Texas Education Board candidate campaigns against science

Do you need to know that Texas Citizens for Better Science is a right-wing, anti-science group, in order to see through this campaign stuff from Randy Rives?

Does this photo, with caption, qualify as witch hunt material?

Caption from Randy Rives's campaign: "Left to right: Area ACLU secretary Steve Schafersman (in back, barely visible in this picture); arch-Darwinist Eugenie Scott of Berkeley, California; TFN's Kathy Miller (white coat); SBOE member Tincy Miller (in back, facing others); SBOE member Bob Craig of Lubbock. (Taken while the five were huddled in a strategy session to promote evolution being taught without weaknesses language. Do you have this sort of influence with your SBOE members?)"

Steve Schafersman, by the way, is president of Texas Citizens for Science, the pro-science group active in Texas education issues.  You know Eugenie Scott.

Rives is running against pro-science incumbent Bob Craig. You who love education, Texas and the U.S., you know which way to vote.

Endorsement of public schooling from Rick Perry’s camp — unintentional

Poster at the recent Rick Perry for Governor Rally featuring Sarah Palin:

Image from HoustonPress.com

Image from HoustonPress.com.

Happy birthday, Boy Scouts of America

No special post — I’ll be commenting all year — but today is the official anniversary date for the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.

100 million boys later, we can tell for certain it’s a good idea.

Boy Scouts paddling canoes on the Blackwater River, Virginia - Wikipedia image

Stained glass Boy Scouting: Torrington, Connecticut

In honor of Scouting’s 100 years in the U.S., I call your attention to the stained glass window in Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, Connecticut, The Boy Scout Window:

The Boy Scout Window, Trinity Church, Torrington, Connecticut

Described at the church’s website:

This is one of Trinity’s most well-known windows.

It was dedicated on Boy Scout Sunday, 13 February 1966, a service of Morning Prayer that began with the hymn “We Thank You, Lord of Heaven.” The window was given “to the Glory of God and in living tribute to Troop 2 and Seymour F. Weeks on the 50th anniversary of the Troop, 1916-1966.”

Mr. Weeks had been scoutmaster of Troop 2 since 1934 and would continue to lead the troop until his death in 1967.

Troop 2 produced Torrington’s first Eagle Scout, Paul Pfistner, whose family donated another window at Trinity Church.

Behind the kneeling scout with the flag is the seal of the Episcopal Church and above that a hand raised in the scout hand sign. Flanking the Episcopal seal are the emblems of the First Class Scout and the Eagle Scout badge. The words of the Boy Scout oath form the background. The border is composed of ropes showing some of the knots Scouts must learn. In between the ropes are two of the Scout’s mottoes: Do a Good Turn Daily, and Be Prepared.

Obviously, this window does not follow the architect’s pictorial plan for a window here showing the Holy Family with Jesus as a child.

Although several of Trinity’s windows were made by Len Howard of Kent, CT, one of Mr. Howard’s former associates is nearly positive this window was not made by Mr. Howard. However, a current parishioner’s great uncle, who was on the vestry in 1966, recalls that the church was dealing with an artist in Kent, CT, and there were no other stained glass artists in Kent except for Len Howard. Until further proof one way or another, this window will be attributed to Len Howard of Kent.

To the best of my searching, Troop 2 appears to have vanished from Torrington.

I get e-mail (Jokers)

No kidding:

Good Day:

My name is Owen Clive and i will like to make an enquiry on some bath tubs, could you advise if you have or can get me the size below bath tub?

Acrylic Bath Tub with fiberglass reinforcement
6′ x 35-3/4″ x 19-3/4″
Thank you and i await your reply.
Best Regards

Owen Clive

Typewriter of the moment: L. Frank Baum, in 1899

L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz and other stories, at work at his typewriter in 1899, the year before his first Oz book was published.

L. Frank Baum at his typewriter in 1899. Where?

Bonus: I found the photograph illustrating an essay by Kennesaw State University historian David B. Parker in the Bluegrass Express, a reprint of his 1994 article in The Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, on the claim that The Wizard of Oz was written as a populist parable.

Every history teacher ought to read that article.

http://thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2009/october2009/ozpoppycockoct09.php

5 things to teach – Life lessons your supervisor doesn’t want to see on your lesson plans

It’s too short to excerpt — so here’s the whole thing.

Over at The Elementary Educator, I found this list, “Five Things You Should Teach Your Students This Week (None of which are likely to be on your standards):

This week, teach your students:

1.  To understand themselves as learners (a.k.a. metacognition)

2.  That intelligence is not innate; effort matters

3.  Compassion

4.  The excitement of creating real things for real audiences

5.  The joy of exercise, play, and healthy living

Another reminder that not all things that count can be counted.

The Elementary Educator carries interesting stuff.  You may wish to check it out.

Eugenie Scott defends science, education, and evolution, in the Bone Room

It’s 30 minutes, and 30 minutes well-spent.

Typewriter of the moment: Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath, author and poet, at her typewriter - photographer unknown to me

Is it a Royal typewriter?  Why is it so many photos of people at typewriters show them outdoors — and will there be many pictures of authors at their computers, let alone at their computers outdoors?

Oh, but the conservatives will say it’s unfair . . .

Let 'em complain it's unfair.

Colorado legislature says ‘bring the USS Pueblo home’

It’s a story about a series of the grandest and bravest hoaxes by U.S. soldiers held in extremely hostile enemy prisons.  Coloradans, especially those from the city of Pueblo, the namesake of the ship, have not forgotten.

U.S.S. Pueblo, moored in Pyong Yang, Peoples Republic of Korea where the North Koreans try to exploit their capture of the ship by offering tours - Wikipedia image

Spurred by its members from Pueblo, the Colorado state legislature passed a resolution on Monday asking the U.S. government to ask North Korea to return the U.S.S. Pueblo to the U.S.  The spyship was captured, probably illegally, in 1968 with Capt. Lloyd Bucher and his crew, with the loss of one crewman’s life in the capture skirmish.

North Korea (more formally known as the Peoples Republic of Korea or PRK) held Bucher and his crew eleven months in that tragic year of 1968.  The crew were tortured, but PRK finally agreed to release them in December.

During their capture the crew had signed hoax confessions that, while wildly embarrassing to the PRK, got the crew in hot water when they returned to the U.S.

Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub officially and formally approves of any legislative action honoring the captain and crew of the Pueblo, and would like to see the ship returned.

Earlier stories on the Pueblo and its capture:

• “Remember the Pueblo . . . and the great hoaxes of 1968“
• “40th Anniversary:  Capture of the USS Pueblo“
• “Penetration however slight:   More on a good and noble hoax“
• “A Fine, Patriotic Hoax“

An account in Korea Times suggests North Korea seized the Pueblo simply to save face after a disastrous attempt to assassinate the president of South Korea.

The entire story about the legislative resolution, from the Pueblo Chieftan, is below the fold.

Just in case you thought any climate contrarian remains sane . . .

Which of these would be accurate in showing the insanity, but not so sharp as to raise the hackles of the climate contrarians?

• “Contrarians think Antarctic unworthy of protection”
• “Denialists criticize efforts to keep Antarctic clean”
• “Climate change critics’ brains have left the building”

Read these stories, and tell me.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted the delicate condition of the Antarctic with regard to its two main industries, fishing and tourism.  IPCC AR4 noted that the tourism industry takes steps to protect Antarctic environments made more vulnerable by melting.  (Footnote here; actual flyer here, assessment document here in Microsoft Word .doc format)

Contrarians come unglued, here at ClimateQuotes.com, and here at Air Vent.

It’s clear that the contrarians don’t have much experience in heavy documentation.  If you follow the links they provide, you quickly get to the paper provided by the tourist industry noting their precautions to prevent contamination, provided to meet a request by scientists from the Australian team, and based on information well vetted to the point that it includes substantial excerpts from what appears to be a peer-reviewed journal on the types of solutions suitable for decontaminating foreign boots in the Antarctic (Polar Record, vol. 41, no. 216, Jan. 2005, p. 39-45; it is actually the official journal of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, UK).  There is astounding and commendable attention to detail, much more than the contrarians can grok, it appears.

More troubling to the Boy Scout in me is the contrarians’ contempt for what is, really, Leave No Trace Camping carried to an Antarctic tourist stop.  This is part of the environment protection credo of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and it is sound policy that everyone should be teaching their children.

What is wrong with that?  Why do the contrarians mock wise policies?  Why do they make false claims against what amounts to good Scouting?

Contratians disapprove of the ethics of environmental stewardship?

One implicit complaint is that the footnote does not provide evidence of damage from climate change, in the Antarctic.  It’s clear that the critics have not followed the footnote path to see why the boot cleaning poster and directive were issued, nor to see what is the research or official government action that prompted the tourist companies to implement the procedure.

It appears in a section of the IPCC reports on effects of warming on industries in affected areas.  Only two industries are noted in the Antarctic, fishing and tourism.  After establishing the increased chance of problem organisms, including micro-organisms, showing up in Arctic and Antarctic areas as the areas warm, and after noting two plagues that killed penguins recently, from micro-organisms, the IPCC paper notes that concern to prevent such tragedies have so far required only boot decontamination, and it offers a link to the flyer provided by an Antarctic tour operators group.

Got that?  To show that the tour operators are affected, IPCC cited the flyer put out by the tour operators showing how and why they were changing their operations.  It’s a minor, almost trivial point.

At no point did IPCC’s report claim this procedure as evidence of warming, or the effects of warming.  So the claims of the contrarians and denialists are completely off base, as they’d recognize except for their own shouting for the lynching of science to proceed.

Criticism of IPCC for noting the good stewardship techniques used in the Antarctic comprises more political smear than scientific enlightenment, by a huge factor.  Voodoo science from the contrarians begets voodoo criticism.

Contrarians lack wisdom in posing this complaint of theirs.  This is one more point IPCC got right, factually and ethically.  IPCC should be commended for that.

Wall of Shame (update added on February 7)

Outlets that cite the boot reference, falsely or stupidly, as some sort of flaw in the IPCC report, and thereby demonstrate malevolent intentions, and not scientific (“malice” for you Times v. Sullivan fans):

• At the continuing Wattsgate, “Gate du Jour:  IPCC gets the boot (cleaned)” at Watts Up With That
• Climate Audit, “IPCC and the Antarctic boot cleaning manual”
• .alt/energy/renewable
• Politifi.com
• George Spellwin’s Elite Fitness Forums
• Moonbattery (oh, the irony just never ends at that site)
• ROK/drop
• SiloBreaker
• Google group, rec.bicycles.tech, with the even more offense-provoking headline, “IPCC authority on Antarctica is bootblacking instruction pamphlet” (still wonder if these guys have any science as a concern?)
• WendyMcElroy.com

How to report the news

This is the video version of the how-to-post-an-incendiary-blog-post piece I noted earlier.  The elder son of the Bathtubs brought it to our attention a couple of days ago:

And then, just as I was posting, I got a note about this post at Tome of the Unknown Blogger.

Yeah, this has already gone viral, and well it should.  Chris Clarke and Charlie Brooker have each captured the essence of knowledge and information passing in different realms.  Journalism schools should pay attention.

Encore post: Lunch and civil rights

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in.  Be sure to read Howell Raines’ criticism of news media coverage of civil rights issues in today’s New York Times:  “What I am suggesting is that the one thing the South should have learned in the past 50 years is that if we are going to hell in a handbasket, we should at least be together in a basket of common purpose.”

Four young men turned a page of history on February 1, 1960, at a lunch counter in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond, sat down at the counter to order lunch.  Because they were African Americans, they were refused service.  Patiently, they stayed in their seats, awaiting justice.

On July 25, nearly six months later, Woolworth’s agreed to desegregate the lunch counter.

Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond leave the Woolworth store after the first sit-in on February 1, 1960. (Courtesy of Greensboro News and Record) (Smithsonian Institution)

News of the “sit-in” demonstration spread.  Others joined in the non-violent protests from time to time, 28 students the second day, 300 the third day, and some days up to 1,000.   The protests spread geographically, too, to 15 cities in 9 states.

Smithsonian caption: "On the second day of the Greensboro sit-in, Joseph A. McNeil and Franklin E. McCain are joined by William Smith and Clarence Henderson at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Courtesy of Greensboro News and Record)"

Part of the old lunch counter was salvaged, and today is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History.  The museum display was the site of celebratory parties during the week of the inauguration as president of Barack Obama.

Part of the lunchcounter from the Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, is now displayed at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C.

Notes and resources:

• See the Smithsonian’s on-line display about the decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education and the struggles for civil rights, “Separate is not equal.“
• F. W. Woolworth’s, a “five-and-dime” style store, largely closed its U.S. operations in 2001, though changing its focus to the Foot Locker shoe stores.  One of its last remaining stronghold of 807 stores, in Great Britain, was shuttered at the end of 2008.
• Independent Lens program on PBS, “February 1″

MSM understand dangers of warming

Editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, another of America’s great legacy of great newspapers:

The decade that ended in 2009 was the warmest on record, NASA reported earlier this month. It displaced the decade of the 1990s as the warmest ever. The 1990s displaced the 1980s.

Last year was the second-warmest since 1880, when modern temperature measurements began. The warmest year on record was 2005. All of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. Perhaps you’re starting to see a pattern.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Open Mind, who also notes that the last decade was the warmest ever.