Just how much will YouTube affect this year’s campaigns?
The Sierra Club offers this spot on the politics of fixing global warming on YouTube. Would they even bother to produce it, if YouTube didn’t exist?
Lawmakers in the dark
June 17, 2008
Leave a Comment » | 
Climate change, Elections, Environmental protection, Global warming, History, Politics, Science | Tagged: CFLs, Climate change, Elections, Environmental protection, Politics, Science, Sierra Club | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Storefront schools
June 16, 2008Why not?
In comments to the immediately previous post, Zhoen says segregation by gender is no panacea for education. But, she wonders at OneWord: Why not storefront schools?
For many years, I have thought the never-will-be-done answer was to have storefront schools. One room schoolhouses, two teachers and a local adult volunteer, no more than a dozen students, all online classes – a national, self paced, curricula. Touring experts and scholars for special lectures and demonstrations. Kid has a problem with a particular teacher, move ’em to the next neighborhood over. Walking distances from their homes, field trips common (easier to arrange with small groups), flexible schedules (let the teens sleep in). A circle of homeschools in rural areas instead of warehouses to haul whole populations into.
Why not? The idea strikes me as similar to Japanese juku, private schools for kids in public schools, where kids get remedial attention or advanced instruction, depending on what they need. I copy the Library of Congress’ description of juku after the fold.
What do you think? Is there an example of storefront schools we can cite either way, for or against the idea?
Comment away.
5 Comments | Classroom management, Classroom size, Education, Education reform, Homeschooling, Japan, School discipline | Tagged: Education, Education reform, Homeschooling, Japan, Juku, Schools, Storefront Schools | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Does gender-separated schooling work better?
June 16, 2008Even public school districts toy with the idea of separating genders in the primary and secondary grades. Some people argue that there is experimental evidence to support the plan, plus there are the arguments about physical differences between the genders, which suggest different educational strategies for girls than for boys.
The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to implement programs that are supported by research. Is there solid research to support separating the genders?
Apart from the hoaxes, such as the much ballyhooed “Crokus” in boys brains, the evidence for separating the genders based on physical differences may be a lot slimmer than advocates claim.
For example, do boys really hear differently from girls? Are the physical differences so great? Consider the opening paragraph for a lengthy article on the issue by Elizabeth Weil, in The New York Times Magazine last March:
On an unseasonably cold day last November in Foley, Ala., Colby Royster and Michael Peterson, two students in William Bender’s fourth-grade public-school class, informed me that the class corn snake could eat a rat faster than the class boa constrictor. Bender teaches 26 fourth graders, all boys. Down the hall and around the corner, Michelle Gay teaches 26 fourth-grade girls. The boys like being on their own, they say, because girls don’t appreciate their jokes and think boys are too messy, and are also scared of snakes. The walls of the boys’ classroom are painted blue, the light bulbs emit a cool white light and the thermostat is set to 69 degrees. In the girls’ room, by contrast, the walls are yellow, the light bulbs emit a warm yellow light and the temperature is kept six degrees warmer, as per the instructions of Leonard Sax, a family physician turned author and advocate who this May will quit his medical practice to devote himself full time to promoting single-sex public education.
Mark Liberman, who writes at Language Log, deals with these issues dispassionately, and scientifically. He started a policy of publishing on the blog questions that he gets from journalists on the issues. Here’s his first published answer, for example, and as you can see, it’s a bit of an information-loaded doozy:
1. I’ve read a few posts on Language Log, but please tell me more about what you think about Dr. Sax’s arguments about sex-based differences in the brain?
In his books, Leonard Sax is a political activist using science to make a case, not a scientist evaluating a hypothesis.
Science is sometimes on his side, sometimes neutral or equivocal, and sometimes against him. He picks the results that fit his agenda, ignoring those that don’t; and all too often, he misunderstands, exaggerates or misrepresents the results that he presents.
There’s detailed support for these assertions in some Language Log posts from 2006:
“David Brooks, cognitive neuroscientist” (6/12/2006)
“Are men emotional children?” (6/24/2005)
“Of rats and (wo)men” (8/19/2006)
“Leonard Sax on hearing” (8/22/2006)
“More on rats and men and women” (8/22/2006)
“The emerging science of gendered yelling” (9/5/2006)
“Girls and boys and classroom noise” (9/9/2006)This doesn’t mean that his conclusions are false, but it does mean that his appeals to science are not trustworthy.
More nuance than some policy groups might be able to deal with, but enough information to direct a genuinely interested person to some good sources.
You’ll also want to read “Retinal Sex and Sexual Rhetoric,” and “Liberman on Sax on Liberman on Sax on Hearing.”
In our weekly staff meetings with then Assisstant Secretary of Education for Research Chester W. Finn, at the old Office for Educational Research and Information, Finn often opened the meetings by turning to the Director of Research and asking whether, in the past week, we had learned how people learn. When satisfied that this key breakthrough had not been achieved in the previous week, which would change much of what we did, Finn would say something like, “Now that we know we don’t know what we’re doing, let’s go through the agenda.”
Keeping an appropriate sense of humor about the issue, Finn still provided sharp reminders that the science behind learning, for all of the volumes available, is very tenuous and thin.
When science is so thin, the policy side of the discipline can be waved around by a good presentation coupled with plausible sciency-sounding material. “Plausible” does not equal “good,” and often it doesn’t even equal “accurate.”
Liberman’s critiques are detailed, and they point out questions that the average school board member or principal is probably ill-equipped to realize, let alone ask from an “expert” or consultant selling a program to the district.
Before we teach critical thinking to the kids, we need a lot more critical thinking from administrators. Liberman tries to light the path to that critical thinking.
What do you think? Does gender-separate education work better? Are there such great differences in the learning abilities and methods of boys and girls that we ought to separate them?
What about other shibboleths we hear? Classroom size? Testing? Delivery of material? Difficulty of material? Where is there good research for reforming our schools, for the better?
3 Comments | Brain development, Brain learning, Classroom management, Classroom size, Education, Education assessment, Education reform, No Child Left Behind Act, Research | Tagged: Boys and Girls, Brain development, Brain learning, Education, Education reform, Gender Differences, No Child Left Behind, Research, Schools | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Not Bobby Jindal: The Parable of the Idiot Candidate
June 16, 2008Bobby Jindal’s experience at exorcisms and rejection of the Catholic Church’s position on teaching creationism are getting some attention. He is young and makes an appearance of governmental competence (though, New Orleans is still a mess and he’s had several months to start making things happen that aren’t happening). But on science issues, the man is without sense, without reason.
In response to a post at Pharyngula, someone commented:
No, no no…. we WANT McCain to pick Jindal.
Because Jindal claims to have performed an exorcism.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/06/jindals_exorcism.html
PleaseohpleaseohpleaseohPLEASE pick Jindal!!!!!!
Let me tell you a story. This looks like a parable, and after a fashion, it is. It is also history. You can look it up. Call it a parable from Santayana’s Ghost.
Once upon a time, back in the Cretaceous (okay, 1976), when Utah was still split among Democrats and Republicans, especially for national offices like senator and representative, there was a great congressman in Utah’s first district (which you might call the “cursed First,” because it has had its share of misfortunes, like Enid Greene, and Douglas Stringfellow; except that at the time, it was the 2nd. No, I’m not about to explain). Rep. Alan Howe was a smart, well-connected Democrat, and a very good first-term Congressman. He’d won election in 1974 when Wayne Owens vacated the seat to run for the U.S. Senate unsuccessfully against Jake Garn.* In 1976, Howe was considered unbeatable.
Howe’s brother was president of the Utah State Senate. Howe was a friend of outgoing Gov. Calvin Rampton. As a former director of the Four Corners Commission, he had a good bead on water, energy, agricultural, industrial and environmental issues in the entire state. He was rising rapidly up the ladder in Democratic leadership. Republicans who might have made a run looked at Howe’s war chest of campaign contributions, his record and sterling reputation, and sat out the race.
At that time the state’s parties held their conventions in June. Under Utah’s system, all candidates for an office would appeal to the delegates of the state convention, and if one candidate got 50% plus 1 of the delegates to vote for her or him, there would be no primary. If no candidate got a majority, the top two would face off in a primary in September, and the winner would go to the general election in November.
Utah’s Republicans had five people file for the office, all of them unknowns, all of them considered appropriate to fill the ballot out for a losing election. The five were so undistinguished, and so undistinguishable, that the race was close between all of them. An insurance salesman named Dan Marriott (no relation to the J. W. Marriotts) scraped enough delegate votes to stand against a proctologist in the primary election. Both candidates were unfamiliar with national politics and national issues. It would be one gaffe after another up to the primary.
But that’s not the story. I was a part-time reporter for KUTV, helping Lucky Severson (later of NBC) and a great documentary unit in coverage of all things political in the state. Since there was no great race on the Democratic side, I got the short straw and a good chance to cover the local Democratic convention. It was uneventful enough I didn’t even get a stand-up out of it.
Alan Howe’s campaign was loaded with people I knew from college. They invited me to a post-convention party which was, unfortunately, a fund-raiser. Consulting with the assignment desk, we figured that since the invitation came as a comp ticket, and not as an invitation to cover the thing, it was a freebie that was unacceptable under the station’s gift policies. I could go on my own, we determined, but I’d have to pay for the ticket myself. I didn’t have the change.
So I didn’t get even a stand-up. And I didn’t get to go to the party with the Congressman.
About 2:00 a.m. the assignment desk called, asking hopefully whether I’d gone to the fundraiser after all. When I said “no,” the guy yelled “Damn!”
“Look,” I said. “We discussed this — it’s against the station’s policies.”
“Yeah, but a good story isn’t. We just got a tip from the County Jail that Howe was picked up for soliciting a prostitute.”
Utah, then, was much more provincial than it is now. Still, there are few places outside of Louisiana where soliciting sex for hire is not a death knell in an election campaign.
Alan Howe had just handed his congressional seat to a Republican to be named later.
Dan Marriott and the proctologist, J. Preston Hughes fought a gaffe-filled campaign all the way to the primary. Hughes avoided using all the great campaign slogans a proctologist could use fairly and accurately, indicating a great lack of a sense of humor (“Send Hughes to Washington — he’s made a career out of cutting up a–holes to make life better!”) Marriott beat Hughes, 56,000 votes to 25,500 votes roughly.
The campaign for the general election was a groaner. Utah Democrats tried to get Howe to resign the election, but he refused, even after he was convicted. Howe refused to debate Marriott, appearing to hope that Marriott wouldn’t get any publicity. A Democrat ran a write-in campaign, further sapping Howe’s hopes.
Television debates were set up, but Howe refused to appear. These turned into painful interviews of Dan Marriott, who had no real good ideas about what he was getting into, it appeared. In one public television “debate,” open to voters to call in questions, when the host, Rod Decker then of the Deseret News went to the phones, not even crickets chirped. Decker ended up asking questions himself, though he hadn’t prepared to do that. In one exchange seared into my memory, Decker asked Marriott what committees he might like to be on in Congress, since it was all but absolutely certain he’d win the election and be able to stay out of the way of speeding buses and trains. Marriott explained that he’d been on a few committees in his local PTA, and they didn’t seem to get anything done, so he hoped he wouldn’t get any committee assignments.
Utah, so dependent on largesse from the Interior Committees and Agriculture Committees, issued a collective groan.
Utah got stuck with a candidate no one wanted, and had to send him to the House of Representatives.
Do not ever — EVER! — hope the other party will nominate an idiot against your candidate. Even the good candidates are idiot enough to blow an election. But sure as the other side nominates an idiot that even other idiots can see unable to do the job, something will happen to push that nominated idiot into the position.
There is a good history of surprise office-holders rising to the occasion. Teddy Roosevelt was nominated for the Vice Presidency largely to get him out of New York politics, where his mere presence threatened to clean up some of the corruption. New Yorkers thought he’d never recover from serving as Vice President. You know the rest of the story, of course, how President William McKinley showed up in Buffalo to shake hands, how Leon Czolgosz got in line and shot McKinley fatally.
Even Utah got lucky. Dan Marriott had enough sense to learn a bit about Congress. He lucked into a seat on the House Interior Committee, and in a Democratic Congress, with everyone ignoring him, he sneaked through a bill to clean up radioactive mill tailings in Salt Lake County. Managing to avoid major embarrassments, he went on to serve four terms. Utah swatted him down when he stood for election as governor in 1984.
Photo at left: Dan Marriott, on right, with large rubber gloves. Dan Marriott Photograph Collection at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah.
Events can intervene. Good candidates get tripped up — think Ed Muskie defending his wife’s honor in New Hampshire, but with a few tears, before tears were acceptable. Think all those Republicans who avoided the nastiness of the campaign against Nixon in 1968, since Robert Kennedy would easily outdistance Nixon. Sen. Paul Wellstone was a lock in a close race in Minnesota in 2002, until an airplane crash changed the race — as happened to Mel Carnahan in Missouri in 2000, and to Dick Obenshain in Virginia in 1978. Or think of former Speaker of the House Tom Foley of Washington, who simply lost his seat when an unexpected change of mind of the voters of Washington got him, in 1994, when the Newt Gingrich Contract On America was executed.
Every vote counts, until it’s dismissed or uncounted. Every race is important. Pray that each party puts up the best available people, and that the best of them win.
Remember: Do not ever — EVER! — hope the other party will nominate an idiot against your candidate. Even the good candidates are idiot enough to blow an election. But sure as the other side nominates an idiot that even other idiots can see is unable to do the job, something will happen to push that nominated idiot into the position.
________
* Shortly after his election in 1974 I interviewed Jake Garn with a panel for KUED-TV. I asked Garn what he would bring to the Senate, a good, softball question. He went on at length about his viewpoint as a former mayor, noting that no one else in the Senate had that experience. I named five or six former mayors in the Senate, and I asked him what was the difference. “I won’t become federalized like they did,” he said. I thought of that quote often as he orbited the Earth. Glad he didn’t fall victim to the siren song of federalization.
2 Comments | History, Politics, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Disasters, Elections, History, Nominees, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
McLeroy declares war on science in Texas classrooms?
June 15, 2008Considering recent history and the Texas State Board of Education, how can any reasonable voter or parent read this, except as a declaration of war on science? According to the blogs at the Dallas Morning News:
State Board of Education chairman David Bradley of Beaumont told GOP delegates [at the Texas State Republican Convention] that the board was about to take up the science curriculum for public schools. He forecasted a fight over evolution vs. creationism.
Bradley said there are some on the board (he’s among them) that believe God created Man.
“There are others who think their ancestors were apes. That’s okay. But I’m going to vote the right way,” Bradley said.
Is there anything there that suggests Bradley wants good science in Texas textbooks and Texas classrooms?
Remember the Excellence in Education Commission Report in 1983? The Commission warned that the nation was facing “a rising tide of mediocrity” in schools, in such things as lax science standards.
“Our nation is at risk. The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. History is not kind to idlers.”
25 years later, Commissar Don McLeroy is leading the tide of mediocrity, doing crippling things to our education system that the likes of Nikita Khruschev and Mao Ze Dong could only dream about.
2 Comments | Creationism, Education quality, Education reform, Evolution, History, Intelligent Design, Political conventions, Politics, Religion, Science, State school boards, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Education reform, Politics, Religion, Science, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 14 – Flag Day
June 14, 2008Did you fly your flag today? Even without my reminding you? Good!
Painting by Norman Rockwell, Scout saluting the flag.
- Dates to fly the flag (every day is okay; at night is okay, too, if you light the flag)
- Rick Monday saved the American flag
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism | Tagged: flag, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Iowa Scout tragedy – a message from the Chief Scout Executive
June 14, 2008Chief Scout Executive Robert J. Mazzuca issued this message yesterday, regarding the tornado strike at Mid-America Council’s Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa. For the record, for your information and action:
Robert J. Mazzuca
Chief Scout ExecutiveJune 13, 2008
To our Scouting family:
We were all shocked and saddened by the news coming out of Western Iowa. The tornado that ripped through our Little Sioux Scout Ranch left a terrible wake of destruction in its path. We mourn the lives lost and injuries suffered as a result of the storm. And we extend our deepest sympathies and concern to the families of those who were affected.
BSA President John Gottschalk and I have pledged the full support of the National Council to assist in any way. Particularly during this period of front-line response, most of the effort is being managed by the outstanding Mid-America Council. We are grateful for Lloyd Roitstein and his staff, who have shown remarkable leadership during this very challenging time. The local council has placed a very high priority on tending to the needs of the impacted families. We continue to remain in close contact and are helping to coordinate communication across the local council network. The National Council is prepared to engage further at any time.
Understandably, we are receiving many calls from all across the country from staff, volunteers, Scouts, and families who want to be supportive. Thank you, everyone, for this outpouring of support. We have put into place a process for properly channeling offers of financial assistance for the impacted families, as well as interest in volunteering time to the effort. Right now, we need to give emergency responders and the local council time to attend to the task at hand. Very soon, the effort will turn to rebuilding and reconstructing. Upon the determination of exact needs, we will follow up with you.
Please forward contact information and offers of support to our emergency response e-mail at oomcd@netbsa.org. Anyone interested in making a donation to help rebuild Scouting in the communities affected by the tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest go to www.scoutingfriends.org. Select “BSA Disaster Relief.”
Again, we are deeply saddened by this tragedy. At the same time, however, we are moved by and proud of the way in which our Scouts, leaders, and the local council have responded. There is no question that this terrible situation would have been worse if it were not for the heroic efforts of the young men who were on the ground when the tornado hit. They epitomize what is so very special about being a Scout.
Please join me in keeping all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers. God bless our Scouts.
Yours in Scouting,
Robert J. Mazzuca signature
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Robert J. Mazzuca
Chief Scout Executive
Tip of the old scrub brush to Debie Franz, Wisdom Trail District, Circle 10 Council
2 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Capturing history, Current History, Disasters, History | Tagged: Boy Scouts, disaster, Iowa, Tornado | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Query to historians: Material on German-American Internment in WWII?
June 14, 2008Historians, help me out: What do you know about the internment of German Americans and Italian Americans during World War II?
The website of the German-American Internee Coalition lists several sources, and it has a lengthy set of lesson plans (too much for use in Texas, I fear). Is this information accurate? Has anyone used it in a classroom, and can you tell us your experience? Is there a mention of this in your world history or U.S. history text?
Please respond in comments.
Photo: At sunset, the gate and guard tower at Fort Lincoln, North Dakota, where German-Americans and Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II. From the John Christgau Collection of photos; courtesy the site at the German-American Internee Coalition (GAIC).
1 Comment | Accuracy, Capturing history, Citizenship, Civil Rights, History, Immigration, Japanese American internment, Justice, Teaching, World War II | Tagged: Civil Rights, German-American Internment, History, Japanese Internment, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Friends of Rachel Carson win a quiet victory
June 13, 2008How quiet?
None of my news readers pulled it up, either last August and September, when U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Penn., got the bill through Congress and signed into law by President Bush, nor a couple of weeks ago when the action occurred.
Rep. Rob Bishop’s, R-Utah, incendiary and inaccurate statement on the bill was what caught my eye originally about the continuing campaign of calumny against the author and scientist.
Rep. Altmire conducted a petition campaign in Pennsylvania, and used the lever of popular, bipartisan support to pry the bill loose from U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn’s hold in the Senate. Coburn is a Republican from Oklahoma, a physician, and an ardent advocate of spraying DDT. He had placed a hold on the bill in committee, stopping all action under the Senate’s rules of profound deference to members.
The swell of popular support made clear by Altmire’s campaign appears to have persuaded Sen. Coburn to allow the bill to move. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent on August 3, 2007, and got President Bush’s signature on August 9. These sorts of honorary bills generally are not targeted for political points. That Coburn allowed the bill through suggests a good deal of maturation as a senator on Coburn’s part.
Below the fold, Rep. Altmire’s press releases on the bill’s passing the Senate, and on President Bush’s signing the bill.
Photo below: Rachel Carson, birding, on a ridge (in Pennsylvania); photo originally found at site of Professor Catherine Lavender, The College of Staten Island of CUNY.
Rachel Carson, birding at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
8 Comments | Accuracy, DDT, Environmental protection, History, Law, Natural history, Natural resources, Politics, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, History, Law, Rachel Carson, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Well written, by hand
June 12, 2008We had to take a semester of typing in high school. Computers back then were readers of stacks of punch cards, but the idea was that those students bound for college would need to know how to type to do term papers, and the other students would be able to use typing as a job skill. I got up to 90 words per minute for a short period.
One of my majors was mass communication. I wrote a lot of radio news scripts, and I wrote constantly for the Daily Utah Chronicle. Utah’s debate team was quite active, too, and we typed our evidence cards so they’d be easier to share. By my junior year, almost everything handed in was typewritten.
After one lousy year of grad school I took a job as press secretary for a U.S. Senate campaign. It was a shoe-string operation, and I typed all our press releases myself — plus the few prepared speeches. Three years later we had computers to use for press releases and speech texts in the Senate. My office was the first in the Senate to completely automate the process. By the time I moved to the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors, we had PCs on everybody’s desk (ahead of our time, I know). At the Department of Education a couple of years later, we even had a crude e-mail system.
Moving to American Airlines was a shock. As counsel, I was expected to write everything in long-hand, so the secretary could type up the final copy. Having been wholly keyboard for way over a decade, I couldn’t make the switch. I had to find a surplused, still-barely-working typewriter to give stuff to the secretary. By the time I left four years later, everybody had PCs on their desks (and at least half the secretarial positions were gone, too). That was my last experience with long-hand as the norm, until I got to the Dallas Independent School District.
Our kids didn’t learn cursive long or well. Younger son James doesn’t do much in cursive at all (thank you notes are a problem, of course). Older son Kenny has keyboards on everything, and probably types better than I do. I didn’t worry much about it.
Is that true? Does writing improve literacy and numeracy?
That would explain a lot about my students’ inabilities in both areas, and it would suggest we need to do a lot more writing, and a lot more note-taking. It would suggest that our drive to technology has damaged our skills in an unexpected way.
What do you think? Does anyone know if there is an actual study on the topic? Comments open.
1 Comment | Cartoons, Education, literacy, Numeracy, Technology | Tagged: Cartoons, Cursive, Education, Handwriting, literacy, Numeracy, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
50 good P-12 education blogs
June 11, 20081. Through some glitch in the screening process, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub sneaked onto the list. The bubbles in the Bathtub seem deeper and warmer as we just think about it. We’re flattered to be listed, even with an asterisk.
2. There are 49 very good blogs on that list, a few of which I’ve not heard of before, some of my old favorites, and all of them very interesting that I’ve checked out so far. Go check them out. They deserve the traffic. You deserve the information.
In fact, just to give them all a link boost, I’ll copy McLeod’s list below the fold.
School’s out for me, with just a little cleanup and an amazing training burden left for the summer. This last semester has been a doozy. I’ve not blogged nearly so much as I should have. There are a lot of issues left on the table. It’s nice to be on the list; I wish there were more comments. I find the feedback useful, fun, and instructive, like older son Kenny’s chastisement this morning subtly slipped into comments on the Mencken typewriter post.
Where should education bloggers be going, Dear Readers? Where should this blog be going?
McLeod’s list below the fold; comments are open for the whole summer.
1 Comment | Education, Lesson plans, Pedagogy, Teaching, Technology, Weblogs | Tagged: Education, Education blogs, Pedagogy, Teaching, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Alma Conference statement pending: Don’t ease DDT restrictions
June 11, 2008Here is the press release, from Alma College in Alma, Michigan:
Continued Use of DDT Is a Global Health Concern
Scholars who attended the Eugene Kenaga International DDT Conference on Health and the Environment at Alma College are drafting a consensus statement urging global policymakers to reconsider the future use of the synthetic pesticide DDT.
The scholars acknowledge that the use of DDT has prevented millions of infections and deaths from insect-borne diseases, especially malaria. Yet, substantial exposure to DDT poses serious health risks for human populations and the environment, says Edward Lorenz, director of the Public Affairs Institute at Alma College.
“The consensus of the scholars was a recognition of the serious impediments to further restricting DDT use, given that several million people die each year from malaria, most of whom are under the age of five,” says Lorenz. “However, these scholars have documented in numerous human health studies what can be called a ‘deepening understanding of the effects of DDT use on humans.’ The collective wisdom of the experts at the Kenaga Conference was that world policymakers need to use extreme caution when considering easing restrictions on DDT use.”
The March 14 conference attracted international experts in the areas of public health and the environment, including South African scholars Riana Bornman, Henk Bouwman and Christiaan de Jager; Aimin Chen of Creighton University; Barbara Cohn and Brenda Eskenazi of the University of California at Berkeley; Henry Anderson of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health; Suzanne Snedeker of Cornell University; Diane Henshel of Indiana University; Darwin Stapleton of the Rockefeller Archives; Lorenz and John Leipzig of Alma College; and Felicia Leipzig of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force.
The anticipated DDT conference “consensus statement” is expected to list the following summary statements and recommendations, says Lorenz:
- Repeated use of DDT results in serious health risks for humans.
- Many sites of chemical-manufacturing facilities continue to be a source of DDT contamination to area residents. While clean-up efforts continue, some DDT proponents, such as John Tierney (New York Times, June 5, 2007), have claimed that, “the billions spent cleaning up Superfund sites would be better spent on more serious dangers.”
“The experts at the DDT Conference unanimously disagree with Tierney’s assessment,” says Lorenz. “Because of the known DDT impacts on human health, the experts not only support continued Superfund clean up, but also endorse assessment of health impacts on residents of communities with DDT sites, such as St. Louis, Mich.”
- Children and pregnant women in malaria endemic areas where DDT is used are most at risk.
- Studies have shown that DDT impedes breast milk production, the best source of infant nutrition in many parts of the world.
“Because of the negative impacts on breastfeeding, resulting in more low birth weight babies, communities potentially exposed to DDT to control malaria must be told that the short-term benefits of DDT may spawn longer-term problems,” says Felicia Leipzig.
- New methods of malaria control should be encouraged and tested.
“Those who are lobbying for DDT use should focus on support for research into alternative chemicals and public health strategies that ultimately will allow for the full phase-out of DDT,” says John Leipzig, director of Alma’s Center for Responsible Leadership.
- The socio-economic development of malaria-affected communities is the best solution to malaria eradication.
- Conference experts call for “full support for the Stockholm Convention that will phase out the use of the 12 most dangerous persistent organic pollutants, including DDT,” says Lorenz.
“The Stockholm Convention mandates that each country using DDT have an implementation and management plan on controlling the use of DDT,” he says. “Ultimately it envisions eventual reliance on sustainable methods of disease vector control.”
The scholars argue that sufficient evidence exists that DDT exposure is occurring and posing significant health risks.
“Because of both DDT related Superfund sites and continued use of DDT, exposure to the pesticide is occurring around the world with significant health risks to current and future generations,” says Lorenz.
“The conference experts are challenging policy makers to provide support to further determine health risks associated with DDT exposure in both the developing world and in U.S. communities near contaminated Superfund sites,” he says. “The experts were especially critical of special interests groups and their lobbyists who negate the clear evidence of human health dangers of DDT exposure.”
-mjs-
Other coverage of the Alma DDT Conference at the Bathtub:
2 Comments | DDT, Environmental protection, Politics, Science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Carnivals for the mind and soul
June 11, 2008For the mind: Encephalon 47 is up at Channel N. Lots of videos this time, eating disorders, rembrances of lunches past, and a lot, lot more.
For the soul: Carnival of the Liberals #66 at The OtherWhirled. Ten good items there, including a response to the bizarre claim running on conservative blogs and minds that Obama is a Marxist.
2008 is going to be one of those years when we need to keep our minds sharp and our emotional banks with sufficient funds. I hope we can.
Leave a Comment » | Campaigns, Politics, Presidents, psychology, Science, Weblogs | Tagged: blog carnivals, Obama, Politics, psychology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dallas Fed sessions for teachers June 30 and July 1
June 11, 2008Federal Reserve Branch banks take seriously the Fed’s pledge to education Americans, and to support educators in understanding economics and the work of the Federal Reserve Banking System.
The educator support team at the Dallas Fed recently secured approval to provide continuing education credits for a two-day session on globalization planned for San Antonio, on June 30 and July 1. These sessions are easy, generally loaded with details, and tailored for educations. Plus they are usually well catered.
$35.00 gets all materials, two lunches, one continental breakfast, and 12 hours of credit.
All details from the Fed’s press release, below the fold.
Leave a Comment » | Business, Economics, Education, Federal Reserve Bank, Financial literacy, Globalization, Texas | Tagged: Business, Continuing Educaiton, Economics, Education, Federal Reserve Bank, Globalization, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Typewriter of the moment: Mencken and the 1948 conventions
June 10, 2008
Mencken at 1948 Democratic Convention
H. L. Mencken at one of the 1948 political conventions (Thomas Dewey was the Republican nominee, Harry S. Truman was the Democratic nominee). Obviously the photo is a copy from the National Press Club Library. The Park Library site describes the photo and Mencken:
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) was a familiar figure at many national political conventions. This photo, taken at the one in 1948, was his last political convention. He is well known for his attacks on American taste and culture, or the lack of same. His magnum opus, The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, was first published in 1919 and remains a classic. From 1906 to 1941, he worked chiefly as a reporter, editor, and columnist for the Baltimore Sun. (Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Sun Library.)
Assuming Mencken covered both conventions, this photo was taken at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in mid-July, 1948. We know it was taken in Philadelphia since both parties held their conventions there that year, the Republicans from June 21 to June 26, and the Democrats from July 12 to July 14.
Republicans nominated New York Gov. Thomas J. Dewey and California Gov. Earl Warren for president and vice president.
After a contentious convention that saw Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey propose a civil rights plank that got South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond to walk out of the convention and found his own States’ Rights (Dixiecrat) Party (with himself as the nominee for president), and former Vice President Henry Wallace walk out because the party platform was too conservative (Wallace ran on the Socialist Progressive Party ticket), Democrats nominated President Harry S Truman and Kentucky Sen. Alben W. Barkley for president and vice president. Truman narrowly defeated Georgia Sen. Richard B. Russell for the nomination. Had Thurmond not walked out, Truman may well have lost the nomination of his own party.
And the rest of the story?
- Truman had a contentious second term, and was defeated in the New Hampshire primary in 1952 by Sen. Estes Kefauver; Truman ended his campaign for a second full term shortly after.
- Earl Warren was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Truman’s successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in late 1953. Warren is remembered for engineering the 9-0 decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education which ruled “separate but equal” school systems to violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, and for his chairing the commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- Hubert Humphrey moved on to the U.S. Senate, served as Vice President to Lyndon Johnson, and won the Democratic nomination for president in another contentious convention in 1968 in Chicago. Humphrey lost the election to Richard Nixon, and returned to the U.S. Senate two years later.
- Strom Thurmond won election to the U.S. Senate in 1954, switching parties to Republican in 1964, and serving until his death in 2003.
- Russell, who had served as Georgia’s senator since 1933, continued to serve to his death on January 21, 1971; he was a key member of the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Russell Senate Office Building is named in his honor, the oldest of the three Senate office buildings.
- Barkley was the oldest vice president ever inaugurated, aged 71. He remarried in his first year as vice president (his first wife died in 1947). Barkley’s nephew suggested that he should be called “the veep” because “Mr. Vice President” was too long. The title was seized up on by headline writers. Considered too old to run for the presidency in 1952, Barkley won a U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky in the 1954 elections, serving from 1955 to his death in 1956. Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River is named in his honor, as is the lake behind it, Lake Barkley.
- Henry Wallace finished a distant fourth in the 1948 election, behind Dewey and Thurmond. His political career was essentially over due to his inability or unwillingness to disavow communist support. He achieved success as a chicken breeder. In a daramatic turnabout, he wrote a book, Where I Was Wrong, disavowing communism and critical of Joseph Stalin, and endorsed Republican candidates in 1956 and 1960. He died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 1965.
- Dewey returned to his law practice. In 1952, Dewey helped engineer the nomination of Eisenhower over his old political nemesis Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, pushed Richard Nixon as the Vice Presidential nominee, and in 1956 first convinced Ike to run again, and then to keep Nixon on the ticket. Dewey politely refused offers of offices, including refusing a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, sticking to his law practice which made him very wealthy. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1971, at age 68.
- Mencken suffered a stroke later in 1948 that left him unable to speak, or read, or write for a time. He spent much of the rest of his life working to organize his papers, and died in 1956. His epitaph, on his tombstone and on a plaque in the lobby of the Baltimore Sun, reads: “If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl.”
3 Comments | H. L. Mencken, History, Political conventions, Politics, Technology, Typewriters, Writing | Tagged: H. L. Mencken, History, Political conventions, Politics, Technology, typewriter, Writing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 