Stunning photo: What happened here, 795 years ago?

December 5, 2010

Runnymede, Magna Carta Isle, photo by Wyrdlight, Antony McCallum, 2008 (Wikimedia)

What event critical to western history and the development of the democratic republic in the U.S. happened here in 1215?

A teacher might use some of these photos explaining the steps to the Constitution, in English law and the heritage of U.S. laws.  Other than the Magna Carta, all the events of Runnymede get overlooked in American studies of history. Antony McCallum, working under the name Wyrdlight, took these stunning shots of this historic meadow.  (He photographs stuff for studies of history, it appears.)

Maybe it’s a geography story.

View of Runnymede Meadow from Engham Village -- Wyrdlight photo through Wikimedia

View of Runnymede Meadow from Engham Village -- Wyrdlight photo through Wikimedia

Several monuments to different events of the past millennium populate the site.  The American Bar Association dedicated a memorial to the Magna Carta there — a small thing open to the air, but with a beautiful ceiling that is probably worth the trip to see it once you get to England.

Wikipedia explains briefly, with a note that the ABA plans to meet there again in 2015, the 800th anniversary of the Great Charter:

Magna Carta Memorial


The Magna Carta Memorial & view towards the ‘medes’


Engraved stone recalling the 1985 ABA visit

Situated in a grassed enclosure on the lower slopes of Cooper’s Hill, this memorial is of a domed classical style, containing a pillar of English granite on which is inscribed “To commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom Under Law”. The memorial was created by the American Bar Association to a design by Sir Edward Maufe R.A., and was unveiled on 18 July 1957 at a ceremony attended by American and English lawyers.[5]

Since 1957 representatives of the ABA have visited and rededicated the Memorial renewing pledges to the Great Charter. In 1971 and 1985 commemorative stones were placed on the Memorial plinth. In July 2000 the ABA came:

to celebrate Magna Carta, foundation of the rule of law for ages past and for the new millennium.

In 2007 on its 50th anniversary the ABA again visited Runnymede and during the convention installed as President Charles Rhyne who devised Law Day which seeks in the USA an annual reaffirmation of faith in the forces of law for peace.

The ABA will be meeting at Runnymede in 2015 on the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the original charter.

The Magna Carta Memorial is administered by the Magna Carta Trust, which is chaired by the Master of the Rolls.[10]

In 2008, flood lights were installed to light the memorial at night, but due to vandalism they now lie smashed.

I’ll wager the lights get fixed before 2015.

Detail of ceiling of the Magna Carta Memorial, Runnymede - Wikimedia image

Detail of ceiling of the Magna Carta Memorial detailing play of light, and star pattern, Runnymede - Wikimedia image

More, resources:

8 Comments | 1215, Civil Rights, Democracy, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Heritage of Law, History, History of Law, Human Rights, photography, Travel, U.S. Constitution, World history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

December 1: Remembering when Rosa Parks stood up for freedom, by sitting down

December 1, 2010

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted, Library of Congress

Mrs. Parks being fingerprinted in Montgomery, Alabama; photo from New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection, Library of Congress

Rosa Parks: “Why do you push us around?”

Officer: “I don’t know but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.”

From Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed, Quiet Strength
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), page 23.

Photo: Mrs. Parks being fingerprinted in Montgomery, Alabama; photo from New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection, Library of Congress

Today in History at the Library of Congress provides the simple facts:

On the evening of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American, was arrested for disobeying an Alabama law requiring black passengers to relinquish seats to white passengers when the bus was full. Blacks were also required to sit at the back of the bus. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system and led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregation on public transportation.

Rosa Parks made a nearly perfect subject for a protest on racism. College-educated, trained in peaceful protest at the famous Highlander Folk School, Parks was known as a peaceful and respected person. The sight of such a proper woman being arrested and jailed would provide a schocking image to most Americans. Americans jolted awake.

Often lost in the retelling of the story are the threads that tie together the events of the civil rights movement through the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. As noted, Parks was a trained civil rights activist. Such training in peaceful and nonviolent protest provided a moral power to the movement probably unattainable any other way. Parks’ arrest was not planned, however. Parks wrote that as she sat on the bus, she was thinking of the tragedy of Emmet Till, the young African American man from Chicago, brutally murdered in Mississippi early in 1955. She was thinking that someone had to take a stand for civil rights, at about the time the bus driver told her to move to allow a white man to take her seat. To take a stand, she kept her seat. [More below the fold] Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | Civil Rights, Famous quotes, History, Human Rights, Lessons of history, Martin Luther King, Quotes | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Whiskey and Cigar Day, 2010: Mark Twain and Winston Churchill

November 30, 2010

Mark Twain, afloat

November 30 is the birthday of Mark Twain (1835), and Winston Churchill (1874).

Twain had a comment on the Texas Education Agency and State Board of Education:

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.

– Following the Equator; Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar

The Nobel literature committees were slow; Twain did not win a Nobel in Literature; he died in 1910. Churchill did win, in 1953.

Both men were aficionados of good whiskey and good cigars. Both men suffered from depression in old age.

Both men made a living writing, early in their careers as newspaper correspondents. One waged wars of a kind the other campaigned against. Both were sustained by their hope for the human race, against overwhelming evidence that such hope was sadly misplaced.

churchill-time-cover-man-of-the-year-1941.jpg

Both endured fantastic failures that would have killed other people, and both rebounded.

Each possessed a great facility with words, and wit, and frequently said or wrote things that people like to remember and repeat again.

Both of them rank near the top of the list of people to whom almost any quote will be attributed if the quote is witty and the speaker can’t remember, or doesn’t know, who actually said it.

Both men are worth study.  And wouldn’t you really love to have had them over to dinner?

Twain, on prisons versus education:

“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.” – Speech, November 23, 1900

Churchill on the evil men and nations do:

“No One Would Do Such Things”

“So now the Admiralty wireless whispers through the ether to the tall masts of ships, and captains pace their decks absorbed in thought. It is nothing. It is less than nothing. It is too foolish, too fantastic to be thought of in the twentieth century. Or is it fire and murder leaping out of the darkness at our throats, torpedoes ripping the bellies of half-awakened ships, a sunrise on a vanished naval supremacy, and an island well-guarded hitherto, at last defenceless? No, it is nothing. No one would do such things. Civilization has climbed above such perils. The interdependence of nations in trade and traffic, the sense of public law, the Hague Convention, Liberal principles, the Labour Party, high finance, Christian charity, common sense have rendered such nightmares impossible. Are you quite sure? It would be a pity to be wrong. Such a mistake could only be made once—once for all.”

—1923, recalling the possibility of war between France and Germany after the Agadir Crisis of 1911, in The World Crisis,vol. 1, 1911-1914, pp. 48-49.

Image of Twain aboard ship – origin unknown. Image of Winston S. Churchill, Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1941, copyright 1941 by Time Magazine.

More on Mark Twain

More on Winston Churchill

Orson Welles, with Dick Cavett, on Churchill, his wit, humor and grace (tip of the old scrub brush to the Churchill Centre):

Yeah, mostly this is an encore post from past years.

2 Comments | Books, History, Journalism, Literature, Mark Twain, State school boards, War, Winston Churchill | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fort Worth area teachers: Amon Carter Museum workshop on art from the Gilded Age

November 29, 2010

From the Amon Carter Museum education department (in Fort Worth):

During the Gilded Age, the U.S. economy boomed, the population soared, and Americans flourished. Well, not all Americans; for some this time was not prosperous. During an educator workshop on December 9, [2010] explore both sides of this period using paintings and sculpture from the Amon Carter’s collection.  [Send a note of interest to: education@cartermuseum.org.]

Eastman Johnson, Bo-Peep (Amon Carter Museum)

Eastman Johnson (1824–1906), Bo-Peep, 1872, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, 1980.

Or just sign up:

Thursday, December 9, 2010 – 5:00pm – 7:00pm

The Gilded (or Not-So-Gilded) Age

Educator Workshop: $12 for museum members and $15 for nonmembers

During the Gilded Age (late 1800s to the early 1900s), the U.S. economy boomed, the population soared, and Americans prospered. Well, not all Americans; for some this time in American history was not prosperous. Explore both sides of this period using paintings and sculpture from the Amon Carter’s collection. This workshop is most appropriate for educators of all grade levels teaching English, language arts, social studies, U.S. history, and visual art, although others may benefit. Refreshments are provided from 4:30 to 5 p.m.

Download registration form

3 Comments | Art, Gilded Age, History, Lesson plans, Museums, Teaching | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote of the moment: Jefferson on public education (again), “Preach . . . a crusade against ignorance”

November 26, 2010

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, Anaheim, California, circa 1940

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, Anaheim, California, circa 1940; image from the Anaheim Public Library, via the California Digital Library, University of California

Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people.  Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests, & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.

To George Wythe, from Paris, August 13, 1786

Excerpted here from The Quotable  Jefferson, collected and edited by John Kaminski, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 84

2 Comments | Education, History, History images, Public education, Public libraries, Taxes | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Beard that saved the Union

November 25, 2010

Adam Goodheart’s online essay on the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s beard makes worthy reading.

Library of Congress image, first photo of Lincoln's beard, by Samuel Alschuler in Chicago, 11-25-1860 (via NY Times)

Very first photo of president-elect Abraham Lincoln with a beard, November 25, 1860. Lincoln was photographed in Chicago by Samuel G. Alschuler. Library of Congress photo, via New York Times

Goodheart points to the first photo of Lincoln’s beard, made November 25, 1860, exactly 150 years ago, today.

1 Comment | 1861-1865, A Good Story, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, History, History images, photography | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Happy Origin Day!

November 24, 2010

On November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin’s book was published, On the Origin of Species.

Title page, 1859 edition of Darwin's Origin of Species - University of Sydney/Wikimedia image

Title page, 1859 edition of Darwin's Origin of Species - image from the University of Sydney via Wikimedia image

How to celebrate?  You could read a summary of Ernst Mayr’s shorthand version of Darwin’s theory, and understand it really for the first time  (I hope not the first time, but there are a lot of people who really don’t understand what Darwin said — especially among critics of evolution):

Darwin’s theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows:[3]

  • Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce the population would grow (fact).
  • Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).
  • Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).
  • A struggle for survival ensues (inference).
  • Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).
  • Much of this variation is inheritable (fact).
  • Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their inheritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (inference).
  • This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).
Darwin's original sketch of a "tree of life," from Darwin's journals

Charles Darwin's 1837 sketch, his first diagram of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837) on view at the the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Interpretation of handwriting: "I think case must be that one generation should have as many living as now. To do this and to have as many species in same genus (as is) requires extinction . Thus between A + B the immense gap of relation. C + B the finest gradation. B+D rather greater distinction. Thus genera would be formed. Bearing relation" (next page begins) "to ancient types with several extinct forms." Wikimedia image

4 Comments | Books, Darwin, Evolution, History, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Annals of Global Warming: Lakes warming in temperate regions worldwide

November 24, 2010

While we were trying (unsuccessfully) to find the criminals who hacked the e-mails of scientists, and trying (unsuccessfully for the most part) to point out that being victims of a crime does not mean a group’s research is faulty, and watching the disastrous results of the cynical assault on American politics by e-mail thieves and modern enemies of Hypatia, the world continues to spin.  Galileo so aptly described the news:  Eppur si muove!

Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay - one of the world's warming lakes - NASA photo

Lake Tahoe, seen here from Emerald Bay, was one of the primary validation sites for the global lake study. The lake, which straddles the borders of California and Nevada, is the largest alpine lake in North America. Image credit: NASA-JPL

Against those religiously inclined to ignore the facts, a modern Galileo could say:  Eppure, lei si scalda!

Just a few months ago critics of science told us that the Copenhagen conference on climate change was unnecessary, because the world is cooling, and not warming.  Eleven months ago, supporters of the theft of e-mails from the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain claimed that researchers had goofed about global warming, and then covered it up.  The sad old Earth kept turning and orbiting . . .

Comes now this news from NASA:

November 23, 2010

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

RELEASE : 10-308

NASA Study Finds Earth’s Lakes Are Warming

WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, NASA researchers determined Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change.

Researchers Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.

They reported an average warming rate of 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. The warming trend was global, and the greatest increases were in the mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

“Our analysis provides a new, independent data source for assessing the impact of climate change over land around the world,” said Schneider, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “The results have implications for lake ecosystems, which can be adversely affected by even small water temperature changes.”

Small changes in water temperature can result in algal blooms that can make a lake toxic to fish or result in the introduction of non-native species that change the lake’s natural ecosystem.

Scientists have long used air temperature measurements taken near Earth’s surface to compute warming trends. More recently, scientists have supplemented these measurements with thermal infrared satellite data that can be used to provide a comprehensive, accurate view of how surface temperatures are changing worldwide.

The NASA researchers used thermal infrared imagery from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and European Space Agency satellites. They focused on summer temperatures (July-September in the Northern Hemisphere and January-March in the Southern Hemisphere) because of the difficulty in collecting data in seasons when lakes are ice-covered and/or often hidden by clouds. Only nighttime data were used in the study

The bodies studied were selected from a global database of lakes and wetlands based on size (typically at least 193 square miles or larger) or other unique characteristics of scientific merit. The selected lakes also had to have large surface areas located away from shorelines, so land influences did not interfere with the measurements. Satellite lake data were collected from the point farthest from any shoreline.

The largest and most consistent area of warming was northern Europe. The warming trend was slightly weaker in southeastern Europe, around the Black and Caspian seas and Kazakhstan. The trends increased slightly farther east in Siberia, Mongolia and northern China.

In North America, trends were slightly higher in the southwest United States than in the Great Lakes region. Warming was weaker in the tropics and in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. The results were consistent with the expected changes associated with global warming.

The satellite temperature trends largely agreed with trends measured by nine buoys in the Great Lakes, Earth’s largest group of freshwater lakes in terms of total surface area and volume.

The lake temperature trends were also in agreement with independent surface air temperature data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. In certain regions, such as the Great Lakes and northern Europe, water bodies appear to be warming more quickly than surrounding air temperature.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

– end –

 

Warming trends in temperate zone lakes, 1985-2009 - NASA image, JPL

Global trends in seasonal nighttime lake surface temperatures, 1985-2009. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltec

World wide, a few lakes show not a great deal of warming, but none of the lakes sampled showed any cooling over the past two-and-a-half decades.

11 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, Global warming, Green Politics, History, Science | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote of the moment: 1971, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia orders a review of the safety of DDT

November 23, 2010

Excerpted from ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND, INCORPORATED et al., Petitioners, v. William D. RUCKELSHAUS, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency & Environmental Protection Agency, Respondents, Izaak Walton League of America, Montrose Chemical Corporation of California, State of New York, Intervenors, 439 F.2d 584 (1971); Chief Judge David L. Bazelon wrote the decision.

This is a petition for review of an order of the Secretary of Agriculture,1 refusing to suspend the federal registration of the pesticide DDT or to commence the formal administrative procedures that could terminate that registration.

Born in Wisconsin, David L. Bazelon grew up in Chicago and practiced law there. In 1949, President Truman named him to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often described as the country's most influential court, next to the Supreme Court. At 40, he was the youngest judge ever appointed to that court. From 1962-1978 he served as chief judge, retiring in 1986 as a senior judge.

*      *      *      *      *

We conclude that the order was based on an incorrect interpretation of the controlling statute, and accordingly remand the case for further proceedings.  In this case the Secretary has made a number of findings with respect to DDT. On the basis of the available scientific evidence he has concluded that (1) DDT in large doses has produced cancer in test animals and various injuries in man, but in small doses its effect on man is unknown; (2) DDT is toxic to certain birds, bees, and fish, but there is no evidence of harm to the vast majority of species of nontarget organisms; (3) DDT has important beneficial uses in connection with disease control and protection of various crops. These and other findings led the Secretary to conclude ‘that the use of DDT should continue to be reduced in an orderly, practicable manner which will not deprive mankind of uses which are essential to the public health and welfare. To this end there should be continuation of the comprehensive study of essentiality of particular uses and evaluations of potential substitutes.’38

There is no reason, however, for that study to be conducted outside the procedures provided by statute. The Secretary may, of course, conduct a reasonable preliminary investigation before taking action under the statute. Indeed, the statute expressly authorizes him to consult a scientific advisory committee, apart from the committee that may be appointed after the issuance of a cancellation notice.39 But when, as in this case, he reaches the conclusion that there is a substantial question about the safety of a registered item, he is obliged to initiate the statutory procedure that results in referring the matter first to a scientific advisory committee and then to a public hearing. We recognize, of course, that one important function of that procedure is to afford the registrant an opportunity to challenge the initial decision of the Secretary. But the hearing, in particular, serves other functions as well. Public hearings bring the public into the decision-making process, and create a record that facilitates judicial review.40 If hearings are held only after the Secretary is convinced beyond a doubt that cancellation is necessary, then they will be held too seldom and too late in the process to serve either of those functions effectively.

The Secretary’s statement in this case makes it plain that he found a substantial question concerning the safety of DDT, which in his view warranted further study. Since we have concluded that that is the standard for the issuance of cancellation notices under the FIFRA, the case must be remanded to the Secretary with instructions to issue notices with respect to the remaining uses of DDT, and thereby commence the administrative process.

*        *        *        *        *

We stand on the threshold of a new era in the history of the long and fruitful collaboration of administrative agencies and reviewing courts. For many years, courts have treated administrative policy decisions with great deference, confining judicial attention primarily to matters of procedure.48 On matters of substance, the courts regularly upheld agency action, with a nod in the direction of the ‘substantial evidence’ test,49 and a bow to the mysteries of administrative expertise.50 Courts occasionally asserted, but less often exercised, the power to set aside agency action on the ground that an impermissible factor had entered into the decision, or a crucial factor had not been considered. Gradually, however, that power has come into more frequent use, and with it, the requirement that administrators articulate the factors on which they base their decisions.51

Strict adherence to that requirement is especially important now that the character of administrative litigation is changing. As a result of expanding doctrines of standing and reviewability,52 and new statutory causes of action,53 courts are increasingly asked to review administrative action that touches on fundamental personal interests in life, health, and liberty. These interests have always had a special claim to judicial protection, in comparison with the economic interests at stake in a ratemaking or licensing proceeding.

To protect these interests from administrative arbitrariness, it is necessary, but not sufficient, to insist on strict judicial scrutiny of administrative action. For judicial review alone can correct only the most egregious abuses. Judicial review must operate to ensure that the administrative process itself will confine and control the exercise of discretion.54 Courts should require administrative officers to articulate the standards and principles that govern their discretionary decisions in as much detail as possible.55 Rules and regulations should be freely formulated by administrators, and revised when necessary.56 Discretionary decisions should more often be supported with findings of fact and reasoned opinions.57 When administrators provide a framework for principled decision-making, the result will be to diminish the importance of judicial review by enhancing the integrity of the administrative process, and to improve the quality of judicial review in those cases where judicial review is sought.

Remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

(President Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture Clifford M. Hardin reviewed DDT regulations and decided no further action was required — since 1958, USDA had been reducing and eliminating DDT from use on USDA lands, as was the Department of the Interior.  Environmental Defense Fund sued, arguing more action should have been required.  In a complex decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered more study of the issue.  By the time of the decision, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been established, and EPA Director William D. Ruckelshaus took Hardin’s place as defendant, with EPA assuming USDA’s position as defendant agency.  EPA’s review resulted in a ban on use of DDT on crops in the U.S.)

Some historians and many critics of EPA’s decision to ban DDT from agricultural use in the U.S. fail to acknowledge the importance of this ruling.  Judge Bazelon said that great caution alone is not sufficient on the part of administrators, and he ordered that the evidence against DDT be placed on the public record for public scrutiny.  “Public scrutiny” in this case would mean analysis by scientists, pesticide manufacturers, farming and farm support organizations, health workers, policy makers, and reporters.

On one hand, this decision tends to favor DDT advocates.  Judge Bazelon said the administrator in charge of carrying out FIFRA, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, must give advocates of DDT the basis for the ruling: “On the basis of the available scientific evidence he has concluded that (1) DDT in large doses has produced cancer in test animals and various injuries in man, but in small doses its effect on man is unknown; (2) DDT is toxic to certain birds, bees, and fish, but there is no evidence of harm to the vast majority of species of nontarget organisms; (3) DDT has important beneficial uses in connection with disease control and protection of various crops.”

On the other hand, Bazelon’s order means that the significant harms of DDT must  be spelled out in public — so that the administrator’s ruling can be contested if it does not do what FIFRA requires.  In other places in the decision, Judge Bazelon notes that Congress had required, through FIFRA, that a pesticide determined to be uncontrollably dangerous must be taken off the market, under the justification that it was “mislabeled.”  Lower courts had already made that determination on DDT.  Bazelon’s order set the stage to require the administrator to ban DDT as a matter of law — the administrator being  the Secretary of Agriculture originally, or the Director of EPA under the reorganization of the government that created EPA .

Critics of William Ruckelshaus’s decision to ban DDT miss this point of the law.  Under the findings of the nearly year-long hearing in EPA’s administrative law courts, DDT was found to be an uncontrollable poison in the wild.  FIFRA required such a pesticide to have its registration cancelled, with very little wiggle room to make a case for any continued use of the stuff.  Ruckelshaus’s action stopped the immediate shutdown of DDT manufacturing in the U.S.   This proved to be a mixed benefit decision.  While the U.S. benefited financially from export of DDT, that the U.S. exported a chemical banned for most uses inside the U.S. proved to be a sore point in foreign relations with other nations; also most of the manufacturing sites were highly contaminated, so much so that the manufacturers declared bankruptcy rather than stick around to clean them up under the rules of the Superfund which took effect in 1984.  Taxpayer dollars now pay for massive cleanup operations of DDT manufacturing sites in California, Michigan, and Alabama, and other places.

2 Comments | DBQ sources, DDT, Environmental protection, Famous quotes, Famous trials, Government, History, Justice, knowledge, Law, Quotes, Regulation | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Unhappy marriage led to founding of Texas?

November 23, 2010

I’m looking for more photographs of presidents, especially Millard Fillmore and Andrew Johnson at the moment.  Only a tiny handful of photos are available for Fillmore, and generally, there are only three photos of Andrew Johnson.  Are there other photos hidden in archives, or is that really a reflection of how many photos were made of the two men?

The search continues.

While searching the archives at the University of Tennessee, I came across this press release on a wedding invitation to Sam Houston’s first marriage, in Tennessee, when he was governor of that state.  It features a photo of Houston that’s a little rare — and an interesting story.

Houston’s first marriage failed fast and hard.  He was so shaken that he resigned his office as governor of Tennessee, and left for Indian territories.  Eventually he found himself in Texas, and he was the leader of the Texian forces that defeated and captured Mexico’s President Santa Ana, securing independence from Mexico for Texas.  Houston was president of the Texas Republic, and governor of the State of Texas.

What would Texas history be had Houston’s first marriage been happy, and he had stayed in Tennessee?



March 23, 2007

University of Tennessee Special Collections Library acquires rare invitation to Sam Houston’s 1829 wedding

samhouston.jpgThe Special Collections Library at the University of Tennessee recently purchased a copy of an invitation to the sudden January 1829 wedding of then-Tennessee governor Sam Houston and Eliza Allen. This rare item may be only one of its kind.

Aaron Purcell, university archivist, discovered the piece on eBay.com and purchased the invitation on February 14, 2007, just over 178 years after the wedding date. The invitation was kept by descendants of one of the wedding guests for five generations.

Sam Houston is an important figure in Tennessee’s history, serving as governor from 1827-1829 and representing the state in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1823-1827. Born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1793, his family moved to Maryville, Tennessee, in 1806. Houston joined the army in 1813 and fought at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. There he caught the attention of Andrew Jackson. Jackson became Houston’s mentor and helped guide his political career.

While governor, Houston briefly courted 18-year-old Eliza Allen, daughter of a wealthy Gallatin, Tennessee, businessman. On January 15, 1829, the couple mailed a handful of invitations to a small January 22nd wedding at the Allen family home. It is one of these few invitations that UT was able to purchase.

invitation.jpgThe invitation UT acquired is addressed to Miss Harriet Roulstone, the daughter of George Roulstone, who in 1791 founded the Knoxville Gazette, the state’s first newspaper.

Shortly after the ceremony, the newlyweds were at odds. After 11 weeks, Eliza Allen left her husband and returned to her family’s home in Gallatin. There are many theories as to why the marriage was so short-lived, but none are substantiated. Allen burned all of her letters regarding the relationship and Houston was reluctant to speak about his brief marriage.

The invitation gives few details about the wedding, but the piece remained in the Roulstone family for many years, tucked in a trunk with other important family papers.

Shortly after his marriage dissolved, Houston resigned his position as governor and fled to Indian Territory. He married a Cherokee woman and became a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Houston returned to public service in Texas, serving as president of the Republic of Texas, U.S. senator, and making several failed presidential runs. He died in 1863, leaving behind a complex legacy.

“Sam Houston materials are exceedingly rare and expensive,” Purcell said. UT holds only one other Houston item in its collections, a letter to Colonel Ramsey, dated February 1829. Both items are available for research use in the Special Collections Library at 1401 Cumberland Avenue.

About the Special Collections Library
The University of Tennessee Special Collections Library was founded in 1960 and resides in the historic James D. Hoskins Library building. Materials in special collections include manuscripts, books and other rare materials for research use. For more information, contact the library at (865) 974-4480  or visit www.lib.utk.edu/spcoll/.

3 Comments | Biography, Heroes, Historic documents, History, photography, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Delingpole: Wrong and bitter on DDT

November 21, 2010

The Daily Telegraph’s James Delingpole got suckered by the anti-Rachel Carson propaganda, and wrote a bitter piece complaining about how environmentalists are ruining the environment and people’s lives (double whammy:  environmentalists worry about people over profits, and the environment over corporations, so Delingpole hoped to tweak ’em at both ends).  Lots of discussion, too much to read and most of it nasty and off target.

It was a smaller part of Delingpole’s generally anti-science, contrary-to-fact rant about global warming.

Chris Goodall fixed all of Delingpole’s errors on DDT at Carbon Commentary.

Being pro-DDT has become as religious an exercise as being for creationism taught in public schools.  There’s no good evidence to support the point, but there are a tiny handful of people who are gullible enough to spread whatever they say.  That tiny handful of advocates never gets the facts on their side, nor they on the side of the facts, but they appear deluded enough that they get their panties in a wad if you point out that their claims are false.  “I’m not a liar!” they’ll retort with indignation good enough to make them rivals of the Portugal soccer squad’s acting, or just crazy enough to fail to recognize their errors.

And so the falsehoods spiral on virally.

Rachel Carson’s ghost should get busier.  DDT can’t stop malaria, and now rarely slows it at all.  Rachel Carson was right — and had we listened in 1962, malaria might be a lot less prevalent today.

2 Comments | DDT, Global warming, History, Malaria, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Aunt Ellie, and spontaneous performances of Handel’s “Hallelujah” Chorus

November 21, 2010

Kathryn’s aunt, Eleanor Knowles Laney, died a few weeks ago.  She had been ill with a particularly ironic form of dementia for several years, but still the death of anyone close strikes home.

Ellie’s genius lay in words, and her ability to use them, and manipulate them.  Early in her career she lived and worked in New York City, incubating her loves of writing, and Broadway drama and music, museums and other culture.  Later she wrote for Salt Lake City’s Deseret News, and then for years edited for Deseret Books, the publishing arm of the Mormon church.  Once she had a near-best seller on her hands.  Eleanor got the assignment to write a biography of Howard W. Hunter, a member of the Mormon church’s highest council, the Council of the Twelve.  Shortly after the book was published in 1987 or 1988, the president of the church, Marion G. Romney, died.  Hunter was elevated to the presidency of the church, “prophet, seer and revelator” in LDS terms.  Suddenly, Mormons all over the world wanted a copy of Ellie’s book.

With her love of words and music, Ellie’s infamy included her ability to pull from the depths a lyric from some Broadway show particularly appropriate, and funny, to whatever event unfolded at the moment.  She was murder at Scrabble.  Ellie’s family — siblings, nephews and nieces, husband and friends — shared at least some of this obsession with music and words.

I kid you not:  At a family reunion Kathryn and Kenny and James and I attended, about 15 years ago, after an afternoon of picnicking, softball and third-degree visiting, the group retired to a room in a local Mormon wardhouse.  Of course, there was a piano there.  One of the cousins began plunking away, and within a few minutes a sing-along broke out, with various cousins taking turns at the keyboard.  Broadway, pop, opera, hymns:  It was pretty impressive.  The hour grew late.

“Why don’t we close off with something grand,” Ellie said.  “How about the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.'”

I laughed, but I think I was the only one who did.  Singing around a piano is one thing — though, truth be told, some of Kathryn’s cousins can really belt it out (and have done on stage), and more than a couple are extremely accomplished pianists.  Kathryn has at least one copy of the score; she had sung it with the Salt Lake Oratorio Society, and we have, several times, sought out the Handel sing-alongs with the Dallas Bach Society or some other organization where ringers, professional singers are brought in for the great solos, an outstanding orchestra provides the accompaniment, and enough members of good local choral groups show up that it sounds good, if not grand.  But here we were in an LDS building, without scores, with a motley bunch who, I suspected, had not performed it often . . .

“Cousin X can do the piano better than I can,” said whichever cousin sitting at the piano at the moment.  No one asked for a score.  No one checked the hymnals to see if the lyrics could be dug up.  I sensed disaster.

After a stunning impromptu piano introduction, sans director, the family was off and running, singing Handel at full throttle.

It was grand.  No part of the harmony was missed.  If anyone stumbled over any of the lyrics, it was masked by the many others who didn’t.

A once in a lifetime experience, I thought.  Too bad no one had a video camera.  No one would believe it.

You can understand how Ellie’s long slide into unintelligibility was a blow to everyone who knew her. For at least the last four years she had been in a care facility, often unable to communicate.

Her funeral in Salt Lake City, Utah, featured some nice performances by the nieces and nephews.   The family is far-flung by now — some drove in from distant cities, some came out of the mountains, some flew from far away.  A bit of a hometown service, but a hometown that now includes at least all of the U.S. and immigrants from several foreign countries.  Officials of the Latter-day Saints added to the eulogies, extolling Ellie’s work on particularly difficult editing and writing assignments.

Then, at the end of the service, there was an apology about a lack of time to rehearse.  But the show must go on — Ellie always loved the “Hallelujah Chorus.”  So, with great love, half-a -hundred family members rose and sang the entire chorus, with full piano accompaniment, with every harmony, every key part sung well, and with gusto.

What a way to go!

This video below epitomizes “internet viral.”  It was a larger venue, a larger, much more professional chorus, and it featured the Wanamaker Organ — but I’ll bet it was no better than that performance in Salt Lake City earlier this year.  (For heaven’s sake, turn up the volume!)

Everybody needs more Handel in their lives, don’t you think?

How wonderful is it that this sing-in was organized with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation?  Great idea by the Philadelphia Opera Company.  We need more grand organs in department stores, if you ask me.  We need them if you don’t ask me.  Ellie, are you listening?

More, resources:

2 Comments | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Going to the, um, wall, for your grandmother

November 20, 2010

What I really like about this story is that the guy did it for his grandmother, to pull her out of a funk.

From My Modern Met:

SuperHero Grandma, by Sacha Goldberger

Sacha Goldberger's loving portrait of his grandmother, who happens to be a superhero.

A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us “she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places everyday.” As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.

Aside from great strength, Frederika has an incredible sense of humor, one that defies time and misfortune. She is funny and cynical, always mocking the people that she loves.

With the unexpected success of this series, titled “Mamika,” Goldberger created a MySpace page for his grandmother. She now has over 2,200 friends and receives messages like: “You’re the grandmother that I have dreamed of, would you adopt me?” and ” You made my day, I hope to be like you at your age.”

Initially, she did not understand why all these people wrote to congratulate her. Then, little by little, she realized that her story conveyed a message of hope and joy. In all those pictures, she posed with the utmost enthusiasm. Now, after the set, Goldberger shares that his grandmother has never shown even a hint of depression. Perhaps it’s because her story serves some sort of purpose. That through the warm words of newfound friends, she’s reminded of just how lucky she is to be alive.

Several great photos here, at My Modern Met.

Who wouldn’t admire a guy who makes a superhero out of his grandmother?

Mamika, Sacha Goldberger's grandmother

Going to the wall for your grandmother -- Sacha Goldberger photo.

More, and resources:

Tip of the old scrub brush to Jean Detjen.

Leave a Comment » | Family, History, Humor, Life, photography | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Leonid meteor shower 2010: Moon, Jupiter, and Leonids

November 17, 2010

Some stellar fireworks will be visible in your skies tonight, November 17, 2010.

The Moon is in conjunction with Jupiter.  The Leonid Meteor Shower will peak soon after the Moon and Jupiter set.

Oh, to be in the desert tonight, far away from the lights of the city!

Even in a city, the Moon and Jupiter should be clear, and near spectacular.

Things are great, if you’re looking up.

Moon and Jupiter, conjunction 1990 - ICSTAR

It won't be this spectacular -- this is a photo of the 1990 Moon/Jupiter conjunction (ICSTARS photo)

2 Comments | Astronomy, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Moon, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Are you smart enough to be a citizen?

November 16, 2010

From Yahoo! today:

Think you could pass a U.S. Citizenship exam? From easy questions like, “Who is the president of the United States?” to harder questions that might stump the average American, we take a look at the exam to become an official U.S. citizen.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Are you smart enough to be a citizen?, posted with vodpod

[Well, Vodpod seems to be quite dead, and with it that Yahoo! video. Try this one from Curious John]

Do you feel lucky, punk? Well . . . do you?

Resources, more information:

A list of questions posed in this video, below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Citizenship, Government, History, Immigration, who knew | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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