Millions of students across the world miss educations they should be getting, due to war, famine, weather or poverty.
ICRC caption: In the town of Kodok, South Sudan, a boy stands in a shuttered school, where classes have been closed for months after fighting intensified in the area. Photo: Jason Straziuso/ICRC
What are the odds this boy will, within a few years, take up a gun to fight in a war, instead of finishing his education?
What can we do about it?
1 Comment | 
Africa, Classroom technology, Education, War | Tagged: Classrooms, Education, South Sudan, War | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
From the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross):
Red Cross caption: No books, no chairs, no safe place to learn: This is a classroom in #Yemen where 2 million children are out of school according to @UNICEF.
Two things essential for a classroom: Student, and teacher.
Ponder that next time your local school board denies raises to teachers. And remember this classroom in Yemen, where students want to learn, and a teacher goes into hell to let them do that.
More:
Leave a Comment » | Classroom management, Classroom technology, Education, Teachers, War | Tagged: Classroom, Education, Teachers, War, Yemen | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Interested, and interesting, to discover Botswana has a Facebook page where it appears is posted almost every press release or news item from the government.
I found it because some wag claimed on Twitter that Botswana faces a malaria crisis, and therefore DDT should be ‘brought back from the dead.’
Botswana did post about a malaria outbreak, but the nation appears to have good sense about how to fight malaria. The Tweeter missed that Botswana is already doing what a nation would use DDT for, Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), and that phrase alone means Botswana’s malaria fighters are alert to any need for DDT should it arise, but also to the severe limitations on DDT use. DDT doesn’t work in about 95% of the nations on Earth.
Botswana is among the ten nations remaining on Earth who use DDT when and where they find a population of mosquitoes still susceptible to DDT. Almost all nations on Earth signed the Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty (POPs, or Stockholm Agreement), which requires annual reporting of DDT use. But there are 11 other pesticides the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for IRS. Botswana is unlikely to use DDT where it won’t work, which is most places.
Botswana is one of the DDT Ten in 2016, too. But this is down from 43 nations in 2001. DDT’s effectiveness and time as a tool to fight malaria is mostly gone, vanishing quickly.
Botswana has DDT if it can find a use for it; no more DDT is needed. A malaria outbreak in Botswana is no reason to remove the ban on DDT use on U.S. farms.
Here is the story/press release from Botswana’s government:
MALARIA CASES RISE IN OKAVANGO
North West District has been hard hit by a malaria epidemic with 670 recorded cases and five deaths since the beginning of the rainy season.
Head of the District Health Management Team, Dr Malebogo Pusoentsi revealed this at a press conference aimed at evaluating efforts made in the district to control the disease, recently.
A task force was in the district to assess and appreciate the situation as well as discuss what more could be done going forward.
Dr Pusoentsi said the highly affected region was Okavango which recorded over 90 per cent of the cases.
Highly affected areas include Shakawe, Xakao and Seronga in the Okavango District while in Ngami, Tsau and Mababe were the most affected.
Out of the affected people, it was reported that males were mostly affected as compared to females, and that more than 30 per cent of the affected were children. The most affected areas were said to be schools.
Dr Pusoentsi explained that malaria infection in humans was mainly transmitted through the sting of the female anopheles mosquito, adding that the disease in people could present clinically as either uncomplicated, complicated or asymptomatic, especially for people living in malaria endemic areas.
She stated that prevention of malaria remained a priority with strategies aimed at vector control. She said two strategies have been used to control mosquitoes in the area such as indoor residual spraying and the distribution of the long lasting insecticide treated nets. She added that 57 000 nets having been distributed across the country.
Regarding indoor spraying, Dr Pusoentsi revealed that for the transmission period of 2016/17, the district achieved an average of 69 per cent coverage as compared to the 85 per cent target.
Asked if the district was winning the battle, she said they were on the right track as health officials have doubled up efforts to tackle the epidemic.
She said social mobilisation was effective as the community and leadership were taught to make malaria a priority in their agenda, adding that if one member of a family was affected, chances were high that the rest of the family were also at risk.
Furthermore, Dr Pusoentsi explained that many opportunities still existed at community level to effectively control the spread of malaria, citing the cleaning of surroundings to minimise the breeding spaces for the mosquitoes.
Another strategy was to work collaboratively to ensure community knowledge and participation during the epidemic period. She urged the community to visit health facilities if they experience any symptoms of malaria so that they could be assisted on time.
She noted that common signs and symptoms include high temperature, headache and rigors, pallor and vomiting.
Dr Pusoentsi also noted that Botswana was among the countries which were aiming to eliminate malaria by 2018, adding that as part of the strategy, all efforts and investments had been put in place to control the spread.
Effective surveillance mechanism, she said had been put in place to monitor the disease burden and response efficiency at all times.
In addition, she pointed out that case management and drug supply had been strengthened to ensure quality management of cases of malaria to avoid deaths. (BOPA)
Leave a Comment » | Africa, DDT, History, Malaria, medicine, Public health, Science | Tagged: Africa, Botswana, DDT, Malaria, medicine, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. flag displayed by horse-mounted marchers in a San Francisco St. Patrick’s Day Parade (perhaps 2014); image from United Irish Societies of San Francisco (UISSF).
I usually put up a post near the first of the month listing the occasions upon which U.S. laws urge us to fly Old Glory. March usually slips by without such post.
No good reason, other than in most years, March offers no regular commemorations upon which flag flying is urged. The odd year is when Easter comes early. Easter is one of the holidays the Flag Code says flags should be flown.
But, most years, Easter falls in April, as it does in 2017.
The Flag Code urges residents of states to fly the U.S. flag on the anniversary of their state’s entering the union, on statehood day. Those are the only dates in March, most years.
Flag fly dates, for March (already past, in 2017):
A lot of St. Patrick’s Day revelers and parade marchers display the flag, but it’s not an official U.S. observance. I keep hoping, but I get little traction for a law urging flying the flag to observe Freedom Day, on the birth anniversary of the Father of the Constitution, James Madison.
People gathered on the lawn of James Madison’s home in Montpelier, Virginia, to display the U.S. flag in a card display, 2011. AP photo?
Much irony, and great history, in the U.S. colors being shown so dramatically on St. Patrick’s Day, a day relatively uncommemorated in Ireland, and commemorated in the U.S. chiefly to help overcome bias against Irish immigrants.
I’ll try to keep up better, next year.
Sure, you may fly the U.S. flag every day in March. You need not wait for sanction from a Presidential Proclamation or a Congressional Resolution. You may fly the flag every day. (Just follow flag etiquette when you do.)
U.S. colors led the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Seattle, Washington, in 2014. Photo from IrishClub.org
U.S. colors stood out in a field of green at the St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Patrick’s Day parade, 2015(?). Photo from VisitStPaul.com.
U.S. flag displayed as members of the Yorktown Irish Pipes and Drums Corps march in the 35th annual Northern Westchester-Putnam St. Patrick Day Parade, in Mahopac, New York, 2011. Photo by Seth Harrison
5 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History | Tagged: Flag Code, flag display, Fly your flag today, History, March | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Serena Williams portrait in the New York Times Magazine. Credit Christopher Griffith for The New York Times. Stylist: Sarah Schussheim. Hair: Johnnie Sapong. Makeup: Fiona Stiles
Tough to track down the original screen capture — genius in recognizing it, whoever did it first — but it’s clear that Serena Williams is one of the better things to come out of America, and to some, America’s only hope in a time of Trump.
Headlines make it appear Serena Williams has a more effective foreign policy and military deterrent than the U.S. under Trump’s regime.
https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/842038491026456578
https://twitter.com/MaxKennerly/status/842047892378509317
You get the idea.
Two copy editors in different departments write headlines, and they get mashed up by a third editor or some robot. Hope results. Not vain hope, we hope.
Didn’t know it was an old screen cap — hadn’t seen it before. It’s timely again, and I needed the laugh.
http://twitter.com/BN2187/status/842239477171027969
https://twitter.com/mytweetmark/status/838362815031279616
More:
Leave a Comment » | Humor, News, North Korea | Tagged: Humor, News, North Korea, Serena Williams | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
E=energy; m=mass; c=speed of light
Happy Einstein Day! to us. Albert’s been dead since 1955 — sadly for us. Our celebrations now are more for our own satisfaction and curiosity, and to honor the great man — he’s beyond caring.
Almost fitting that he was born on π Day, no? I mean, is there an E=mc² Day? He’s 138 years old today, and famous around the world for stuff that most people still don’t understand.
Fittingly, perhaps, March 14 now is celebrated as Pi Day, in honor of that almost magical number, Pi, used to calculate the circumference of a circle. Pi is 3. 1415~, and so the American date 3/14 got tagged as Pi Day.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, to Hermann and Pauline Einstein.
26 years later, three days after his birthday, he sent off the paper on the photo-electric effect; that paper would win him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.
In that same year of 1905, he published three other papers, solving the mystery of Brownian motion, describing what became known as the Special Theory of Relativity and solving the mystery of why measurements of the light did not show any effects of motion as Maxwell had predicted, and a final paper that noted a particle emitting light energy loses mass. This final paper amused Einstein because it seemed so ludicrous in its logical extension that energy and matter are really the same stuff at some fundamental point, as expressed in the equation demonstrating an enormous amount of energy stored in atoms, E=mc².
Albert Einstein as a younger man – Nobel Foundation image
Any one of the papers would have been a career-capper for any physicist. Einstein dashed them all off in just a few months, forever changing the fields of physics. And, you noticed: Einstein did not win a Nobel for the Special Theory of Relativity, nor for E=mc². He won it for the photo-electric effect. Irony in history. Nobel committee members didn’t understand Einstein’s other work much better than the rest of us today.
117 years later, Einstein’s work affects us every day. Relativity theory at some level I don’t fully understand makes possible the use Global Positioning Systems (GPS), which revolutionized navigation and mundane things like land surveying and microwave dish placement.
Development of nuclear power both gives us hope for an energy-rich future, and gives us fear of nuclear war. Sometimes, even the hope of the energy rich future gives us fear, as we watch and hope nuclear engineers can control the piles in nuclear power plants damaged by earthquakes and tsunami in Japan.
Albert Einstein on a 1966 US stamp (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If Albert Einstein was a genius at physics, he was more dedicated to pacifism. He resigned his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. His pacifism made the German Nazis nervous; Einstein fled Germany in the 1930s, eventually settling in the United States. In the U.S., he was persuaded by Leo Szilard to write to President Franklin Roosevelt to suggest the U.S. start a program to develop an atomic weapon, because Germany most certainly was doing exactly that. But while urging FDR to keep up with the Germans, Einstein refused to participate in the program himself, sticking to his pacifist views. Others could, and would, design and build atomic bombs. (Maybe it’s a virus among nuclear physicists — several of those working on the Manhattan Project were pacifists, and had great difficulty reconciling the idea that the weapon they worked on to beat Germany, was deployed on Japan, which did not have a nuclear weapons program.)
Everybody wanted to claim, and honor Einstein; USSR issued this stamp dedicated to Albert Einstein Русский: Почтовая марка СССР, посвящённая Альберту Эйнштейну (Photo credit: HipStamp)
Einstein was a not-great father, and probably not a terribly faithful husband at first — though he did think to give his first wife, in the divorce settlement, a share of a Nobel Prize should he win it. Einstein was a good violinist, a competent sailor, an incompetent dresser, and a great character.
His sister suffered a paralyzing stroke. For many months Albert spent hours a day reading to her the newspapers and books of the day, convinced that though mute and appearing unconscious, she would benefit from hearing the words. He said he did not hold to orthodox religions, but could there be a greater show of faith in human spirit?
Einstein in 1950, five years before his death
When people hear clever sayings, but forget to whom the bon mots should be attributed, Einstein is one of about five candidates to whom all sorts of things are attributed, though he never said them. (Others include Lincoln, Jefferson, Mark Twain and Will Rogers). Einstein is the only scientist in that group. So, for example, we can be quite sure Einstein never claimed that compound interest was the best idea of the 20th century. This phenomenon is symbolic of the high regard people have for the man, even though so few understand what his work was, or meant.
A most interesting man. A most important body of work. He deserves more study and regard than he gets, in history, diplomacy and science.
Does anyone know? What was Albert Einstein’s favorite pie?
More, Resources:
4 Comments | 1941-1945, Albert Einstein, Atomic Bomb, Citizenship, Franklin Roosevelt, History, History of Science, Physics, Science, World War II | Tagged: Albert Einstein, Atomic Bomb, Biography, Citizenship, History, March 14 1879, Physics, pi Day, Science, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The good folks at PBS work to provide great resources for teachers, and they’ve got some for Pi Day, as we might expect. In an e-mail, PBS said:
Discover how one number is so important and why it gets its own day!
Pi is a very special ratio which calls for a very special holiday! Learn about the origins of “Pi Day” and find out how it’s celebrated around the world by challenging your students to find the circumference of circular objects in their classroom! Discover More
Three exercises math and science teachers may find useful and fun.
Recommended Resources
Pizza Pi: Circumference and Area of a Circle – Grades: 6-8Help students strengthen their understanding of key math concepts using real-world examples! New vocabulary includes: circumference, diameter, ratio, radius, and pi. Explore More
Calculating Pi with Darts – Grades: 6-12
Discover the immersive, perplexing, and hands-on side of physical science with Physics Girls who calculates Pi using a random sample of darts thrown at a square and circle target. Explore More
Pi and the Fibonacci Sequence – Grades: 6-12
What do flower petals, pinecones, and rivers have in common? Math! That’s right – math reveals itself in the most unexpected places. Explore intriguing appearances of Pi and the Fibonacci sequence in the natural world. Explore More
Images from PBS
Leave a Comment » | Lesson plans, Mathematics, Teaching, Teaching Resources | Tagged: Lesson plans, Mathematics, Pi, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Of course you remembered that today is pi Day, right?
Happy π Day! Pi Day Pie – Slashfood.com
Oh, or maybe better, π Day.
We’ll start with the brief post from months ago, and then build on it with some activities and posts from around the WordPress-o-sphere.
The good people at PiDay.org suggest a few ways you can celebrate:
Make (and Eat) a Pie – These pie recipes for Pi Day from NPR’s McCallister look incredibly tasty. But, there’s no shame in putting a frozen store-bought pie in the oven, or picking up a pie from your local bakery. Any kind of pie is great on Pi Day! If you’re making your own, get inspired by these beautifully designed Pi Day Pies. Tell us on Facebook: What’s your favorite kind of pie for Pi Day?
Hope your π Day is complete as a circle, and well-rounded!
How are others celebrating? A look around WordPress:
At SocialMediaPhobe, a musical interpretation of pi featuring the music of Michael Blake:
Today is March 14th, also known as “Pi Day” for us math geeks out there because March 14th (3/14) is the first 3 digits of π (3.14159…). To celebrate “Pi Day” I highly recommend doing something mathematical while having some pie at 1:59 pm. I recommend Yumology‘s S’mores Pie as it has 3 main ingredients (chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker) and about 0.14159 other ingredients like sugar, butter, and stuff. If you are not a math geek, its okay…you can still eat pie and count things like how many stop signs you pass on your way back to work from lunch. Or you could go to the library and take out a book on something fun like binary code. As we like to say, “There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those that understand binary and those that don’t.” Seriously, binary is as easy as 01000001, 01000010, 01000011.
Miles Free at PMPA Speaking of Precision:
So besides being the cause of much techie “irrational” exuberance, Pi Day is a great way to get some engagement with students.
Marymount High School has several activities, last year they had a design competition incorporating pi; the students then made and sold buttons of each design, proceeds going to the Red Cross.
Hmm- math subject matter, design, production, sales, accounting.
Sounds like what we do in manufacturing.
Maybe celebrating Pi Day is not so irrational as first thought.
Free said his pie is peach.
On March 12, 2009 your lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution (HRES 224) recognizing March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day. It is one of the more legit holidays we discuss here, and it is actually an homage to geeks everywhere who see the date as a reason to celebrate due to its mathematical implications. We say any reason to celebrate anything is just fine by us.
Since we are predominately about food we will suggest a few places to actually enjoy a pie.
If you followed us at all this week you may have seen the pie at Bowl and Barrel pop up on our pages. This is the uber delicious Butterscotch Pie served as the solo dessert at the bowling alley and restaurant. Go eat one of these.
He’s got more pi pie, if you click over there.
Gareth Branwyn at MakeZine offers more pie and a mnemonic:
By way of sci-fi author and mathenaut Rudy Rucker’s Facebook wall comes this:
One way to remember the first few digits of pi is to count the letters in the words of this phrase:
“How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.”
[Image via FreakingNews]
Another song, on YouTube, at Awsomesauce:
b.love offers this clock image (is this clock for sale somewhere?):
A clock for pi day
Chirag Singh explains his “passion for pi.”
Daniel Tammet, “Different Ways of Knowing:
Geeks are really out in force today, flaunting pi for all they’ve got.
More:
Hey, students! Did any of your teachers do cool stuff for Pi Day? Tell us what, and who, in comments.
Pi Day? March 14? It’s also the anniversary of Einstein’s birth . . . see a resemblance? Image from Legends102.7.com
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
1 Comment | Albert Einstein, Anniversaries, Humor, Mathematics, Pi π, Science | Tagged: Albert Einstein, Humor, π, Mathematics, pi Day, Pie, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Accurate information can be the greatest tool in the fight against diseases, infectious or vector-borne. NAIAD slide.
Brazil endures an outbreak of Yellow Fever in early 2017. Mosquitoes transmit Yellow Fever from one mammal host to another. Famously, Yellow Fever had to be controlled to allow construction of the Panama Canal between 1910 and 1915.
It should be just a matter of days, or perhaps a few hours, before harpies on the right and in anti-science trenches demand “return” of DDT to fight this outbreak, arguing that EPA didn’t know what it was doing when it banned DDT from farm use, and probably dropping cheap shots at Rachel Carson and “environmentalists.”
Yellow Fever is usually carried by mosquitoes in the species Aedes aegypti, a nasty little bug that carries several diseases to humans including Zika virus and West Nile virus.
Distribution of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the U.S. Map by U.S. CDC, via Wikipedia
Astute observers know that A. aegypti are almost ubiquitous in warmer human cities, so the transmission of the disease requires only that a host (usually human) shows up infected with the pathogen, and an epidemic might occur.
Those observers also know that all mosquitoes are resistant or immune to DDT and frequently to other pesticides as well, their having been bombarded with pesticides for 60 or more years, and consequently having evolved resistance alleles. So spraying with DDT won’t work.
That’ won’t stop those who relish slandering Carson or who wish to impugn the humanity and good motives of environmentalists.
Get facts, first.
Come Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Cahtharine Paules of the U.S.’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAIAD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to offer information to calm the hyperventilated, and to inform the serious and concerned citizen with an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, explaining Brazil’s problem, Yellow Fever, and what U.S. residents need to do, and this press release from NAIAD to get the key points across quickly.
Will anyone listen?
Yellow Fever in the Americas
Current Outbreak Merits Close Watch
March 8, 2017The unusually large outbreak of yellow fever now occurring in rural Brazil deserves careful attention by world health authorities, notes Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health. Writing in a Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Fauci and his associate Catharine I. Paules, M.D., note that this latest outbreak of a serious mosquito-borne virus comes as Zika virus, which is spread by the same mosquito as yellow fever virus, continues to affect countries throughout the Americas.
Historically, yellow fever has claimed millions of lives, including many thousands in the United States. The Philadelphia epidemic of 1793, for example, killed approximately ten percent of the city’s population. In its most serious form, yellow fever symptoms include high fever, hemorrhagic manifestations, kidney failure, liver malfunction and jaundice (yellowish appearance of the eyes and skin, which gives the disease its name.)
A vaccine has been available since 1937 and confers lifelong immunity in up to 99 percent of those who receive it. Extensive immunization campaigns, along with effective mosquito control—especially in developed countries—have reduced yellow fever cases worldwide. Nevertheless, localized outbreaks in parts of Africa and Central and South America account for an estimated 84,000 to 170,000 severe cases of disease and between 29,000 and 60,000 deaths annually.
The Brazilian outbreak is a manifestation of the “sylvatic,” or jungle, transmission cycle in which forest-dwelling mosquitoes spread the virus primarily to non-human primates, with humans serving only as incidental hosts. At this time, there is no evidence that the outbreak is transforming into its “urban” cycle, but authorities should remain alert for this possibility, the authors note. In the urban cycle, yellow fever virus is usually spread by city-dwelling Aedes aegypti mosquitoes directly to people. An urban cycle of yellow fever in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo that began in late 2015 caused 961 confirmed cases and 137 deaths. During that outbreak, write Drs. Fauci and Paules, the world’s emergency vaccine stockpile reserve was exhausted, limiting the number of available vaccine doses and making the outbreak more difficult to control. To prevent a similar occurrence during a future yellow fever outbreak in Brazil or elsewhere, “early identification of cases and rapid implementation of public health management and prevention strategies, such as mosquito control and appropriate vaccination, are critical,” they write.
In an era of frequent international travel, an increase in domestic cases in Brazil has the potential to spread yellow fever to non-endemic areas and could pose serious disease-control challenges, Drs. Fauci and Paules observe. They urge clinicians, especially those in the United States and other places where yellow fever is uncommon, to inform themselves about yellow fever symptoms and to adopt a high index of suspicion for this diagnosis, particularly when examining travelers returning from affected regions.
ARTICLE:
CI Paules and AS Fauci. Yellow fever: Once again on the radar screen in the Americas. New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1702172 (2017).WHO:
Dr. Fauci is available to discuss this article.CONTACT:
To schedule interviews, please contact Anne A. Oplinger, (301) 402-1663, aoplinger@niaid.nih.gov.
Map of Brazil showing confirmed cases of Yellow Fever “in the current outbreak,” as of March 2017. Information from Brazil’s Ministry of Health. NEJM image.
Leave a Comment » | DDT, Disease, History | Tagged: Anthony Fauci, DDT, Disease, NAIAD, NIH, yellow fever | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nelson Mandela explains to Bill Clinton what life was like in a prison cell for 27 years, from Mandela’s Robben Island cell #5, March 27, 1998. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years there. AP photo. Somehow, the administration of President Obama doesn’t seem at all like that prison.
A friend, Marian Domansky Fisher, posted this on her Facebook page, from a friend of hers.
Agree? Disagree?
To anyone who “suffered for the last 8 years under President Obama,” please read this response from Scott Mednick when a Facebook friend told him, “We suffered for 8 years. Now it’s your turn.”
Here is Scott’s reply:
“I am surprised you would wish suffering upon me. That of course is your right, I suppose. I do not wish harm on anyone. Your statement seems to continue an ‘US v THEM’ mentality. The election is over. It is important to get past campaigning and campaign rhetoric and get down to what is uniting not dividing and what is best for ALL Americans.
There will never be a President who does everything to everyone’s liking. There are things President Obama (and President Clinton) did that I do not like and conversely there are things I can point to that the Presidents Bush did that I agree with. So I am not 100% in lock step with the outgoing President but have supported him and the overall job he did.
And, if you recall, during the Presidential Campaign back in 2008 the campaign was halted because of the “historic crisis in our financial system.”
Wall Street bailout negotiations intervened in the election process. The very sobering reality was that there likely could be a Depression and the world financial markets could collapse.
The United States was losing 800,000 jobs a month and was poised to lose at least 10 million jobs the first year once the new President took office. We were in an economic freefall.
So let us recall that ALL of America was suffering terribly at the beginning of Obama’s Presidency.
But I wanted to look back over the last 8 years and ask you a few questions. Since much of the rhetoric before Obama was elected was that he would impose Sharia Law, Take Away Your Guns, Create Death Panels, Destroy the Economy, Impose Socialism and, since you will agree that NONE of this came to pass, I was wondering:
Why have you suffered so?
So let me ask:
Gays and Lesbians can now marry and enjoy the benefits they had been deprived of. Has this caused your suffering?
When Obama took office, the Dow was 6,626. Now it is 19,875. Has this caused your suffering?
We had 82 straight months of private sector job growth – the longest streak in the history of the United States. Has this caused your suffering?
Especially considering where he the economy was when he took over, an amazing 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama (far more than President Bush). Has this caused your suffering?
Obama has taken Unemployment from 10% down to 4.7%. Has this caused your suffering?
Homelessness among US Veterans has dropped by half. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama shut down the US secret overseas prisons. Has this caused your suffering?
President Obama has created a policy for the families of fallen soldiers to have their travel paid for to be there when remains are flown home. Has this caused your suffering?
We landed a rover on Mars. Has this caused your suffering?
He passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Has this caused your suffering?
Uninsured adults has decreased to below 10%: 90% of adults are insured – an increase of 20 Million Adults. Has this caused your suffering?
People are now covered for pre-existing conditions. Has this caused your suffering?
Insurance Premiums increased an average of $4,677 from 2002-2008, an increase of 58% under Bush. The growth of these insurance premiums has gone up $4,145 – a slower rate of increase. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama added Billions of dollars to mental health care for our Veterans. Has this caused your suffering?
Consumer confidence has gone from 37.7 to 98.1 during Obama’s tenure. Has this caused your suffering?
He passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Has this caused your suffering?
His bi-annual Nuclear Summit convinced 16 countries to give up and destroy all their loose nuclear material so it could not be stolen. Has this caused your suffering?
He saved the US Auto industry. American cars sold at the beginning of his term were 10.4M and upon his exit 17.5M. Has this caused your suffering?
The deficit as a percentage of the GDP has gone from 9.8% to 3.2%. Has this caused your suffering?
The deficit itself was cut by $800 Billion Dollars. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama preserved the middle class tax cuts. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons. Has this caused your suffering?
He signed Credit Card reform so that rates could not be raised without you being notified. Has this caused your suffering?
He outlawed Government contractors from discriminating against LGBT persons. Has this caused your suffering?
He doubled Pell Grants. Has this caused your suffering?
Abortion is down. Has this caused your suffering?
Violent crime is down. Has this caused your suffering?
He overturned the scientific ban on stem cell research. Has this caused your suffering?
He protected Net Neutrality. Has this caused your suffering?
Obamacare has extended the life of the Medicare insurance trust fund (will be solvent until 2030). Has this caused your suffering?
President Obama repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Has this caused your suffering?
He banned torture. Has this caused your suffering?
He negotiated with Syria to give up its chemical weapons and they were destroyed. Has this caused your suffering?
Solar and Wind Power are at an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?
High School Graduation rates hit 83% – an all time high. Has this caused your suffering?
Corporate profits are up by 144%. Has this caused your suffering?
He normalized relations with Cuba. Has this caused your suffering?
Reliance on foreign oil is at a 40 year low. Has this caused your suffering?
US Exports are up 28%. Has this caused your suffering?
He appointed the most diverse cabinet ever. Has this caused your suffering?
He reduced the number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Has this caused your suffering?
Yes, he killed Osama Bin Laden and retrieved all the documents in his possession for analysis. Perhaps THIS caused your suffering?
From an objective standpoint it would appear that the last 8 years have seen some great progress and we were saved from a financial collapse. Things are not perfect. Things can always be better. We are on much better footing now than we were in 2008.
I look forward to understanding what caused you to suffer so much under Obama these last 8 years.
Imprisonment can be a state of mind, similar to Learned Helplessness.
It seems odd, to me, that anyone would wish such a thing on anyone.
2 Comments | History, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Perspective, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Utah’s wildlife managers were plugging the deadline to apply for permits to take an elk in the wild, and they added this picture:
Utah elk in the sagebrush, with mountains in the background. Photo from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, “courtesy Jim Shuler.”
Don’t know the location, but I’m guessing south of Provo, since the mountains in the back look a little redder than they would be just from afternoon sunlight (anyone know?).
In my original home town, Burley, Idaho, we got Challenge Dairy products. For reasons I don’t remember or know, my mother bought Challenge butter over others, from a large display in the small Sparr’s Grocery (did I get the name right? Still there?) . I liked their stuff because they had the coolest logo. I regretted losing access to that stuff when we moved to Utah.
Butter box from Challenge Dairy showing the full logo for the company.
That photo above reminded me of the Challenge logo.
Surprised to discover Challenge Dairy is a California co-op, and not an Idaho concern.
Today we get Challenge Butter in our local Tom Thumb supermarkets in North Texas — but Tom Thumb was bought by Safeway, which was bought by Albertson’s, both of whom have deep history in the west.
Deadline for Utah elk permits was March 2, by the way. Probably about the same time next year, for 2018, if you’re looking to hunt.
Leave a Comment » | History, Utah, Wildlife | Tagged: Elk, History, Utah, Wildlife | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub passed the 5 million viewers milestone between 9:45 and 10:00 p.m. Central time, March 5.
Thank you.
5 million views? Equal to the number of immigrants protected from deportation by President Obama’s 2014 executive action, providing an enormous boost to the U.S. economy and reputation. Mother Jones image.
1 Comment | Administrivia, Blogs | Tagged: 5 million, Administrivia, blogging, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog, Thank You | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wisdom in signs.
Churches say, ‘Don’t build a wall, make the table larger.’
This company puts it in terms more people will comprehend.
A sign of better things to come? Image found on Facebook, tracing back to a Willamette Week Instagram account; where is this company and this sign?
“Forget the Wall! Build a deck, invite everyone over.” A battle cry for our times.
I wonder where this photo was taken? It says “Milwaukee Lumber,” but I traced it back to an Oregon newspaper, Willamette Week.
Better question: Where are the decks?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kathryn Knowles.
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Immigration, Signs, Signs of Life | Tagged: Humor, Immigration, Politics, Signs of Life | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
5 million, American. Image from Instagain, whatever that is.
Is the heyday of the blog over? Or did I just foul it up?
At one time Millard Fillmore’s bathtub got about 2,000 hits per day. In the last 16 months, that’s dwindled to just under 1,000 per day.
Still, at that rate, the Bathtub should overflow with the 5 millionth hit, sometime in the next 5 days. It’s funny, but if I counted spam we’d be over 8 million already. 100 spam comments for every real comment, approximately.
No wonder elections turn out so oddly.
For 5 million sincere hits, I thank you, readers, and thank you especially you faithful readers.
Would you tell your friends to come check it out?
For comparison:
5 Comments | Administrivia, Blogs | Tagged: 5 million, Administrivia, blogging, Thank You | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Jamelle Bouie is just shooting stuff around the neighborhood. Love this one.
Jamelle Bouie found this in the neighborhood. No, I’m not sure which neighborhood, but clearly it’s got some great neighbors. Details: Camera: Leica M5 with Canon LTM 35mm f/2 lens. Fuji Provia 100f. Copyright by Bouie, hope he doesn’t mind my using it here.
A more interesting neighborhood, perhaps, than most of us have. Or maybe not.
What’s in your neighborhood? Have you recorded it on film (or electrons), just for history’s sake? Why not?
Leave a Comment » | Humor, photography, Signs, Signs of Life | Tagged: Humor, photography, Signs of Life | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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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 