NASA image of a launch of one of the Space Shuttles. “The open road still softly calls,” Carl Sagan said.
“The open road still softly calls,” Carl Sagan said, optimistically, in this film.
Can you spare a penny to keep the road open? To answer the call?
More:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. flag flies at the U.S. Capitol in a snow storm. Photo by Victoria Pickering, Creative Commons license, from Flickr. (This photo was actually taken in March.)
November offers several flag flying days, especially in years when there is an election.
But December may be the month with the most flag-flying dates, when we include statehood days.
December 7 is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It’s not in the Flag Code, but public law (P.L. 103-308) urges that the president should issue a proclamation asking Americans to fly flags.
December 25 is Christmas Day, a federal holiday, and one of the score of dates designated in the Flag Code. If you watch your neighborhood closely, you’ll note even some of the most ardent flag wavers miss posting the colors on this day, as they do on Thanksgiving and New Years.
Other dates?
Nine states attained statehood in December, so people in those states should fly their flags (and you may join them). Included in this group is Delaware, traditionally the “First State,” as it was the first colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution:
December 15 is Bill of Rights Day, marking the day in 1791 when the Bill of Rights was declared ratified; but though this event generally gets a presidential proclamation, there is no law or executive action that requires flags to fly on that date, for that occasion.
Eleven flag-flying dates in December. Does any other month have as many flag flying opportunities?
Have I missed any December flag-flying dates? 11 events on 10 days (Delaware’s statehood falls on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack).
Here’s a list of the days to fly the flag, under national law, in chronological order:
Fly your flag with respect to the flag, for the republic it represents, and for all those who sacrificed that it may wave on your residence.
And if you travel for the holidays? You’re away from home?
Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt took a flag with them when they visited the Moon in December 1972. Maybe you could carry a small travel flag, too.
NASA caption: Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan is holding the lower corner of the American flag during the mission’s first EVA, December 12, 1972. Photograph by Harrison J. “Jack” Schmitt. Image Credit: NASA
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, U.S. Flag | Tagged: Days to Fly the Flag, Flag etiquette, Flag-flying dates, History, U.S. Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Dean Frey, posting on Twitter as “Deny Fear @dean_frey.”
Frey posted this wonderful picture of Rachel Carson, taken by Erich Hartmann in 1962 (after publication of Silent Spring?)
Rachel Carson and her typewriter, by Erich Hartmann, 1962.
But hold your horses. Frey posted a raft of other artists with their machines. What a glorious little thread!
The entire glorious thread.
You have seen some of those photos, some of those artists, and some of those typewriters in other posts at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. There are some sparkling photos there I had not seen before.
Thank you, Dean Frey.
1 Comment | History, photography, Rachel Carson, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Dean Frey, History, photography, Rachel Carson, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. flag flew in at least one spot in North Carolina on statehood day, November 21, 2017. Photo at Chimney Rock State Park, outside of Asheville, North Carolina, near U.S. Highway 64/74A, on the Rocky Broad River. History.com image.
Staff at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub do not always stay ahead of flag flying days. November 21 is North Carolina’s statehood day, and MFB missed noting that earlier.
Looking back, we wonder: Does anyone in North Carolina celebrate North Carolina’s statehood?
Newspapers, television and radio, and other media did not note any celebration, if it occurred. Do North Carolinians fly their U.S. flags on November 21, for statehood day?
North Carolina became the 12th state, ratifying the Constitution on November 21, 1789.
If you’re in North Carolina, did you fly your flag on Statehood Day?
U.S. 25-cent piece commemorating North Carolina, in the series honoring all 50 states. The design follows John T. Daniels’s iconic photo of the first well-documented heavier-than-air flying machine flight, by the Wright Brothers, at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
Notes from Twitter:
More:
Leave a Comment » | Airplanes, History, Statehood | Tagged: Chimney Rock State Park, History, Kittyhawk, North Carolina, Statehood, Wright Brothers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nicolay copy of the Gettysburg Address; only pre-delivery, holographic copy of the address. Given to Lincoln’s secretary, John George Nicolay.
Librarians have it good, living among books. Librarians at the Library of Congress have it best, with the amazingly complete collection of books, top-notch scholars, and just plain old curious stuff lying around.
Like copies of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Garry Wills argues that Lincoln rethought and recast America’s image in that speech, in less than two minutes — though it took a century before the recasting was complete.
The Library of Congress just has the history, and notes the power of the speech overall.
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
2 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Famous quotes, Libraries, Quotes | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Famous quotes, Gettysburg Address, Great Speeches, Library of Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
154 years ago this week, Abraham Lincoln redefined the Declaration of Independence and the goals of the American Civil War, in a less-than-two-minute speech dedicating part of the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as a cemetery and final resting place for soldiers who died in the fierce battle fought there the previous July 1 through 3.
Interesting news if you missed it: More photos from the Library of Congress collection may contain images of Lincoln. The photo above, detail from a much larger photo, had been thought for years to be the only image of Lincoln from that day. The lore is that photographers, taking a break from former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Everett’ s more than two-hour oration, had expected Lincoln to go on for at least an hour. His short speech caught them totally off-guard, focusing their cameras or taking a break. Lincoln finished before any photographer got a lens open to capture images.
Images of people in these photos are very small, and difficult to identify. Lincoln was not identified at all until 1952:
The plate lay unidentified in the Archives for some fifty-five years until in 1952, Josephine Cobb, Chief of the Still Pictures Branch, recognized Lincoln in the center of the detail, head bared and probably seated. To the immediate left (Lincoln’s right) is Lincoln’s bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, and to the far right (beyond the limits of the detail) is Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania. Cobb estimated that the photograph was taken about noontime, just after Lincoln arrived at the site and before Edward Everett’s arrival, and some three hours before Lincoln gave his now famous address.
On-line, the Abraham Lincoln Blog covered the discovery that two more photographic plates from the 1863 speech at Gettysburg may contain images of Lincoln in his trademark stove-pipe hat. Wander over to the story at the USA Today site, and you can see just how tiny are these detail images in relation to the photographs themselves. These images are tiny parts of photos of the crowd at Gettysburg. (The story ran in USA Today last Thursday or Friday — you may be able to find a copy of that paper buried in the returns pile at your local Kwikee Mart.) Digital technologies, and these suspected finds of Lincoln, should prompt a review of every image from Gettysburg that day.
To the complaints of students, I have required my junior U.S. history students to memorize the Gettysburg Address. In Irving I found a couple of students who had memorized it for an elementary teacher years earlier, and who still could recite it. Others protested, until they learned the speech. This little act of memorization appears to me to instill confidence in the students that they can master history, once they get it done.
To that end, I discovered a good, ten-minute piece on the address in Ken Burns’ “Civil War” (in Episode 5). On DVD, it’s a good piece for classroom use, short enough for a bell ringer or warm-up, detailed enough for a deeper study, and well done, including the full text of the address itself performed by Sam Waterson.
Edward Everett, the former Massachusetts senator and secretary of state, was regarded as the greatest orator of the time. A man of infinite grace, and a historian with some sense of events and what the nation was going through, Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day after their speeches:
“I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
Interesting note: P. Z. Myers at Pharyngula noted in 2007 that the Gettysburg Address was delivered “seven score and four years ago.” Of course, that will never happen again. I’ll wager he was the first to notice that odd juxtaposition on the opening line.
Resources for students and teachers:
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
2 Comments | 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Famous Battles, Heroes, History, History blogs, History images, War | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, historic photographs, History, Library of Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
NPR caption: Gitanjali Rao, 11, says she was appalled by the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich. — so she designed a device to test for lead faster. She was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” on Tuesday at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minn. Andy King/Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge
Melinda Gates noticed; you should, too. (And check out the NPR story to which Gates links.)
When the drinking water in Flint, Mich., became contaminated with lead, causing a major public health crisis, 11-year-old Gitanjali Rao took notice.
“I had been following the Flint, Michigan, issue for about two years,” the seventh-grader told ABC News. “I was appalled by the number of people affected by lead contamination in water.”
She saw her parents testing the water in their own home in Lone Tree, Colo., and was unimpressed by the options, which can be slow, unreliable or both.
“I went, ‘Well, this is not a reliable process and I’ve got to do something to change this,’ ” Rao told Business Insider.
Rao tells ABC that while she was doing her weekly perusal of MIT’s Materials Science and Engineering website to see “if there’s anything’s new,” she read about new technologies that could detect hazardous substances and decided to see whether they could be adapted to test for lead.
She pressed local high schools and universities to give her lab time and then hunkered down in the “science room” — outfitted with a big white table — that she persuaded her engineer parents to create in their home.
And she set about devising a more efficient solution: a device that could identify lead compounds in water and was portable and relatively inexpensive.
As she explains at lightning speed in her video submission for the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, her device consists of three parts. There is a disposable cartridge containing chemically treated carbon nanotube arrays, an Arduino-based signal processor with a Bluetooth attachment, and a smartphone app that can display the results.
(Film details:
Published on Jul 18, 2017
Stories like this should give you hope for our future. It’s clear that women should be encouraged to go into science and technology.
Stories like this should also get you out of your chair to yell at policy makers who cut funds for basic research, for education, and who rail against immigration. President Trump will not host the science fair that graced the White House for the past eight years. Time for you and me to stand up to demand support for science, and for women in science.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Melinda Gates.
More:
1 Comment | Creativity, History, pollution, Science, Technology, Water | Tagged: Creativity, Flint Michigan, History, Science, Technology, Water Pollution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. Flag Code urges citizens of states to fly the U.S. flag on the anniversary of statehood.
We almost let the whole day slip away without reminding you: President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma statehood proclamation on November 16, 1907. Oklahoma became the 46th state, with New Mexico and Arizona to come later to fill out the contiguous 48 states.
Mike Wimmer’s 2003 painting of President Theodore Roosevelt’s signing of the proclamation that made Oklahoma a member of the union. Oklahoma Arts Council image.
Oklahoma’s pre-history is long, complex and fascinating; the road to statehood is similarly complex and winding, lined with broken promises to Native Americans, tragedy and other drama. Does the state require Oklahoma history be taught in public schools?
And so we hope, you flew your flags today, Sooners!
Did anyone actually fly their flag? Does anyone other than Oklahoma newspapers even care any more?
More:
Front page of the Daily Oklahoman on November 16, 1907, anticipating President Roosevelt’s proclamation to come that morning. Daily Oklahoman image.
46-star flag used after Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907. This flag remained in use for four years. RareFlags.com image
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Statehood | Tagged: Fly your flag today, History, Oklahoma Statehood | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Masthead of hoax news site. When you see this URL, you can be quite certain the more salacious claims are hoaxed. Contrary to the claims, “news” reports on the site are truthful only tangentially; and if “unfiltered” means unedited and not fact-checked, it would be almost accurate.
YourNewsWire.com purveys hoax stories. They do it at that website, and on Twitter, and probably on Instagram and Facebook.
Watch out for them, and do not be suckered by their bizarre tales. Hallmarks of hoaxes from this site are stories with some basis in fact, which are then exaggerated beyond reason, to sow dissension.
This is plainly hoax, pure and clear: Jay-Z Caught Shapeshifting On United Airlines Flight To LAX
This story relating to Flint, Michigan’s water crisis takes two deaths of people involved in finding the facts, and works to spin it into a conspiracy story designed to make us fear government. The shooting death of the woman, Sasha Avona Bell, resulted from a domestic dispute with a spurned lover. You can’t learn that from “YourNewsWire.”
You’ll find links to these stories, and others from YourNewsWire, linked all over Twitter and Facebook. Falsehoods spread like wildfire, especially among the gullible. This hoax site was instrumental in spreading false information about the mass shooting deaths in Sutherland Spring, Texas, for example. In this Tweet, nothing is accurate.
In this story, the site claims the actor Morgan Freeman said “‘Jailing Hillary’ Best Way To ‘Restore Public Faith In Govt,’” but the entire story is false. Hoax investigation site Snopes.com answered why the story is false, in some detail. Politifact rated the story a “pants on fire” lie. Media Matters also responded, a sign that the story suckered many gullible people. Media Matters reports the site is an outlet for Russian fake news activities.
Wonkette got on it, too.
Here’s what Morgan Freeman REALLY said about politics recently, specifically about Russian interference in U.S. elections — something “YourNewsWire” would prefer to hide. And, as the New York Times reported, Freeman’s video angered Russians, which would explain why they targeted him with the hoax claims.
2 Comments | Hoaxes, Internet | Tagged: Hoaxes, Internet, Morgan Freeman | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
(NASA caption) Ozone depletion occurs in cold temperatures, so the ozone hole reaches its annual maximum in September or October, at the end of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Credits: NASA/NASA Ozone Watch/Katy Mersmann
Good news from NASA and NOAA: The ozone hole over Antarctica is shrinking, because policy makers heeded warnings from scientists, and they acted in the 1980s to stop the pollution that made the ozone hole grow into hazard.
In other words, cleaning up air pollution works to reduce problems.
If we apply those same principles to global warming climate change, we can save the planet: Listen to scientists, band together internationally, take effective action to stop the pollution.
BUT, much of the shrinkage in the past two years was due to warming atmosphere, which reduces the cold weather period during which the ozone hole grows. In other words, effects of the anti-pollution action isn’t yet clear.
This NASA video explains:
NASA discussed the events in a press release.
“The Antarctic ozone hole was exceptionally weak this year,” said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This is what we would expect to see given the weather conditions in the Antarctic stratosphere.”
The smaller ozone hole in 2017 was strongly influenced by an unstable and warmer Antarctic vortex – the stratospheric low pressure system that rotates clockwise in the atmosphere above Antarctica. This helped minimize polar stratospheric cloud formation in the lower stratosphere. The formation and persistence of these clouds are important first steps leading to the chlorine- and bromine-catalyzed reactions that destroy ozone, scientists said. These Antarctic conditions resemble those found in the Arctic, where ozone depletion is much less severe.
In 2016, warmer stratospheric temperatures also constrained the growth of the ozone hole. Last year, the ozone hole reached a maximum 8.9 million square miles, 2 million square miles less than in 2015. The average area of these daily ozone hole maximums observed since 1991 has been roughly 10 million square miles.
Although warmer-than-average stratospheric weather conditions have reduced ozone depletion during the past two years, the current ozone hole area is still large because levels of ozone-depleting substances like chlorine and bromine remain high enough to produce significant ozone loss.
Scientists said the smaller ozone hole extent in 2016 and 2017 is due to natural variability and not a signal of rapid healing.
First detected in 1985, the Antarctic ozone hole forms during the Southern Hemisphere’s late winter as the returning sun’s rays catalyze reactions involving man-made, chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine. These reactions destroy ozone molecules.
Thirty years ago, the international community signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and began regulating ozone-depleting compounds. The ozone hole over Antarctica is expected to gradually become less severe as chlorofluorocarbons—chlorine-containing synthetic compounds once frequently used as refrigerants – continue to decline. Scientists expect the Antarctic ozone hole to recover back to 1980 levels around 2070.
Ozone is a molecule comprised of three oxygen atoms that occurs naturally in small amounts. In the stratosphere, roughly 7 to 25 miles above Earth’s surface, the ozone layer acts like sunscreen, shielding the planet from potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts, suppress immune systems and also damage plants. Closer to the ground, ozone can also be created by photochemical reactions between the sun and pollution from vehicle emissions and other sources, forming harmful smog.
Although warmer-than-average stratospheric weather conditions have reduced ozone depletion during the past two years, the current ozone hole area is still large compared to the 1980s, when the depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica was first detected. This is because levels of ozone-depleting substances like chlorine and bromine remain high enough to produce significant ozone loss.
More work to do; but at least the damage is not increasing dramatically. While it would be good to be able to report that human action to close the ozone hole had produced dramatic results, it is still useful to track the progress of this action, especially when global warming/climate change dissenters frequently argue falsely that the ozone hole never existed, and warming is a similar hoax.
NASA’s AURA satellite group said the ozone holes should be repaired and gone by 2040, 23 years from now.
We hope they’re right.
(NASA caption) At its peak on Sept. 11, 2017, the ozone hole extended across an area nearly two and a half times the size of the continental United States. The purple and blue colors are areas with the least ozone. Credits: NASA/NASA Ozone Watch/Katy Mersmann
More:
Tip of Millard Fillmore’s old scrub brush to Sean Sublette at Climate Central
Leave a Comment » | air pollution, Climate change, climate_change, History, NASA, NOAA, Ozone Hole | Tagged: air pollution, Climate change, Global warming, History, NASA, NOAA, Ozone Hole | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Another very nice Veterans Day poster from the Veterans Administration, for 2017:
Veterans Day poster for 2017, from the U.S. Veterans Administration.
In world history or U.S. history, I usually stop for the day to talk about the origins of Veterans Day in Armistice Day, the day the guns stopped blazing to effectively end fighting in World War I. For several reasons including mnemonic, the treaty called for an end to hostilities on the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” of 1918. Your state’s history standards probably list that phrase somewhere, but the history behind it is what students really find interesting.
Original documents and good history can be found at the Library of Congress online collections.
The Allied powers signed a ceasefire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France, at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918, bringing the war later known as World War I to a close.
President Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day the following year on November 11, 1919, with the these words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” Originally, the celebration included parades and public meetings following a two-minute suspension of business at 11:00 a.m.
Between the world wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars. British Commonwealth countries now call the holiday Remembrance Day.
Online holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provide rich sources of information on America’s military, and on veteran’s day. NARA leans to original documents a bit more than the Library of Congress. For Veterans Day 2016, NARA featured an historic photo form 1961:
NARA caption: President John F. Kennedy Lays a Wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as part of Veterans Day Remembrances, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, 11/11/1961 Series: Robert Knudsen White House Photographs, 1/20/1961 – 12/19/1963. Collection: White House Photographs, 12/19/1960 – 3/11/1964 (Holdings of the @jfklibrary)
For teachers, that page also features this:
(Well, actually it’s for everyone. But teachers love those kinds of links, especially AP history teachers who need documents for “Document-Based Questions” (DBQs).
On one page, the Veterans Administration makes it easy for teachers to plan activities; of course, you need to start some of these weeks before the actual day:
For Teachers & Students
Hope your Veterans Day 2017 goes well, and remember to fly your flag at home.
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
1 Comment | Education, Flag etiquette, Lesson plans, Teaching Resources, veterans day | Tagged: Education, Flag etiquette, Lesson plans, Teaching, Veterans Day | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Carl Sagan would have been 83 on November 9. Image from Cornell University.
It’s been one of those weeks, and I missed posting anything early for Carl Sagan’s birthday, a day on which many work to keep his memory and wisdom alive.
Here are a few of the tributes, from Twitter.
2 Comments | History, Science, Space exploration, Space Race | Tagged: Carl Sagan, History, Science, Space exploration | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Caption at Raw Story: Juli Briskman flips off Pres. Donald Trump (copyright @b_smialowski/@AFP)
In ten years, will we regard this photo as iconic as the Tank Man in China?
Is this a photo of a brave citizen standing up to oppressive power?
Unlike Tank Man, whose name and fate remain unknown, the woman was fired from her job. We should track the story.
Or, is there a chance that, in a decade after President Trump is deposed by legal means, we will look back and regard this photo as a citizen bullying poor old Trump?
More:
9 Comments | First Amendment, History, photography | Tagged: Bicycle Woman, First Amendment, freedom, History, photography, President Trump | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Interior’s great photographer Bob Wick is at it again, this time in Colorado:
Archaeological site at Canyon of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado. Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management.
This photo is featured in a story from the National Park Service about celebrating Native American Heritage month, which is November.
Leave a Comment » | 1492, Archaeology, History, National Parks, Native Americans, Public Lands, Science | Tagged: Archaeology, Canyon of the Ancients NM, History, Native American Heritage Month, Public Lands, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Climate Central: Octobers are warming across the U.S. with the increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Since 1970, October temperatures have risen about 2°F. Warming throughout the fall is even stronger in some parts of the country, with the Northeast and the West warming the most. This warming can delay the start of some of the traditional cold season activities in cooler and mountainous climates, such as skiing. The warming trend also means first freezes occur later in the year, which can allow more insects to survive later into the year and make for a longer fall allergy season.
Since 1970, Octobers are 2 degrees warmer? No big deal?
See the caption. A lousy 2 degrees is a lot. It’s enough to:
No big deal, unless you live on Earth.
“What did you do when you learned CO2 was hurting the planet, Grandfather?” our grandchildren will well ask. Got an answer?
Shake of the old scrub brush to Climate Central’s Twittering, with a clever .gif.
Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, Carbon Dioxide, Climate change, Farming | Tagged: Climate Central, Climate change, Farming, Global warming | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for November, 2017.
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 