
BARACK OBAMA
According to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute, the law says:
TITLE 36 > Subtitle I > Part A > CHAPTER 1> § 144
§ 144. Patriot Day
(a) Designation.— September 11 is Patriot Day.
(b) Proclamation.— The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation calling on—
(1) State and local governments and the people of the United States to observe Patriot Day with appropriate programs and activities;(2) all departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States and interested organizations and individuals to display the flag of the United States at halfstaff on Patriot Day in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks against the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001; and
(3) the people of the United States to observe a moment of silence on Patriot Day in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks against the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Patriot Day formerly occurred earlier in the year; information on flag flying has not been added to the Flag Code portions of U.S. law, and consequently this news gets missed.
Fly your flag today, at half-staff if you can. Remember when flying a flag at half-staff, it is first raised to full staff, then slowly lowered to the half-staff position. When the flag is retired at the end of the day, it should again be crisply raised to the full-staff position before being lowered.
A flag attached to a pole that does not allow a half-staff position should be posted as usual.
September 11 is also designated as a national day of service, under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, Public Law 111-13 (April 21, 2009). The Corporation for National and Community Service is charged with encouraging appropriate service in honor of the day and in honor of those who died.
National Day of Service and Remembrance
Date(s): September 11, 2010
Location: National
Event URL: http://911day.org/
Description
On April 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed legislation that for the first time officially established September 11 as a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance.By pledging to volunteer, perform good deeds, or engage in other forms of charitable service during the week of 9/11, you and your organization will help rekindle the remarkable spirit of unity, service and compassion shared by so many in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. And you’ll help create a fitting, enduring and historic legacy in the name of those lost and injured on 9/11, and in tribute to the 9/11 first responders, rescue and recovery workers, and volunteers, and our brave military personnel who continue to serve to this day.
Check in your own community to find opportunities for service projects.
Texas schools this year will make a mandatory one-minute observance of the events of September 11, 2001, under a new law, H. B. 1501.
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Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts raised the U.S. flag at Patriot Day ceremonies in 2012 at Willie Brown Elementary School, in Mansfield ISD, Mansfield, Texas.
4 Comments | 9/11, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, National Day of Service, Patriot Day, September 11 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yes, yes, it’s the Dunning Kruger Effect.
It’s being gullible to hoaxes.
Gullible’s travels, etc. (illustration 1) (Photo credit: UIC Digital Collections)
And it’s not really understanding politics, or economics, but assuming that we do, that gets us moving in the wrong direction.
Is it dangerous? The entire Tea Party is misled by their own wrong assumptions. Mistaken belief in what intelligence sources found in Iraq helped get us into the second longest war in U.S. history (and perhaps the costliest ever). Erroneous beliefs about the economy contributed to the great Crash of 2008. False beliefs about the economy short-circuited our recovery, after Obama got action to prevent our bottoming out.
They’re still at it.
Today I had a guy tell me that Paul Krugman, the Nobel winning economist from Princeton and the New York Times, was wrong when he advocated creating a housing bubble, back in 2002.
Krugman did that? Really?
Maybe in the land of Gullible’s Travels.
https://twitter.com/Obomination1/status/377500188710944768
Turns out the claim is based on a carefully edited-out-of-context quote from a 2002 column Krugman wrote. It’s a hoax quote, as it appears, and as it appears to make Krugman call for a housing bubble — which he didn’t do.
This guy afraid to put his name to his claims, “Obomination1” hadn’t bothered to check the source. Any journalist worth the newspaper ink on his hands would have had a clattering Hemingway Brand® Sh** Detector at that point. Krugman advocating a housing bubble?
Not tough to find that quote, and track it back to an opposite-editorial page piece Krugman wrote for the New York Times on August 2, 2002, “Dubya’s Double Dip?” In it, the usual-critic of Greenspan, Krugman, worried about the failure of the economy to recover except by excessive consumer spending — which both had a finite amount of capability, Krugman argued, and did not mend the organic problems of production that caused the recession whose pain was eased by the NASDAQ bubble but not cured in any way. Put Krugman’s quote from the photo poster into real context (I’ve highlighted the quoted part below):
A few months ago the vast majority of business economists mocked concerns about a ”double dip,” a second leg to the downturn. But there were a few dogged iconoclasts out there, most notably Stephen Roach at Morgan Stanley. As I’ve repeatedly said in this column, the arguments of the double-dippers made a lot of sense. And their story now looks more plausible than ever.
The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn’t a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.
Judging by Mr. Greenspan’s remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off. But the Fed chairman’s crystal ball has been cloudy lately; remember how he urged Congress to cut taxes to head off the risk of excessive budget surpluses? And a sober look at recent data is not encouraging.
Krugman wasn’t calling for the creation of a housing bubble at all. He was warning there were other problems that needed to be solved then. They weren’t solved, the housing bubble collapsed and took down a great deal of the world’s financial markets with it.
So, was Krugman “a loser” as my correspondent claims? Or is my correspondent looking the wrong way through the telescope, and being suckered by a hoaxed-context quote?
Krugman continued:
On the surface, the sharp drop in the economy’s growth, from 5 percent in the first quarter to 1 percent in the second, is disheartening. Under the surface, it’s quite a lot worse. Even in the first quarter, investment and consumer spending were sluggish; most of the growth came as businesses stopped running down their inventories. In the second quarter, inventories were the whole story: final demand actually fell. And lately straws in the wind that often give advance warning of changes in official statistics, like mall traffic, have been blowing the wrong way.
Despite the bad news, most commentators, like Mr. Greenspan, remain optimistic. Should you be reassured?
Bear in mind that business forecasters are under enormous pressure to be cheerleaders: ”I must confess to being amazed at the venom my double dip call still elicits,” Mr. Roach wrote yesterday at cbsmarketwatch.com. We should never forget that Wall Street basically represents the sell side.
Bear in mind also that government officials have a stake in accentuating the positive. The administration needs a recovery because, with deficits exploding, the only way it can justify that tax cut is by pretending that it was just what the economy needed. Mr. Greenspan needs one to avoid awkward questions about his own role in creating the stock market bubble.
But wishful thinking aside, I just don’t understand the grounds for optimism. Who, exactly, is about to start spending a lot more? At this point it’s a lot easier to tell a story about how the recovery will stall than about how it will speed up. And while I like movies with happy endings as much as the next guy, a movie isn’t realistic unless the story line makes sense.
Had only Greenspan, Bush, and a few million more people only listened to Krugman, then, we might have been spared two decades of lousy economy growth.
But they didn’t. It wasn’t Krugman who was “the loser,” on this — though he certainly is pained by America’s failure to follow his advice.
Bertrand Russell warned us of the Obomination1/Thiessens and others. So did Will Rogers, and Kin Hubbard, and Daniel Boorstin, as well as Drs. Dunning and Kruger.
Those who don’t listen to Russell, Rogers, Hubbard, Boorstin, the repentant Mencken, and Krugman, are the losers, and they drag the rest of us with them.
By the way, Krugman’s Nobel was awarded in 2008, after the great shock of the housing bubble’s bursting, but before all the predictions he had made were played out. He was right.
Santayana’s Ghost dines with von Hayek’s Ghost tonight, and they both smile pityingly at those who ignore Krugman and claim to ridicule him while failing to even check out the accuracy of what they thought Krugman said.
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1 Comment | History | Tagged: Dunning-Kruger Effect, Economics, History, Hoaxes, Mencken, Paul Krugman | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Interesting exercise, probably for an undergraduate college history student: What became of these men during their service in the Utah Territory, and afterward? What effect did they have on Utah’s history, and Utah on them?
In September 1850, Millard Fillmore sent the Senate, for confirmation, his nominations of officers to run the Utah Territory, three years after Brigham Young had led the first band of Latter-day Saints into the Salt Lake Valley to settle:
Letter from President Millard Fillmore to the U.S. Senate, nominating people (all men) to govern the Utah Territory, September 26, 1850 – U.S. National Archives image
Page 2:
Page 2 of President Fillmore’s letter to the U.S. Senate, nominating officers to govern the Utah Territory , in 1850. National Archives image
National Archives notes: Executive Nominations for the First Session of the 31st Congress, 12/03/1849 – 09/30/1850
Production Dates: 09/26/1850
Notes in red ink indicate that confirmation dates for each of these nominees — all but one done two days later. Fillmore’s nominee to be U.S. marshall in the territory wasn’t confirmed until the following February.
Amazing to think of the speed with which these confirmations occurred, compared to today’s U.S. Senate — and remembering that Congress was not particularly friendly to Fillmore.
An animated GIF of the Utah Territory as it evolved from 1850 to 1896, when statehood was granted. (Territory boundaries not exact, especially in the west, where early proposals took in parts of California) Wikipedia image
Nominations were:
What other odd little delights are hidden away in the on-line holdings of the National Archives? What sort of DBQ exercise can history teachers make out of this stuff?
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Brigham Young in 1851; photo from LDS archives
2 Comments | Government, History, Millard Fillmore, Utah | Tagged: Brigham Young, History, Millard Fillmore, Nominations, Utah | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This is a follow up on my earlier post on the Gulen schools, Cosmos Foundation, Harmony Schools.
A pro-education religious movement could be a good thing. Is it?
Leave a Comment » | Charter schools, Education, Texas | Tagged: 60 Minutes, Charter schools, Education, Gulen, Leslie Stahl, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
jordanfhiggins More good advice. #NASASocial
Sometimes signs just don’t command the attention they should.
2 Comments | Humor, NASA, Safety, Signs | Tagged: Humor, NASA, Safety, Signs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I would have sworn I’d posted in these issues before, but looking back through the archives, I discover I haven’t.
An interesting, perhaps odd, religious cult with Islamic roots moved into the United States several years ago, and started setting up schools for the public. Hitching on the radical right wing’s creation of public school-killing charter programs, and riding a wave of donations from devotees of the sect, the Gulen movement set up at least one foundation, floated some bonds to build facilities, and established charter schools. There are 40 of these schools in Texas.
![Dallas Morning News photo: The Harmony School of Nature [on Camp Wisdom Road, west of Duncanville] still isn't ready to open for students.](https://i0.wp.com/cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/files/2013/08/Harmony.jpg)
Dallas Morning News photo: The Harmony School of Nature [on Camp Wisdom Road, west of Duncanville] still isn’t ready to open for students.
Texas Education Agency spokesperson DeEtta Culbertson said the TEA has not received any complaints or unfavorable reports about the schools, which have also received good reviews in U.S. News and World Report.
Local school district officials in Midland and Odessa seemed baffled by the claims. The flap died down. It was during one of the creationism eruptions in Texas curricula wars, though, and I called the schools to see what they taught in science. I got hold of a fellow in Houston who claimed to be the science coordinator for the dozen or so schools then existing in Texas. He said he was not Muslim, and he told me that the schools do not teach creationism. In high school, they use the Kenneth Miller-authored texts, and teach evolution.
At that time a facility being constructed near our home, which I had assumed was part of the Wycliff Bible Translating Institute nearby, put up a sign advertising that it would be opening as a charter school. The Harmony School of Nature and Science sits in the boundaries of Duncanville ISD, but was obviously aimed at pulling students from Dallas ISD and Grand Prairie — or anywhere else parents in Texas are willing to drive from. I know a few people whose children attend the school, and basically, they like it. The school seems particularly adept at dealing with very bright special-needs kids.
In efforts to provide a fully-rounded education, our local Harmony School helps sponsor a Cub Scout Pack, which is a program I fully support (don’t get me going on National PTA’s stabbing Scouting in the back . . .)
Not all is rosy. Officials of the foundation that supports and guides the Harmony schools say their sole intent is to improve education in the U.S., and it’s difficult to find any kind of unsavory indoctrination going on, the reality is that Harmony is becoming a large education system in Texas (and other places) — and some complaints unusual in the U.S. War on Education, or War on Teachers, or War on Children, create ripples. Some teachers have complained that Turkish nationals get out-of-proportion pay packages to teach in the schools, and that good teachers are being replaced with Turkish nationals. Some conjecture that this is being done solely to get a lot of Turkish nationals and followers of this particular sect into the U.S. — an enormous, elaborate, and U.S. taxpayer-funded scheme to get around U.S. immigration laws.
Diane Ravitch‘s education blog — the most important education news outlet in the nation right now — carried a post yesterday about more controversy; here’s part of the post (you should read it all at Ravitch’s blog)
Sharon R. Higgins is a parent activist in Oakland, California, who manages multiple websites as a concerned citizen. One is “charter school scandals.” Another is the Broad Report. Third is a compilation of articles about the Gulen movement.
Sharon has long wondered why so many districts, states, and the federal government have turned over a basic public responsibility to foreign nationals, who hire other foreign nationals, and export hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Her concern is not nationalistic or xenophobic. It is about the civic and communal nature of public education.
She writes: “On Saturday I spoke at the “Expose the Gulen Movement” protest rally held on a farm in the rural, rolling hills around Saylorsburg, PA. We assembled less than two miles from the compound where Fethullah Gulen lives. Gulen is considered to be one of the two most powerful men in Turkey. This is the video of my speech, starting at 00:45 min.
http://new.livestream.com/…/AbdEylemVakti/videos/28766474
Earlier that day, Gulenist operatives had driven around to take down the signs that organizers had posted to help guide protesters to the rally. The day before, a man from “the camp” (Gulen’s compound) also attempted to bribe the owners of the farm in an effort to prevent us from using their place. [continued at Ravitch’s site]
I offered my experience in a comment there, but the links snagged it — so I’m repeating it here, with the links restored: My response at Dr. Ravitch’s blog:
Texas is wholly baffled by the Gulen movement, including especially the teacher-bashing GOP education “reformers.” Hypothetically, they favor the public-school-blood-sucking charters. But things are sometimes different on the ground.
In Texas, the schools are known as Harmony schools. We had a flap several years ago when some charter school advocates discovered, to their dismay, that the schools don’t teach creationism instead of evolution (point in favor of Harmony).
At the time, TEA and local district officials I spoke with were completely unaware of the size of the group establishing and backing the schools.
Today their website lists 40 schools across Texas ( http://www.harmonytx.org/default.aspx ) in Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Brownsville, Midland & Odessa, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Lubbock and Laredo. Parents I know have been happy with the attention their kids get, and the care paid to science and math education. Complaints in Odessa some time ago centered around the Muslim teachers, but that flap died down.
But — is this trouble? — at least one school in Dallas County (about two miles from me) has been unable to get an occupancy permit to start school this year. Students are being bused to other locations, I understand — but code officials think it may be months before the building can be certified. Does this demonstrate a lack of financial planning and ability on the part of the foundation? Does this indicate animosity from Dallas code officials (public schools in Texas are essentially exempt from local code enforcement, and some districts, like Dallas, take unfair advantage of this; what I know of the difficulties at the new Harmony building are common, never-fixed features of schools in Dallas ISD — I don’t have the full story).
Here’s the notice on the school’s web page [since removed, I think; can’t find it this morning, but this is direct quote, verbatim]:
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Even with all our best efforts, we have some additional inspections that will not be completed in time for the start of school Tuesday, September 3. Therefore, we have made alternative plans to accommodate our students for this week. Please drop off your students as you normally would here at the Harmony Nature Campus by 7:50 a.m. for elementary and 8:00 a.m. for middle and high school. We have reserved buses to safely transport students and staff members to the following Harmony Public Schools campuses within our district:
Grades K-3 students will have classes at Harmony Science Academy-Fort Worth.
Grades 4-6 students will have classes at the Harmony Science Academy-Euless.
Grade 7 students will have classes at Harmony Science Academy-Grand Prairie.
Grade 8 students will have classes at Harmony School of Innovation-Fort Worth
High School students will have classes at Hurst Conference Center.*Harmony Science Academy Fort Worth – 5651 Westcreek Dr. Fort Worth, TX – (817) 263-0700
*Harmony School of Innovation Fort Worth – 8100 S. Hulen St. Fort Worth, TX – (817) 386-5505
*Harmony Science Academy Euless & Harmony School of Innovation Euless – 701 S. Industrial Blvd. Euless, TX – (817) 354 – 3000
*Harmony Science Academy Grand Prairie -1102 NW 7th St, Grand Prairie – (972) 642-9911
Hurst Conference Center: 1601 Campus Drive Hurst, Texas 76054Dismissal will remain the same: elementary at 2:50pm and middle/ high school will be at 3:15pm at the Nature campus. There will be no afterschool club and aftercare this week.
Please complete and bring the attached permission slip tomorrow with your child. We will also have extra copies for you to sign in the morning. Students should not bring all their supplies tomorrow.
Some of those bus rides are about 30 miles.
Here’s information from the blog on city issues of the Dallas Morning News (this has not hit the education desk, I don’t think): http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/southern-dallas-charter-school-that-failed-city-inspections-still-not-ready-to-open.html/
Interesting how this group from Turkey managed to figure out where below-radar-level is in all of these states.
Diane, with 40 — or more — schools in Texas, are you sure your total of 146 schools is correct? Has anyone checked the foundation’s 990 forms lately (I’ve not looked in a couple of years). Is there just one foundation, or several?
In Texas these schools are operated by the Cosmos Foundation. These schools have won explicit support from Texas right-wing “education reformers” like Sen. Dan Patrick, demonstrated by legislation passing the Texas Lege this year, and have implicit support from right-wing campaigns against Texas public schools which end up promoting Harmony Schools, which have a comparatively politics-free and religion-free curricula agenda. One might wonder whether the Texas CSCOPE controversy, and the McCarthy-esque witch hunt to find communists among Texas teachers, is not a well-designed campaign to allow expansion of Harmony Schools and other charter school organizations whose very existence might provoke higher scrutiny and public controversy, were there not other political shiny objects distracting people.
There will be more to come; check the blogs noted above, and please check back here.
Update: Harmony lists 40 schools in Texas with 24,247 students. In student enrollment, that makes Harmony the 51st largest school district in Texas (out of 933), larger than Denton ISD (23,994), Birdville ISD (23,545), Pflugerville ISD (22,763), Judson ISD (22,040), and Midland (21,736), but smaller than McKinney ISD (24,442), Lamar ISD (24,637), Laredo ISD (24,706), or McAllen ISD (25,622). Duncanville ISD is about half that size, at 12,902; Dallas ISD has 157,143 students, second to Houston ISD’s 204,245 students. (Schooldigger statistics)
Update, September 8: Cosmos Foundation — the group operating Harmony schools in Texas — showed 2011 income of just over $168 million, according to the IRS 990 form available through the Foundation Center.
Update 2, September 8: Harmony Nature and Science notified parents late Saturday that the school will be open Monday — which means no buses. Looking for news reports to confirm. Here’s a screen capture of the announcement at Harmony’s website:
Screen capture of announcement that school will be held in the school building starting September 9, 2013.
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6 Comments | CSCOPE, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Texas | Tagged: Charter schools, CSCOPE, Dan Patrick, Education, Education reform, Gulen Movement, Harmony Schools, Immigration, public schools, School Finance, Texas Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You’d forgotten there’s another war going on in South Sudan?
Location of South Sudan in Africa (darkened area). Wikipedia image
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Best flying of a U.S. flag: A woman carries a bag of food in Gumuruk where @WFP is assisting IDPs uprooted by violence.
Leave a Comment » | Africa, Flag etiquette, Refugees, U.S. Flag, United Nations, War | Tagged: Africa, geography, IDPs, Immigration, Internally displaced person, Politics, Refugees, South Sudan, U.S. Flag, United Nations, War, World Food Programme | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I’m stealing this from Eli Rabett wholesale.
Confess: Did you know before this moment that big elections loom in Germany (September 22) and Australia (September 7)?
Eli’s post:
In an ueber weird commercial the German Metalworkers Union puts up on YouTube what may be the single greatest get out the vote ad ever.
A rough transcript of the text to juice up the Aussies out there who also have an election coming up, even though they have to vote.
0:05 Germany chills out
0:13 All the important stuff in 2013 has been decided
0:30 Really, already decided?
0:48 On September 22 the cards will be mixed again
0:51 (Merkel) This government has been the most successful in Germany since the reunification . .
0:57 (Steinbrueck SDP) This government thinks that they can slide through . .
1:00 (FDP = libertarians) Only one thing can beat the, the FDP itself
1:04 National election 2013
1:07 Problems there are aplenty
1:12 No joy from a lousy job?
1:16 Too few nursery places? R. Tol appears
1:23 Rather retire earlier?
1:29 Better education?
1:36 Equality?
1:38 It’s not so easy, first you have one house, and then another
1:40 You can never have enough
14:2 Right now we have an asocial market economy, not a social one
1:46 You have a voice, use it
1:56 September 22 is the election
2:01 It’s close
2:07 It’s difficult
2:11 It’s gonna be dirty
2:17 Unexpected coalitions will emerge
2:25 It’s time to beat on the table
2:32 Push!
2:39 Onwards to the election!
2:46 Vote!!
2:51 So, let’s discuss this a bit further
Maybe you’ll watch the G20 meetings with a little different perspective?
Who was the genius behind that compilation (file under “highest and best use of weird internet videos this year”)? Can we hire her or him for the Texas elections next year?
It’s from the German Metalworkers Union, IG Metall. Justification enough to revitalize America’s labor movement. Rich Trumka, are you paying attention?
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A good get-out-the-vote (GOTV) poster, according to some design critics. GRA 217/Intro to Design
44 Comments | Campaigns, Elections, Germany, Labor and unions, Voting | Tagged: Australia, Campaigns, Elections, Germany, GOTV, unions, voting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
These are pretty cool.
Can you use them in a classroom? Some of these Imagequilts pack a lot of information into a small space — such as the one for Cézanne.
Here, “Subatomic Particles“:
Subatomic particles, by Tufte and Schwartz; click image for a larger version
“Paul Cézanne“:
Paul Cezanne, Imagequilt by Tufte and Schwartz. Useful in art history? European history?
Super Advanced Placement (AP) history teacher John Irish created outstanding PowerPoints showing off art of European eras, or American eras, for use in introducing a unit of history (see a smattering of examples here). Could these Imagequilts substitute, or do it as well, and — especially — faster?
Here’s another, “Pablo Picasso“:
Imagequilt, Pablo Picasso, by Tufte and Schwartz
This one could be particularly useful in a physics course, or a unit on the history of science. Richard Feynman may be most famous, pedagogically at least, for his invention and use of Feynman Diagrams. Most discussions simply mention the things, though a few attempt short explanations. Rare is to find a good example of a Feynman Diagram, to see just what they are and how they work. Tufte and Schwartz offer a bunch:
Feynman Diagrams, an Imagequilt from Tufte and Schwartz
Imagequilts is a Chrome App, available for download so you can make your own. Of course, you’ll need to use Google Chrome to get full effect.
Got any Imagequilts you’d like to share?
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1 Comment | Art, History, Presentations, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Art, Classroom Automation, Education, Edward Tufte, History, Imagequilts, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Labor Day passed, so you can put your flags away until . . . what, Thanksgiving?
Not so fast, patriot!
U.S. Flag Code rules list specific days for flying the flag, and Constitution Day on September 17 is one of those dates.
Also, the Flag Code urges flying the U.S. flag on the anniversary of a state’s entering the union, in that state. California’s statehood day is September 9 (next week!)
California flag flies on the same pole as the U.S. flag; photo from tumblr deepspaceromans.
Stay ready, patriots.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
I said earlier that you may wish to file this under o tempora, o mores; or perhaps under plus ça change.
These words seem oddly, perhaps astonishingly appropriate to political discussion today. They come from the past, from more than a half-century ago, but they refer to issues that have not yet been solved, and to issues that were resolved, but have come undone, or just come around again.
GOP vs. Dems. Image from Addicting Information, “15 differences between Democrats and Republicans.”
I posed this a quiz in a post a couple of days ago.
Does history repeat itself? George Santayana said history repeats for those who forget what happened before.
Here’s a political speech given in Minnesota. Without hitting Google, can you tell who said this, and when?
Democracy does not work that way. Democracy is a matter of faith–a faith in the soul of man–a faith in human rights. That is the kind of faith that moves mountains–that’s the kind of faith that hurled the Iron Range at the Axis and shook the world at Hiroshima.
Faith is much more than efficiency. Faith gives value to all things. Without faith, the people perish.
Today the forces of liberalism face a crisis. The people of the United States must make a choice between two ways of living–a decision, which will affect us the rest of our lives and our children and our grandchildren after us.
On the other side, there is the Wall Street way of life and politics. Trust the leader! Let big business take care of prices and profits! Measure all things by money! That is the philosophy of the masters of the Republican Party.
Well, I have been studying the Republican Party for over 12 years at close hand in the Capital of the United States. And by this time, I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
Since they won’t tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer-but they are willing to help him go broke.
They stand four-square for the American home–but not for housing.
They are strong for labor–but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights.
They favor a minimum wage–the smaller the minimum the better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all–but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools.
They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine–for people who can afford them.
They approve of social security benefits-so much so that they took them away from almost a million people.
They believe in international trade–so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement.
They favor the admission of displaced persons–but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.
They consider electric power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
They say TVA is wonderful–but we ought never to try it again.
They condemn “cruelly high prices”–but fight to the death every effort to bring them down.
They think the American standard of living is a fine thing–so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people.
And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
Now, my friends, that is the Wall Street Republican way of life. But there is another way–there is another way–the Democratic way, the way of the Democratic Party.
Of course, the Democratic Party is not perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But the Democratic Party believes in the people. It believes in freedom and progress, and it is fighting for its beliefs right now.
In the Democratic Party, you won’t find the kind of unity where everybody thinks what the boss tells him to think, and nothing else.
But you will find an overriding purpose to work for the good of mankind. And you will find a program–a concrete, realistic, and practical program that is worth believing in and fighting for.
Now, I call on all liberals and progressives to stand up and be counted for democracy in this great battle. I call on the old Farmer-Labor Party, the old Wisconsin Progressives, the Non-Partisan Leaguers, and the New Dealers to stand up and be counted in this fight.
What clues does that passage contain that it wasn’t said in the past year? Or was it?
I’ll post the answer in a day or so — take a guess in comments.
James said it was Harry Truman, and indeed it was.
President Harry S Truman, image from UCSB American Presidency Project
Truman spoke to a crowd in Minnesota, in the St. Paul Municipal Auditorium, on October 13, 1948, about three weeks before the 1948 election in which he “upset” New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. This was part of Truman’s famous Whistle Stop speaking tour of the U.S.
If the words look like they could have been said today, perhaps we should pay attention to them today, no?
Surely someone has a photograph of Truman speaking in St. Paul — but I haven’t found it yet.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Words of encouragement in tough times, from Samuel Clemens, writing as Mark Twain:
” . . . the report of my death was an exaggeration.” Mark Twain
The note was published in the New York Journal, June 2, 1897. While it’s true that Twain wrote this, most popular citations have added and rearranged words.
Text of the note:
James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness, the report of my death was an exaggeration.
Mark Twain with kitten, in 1907 – Wikipedia image
3 Comments | Accuracy, Famous quotes, Literature, Mark Twain, Misquotes, Newspapers | Tagged: Accuracy, Books, Famous quotes, History, Literature, Mark Twain, Newspapers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Top of Colorado, anyway.
View from Longs Peak, yesterday:
View from Longs Peak, September 2, 2013; 14,259 ft. Photo by Xiang Li.
Xiang Li and James Darrell summited the mountain yesterday, a bit tougher climb than they had expected. No view like that comes without some great effort somewhere. They topped Grays Peak a couple of weeks ago — a slightly higher mountain (20 feet), but an easier climb.
Long’s Peak is the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Longs Peak is one of the 54 mountains with summits over 14,000 feet in Colorado.[3] It can be prominently seen from Longmont, Colorado, as well as from the rest of the Colorado Front Range. It is named after Major Stephen Long, who explored the area in the 1820s. Longs Peak is one of the most prominent mountains in Colorado, rising nearly 10,000 feet above the western edge of the Great Plains.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Description at the YouTube site:
From Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Concert (Clearwater Concert), Madison Square Garden, 5/3/09. Featuring Billy Bragg, Mike & Ruthy Merenda, Dar Williams, New York City Labor Chorus.
1 Comment | Folk Music, Labor and unions, Music, Pete Seeger | Tagged: Folk Music, labor, Labor Day, Pete Seeger, Union Maid, unions | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for September, 2013.
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 
