Stephen Leahy’s headline sounds almost hysterical: “Greenland Ice Collapse Producing Earthquakes.”
Here’s the article in The Guardian with the backup data.
Something to think about.
Tipping point: Greenland ice melt shakes Earth
September 8, 2007
1 Comment | 
Climate change, Current History, Disasters, Environmental protection, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Global warming, History | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Non-violence in action, today
September 6, 2007Your kids don’t quite get the point of non-violent protest? The “Scarface” t-shirts outnumber “I Have A Dream” t-shirts on August 28? Do you wish you had some current examples of non-violent protest for classroom discussion?
Nonviolent protest helped disrupt a rally of VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK in Knoxville, Tennessee, last may — courtesy of the usual clowns. You know, the ARA (Anti-Racist Action) clown block. It’s a good example of using peace to combat violence and hate.
Ridicule and laughter proved tougher than hate. Cooler, too. From a story at Asheville Indymedia:
“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.
“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.
“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.
At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”
The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”
Tip of the old scrub brush to Bug Girl’s Blog, and Neat-o-rama.
2 Comments | Current History, Democracy, Education, First Amendment, Free speech, Freedom - Political, History, Humor, Nonviolent protest, Peace, Racism | Tagged: Citizenship, Democracy, First Amendment, Free Speech Racism, History, Knoxville, Non-violent Protest, Peace, Racism, White Power | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Historic moment: Texas commutes a death sentence
August 30, 2007Gov. Rick Perry commuted a death sentence today. This is the first commutation in eight years so close to an execution. Any commutation recommendation is rare in Texas.
Is this just one commutation, or does it signal a change?
3 Comments | Current History, History, Justice, Law, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Preacher looks again: Did Hubble kill God?
August 30, 2007Sometimes religion and science don’t clash at all.
[Update February 17, 2015: Real Live Preacher is a dead blog. Author Gordon Atkinson now writes here (and other places you can find from there); but most of these links won’t work. My apologies for the passage of time . . .]
Unlike the last time we visited this remarkable photograph, some people of faith look at it and see beauty, insted of seeing conflict between reality and their holy books.
I know of a Real Live Preacher who doesn’t abuse the science in finding a religious message in the photo.
So first vertigo, then panic, then longing. After that I generally calm down a bit. My tiny mind and delicate emotions cannot bear even my small thoughts of the universe for more than a few minutes. I relax. Sometimes a shrinking reality can be a comfort. My sins, the things that I have done wrong and the ways that I cannot be what I should be, also shrink. I feel I can forgive myself for them, small man that I am. Why the hell not? Look at the size of the universe!
This forgiveness is the Grace that Christians speak of. The main story of our faith tells us that we must be forgiven and can be. Funny how it takes science to bring that reality to my guts.
For some reason, this experience always ends with a crazy happiness that I cannot easily explain. I become giddy with the knowledge that ultimate reality is so far beyond our grasp. This lets me off the hook, to a certain extent. We’ll never know reality. We’ll never even map our solar system, you and I. We’re small people, but we have grasped the idea of existence. We know love, seek knowledge, and recognize goodness and evil.
Our saintly scientists, single-minded and incredibly committed to the search for truth, draw down amazing pictures from the ancient light in the sky. These pictures help me to know that it is okay to be nothing more or less than what we are.
One might visit Real Live Preacher just for the art, too (see sample above). A remarkable site.
3 Comments | Accuracy, Astronomy, Current History, Physics, Religion, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Serious indictment of media fetishes . . .
August 8, 2007. . . that will drive the “mainstream media (MSM)” critics to distraction. Are we sure it’s a good idea to let Rupert Murdoch own the Wall Street Journal?
Orcinus tells conservative commentators to grow up:
Remember the fuss over Jet Pilot Action Figure Bush’s “package”? Damn fool didn’t loosen his straps before getting out of the jet. Nobody else on the deck had his crotch trussed up like a Christmas goose; and to them, he looked like a rookie idiot. But Chris Matthews practically had an orgasm on-air while watching him prance and strut.) The fact that so many mainstream and conservative media guys are suckered by this posturing shows that they don’t really have a clue about what a Real Man looks like — though, somewhere deep down inside, they’re pretty sure they don’t qualify. That’s why they’re so easily wowed by men who can put on the costume and make it look good.
But they’re even more easily cowed by men who can actually fill the boots. John Kerry. John McCain. Colin Powell. Bill Clinton. (You don’t have to agree with their politics; but nobody can say these men haven’t comfortably worn the full measure of male power and responsibility for some critical stretch of their lives.) Like little boys, the media guys are so awed by the outward forms of masculinity that they eagerly make a fetish out of them; but they also actively fear and resent men who display the authentic internal goods that make an honest-to-God man. These guys’ very presence incites such a strong sense of personal inadequacy that the Boys On The Bus can only resort to attacking them in ways that are openly calculated to feminize them — that is, to bring them down to their own level. He look French. He’s whipped by his powerful wife. He’s preoccupied with his hair. Translation: This guy has more balls and more maturity than we do — and we need to take him down before everybody figures out how inadequate that makes us feel.
And this:
. . . the first rule of real macho was that those who possess it never need to prove it to anyone. If you have to prove it or put it out on display, you don’t have it in the first place. And if you are intimidated by seeing it in others, you aren’t even in the ballpark. The truth of that should come home to all of us every time we hear an MSM or conservative talking head going on in breathless awe about some public figure’s “manhood,” or asking leering, creepy questions about other people’s sex lives.
In a time when we need thought leaders who can help us sort out the issues and navigate the national crisis, we’ve got a media staffed by sniggering, leering first-graders who exhibit every regressive intellectual, moral, emotional, and sexual characteristic of right-wing authoritarian followers. It’s time to clean house — and to demand new media voices who aren’t in business to make fun of the grownups, or shamed by people who show the attributes of true maturity and power. It’s time to send the scared little boys home, and put some authentic adults in charge.
1 Comment | Current History, Heroes, History, Leadership, Newspapers, Politics, Radio, Reason, Television, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. education: Old dogs, new tricks, no problem
July 31, 2007David Parker notes this wonderful event. It makes me hopeful for the nation, really.
David: Did you ask the guy if your students can interview him?
1 Comment | Capturing history, Current History, Education, Education success, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Heroes, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Collateral damage from magic bullets
July 22, 2007In an earlier post I noted Norman Borlaug’s receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. In comments, Bernarda noted those who disagree with the claim that Borlaug’s Green Revolution was much of a benefit, or perhaps more accurately, those who note the problems that result from such advances — and there are many. Bernarda pointed to a BBC lecture from Vendana Shiva, detailing the problems that Punjab experienced as a result of governmental and society structures unable to deal with the changes required by high-yield crops: “Poverty and Globalisation.” It’s worth a read or a listen.
Similarly, in another BBC lecture in that series, Gro Harlem Bruntland details problems from “progress” that includes cutting the forests, in “Health and Population.” Relevant to other discussions here, she notes a rise in malaria due to deforestation, raising an issue that the junk science purveyors opposed to Rachel Carson’s honoring would like to ignore. Here is a small excerpt of her talk — note that deforestation is not a problem that more DDT can solve:
Gro Harlem Bruntland: Recently, in Mozambique, I saw children with their eyes glazed with fever from a malaria that could have been prevented if their parents could afford bed nets. Deforestation had changed malaria from a nuisance to a curse in a matter of twenty years.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Wikiquote image.
More people are suffering from this killing and debilitating disease now than ever before, and deforestation, climate change and breakdowns in health services have caused the disease to spread to new areas and areas that have been malaria-free for decades, like in Europe.
In the Philippines, I have watched how beggars sit exhausted on the pavements convulsed with coughing. Tuberculosis, which we long believed had been brought under control by effective treatment, is on the rise again. Increasingly, we see forms of tuberculosis which are resistant to all but a very expensive cocktail of drugs.
I think that HIV/AIDS may be the most serious threat to face sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions. space. Already, the AIDS epidemic is the leading cause of death in several African countries. AIDS has reversed the increases in life expectancy we have seen over the past thirty years. The social and economic devastation in countries that could lose a fifth of their productive populations is heart-rending.
I believe we are facing this alarming situation largely because of an outdated approach to development. Our theories have to catch up with what our ears and eyes are telling us – and fast.
There was a period in development thinking – not so long ago – when spending on public services, such as health and education, would have to wait. Good health was a luxury, only to be achieved when countries had developed a particular level of physical infrastructure and established a certain economic strength. The implicit assumption was that health was to do with consumption. Experience and research over the past few years have shown that such thinking was at best simplistic, and at worst plainly wrong.
I maintain that if people’s health improves, they make a real contribution to their nation’s prosperity. In my judgement, good health is not only an important concern for individuals, it plays a central role in achieving sustainable economic growth and an effective use of resources.
As in Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, we have seen that developing countries which invest relatively more, and well, on health are likely to achieve higher economic growth.
In other words, malaria prevention grows on trees, or malaria grows with the cutting of trees.
1 Comment | Citizenship, Conservation, Current History, DDT, Disasters, Economics, Environmental protection, Ethics, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Globalization, History, Junk science, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, Travel, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: Immigration and economic growth
July 15, 2007Immigrants’ Contribution to Economic Growth
“The pace of recent U.S. economic growth would have been impossible without immigration. Since 1990, immigrants have contributed to job growth in three main ways: They fill an increasing share of jobs overall, they take jobs in labor-scarce regions, and they fill the types of jobs native workers often shun. The foreign-born make up only 11.3 percent of the U.S. population and 14 percent of the labor force. But amazingly, the flow of foreign-born is so large that immigrants currently account for a larger share of labor force growth than natives (Chart 1).”
Foreign-born share of U.S. Labor Force and Labor Force Growth; Orrenius, Dallas FRB
- Also see this 2006 update.
3 Comments | Accuracy, Adam Smith, Business, Citizenship, Current History, DBQ sources, Economics, Education, Financial literacy, Free market economics, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Geography - Economic, Geography - Political, History, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Public education, Quotes, Reason | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Gold from rust: Tulsa shines, Plymouth doesn’t
June 16, 2007The story could fuel jokes for years. Or it could cause tears, as indeed it did from the woman who organized the festivities around the unearthing of the 50-year-old Plymouth buried at Tulsa’s courthouse.
The headline in The Tulsa World shows pluck, determination and a good sense of humor: Tulsa celebrates anyway, but the Plymouth is a bucket of rust.
“Tarnished gold,” is the headline.
Now we know what 50 years in a hole does to a Plymouth Belvedere.
The tires go flat. The paint fades. Hinges and latches stiffen, upholstery disintegrates, the engine becomes a very large paperweight.
But what the heck. None of us is what we used to be.
1957? Eisenhower sent U.S. Marshalls, and then the U.S. Army, into Little Rock, Arkansas, so 9 African-Americans could register to go to Central High School. That was so long ago that the Little Rock 9 graduated, became doctors, lawyers and businessmen, and even an undersecretary of Labor, and got very gray; Central High is now a National Historic Monument (though still a high school). 
Leave a Comment » | 1957, Archaeology, Cold War, Current History, History blogs, Teaching, Technology, Transportation, Travel | Tagged: 1957, Archaeology, Cold War, Current History, History, Oklahoma, Plymouth Belvedere, Teaching, Technology, Transportation, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Time capsule shaped like a ’57 Plymouth Belvedere? You’re all wet!
June 14, 2007Alas! Initial word out of Tulsa is not encouraging. The buried 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was in a concrete vault, and sealed in plastic, to protect it from the effects of being buried. It may not have been protected well enough — when the cover was pulled off the vault yesterday, the vault had several feet of water.
The story is told well, here, on the Route 66 News blog.
Photos do not encourage me. The residue on the sides of the vault is a rust color. That could be from the red soil (does Tulsa have red soil?) — or it could be from rust from the car.
Here’s hoping the car was protected from the water . . .
Official opening is set for tomorrow, June 15, 2007.
1 Comment | Archaeology, Capturing history, Cold War, Current History, Teaching, Technology, Transportation, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
National History Day finalists posted
June 12, 2007If you’re in the Washington, D.C., area, get on over to the University of Maryland tonight for the junior performance and documentary finals, or tomorrow morning for the senior performance and documentary finals of the National History Day competitions.
Finalists, and their scheduled project presentations, are listed here at the National History Day site. Winners will be announced Thursday evening.
A few of the entries in the junior, individual performance category suggest just how good high school historians can be:
- Is the Night too Dark?
- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Ohio Canal System
- Freedom from Fear: Triumphing over the Tragedy of Polio
- They Called Her Tokyo Rose: The Tragedy and Triumph of Iva Toguri
- Turning Tragedy into Triumph: The Fight to Eradicate Poliomyelitis
- Douglas MacArthur and Harry Truman: Changing Perceptions of Their Triumphs and Tragedies
- Philippines
- Taking the Lid Off a National Scandal: Teapot Dome and the Politics of Power
- Play Ball! A Triumph for Women Begins Amidst the Tragedy of World War II
- “Deterred But Not Defeated:” The Duluth Tragedy and Triumph Over Racial Hatred
- The Color of Blood: The Tragic Effect of Racial Barriers on Dr. Charles R. Drew’s Triumphant Innovations
- One Woman’s Voice From the Oregon Trail: Abigail Scott Duniway’s Traumatic Journey and Triumphant Fight for Women’s Suffrage in the New Frontier
- Operation Dynamo: Transforming Tragedy to Triumph on the Beaches of Dunkirk
- Hershey’s Bittersweet Legacy
In that list is two semesters’ worth of enrichment for any classroom.
The National History Day webcast is also scheduled for Thursday, but I’m not sure when.
Leave a Comment » | Capturing history, Current History, Education, Education success, History, Student projects, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Mining the Internet Archive: Tobacco, history and controversy
May 22, 2007European Union rules require member states to do something about indoor air pollution. European states are banning smoking in public places. Gone soon will be days when we can joke about Britons and their Player’s cigarettes, or the French and their Galois habits.
Every once in a while as I recount the great Tobacco/Health Wars, my kids remind me that they never saw a cigarette commercial on television. Once, we caught a showing of past ads, and I was truck nostalgic by Fred Flintstone’s testimony for Winston cigarettes — the kids gasped: “Fred Flintstone used to smoke!”
Everybody smoked, once upon a time, it seemed. 1940s and 1950s magazines have ads in which doctors and athletes claim cigarette smoking is either unharmful, sheer pleasure, or even health promoting. Got a cigarette cough? Switch to menthol cigarettes! Mouth burns? Try a filter cigarette.
Today, kids wonder why Virginia did so well selling tobacco to Britain — who in their right mind would have smoked? they ask.
The Internet Archive has an abundance of film material on tobacco. The films come from the University of California – San Francisco: Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Business Ethics, Current History, Dissent, Economics, First Amendment, Free market economics, Freedom - Economic, Geography - Physical, History, History Revisionism, History video sources, Hoaxes, Movies, On-line education, Politics, Public health, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Voting machine soap opera: Fire, faulty machines, new election?
May 19, 2007City elections in Aurora, Texas, may need to be re-run after spectacular failures of two of three Diebold voting machines, and a fire that damaged the impounded units after 38 votes were completely erased and Diebold technicians were unable to hack results out of their own machines. Do you even need to be told the fire’s cause is undetermined?
Is your local government considering voting machines with no paper back up?
The voting machines don’t work even when there isn’t a great partisan prize at stake; the first explanation from the Justice Department for mess-ups in personnel there is that dismissed people were not aggressively enough pursuing a campaign against minority voting; a federal conviction of a campaign worker in Wisconsin turns out to have been a bogus case created by a U.S. attorney appointed to bring exactly such bogus cases . . .
How great must the assault on the Constitution and rights of Americans be, before there is a general clamor for justice, and change?
Leave a Comment » | Civil Rights, Current History, Elections, Ethics, Justice, Law, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fighting history hoaxes
May 11, 2007Daily Kos I don’t get to daily. But here’s a post I did see that all history teachers ought to read, if only to raise their consciousness about the frauds that plague us every day: Help Fight Fake History that Powers the American Right.
Chris Rodda needs help supporting her research against all the old dogs of history revisionism, and the post from Troutfishing goes through most of the dishonor roll: D. James Kennedy, David Barton, Catherine Millard, and Chuck Norris
Rodda’s blog series can be found at Talk2Action.
My interest in getting history done right was kindled when high school teachers mentioned early versions of David Barton’s work — stuff that showed up on tests, though anyone who had read our texts and had a passing knowledge of real history would have known was in error. As a staffer in the U.S. Senate I had to got to read letters from people who bought the Barton tales lock, stock, and monkey barrel, and who consequently felt that everyone else on Earth was lying to them.
I wish Rodda luck.
4 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Capturing history, Citizenship, Current History, Curricula, Education, History, History Revisionism, Hoaxes | Tagged: Bogus history, Education, History, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Global warming effects: More nasty bugs
May 1, 2007This news can fit into curricula in several ways, in several courses: Insects have already evolved in response to climate shifts due to global warming.
The Boston Globe has a series on global warming, and a recent article detailed how mosquitoes on the Maine frontier have already changed their breeding seasons in response to warming weather.
A mosquito that can barely fly is one of only five known species that scientists say have already evolved because of global warming. The unobtrusive mosquito’s story illustrates a sobering consequence of climate change: The species best suited to adapting may not be the ones people want to survive.
Such news enhances biology studies of genetics and insects, geography studies of climate, animal dispersal patterns and disease and pest ranges (a subject more technically known as biogeography), and the articles lend urgency to studies of how governments react to natural crises, a topic suitable for government classes, economics, and U.S. and world history.
Click on the thumbnail to see four examples of genetic change credited to global warming. (Graphic by David Butler of the Boston Globe staff.) Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Current History, Disasters, Economics, Education, Environmental protection, Evolution, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Lesson plans, Natural history, Politics, Science, Teaching, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
