My Beauty Best Teacher

Here is wishing you a happy wonderful 2011! I'm on a self-imposed Twitter and blog fast / restriction as I continue on this book deadline at 1:23 am in the morning on January 1, 2011, but I did want to momentarily end my fast as I swig another slurp of delicious fresh ground coffee and wipe the fat free Rediwhip on the sleeve of this trusty gray sweatshirt to tell you Happy New Year!

If
...if you decide this year that you're going to learn some new things and that you are going to share the process with others.

...if you decide you can be real and not some fluffy poser who pretends your life is perfect.

...if you decide that you want to engage with others and talk about the things that mean something to you, you might end up one new year's day like me.

A budding book author with lots of dreams and a bloodstream at least 20% caffeine as you crank out your first book while people in times square kiss and your son plays Xbox live in the den.

You Can't Imagine
The network can change your life in ways that you cannot imagine.

Because we no longer need some publishing company or some movie house or some famous person to discover us. We can, quite simply, discover each other and when we do. When we subscribe, when we follow, when we friend, we are telling the world - hey this person should be listened to.

And if enough people listen, then the publishers and "famous people" listen.

What 2011 means to me.
So, it is appropriate for this to be 2011. Because really I like how the 11 look on the end of it.  It looks like you and me. Friends, standing beside each other beside a big globe.  And what is that at the beginning -- what does the 2 look like?

Well, I'll leave that to your imagination but to me, the 2 means "To" --

2011 = To look at the world as people living and working side by side. People who can make a difference together to change the world.

Oh what a difference a year can make. Get out here friends. Tweet. Blog. Share. Be Real. It might just make 2011 one to watch!

Happy New Year.

Another year for the books! For this blog, 2010 saw a large jump in readership, and for that, I thank all of you for reading my blog posts, for passing my posts on to your friends to read, and for linking to those posts on your blogs or on your social networks. It is my hope that my messages about freedom, liberty, protection of property rights, and love of life, and the battles to improve and strengthen these things, have inspired and motivated you, and maybe taught you a little something too. There were a lot of great posts in 2010- based on reader feedback (emails and comments and discussions), here are the top ten:

Obama: Didn't Waive the Jones Act, Made Gulf Spill Worse:
Occasionally I break a major story, like this one, which I was on well in advance of the MSM:

In reply to the emails from snarky liberals who ask 'just what do I expect Obama to do about the Gulf oil spill', the reply is 'get the hell out of the way'... Let loose the power of free markets and civil society and restrict government to limited and defined roles, and the world will be a better place. In this particular case, just 'what can Obama do'? Here is one of dozens of examples that are specific and have few drawbacks but Obama isn't doing- Obama can temporarily waive the Jones Act....

McSweeney's Account of His Little Daughter's Randian Objectivism
I'm told by some that the original account may have been a satire, but what makes the satire so interesting is how it could easily be the truth, as I have documented dozens of related experiences on my blog:

...Sometimes I think I'm going a little too far with the raising of my kids, talking to them like that and reading them the Bible weekly and stuff, but then over at Pundit & Pundette I read a similar account from Timothy McSweeney...

Obama Nicknames
Every President has a nickname- Reagan was the Gipper, Bush was W, Clinton was Slick Willy- so here are some of the top Obama nicknames I have seen...

On The Texas Board of Education Decision
This is one that I recently talked about on a radio interview (yes, you can contact me about doing radio if you want a good conservative teacher on your panel)...

Manhattan Community Board 1 Approved Ground Zero Victory Mosque: Details Here!
Another major story that I was on the ground floor on and provided some original research to:

One of the main reasons used by liberals and Democrats in defense of this project is that "the project was approved in a non-political and non-religious and purely objective way." I reject this premise, as man is by nature a political animal, and this particular project was is a political and religious statement and anything but objective. This boards approval of the mosque was not an objective decision based on separation of church and state- no, this was a political statement by a group of radical liberals....

President Obama Defends Slavery?
The Republican Party fought to free the slaves. The GOP passed the Civil Rights Act. Conservatives fight for liberty, freedom, property protection, and protection of life. So it does not surprise me when Obama defends slavery:

President Barack Obama said something pretty darn surprising in a speech recently. He said "(?) have been the labor force of our farmers and agricultural producers for generations. So even if it was possible, a program of mass (?) would disrupt our economy and communities in ways that most Americans would find intolerable."... So, do you think that President Obama was arguing in favor of slavery or in favor of illegal immigration?

Oppose Race to the Top: Reasons Why Conservatives Should Oppose RTTT

Recently, Michigan Senate Majority leader Mike Bishop asked me for my opinion on the President's Race to the Top program. I told him that I didn't support it, and he looked at me in a way that said "I thought you were a conservative" and "I thought you wanted to help education." At the time, I struggled to explain why I didn't like the program- I didn't really know all the details to it, but suspected that I was indeed correct in opposing it from what little I knew. He thought I was just a tool of the teachers unions, who also oppose RTTT, but I knew that for some reason I didn't like this initiative by Obama, and it wasn't just paranoid anti-Obama sentiment.... Today, via theblogprof, via Right Wing News, I came across the an article called "Ten Rules for Anti-Government Republican Radicals in D.C. ." As an anti-government conservative radical, the kind that our founding fathers were, the kind of people that built our nation and made our country a great success, I find these rules to be useful in helping me begin to articulate why I oppose Race to the Top....

A Personal Story: Teaching Global Studies Last Year:

Last summer I decided to earn an extra few bucks by teaching a summer school class called Global Studies. Global Studies class is supposed to be a survey of the countries of the world, and touch on their geography, history, economic systems, and current political issues... I met with the teacher who taught in full time during the year who showed me the way the class was supposed to be taught....

Obama's New NASA Policy- Yet More Broken Promises and Lies
American Exceptionalism is being killed by Obama, in ways big and small. Once America was a great nation that put men on the moon- an exceptional nation capable of spaceflight and exploring new worlds. Once it was... after Obama and the Democrats I wonder:

Out of all of the broken promises of President Obama, this one is probably not the biggest to a lot of people. Out of all of the phony and lying rhetoric about hope and change, this latest policy announcement that kills hope and changes things for the worst is probably not the most backstabbing that he has uttered. But that does not mean that Obama's plans to destroy NASA's budget and redirect its mission away from exploration is not big or important to me....

The NEA Should Support Republicans: The GOP is Better for Education
A rising tide floats all boats, teachers included...

Lastly, I'd like to thank the bloggers from Pundit & Pundette, theblogprof, Vox Popoli, Right Michigan, Doug Ross, and all of the many others who have become regular readers and have taken what I have written over the past year and passed it on to their readers. Great work everyone!

CNN reports:

Artist Talk with Zina Saro-Wiwa, Moderated by Claudia Calirman from Location One on Vimeo.
A group of artists is bringing Nigerian movie making to a new audience with a New York exhibition paying tribute to the "Nollywood" film industry.The exhibition is called "Sharon Stone in Abuja," after a 2003 Nollywood film, and is taking place at Location One gallery in the Soho district of New York.Its creator, Zina Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian-British artist and filmmaker, said: "Sharon Stone in Abuja pays homage to Nollywood. It looks at Nollywood narrative conventions and explores African emotional landscape."

More here

Until now, I haven't really commented on the FCC's latest ruling granting it control over the internet. For those of you who don't know, last week citizens for the first time got federally approved rules regulating what they view on the Internet. These rules are not based on any sort of constitutional provision and clearly do not fit with our tradition of a limited and defined national government. The new regulations will likely lead to future regulation, control, censorship, and taxes of companies and citizens that use the internet. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 (3 Democrat appointments vs 2 Republican appointments) to back (Democrat appointed) Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan for what is commonly known as "net neutrality," or rules prohibiting free companies from deciding how they run their businesses in an environment of competition and openness. Democratic President Barack Obama, in classical double-speak, said that having a limited number of unelected rules control our behaviors in a free society will "help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet."

The move to take freedom and future property from free citizens was prompted by liberal groups that love power and authority over freedom. Recently private companies have begun to experiment with ways to handle the growing problem of network congestion. But the Chairman of the FCC felt that instead of having private industry experiment with the best way to run its business that he wanted to instead control that business, even though he lacks the long record of experience and accumulated wisdom of being in business of all of those trained professionals whose whole life is running internet companies. In politically-appointed Mr. Genachowski's opinion, instead of selectively slowing certain traffic to cope with congestion he thinks providers could consider charging consumers for how much data they consume, but no one was listening to him, so he issued a royal decree to make people listen to him. He doesn't have to live with the consequences of that decision or have thousands of employees salaries be dependent on that position, and is unaccountable to voters, and thus this move marks yet another way that our nation slips into tyranny and oppression.

Our elected branch of officials, who are given the just and moral power to make decisions such as this, decided not to give this power and authority to the FCC. But the FCC didn't like that, and so unjustly and immorally seized this power and authority. A tyranny is marked by such behavior and such decisions. Decisions that were made by Democrat appointments. Vote appropriately next election, and for fun, read this book: Law and Disorder in Cyberspace: Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm.

Click to buy kindle edition from Amazon

Inspired by this blog and my experience teaching art, this book is a compilation of difficulties artists and beginners often face when landscape painting. It has 115 photographs and illustrations, approximately 22,800 words and 190 pages. It is available on Amazon’s Kindle store, for a modest sum or $4 or £2.60, or from my Amazon estore. Click on the image link to take you to the Amazon page where the book is located.

I plan to add more to my oil painting medic series, which are: Why Can’t I Paint Ellipses? Why is My Oil Painting Cracking? Why do My Animal Portraits Look Stuffed? and How do I Paint Skin Tones? All will be out sometime in 2011 or 2012.

Art Solutions for Landscape Painting

Many suggested solutions for landscape art are suggested, including techniques for painting clouds, reflections in water and shadows. By simple strategies, the artist can avoid garish colours in flowers, washed out landscape colours and buildings that appear skewed. This book also forces the artist to look harder at the subject matter, making more sensitive observations regarding the colour of snow or skies, for example, and also the contours of shadows and trees.

Common Peeves with Landscape Art

My years of teaching have highlighted recurrent themes with creative processes, the causes of which are more often than not the dictatorial part of the brain that insists it knows better than what the eye actually sees. The secret to overcoming this dogma is to try out various painting and drawing exercises, outlined in this book. This will help avoid trees that resemble lollypops, mountains to look like cones topped with cream or of course, for clouds to look like cotton wool.

Colour of Landscapes

A section on colour theory is invaluable to the artist wishing to avoid bright green foliage, garish flowers, a washed out sky or tarnished sunsets. Dirty colour mixes can also be prevented with better understanding on how colours behave, particularly when trying to darken colours for shadows.

Art Exercises for Landscape Painting

Everything the landscape artist needs to know can be found within this book, including a section on the art materials required, descriptions of the key art techniques associated with landscape painting and art practices that will develop landscape painting technique. Special art exercises will help the artist overcome a childish rendering of a landscape painting, which could deter the artist in the future. In truth, such problems can easily be overcome with the right strategies and with a little persistence.

Molara Wood's riposte to Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s "dont award another African a Nobel piece":

...it’s baffling that, nearly 25 years after Nigeria bagged her own Nobel through Soyinka, a Nigerian writer saw nothing wrong in suggesting that a Kenyan should not get the prize. Ngugi, Soyinka and Achebe have since the 60s formed the great tripod of the humanising literature of Black Africa. Soyinka has his Nobel, Man International Booker winner Achebe has been celebrated to the heavens for ‘Things Fall Apart’, and suddenly it’s a Nobel for Ngugi that will spell the death of African writing?
Nwaubani’s argument is deeply flawed; and it is regrettable that someone with a platform like the New York Times to postulate about Africa, chose to use her new-found international voice in this manner. The author of ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’ must realise that it will not be by chance that her argument will play into Western prejudices about Africa and African writing. ‘Oh, let’s not give another African a Nobel because, knowing no better, they’ll only copy themselves.’ Might as well go the whole hog and cite Shakespeare’s Iago: “These Moors are changeable in their wills.”

Sex and sensibilities in Africa-Economist
Industrial Capitalism to a Financialized Bubble how America lost its way.
"Spellbound": Inside the witch camps of West Africa-Salon
Zoning: Lesson from Cote d’Ivoire-Global Voices
Booming Ethiopia...the New Face of Africa?

When I was growing up, I used to love my dad's old books from the 1950's-1970's. He had boxes of them; books that he had read growing up, books that he read in high school, books that he read in college, and books that he read as a young adult. They were science-fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and adventure books, and I loved all of them. And now that I am getting older, I have been buying books and saving books imagining that someday, my children will inherit these books and treasure them as much as I have. But that dream may have shattered a bit today after my recent visit to Barnes and Noble bookstore, as I now think that perhaps physical books and sellers of them should be replaced.

Honestly, I still read physical books and haven't made the switch to a Kindle, although I am increasingly fascinated and wouldn't mind doing so if anyone would like to buy me one as a late Christmas gift (Kindle DX, 9.7", $379). Mostly this is because I really like my old books, and a lot of the books that I buy are not on the Kindle yet. Even still, my experience at Barnes and Noble was so bad that I may just make the switch.

Barnes and Noble would not take any of my returns, even returns of books that I could see in the store, even though I was willing to take the lowest price of the item in recent months. They could have taken the books from me that I could see in the store, given me a sale price, and then sold it at full price, and everyone would be a winner. Instead, their return policy is so strict that I couldn't return my books there- instead, I'll sell them online at Amazon.com or Half.com, and turn around and buy more books off those sites too, thereby giving someone else my business. Barnes and Noble has no customer service- no one helped me find books and there were no reviews of books for me to read, both of which you can find on Amazon (see links on my site to link to amazon). Barnes and Noble has a poor selection of books- I printed out my amazon wishlist of over 200 books and probably could only find two dozen or so of them. Granted, I have a lot of obscure reads on my amazon wishlist- books like The Ganymede Takeover, The Warlord of the Air (The Oswald Bastable Series), or Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry- but still, a lot of well-known authors and their books were unable to be found in this 'bookstore.'

Barnes and Noble needs to go out of business, so that people who currently do spend their money there will be forced to look at the alternatives, which will provide these customers with more selection, cheaper prices, and better service, all from the comfort of their own homes. This is tough for me to say, being a lover of traditional books, but such was my experience and thoughts today.

Of course, no holiday in my family could be complete without long discussions on nerdy topics such as who really legally owned the One Ring of Power from the Lord of the Rings. Via The Volokh Conspiracy:

Property Acquisition in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

Literary critics have unaccountably ignored the fact that J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings was written for the purpose of explicating the different modes of property acquisition under the common law. Nonetheless, a close examination of the work demonstrates that nearly all the different methods of acquisition are described in detail, and their ethical implications examined. During the course of the story, a variety of characters acquire possession of the Ring of Power using every conceivable legal device.

I. Acquisition by Creation.
The Dark Lord Sauron forges the Ring of Power with the help of knowledge gained from the elven smiths of Eregion. His right to the Ring is thereby based on creation. The claim may be tenuous because it is not clear whether he made illegal use of the elves’ patented production processes (the suspicion of illegality is strengthened by the fact that Sauron made every effort to keep the elves from finding out what he was doing).

II. Acquisition by Conquest.
The Last Alliance of Elves and Men defeats Sauron in battle. The human King Isildur cuts the Ring off of Sauron’s finger (along with the finger itself), thereby acquiring it by right of conquest. Even assuming that the conquest was legitimate, it is not clear whether the law would support an exclusive claim of ownership by Isildur, without any rights simultaneously vesting in the elves (who played an equal role in winning the battle).

III. Acquisition by Find.
On his way home from the war, Isildur is ambushed and killed by orcs. The Ring is lost. Centuries later, it is accidentally found by the hobbit Deagol and his brother Smeagol (AKA Gollum). Deagol claims a property right based on his status as finder.

IV. Acquisition by Adverse Possession.
Gollum kills Deagol and takes possession of the Ring, which he retains for many years. Over time, he comes to think of himself as the real finder of the Ring, and he is strengthened in this opinion by the passage of an enormous length of time. Because Gollum’s possession of the Ring is open and notorious, under a claim of right, and for an extremely lengthy duration far beyond the statutory time period, he may have a claim based on adverse possession. However, Gollum’s claim is defective because a claim of adverse possession cannot succeed if it resulted from a criminal act by the claimant. In addition, adverse possession cannot normally establish title to personal as opposed to real property.

V. Acquisition by Agreement.
Gollum loses the Ring to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in a riddle contest in which the Ring was a mutually agreed stake.

VI. Acquisition by Gift.
Bilbo gives the Ring to his nephew Frodo Baggins. His intention to give Frodo the ring is clear (though he waivers initially), and he hands the ring over in person, thereby effecting proper delivery.

VII. Temporary Acquisition by Necessity.
While Frodo lies unconscious, his servant Sam Gamgee temporarily takes possession of the Ring in order to save both of their lives from imminent danger.

VIII. Attempted Reacquisition by Self-help.
After Frodo regains the Ring from Sam, he plans to destroy it by throwing it into the fires of Mt. Doom. Both Sauron (who believes that he is the rightful owner) and Gollum (ditto) attempt to get the Ring back before Frodo can destroy it. They both resort to illegal self-help remedies rather than bringing the appropriate common law action and a preliminary injunction against destruction of the Ring before the case can be heard. Gollum succeeds in regaining the Ring from Frodo, but falls into the fire, destroying both the Ring and himself.

Moral of the Story
Much trouble could have been avoided if only the parties to this extended property dispute had properly followed the law of acquisition

Based on my own readings of property law and some guesses on other laws, I would rule that the One Ring of Power belongs to the elven smiths of nation of Eregion, who used patented processes to create the One Ring, and thereafter had an employee (Sauren) use those processes on his own to create in secret his own product. It is unclear who legally inherited the property and rights of the nation of Eregion when it was destroyed, but its survivors and descendants went to Rivendell, Blue Havens, and Lothlórien, who are ruled by Elrond, Círdan, and Galadriel, and so it is my ruling that the One Ring properly and legally belonged to one of those three elves. The claim on the One Ring was never abandoned by them- after learning of its whereabouts, they always sought to recover it. And all subsequent actions thereafter were merely the trading of stolen property.

Yet two of those three had an opportunity to reclaim the ring- indeed, it was offered to them and they turned it down and stated that the ring was indeed Frodo's. Based on this reasoning, I would rule that Frodo did indeed have legal ownership of the ring after that until its destruction. So in reality, the Lord of the Rings was simply a story of a disgruntled employee who took company property and refused to give it back until said property was destroyed.

For more information on the history of the One Ring, see The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition, The Annotated Hobbit, and The Silmarillion.

Sanou Mbaye writing in Project Syndicate:

He speaks on the need to liberalize the remittance channels:

The effects of banks’ hijacking of national payment systems to service only the modern economy are compounded by the exclusive agreements that banks and money-transfer companies such as Western Union have signed with most African countries. These agreements lock out non-banking entities from the highly lucrative market for migrant remittances from the African diaspora, which remain a key engine of growth

Furthermore on how key it is to nourish the informal economies:

African states must now recognize that modernizing their informal sectors by integrating them into the modern economy can be a major development tool. Yet only a few countries have started moving in that direction. Nigeria has refrained from signing any exclusive agreements with Western Union and others, and its newly consolidated banking industry is making significant inroads across the region...

Arguing for the broader inclusion of more financial actors in national payment systems

Giving micro-finance institutions access to national and regional payments systems and electronic retail facilities will go a long way toward meeting the requirements of the retail and business sector in terms of banking facilities. It will also help facilitate access by the poorest to financial services, thus helping to reduce the high proportion of the un-banked population.

All of this will invariably spur development and integration of national financial systems and intra-regional trade. This will be a welcome development, because a large proportion of intra-regional trade is carried out by informal operators and small and medium enterprises that do not have access to the banking system. Moreover, economic integration and increased intra-regional trade are the best entry point into global markets for all countries.

More here

Firstly over at CIPE:

Betty Maina and others on developing "a link between fighting corruption and strengthening democracies."

In addition Global Voices on The Scandal of the “Ill-gotten Gains”:

On November 9, 2010, the French Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a decision rendered a year ago by the Paris Court of Appeals, agreeing to hear the case brought by the French section of the NGO Transparency International [fr] called “the ill-gotten gains” of the heads of state of Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinee and members of their entourage...[continue reading]

• Teacher Rankings, Once Internal, Are Now Questioned - NYTimes.com

  This New York Times article mentions that with one year of data that 35% of teachers are misranked and with three years of data that 25% of teachers are misranked. Therefore, I would say that if we lean heavily on the data that we will be incorrectly "dealing with" 25% of teachers -- ticking off good ones and making them leave and rewarding bad ones. We can do better than this administrators and school boards. Come on!

  tags: education learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Nigeria Health Watch reports on NIGECS founded by Adegbola Ojo:

People are finding ways to present data in ways that make them more accessible to people, enabling them to use this as advocacy tools...the Nigerian LGA classification system (NIGECS) encapsulates spatially referenced datasets for the year 2006 sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for each of the 774 LGAs in the country. NIGECS is the first interactive repository for geographical and statistical information about the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

More here

Over at Aachronym:

Sotheby's is trafficking in stolen goods and it is doing so without any concern for the fact of its brazen criminality. It is clear that the Benin artworks are a contested collection of cultural artifacts. The history of their plunder from Benin is not in doubt, and the Benin Kingdom has never at any time given up its claim to these artworks. There has been significant amount of words written about the history of the British plunder of Benin and why the artworks should be repatriated. How is it then that despite the constant requests for the repatriation of these artworks and their clear identification as stolen goods, they continue to be sold by firms such as Sotheby’s without any hesitation?

More here

Back in the hellish years of Republican domination of our nation, back when economic growth was a respectable number, unemployment was low, and things generally were happier, there was a period of time for several months when our nation debated rules regarding whether or not public lands should be developed and how that development should work. Columnists wrote about it, policy advisers debated it, talking heads discussed it, and a rousing public debate was held in an open and free society on the issue. Ultimately, in 2003 Bush decided to order the Bureau of Land Management to allow more forests and wilderness lands to be open to road building, so that firefighters could more easily fight deadly forest fires that destroyed these forests and wilderness lands, and to restore the power to manage wilderness areas and forests back to the states, which had held this power from 1866 to 1979.

Look back at the historical record- go to http://www.google.com/, type in search terms like 'wilderness' or 'public lands' or 'Bush', customize your search by date, and narrow it down from the years 2002 to 2004, and you'll see this debate, see the analysis, see all the time and effort and due thought that a guy like Bush put into this small but important change on federal policy.

Today, with no discussion, analysis, thought, regard, public debate, open forum, editorials, round-table discussions, or any real analysis, the Obama administration decided to suddenly announce that the federal government was claiming once again the sole power to decide how all lands in our nation should be managed, including lands that environmentalists and fanatics think about pretending to claim are 'wilderness' or 'forest land', and in doing so will result in lower economic development of these lands, less jobs, less prosperity, more forest fires, less access to these lands for citizens enjoyment, less ability to manage them, and a general worsening of society. As is usual with Obama, his attempts through this policy to make the world a better place will in the end result in the world a far worse place, and as is usual with Obama, his actions were conducted in a manner more fitting of a despot or dictator than the leader of a free nation.

By contrast, type in http://www.google.com/, type in search terms like 'wilderness' or 'public lands' or 'Obama', customize your search by date, and narrow it down from the years 2009 to 2010, and you'll see the lack of debate, the absence of analysis, no time and effort and due thought that a guy like Obama put into this small but important change on federal policy- par for the course for a despotic dictator, but not at all what a nation of free people should tolerate from our President. Of course, liberals and Democrats cheer this, but then again, they cheer and support and like it when unelected bureaucrats, life-time appoint judges, and dictators make choices for free people, usurp their authority, and violate their sovereignty.

Our nation slips bit by bit into tyranny, and the damage to our Republic is growing so great I fear that we will never again be able to recover from it. The damage comes in ways large and known, such as Obamacare or the Porkulus bills, and in ways small and hidden, such as the EPA unilaterally rejecting Congress' role in our system of government and deciding that it will install cap-and-tax on us, or the EPA violating the 10th amendment and attacking Texas, or the FCC seizing control of the internet in violation of a liberal Congress' will. Obama is a Democrat, his actions can not be checked because citizens of some states voted Democrat in the last election, and our only hope that actions such as these can be mitigated is because some residents of some states voted Republican. Republicans have their problems and commit their fair share of blunders and bad decisions to, but it is the Democratic Party and their elected officials who today represent the greatest threat to your life, liberty, and property.

Not sure if this was one of the decisions that made it in Bush's book- I still need to read Decision Points.

Ashoka Fellow Antoine Sombié is the founder of Wouol:

...the first regional-scale, commercial hybrid value chain that joins European businesses with small local women’s vegetable and fruit producers from across West Africa. Antoine’s program has enabled women’s associations in Burkina Faso to be active producers of organically certified products for the first time. European certification secures a stable market with higher prices, and women’s participation and training brings the economic benefits to a greater portion of society, alleviating education and health. More than three thousand people—90% female—are part of the Association’s production, health insurance schemes, social and cultural activities.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is something you probably didn't know about Christmas:

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time. As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.

Finally, in about 200 C.E., a Christian teacher in Egypt makes reference to the date Jesus was born. According to Clement of Alexandria, several different days had been proposed by various Christian groups. Surprising as it may seem, Clement doesn’t mention December 25 at all. Clement writes: “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place on (May 20 in our calendar), or (March 21), or (April 21), or (April 15), or (April 20 or 21).”

Clearly there was great uncertainty, but also a considerable amount of interest, in dating Jesus’ birth in the late second century. By the fourth century, however, we find references to two dates that were widely recognized—and now also celebrated—as Jesus’ birthday: December 25 in the western Roman Empire and January 6 in the East (especially in Egypt and Asia Minor). The modern Armenian church continues to celebrate Christmas on January 6; for most Christians, however, December 25 would prevail, while January 6 eventually came to be known as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. The period between became the holiday season later known as the 12 days of Christmas.

So, almost 300 years after Jesus was born, we finally find people observing his birth in midwinter. But how had they settled on the dates December 25 and January 6?

The first theory is popular (based on existing pagan celebrations) but doesn't hold up under further analysis- early Christians rejected pagan connections and tried to be different, and there isn't even a hint mentioned that Christmas was based on pagan traditions until the tenth century. So I reject this theory and instead point you towards the second (lesser known) one:

Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.

This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled On Solstices and Equinoxes, which appears to come from fourth-century North Africa. The treatise states: “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.” Based on this, the treatise dates Jesus’ birth to the winter solstice.

Augustine, too, was familiar with this association. In On the Trinity (c. 399–419) he writes: “For he [Jesus] is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.”

In the East, too, the dates of Jesus’ conception and death were linked. But instead of working from the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the easterners used the 14th of the first spring month (Artemisios) in their local Greek calendar—April 6 to us. April 6 is, of course, exactly nine months before January 6—the eastern date for Christmas. In the East too, we have evidence that April was associated with Jesus’ conception and crucifixion. Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis writes that on April 6, “The lamb was shut up in the spotless womb of the holy virgin, he who took away and takes away in perpetual sacrifice the sins of the world.” Even today, the Armenian Church celebrates the Annunciation in early April (on the 7th, not the 6th) and Christmas on January 6.

Thus, we have Christians in two parts of the world calculating Jesus’ birth on the basis that his death and conception took place on the same day (March 25 or April 6) and coming up with two close but different results (December 25 and January 6).

So, there you have it- the reason why we today celebrate Jesus' birth on December 25. Merry Christmas!

My gift to you, dear readers, is a recent addition to my blogroll for you to put on your must-read list. It is called the Law and the Multiverse Blog, and is about superheroes, supervillains, and the law and addresses such subjects as:

Superhero Contract Law:
....In a world where superheros and supervillains exist, it would seem likely that the lawyers in that world would advise their clients to include appropriate clauses to deal with the possibility of a super-related disaster, particularly when contracting directly with a superhero....

Superheros and Immigration Status:
...Immigration creates a whole new set of problems for superhero characters, and a character that wants to stay on the right side of the law is going to need to figure out how to make this work. Fortunately, there appears to be an existing path to admittance and even citizenship for super powered characters in the form of the priority E1 visa....

“Gadget” Superheroes and Federal Arms Control Laws:
...We can probably see how a company like Stark Industries or Wayne Enterprises could find the resources to develop weapons like the ones used by Batman and Iron Man, but actually using them, particularly in international contexts, seems to run up against a federal prerogative the government seems unlikely to abandon....

Superhero Privacy Rights, Part One:
...The intrusion form of invasion of privacy likely protects superheroes from highly offensive intrusion into their secret identities and headquarters, but not from more casual inquiries. Villains should think twice before demanding that Batman take off that mask....

or Supervillains and Insurance: Who’s Gonna Pay for That?:
...A world with recognized and regular supervillain rampages would probably develop a way to insure against that sort of thing, but traditional property insurance would probably exclude such losses. States would need to create residual pools, much like the way they have for earthquake and hurricane losses.....

Embrace your inner nerd and enjoy this blog every day!

UPDATE: Also, on an unrelated note, by popular demand, you can now comment on my blog posts. I do this for you!

Dayo Olopade's

The Bright Continent will report a phenomenon that is not new but has been overlooked: that people are Africa’s most abundant natural resource, and that a long tradition of individual resourcefulness, creativity, and straight hustling is the best hope for the continent’s social and economic development.The book takes inspiration from the massive failures of the traditional aid industry—and from the promise of the guys selling Christmas trees in Lagos traffic.

President Change and his party in Congress continue to cause trouble, even though most of us have turned our attention to happier things during this holiday season. For the first time ever in our nation's history, a lame-duck Senate confirmed a major arms treaty, defying convention and tradition and the historical role of the Senate to give due deliberation to treaties of this sort in favor of a quick ratification in recognition of the fact that the treaty is a bad one and the next Senate would never ratify it because it is bad. The AP and media though hail the win without thought or criticism:

The Senate on Wednesday ratified an arms control treaty with Russia that reins in the nuclear weapons that could plunge the world into doomsday (suggests the writers of the AP story), giving President Barack Obama a major foreign policy win in Congress' waning hours. Thirteen Republicans broke with their top two leaders and joined 56 Democrats and two independents (a Socialist and a Democrat) in providing the necessary two-thirds vote to approve the treaty. The vote was 71-26.

Most major arms control treaties are passed by votes of 98-2 or 100-0, but this one (which is claimed to be 'bipartisan' under the AP policy that 1 GOP member voting on the bill makes it bipartisan) had a quarter of the Senate rejecting it because it was a bad treaty. Oh, I know Obama needs a victory, and the Democrats are desperate to make it look like Obama is doing a good job, and during the campaign season everyone is going to say 'Obama passed a major arms control treaty', but it is a bad treaty.

Well, to be correct, it isn't a bad treaty, it just is one that my six-year old daughter could have negotiated, if she did a bad job. It is a treaty that gives everything away with getting little in return, and a fair and honest assessment of the treaty leads one to lead to a 'no' vote on it and to be critical of Obama. Of course, politics and scoring wins are very important to Democrats, so they don't really care about the reality of the treaty, but I do, and so I think Obama did a bad job with this treaty, 71 Senators voted incorrectly to confirm it, and those who celebrate its passage are weak-minded fools.

The treaty does restart the verification process, so Obama can correctly claim that he has restored 'trust but verify' and the media can celebrate his restoration, but the verification process that he restored is a watered down form of it, weaker and easier to circumvent than the verification processes established in previous treaties. Inspectors are barred from more facilities, have fewer inspections, and there are few barriers to the Russians increasingly MIRVing their missiles under this new treaty (thus negating any benefit of less missiles).

The US and Russia both do lower the number of missiles under this treaty, but the US and Russia were both going to lower their numbers regardless- the US under Obama was planning to let our nuclear forces wither away and atrophy, while Russia under Putin was planning to retire older missiles and modernize their nuclear forces with fewer but vastly better missiles. Agreeing to this arrangement therefore is not really any sort of victory, but rather an acknowledgement of what is happening with additional clauses that are bad, like the worse verification process and the barriers to missile defense.

The missile defense clauses are the most controversial. These clauses bar any more development in missile defense systems, the kind that would give the US some sort of protections from a rouge nation threatening or (god forbid) firing a missile at the US. Although Obama has already slashed funding for these sorts of operations, agreeing with enemies and terrorists abroad that it is unfair of the US to protect itself from attacks from terrorists and rouge nations, determined scientists in the US do continue to make advancements on this front. The US claims that the clauses are not binding, but the Russians claim they are- this sort of disagreement means that the Russians could feel that we are breaking the treaty and thus they don't have to follow other important provisions in it. This is just the sort of disagreement that leads for treaties to be considered poorly done.

Let's look at what this treaty does in the wider scope of international affairs. Under this treaty, the US becomes a weaker nuclear power, less able to defend itself from attacks, less able to keep tabs on its main nuclear rival, and less able to attack other nations using nuclear weapons. Of course no one wants to ever attack anyone using nuclear weapons, but the main way this is done is to be just crazy enough to threaten overwhelming nuclear attacks (for evidence see the continued existence of the world after US adopted this policy). Russia knows this is the best way to get things done too, and is letting its conventional forces weaken while it strengthens its nuclear weapons (at lower numbers) (under Obama's watch), because then it will continue to wield international power without having to maintain all those conventional forces. Iran and North Korea both also see that the US is weaker and less able to check their advances and so will continue building up their nuclear forces (under Obama's watch) free from the threat of nuclear annihilation (although we all know it never would have happened, the possibility was always there).

Under my analysis, this treaty is not a very good one. Obama did a poor job in negotiating it and Senators, like the two from my state, should not have voted to confirm it. Our nation and the world is lessened by their actions.

See The new START Treaty: central limits and key provisions.(Treaty on the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, 2010, United States-Russia)(Report): ... Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Briefs for more research.

Ashoka Fellows Vincent Bagiire and Adrian Mukhebi, changing the field of agriculture:

• Thinking about evaluation | Through global lenses @wfc

  Excellent reflection of a global collaborative project for younger kids.

  tags: education flatclassroom

• Learning is a Global Collaborative Classroom Project with @scmorgan « Mrs. D's Flight Plan

  Excellent Write up of a middle school global collaborative project.

  tags: education learning fcbook

• How Twitter is Changing: A new study reveals Twitter’s new direction

  Excellent article on the current trends on twitter and a discussion of impact versus influence. This tool is changing. This data-heavy article shares how and why. GREAT read for anyone in social media.

  tags: education learning twitter

• Crisis Cleaning 4/4/2008 - FlyLady Tools | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

  I enjoy the flylady. I know this is an older podcast but when I'm in "crisis cleaning" mode, I download this onto my itouch and clean. The book is great. Some of you need this right now!
  
  HOw could we apply this to handling tasks in the classroom?

  tags: education cleaning

• QR Codes - Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

  An index of how qr codes are being used in librarires on the libsuccess.org wiki. 

  tags: education learning

• Carolyn Foote: Why Teachers Should Be 'Persons of the Year'

  Carolyn Foote nominates teachers as her "persons of the year" - yes, teachers do deserve more respect. The funny thing is the backlash that would happen if this happened -- so many people do not respect teachers and what we're doing! Thank you, Carolyn for the post and the shout out in the article.
  
  Teaching is truly a noble profession!

  tags: education learning teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image via WikipediaThe Great Blondin was the first person to walk across Niagara falls on a tightrope. At first the crowds came out on droves. Then, it became just "old hat." So, to liven up his act, he asked the crowd one day, "how many of you believe that I can walk a man across in a wheelbarrow" - everyone raised their hand eager to see him do it.

OK, "who wants to do it?"

No. one. No one.  Finally, his manager put his faith in the Great Blondin into action and hopped in the wheelbarrow. He made it.

It is easy to have faith -- for others. I love it when someone goes through a struggle. You have cancer and everyone says, "you're going to be ok." Well, that is fine for them, they don't have to face the chemo and all that goes with it.

But we do this with technology all the time.  Oh, just do this, or do that - it will improve your test scores.

But do we REALLY believe it.

Talk is cheap. Give me action.

Putting your finger to the saw?
OK, this video almost makes me sick. The inventor of the SawStop, a device that stops sawblades before cutting off your finger. After first demonstrating with a sawblade and a hotdog, he then USES HIS FINGER. Yes, putting his finger to the blade, literally, he tests the sawstop with his finger!



Fortunately it works.


Here is the question.

You believe that technology can improve education. You think it can help students become more engaged. Will you put your finger to the blade and DO IT in your classrooms?

So many times at conferences I meet people so excited about the potential of technology but full of excuses for why they cannot use it.  This or that or the other.

You can't do everything but you can do something.

If it works, DO IT! If it doesn't, FORGET ABOUT IT.

But let's stop talking and start doing. Let's put our finger to the blade. I've done it in my classroom with carefully selected technologies that fit with research based best practices that are proven. When planned and done well, it works.

That being said, some technologies aren't trustworthy - some websites aren't either. Know the trustworthy ones - test them, use them. Use what works but please, let's don't just talk about it.

Lip service is like room service that never leaves the kitchen. Lots of promises but nothing to fill the belly.

Let's do this!

Remember your noble calling, Teacher!

Image via WikipediaChika Unigwe writing in the Guardian:

When, on 28 November – after Ivory Coast's elections had been postponed several times by the then president, Laurent Gbagbo – Ivorians took to the polls, there was a very real expectation that Gbagbo's government had come to an end. Unfortunately, they had miscalculated Gbagbo's determination to hang on to the post he had held since 2000 and which he – and his cohorts – see as his birthright...[continue reading]

2010 is coming to an end, and like any year in which our nation was run by progressive liberal Democrats, it was a year of change, crisis, calamity, and collapsing values and systems. You probably can't even remember all of the major events that marked 2010 under Democratic control- times were just too darn interesting to keep all of the events close to short term memory. This shouldn't be a surprise- I predicted these sort of years in my post shortly after the election of 2008 called May you Live in Interesting Times.

"May you live in interesting times" is actually a Chinese curse. Uninteresting times, such as the 1920's, 1950's, 1990's, or early 2000's, were times of very little upheaval, of steady but unspectacular economic growth, of domestic tranquility, and rather boring cultural changes. But some people though don't like peace, tranquility, steady growth, and static cultural norms- they want change. And once you start changing things, times get interesting- but usually not better. And 2010 proves the case.

Looking back, 2010 rivals only 2009 as years when the most change occurred- rock-solid companies collapsed, major stunning environmental disasters unfolded, people were shockingly fired, rogue nations made surprising advances in acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and there were major leaks of intelligence. 2010 was sure an interesting year!

Jib-Jab sums it up in usual humorous fashion. Enjoy!

Check out Terry Pratchett's book Interesting Times for a good read! Or better yet, since it is Christmas time, for a good laugh and a fun read check out Pratchett's Hogfather- Death plays the role of Santa and saves cultural norms!

via PBS

Paula Zahn speaks with Lowery Stokes Sims, the Charles Broadman International Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design; she is also a co-curator of the Global Africa Project an unprecedented exhibition which explores the broad spectrum of contemporary African art, design and craft worldwide.

Watch the full episode. See more SundayArts.