Items by Ed Darrell

• Who invented Santa Claus? Who really wrote the “Night Before Christmas?”

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Enclosure: [download]

  An encore post from 2007 Thomas Nast invented Santa Claus? Clement C. Moore didn’t write the famous poem that starts out, “‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house . . . ?” The murky waters of history from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub soak even our most cherished ideas and traditions. But [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 4:46am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Quote of the moment: Mark Twain, a majority of fools

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that doctor hanging over them. But the king says: “Cuss the doctor! What do we k’yer for HIM? Hain’t we got all [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 4:32am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• What if Al Gore were wrong about global warming? That would be great news.

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  It’s a point that the denialists just don’t get.  If Gore were wrong, if warming isn’t occurring, or if the warming were found to be part of a deeper cycle and all we need to do is hang on for another five or six years until the cycle shifts, that [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 5:00pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Black Forest Cafe and the “Too Fat Polka”

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Foray to the Container Store a success, the question:  What to do about dinner? Kathryn asked, “How about that little German joint in back of Half Price Books?” The Black Forest Cafe and Bakery.  Legendary for its Black Forest Cake.  For years it had a small shop inside the “mother ship” of [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 7:27am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Geography quiz: In space, who will accept your teeming masses?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  This could be an interesting geography or history bell ringer.  What are these famous sites pictured above? Answer below the fold. Here’s the explanation from the European Space Agency (ESA): 18 August 2006 This Proba image highlights Liberty Island and Ellis Island in the New York Harbour. Liberty State Park is located to the [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 4:56am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Encore post: Rosa Parks, December 1, 1955

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Rosa Parks: “Why do you push us around?” Officer: “I don’t know but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.” From Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed, Quiet Strength (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), page 23. Photo: Mrs. Parks being fingerprinted in Montgomery, Alabama; photo from New York World-Telegram & [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 3:15pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Nathan Wolfe’s jungle search for viruses | Video on TED.com (Why it’s important to beat H1N1, now)

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Here’s Nathan Wolfe explaining how viruses work, quickly and at a high enough level to be entertaining, and explaining why we need to worry about H1N1. more about “Nathan Wolfe’s jungle search for viru…“, posted with vodpod Wolfe also explained a lot at the TED Blog: Take us back a step or [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 8:44pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Time to start making huge stone heads

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Well, maybe not yet. But consider Jared Diamond’s 1997 essay in Discover: In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead? Among the most [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 8:39pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• No health insurance: Can you look this man in the eye and tell him you want to let him die?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 17
  Our National Conscience, Nicholas Kristof asked the question in his column a week ago:  Are we going to let John die? 45,000 Americans die each year because of a lack of health insurance.  What do you think:  Should we allow John to die? Which system saves John’s life, “socialism,” or “free enterprise?” Here, [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 1:02pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Starlings of climate change denial do about-face on data-corruption and fraud

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Funny.  Zumwalt never complained when the data-corruption and fraud were all on the denialists’ side. I am reminded that, as of the end of November 2009, there are incredibly few science papers (see CCPO’s note) — meaning papers based on research, published in peer-review journals — which make any case contrary [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 7:59am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Good excuse to get to Houston: QWERTY, a typewriter exhibt at the Museum of Printing History

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Well, yeah, its that kind of quirky museum you love — one topic, so you know the kind of history you’re going to get. And this particular subtopic?  Just right square in the middle of the road — that is, up my alley! QWERTY: A Typewriter Retrospective October 8, 2009– March 20, 2010 [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 6:36pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Sources: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and Trial

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  More than just as tribute to the victims, more than just a disaster story, the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire, and the following events including the trial of the company owners, lay out issues students can see clearly.  I think the event is extremely well documented and adapted for student projects.  [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 4:57am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Obama’s well-qualified cabinet: Conservatives hoaxed by “J. P. Morgan” chart that verifies prejudices

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 20
  Barack Obama’s cabinet is highly qualified on almost every score.  It’s the first cabinet to feature someone who has already received a Nobel prize in the field (Teddy Roosevelt as head of his own cabinet excepted).  Obama pulled highly qualified people from a lot of important positions, from both major [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 11:41am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Yeah, it’s ironic (hacked e-mails and global warming)

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  James’s Empty Blog: It is hard to miss the irony in people eagerly poring through illegally-obtained private email, looking for ethical breaches by the writers! I’m sure we can all imagine the outrage if one of the emails revealed that a scientist had hacked into one of the sceptics’ computers and [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 7:15am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Mau-mauing the gullibles: Sirkin on DDT (again)

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  The hard core uneducables who make of the hard knot at the center of the anti-science and anti-environmental movement just refuses to jettison their adored myths about science, regardless how many times those myths are shown to be false. It’s a religious exercise with them, and their faith in error and [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 6:35am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Few posts lately: I apologize

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Posting’s been much slower than events warrant, lately.  Difficulties at work, and a six-week bout with allergies of unknown origins haven’t helped. A visit with the allergist yesterday offers some hope — I’ve been symptom free now for almost 24 hours, for the first time since early October. Before next Monday I [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:28pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• 150 years ago, a book that changed history: Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  150 years ago today Charles Darwin’s “big book,” On the Origin of Species, was first published.  The entire publication run of more than a thousand copies sold out within a few days, making it a certified best-seller of its day. A rare copy of the first edition, found in the loo [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 2:03am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• The unbearable lightness of Palin groupies

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 11
  I’m not sure what to make of this.  No amount of dopeslapping or head:desk banging is going to help these people get a clue. And while I haven’t read Sarah Palin’s book, I’ll wager they won’t get a clue there, either.  Listening to the interviews one wonders whether they would be [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:02am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Purloined CRU e-mails on climate science: One scientist pleads for accuracy

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  Here is what he said.  Edward Cook, one of the world’s foremost authorities on ancient trees and how to learn from them (Dendrochronology),  wrote to Michael Mann, both men scientists involved in making their science understandable and available to the public and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  Both [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 11:48pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• U.S. Rhodes Scholars, 2009

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Rhodes Trust’s American branch announced the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships in 2009’s competition.  List of winners and press release below – congratulations to the winners, and congratulations to all the finalists, each of whom probably deserved to win. American Rhodes Scholars-elect for 2010 (Subject to ratification by the Rhodes Trustees after [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:12pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Smoking guns in the CLR stolen e-mails: A real tale of real ethics in science

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 20
  Climate skeptics fear that some climate scientists have cooked their data in order to produce a pre-ordained outcome from their research.  Many of these people are excited this weekend at the public release of e-mails purloined from Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University in England, from one of the [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 2:42pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Newtongate shakes anthropogenically-generated mathematics at the foundation

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Satire, hoax, fact — how can we tell the difference? Maybe more importantly, how can we tell early on that the “Climategate” kerfuffle, involving purloined, but otherwise dull e-mails from climate scientists, is nothing to worry about? Look at history!  Remember Newtongate?  Read it here, at Carbon Fixated. If you own any shares [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 12:28pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Rap at the White House: Alexander Hamilton

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  An Obama guest, Lin-Manuel Miranda, pushes the envelope on gangsta rap, and history teaching: You can’t use that in the classroom, teachers?  Why not? More: Wikipedia notes of Miranda: He is working on a hip-hop album based upon the life of Alexander Hamilton, entitled The Hamilton Mixtape.[5] He recently performed “The Hamilton Mixtape” at [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 12:01am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Why more kids should study world history, harder

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Jon Taplin explains why knowing world history is valuable. The sad thing is that, of course, the story that makes his reason doesn’t appear in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills list for world history, nor in any other social studies course. Now that the Texas State Board of Education has [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:33pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• A Jonathan Alter-cation: Teacher pay-for-performance? How about the same for pundits?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 12
  Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter likes charter schools, and often enough writes about them and his frustration that public schools and their teachers won’t roll over and play dead while charter schools steal money from them (my characterization, not Alter’s). At Public School Insights, Claus von Zastrow suggested that maybe pundits like Alter [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:35am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Leonid meteor scattered showers

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Meteors from the Leonid shower could have been good viewing — generally, as I predicted, it was not spectacular.  At least BBC said so. But if you can make the time, it’s almost always profitable — psychologically and spiritually — to look up at the sky. Some who did look up got [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:21am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Palin: Ignore the woman abusing the flag and look at those gams!

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Newsweek features Sarah Palin on the cover this week, a couple of weeks after featuring Al Gore.  I thought the Gore cover was interesting, but could be interpreted to make him look sinister. Palin, on the other hand, is featured in a full photo she posed for Runners World last year.  [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:10am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Brave 10-year-old Arkansas boy refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance, on principle

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 9
  Adults worry about peer pressure.  Kids can goad other kids into doing stupid things, dangerous things, illegal things, and immoral things. Pressure from adults on kids might be just as strong. What about a 10-year-old kid who stands up to peer pressure, and stands for principle against adults who use all sorts [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 5:43pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Chess games of the rich and famous: Ben Franklin and Lady Howe

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Resources: Ben Franklin and his essay, “The Morals of Chess,” by John McCrary A history of Ben Franklin and chess, from Wholesale Chess Posted in Ben Franklin, Chess, History Tagged: America's founding, Ben Franklin, Chess, games, Lady Howe [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:51pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• H1N1 vaccine, a citizen’s duty

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Claudia Meininger Gold practices pediatric medicine in Great Barrington, Vermont.  When someone recently suggested offering flu shots at polling places, it struck her that, like voting, getting a flu shot is a good citizen’s duty.  She wrote about it in the Boston Globe. AS A pediatrician, I received my swine flu [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:31am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Chess games of the rich and famous: Will Smith

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Actor Will Smith worked with chess masters to improve his game — literally.  Photo and story from 2001 at The Chessdrum. Posted in Chess Tagged: Chess, Will Smith [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 4:44am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Leonid meteor shower tonight: Don’t wait up in Dallas

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Space.com’s story on tonight’s Leonid meteor shower doesn’t encourage me to stay up, or get up to watch (tomorrow morning’s meteor shower, really).  A “strong show,” but not spectacular numbers, and our living so close to Dallas will help obscure much of what would be visible normally. The first cloud [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:59am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• The birth of death panels in the unprincipled opposition to improving health care in America

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Heckuva story.  Earl Blumenauer is the man responsible for the language in H.R. 3200 that Sarah Palin erroneously claimed created “death panels.” He’s a Congressman from Oregon. In Saturday’s New York Times he detailed how critics hijacked the debate with false claims.  Fascinating story. A very odd result:  Because of the false claims, [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 6:57am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Gilbert and Sullivan meet George Lucas: A Grievous “Modern Major General”

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  A friend wrote about enjoying a production of “Pirates of Penzance” at Oregon State.  I looked for YouTube versions . . . Oh, my! (Better:  Rent one of the movies, either of D’Oyly Carte, or the Linda Ronstadt/Rex Smith/Kevin Kline version.) Posted in Art, Movies, Music Tagged: copyright, General Grievous, Gilbert and Sullivan, [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:13pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Greater depression

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Musing on a short break from grading:  Is it possible to read Eschaton without getting horribly depressed at the incompetence and meanness in the White House — up to Obama? And then one thinks of the challenges facing Obama.  The Great Depression was more psychological than economic.  Mine is, anyway, right [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 3:36pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Creationist: Murdering Jews may be preferable to lying to prevent the murder

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 6
  I’m cutting the monster a lot of slack with the headline. P. Z. Myers publicized the e-mail exchange involving Bodie Hodge, a minor deity at the anti-science, creationist organization Answers in Genesis (AiG).  Myers was nice to the guy, contrary to the usual creationist cartoon of Myers as somehow immoral for [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 10:22am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Stealth malaria promotion in favoring DDT over brown pelicans

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Another blogger decided to take some potshots at the environmental protection success that banning DDT was is. edwinleap.com laments that the brown pelican flew off the Endangered Species List this week.  “Brown pelicans 1, brown human beings 0,” the headline reads.  The piece claims that banning DDT use in America has [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 9:14am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Who are those Boy Scouts in 1943?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 7
  A posed photograph:  Three Boy Scouts, from at least two different units, holding a poster Scouts were distributing about international cooperation in World War II.  They are saluting, and behind them rises the dome of the U.S. Capitol on a brilliantly sunny day. 1943?  Who were the Scouts? The photo is online [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:30am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• 50 U.S. Senators missing — can you help find them?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  No, not current senators — don’t get your ignoble hopes up. With more than 40,000 photographs and other images, the Senate Historical Office has images of almost all people who have served as members of the U.S. Senate.  5o members are completely absent from the Senate collection, however. Got any idea where [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 4:09am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Fly your flag today: Veterans Day 2009

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Fly your U.S. flag today — thank a veteran.  We have a lot to thank veterans for, and veterans need a little more appreciation today. US Veterans Administration tells the history of celebrating Veterans Day on November 11: World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 2:39am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Rep. Pete Sessions stirs up a tornado; sow the wind . . .

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  When I first joined the Dallas Bar I quickly met a delightful woman who had some experience from which she spoke:  Louise Raggio.  On a few occasions I was fortunate enough to sit with her at a continuing education session and benefit from her explanations of how law really works [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 7:42am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• New music station fires up in Dallas today

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  KXT-FM hits the airwaves at 7 a.m. Central Time, in Dallas today.  91.7 on the FM band. KXT is a sister station to public broadcasting KERA-FM, 90.1.  In the past 20 years KERA’s outstanding music programming slowly gave way to talk and news — good talk and great news, but the [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 4:26am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• 20 years ago, the Berlin Wall fell – reverse domino effect

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  High school sophomores in Texas study world history, and juniors study U.S. history. At 16 and 17 years old, they have difficulty figuring out the fuss over the Berlin Wall. It’s just pictures in their textbook. The Wall was already three or four years gone when they were born. They don’t [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 3:48am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Quote of the moment: Robert F. Kennedy, on what matters in economies

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Cribbing completely from Harry Clarke (with a few corrections in the text): RFK said this in 1968.  In a speech I heard today it was quoted and it stirred me. Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:16pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• If at first you don’t succeed . . .

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  . . . try again, and then quit, Mark Twain said.  “No use being a fool about it.” All I can say is, I’m happy she is not working to get a license to drive a bus. (News story:  Woman passes written test for drivers license on 950th attempt.) Posted in Humor, Testing [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:57am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• All U.S. flags at half-staff until Veterans Day, Obama orders

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  President Obama issued a directive ordering all federal facilities to fly the national flag at half-staff from now until Veterans Day (November 11), to honor the soldiers and civilians felled at Fort Hood, Texas. “It is an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America,” [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 11:06am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Geography Awareness Week, November 15-21

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Geography Awareness week is sneaking up — November 15-21. Got your special lesson plans ready, teachers? Posted in Education, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Lesson plans Tagged: Education, geography, Geography Awareness Week, Lesson plans [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 2:08pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Texas flags at half-staff today, remembering Fort Hood

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  Texas Gov. Rick Perry has ordered flags in Texas to be flown at half-staff through Sunday, November 8, in remembrance of the victims of the shootings at Fort Hood.  The statement from Perry’s office follows. AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement regarding the shootings at Fort Hood: “The [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 7:32am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• What books and papers literally turned history around?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 20
  Debating the effects  of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring got me wondering about the true influence of that book.  That quickly turned into wondering about the true influence of other writings, books and papers that might be credited with having turned around history in a given field, or in the United [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 5:13am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Surely we’ve found everything by now

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Well, no, we haven’t.  Nice little post by a photographer urging people to go look to see what they can find, with a brilliantly concise set of arguments about big things discovered just in the past few years. Nice photos, too — go see. Posted in Adventure, Education, Explorers and Exploration, Geography [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 7:06am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Al Gore shows green investing works

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Among the more amusing about-faces in conservative knee-jerk politics is conservative criticism of Al Gore for being a successful investor. No, I’m not kidding. Back in April, Gore testified to a House Energy and Commerce Committee in April — one of the committees where Gore was a shining star when he was [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 4:54am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• 2 millionth reader, coming in November

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Unless things really drop off the table, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub will have its 2 millionth reader sometime this month, probably between the 14th and the 20th. Update: No, that won’t happen.  Such goofs come from posting when tired.  We’ll click over 1.8 million readers, but not 2 million.  What was I [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 5:17pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Veterans Day 2009 – Here’s the poster

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  Get ready to fly your flag on Veterans Day, November 11. Information Gen. Shinseki designated 41 model Veterans Day celebration sites VA works to help World War I veterans get France’s Legion of Honor Non-government site with information on Veterans Day Posted in 1776, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, veterans Tagged: [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 1:49pm EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Jack Kilby, inventor of the computer chip

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  KERA Television has a marvelous short film profile of Jack Kilby, who won the Nobel in physics for his invention of what we now call “the computer chip.” Teachers should check out the film and use it — it’s a great little chapter of Texas history, science history, and U.S. history.  [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 3:46am EST
  by Ed Darrell

• Obama’s eligibility: California court tossed the challenge out

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 18
  On the one hand it’s nice to see cool heads and wisdom prevail. On the other hand, the Orly Taitz, Stumbling and Bumbling Bros., Barnyard Bailout Circus provided belly laughs for everyone who watched it.  How can such outstanding legal pratfall comedy possibly be replaced?  “Boston Legal” can’t hold a candle [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 4:54pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• 2009 winners of the Rachel Carson “Sense of Wonder” arts contest

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 8
  You can view, and read, the winners of the 2009 Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest at the website of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder 2009 contest winners EPA’s Aging Initiative, Generations United, the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. and the Dance Exchange, Inc. are pleased to present [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 2:44am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Gilded Age project

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  I really like this project, and I wish I’d come across it about a month ago: The Gilded Age Class Documentary Project The Gilded Age – Class Documentary Project Instructors:  Rachel Duffy, Marc Ducharme May, [...] [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 7:37am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Does Michelle Obama have the largest staff of any First Lady? No . . .

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  You probably have gotten the e-mail that claims Michelle Obama has the largest staff of any First Lady.  Either you dismissed it as great sour grapes, or you may have given it a moment’s consideration before hitting delete. Did you wonder whether the charge is true?  Mudflats, the great blog from [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 6:41am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Democrats take solid South

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Bob Moser says they can.  He’s talking about how to do it at SMU this week. Can’t make it?  Buy the book. The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies and the Geurin-Pettus Program in the Department of Political Science at Southern Methodist University invite you to Bob Moser, editor of the Texas Observer and [...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 5:16pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Quote of the moment: Eric Blair (George Orwell) on lies becoming history

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  /h3> And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ — George Orwell, 1984 Tip of the [...][...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 2:59pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• What’s a journalist’s duty? Limbaugh ignores warning signs, punks himself

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 7
  Millard Fillmore’s bathtub came out of a hoax story written in 1917 by one of America’s greatest cynics and writers, H. L. Mencken. Mencken lived to regret that he ever wrote the piece, after it was cited as fact by encyclopedias and critics of Fillmore’s presidency. Mencken’s story holds a moral, [...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 11:26am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• So, did you hear the one about burning Bibles on Halloween?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  No kidding.  Some group in North Carolina plans to burn Bibles on Halloween. Funny part, or ironic part:  It’s a church doing the burning. And in case you’re hungry, “We will be serving Bar-b-Que chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides.” Tip of the old scrub brush to Dispatches from the Culture Wars [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 7:36pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• What is a kilosteve? Buy the t-shirt, find out

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  You can get your kilosteve t-shirt here. Why would you want one? Because it puts you in the company of distinguished scientists who stoutly defend the teaching of good science to children, so they can go on to become great scientists themselves. Plus, it’s a poke in the eye to the Texas State [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 6:31pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Quote of the moment: DDT causing bed bug problems, Malcolm Gladwell

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Then the Malaysians started to complain about bedbugs, and it turns out what normally happens is that ants like to eat bedbug larvae,” McWilson Warren said. “But the ants were being killed by the DDT and the bedbugs weren’t–they were pretty resistant to it. So now you had a bedbug [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 12:52pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• “Not Evil, Just Wrong” opens to thunderous silence

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  It’s the air conditioning one hears, not applause. Did your local newspaper review the movie?  Odds are the movie didn’t play in your town (did it play anywhere other than local Republican clubs?). “Not Evil, Just Wrong” promoters and producers appear to have abandoned hopes for a wide-scale debut of their film [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 12:45pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Neil Shubin describes your “inner fish” – the evolutionary journey of the human body

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  More resources: Who is Neil Shubin, from the University of Chicago’s Experts List Shubin as ABC News Person of the Week The book, Your Inner Fish Posted in Biology, Books, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, Science Tagged: Biology, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, Neil Shubin, Science, Your Inner Fish [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 10:16am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• News flash: Dallas 5th graders not ready for college? How about middle school?

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  It’s not so much of a “Duh!” moment as you might think. Studies by the Dallas Independent School District indicate that about half of all Dallas fifth grades students are not on the development arc they need to be on to be ready for college upon graduation seven years later.  Half [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 4:36am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Naomi Oreskes: The lecture Lord Monckton slept through, which he hopes you will not see

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 12
  Here’s another example of where historians show their value in science debates. Naomi Oreskes delivered this lecture a few years ago on denialism in climate science.  Among other targets of her criticism-by-history is my old friend Robert Jastrow.  I think her history is correct, and her views on the Marshall Institute [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 4:00am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Texas State Dinosaur an affront to creationists

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Texas has a new State Dinosaur. Scientists are working to make a good model of the beast for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, as reported in the October 6 Fort Worth Star-Telegram (often referred to locally as the “Startle-gram,” but still one of America’s good-to-great newspapers).  David Casstevens [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 7:45am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• White House Christmas tree: Douglas fir grown in West Virginia – no kidding

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  First, the press release from the National Christmas Tree Association: White House Christmas Tree: 2009 White House Staff Select Blue Room Christmas Tree Chesterfield, MO (October 20, 2009) — A beautiful Douglas-fir from Shepherdstown, W.V., will be the official White House Christmas Tree this year. The Blue Room Christmas Tree [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 10:21pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Tracking down historic typewriters

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  By the way, Richard Polt at Xavier University lays it all over this blog in his listings of typewriters used by good authors and famous people.  If you’re looking for more information on the history of typewriters, or if you’re looking for information about an old typewriter you own, Polt’s [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 7:28am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• We become the ephemera of history: ‘Only the privileged few of us get to be fossils’

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  From “Whose father was he?” a four-part essay on tracking down the story of three children whose photograph was discovered on the corpse of a Union soldier killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, in 1863: Perhaps more than any other artifact, the photograph has engaged our thoughts about time and eternity. [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 3:04am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Watts falls victim to Monckton’s voodoo

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Among those who call themselves “skeptical” of claims about climate change, Anthony Watts has distinguished himself from time to time for often using solid science and raising good questions.  His campaign to look at the placement of weather reporting stations indicates an understanding of the way science should work (though [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 3:39am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Typewriter of the moment: Alan Lomax, folk music historian, 1942

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Who was Alan Lomax?  Have you really never heard of him before? Lomax collected folk music, on wire recorders, on tape recorders, in written form, and any other way he could, on farms, at festivals, in jails, at concerts, in churches, on street corners — anywhere people make music.  He did [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 8:46pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Chess games of the rich and famous: Begin vs. Brzezinksi

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  Zbigniew Brzezinski likes chess.  One of his books on diplomacy compares good diplomacy to a chess game – 1997, The Grand Chessboard. In 1978, a nearly two-week negotiating session with President Jimmy Carter acting as intermediary between Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachim Begin led to the [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 5:30pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Monckton lies again (and again and again and again . . .)! The continuing saga of a practicer of fiction

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 20
  When Monckton claimed that Jackie Kennedy was responsible for malaria in Africa, I thought it a great stretch. Holy cow!  Monckton gave a speech in Minnesota, and if this quote is representative, it was a one man re-enactment of the Burlington Liar’s Club quarterfinals for 2002 through 2008 (he was disqualified [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Killer CO2 cloud – the story climate change “skeptics” hope you won’t read

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 20
  It’s not even secret.  But those propagandists who run advertising claiming that carbon dioxide is natural and, therefore, harmless, hope against hope that you don’t know the true history, that you’ve never heard of Cameroon, that you don’t know about volcanic emissions, and that you forgot the story of the [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 10:00pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• When is a kid “grown up?”

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Sometime commenter “Cassie” asks poignantly on her blog, Relaxed Politics: How do you know when  you’re grown up? . . . I am asking because I will be 18 in a few weeks and everything in my life is changing. It seems like graduating from high school is the least of [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 6:34am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Quick assist for students doing papers on climate change

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  So, you’re a student doing a paper on climate change, and you need help limiting the topic, or finding information about related topics. Hot Topic has just the thing:  Interactive “debate maps.“ Hot Topic is a website dedicated to the issue climate change in New Zealand — after the book by the [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 4:54am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Anti-Gore film’s producer tries tantrum to get publicity

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 6
  Phelim McAleer, one of the producers of the anti-Al Gore film “Not Evil, Just Wrong,” sneaked into a Gore press event and threw a tantrum the other day. Why is this relevant?  Oh, the tantrum was rude, but if you’re a hack film producer with a political screed whose film looks [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 4:58pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Chess games of the rich and famous: Willie Nelson

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Did Willie ever play Ray Charles in chess?  Did anyone get a photo of the game? Posted in Chess, Music, Texas, Texas Music Tagged: Chess, Music, Texas, Texas Music, Willie Nelson [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 6:06am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• The war against Rachel Carson still rages

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Tim Lambert and Deltoid takes apart the hapless and pointless attack on Rachel Carson by J. F. Beck, in some publication named Quadrant. Beaten so badly in the realm of law making, regulatory hearings, in the courts, and in the science journals, critics of a clean environment are reduced to attacking [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 5:59am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Monckton will lie about anything

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 16
  Lordy! Monckton said to the Winnipeg Sun (in Manitoba, but you knew that) : He continues: “Remember DDT, the pesticide used to kill mosquitoes that carried malaria. Jackie Kennedy read a book saying it was harmful, got her husband the president to bring pressure to have it banned and in 40 [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 6:33pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• St. Denis’s Day, and a missed chance at humor

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 4
  Yesterday, October 9, was the Feast Day of St. Denis. Who?  He’s the patron saint of Paris (and France, by some accounts), and possessed people.   Take a look at this statue, from the “left door” of the Cathedral of Notre Dame  in Paris (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris: portail de gauche).  He [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 10:46am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Chess games of the rich and famous: Ray Charles and Tony Horowitz

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  One more indication of the extreme genius of Ray Charles.  How does a blind person play chess?  Very well, it appears. Tip of the old scrub brush for inspiration to Grandmaster Raymond Keene and Bishop Berkeley. They also call our attention to this photo — on a school bus? Posted in [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 2:04am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Use of evidence in science: Homeopathy and nutritionists take a laughable hit

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  Dara O’Briain?  Never heard of him before. But he’s spot on here, isn’t he? (Warning:  Not exactly safe for work or school — the “f” word is spoken aloud.] An ironic tip of the old scrub brush to Gandolf, in comments at Dunamis Word, in an otherwise futile discussion with creationists who claim [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 1:40pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• David Barton vs. reality, manners, and scholarship

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 5
  As expected, people are finding historical and other errors in David Barton’s critique of the Texas social studies standards. I noted this in a comment at Texas Freedom Network’s blog, The Insider: This isn’t exactly an error, but it creeps me out.  Barton goes on at length about  incorporating the views [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 12:49pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Whales and evolution: Gingerich at SMU, this afternoon

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  From an SMU press release: Evolution Expert Philip D. Gingerich to Speak at SMU on Oct. 7 Philip D. Gingerich, a leading expert in the evolution of primates and whales, will speak at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Dallas Hall’s McCord Auditorium. Gingerich’s lecture on “Darwinian Pursuit in Paleontology: Origin and [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Darwin’s Darkest Hour, debuts on NOVA tonight

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 9
  From the PBS press release: BOSTON, MA—This fall, NOVA celebrates the 200th anniversary year of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book the Origin of Species with three evolution-themed programs. Each film will approach the topic of evolution in a different way. To kick off NOVA’s [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 5:24am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Sputnik at 52

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Enclosure: [download]

  Number of comments: 3
  Encore post from 2007: America woke up on October 4, 1957. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit. After successfully putting the shiny ball into orbit, the Soviets trumpeted the news that Sputnik traced the skies over the entire planet, to the shock of [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 6:36am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Apocalypse already come

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  You couldn’t make this stuff up. Rod Dreher, the conservative editorial writer for the Dallas Morning News, notes at his BeliefNet.com blog, Crunchy Con: This just in from an irate reader: I just finished reading your article regarding Glenn Beck. … What a joke. Your article should be associated with Hitler’s Communist Manifesto. If [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 8:20pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Typewriter of the moment: John Lennon’s Imperial

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Steve Soboroff, CEO of Playa Vista Capital in Playa Vista, California, collects celebrity typewriters on the side.  Earlier this year he acquired the typewriter John Lennon used as a teenager, according to Playa Vista Today. Lennon’s Imperial (The Good Companion Model T) was among the late Beatle’s possessions originally auctioned by [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 6:16pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• “Crunchy Con” Dreher weighs in on Darwin’s legacy

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  We have the privilege, sometimes, of having Rod Dreher sitting on the editorial board of our local newspaper, The Dallas Morning News. Is it a privilege today?  You be the judge:  Dreher’s column in the “Points” section today, “When science meets pop culture:  Darwin’s example shows that scientists can’t do much [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 10:09am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Ten typewriters of the moment

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Stacy Conradt writes about ten authors and their typewriters, at Mental Floss.  Some we’ve seen here at the Bathtub, some we haven’t:  Steinbeck, Hemingway, Kerouac, David Sedaris, Mark Twain, John Updike, George Orwell, Hunter S. Thompson, David McCullough, P. J. O’Rourke. Posted in Banned Books, Books, Literature, Technology, Typewriters Tagged: Authors, [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 11:49pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• No AT&T phone service for three weeks now . . .

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 1
  I saw a story on the earthquakes in Indonesia yesterday that said in one city they had telephone service back in operation in a few hours. We’ve gone without AT&T telephone service at our home for three weeks now.  Odd that repair service in Indonesia, with an earthquake, is better than [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 5:44pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Museum of North Texas History: 100 years of Scouting

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Wondering what to do while you’re in Wichita Falls, Texas? Through March 2010, you can view a display commemorating Scouting’s 100th anniversary in the United States, featuring nearly 100 years of Scouting history in Wichita Falls. Again showing the value of local “mainstream” media, the Wichita Falls Times-Record News featured a story [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 5:11pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Definition of “urbanization”: Glowing Cities Under a Nighttime Sky on Flickr – Photo Sharing

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Pleasant to watch, this time-lapse composition highlights the light pollution aspect of increasing urbanization across the United States.  The photographer, a Dutch architect, notes that each streak of light represents a city, as he flies across the American Midwest to touchdown in San Francisco (SFO).  It’s a visual definition of [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 6:23pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Calculus as fun

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 3
  I used to love math tests.  And math homework. When I knew the stuff, I’d start hearing Bach in my head and get into a rhythm of solving the problems (though I didn’t know it was Bach until much later — “Aha!  That’s the math solving music!”). But eventually my brain [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 2:16am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• Cato Institute jumps shark

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Number of comments: 2
  Do we really need proof the political right has run out of ideas? How about the Cato Institute’s jumping the shark? Oh, hell, they may have jumped it earlier — I don’t track Cato as a rule, because they come up with so much silly stuff. This button, above, goes beyond simple [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 1:44am EDT
  by Ed Darrell

• The circle is unbroken, though there may be tangential lines

  —Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  Do you recognize this? It sure looks like a slide rule, doesn’t it? The last really grand slide rule I had was a fancy aluminum job that my older brother Wes used at the Air Force Academy.  It was easily worth a couple of hundred dollars, and it had a very nice [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 4:23pm EDT
  by Ed Darrell