Economic history of the world in 4 minutes, from Hans Rosling at BBC

November 27, 2011

I would have sworn I had posted this earlier.  I can’t find it in any search right now.

So, here it is:

Hans Rosling does a program on BBC showing, among other things, great data displays.  In this one he shows how the development of trade and free enterprise economics lifted most of the world out of dismal, utter poverty, over the course of 200 years.

“200 countries, 200 years, in 4 minutes – the Joy of Statistics”

How can you use this in the class, world history teachers?  Economics teachers?  Does freedom mean you can get rich?  Or does getting rich mean you get freedom?  Can a nation achieve riches without freedom, or freedom without riches?

You need to know:

Uploaded by on Nov 26, 2010

More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgq0l
Hans Rosling’s famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport’s commentator’s style to reveal the story of the world’s past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before – using augmented reality animation. In this spectacular section of ‘The Joy of Stats’ he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers – in just four minutes. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Hans shows how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine.

Tip of the old scrub brush to The Tufted Titmouse.

1 Comment | Economics, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, History, Presentations | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“White House hates Christmas” hoax season opens

November 26, 2011

Christmas gets underway at the White House, with a special guest appearance by Bo, the dog:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

One long-standing American Christmas tradition is the Christmas hoax about the president.  Probably the most famous, if not the first, was H. L. Mencken’s column in December 1917, in which he claimed Millard Fillmore a failure as president, whose only achievement was putting the first bathtub in the Executive Mansion — all of it make up, whole cloth fiction.

Since the election of Barack Obama we’ve seen claims that Obama had banned Christmas trees, claims that Obama required only Marxist and communist ornaments, and other wild stories that only a fool, a victim of lobotomy, a Bill O’Reilly fan or Michelle Bachmann would believe after the second cup of coffee in the morning.

What will the hoax claims be this year?  ABC posted this raw footage of the delivery of the Christmas tree, but that alone will not inoculate us from a Yule-tide hoax.

What atrocious inventions will the Obama-haters send our way this year?  If it’s a claim that there’s no tree, you know better already.  You’ve seen the video.

More:

34 Comments | History, Hoaxes, Holidays, Politics, President Obama, White House | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

You’re flying your flag, right?

November 24, 2011

Did I need to remind you to fly your flag today?

U.S. flag at Mt. Vernon, cupola on the house in the background

U.S. flag at George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon, cupola on the house in the background

2 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism, Thanksgiving | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Thomas Nast’s “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving”

November 24, 2011

November 1869, in the first year of the Grant administration — and Nast put aside his own prejudices enough to invite the Irish guy to dinner, along with many others.

(Click for a larger image — it’s well worth it.)

Thomas Nast's "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving," 1869 - Ohio State University's cartoon collection

Thomas Nast's "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving," appearing in Harper's Weekly, November 20, 1869 - Ohio State University's cartoon collection

As described at the Ohio State site:

 “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner” marks the highpoint of Nast’s Reconstruction-era idealism. By November 1869 the Fourteenth Amendment, which secures equal rights and citizenship to all Americans, was ratified. Congress had sent the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade racial discrimination in voting rights, to the states and its ratification appeared certain. Although the Republican Party had absorbed a strong nativist element in the 1850s, its commitment to equality seemed to overshadow lingering nativism, a policy of protecting the interests of indigenous residents against immigrants. Two national symbols, Uncle Sam and Columbia, host all the peoples of the world who have been attracted to the United States by its promise of self-government and democracy. Germans, African Americans, Chinese, Native Americans, Germans, French, Spaniards: “Come one, come all,” Nast cheers at the lower left corner.

One of my Chinese students identified the Oriental woman as Japanese, saying it was “obvious.”  The figure at the farthest right is a slightly cleaned-up version of the near-ape portrayal Nast typically gave Irishmen.

If Nast could put aside his biases to celebrate the potential of unbiased immigration to the U.S. and the society that emerges, maybe we can, too.

Hope your day is good; hope you have good company and good cheer, turkey or not.  Happy Thanksgiving.

1 Comment | Cartoons, History, Holidays, Immigration, Political cartoons, Reconstruction, Thanksgiving, Thomas Nast, Uncle Sam | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

6th Floor Museum, Dallas — go see it

November 23, 2011

The 6th Floor Museum in Dallas presents in-depth studies of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963.

There’s a lot more to such a study than you might think.  It’s a relatively quick tour — you can view the museum’s displays and films in about two hours, comfortably, stopping to read exhibit cards and really analyze objects on display.  A couple of the films present a great deal of history quickly and well (Walter Cronkite narrates one).

One cannot avoid a great deal of history of the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, and the start of the Vietnam conflict.  Kennedy’s administration covered only three years, but a very active and important three years in the 20th century.

Increasingly the 6th Floor Museum is a stop for researchers and scholars.  The recent addition of a good reading room for scholars is a great asset.

Curator Gary Mack offers a quick introduction in this video:

1,276

Plan to spend three or four hours.  You’ll find the place very interesting.  After the museum, most likely you’ll want to spend some time exploring Dealey Plaza, the road where Kennedy’s car was when he was shot, and the famous grassy knoll.  It’s a part of downtown that is almost always filled with people in daylight in all but the absolute worst weather.  (Check out the EarthCam at Dealey Plaza.)

Old Red, the old Dallas County Courthouse, with its own museum, is just a half block away.

1 Comment | Dallas, History, History museums, JFK assassination, John F. Kennedy, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Gettysburg Address – again, “No casino, please”

November 21, 2011

Yet another version of readings of the Gettysburg Address — this time by actors, historians, and a winner of the Medal of Honor, in a campaign to prevent the construction of a casino next door to the battlefield monuments:

1 Comment | 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Famous Battles, Famous quotes, History | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Springfield, Illinois area residents recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

November 20, 2011

A short feature put together by the Springfield State Journal-Register:

Leave a Comment » | 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Famous quotes, Gettysburg, History | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Documentary film worth seeing: “The Other ‘F’ Word” at the Texas Theatre

November 20, 2011

Here’s the trailer:

Kathryn and I caught it last night at the renovated, historic Texas Theatre on Jefferson Avenue in Oak Cliff (formerly an independent town, now a sprawling neighborhood of Dallas).  The audience enthusiasm didn’t overpower the movie — the audience was much smaller than the film deserves.

It’s showing again this afternoon and Wednesday night at the Texas.

Advantages of seeing this at the Texas:

  1. Parking is easy and free after 4:00 p.m. on Jefferson Avenue.
  2. The bar has Mothership beer on tap (and a variety of other good libations).
  3. Popcorn is cheaper than at most megaplexes, plus it doesn’t taste as if made from petroleum by-product (which is not to say it is healthy, but that it may be less unhealthy).
  4. History point 1:  This is a near-Art Deco theatre built originally by Howard Hughes.
  5. History point 2:  This is the theatre in which Lee Harvey Oswald was captured in his flight from the scene of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
  6. It’s a great film.
  7. It’s a great theatre to view great films in.

Punk never made a great impression on me.  But at length, years later, I think I understand part of the angst and noise of the punkers, thanks to this film.  The description at the YouTube trailer:

THE OTHER F WORD
directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins
produced by Cristan Reilly and Andrea Blaugrund Nevins

IN THEATERS NOVEMBER 2ND, 2011
http://www.theotherfwordmovie.com/

This revealing and touching film asks what happens when a generation’s ultimate anti-authoritarians — punk rockers — become society’s ultimate authorities — dads. With a large chorus of punk rock’s leading men – Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath – THE OTHER F WORD follows Jim Lindberg, a 20-year veteran of the skate punk band Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band’s anthem “F–k Authority,” to embracing his ultimately authoritarian role in mid-life: fatherhood.

Other dads featured in the film include skater Tony Hawk, Art Alexakis (Everclear), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Tony Adolescent (The Adolescents), Fat Mike (NOFX), Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), and many others.

These are Tea Partiers with a cause and a brain, and a sense of social responsibility.  Lindberg said, near the end of the movie:

That’s what I want to hold on to, is that feeling that we can make a change out there.  Maybe the way we change the world is by raising better kids.

Readers of this blog may note the great irony in one of the chief profiles of the film being of Ron Reyes, a member of early West Coast punk band Black Flag, who quit the band in the middle of a set to protest the violence that afflicted the Los Angeles punk scene, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, to raise his kids well.

Heck, it’s probably a great film to see even if you can’t see it at the Texas.

(You know, I’ve got some shots of our tour of the Texas Theatre in August . . . hmm . . . where are those pictures?  Other computer?)

Leave a Comment » | Dallas, Historic Buildings, History, Movies, Music, Parents, Texas, Texas history, Video and film | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

November 19th, 1863: Mr. Lincoln at Gettysburg

November 19, 2011

A mostly encore post about today’s anniversary of Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg.

Prior to 2007, this was the only known photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg, on the day of his address - Library of Congress

148 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln redefined the Declaration of Independence and the goals of the American Civil War, in a less-than-two-minute speech dedicating part of the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as a cemetery and final resting place for soldiers who died in the fierce battle fought there the previous July 1 through 3.

Now in 2011, we’re in the “150th anniversary” years of the Civil War.  Maybe some will look back to the time our nation worked hard to tear itself asunder, and learn lessons that might help us keep from doing that in the 21st century.  Some might find inspiration, or aspiration, in Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg.

Interesting news for 2007: More photos from the Library of Congress collection may contain images of Lincoln. The photo above, detail from a much larger photo, had been thought for years to be the only image of Lincoln from that day. The lore is that photographers, taking a break from former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Everett’ s more than two-hour oration, had expected Lincoln to go on for at least an hour. His short speech caught them totally off-guard, focusing their cameras or taking a break. Lincoln finished before any photographer got a lens open to capture images.

Images of people in these photos are very small, and difficult to identify. Lincoln was not identified at all until 1952:

The plate lay unidentified in the Archives for some fifty-five years until in 1952, Josephine Cobb, Chief of the Still Pictures Branch, recognized Lincoln in the center of the detail, head bared and probably seated. To the immediate left (Lincoln’s right) is Lincoln’s bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, and to the far right (beyond the limits of the detail) is Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania. Cobb estimated that the photograph was taken about noontime, just after Lincoln arrived at the site and before Edward Everett’s arrival, and some three hours before Lincoln gave his now famous address.

On-line, the Abraham Lincoln Blog covered the discovery that two more photographic plates from the 1863 speech at Gettysburg may contain images of Lincoln in his trademark stove-pipe hat. Wander over to the story at the USA Today site, and you can see just how tiny are these detail images in relation to the photographs themselves. These images are tiny parts of photos of the crowd at Gettysburg. (The story ran in USA Today last Thursday or Friday — you may be able to find a copy of that paper buried in the returns pile at your local Kwikee Mart.) Digital technologies, and these suspected finds of Lincoln, should prompt a review of every image from Gettysburg that day.

To the complaints of students, I have required my junior U.S. history students to memorize the Gettysburg Address (though, not yet in this school year). In Irving I found a couple of students who had memorized it for an elementary teacher years earlier, and who still could recite it. Others protested, until they learned the speech. This little act of memorization appears to me to instill confidence in the students that they can master history, once they get it done.

To that end, I discovered a good, ten-minute piece on the address in Ken Burns’ “Civil War” (in Episode 5). On DVD, it’s a good piece for classroom use, short enough for a bell ringer or warm-up, detailed enough for a deeper study, and well done, including the full text of the address itself performed by Sam Waterson.

Embedded video from CNN VideoIn 1863 Edward Everett, the former Massachusetts senator and U.S. secretary of state, was regarded as the greatest orator of the time. A man of infinite grace, and a historian with some sense of events and what the nation was going through, Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day after their speeches:

“I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

Interesting note: P. Z. Myers at Pharyngula notes that the Gettysburg Address was delivered “seven score and four years ago.” Of course, that will never happen again. I’ll wager he was the first to notice that odd juxtaposition on the opening line.

Do you have a favorite performance of this address you’d commend for internet bloggers?  Let us know where to find it, in comments.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Chamblee54 for reminding us about the anniversary, today.

Resources for students and teachers:

10 Comments | 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Famous quotes, Gettysburg, History | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Kids Bill of Rights

November 18, 2011

Kids write and sing about the Bill of Rights — captured on video by the folks at EmergentOrder.com (the producers of the second Keynes/Hayek video).

How close to right are they?  Can you use this in class?

Can your kids improve on this, or do something like it?

1 Comment | Bill of Rights, History, Law, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Poet Devona Wyant, “On the difference between 1 and 99”

November 14, 2011

On the difference between 1 and 99

 

1% is when you spend the winters at your house on Fiji.

99% is when you heat your living quarters

with a single space heater.

1% is when your prescription is automatically

in your medicine cabinet and you don’t have to think about it.

99% is when you count the remaining pills of your

prescription and know you’ll run out before your SS check comes.

1% is when you tell your driver which car to drive today.

99% is when you walk everywhere you go

if your town doesn’t have buses.

1% is when you walk into the trendiest restaurant in town

and you don’t even need a reservation.

99% is when you buy outdated meat and produce

or stand in line at a soup kitchen.

1% is when you turn on the news and nod at the politician

who says if you can’t work, you shouldn’t eat.

99% is when you don’t know what the politician said

because you couldn’t pay the electric bill.

1% doesn’t have to go to work.

99% can’t even apply for a job because you’re unemployed

and they aren’t accepting applications from the unemployed.

1% turns away from the bottom 99% because if they don’t work

or pay taxes, they have no value.

99% may be buried in a Potter’s Field before the expected life span

because

. .you were malnourished, sick, numb from cold and depression,

. .and told you have to get off the sidewalk.

One will die acclaimed.

One will die unclaimed

. .because America can’t have street beggars.

But it does have an invisible army of the poor…unarmed,

under-housed, under-fed, under-educated, out of hope, out of time,

and out of social uniform.

Just so much cannon fodder for our Class Warfare.

Devona Wyant

I subscribe to Poem-a-Day and a couple of other services that deliver poetry to my mailbox.  I subscribe to a couple of list-servs that feature poets.  A precious few favor me with e-mails, somehow listing me among their friends.

I got this one today, probably unpublished elsewhere.  Watch for it.

[This poem above is not quoted, though it is the work of Ms. Wyant, because the quote formatting changed the formatting of the poem itself.  Please be sure to attribute the poem correctly to Ms. Wyant, who holds the copyright.]

Poet Devona Wyant, center. Caption from Lincolnton, North Carolina, Times-News: Poets Morgan DiStefano, Shane Manier and Devona Wyant and their group, Poetry Lincolnton, released their first anthology in June [2013].

Poet Devona Wyant, center. Caption from Lincolnton, North Carolina, Times-News: Poets Morgan DiStefano, Shane Manier and Devona Wyant and their group, Poetry Lincolnton, released their first anthology in June [2013].

Save

98 Comments | History, Literature, Poetry | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Art historians do better than conservatives on the history of DDT

November 11, 2011

The art historians at least get the facts right — why can’t conservatives and erstwhile scientists like Steven Milloy get it right?  This is from “The War Against Bugs,” by Steven Heller at imprint:

The War Against Bugs, by Print Magazine -- a Neocide ad from European media.

The War Against Bugs, by Print Magazine — a Neocide ad from European media.

With all due respect to entomologists, there is nothing aesthetically pleasing about bugs (insects by any other name). These little monsters certainly have ecological significance, but don’t tell me they are fun to have crawling around. Hence, chemical manufacturers have made it their business to find he most efficient means of ridding the pests while retaining the fine upstanding species. Too bad that anything designed to kill will doubtless have ill effects on he eco-system. In he 50s DDT was the magic bullet against such varieties as various potato beetles, coddling moth, corn earworm, cotton bollworm  and tobacco budworms (eeeecccchhhh!). Then in 1972, the US Environmental Protection Agency curtailed all use of DDT on crops. The ban did not take hold in other countries until much later, and DDT was vociferously promoted through eerie calls to arms like this poster by Savignac.

Read more: The War Against Bugs — Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers
For great design products, visit our online store: MyDesignShop.com

Nota bene Mr. Heller does not claim DDT use against malaria-causing mosquitoes was ever banned.  He focuses instead on the promotion of DDT.

Truth in art.

Leave a Comment » | Art, DDT, History, History and art, Science | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fly your flag today, Veterans Day, November 11, 2011

November 11, 2011

Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C.

Iwo Jima Memorial, near Washington, D.C.

Fly your flag today.

We honor all veterans on November 11 of each year. The Flag Code designates Veterans Day for flag flying, to honor veterans. (See more on the Flag Code, here.)

More, and other resources

3 Comments | History, veterans, veterans day | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Veterans Day coming November 11 — remember to fly your flag

November 8, 2011

Friday is Veterans Day, one of the score of “fly your flag” dates recommended in law.

Are you ready?  Here’s this year’s poster, from the Veterans Administration (click to get a link for a high resolution version):

Veterans Day poster for 2011 - Veterans Administration

Veterans Day poster for 2011 - Veterans Administration; click image to go to VA site for high resolution version to print

Get your flag out, ready to fly.  Check your local newspaper for times of your local Veterans Day Parades.  Take a look at the VA’s video on the day, below, and make plans to help a vet throughout the year.

35 Comments | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, veterans, veterans day | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

American Education Week, November 7-13 (1943) – locked up in Manzanar

November 8, 2011

Education Week poster at Manzanar War Relocation Center, 1943 - Ansel Adams, Library of Congress

"A woman prepares a sign promoting American Education Week by attaching it to the wall of the Education Department office." Photo by Ansel Adams, 1943, at Manzanar War Relocation Center - Library of Congress collections

Just an ironic blast from the past, an Ansel Adams photograph of an interned American citizen of Japanese descent, putting up a poster celebrating “American Education Week,” at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, California.  Photo details:

  • Title: Education week sign / photograph by Ansel Adams.
  • Creator(s): Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984, photographer
  • Date Created/Published: [1943]
  • Medium: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver.
    1 negative : nitrate.
  • Summary: A woman prepares a sign promoting American Education Week by attaching it to the wall of the Education Department office.
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppprs-00417 (b&w digital file from original print) LC-DIG-ppprs-00158 (b&w digital file from original neg.) LC-A35-T01-6-M-6 (b&w film dup. neg.)
  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  • Call Number: LOT 10479-7, no. 20 [P&P]
  • Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
  • Notes:
    • Title transcribed from Ansel Adams’ caption on verso of print.
    • Original neg. no.: LC-A35-6-M-6.
    • Gift; Ansel Adams; 1965-1968.
    • Forms part of: Manzanar War Relocation Center photographs.

Leave a Comment » | Education, History, History images, Japanese American internment, World War II | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »