June 25, 2007
Bug Girl sleuthed around a bit, and found information from official sources that really demonstrates the critics of Rachel Carson are using Gillette Foamy to make us think “mad dog!”
Chart from US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) illustrates biomagnification, by which a minuscule dose of DDT to small plankton gets magnified a few million times by the time the top predators in the food chain get it.
So the evidence continues to pile up that Rachel Carson was simply a fine writer, a good scientist, and correct about DDT’s dangers.
Check out the Fish and Wildlife Service’s site, here; notice especially their structure of the site, to dispel the falsehoods.
FWS quotes Carson on DDT use:
In Audubon magazine she wrote, “We do not ask that all chemicals be abandoned. We ask moderation. We ask the use of other methods less harmful to our environment” (4). Countering claims that she was advocating a back-to-nature philosophy, she said, “We must have insect control. I do not favor turning nature over to insects. I favor the sparing, selective and intelligent use of chemicals. It is the indiscriminate, blanket spraying that I oppose” (5).
Evidence mounts that claims against Rachel Carson are sheer calumny. While the political motivations of this smear campaign are not clear, we don’t need to know for certain who is telling lies about a great American hero, or why. As Americans, as concerned citizens, as teachers and parents — as patriots — we only need to know that the claims against Rachel Carson are false.
And now it is our duty to call on Oklahoma’s Sen. Tom Coburn to stop the campaign against Carson. Coburn is the point man in the smear campaign right now: He has put a committee hold on the well-intentioned, justified bill to name a post office in her hometown after Rachel Carson. It is time for Tom Coburn to stand up and do the right thing for a great American. Sen. Coburn needs to lift his committee hold and allow committee action on this minor honor.
Other sources of note:
Bruce Watson, “Sounding the Alarm,” Smithsonian Magazine, September 2002. (Watson, Bruce. Sounding the alarm. Smithsonian, v. 33, Sept. 2002: 115-117. AS30.S6)
“The Berry and the Poison,” about methyl bromide and its ban, Smithsonian Magazine, December 1997.
- Image showing how DDT concentrations rise 10 million times from their introduction to the water to concentrate in raptors like the national symbol, the bald eagle, osprey, peregrine falcon and brown pelicans, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Due to the effects of DDT, the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and brown pelican were all listed on the Endangered Species List. [Update, June 13, 2008 – USFWS has taken this page down. I’m leaving the links until they put it back, or until I find what they changed the page to.] [Update June 21, 2015 – Chart may also be found here: https://myorganicchemistry.wikispaces.com/DDT%5D
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | 
Accuracy, Conservation, DDT, Environmental protection, Ethics, History, Hoaxes, Junk science, Natural history, Politics, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science, War on Science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, Ethics, History, Hoaxes, Junk science, Natural history, Rachel Carson, Science, War on Science | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 25, 2007
Very few high school students say they want to grow up to be historians. As a profession, we ignore history.
Still, a few do. More seriously, what happens in the high school class depends a lot on what is being done by professional historians. What is that?
Historian Keith Thomas wrote a long piece about where history is headed for The Times of London, in October 2006. It even has hints about it of how to make history more intrigueing in high school. Go see. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Capturing history, History, History Revisionism, Pedagogy, Research, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 19, 2007
Anti-environmental long-knives leave the impression that Rachel Carson knew little about science, and had a crabby disposition toward business and life in general.
Go read this: “Rachel Carson: I knew her when.”
She was a poet and a scientist. You won’t learn anything about the controversy, really, other than the fact that Rachel Carson was a genuine woman, a very nice person. But it’s worth the read.
While you’re at Mort Reichek’s site, noodle around and see what else he’s got. He is a retired journalist with a lot to say. Pay attention. [New Jersey history and economics teachers: Do you realize what a resource you could have in this guy? Washington correspondent for Business Week? Hello!!???]
Update: Sadly, Mort passed on in 2011. His blog remains up as a tribute to a great journalist and early blogger.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | DDT, Environmental protection, Heroes, Natural history, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, War on Science | Tagged: DDT, History, Rachel Carson, US Fish and Wildlife Service | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 19, 2007
The contemptible campaign of hoax and calumny against the work and memory of Rachel Carson continues. You should read more at the sites I cite near the end of this post.
The key false claim of the Carson critics is that, but for the ban on DDT, millions of lives would have been saved over the past 30 years. Chief problem with the claim is that national bans on DDT all preserve DDT use for essential mosquito eradication, especially if there are no other tools to fight the disease. But other problems with the claim include the fact that DDT had stopped being highly effective by the late 1960s; eradication was a pipe dream, and mosquitoes developed resistance to DDT.
That doesn’t stop the critics. So, Dear Reader, when you read criticisms of Rachel Carson and hear the pseudo-science whine that Carson alone has condemned millions to death by malaria, I want you to keep in mind this question: If DDT were such an effective tool against malaria, why didn’t the World Health Organization fight to keep it? Why didn’t the manufacturers fight to keep it? Why would more than 150 nations, tens of thousands of scientists, tens of thousands of health workers, and conservative “I-told-you-so” skeptics who hate environmentalists, all simultaneously fall asleep?
The answer is, Dear Reader, they didn’t all fall asleep. DDT stopped being effective, and malaria fighters realized there were other problems — the parasites that the mosquitoes spread also became resistant to anti-malaria drugs, a bigger problem than DDT resistance. People and organizations who fight malaria did ask that use of DDT be preserved for spraying to fight malaria; but they didn’t defend it against bans on other use because those bans help the malaria fighters.
Cover of Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance (2004), from the National Academies Press
Below the fold, I offer two quotes from Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance (2004) Board on Global Health (BGH) (available from the National Academy of Sciences). You can see that DDT is not the golden-egg-laying goose, and that consequently Rachel Carson is not the mindless ogre she is made out to be in recent invectives.
Check out these sites:
- Bug Girl’s Blog, “DDT, Junk Science, and the attack on Rachel Carson;” “DDT, Junk Science, and Malaria Resistance;” “Malarial Resistance: Exciting new development;” “Rachel Carson and Chemical News;” “New York Times, DDT, and an a–hole“
- Laelaps, “Something stinks over at National Geographic;”
- Deltoid, “Hundreds of Millions Killed by Rachel Carson;” “Creationists Claim Rachel Carson Killed Millions;” “The Rachel Carson Telephone Game;” “Reaction to Tierney’s Bad Science;” “John Tierney’s Bad Science;” “Raw Story Follows the Money on Rachel Carson Smears;” “Taking Aim at Rachel Carson” (describing the unsavory sources of the campaign against Carson)
- Rabbet Run, “Who Ordered That?“
- Obsidian Wings, “Junk Science: DDT“
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
6 Comments | Accuracy, Africa, Bogus history, DDT, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Tagged: Africa, Bogus history, DDT, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Malaria, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 14, 2007
Did I mention I love libraries? Especially, I love those libraries with books and periodicals, in print. Studying and writing history can involve a lot of time in libraries.
Look at this site, by Rachel, a newly-minted Master of Philosophy in Historical Studies: A Historian’s Craft, “Bookporn #9”
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Books, Capturing history, History, History blogs, Libraries, Research | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 13, 2007
When was the last time you saw something like this, “This is the way science should always work,” in a history journal?
If it were your error, would you be big enough to publicize it loud and far, as Dr. Hall has done?
Is there some medal for honesty that we could award Dr. Hall?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Ethics, History, Research, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 31, 2007
Yeah, it was a bit tacky of Merck to create a campaign to get government officials to require inoculations against human papilloma viruses that cause cancer — but, people!, we’re talking about preventing cancer here.
The Texas legislature voted for cancer, overturning Gov. Rick Perry’s ill-considered good idea to require vaccinations for school kids in Texas. In a state with top-notch anti-cancer research at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and UT’s Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, it was an odd, odd thing to witness.
The debates are skewed by a general distrust and dislike of big pharmaceutical companies, and by the religious right’s view that it’s better that a young mother die of cancer than she should get even the faintest idea that might in only the most perverse mind promote pre-marital sex. Still, we shouldn’t fall victim to voodoo science claims against vaccines.
Are my views, tempered by years of work promoting public health and fighting disease, clear enough for you?
Owlhaven wins popularity contests among mothers who read blogs, and it often is tender and touching — hey, I read it from time to time. But recently Mary, Owlhaven’s author, fell victim to a propaganda campaign from Judicial Watch, a far-right-wing bunch that campaigns against the U.S. justice system and generally makes a conservative-gratuitous-poke-in-the-butt out of itself. Judicial Watch claims to have some secrets from having filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with FDA to get Merck’s reports to FDA of adverse events known about Gardasil, Merck’s proprietary anti-cancer vaccine.
I responded, of course — but my response didn’t show on Owlhaven’s comments. Blackballed? Spam filtered due to the number or length of links? I can’t tell. Mary said she emptied the spam filter without checking. So, I repost my response, below the fold, for your benefit. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
14 Comments | Family, Politics, Public education, Public health, Religion, Research, Science, Voodoo science, Women's rights | Tagged: Gardasil, health, Religion, Science, Vaccines | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 14, 2007
News out of Ames, Iowa, is that intelligent design advocate, physicist and astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, was denied tenure at Iowa State University.
Advocates of intelligent design will argue this as evidence of a bias against counter ideas, part of a massive, monolithic conspiracy to hide the truth about intelligent design. Gonzalez will be more circumspect, at least until his appeal of the tenure denial is finished.
Another friend of intelligent design, Dr. Francis Beckwith, a philosopher, was originally denied tenure at Baylor last year. His appeal was successful, however, and he now has tenure at Baylor, though he is moving from the Institute for Church State Relations to the philosophy department. Beckwith also made a splash in conservative evangelical news recently when he made public his return to the Catholic church.
I can’t speak for Iowa State, but it has been my experience that professors who get tangled up in crank science projects get distracted from the work that will get them tenure. While faculty certainly have free speech rights to advocate causes, much of the backing for intelligent design is sub-standard academically, or even bogus. Such advocacy does not help a case for tenure.
Advocates argue that Gonzalez has more than enough publications to meet the standards set by Iowa State, but the numbers do not account for how many of the publications may be in suspect journals that support intelligent design, nor do they account for the publicity an ardent ID advocate brings to a department which is often unwanted. Faculty at Iowa State collected 120 signatures on a petition disowning intelligent design, in what they billed was an attempt to convince the outside world that Iowa State is not “an intelligent design school.”
ID advocates frequently miss the point that science is not a game of racking up publication points, and that the quality and accuracy of the research also plays an important role in tenure decisions.
Wailing and gnashing, and perhaps rending of garments, from the ID group should begin any moment now.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Creationism, Education, Intelligent Design, Research, Science, Science and faith, Teaching, Tenure | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 25, 2007
Practice makes perfect, the adage says.
Teachers who practice analysis of primary documents can better translate the study of primary documents to their classrooms, according to an article I found through the American History Association‘s online version of Perspectives magazine.
One of my concerns for teachers of social studies — economics, history and geography — is that “in-service” training most often revolves around issues not unique, and sometimes not germane, to social studies disciplines. District-sponsored courses generally involved new or different methods to do paperwork, sometimes new programs hoped to spur overall performance by students on tests. In Irving ISD, Texas, social studies coordinator Sherry Perkins frequently provided sessions specific to social studies issues, and they were wonderful even when they didn’t pertain directly to the courses we taught (someone who teaches economics only, for example, may not have a lot of use for history exercises on presidential elections; but such exercises may provide ideas for others more directly related to economics).
Courses that immerse teachers in the subject matter tend to provide big benefits in the classroom. Many teachers do not have majors in the areas they teach, even after certification as “highly qualified” under new federal guidelines. Consequently, there are areas of history, or economics, or geography, where teachers are not much better informed than the students. Think of when you have had to give a presentation on a topic — you tread lightly in those areas where your expertise is least.
Investigators Kelly Schrum of George Mason University, Eleanor Green of the Fauquier County (Virginia) Public Schools, and Sarah Whelan of the Loudon County (Virginia) Public Schools, found that teachers often used too many original sources in lessons, after attending summer training sessions in the sources. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Accuracy, Brain learning, Pedagogy, Research, Teaching, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 1, 2007
Once upon a time I was a graduate student in a rhetoric program. At the same time I was the graduate assistant for the intercollegiate debate program at the University of Arizona, which at the time had an outstanding, nationally-competitive team and a lot of up-and-comers on the squad. From there I moved almost immediately to a political campaign, a sure-loser that we won, and from there to Congressional staffing, writing speeches, editorials, press releases and a few legislative dabbles. Then law school, etc., etc.
Some of the fights I’ve been involved in include air pollution and the laws controlling it, land use in statewide plans, tobacco health warnings, compensation for victims of fallout from atomic bomb tests, food safety, food recall standards, education testing standards, measurement of management effectiveness, noise control around airports, social studies textbooks and biology textbooks, and a few others. Most political issues are marked by people who really don’t understand the information available to them, and many issues are pushed by people who have no ability or desire to understand the issues in any depth.
And so, having survived a few rounds in the crucibles of serious debate with real stakes, I am often amused and frustrated by state education standards that demand teachers teach “critical thinking,” often as not grounded in something that looks like hooey to me.
In one of my internet rambles I came across a site with modest ambitions of continuing discussion of critical thinking. Rationale Thoughts comes out of Australia. The view is a little different, but not too much so (hey, it’s in English, which is a bonus for me).
If you’re looking for sources to seriously understand what critical thinking is, this is one place you would be well-advised to check. You might find especially useful this list for “further reading” in the topic.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Accuracy, Brain development, Brain learning, Creativity, Education, Hoaxes, Pedagogy, Research, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 25, 2007
So, how was the party in Fredricksburg? Admiral Nimitz did not put in an appearance, from all accounts.
Can you imagine some of the possibilities for study in small groups at the National Museum of the Pacific War?
Among other things, the Nimitz Hotel has been renovated (founded by Adm. Nimitz’s grandfather).
What’s there?
The site has grown into a 34,000-square-foot site featuring indoor exhibit space. Located on six acres now, the center includes the George Bush Gallery, the Admiral Nimitz Museum, the Plaza of the Presidents, the Veterans’ Walk of Honor and Memorial Wall, the Japanese Garden of Peace, the Pacific Combat Zone and the Center for Pacific War Studies.
With the conclusion of this large renovation project that began in 2004, museum coordinators are turning their attentions to another big project. An additional 40,000-square-foot expansion is planned in the future, with ground-breaking set this spring.
I can’t find, but I hope that, the renovations include space for scholars to study, and especially for high school students to learn. Austin-area high schools would be lining up to make overnight field trips — but for the restrictions put on teaching and learning by Texas’ testing system, the limiting list of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and the test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) .
Maybe teacher training. Liberty Fund? Bill of Rights Institute? Are you guys watching this?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Atomic Bomb, Famous Battles, History, Japanese American internment, Research, TAKS, TEKS, Texas, Travel, War, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 24, 2007
Here it is in haiku:
Counterarguments:
Let them sleep, like dogs? Oh, no:
Refute them at once.
Here is the title of the thesis the poem represents:
“How to handle opposing arguments in persuasive messages: A meta-analytic review of the effects of one-sided and two-sided messages”
Haiku is probably easier for campaign managers to remember — good advice in 17 syllables.
Jim Gibbon.com has a contest going — he challenged people to boil their recent academic publications down to the 17-syllable poetry form called haiku, for social science research, humanities publications, physical sciences, and a category called tech/computers/internet.
I tell speech students and clients that any good argument or thesis can be boiled down to a 30-second statement. Haiku may be a little too brief for my purposes, but it’s more artful, too. Some of the poems are pretty good, none are really bad.
Grad students with too little art in their lives, perhaps. Go vote and encourage them to communicate better, with poetry, even.
Here’s a piece of social science research I’d like to read:
dixie chicks blacklist
krugman blames clear channel (jerks)
nope, it was rednecks
(“Elites, Masses, and Media Blacklists: The Dixie Chicks Controversy”)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Bug Girl.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
7 Comments | Creativity, Education, Graduate study, Lesson plans, Pedagogy, Research | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 2, 2006
Update: The speech took place as scheduled; 125 people attended, the lecture was great, the questions were fine — you can listen and read for yourself [from Language Log]:
Anyway, whether that’s right or not, I do know this: the lucky people who live in the Boston area (I regret that I now do not) have a chance to hear Everett in person on Friday, because despite the hate campaign he still plans to get in that taxi at Logan Airport and take it to MIT’s Building 46. His lecture is called “Culture and Grammar in Pirahã”, and it’s on Friday, December 1, from noon to 1:30 p.m., in room 46-3310 at MIT (that is, Room 3310 of building 46; MIT people do have a system of number names, and they use them to name buildings). Language Log readers in New England who get there early enough to find a seat can check out what Everett actually says, rather than what his enemies say he says, and then make up their own minds.
[Update: Dan Everett’s talk did place as scheduled on December 1; it was not boycotted by the linguists in the area; about 125 people showed up, in fact; and a good, spirited discussion followed in the question period. You can actually listen to it, and look at the handout, thanks to Ted Gibson’s lab: handout in PDF form here, and audio for Windows Media Player here.]
ORIGINAL POST: WordPress has some wonderful features that carry to one ideas from realms one would not otherwise visit. And so it was that I found this post at Language Log, about a Bush-style “pre-emptive strike” on the scholarship of a linguist, condemned for a pro-Christian bias that does not exist, according to the blogger.
An unnamed scholar was ranting in e-mail about the work of linguist Daniel Everett of Illinois State University, who was scheduled to give a lecture on his work on the language of the Amazonian tribe Pirahã, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on December 1. The e-mailer threatened at least a protest of the lecture.
I have not found any indication either that there was a protest at the lecture, or that it went on as planned. Does anyone know?
The MIT listing for the lecture:
December 1, 2006
12:00p.m. – 1:30p.m.
Building 46, Room 3310
Culture and Grammar in Piraha
Dan Everett
Illinois State University / University of Manchester Abstract:
This talk considers the on-going research into the relationship between culture and grammar in Piraha, an Amazonian language isolate. As background, it surveys a number of unusual linguistic and cultural phenomena in Piraha, e.g. the absence of numerals, number, and counting, the absence of myths, the lack of quantifiers (and quantification), then summarizes the analysis of Everett (2005) which accounts for these facts in terms of a cultural value of ‘immediacy of experience’. The talk then turns to focus on how culture constrains segmental phonology in Piraha.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Brain learning, Civil Rights, Dissent, Research | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 12, 2006
Stu Hasic argues that a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) “killed God,” or at least the notion that God played a role in creation.
Where do bloggers get such fantastic, erroneous ideas? My educated guess is that most preachers looking at this photograph of hundreds of galaxies (no, not individual stars), deep in space and therefore deep back in time, would be awestruck — and were they to preach about it, they’d call this evidence of God’s hand in creation, making a leap in logic and faith about equal to that of Hasic, but in the opposite direction. Hasic’s post nicely encapsulates some of the knowledge we get from the photo, but then he leaps to an unwarranted conclusion.
Hasic argues that since the photo is a brilliant refutation of some of the less scientific claims of creationism, it disproves God.
If Man is the purpose of creation, why did it take so long to create Man? And what’s with all the over-the-top elaborate sky decorations? Surely some painted white dots on a big canvas hung around the Earth would have sufficed?
Thanks should go to Hubble for opening our eyes. If only some men would open theirs. Being a Christian or being a Muslim means being different. Being a Human means being the same.
I can’t speak for all Christians, of course, but I’d wager most Christians would agree with Hasic’s last sentence there: Being a human means being the same as other humans. That’s rather the point of much of scripture (see Ecclesiastes, for many examples). I would also note that most Christians like the Hubble photos as much as anyone else. Photos of “star incubators” (see end of the post for an example) are among the more popular images in religious publications in the last decade. Contrary to Hasic’s assertion, the photo offers no challenge at all to any belief of most Christians. Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
13 Comments | Accuracy, Astronomy, Current History, Physics, Religion, Research, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
