Well, no, we haven’t. Nice little post by a photographer urging people to go look to see what they can find, with a brilliantly concise set of arguments about big things discovered just in the past few years.
Nice photos, too — go see.
Surely we’ve found everything by now
November 4, 2009
4 Comments | 
Adventure, Education, Explorers and Exploration, Geography - Physical, History, photography, Science | Tagged: Adventure, Biology, Discovery, Education, Exploring and Exploration, geography, History, Science | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Jack Kilby, inventor of the computer chip
November 1, 2009KERA Television has a marvelous short film profile of Jack Kilby, who won the Nobel in physics for his invention of what we now call “the computer chip.”
Late in his life, Jack Kilby holds his first integrated circuit, which is encased in plastic. Photo via Texas Instruments, via Earth & Sky
Teachers should check out the film and use it — it’s a great little chapter of Texas history, science history, and U.S. history. It’s an outstanding explanation of a technological development that revolutionized so much of our daily life, especially in the late 20th century. At 8 minutes and 37 seconds, the film is ideal for classroom use.
Alas! My technology won’t allow embedding the video here, and so far as I can tell it is only available in broadcast on KERA and at KERA’s website. So, go there and look at it! If you can download it for use, more power to you — and let us know in comments how you did it.
[2015 update: Good news! KERA put the film up on YouTube! Teachers, especially Texas history teachers, take note, and copy URL!]
2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Kilby’s filing for a patent on an integrated circuit. He’s been honored by the Inventor’s Hall of Fame. Despite the stupendous value of his invention, Kilby’s name is far from a household name even in North Dallas, home of Texas Instruments. Robert Noyce, who came up with almost exactly the same idea at almost exactly the same moment, is similarly ignored.
Shouldn’t today’s high school students know about Kilby and Noyce? Not a class period goes by that I don’t use a device powered by Kilby’s invention; nor does one pass that I don’t have to admonish at least one student for misuse of such a device, such as an iPod, MP3 player, or cell phone. It’s difficult to think of someone whose invention has greater influence on the life of these kids, hour by hour — but Kilby and his invention don’t get their due in any text I’ve seen.
It’s a great film — original and clever animation, good interviews, and it features Kilby’s charming daughter, and the great journalist and historian of technology T. R. Reid. Don’t you agree that it’s much better than most of the history stuff we have to show?
Texas history standards require kids to pay brief homage to inventors in the 20th century. Kilby is not named in the standards, however, and so he and his invention are ignored as subjects of history study. You ought to fix that in your classroom, teachers.
(Kilby was born and grew up in Great Bend, Kansas — Kansas teachers may want to take note. According to the KERA film, Kilby was a Boy Scout, making it at least to First Class.)
TI company video on Kilby featuring interviews from the 1990s, prior to his 2000 Nobel Physics Prize
Additional Resources
- The History of the Integrated Circuit (nobelprize.org)
- Jack Kilby mini-autobiography (nobelprize.org)
- Jack Kilby information page (Texas Instruments – ti.com)
- Jack Kilby wins Nobel Prize: press conference at TI @ Yahoo! Video
- Video of interview with Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the computer chip
- Patent application for “miniaturized electronic circuit,” at Google Patents
- Need a date to celebrate? Kilby was born on November 8, 1923. His birthday is a week away.
- This Date In Science: February 6, 1959 – at Earth & Sky
TI company video on the 2008 50th anniversary of the chip
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3 Comments | A Good Story, Biography, History, History of Science, History video sources, Science, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Television, Texas, Texas history, Video and film | Tagged: Computer Chip, History, Jack Kilby, Nobel Prize in Physics, Science, Science History, Technology, Texas, Texas history, Texas Instruments | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Obama’s eligibility: California court tossed the challenge out
October 30, 2009On the one hand it’s nice to see cool heads and wisdom prevail.
On the other hand, the Orly Taitz, Stumbling and Bumbling Bros., Barnyard Bailout Circus provided belly laughs for everyone who watched it. How can such outstanding legal pratfall comedy possibly be replaced? “Boston Legal” can’t hold a candle to Orly Taitz.
CNN and other sources report that Judge Carter booted the suit late Thursday, noting that the question is one for Congress, and Congress’s earlier decision sticks.
The lawsuit represented the claim by the so-called “birthers” movement that Obama was not born in Hawaii – despite a birth certificate to the contrary – or that if he was, his citizenship was invalidated by living overseas as a child.
In a 30-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of California said his court lacked the jurisdiction to rule on a case intended to unseat a sitting president.
Carter’s ruling said the plaintiffs were trying to persuade him to “disregard the constitutional procedures in place for the removal of a sitting president.”
“The process for removal of a sitting president – removal for any reason – is within the province of Congress, not the courts,” the ruling said.
Carter’s ruling also noted that the plaintiffs “have attacked the judiciary, including every prior court that has dismissed their claim, as unpatriotic and even treasonous for refusing to grant their requests and for adhering to the terms of the Constitution.”
“Respecting the constitutional role and jurisdiction of this court is not unpatriotic,” the ruling said. “Quite the contrary, this court considers commitment to that constitutional role to be the ultimate reflection of patriotism.”
Will Orly Taitz go quietly? How can she replace the daily adrenaline rush of knowing she’s earned the official ire of judges from Chesapeake Bay to Long Beach Harbor?
It may be unrelated, but sketchy early reports say Orly Taitz has climbed aboard a mylar balloon shaped like a flying saucer . . .
More information:
- Short story in the Los Angeles Times
- Link to the decision in the case, courtesy the Los Angeles Times
- If by some sad twist of fate you missed the earlier comedy, you can check out an almost-running comedy commentary at Dispatches from the Culture Wars here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh, heck, Ed Brayton has more — but you get the general idea. Taitz doesn’t.
- Now here’s a genuine dilemma: Orly Taitz goes after Bill O’Reilly. How does one bet? How does one cheer?
- Questionable Authority: “Orly Taitz gets slapped around by another judge”
- Wonkette has a few words
- Politics Daily adds a few more
- Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog
21 Comments | Barack Obama, Birth Certificate, History, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law, President Obama, Presidential Eligibility, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Birth Certificate, Birthers, Constitution, Justice, Orly Taitz, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Gilded Age project
October 27, 2009I really like this project, and I wish I’d come across it about a month ago:
The Gilded Age Class Documentary Project
The Gilded Age – Class Documentary Project
Instructors: Rachel Duffy, Marc Ducharme
May, 2005
Adapted from: The Gilded Age WebQuest – Documenting Industrialization in America
By: Thomas Caswell and Joshua DeLorenzo
What do you think?
Leave a Comment » | 1898, Gilded Age, Historic documents, History, History audio sources, Lesson plans, Student projects | Tagged: Gilded Age, History, Lesson plans, Student projects | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: Eric Blair (George Orwell) on lies becoming history
October 25, 2009
George Orwell (Eric Blair) on cover of Time Magazine, Novmber 28, 1983
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kate at The Urban Primate
If Big Brother is watching, why not let him watch all of us? Spread the word:
1 Comment | Books, Famous quotes, History, Literature, Propaganda, Quotes | Tagged: History, Literature, Propaganda, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What’s a journalist’s duty? Limbaugh ignores warning signs, punks himself
October 25, 2009Millard Fillmore’s bathtub came out of a hoax story written in 1917 by one of America’s greatest cynics and writers, H. L. Mencken. Mencken lived to regret that he ever wrote the piece, after it was cited as fact by encyclopedias and critics of Fillmore’s presidency.
Mencken’s story holds a moral, a lesson for all critics of the American scene, and especially anyone who comments on political figures: Verify everything.
Ernest Hemingway put it best, if crudely: “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.”*
If a writer or reporter doesn’t have one of those devices built-in, he is likely to find himself up to his chin in it after having failed to detect it in time to avoid the plunge.
Rush Limbaugh is in it up to his chin right now, after following Michael Ledeen off the dock.
Faithful readers here — all dozen of ’em — may remember last January when we spotlighted a hoax at a blog called Jumping in Pools; the author claimed President Obama had ordered members our armed forces to take an oath of allegiance to Obama in place of their regular oath to the nation.
Orson Welles was on to something with his “War of the Worlds” broadcast. In fact, after that first night of panic, the same script was used on other occasions, and people still got suckered in. (Listen to the RadioLab feature on this phenomenon — it’s wonderful.)
It’s almost as if people were going around with signs on their backs that say “Lie to me, baby!” Only, the people put the signs on their shirts and blouses themselves.
For whatever ill-thought, malicious reason, somebody invented an absolutely unbelievable hoax that President Obama asked the Pentagon to have military people swear allegiance to him, instead of the nation. Jumping in Pools posted it.
Jumping in Pools also listed it as satire, in tags.
But the hoax sucked in the gullible all over the web.
Limbaugh? Ledeen? Y’all would do well to read this blog, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. You might have recognized the name of the blog, Jumping in Pools, that carried that phantasmagorical story about Barack Obama’s student essay, finally being released in part to Time Magazine’s Joe Klein.
Yahoo!’s Buzz Up explained the story, with links you ought to check out:
It must have seemed so perfect. An obscure blogger unearths some pages of President Obama’s college thesis. The report supposedly comes from big-time journalist Joe Klein of Time magazine. And the thesis has some real gems: like Obama’s disdain for the Constitution.
The whole thing was nothing more than a satirical post on a humor blog. But Rush Limbaugh, who quoted from the supposed thesis on his radio show, sure wasn’t laughing. Here’s how it went down.
An unknown blogger picked up on a made-up post meant as a joke, which claimed that Joe Klein had gotten his hands on 10 pages of student Obama’s college thesis. Rush Limbaugh jumped on it, which immediately sparked Web searches on “obama thesis.”
Supposedly titled “Aristocracy Revisited,” the excerpt revealed the president had “doubts” about the “so-called founders.” Juicy. Except not true. Limbaugh discovered halfway through his show that he’d been had, but defended himself by saying basically the thesis felt true. Listen in to Rush’s mea sorta culpa.
Joe Klein finally jumped in, and called the report “nonsense” on his Swampland blog, and the blogger who thought the hoax was real also apologized.
Michael Ledeen writing at Pajamas Media was that “blogger who thought the hoax was real.”
Ledeen had the good grace to apologize (and in doing so reveal that he really should have been much more en garde):
The hoax/satire was written in August, so it’s not connected to any current event. I cam across it on Twitter, read the blog, found it interesting, and posted on it. I failed to notice that one of the tags was “satire.”
So he got me, and lots of others. It worked because it’s plausible. I’ve done satirical pieces myself, and I know how they can take off. I once wrote one that said that Bill Casey did not die, and was hiding in a bunker under the St Andrews golf course from which he was running Mikhail Gorbachev. I thought it was obviously satirical, but it went like wildfire all over the world. And that was in the days before the Internet.
So I should have picked up some hint, but I didn’t. Shame on me.
But Limbaugh? He railed on for more than half an hour on the evils of Obama revealed in the completely fictional essay; and then when he was alerted to the fact that it was a hoax, he didn’t apologize. He said he was suckered in because the hoax was plausible, and Obama might have done such a thing.
“I know Obama thinks it,” Limbaugh said, purporting to channel the guy he despises only too openly.
I’m trying to suppress it, but Limbaugh’s actions remind me mightily of an old Cheech and Chong routine. One wonders what Obama’s more rabid critics would not grant credence to.
Wall of Shame
- American Thinker, host of a thousand neuroses and great lack of judgment, jumped right on it
- Fox Nation also fell victim
- Tundra Tabloid
- Mercifully short Wall of Shame this time, no?
What would Hemingway have reported?
Other thoughts:
- Jonathan Last’s article for the Templeton Foundation’s In Character Journal wonders about how we choose what to believe, and whom. The Dallas Morning News carried the article in the “Points” section this morning, but it’s not up on their website; look at the article at the Templeton Foundation site.
________
* I’m convinced he said it. I’m relying here on Elizabeth Dewberry’s contribution to The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway, “Hemingway’s Journalism and the Realist Dilemma,” on page 25. She cites to an interview, but I’ve misplaced the rest of that note for the moment, and for some odd reason the page with the citation isn’t included on Google Books (the pain of internet research, to get to the information you need out of the haystack, and find that particular needle has been intentionally removed). Read Dewberry, though, for a much longer and informative discussion about hoaxes and fakery in journalism, which is the problem discussed in this post.
Don’t let your friends be bamboozled, pass the word:
8 Comments | Accuracy, Barack Obama, Ethics, History, Hoaxes, Journalism, News, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Accuracy, Barack Obama, Ethics, Hoaxes, Joe Klein, Journalism, Michael Ledeen, Politics, Rush Limbaugh | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What is a kilosteve? Buy the t-shirt, find out
October 24, 2009You can get your kilosteve t-shirt here.
Why would you want one?
Every scientist named Steve should have one -- and so should you! (Front)
Because it puts you in the company of distinguished scientists who stoutly defend the teaching of good science to children, so they can go on to become great scientists themselves.
Plus, it’s a poke in the eye to the Texas State Board of Education, none of whom are named Steve, and few of whom would be invited to sign on if they were.
Here’s the back of the shirt:
KiloSteve t-shirt, back side. 1,099 total Steves. (Back)
A kilosteve is a thousand Steves.
Creationists fondly distributed a list of scientists who, they claimed, question whether the theory of evolution is accurate. The anti-science Discovery Institute in Seattle distributed the list starting in about 2001, with a few hundred names.
To claims that many scientists opposed teaching evolution, NCSE created a list of scientists who support teaching evolution theory — but limiting that list to scientists with the first name “Steve,” or a derivative of Steve. About 1% of people in the English-speaking world have such a name — so the fact that more scientists named Steve sign the list supporting evolution, than those of all names who sign the list denying it, means that the Discovery Institute list represents less than 1% of all scientists.
A comparison of the lists is always instructive. In 2003 I started phoning people listed on the Discovery Institute list; of the first 20 I called, ten denied having signed any petition against evolution. One demanded his name be removed. Five made a modest defense of being skeptical of evolution, but none of them were biologists, and none had any publications which questioned any part of evolution in any way.
NCSE started the project in 2003, not long after the death of Stephen Jay Gould, the staunch defender of science and evolution who was the main witness in the first creationism trial, in Arkansas in 1981. It’s a fitting memorial to a fine teacher.
Eugenie Scott heads up NCSE. In an e-mail this week to members of Texas Citizens for Science, who were discussing the kilosteve shirt, she noted it has already spread overseas.
Just wanted you to know that when I gave my talk at Cambridge University Tuesday, Steve #800 walked into the lecture room wearing his kilosteve shirt.
A proud moment!
(Of course I threw open my arms and said in a cheery voice, “STEVE!!!”)
It almost makes one wish one’s name were Steve. (One also may wonder, who is Steve #800?) The shirt’s a great buy, especially considering that for the price of a kilosteve, one actually gets 1.099 kilosteves. (As of today, there are 1,118 Steves who have signed the list.)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Pharyngula, which noted the achievement of the kilosteve when it actually happened, and to Texas Citizens for Science, just for the heck of it..
You came to this blog, and all you got was a plug for a lousy t-shirt; share your displeasure:
1 Comment | Evolution, History, National Center for Science Education, Science, Texas Citizens for Science | Tagged: Education, Evolution, History, National Center for Science Education, NCSE, Project Steve, Science, Stephen J. Gould, Texas Citizens for Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment: DDT causing bed bug problems, Malcolm Gladwell
October 24, 2009
This digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed on the ventral surface of a bedbug, Cimex lectularius. From this view you can see the insect’s skin piercing mouthparts it uses to obtain its blood meal, as well as a number of its six jointed legs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Then the Malaysians started to complain about bedbugs, and it turns out what normally happens is that ants like to eat bedbug larvae,” McWilson Warren said. “But the ants were being killed by the DDT and the bedbugs weren’t — they were pretty resistant to it. So now you had a bedbug problem.”
– Malcolm Gladwell, “The Mosquito Killer, New Yorker Magazine, July 2, 2001; Annals of Public Health
2 Comments | DDT, History, Public health, Quotes, Science | Tagged: Bed Bugs, DDT, History, Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker Magazine, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Naomi Oreskes: The lecture Lord Monckton slept through, which he hopes you will not see
October 23, 2009Here’s another example of where historians show their value in science debates.
Naomi Oreskes delivered this lecture a few years ago on denialism in climate science. Among other targets of her criticism-by-history is my old friend Robert Jastrow. I think her history is correct, and her views on the Marshall Institute and denial of climate change informative in the minimum, and correct on the judgment of the facts.
You’ll recognize some of the names: Jastrow, Frederick Seitz, S. Fred Singer, and William Nierenberg.
Oreskes details the intentional political skewing of science by critics of the serious study of climate warming. It’s just under an hour long, but well worth watching. Dr. Oreskes is Professor of History in the Science Studies Program at the University of California at San Diego. The speech is titled “The American Denial of Global Warming.”
If Oreskes is right — and I invite you to check her references thoroughly, to discover for yourself that her history and science are both solid — Lord Monckton is a hoaxster. Notice especially the references after the 54 minute mark to the tactic of claiming that scientists are trying to get Americans to give up our sovereignty.
Nothing new under the sun.
“Global warming is here, and there are almost no communists left,” Oreskes said.
Nudge your neighbor:
46 Comments | Accuracy, air pollution, Business Ethics, Capturing history, Clean Air Act, Climate change, climate_change, Conservation, Cost of Green, denialism, Environmental protection, Evidence, Fairness Doctrine, Free press, Global warming, History, History of Science, How do we know what we know, Junk science, Newspapers, oceans, Physics, Politics, Polling and Public Opinion, Research, Science, War on Science | Tagged: Accuracy, Climate change, denialism, Fred Singer, Global warming, Hoaxes, Naomi Oreskes, Perspectives on Ocean Science, Robert Jastrow, Science, Tobacco Institute, Tobacco Strategy, University of California-San Diego, Voodoo science, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas State Dinosaur an affront to creationists
October 22, 2009Texas has a new State Dinosaur.
Scientists are working to make a good model of the beast for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, as reported in the October 6 Fort Worth Star-Telegram (often referred to locally as the “Startle-gram,” but still one of America’s good-to-great newspapers). David Casstevens reported:
The official state dinosaur would look big even inside Cowboys Stadium.
The creature stood 15 feet tall at the shoulders.
Sixty feet long, head to tail, it weighed 20 tons or more.
Sadly, despite being native to Texas, the species lived and died without ever tasting brisket.
“It was a herbivore,” paleontologist Dale Winkler said.
The quadrupedal sauropod — sort of a giant prehistoric giraffe — was the state’s first vegetarian.
Winkler, an SMU professor, stood with several other men around a workbench inside a building west of Azle, arms folded, their eyes studiously fixed on a rare and wondrous object, the skull that once contained the very small brain of Paluxysaurus jonesi.
They are members of a team that is meticulously reconstructing the dinosaur’s framework.
An articulated skeleton of the beast, which roamed this part of the country more than 100 million years ago, will become the centerpiece of DinoLabs, a dinosaur exhibit at the new $80 million Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which opens Nov. 20.
Texas is the ample belly of the nation’s Bible Belt, don’t you know. Creationists could not let such science endeavors proceed without their version of a blessing, provided in this case by a letter to the editor by a local guy named Richard Hollerman:
Unwarranted assumptions
David Casstevens’ Oct. 6 story tells of work to restore a dinosaur, Paluxysaurus jonesi, that will soon have its place in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. (See: “Dinosaur skeleton to lead exhibit”)
Thousands of professing Christians, including scientists with advanced degrees, deny basic elements of his account and views held by unbelieving paleontologists. (1) Consistent Christians believe God created dinosaurs relatively recently — about 6,000 years ago — whereas skeptical scientists assert they lived 100 million years ago. (2) Christians contend that dinosaurs were created as dinosaurs instead of evolving from prehistoric life that spontaneously sprang from nonlife 3 billion years ago. (3) Consistent Christians believe that dinosaurs became extinct after the worldwide Noaic flood 4,500 years ago.
We totally reject the unfounded assertion that this dinosaur “roamed this part of the country more than 100 million years ago” — as the reporter asserts. The discerning reader can verify this by consulting the Institute for Creation Research ( www.icr.org), Answers in Genesis ( www.answersingenesis.org), Apologetics Press ( www.apologeticspress.org) and others showing the fallacy of the evolution model and reasonableness of recent creation, along with the creation and extinction of dinosaurs.
I encourage the Star-Telegram to report these findings in a way that harmonizes with established facts instead of blindly accepting unfounded assertions by unbelieving paleontologists.
— Richard Hollerman, Richland Hills
You should be impressed that so many other local residents have differing views. The newspaper published several letters in response to Hollerman, on October 17:
Good science vs. non-science
After reading Richard Hollerman’s Oct. 14 letter, “Unwarranted assumptions,” I gather that he believes that only atheist scientists think that dinosaur fossils are millions of years old.
That is incorrect. The vast majority of scientists, regardless of religious beliefs, think that the evidence is overwhelming that dinosaur fossils are millions of years old. If he needs some examples of scientists who are Christian, specifically evangelical Christians, I would point out Mary Schweitzer, Keith Miller, Francis Collins, Richard G. Colling and Stephen J. Godfrey, who are biologists and paleontologists and are also evangelical Christians. Were it not for space limitations I could list thousands more.
This is not about belief vs. disbelief. It is about good science vs. non-science.
— Bill Robinson, Arlington
Hollerman and “thousands of professing Christians” have declared that their religious beliefs trump science, and they have a constitutional right to their notions. On top of that, they also have their churches, family units, private schools, home schooling, colleges that teach pseudo-science and the amazing Creation Museums in which Noah built a third tier on the “ark” to keep dinosaurs at a respectful distance. Fine.
Those of us who do not share the beliefs of “thousands” ask only that you use the aforementioned resources to educate your young, accustom yourselves to the thought of life in a Third World country and leave the rest of us alone!
— Jackie Bell, River Oaks
According to creationists, science is correct about the following:
Chemistry, computer science, mathematics, engineering, sociology, systems science, psychology, medicine, nuclear science, agronomy, astronomy, nanotechnology, acoustics, biophysics, condensed matter physics, electronics, fluid dynamics, geophysics, plasma physics, vehicle dynamics, solar astronomy, meteorology, limnology, soil science, toxicology, marine biology, parasitology, anatomy, biochemistry, structural biology, entomology, cetology, phylogeny, algebra, calculus, cartography, geopolitics, criminology, agriculture, language engineering, pathology, pediatrics, nutrition, physical therapy and dermatology.
But for some reason, according to creationists, science is wrong about evolution. How is that even possible?
— Mark Stevens, Fort Worth
Millions of professing Christians, including intelligent people from all religions and all walks of life, view the basic elements of paleontology as reasonable and logical. (1) Bones found in the different layers of soil show a chronological time line extending much further than 6,000 years ago. (2) Evolution is an observable, rational concept that is ongoing even in today’s “educated” world. (3) Claims that dinosaurs became extinct in a worldwide flood 4,500 years ago are laughable.
Uneducated Christians contend that dinosaurs became extinct in the Noaic flood, yet if you read the Bible it says Noah took two of every animal into the ark to preserve the different species. Did he overlook dinosaurs? Were they deemed unfit to survive by God?
Being raised as a Southern Baptist, I was taught that God guided evolution to fit His plan. Even the most devout Christians in my church had enough intelligence to see the facts that were right before their eyes. I encourage Star-Telegram readers to open their minds and their eyes to prevent the corruption of future generations and find a way to harmonize their beliefs with established facts instead of blindly accepting unfounded fantasies from uneducated Christians.
— Terry Brennan, Haltom City
I sat in total amazement after reading Hollerman’s letter disagreeing with the history of the Paluxysaurusjonesi. To cite Genesis as a historical reference is almost laughable, except for the fact that there are people who honestly believe the Adam and Eve story of creation. To believe that humans lived in this form, only with less clothing, millions of years ago is incredulous to say the least.
I give thanks that there is a science that disproves these myths. Why can’t these folks see the divine spirit in the creation and evolution of life forms on our planet, rather than actually believing what is in the Bible literally? I find it exciting that there are higher forms of being, and that new knowledge is being revealed every moment of every day.
— Betsy Stell, Arlington
I don’t know whom Hollerman was referring to in his letter when he wrote about “Consistent Christians.” I guess he means “fundamentalists” since they’re the only ones who believe in Bronze Age myths rather than modern science. Or perhaps he means people who believe the pseudo-science in the silly, anti-evolution Christian fundamentalist Web sites he cited.
The truth, of course, is that every scientific discipline from archeology to zoology contributes to the vast body of knowledge and huge amount of evidence supporting evolution. Thanks, Star-Telegram, for publishing facts and not allegorical stories written by Middle Eastern tribesmen thousands of years ago.
— Terry McDonald, Grapevine
I was impressed by the Star-Telegram’s reporting on the restoration of the fossil Paluxysaurus jonesi by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The article gave the facts and some feel-good information about the people involved in the reconstruction of the dino fossil.
However, Hollerman’s letter would be a joke if it weren’t for the fact that so many people really do think that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and will deny the fact that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. It has been proven by scientific method.
Creationists have a distorted view because the one book that they use (written 2,000 years ago by primitives) disagrees with the science that proves the existence of natural history. The age of this fossil is not unfounded but rests on the work of many thousands of scientists over a couple of hundred years in scores of different scientific disciples. The scientific method that is used to vet new and existing research is a crucible that is used to sort facts from fallacy and has been used to debunk fake, false and misleading science for a couple of hundred years.
We would still be living in caves without the scientific and technological advances that we enjoy today. I applaud the Star-Telegram for its fair and unbiased science reporting. Keep it up.
— Charlie Rodriguez, Arlington
Meanwhile, e-mails between members of Texas Citizens for Science chase another interesting facet: Where in Texas is there enough Jurassic rock to support such a find?
Oh, those scientists!
More information:
- Home page for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, with news about the new construction
- Stories on the naming of the new state dinosaur earlier this year, from the Dallas Morning News, here and here; more here, PowerPoint here.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Annette Carlisle, a member of Texas Citizens for Science.
Cast away a note in a bottle, in the Paluxy River:
2 Comments | Creationism, Evolution, Fossils, History, Journalism, Museums, Newspapers, Prehistory, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science | Tagged: Creationism, Evolution, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fossils, Journalism, Newspapers, Paluxysaurus, State Dinosaur, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
White House Christmas tree, and another hoax about Obama
October 21, 2009First, the press release from the National Christmas Tree Association:
White House Christmas Tree: 2009
White House Staff Select Blue Room Christmas Tree
Chesterfield, MO (October 20, 2009) — A beautiful Douglas-fir from Shepherdstown, W.V., will be the official White House Christmas Tree this year.
The Blue Room Christmas Tree will be officially presented to First Lady Michelle Obama by Christmas Tree growers Eric and Gloria Sundback. The Sundbacks earned this honor by winning the National Christmas Tree Association’s (NCTA) national Christmas Tree contest held in August 2009 in Chattanooga, Tenn., and becoming Grand Champion.
The Blue Room Christmas Tree was handpicked by Director of the Executive Residence and White House Chief Usher Stephen Rochon and Superintendent of Grounds Dale Haney on Oct. 20, 2009. The tree, which was planted by the Sundbacks in 1996, will be cut in late November and sent to Washington, D.C.
Eric and Gloria are no strangers to the White House Christmas experience. This will be the fourth time that the couple has won the contest and presented a tree to the First Lady. “It is always an exciting time and it is interesting to meet all the First Ladies,” Gloria says.
The couple first began growing Christmas Trees in 1956 in western Pennsylvania. In 1959, Eric’s work as a landscape architect took them to the Washington, D.C., area where they began a search for land to continue their Christmas Tree farming on the best soil possible, settling near Shepherdstown, W.V. In 1967, Eric and Gloria started retail lots in Bethesda, Md. and Washington, D.C., which they operated for 40 years before passing the retail side of their business to two veteran employees. Both in their 80s, Eric and Gloria continue development of the seed orchard part of their farm.
The presentation to the White House is tentatively scheduled to take place on Nov. 27, 2009. The tree will be set up in the Blue Room later that day, where the White House Floral Department staff and volunteers will decorate it.
Members of the National Christmas Tree Association have presented the official White House Christmas Tree for display in the Blue Room since 1966.
I post the press release here because — you just knew this was going to happen, didn’t you? — someone is passing around a hoax letter claiming President Obama has banned the mention of Christmas.
Really.
I caught the word from Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars; he got the word from Politico.
The White House Historical Association has been receiving calls and emails about an alleged Obama decree that the Christmas trees in the White House would now be known as “holiday trees.” And artists submitting designs for ornaments on the Blue Room tree were not allowed to depict Christian themes.
“It’s strange,” said Maria Downs, the historical association’s spokeswoman. “They’re almost saying, ‘Are you aware of this?'”
One of the chain emails circulating around in-boxes claims that “a friend at church who is a very talented artist” got a letter from the White House saying not to send any ornaments painted with a religious theme.
“Just thought you should know what the new residents in the WH plan for the future of America,” concludes the email hoax. “If you missed his statement that ‘we do not consider ourselves a Christian Nation’ this should confirm that he plans to take us away from our religious foundation as quickly as possible.”
The truth is the White House has already made plans to celebrate Christmas this year. In August the National Christmas Tree Association announced that a couple from West Virginia will “present the official White House Christmas Tree to First Lady Michelle Obama for the 2009 Christmas season.”
Never mind that historical association sells the official White House ornament, not the actual ornaments that go on the White House tree. How does it respond to concerned citizens? “We just tell them no,” said Downs.
So if somebody sends you an e-mail asking you to get steamed up over this issue, send them the press release from the tree growers, and invite them to buy an ornament from the White House Historical Association.
Maybe Larry T. Doughty could be persuaded to buy an ornament, instead of spreading false rumors. How many other bloggers fell for this hoax? (Both Snopes.com and Urban Legends have posts debunking the hoax; also see Media Matters Action Network.)
Native American tree
Douglas Fir needles and the unique, identifying cone - USDA Forest Service image, courtesy the Hunt Institute
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) does not grow natively in West Virginia — it’s a western tree famous for growing to massive size, and famous for providing timber from western forests. We found it in stands throughout Utah and New Mexico in our air pollution studies, but the biggest ones grow along the Pacific Coast from northern California, through Oregon and Washington into Canada. It’s not a true fir. Classifying the tree was problematic for years. The name it was mostly known by when we worked on them was Pseudotsuga taxifolia, which is “false hemlock with yew-like leaves. ” It’s still classed as a false hemlock. I see on some sites that there are five different species in the genus recognized around the world. Douglas fir has a unique cone that usually will identify the tree dispositively.
So the White House Christmas Tree to be displayed in the Blue Room this year is a native American tree, important to the lumber industry, raised by a prize-winning Christmas tree farmer in West Virginia.
Who says we don’t have culture?
USDA Forest Service photo of Douglas Firs in a U.S. National Forest -- via UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO); FAO notes that trees of this species this large are unlikely to be found outside of National Parks today.
Update: See more America-disrespecting crabbiness from BigGovernment.com here — and see my response below. Even more information on the crabbiness, here. Can you imagine how ticked off Mao would be to have known he’d be adorning an American Christmas Tree, in the Andy Warhol portrait? The problem now is whether the Chinese Embassy will lodge a protest — way to go, BigGovernment.com.
13 Comments | Barack Obama, History, Hoaxes, Politics, President Obama, Religion, trees | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Tracking down historic typewriters
October 21, 2009By the way, Richard Polt at Xavier University lays it all over this blog in his listings of typewriters used by good authors and famous people. If you’re looking for more information on the history of typewriters, or if you’re looking for information about an old typewriter you own, Polt’s site is a great place to start: The Classic Typewriter Page.
The Flying Oliver, logo of Richard Polt's The Classic Typewriter Page
Leave a Comment » | History, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: History, Richard Polt, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We become the ephemera of history: ‘Only the privileged few of us get to be fossils’
October 21, 2009From “Whose father was he?” a four-part essay on tracking down the story of three children whose photograph was discovered on the corpse of a Union soldier killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, in 1863:
Perhaps more than any other artifact, the photograph has engaged our thoughts about time and eternity. I say “perhaps,” because the history of photography spans less than 200 years. How many of us have been “immortalized” in a newspaper, a book or a painting vs. how many of us have appeared in a photograph [32]? The Mayas linked their culture to the movements of celestial objects. The ebb and flow of kingdoms and civilizations in the periodicities of the moon, the sun and the planets. In the glyphs that adorn their temples they recorded coronations, birth, deaths. Likewise, the photograph records part of our history. And expresses some of our ideas about time. The idea that we can make the past present.
The photograph of Amos Humiston’s three children — of Frank, Alice and Fred — allows us to imagine that we have grasped something both unique and universal. It suggests that the experience of this vast, unthinkable war can be reduced to the life and death of one man — by identifying Gettysburg’s “Unknown Soldier” we can reunite a family. That we can be saved from oblivion by an image that reaches and touches people, that communicates something undying and transcendent about each one of us.
And the footnote, number 32:
[32] I had an opportunity to visit the fossil collections at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. It was part of a dinosaur fossil-hunting trip with Jack Horner, the premier hunter of T-Rex skeletons. Downstairs in the lab, there was a Triceratops skull sitting on a table. I picked it up and inserted my finger into the brain cavity. (I had read all these stories about how small the Triceratops brain had to have been and I wanted to see for myself.) I said to Jack Horner, “To think that someday somebody will do that with my skull.” And he said, “You should be so lucky. It’s only the privileged few of us who get to be fossils.”
See Errol Morris’s whole series, “Whose father was he?” at the New York Times blogs:
2 Comments | 1861-1865, Capturing history, Civil War, Fossils, History, History images, History Methods and Tools, How do we know what we know, Life | Tagged: Capturing history, Civil War, History, History images, History Methodology, Life, photography | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Watts falls victim to Monckton’s voodoo
October 19, 2009Among those who call themselves “skeptical” of claims about climate change, Anthony Watts has distinguished himself from time to time for often using solid science and raising good questions. His campaign to look at the placement of weather reporting stations indicates an understanding of the way science should work (though we haven’t seen results).
So, what’s Watts doing repeating Monckton’s hysterical, inaccurate rant? We already know Monckton’s testimony is impeached.
Is Watts so politically naive as to think any nation would cede sovereignty on an issue of climate change? One more indication that people should stick to their knitting, and not venture into areas where they have no expertise.
2 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, Conservation, Cost of Green, Green Politics, History, Hoaxes, Presentations, Science, Tinfoil Hats, Voodoo history, Voodoo science, War on Science | Tagged: Accuracy, Anthony Watts, Climate change, Cost of Green, Green Politics, History, Hoaxes, Monckton, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Typewriter of the moment: Alan Lomax, folk music historian, 1942
October 18, 2009
Alan Lomax at the typewriter, 1942, using the "hunt and peck method" of typing - Library of Congress photo
Who was Alan Lomax? Have you really never heard of him before?
Lomax collected folk music, on wire recorders, on tape recorders, in written form, and any other way he could, on farms, at festivals, in jails, at concerts, in churches, on street corners — anywhere people make music. He did it his entire life. He collected music in the United States, across the Caribbean, in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Italy.
Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, Lillie Mae Ledford and an obscured Sonny Terry, New York, 1944 (Library of Congress Collection - photographer unknown)
Almost all of that collection is in the Library of Congress’s unsurpassed American Folklife collection, from which dozens of recordings have been issued.
Born in 1915, Alan Lomax began collecting folk music for the Library of Congress with his father [John Lomax] at the age of 18. He continued his whole life in the pursuit of recording traditional cultures, believing that all cultures should be recorded and presented to the public. His life’s work, represented by seventy years’ worth of documentation, will now be housed under one roof at the Library, a place for which the Lomax family has always had strong connections and great affection.
Were that all, it would be an outstanding record of accomplishment. Lomax was much more central to the folk revivals in the both England and the U.S. in the 1950s and 19602, though, and in truth it seemed he had a hand in everything dealing with folk music in the English-speaking world and then some. Carl Sagan used Lomax as a consultant to help choose the music to be placed on the disc sent into space with the exploring satellite Voyager, “the Voyager Golden Record.”
Have you listened to and loved Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo,” and the famous passage, “Hoedown?” How about Miles Davis, with the Gil Evans-produced “Sketches of Spain?” [Thank you, Avis Ortner.] Then you know the work of Alan Lomax, as Wikipedia explains:
- The famous “Hoedown” in Aaron Copland‘s 1942 ballet Rodeo was taken note for note from Ruth Crawford Seeger‘s piano transcription of the square-dance tune, “Bonypart” (“Bonaparte’s Retreat”), taken from a recording of W. M. Stepp’s fiddle version, originally recorded in Appalachia for the Library of Congress by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in 1937. Seeger’s transcription was published in Our Singing Country (1941) by John A. and Alan Lomax and Ruth Crawford Seeger.
- Miles Davis‘s 1959 Sketches of Spain album adapts the melodies “Alborada de vigo” and “Saeta” from Alan Lomax’s Columbia World Library album Spain.
Other resources:
- Discography, from the Association for Cultural Equity
- Filmography, from the Association for Cultural Equity
- Alan Lomax Collection, Library of Congress
- Lomax Collection photos (hundreds of photos of musicians Lomax recorded and knew)
- “Lomax the Song Hunter,” P.O.V. on PBS, 2006 – teachers guide and lesson plans included
“To Hear Your Banjo Play” featuring Pete Seeger, written and produced by Alan Lomax.
Trailer for the PBS P.O.V. film, “The Song Hunter,” by Rogier Kappers
Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “POV – Lomax the Songhunter | PBS“, posted with vodpod
Sing out!
4 Comments | History, History and art, History audio sources, Libraries, Museums, Music, Music education, Technology, Texas Music, Typewriters | Tagged: Alan Lomax, Folk Music, History, Jazz, Library of Congress, Music, Pete Seeger | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
