February 23, 2009
Four Stone Hearth #60 is up, hosted by Middle Savagery.
Yes, I know, I’ve been remiss in carnivalling lately. Heck, I’ve been remiss in posting. The water in the Bathtub is actually too cold for bathing at the moment, as I’m away metaphorically, working on serious curriculum matters.
So, it’s a good time to take a look at something like the best archaeology blog carnival around. It’s up to edition Number 60? Great news, really, that there is so much material to cover. There is some delightful morsel in every edition.
Bad Death Ritual - See the entire post at Ideophone: "A 'bad death' ritual in Ghana's Volta Region. On the village cemetery, relatives of a man who died in a hunting accident listen anxiously to a woman who is possessed by the spirit of the deceased. The hunters, who have just brought the spirit home from the place of the accident deep in the jungle, keep their distance. Red is the colour of danger, black that of death." Photo by Mark Dingemanse
FSH #60 is heavy on photos — grist for your better slide presentations, no?
Zenobia, Empress of the East looks at a project that used lasers to scan a bas relief on a rock in the 3rd century A.D. Parthian empire — er, maybe Persian — but wait! Is that Greek influence in that carving?
This extraordinary relief is carved on a huge limestone boulder at the cliff edge of a remote, not to say ‘hidden’ valley in the rugged mountains of northeastern Khuzistan [at the southwestern edge of the Iranian plateau, sharing a border with southern Iraq (= the big red blob on the map, below right)]. In ancient times, this was the heartland of Elymais, sometimes a small empire, more often a vassal to more powerful states.
21st century technology and science applied to help solve a 700-year-old mystery. Does archaeology get much better than that?
Especially if you’re inclined to study Neanderthals, or for a great sidebar on the value of biodiveristy, take a look at Remote Central’s post on the last stand of Neanderthal, on Gibralter.
There is much more in Four Stone Hearth #60.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | 
Ancient history, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, History and art, History images, History Methods and Tools, Research, Science, Weblogs | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
January 21, 2009
Teachers are public employees (most of us). Should we blog about education and teaching?
Interestingly, there is a good case to be made that public employees have more First Amendment protection than private employees (should teachers in KIPP, charter and parochial schools blog?).
Larry Solum at Legal Theory highlights Paul Secunda’s article:
Paul M. Secunda (Marquette University – Law School) has posted Blogging While (Publicly) Employed: Some First Amendment Implications (University of Louisville Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 4, 2009) on SSRN.
I’ll wager most teachers are not common users of SSRN, so let’s steal Solum’s posting of the abstract of the article, too:
While private-sector employees do not have First Amendment free speech protection for their blogging activities relating to the workplace, public employees may enjoy some measure of protection depending on the nature of their blogging activity. The essential difference between these types of employment stems from the presence of state action in the public employment context. Although a government employee does not have the same protection from governmental speech infringement as citizens do under the First Amendment, a long line of cases under Pickering v. Bd. of Education have established a modicum of protection, especially when the public employee blogging is off-duty and the blog post does not concern work-related matters.
Describing the legal protection for such public employee bloggers is an important project as many employers recently have ratcheted up their efforts to limit or ban employee blogging activities while blogging by employees simultaneously continues to expand. It should therefore not be surprising that the act of being fired for blogging about one’s employer has even led to a term being coined: “dooced.” So the specific question that this essay addresses is: do dooced employees have any First Amendment protection in the workplace? But the larger issue examined by implication, and the one addressed by this Symposium, is the continuing impact of technology on First Amendment free speech rights at the beginning of the 21st Century.
This contribution to the Symposium proceeds in three parts. It first examines the predicament of private-sector employees who choose to blog about their workplaces. The second section then lays out the potential First Amendment free speech implications for public employees who engage in the same types of activities. Finally, the third section briefly considers a potential future trend in this context from Kentucky involving government employers banning employee access to all blogs while at work.
I’ve been wondering where are the cases of student blogs dealing with serious First Amendment issues. I think we’re overdue for more litigation in that area.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | First Amendment, Free press, Free speech, U.S. Constitution, Weblogs | Tagged: blogging, First Amendment, Free speech, Public Employees, Teachers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 15, 2009
Found a link to this site — it looked pretty good, and I was starting to get excited, when I noticed the last update appeared to have been in 2001.
That explains why I hadn’t seen that material before (some of the links work, still. good.).
Whatever happened to World History Compass? Anybody know?
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Leave a Comment » | Classroom technology, History, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Weblogs | Tagged: Classroom Resources, Defunct sites, History, Websites, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 12, 2009
Why beat around the bush? Judge Richard Posner said at his blog:
I suspect that we have entered a depression. There is no widely agreed definition of the word, but I would define it as a steep reduction in output that causes or threatens to cause deflation and creates widespread public anxiety and a sense of crisis.
He has some interesting, and puckering, things to say about Bernanke’s actions, and Obama’s plans, too. His blogging colleague, Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker, has more tentative, still-Friedmanian remarks about crowding out tendencies of government spending.
It’s fun to read good economists trying to make sense of all of this.
I attended a session at the Dallas Fed a few weeks ago. The VP who gave the main presentation talked about a meeting in which someone asked Bernanke, the great scholar of depressions, a highly technical, academic and potentially embarrassing question about the Fed’s work. Bernanke closed off with an eye-twinkling comment: “This would all be very interesting, if it were not happening to me.”
Yeah, if only it weren’t happening to us, now.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Disasters, Economics, Weblogs | Tagged: Depression, Economics, Gary Becker, Recession, Richard Posner | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 7, 2008
1 Comment | Climate change, Environmental protection, Global warming, History, Natural history, Science, Weblogs | Tagged: air pollution, Climate change, Environmental protection, Global warming, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 5, 2008
Cognition and Culture hosts the 54th edition of 4 Stone Hearth, the blog carnival on issues archaeological. Interesting venue — solidly academic, and a valuable resource for teachers all by itself.
It’s a great carnival, really — marriage, poetry, and even a video of a new toy from Bandai.
And on a related note, here’s a post that ought to make the 55th edition of 4 Stone Hearth: Remote Central found a list of the top 100 anthropology blogs. Useful searching. There be great resources for the classroom, I’ll wager.
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2 Comments | Ancient history, Anthropology, Archaeology, Research, Weblogs | Tagged: Ancient history, Anthropology, Archaeology, Education, Four Stone Hearth, marriage | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 16, 2008
Another education blog, another library blog, a blog on children’s literature.
And it’s one you probably should read if you care about books, education, or children.
Educating Alice.
Read it to see if you have enough courage to read this book to your kids: The Graveyard Book. Read it to see how to get through “discomfiting words,” like “scrotum,” which oddly seems to bother people so much they’ll keep good literature from kids rather than read the book.
Go read Alice.
And don’t forget:
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2 Comments | Banned Books, Books, Education, Libraries, Literature, Teaching, Weblogs | Tagged: Banned Books Week, Books, Children's Books, Education, Libraries, Teaching, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 10, 2008
P. Z. Myers asks that we go vote for Brian Switek, a student at Rutgers who blogs at Laelaps. The winner of this vote gets $10,000 in scholarship money. I’m sure all of these students deserve it.
And so, I’ll encourage you to take a look at Brian’s generally outstanding and always interesting blog, and then go look at the other candidates, and vote.
Best thing: You can look at all the other blogs. Some of them are very, very good, and they cover a wide range of issues. Economics. Vole research (the pictures of the shrews and moles are darling, really). Politics. Islamic politics. More stuff.
These are the youngsters, the up and comers.
Wow.
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1 Comment | Education, Politics, Science, Weblogs | Tagged: blogging, Education, Laelaps, Polls, Scholarships | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 6, 2008
Do you think this blog is really written by two older women?
I’m jealous of their ability to get people to comment.
What ship is that in the masthead? The U.S.S. Texas?
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6 Comments | Politics, Texas, Weblogs | Tagged: blogs, Politics, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
October 24, 2008
Have you looked around lately?
Dallas isn’t the only school system in trouble in America. Financial woes plague many, perhaps most of the nation’s schools systems.
Funding for schools is difficult in an environment where even good schools get stuck with the label “failing school” due to seriously misdirected programs from the federal government. The situation is complicated by a non-booming economy, especially in districts that had been gearing to build new schools to accommodate increased student populations.
What will the future bring?
It’s enough to merit its own little impromptu carnival. Oy.
- In Hawaii, libraries may not have enough money to stay open — in Hawaii, the libraries fall under the jurisdiction of education. Long gone are the days when Republican war hero/president Dwight Eisenhower found libraries to be the fount of information necessary for civilization, and proposed to spend $100 million to be certain even the smallest counties in America had a good library. (From The Honolulu Advertiser)
- Virginia proposes to whack education to make up for a statewide $2.5 billion funding shortage. (News Advance in Lynchburg)
- It’s this bad: In Missouri, Republicans campaign on the idea that education funding is bad. You don’t believe there’s a War on Education? Look at the local races, such as the race for the Missouri House of Representatives between Democrat incumbent Sara Lampe and Republican Michael S. Goodart, Jr. “Goodart criticizes his opponent as a polished, one-issue politician, referring to Lampe’s background as an educator and proponent of education funding.” Oh, yeah, those fat cats in public education. (From the Springfield News-Leader)
- Community colleges in Florida, suffering from “draconian” budget cuts, don’t agree on Amendment 8 on this election’s ballot, a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution to allow counties to hold elections to increase taxes for community college funding. Some colleges fear this is the first step by the legislature to cut off state support. (Miami Herald)
- Great googly-moogly, it’s difficult to tell what’s going on in South Dakota. It looks like the Democrat calls for a cut in state spending including education, though South Dakota ranks 51st in teacher pay (out of 50 states, that’s a remarkable failure!). (Sioux Falls Argus Leader)
- In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the schools are headed for a crash. When we drove through there last month, the headlines told of a proposal to dissolve the school district completely. But that’s a little way into the future. Right now the district must choose between double-digit increases in taxes, or dramatic, education-crippling budget cuts. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel publishes a special on-line education section, with information on the crisis in Milwaukee’s schools. The fight is getting bitter. (Looks this morning as if the board chose the tax increase — bet they’re not up for election this fall.)
- Perennial crab William Murchison complains in the East Texas Review that public schools are the problem, and invites Joe the Plumber to Texas where he can get a plumber’s license without knowing anything about plumbing. Ignorance about plumbing among plumbers good for business, Murchison says. He probably feels the same about ignorance in other areas — good for business. Murchison blames school funding woes on the schools. If only they’d close, Murchison says, things might be better. (Heck, Murchison even complains about Brownsville ISD’s winning the Broad Prize — according to Murchison, they don’t deserve it. Crabby, crabby, crabby.)
- Dallas, Texas’s schools are being hammered by the Bush economy, according to U.S. News and World Report. That’s why the layoffs, the magazine said. Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa apologized to laid-off teachers and their now-more-heavily-laden colleagues, but he did it to an audience of lawyers, not teachers. Have all the shoes dropped? No one knows.
There may be updates. We haven’t even gotten to the Texas SBOE House of Science Horrors.
Vote, will you?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, Education assessment, Education quality, Education spending, History, Politics, Teacher Pay, Teaching, Texas, War on Education, Weblogs | Tagged: Business, Campaign 2008, Education, Excellence in Education, Politics, Taxes, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
October 12, 2008
Hey, UTEP. Just for my own gratification, could someone let me know what class it is that is using which material from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub?
Thanks.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Administrivia, Education, History, Personal, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Weblogs | Tagged: Administrivia, Education, History, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, Personal, Technology in the classroom, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 29, 2008
Sometime Monday afternoon or evening at approximately 4:40 p.m. Central Daylight Time, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub will pass passed the million total views milestone.
It’s nowhere near the readership of Pharyngula, Eduwonks, Daily Kos or others. For some reason, many readers feel no need to scrawl on the bathroom wall here (comments are always welcomed, edited only for profanity), so the comments don’t reflect total readership, I think.
Thank you to each and every reader, and especially to the faithful readers who keep coming back day after day. Thank you to the large handful who send story ideas.
In periods like the current one, when there is so little time to post on key issues, it’s especially gratifying that readership continues to rise.
Thank you, Dear Readers.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
9 Comments | Administrivia, Personal, Weblogs | Tagged: Administrivia, blogging, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 22, 2008
Interesting discussion around how a student’s mood affects retention of material covered in homework, from the students at Extreme Biology.
What is your experience?
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1 Comment | Brain learning, Education, psychology, Research, Science, Student projects, Teaching, Weblogs | Tagged: Education, Homework, Learning, psychology, Research, Student projects, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 22, 2008
One way to get better use out of technology is to let your students use it. How about having students make posts to a blog, for credit? They learn how to write, they learn technology, and they learn the class material.
Here’s a great example of a classroom-driven blog, where the students do most of the work: Extreme Biology. Miss Baker’s Biology Class holds forth from a school in the northeast, with 9th grade and AP biology students doing most of the work.
Here’s another good example, from another biology class (in Appleton, Wisconsin — close to you, James!): Endless Forms Most Beautiful (every biologist will recognize the title from biology literature).
The idea is attracting some attention in science circles, especially with an idea that working scientists ought to drop by from time to time to discuss things with students.
How do your students use technology to boost their learning?
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Leave a Comment » | Biology, Brain learning, Education, Learning, Learning styles, Public education, Science, Student projects, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Weblogs | Tagged: Biology, Classroom technology, Education, Science, Student projects, Technology, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 20, 2008
We may have crossed paths with P. Z. Myers — but he didn’t recognize the rented Saturn I was driving in Wisconsin, I’m sure.
He only drove across two states. I flew to Chicago, drove to Appleton, Wisconsin, and then drove back to Dallas, Texas. We didn’t take nearly the number of photos we should have, but there are some observations on technology and the open road to come.
In the meantime, readers were generally polite — but as always, not enough of you left comments.
Comments are open. Always. Take advantage.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Administrivia, Family, Personal, Weblogs | Tagged: Administrivia, blogs, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 