June 10, 2008
You’ve got to love C-SPAN. Commercial television networks spend billions purchasing rights to be the sole broadcaster of sporting events, the Superbowl, the World Series, the NBA championships, the NCAA basketball championships, the Olympics.
What’s a money poor, creativity- and content-rich public affairs cable channel to do? Well, gee, there’s the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth coming up in February 2009 . . .:
Meet C-SPAN, “the network of the Lincoln Bicentennial.”
Note the site, set your video recorders (digital or not — just capture the stuff). C-SPAN plans monthly broadcasts on Lincoln and the times, plus special broadcasts on certain events — November 19, the 145th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, for example.
Of particular value to students and teachers, C-SPAN offers a long menu of links to sites about Lincoln, and to original speeches and documents (DBQ material anyone?).
War with Mexico
House Divided
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
·1st Debate: Transcript | Video
·2nd Debate: Transcript | Video
·3rd Debate: Transcript | Video
·4th Debate: Transcript | Video
·5th Debate: Transcript | Video
·6th Debate: Transcript | Video
·7th Debate: Transcript | Video
Cooper Union Speech
Farewell Address
First Inaugural
Second Inaugural
Gettysburg Address
Last Address
Good on ’em. C-SPAN leads the way again.
Teachers, bookmark that site. Are you out for the summer? U.S. history teachers have a couple of months to mine those resources, watch the broadcasts, and watch and capture the archived videos, to prepare for bell-ringers, warm-ups, and lesson plans.
What will your classes do for the Lincoln Bicentennial? Will that collide with your plans for the Darwin bicentennial?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Biography, Civil War, Education, Freedom - Political, History, History audio sources, History images, History video sources, Lesson plans, On-line education, On-line learning, Patriotism, Politics, Presidents, Slavery, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Television | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Education, Entertainment, History, Lincoln Bicentennial, Media, Teaching | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
June 9, 2008
Smithsonian’s June issue features a story on the origins of evolution theory in the public eye, focusing not just on Darwin and Wallace, but also on the history of the idea as they found it, before they discovered the mechanism that makes the theory hold together and bind biology into a real science: “On the Origin of a Theory.”
World history, western civilization and U.S. history teachers may want to keep a copy of the article — in U.S. history, for the Scopes trial section (or paragraph, depending on how science and philosophy friendly your text is).
Also, the article features a photo of Darwin not usually seen, from the Library of Congress Archives.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, History, Science | Tagged: Darwin, Evolution, History, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 9, 2008
Don’t breathe the air, don’t eat the eggs. Life next door to a DDT plant in India.
In case you were wondering where nations that want to use DDT might find some, now that it’s not being made in the U.S.
Read the rest of this entry »
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1 Comment | DDT, Environmental justice, Environmental protection, Health care, History, Politics, Public health, Science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, health, India, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 8, 2008
A Quantum Diaries Survivor detours from physics to bring us news that in a small Italian town church authorities denied the rites of marriage to a paralyzed man, on the grounds that he can’t make babies.
Remember this case the next time some nut starts ranting about how marriage between two people of the same gender somehow endangers marriage. There’s no way to protect the “sanctity of marriage” when clowns with clerical titles work so determinedly to mock the institution of marriage, and the concepts of compassion, charity and family, from within the church.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Family, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Religion | Tagged: Family, marriage, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Religion, Unwarranted discrimination | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 8, 2008
Some nations do not wish to use DDT to poison mosquitoes because they have other poison problems, and they’d almost rather have malaria than more poison.
For example, see this description of clean water problems in India. From A Wide Angle View of India. Be sure to follow the links to stories in the New York Times and on BBC’s website.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | DDT, Environmental protection, Health care, History, Politics, Public health, Science | Tagged: Clean Water, DDT, Environmental protection, India, Pesticides, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 7, 2008
Helen Keller, left, and her teacher Anne Sullivan play chess, in 1900. Photo from the American Foundation for the Blind.
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3 Comments | Chess, Education, History, History images | Tagged: Chess, Education, Entertainment, Helen Keller, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 7, 2008
A river of real learning, a rising tide of excellence.
Art from students at the school I’d like to attend many days:
Wouldn’t you like to do what those students at the Community School of West Seattle do?
See also Andy Goldsworthy.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Art, Education, Education blogs, Education quality, Education success, Learning, Life, Natural history | Tagged: Art, Education, Education Excellence, Elementary Education, Living, Nature | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 6, 2008
Got an e-mail with a question.
Today is the 64th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy in World War II, a date generally called D-Day. No, you don’t have to fly your flag. This is not one of the days designated by Congress for flag-flying.
But you may, and probably, you should.
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5 Comments | Famous Battles, Flag etiquette, History, War, World War II | Tagged: D-Day, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 6, 2008
What if we gave students a paycheck just to attend school? Some people are serious about it. Some authorities are actually doing it. High-level, if theoretical, discussion at the Becker-Posner Blog.
(That’s Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker, and law professor and federal Judge Richard Posner.)
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7 Comments | Economics, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Politics, Public education | Tagged: Economics, Education, Education reform, Pay for School, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 6, 2008
In a review of a couple of books on climate change, at the New York Review of Books, physicist Freeman Dyson concludes with these observations:
Unfortunately, some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the belief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet. That is one reason why the arguments about global warming have become bitter and passionate. Much of the public has come to believe that anyone who is skeptical about the dangers of global warming is an enemy of the environment. The skeptics now have the difficult task of convincing the public that the opposite is true. Many of the skeptics are passionate environmentalists. They are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard.
Too bad Dyson wasn’t in charge of organizing the skeptics. Dyson sounds so reasonable. Surely he would not have opened a discussion about global warming with attacks on the scientists, censoring of the science findings, and a crass political campaign maligning science and environmental protection, and especially the people who stand for conservation, as the campaign against action for global warming action actually unfolded.
My experience may be odd, but generally I find those who claim to be skeptics of global warming, and those opposed to action to clean our air, also are not much concerned with “problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice.” If they were not running a Swift Boat Veterans-style campaign of calumny against Al Gore and anyone who calls for action, they’d be running similar campaigns against people who advocate control and non-proliferation of nuclear weaponry, or they’d be campaigning against people calling for clean water, or they’d be arguing that the poor, sick, aged, imprisoned or unemployed deserve the trouble they get.
Perhaps we should be grateful to the issue of global climate change for having attracted and occupied so many nuts who would be messing up affairs on other issues, if they weren’t already engaged in creating a massive, planetary cluster screw up to stop action against global warming.
Cynical Fridays.
An energetic shaking of a the wet scrub brush to RWDB.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Books, Climate change, Global warming, Politics, Science | Tagged: Books, Climate change, Freeman Dyson, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 5, 2008
A hole wore through the seat of the pants I was wearing the other day — a bit of a bother since it was the only pair of pants to that suit. Drat the luck. “Cheap suit,” I thought. And then I thought again, and laughed.
It’s a suit I bought from Lands End, a company of usually impeccable quality.
But, what do you expect these days?
Did I mention that I bought the suit in 1991 or 1992? The suit lasted longer than younger son James has been in school.
Good suit. Cheap, too.
I’ll buy another.
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3 Comments | Life, Personal, Point of personal privilege | Tagged: Business, Clothing, Personal, Quality | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 4, 2008
Not only is ICR appealing their case on granting creationism degrees for science teachers (see preceding post), the State Board of Education is gearing up for another battle in Commissar Don McLeroy’s War on Education and War on Science (two wars for the price of one! He’ll campaign as a budget cutter next time . . .).
See the New York Times today, “Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy.”
Oy.
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1 Comment | Creationism, Education, Politics, Religion, Science, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Evolution, Politics, Religion, Science, Texas, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 4, 2008
Texas’s Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is appealing the decision of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that denied ICR the power to grant graduate science degrees. According to the story in the Houston Chronicle, ICR plans to take the issue to court if THECB does not reverse itself.
Institute spokesman Lawrence Ford said the voluminous appeal — it is 755 pages long, including supporting documents — is based upon a claim of “viewpoint discrimination.”
The appeal described the board’s decision as “academic (and religious) bigotry masquerading as Texas Education Code ‘enforcement.’ ”
Board members and staff are accused of denying the request in April because the institute and its leaders believe the biblical version of the Earth’s creation is literally true.
Institute CEO Henry Morris III said last spring his school’s program includes information about evolution, although he and others affiliated with the school don’t accept the proof of evolution offered by mainstream scientists.
Board members and Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said they were concerned the degree would not equip graduates to teach science in Texas’ public schools.
The real issue, Stafford said Monday, is whether the institute’s course work — offered online and still available, although not accredited — fits the label of the proposed degree.
The disputed degree is a Master of Science in science education. “Either the curriculum or the label has to change,” Stafford said.
“That label has a particular meaning of preparing somebody as a science teacher.”
Paredes reiterated that in a May 21 letter to Morris. “It was determined that the designation of the degree and the content of the degree were not adequately aligned,” he wrote. “Approval would require either a change in the designation of the degree or a change in the content covered.”
The institute is not inclined to do either, Ford said.
More information at these websites:
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2 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Higher education, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Administrative Law, Creationism, Higher education, Jurisprudence, Science, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 3, 2008
Graduation Part II comes Thursday night. James leaves Duncanville High School with good memories of the 12 or 13 hours he wasn’t doing homework this past year. The graduation is in Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas — same place all the Dallas ISD high schools hold their ceremonies. Sometimes it seems the old basketball crowds stayed after the Mavericks decamped. Remember somber and sober graduation ceremonies?
Winding up the first year in Dallas ISD, with silly tests all over the place and procedures that would make Byzantium appear the model of efficiency. I’ve never caught up from the mid-year landing here, and the next two days will be grueling, to get out on time.
Quietly, the Bathtub will roll over 800,000 visitor clicks in three or four hours from now — certainly before midnight. The Berlin Wall continues to be the major topic day in and day out, followed by Sabat’s compelling cartoon of the African tsunami of drought, and that ancient jumping goat.
So much to say. So tired.
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Leave a Comment » | Administrivia, Family, Life, Personal | Tagged: Administrivia, Family, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 3, 2008
DDT advocates continue to smear Rachel Carson and “environmental groups” with a campaign of made up calumny. To the frustration of scientists, health officials and the gods of fairness, these people continue to get credence from people who should know better, like the contributors at the Volokh Conspiracy (Quiggin and Lambert are the good guys, if you’re not following closely).
Reality is a different story. Business interests appear to have started a false rumor that someone stole a massive quantity of DDT from Uganda’s mosquito control program in an attempt to make the mosquito control guys look incompetent and dangerous. From The Monitor in Kampala, via allAfrica.com:
21 May 2008
Posted to the web 21 May 2008
Safina Nambafu
Kampala
The Ministry of Health has denied reports that some people were last week arrested in possession of stolen DDT drugs in Oyam District.
The head of the Malaria Control Programme, Dr Rwakimari, said it was the detractors of the campaign that are inciting the public to spread falsified information.
He was addressing the press at the ministry headquarters on Monday.
Dr Rwakimari said some local leaders are trying to fail the DDT campaign yet over 94% of the district had successfully been sprayed as of last Monday. Last week, civil society organisations led by the National Association of Professional Environmentalists [Nape] held a half day sensitization meeting with stakeholders in Kampala where they collectively condemned the government for carrying out the exercise.
They claimed that many of the crew members had reported strange illnesses, which they fear could have been caused by exposure to DDT. Dr Rwakimari said the government would not just look on as individuals de-campaign the exercise, adding that DDT was being sprayed in eight district in an effort to fight malaria.
Erute North MP Charles Angiro Gutomoi told Daily Monitor that he was bitter that government had had sprayed DDT, saying the exercise threatens the food market.
“National Association of Professional Environmentalists” — in Uganda. Don’t you love it? The group’s website, lacking much information, looks like the site of an astroturf organization to me. The organization exists, though, but DDT doesn’t appear to be a major concern of the group (it earns no mention in their April 2008 report).
There is real opposition to the use of DDT in Uganda, and there is a lawsuit to stop use of DDT. The suit was filed on behalf of nine different agricultural businesses. Farmers claim the spraying is not following the strict guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), and they fear their crops will be contaminated and unsaleable.
Effective malaria fighting uses only small quantities of DDT, in a few places, on a few occasions. The fight also requires use of screens and nets to protect people at night, when the mosquitoes are active in feeding. The New York Times featured a story on the successful Nothing But Nets program today — not a government-run program, not a program favored by the Rachel Carson critics, but a useful and necessary program.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Africa, DDT, Environmental protection, Health care, Malaria, Politics, Science | Tagged: Africa, DDT, Environmental protection, health, Malaria, Politics, Rachel Carson, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 