Neat views of Scotland, as the nation steams toward a vote on independence from the United Kingdom.
A still capture from the film, Dynamic Scotland.
Roger Jackaman created it: Dynamic Scotland
Jackaman said:
Please subscribe to the channel for future films and follow me on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dy…
Tip of the old scrub brush to CBS News Twitter feed. Thanks to Mr. Jackaman for putting it up on YouTube, also. It deserves more than 3,196 views.
1 Comment | 
Geography - Physical, photography, Time-lapse photography, Travel | Tagged: Edinburgh, geography, photography, Scotland, Time-lapse, Travel | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Still important in 2014: Fly your flag for American labor, Monday.
Poster from the Office of War Information, 1942
(Okay, you may fly your flag all weekend — especially if you’re a union member. We get the whole weekend, but Labor Day itself is Monday.)
Labor Day 2014 in the United States is a federal holiday, and one of those days Americans are urged to fly the U.S. flag.
“Free Labor Will Win,” the poster said, encouraging a theme important during World War II, when unions were encouraged to avoid strikes or any action that might interrupt work to build the “arsenal of democracy” believed necessary to win the war. Labor complied, the war was won, and organized labor was the stronger for it. In 2012, some have difficulty remembering when all Americans knew that our future rides on the backs of organized labor.
The poster was issued by the Office of War Information in 1942, in full color. A black-and-white version at the Library of Congress provides a few details for the time:
Labor Day poster. Labor Day poster distributed to war plants and labor organizations. The original is twenty-eight and one-half inches by forty inches and is printed in full color. It was designed by the Office of War Information (OWI) from a photograph especially arranged by Anton Bruehl, well-known photographer. Copies may be obtained by writing the Distribution Section, Office of War Information [alas, you can’t get a copy from the Office of War Information in 2012]
- Digital ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa 8b04027 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b04027
- Reproduction Number: LC-USE6-D-005707 (b&w film neg.)
- Repository: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Even down here in deepest, darkest-right-to-work Texas, patriots fly their flags to honor Labor today. It’s heartening.
Flags fly all around in 1882 at the first Labor Day Parade in New York City’s Union Square; lithograph from USC’s Dornsife History Center, via Wikipedia, artist unidentified
This is partly an encore post, a Labor Day tradition.
More, Other Resources:
This is an encore post, a Labor Day tradition.
1 Comment | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, History, Holidays, Labor and unions, Posters, Primary Source Documents | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Labor Day, Library of Congress, Office of War Information, Patriotism, Posters, Trade union | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
It’s just a photo from World War II, the U.S. flag, flying against some California mountains.
It’s from Manzanar, the camp where Japanese Americans were detained during the war.
What words would be appropriate?
Dorothea Lange photo of the U.S. flag, flying at Manzanar, July 3, 1942. Via Wikimedia. “Scene of barrack homes at this War Relocation Authority Center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. A hot windstorm brings dust from the surrounding desert.” Public domain.
Many more than a thousand words there.
1 Comment | 1941-1945, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Japanese American internment, U.S. Flag, World War II | Tagged: Civil Rights, Dorothea Lange, Japanese Internment, Manzanar, U.S. Flag, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Pic Tweet from the National Park Service: Beautiful photo of the exact spot Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream speech” 50 years ago today. #MLKdream50 pic.twitter.com/MHwWsY7Hwp
Nice photo from the Lincoln Memorial looking toward the Washington Monument across the length of the Reflecting Pool.
The photo is a couple of years old, having been taken before the scaffolding went up on the Washington Monument for repairs for damage from the 2011 earthquake — scaffolding which has since been removed. It’s a winter or fall picture, I’m guessing from the bare trees, and taken early in the morning, as the sun rises in the east over the Capitol and Washington Monument. That is one of the best times to be at the Lincoln Memorial, in my experience. The man in the photo has the historic spot very much to himself at that time.
Engraving on the stone says:
I HAVE A DREAM
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM
AUGUST 28, 1963
Assuming you’re older than 51, where were you that day in August? Do you remember the event in the news?
King’s speech got very little press that day, or the next. It was in the time when television news operations used film. The film came late in the afternoon, and would have to be developed — it missed evening broadcasts on that Saturday. The text did not get much mention, either — reports for the Washington Post and New York Times, had to be filed early. Most reporters wrote before the event. Even those who wrote after the speech often were unaware of how it had moved the crowd. It’s one of those historic events that, had you been there, you’d have known something happened. but not necessarily what.
News reports tended to be dominated by coverage of the size of the crowd, and the fact that violence didn’t break out.
It was a different time.
More:
This is an edited encore post
2 Comments | Famous quotes, History, Landmarks, Martin Luther King | Tagged: 1963, Civil Rights, famous speeches, History, I Have a Dream, Lincoln Memorial, March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Judge Richard Posner, 7th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals
“It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry — a tradition that got swept away.”
Two states attorneys general argued before a panel of judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago yesterday that marriage between members of the same gender should be stopped because of tradition. AP’s story explains what happened.
While judges often play devil’s advocate during oral arguments, the panel’s often-blistering questions for the defenders of the same-sex marriage bans could be a signal the laws may be in trouble — at least at this step in the legal process.
Richard Posner, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, hit the backers of the ban the hardest. He balked when Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Timothy Samuelson repeatedly pointed to “tradition” as the underlying justification for barring gay marriage.
“It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry — a tradition that got swept away,” the 75-year-old judge said. Prohibition of same-sex marriage, Posner said, derives from “a tradition of hate … and savage discrimination” of homosexuals.
Posner is one of those guys who gives us hope for the human race, and hope especially for that branch of the human race known as Homo americanus ssp. ordinarius.
Appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, Posner is widely recognized as one of the brightest and most engaging judges in the U.S. today. That’s a sop to all the rest, to call him “one of ” the brightest — to avoid making everybody else give up hope.
But he’s outspoken enough that most legal scholars agree he’d never survive a hearing to take a place on the U.S. Supreme Court. The late Sen. Roman Hruska’s revenge, that we can’t get the best and the brightest on our highest court.
Posner is not content to sit on the bench and make high pronouncements. He pushes America, courts and lawyers, to be better. He teaches at the University of Chicago Law School (in a position not unlike that the young Barack Obama had). Posner’s high-flying comment-on-anything-important style got cut back in the past few months when his blogging partner died — Nobel-winning economist Gary S. Becker.
It must be agony to be a lawyer defending a pointless, silly and destructive law, to a panel that includes Richard Posner.
Arun With a View captured the reasons Posner strikes fear in conservatives, despite his being a Ronald Reagan conservative.
Sketch of Judge Richard Posner by the late David Levine
NPR has a delicious interview with Richard Posner. Money quote
“I’ve become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy,” [Posner] said.
And this
“Because if you put [yourself] in [John Roberts’] position … what’s he supposed to think? That he finds his allies to be a bunch of crackpots? Does that help the conservative movement? I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts? All the sudden you find out that the people you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press. What do you do? Do you become more conservative? Or do you say, ‘What am I doing with this crowd of lunatics?’ Right? Maybe you have to re-examine your position.”
Listen to it here and enjoy.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Texas Freedom Network’s emails — probably on the blog sometime soon.
Yes, I read Posner despite his errors, getting hoaxed by the DDT/Rachel Carson hoaxsters. That just indicates the danger of the hoax and the need to correct it and stamp it out.
More:
1 Comment | Civil Rights, Human Rights, Justice, Law, Marriage, Quotes | Tagged: 7th Circuit, Arun With a View, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Justice, Law, marriage, Quotes, Richard Posner | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Water Cycle poster formerly available through NRCS of USDA.
Here’s a video guaranteed to tick off the anti-Agenda 21 crowd, and anyone else who hates American farmers and their work to make their farms last for centuries — what is known as “soil and water conservation” to Boy Scouts, and “sustainable practices” to agronomists.
But for the life of me, I can’t find anything offensive in it.
Leave a Comment » | Agenda 21, Agriculture, Conservation, Farming, Politics, Water | Tagged: Agenda 21, Conservation, Farming, Politics, soil conservation, USDA NRCS, Water | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 26 is the anniversary of the first television broadcast of professional baseball, in 1939; the future-legendary Red Barber called a doubleheader between his Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds from Ebbets field.
Both games were carried on experimental television station W2XBS, which evolved into New York’s NBC affiliate Channel 2, WNBC. Two stationary cameras were used, in contrast to the several used in modern broadcasts — and it was in black and white. About 3,000 people are estimated to have watched.
The Reds won the opener, 5-2, but the Dodgers roared back in game 2, 6-1.
In 1939, the broadcast was inspired by the New York World’s Fair, which showcased television, though there were perhaps only 400 television sets in the New York area. Baseball on television didn’t really take off until after World War II, with many games scheduled in 1946. Today, all 30 major league teams are scheduled to play on TV.
Ebbets field is gone. The Dodgers absconded to Los Angeles in the 1950s. Baseball games are in color.
Red Barber is gone, too. We have great play-by-play guys, and wonderful color commentators. There will never be another Red Barber though. Below is an old post noting Barber’s ways with typewriters.
Sportswriter Red Barber at his typewriter – State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/10011
The great Red Barber, when his hair was still red, working at his typewriter, with a volume of Roget’s Thesaurus close by.
Many of us knew Red chiefly through his weekly chats with Bob Edwards at NPR’s Morning Edition. The biographies say Red died in 1992. That was 19 years ago — it seems more recent than that. (Edwards left Morning Edition in 2004.)
It may be ironic to show Barber at his typewriter. He would be more accurately portrayed, perhaps, behind a microphone at a baseball park.
From 1939 through 1953 Barber served as the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was working for the New York Yankees when he retired in 1966. Barber had the distinction of broadcasting baseball’s first night game on May 24, 1935 in Cincinnati and the sport’s first televised contest on August 26, 1939 in Brooklyn.
During his 33-year career Barber became the recognized master of baseball play-by-play, impressing listeners as a down-to-earth man who not only informed but also entertained with folksy colloquialisms such as “in the catbird seat,” “pea patch,” and “rhubarb” which gave his broadcasts a distinctive flavor. (Radio Hall of Fame)
More:
Some of this post, probably the best stuff on Red Barber, is an encore presentation.
1 Comment | Baseball, History, Radio, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: August 26 1939, Baseball, Bob Edwards, Broadcasting, Brookly Dodgers, Florida Memory, History, Radio, Red Barber, State Archives of Florida, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cartoonist Randall Munroe at XKCD demonstrates ice age issues.
Of course it was a cartoonist. Where else does one go to find the truth these days, but the cartoons?
XKCD dramatically shows differences in North American cities and their relationship with their local ice sheets, 21,000 years ago. Cartoon by Randall Munroe.
Enric Sala wrote about our disappearing ice for the World Economic Forum — a post worth reading.
Twenty kilometres in 20 years. That’s how much the Ilulissat glacier has retreated as this mighty, flowing river of ice crumbles into the ocean. It sounds like a lot. But I did not fully realize what this meant until we flew over the Ilulissat icefjord. It takes 10 minutes for the helicopter to fly over the amount of ice that has been lost because of global warming – in this glacier alone.
The speed at which the glacier moves has doubled relative to that in 1998. My scientist brain, accustomed to working with numbers and large scales, had a hard time absorbing this information. If I was rationally aware of the consequences of global warming from scientific reports before, now I felt it emotionally. This is what my trip to Greenland with a group of World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders did to us. It made us move from knowing and caring to be desperate to do something about it.
The experience also made us realize that all the international negotiations and agreements to date are not going to help avert the imminent catastrophe. Not even the boldest targets to reduce carbon pollution put forward by the smartest nations are going to move the dial. It’s all an illusion of movement, kind of like Alice in Wonderland’s Red Queen, running and running but not going anywhere.
Truth on ice.
There is a difference, though. Ice thins, gets weaker, and covers less area. As that happens, as the planet warms, the density of denialists does not appear to decrease, at least not fast, and not toward greater understanding and less insanity.
22 Comments | Cartoons, Climate change, climate_change, Economics, Global warming, History | Tagged: Cartoons, Climate change, Economics, Global warming, Greenland, Ice Sheets, World Economic Forum, XKCD | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This is why experienced Scouts, the better Scouts, don’t use their flashlights at night.
No one wants to miss this light show.
Philmont Scout Ranch night sky. Philmont is home to some amazing views. Photo by Kaitlyn Chaballa.
One can get similar views all across northern New Mexico, of course.
More:
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, Boy Scouts of America, Milky Way, Outdoor Recreation | Tagged: Astronomy, Boy Scouts of America, Milky Way, Outdoor Recreation, Philmont Scout Ranch | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Much as the GOP Caucus and other climate-change deniers, Roman officials in Pompeii and Herculaneum refused to be alarmed at the ground shaking, and obvious eruptions from Mount Vesuvius, on August 24, 79 C.E.
This morning we awake to news of earthquakes in Chile and California. The old Earth keeps rumbling.
Oddly, we now pay more attention to earthquakes than to other things that can cause greater, rolling disasters.
Santayana’s Ghost wonders if we ever learn from history.
Vesuvius, asleep for now. National Geographic photo by Robert Clark
6 Comments | Disasters, earthquakes, Global warming, Volcanoes | Tagged: 79 AD, 79 CE, Disasters, earthquakes, Global warming, Pompeii, Rome, Vesuvius, Volcanoes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Union-Made School Supplies Checklist, from the Twitter feed of AFSCME
You may have to shop a little harder; my experience, from the classroom, is that these products generally work better than non-union-made, and cheap import substitutes. Over the course of a year in class — or a year in a kid’s backpack — quality can save you a lot of money.
Having difficulty reading the board? Check out a similar list from Mike Hall at AFL-CIO Now:
Back to School photo by Avolore/Twitter Creative Commons
International Paper Co.; Mead Lined Paper; Roaring Springs Wirebound Notebooks (including these sub-brands: Environotes, Imagine, Genesis, Enviroshades, Emoticon, Lifenotes and Maxim); Roaring Spring Environotes Index cards; and Roaring Spring Legal Pads (including these sub-brands: Boardroom, Enviroshades, WIDE, Enviropads and Envirogold).
Notebooks and Binders:
Acco/Mead; Day-Timer Organizers; Roaring Spring Pocket Folders; Roaring Spring Composition Books.
Pens:
Sharp; Sheaffer; and Parker.
Student and Teacher Supplies:
Martin Weber Art Supplies; Roaring Spring Art Supplies; Scotch Tape; Master Lock; Kleenex and Puff Tissues; and Claus Scissors.
Shops Staffed by Union Employees:
Office Max; Safeway; Giant; Albertson’s; Supervalu; Ralph’s; and Vons.
Back to School Clothes:
All USA Clothing; Ben Davis; Hugo Boss; Oshkosh B’Gosh; Russell Athletic; Union Line; and Windjammer.
Lunchbox items:
Jif peanut butter; Oroweat bread; Farmer John lunch meat; Mott’s apple sauce; Wheat Thins; Slim Jim; Minute Maid juice; and V8-Splash.
Go, students: Make America and your parents proud.
Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, Labor and unions | Tagged: Back-to-school, Economics, Education, labor, unions | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
In working to make quality common, and valuable, W. Edwards Deming seems to have learned a little about life along the way.
In 1989, he sketched out this diagram.
I think it speaks for itself, but what do you think?
W. Edwards Deming’s Life Diagram
Tip of the old scrub brush to Richard Sheridan, from whose Tweet I took the diagram.
The Deming Cycle for continual improvement
More:
2 Comments | Business, Leadership, Management, Quality, Teaching | Tagged: Business, Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Life Diagram, Management, Quality, Teaching, w edwards deming | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
13-year-old paperboy Chester Kahapea happily hawks a commemorative edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with the headline showing the state had achieved statehood after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the law authorizing Hawaii as a state. Star-Bulletin photo by Murray Befeler.
Hawaii’s official statehood day is August 21, commemorating the day in 1959 when Hawaii was recognized as a member of the union of the United States of America. Hawaiians should fly their flags to day in honor of the date (you may, too).
Hawaii formally celebrates the day on the third Friday in August (last Friday, for 2013). I hope you joined in the festivities (it’s a holiday in Hawaii) — but under the U.S. Flag Code, you may certainly fly your flags on August 21, regardless which day of the week that is.
Specimen copy of the ballot used by Hawaiians in a June 27, 1959, plebiscite to approve conditions of statehood. Image from Hawaii Magazine, 2009
After the U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898 (in action separate from the Spanish-American War) attempts at getting Hawaii admitted as a state got rolling. After World War II, with the strategic importance of the islands firmly implanted in Americans’ minds, the project picked up some steam. Still, it was 14 years after the end of the war that agreements were worked out between the people of Hawaii, the Hawaiian royal family, Congress and the executive branch. The deal passed into law had to be ratified by a plebiscite among Hawaiian citizens. The proposition won approval with 94% of votes in favor.
Some native Hawaiian opposition to statehood arose later, and deference to those complaints has muted statehood celebrations in the 21st century.
Other than the tiny handful of loudmouth birthers, most Americans today are happy to have Hawaii as a state, the fifth richest in the U.S. by personal income. The nation has a lot of good and great beaches, but the idea of catching sun and surf in Hawaii on vacation might be considered an idealized part of the American dream.
U.S. and Hawaii flags flying together.
More:
From Prologue, the blog of the National Archives: This petition, rolled onto a wooden spool, was signed by 116,000 supporters of Hawaii statehood and presented to the U.S. Senate on February 26, 1954. (RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate)
U.S. postage stamp issued in 2009 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii’s admission to the union.
Contrast the first class postage price above with the airmail postage price of this stamp issued in 1959 — August 21, 1959 7¢ Rose Hawaii Statehood stamp. Wikipedia image
This is an encore post.
6 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Statehood, World War II | Tagged: Flag Etiquitte, Fly your flag today, geography, Hawaii, History, Kingdom of Hawaii, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ho Chi Minh at his typewriter. Photo from EarthStation 1
The image looks to me to have been lifted off of a film or video; by the non-white color of his beard, this must have been taken sometime before 1955. I’ve found no other details on the photo, especially nothing on the typewriter. Anybody know the date of the photo, the occasion, the location, or the typewriter?
But there you go: Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Vietnam freedom fighters against the Japanese in World War II, then against the French colonialists (his forces then called Viet Minh, and later Viet Cong), and then of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the United States after 1954, until his death in 1969.
Ha! A second photo of Ho and a typewriter, from Greg Hocfell:
Ho Chi Minh at his typewriter. Photo via Greg Hocfell
Might those photos be from the same session? Ho looks about the same age, his hair and beard are about the same color, and he’s wearing a dark shirt with white buttons in each.
More:
1 Comment | History, Technology, Typewriters, Vietnam | Tagged: History, Ho Chi Minh, Technology, Typewriters, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Found this wonderful page with a list of resources on Millard Fillmore, available on line from the Library of Congress. The list was compiled by Library of Congress’s Virtual Services, Digital Reference Section.
Completely cribbed from that site:
American Memory Historical CollectionsAbraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
“I Do Solemnly Swear…”: Presidential Inaugurations
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1860 & 1870-1885
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
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Happy researching! Teachers, be sure to make your students aware of these sites (I presume other presidents are covered, too).
Leave a Comment » | DBQ sources, DBQs, Historic documents, History, Library of Congress, Millard Fillmore, Research | Tagged: DBQ, History, Library of Congress, Millard Fillmore, Original Documents, Research | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for August, 2014.
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 
