You just know that Global Warming as a political movement is in big, big trouble when you read these reader comments to a Boston Globe “green” story about a supposed threat from a small future sea level increase.

Some really funny stuff here. Which means (94% confidence interval) that this party is just about over.

But really, forget the politics, there is some funny stuff there. Here are just a few:

Yes! I’m getting waterfront property in Beacon Hill!

This would be interesting we didn’t just learn that climate researchers have been engaged in massive fraud.

Wow- then all those overpriced condos really will be “underwater”!!!

Help us, Obama-wan Kenobi, you are our only hope!

My favorite, though, is this:
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That’s why we have boats right? Where is Dennis Quade when you need him?

In which I ask, Did Bill Ayers write Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”?

Not only does literary analysis point in that direction, but he claims authorship, as well. But then again, he is a Narcissistic Post-Modern Radical Toolbox. So who can really tell?

There are these inconvenient things called “rigor”,  ”peer review”, and “repeatability” that are all kinda important.

What the Global Warming Emails Reveal – WSJ.com

Yet even a partial review of the emails is highly illuminating. In them, scientists appear to urge each other to present a “unified” view on the theory of man-made climate change while discussing the importance of the “common cause”; to advise each other on how to smooth over data so as not to compromise the favored hypothesis; to discuss ways to keep opposing views out of leading journals; and to give tips on how to “hide the decline” of temperature in certain inconvenient data.

There is much, much more. Read it all.

The big picture here is that much of what we’ve been sold as “science” over the last 15-20 years is in fact “politics” with a “sciency gloss”. And it fooled BILLIONS of people into supporting expensive taxation schemes, in addition to all the other BILLIONS who don’t care if the research supports the conclusions or not.

Awesome.

Can I suggest here that we’d all be better off with a bit more suspicion of “scientists” that are forever claiming we are destroying the planet? Along with governments and other taxing bodies?

The sad truth, friends, is that lots of people view mankind as toxic to the planet, and want to remake the world according to that view.

And they will tell you anything that sounds feasible in order to make that happen.

Yellow fin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and short-beaked common dolphin in a diorama of the eastern tropical Pacific at the AMNH's Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Live. (Image/R. Mickens/AMNH)

Next time you head out to your favorite sushi restaurant, you might want to think twice about ordering the tuna. There’s a good chance the fish on your plate could be an endangered species.

A new study by the American Museum of Natural History conducted DNA investigations on tuna at restaurants in New York City and Denver and found that nearly 30 percent of the tuna tested was actually endangered bluefin, and less than half of that was labeled as such.

A single bluefin tuna can sell for tens of thousands of dollars at market, a popular draw for the fishing industry. But that popularity comes with a price. Western stocks of northern bluefin tuna now hover around 10 percent of their “pre-exploitation” numbers. And last October, the country of Monaco nominated northern bluefin tuna for a listing under a complete international trade ban by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), according to a press release.

The serving up of a critically endangered fish is not necessarily on the shoulders of the restaurants. They might not know they’re doing it, just as consumers might not know they’re eating it. This is because the eight species of tuna are so genetically similar – closer than humans are to chimpanzees – that even with DNA testing, it’s hard to distinguish the difference, and once tuna arrives to the U.S. market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved marketing label is simply “tuna.” A new and improved method of genetic detective work just might help change all that.

“When you eat sushi, you can unknowingly get a critically endangered species on your plate,” says Jacob Lowenstein, a graduate student affiliated with the Museum and Columbia University in the press release. “But with an increasingly popular technique, DNA barcoding, it is a simple process for researchers to see just what species are eaten at a sushi bar.”

DNA barcoding can be used to identify what animal became which product, even down to the origin of a leather handbag, according to the press release. In the case of the bluefin tuna, DNA barcoding defines a genetic key of 14 nucleotides exclusive enough to identify whether the tuna being served is bluefin. A similar method has been used to identify endangered whales on the Asian market and wildlife being sold in the African bushmeat trade.

With any luck, researchers will develop a handheld barcoding machine that can be used to identify fish on-site.

This study can be found in the current issue of PLoS ONE.

Ini bukan kisah tentara Belanda teakhir yang bertahan dari gempuran pejuang Indonesia. Atau kisah timnas Belanda  berjuang merebut tiket piala dunia. Tetapi tentang monyet belanda, yang hanya karena berhidung panjang, kemudian disebut monyet belanda. ….. lebih lanjut

Les habitations font la ville mais les citoyens font la cité.

Biólogos e industria debaten la protección del coral precioso

Tras fracasar hace dos años, los expertos vuelven a la carga para tratar de incluir los corales preciosos en la lista de especies protegidas del CITES. Este año se han celebrado reuniones en Hong Kong y Nápoles entre biólogos, la industria del coral, gestores de recursos y especialistas en el CITES para discutir si es viable incluirlo en el Anexo II, que regula el comercio entre países.

Especies como Corallium rubrum (coral rojo) se explotan desde hace milenios en el ramo de la joyería. Se trata de uno de los recursos renovables más olvidados, sin planes de gestión y con un conocimiento escasísimo de los stocks existentes en el Mediterráneo y especialmente en el Pacífico, donde se explota al arrastre en profundidades superiores a 200 metros. “En Taiwán, sólo un 2% del que se saca está vivo; el resto está muerto o en muy mal estado”, comenta el doctor Chin-Shin Chen, del Departamento de Pesca de aquel país. La pesca en el Pacífico es del todo ineficiente, pues el arrastre destruye la mayoría del coral, que queda en el lecho marino sin ser aprovechado. Sólo una pequeña parte llega a la embarcación.

Se ignora cuánto coral rojo queda en los mares y no hay planes de gestión
Artes de pesca destructivas
Hasta hace un tiempo, la realidad era la misma en el Mediterráneo, con artes de pesca destructivas como la Cruz de San Andrés y la Barra Italiana. En el mar de Alborán, el último gran bastión virgen, las llamadas Coralinas (embarcaciones dotadas de estos métodos de arrastre) arrasaron los bancos de coral rojo en apenas dos años, entre 1982 y 1984. España pidió una serie de reuniones de urgencia a la FAO de las que salió la prohibición de estas artes, que desaparecieron en 1994.

Ya entonces flotaba la sombra del CITES y se prometieron grandes cantidades de dinero para hacer un plan de gestión adecuado. El dinero nunca llegó, y el único programa que realmente promovió el estudio de stocks fue el de Catalunya, donde el Departamento de Ganadería y Pesca de la Generalitat solicitó una investigación entre 2001 y 2003. “Apenas sabemos nada de lo que hay, especialmente en profundidad”, señala Giovanni Santangelo, de la Universidad de Pisa (Italia); “Es uno de los recursos pesqueros más ignorados en todo el planeta”.

“La gente dejará de comprar joyas de coral si se declara especie amenazada”
Entre las conclusiones de los especialistas reunidos para debatir su inclusión en el CITES, la más drástica afecta al Mediterráneo: pedir la prohibición total de su pesca entre los 0 y los 70 metros de profundidad. “Es el límite donde puede trabajarse con aire comprimido”, dice Georgios Tsounis, del Instituto de Ciencias del Mar de Barcelona. “Ojalá se aplique y ese coral quede reservado para la contemplación y la regeneración de los stocks, que están al límite de su explotación”, dice.

Pero no todos darían la bienvenida al CITES. El coral genera cientos de millones de euros cada año y emplea a más de 5.000 personas sólo en Torre del Greco (Nápoles). “La inclusión de los corales preciosos en el CITES sería una catástrofe para la industria”, se lamenta Ciro Condito, presidente de Assocoral, que aglutina al gremio napolitano de coraleros. “La gente dejará de comprarlo por tener el estigma del CITES, entenderán que es una especie en peligro de extinción y el negocio se resentirá mucho”. Condito se queja de la burocracia que generará y de los problemas para identificar los géneros en las aduanas.

Pese a los escasos datos de stocks disponibles, los expertos apoyan la inclusión en la lista del CITES por un principio de precaución: “Si no sabes cuánto queda, debes regular su comercio y gestionarlo bien”, dice Andy Bruckner, de la Administración Oceánica (NOAA) de EEUU. Otros, como Santangelo, desconfían del éxito de la medida: “Muy pocos países harán mapas exhaustivos de los stocks”. “Vengo oyendo esta misma cantinela desde hace más de 30 años”, concluye.

www.publico.es

La bahia de byron Vida marina

La célebre bahía de Byron es el punto más al este de Australia, la isla continente, un precioso lugar para maravillarse ante la interminable extensión de agua del océano Pacífico. Un lugar donde las cálidas aguas albergan gran variedad de vida animal. Podremos ver pulpos, rayas, algunas especies de tiburones, peces de colores, plantas tropicales, arrecifes… Descubre gracias a este documental cómo es la vida en este lugar tan remoto.

Destino Bajo el Agua Australia

Video Rangaex

لبنان يصدّر الفهود … والسمعة السيّئة

(in violation of the Convention against International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Read the article in full by clicking on the title above)

فاقت شهرة لبنان في الاتجار غير الشرعي بالحيوانات في أعوام السلم الأهلي، شهرته في تجارة المخدّرات وتبييض الأموال إبّان الحرب الأهلية. وفيما يسعى اللبنانيون إلى أن يدخلوا كتاب غينيس للأرقام القياسية عبر أطباق ضخمة من الحمّص والتبّولة، فإنه كان بإمكانهم تحطيم الأرقام القياسية من باب إعادة تصدير حيوانات مهدّدة بالانقراض كالفهد الأفريقي، الذي يصدّر على أنه.. لبنانيّ المنشأ!

A fair amount of b.s. around all that? Sure looks that way.

This article from Gourmet Magazine about wine glasses is pretty interesting reading if you’re convinced that there are physical explanations for wine tasting ‘better’ when consumed in expensive glassware vs. a Flintstones jelly jar: Shattered Myths.

Also, boxed wine vs. bottled: most people can’t seem to tell which is which, from the little bit of reading I’ve done on that.

None of this should surprise us. At least, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Our sense of taste is subjective, and therefore subject to biases. And one of those biases, it appears, is that we expect things to taste better when we believe we are ‘pampered’ with higher-quality utensils and packaging. And there’s really nothing wrong with that, as long as we understand it is actually more about our individual senses and biases than the wine itself.

And just today, this from the Wall Street Journal: A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion, about wine ratings and judges. Apparently, they aren’t all that.

According to a series of studies done by Robert Hodgson, a retired math professor and winemaker, when you point the harsh light of double-blind studies at wine judging, the wheels start to come off. For instance, even when tasting the same wine, individual judges are all over the map, depending on all kinds of uncontrollable factors like when they ate last, the time of day, the other wines in the competition, etc. And wines that win gold medals at one competition get dismissed at others, which seems unlikely if there is a truly objective hierarchy that we can decipher accurately with our individual senses of taste and smell.

Again, unsurprising. I’ve long been openly antagonistic to the whole idea that if Robert Parker rates a wine a 94, then by golly, we’re all going to like it, too! Here’s why. If I don’t like it, I don’t care what the number is on the label. A rating from somebody who is not me is useless. And likewise, if I do like it, I also don’t care what the number is. I already know that I like it, so what other info do I need, exactly? Ratings might be useful in some situations, but they can never be more useful than your own taste buds telling your brain “this tastes good” and “this doesn’t”.

So, my advice is: Drink what tastes good to you, poured from boxes or bottles into jelly glasses or fine glassware, without regard to price or awards or ratings, and ignore everything else. It’s all good. It is wine, after all.

Creating ‘union government jobs’ isn’t what we had in mind

Maybe this explains why wages for federal employees have risen so fast: for the first time, the majority of union members work for local, state, or federal government.

This is not good. Unions act as clearing houses for political contributions to Democrats, and together they make deals to grow government. Now that most union members are now government workers, this is a huge conflict of interest.

So now we have a perfect storm: unionized government bureaucrats, whose salaries come from our tax dollars, and whose compulsory union dues are funneled (sometimes against their wishes) to Democrats for the purpose of growing a government that is already too big, too expensive, and a drag on the economy.

More, from the above:

Last month when the White House released its visitor log for the first six months of the Obama presidency, one name appeared far more often than any other: Service Employee International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern. Stern has every right to expect to be welcome in the Obama White House. He has repeatedly bragged about the fact that under his leadership, the SEIU spent $60.7 million to elect Barack Obama president. And what is Stern buying with his $60.7 million besides White House tours? Ever expanding federal government programs and state government bailouts which are rapidly bankrupting our country.

There was a time when unions protected working people from harsh, inhumane conditions. But do today’s government workers, who mostly sit in cubicles in temperature-controlled offices, need to be unionized? To protect them from what? Lower (and more realistic) wages?

Again, from the above:

Union membership has fallen to 7.3% of private sector workers – the lowest rate since Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. But it is a completely different story in the public sector: 37.6% of government employees belong to unions, up almost a percentage point since last year. Those 7.9 million unionized government employees are 51% of all union members nationwide.

So when we hear Obama continually talking about “creating jobs”, we have to remember: he must mean creating government jobs. Because that’s the only kind his kind of economic policies can create.

“Have nothing in your house that
you do not know to be useful,
or believe to be beautiful.”
- William Morris

“Have nothing in your house that
you do not know to be useful,
or believe to be beautiful.”
- William Morris

Back in the fall of 1975, when the monster album “Kiss Alive” was released, I remember buying it at Korvette’s for $5.99.

In fact, that might have been my first “hard rock” album. I was a junior in high school, and was just starting to get into Led Zeppelin, Kansas, The Who, all that, and Kiss was in the mix too.

Kiss, of course, was outrageous. They wore ridiculous makeup and costumes, and bass player Gene Simmons used to spit fake blood and do crazy things with his huge lizard tongue. To me, that whole thing seemed a tiny bit campy and silly, but they quickly developed a reputation as a great live act, and sold out shows accordingly. For me, it was more about (some of) the music. “Rock and Roll All Nite” was a decent party anthem, and I liked a few other songs, especially “Room Service” from the Dressed to Kill album.

But, seriously, if somebody had told me back then that 34 years later, Kiss would still be spitting blood, wearing ridiculous makeup, and selling out large arenas for live shows, I would never have believed it. Outrageous is strictly for the under-30 set, right?

Well, believe it, bucko.

The crowd at the United Center was a bunch of old guys and gals, some even dressed up like their favorite Kiss band member.

Yow! The mind reels.

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the founders of the group, must be doing pretty well for themselves: for just another $30 last Friday night at the UC, you could get a “USB leather wristband containing digital files of the night’s performance”.

Do the math on that profit margin, and multiply it by all that other crap you can buy at concerts. Think about all the other old fogeys doing concerts today, and how much cash is made from all that crap people buy at the shows. Say, how’s that career choice looking now?

My Kiss fascination ended pretty quickly. Within 4-5 years I wasn’t even listening to much hard rock any more. Maybe their wimpy ballad “Beth”, from their next studio record, had something to do with that. That song, in fact, might have started a huge 1980s trend: power ballads from hard rock bands. Gosh, thanks for that, guys! Really, that’s just awesome. Thanks again.

For completists only, I imagine: a 1994 tribute record called Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, featuring Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Lenny Kravitz, among others.

Wow.

Notes left behind: Six-year-old cancer victim Elena Desserich’s heartbreaking messages of love to her family

These are the heartbreaking notes a six-year-old cancer victim hid for her family to find after she died.

Elena Desserich was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer when she was just five years old.

During her nine-month struggle with the illness, Elena, from Wyoming, hid hundreds of notes between the pages of books, in cupboards, drawers, bags, and clothes stashed away for the winter.

What a sweet little angel. They’re still finding the notes, more than two years later, and have written a book about it called “Notes Left Behind” as a tribute to Elena and to help little sister Gracie remember her.

“Gracie” … a nickname for “Grace”. Sounds like there is a lot of Grace in the Desserich family.

While the Desserichs were forming their own tribute, Elena was secretly writing notes and tucking them away in nooks and crannies in her house and the houses of relatives.

‘She was a child who was wise beyond her years,’ said Mr Desserich. ‘I hate to think she knew she was dying but I think she did.’

‘I think the notes were her way of telling us that everything would be OK,’ added Mrs Desserich.  ‘It feels like a hug from her every time we find one.’

[...]

‘We don’t ever want to find the last note,’ said Mr Desserich. ‘I hope we keep on finding them for years to come.’

In fact, both parents have saved one unopened note from Elena which they carry with them in their briefcases.

‘It’s our way of saving the last note,’ said Mrs Desserich.

Our sincere condolences to them on their loss.

Please go read the whole thing.

Soul inspiring?

A video sent to me by my friend Guillaume who lives in Seattle Washington, USA. He is a soulful man from the region of Normandy in France. We met in Lyon.

The international vibrations and voices move me. The power of each voice singing one song in different cities.  Is this what makes for an inspiring city?

The inspiring cities website suggests it it’s a matter of culture, but not just the arts.

Culture: everything that makes us human, everything that is passed from one generation to the other, everything that makes life in cities a positive experience.

I have three things that inspire me in Lyon France where I live and three that are not inspirational.

1. The VeloVs inspire and the métro does not. There are not enough trains.  I’m a human being not a sardine.
2. Les Berges du Rhône green inspiration. (Check out Mayor Collomb’s blog) The increasing areas of obscene ugly graffiti and trash depressing.
3. Play areas for children bring joyful inspiration. Not enough crèches and the economic disincentives to create them irrational. How can you have such a high demand for a service that goes unfulfilled because of the disincentives to run them as a business?

The inspiring cities’ website is based in Amsterdam.  It’s no surprise.  What do the Dutch know in Amsterdam? They suggest searching for the soul of a city to find its inspiration.

What is the soul of Lyon and the city where you live? Is it a positive experience? Are there incentives to be entrepreneurs no matter your nationality, gender or ethnicity? Can you move about and navigate the city safely with enough breathing space. Is there beauty or trash and tags?

Let’s be soul inspiring and always expat-friendly!

Brad Biggs gives his usual 10Thoughts about Sunday’s Bears game, a dreary 30-6 drubbing of the ridiculous Cleveland Browns.

I have a theory: the Bears’ O-line is so awful that it is screwing up the entire offense.

They can’t run the ball, because the line can’t open any holes. When you can’t run the ball, the defense tees off on pass plays. And since their pass blocking isn’t that great either, this means that on every offensive snap, basically, they are operating at a big disadvantage.

Stated another way, if they had the O-line of the Colts, or the Broncos, or the Patriots, how many of their current issues just go away? A lot, I’ll bet.

I was not convinced when Jerry Angelo said after last season that the QB was the biggest issue to be solved. It seems like I was right, and Angelo was wrong:

Just sticking to offense, and in approximately the order I’d fix them:

• old, slow, offensive line,
• bad, small receivers,
• no discernible fullback,
• a general lack of depth across all positions,
• mediocre position coaches,
• unproven quarterback who has never been given a real chance with a real offense.

Does bringing Tom Brady, or Drew Brees, or whoever else you like, fix all that, too?

Cutler, Brady, Brees, same difference.

Note that Kyle Orton seems to be doing just fine in Denver, with that great offensive line, big physical receivers, and good coaching.

Feel free, then, to draw important conclusions about the people running the Chicago Bears, both on the field, and off.

I know I have.

Présentation : On parle toujours de la Grèce antique comme si c’était un pays unique. En fait, il va falloir s’enlever cela de la tête car il y a 2500 ans, les Grecs ne vivaient pas dans un pays qu’ils appelaient la Grèce, mais dans des cités qui étaient toutes indépendantes (et très souvent rivales) les unes des autres. C’est ce monde des cités grecques que l’on se propose de découvrir dans ces séances.

Première erreur à éviter : la Grèce ancienne, ce n’est pas la Grèce actuelle. On trouve des Grecs de part et d’autre de la Mer Egée. C’est-à-dire en Grèce actuelle, mais aussi en Asie Mineure (l’actuelle Turquie).

Ensuite, vers le VIIIème siècle avant JC, les Grecs se regroupent en communautés plus ou moins grandes. Parfois de la taille d’un village (dans les îles de la mer Egée par exemple), parfois aussi grandes qu’un de nos département (c’est le cas pour Athènes), ces cités s’organisent. Comme le disait la philosophe Aristote, la cité idéale ne devait être ni trop petite pour avoir assez de ressources, ni trop grande pour être contrôlée et, “le top”, avoir un accès à la mer (ce qui n’est pas trop compliqué quand on regarde les côtes grecques). Schématiquement, une cité se présente comme cela.

Enfin, au VIIIème et VIIème siècle avant JC, les Grecs vont aller bien au-delà de la Grèce. Trop nombreux sur leurs petits territoires, certains partent fonder des colonies tout autour de la Mer Méditerranée et de la Mer Noire. C’est ainsi que fut fondée Cyrène (dans l’actuel Lybie) … et Marseille ! Mais derrière le mot de colonie, il ne faut pas se tromper : ce sont bien de nouvelles cités qui sont fondées avec leurs habitants, leurs divinités protectrices, la légende de leur fondation et leur organisation.

En classe : – dans un premier temps, nous avons défini ce qu’était une cité dans le monde grec (questions 2-3-4 p. 27)

- dans un second temps, nous avons travaillé sur la fondation de la colonie de Cyrène (questions 1 à 6 p. 28-29), ce qui nous a permis de compléter le schéma de la colonie.

“Por lo demás, aquella tarde la memoria de la guerra encerró a la gente en su casa, paralizó el país, lo silenció: nadie ofreció la menor resistencia al golpe y todo el mundo acogió el secuestro del Congreso y la toma de Valencia por los tanques con humorers que variaban desde el terror a la euforia pasando por la apatía, pero con idéntica pasividad. Ésa fue la respuesta popular al golpe: ninguna. Mucho me temo que, además de no ser una respuesta lucida, no fuera una respuesta decente: aunque en aquellos momentos la consigna propagada por la Zarzuela y el gobierno provisional era mantener la serenidad y actuar como si nada hubiese ocurrido, el hecho es que había ocurrido algo y que nadie o casi nadie les dijo desde el primer momento a los golpistas que la sociedad no aprobaba aquel desafuero. Nadie o casi nadie se lo dijo, lo que obliga a preguntarse si habían cometido un error Armada, Milans y Tejero al imaginar que el país estaba maduro para el glpe, y al suponer que, en el caso de que éste hubiese conseguido su objetivo, la mayoría lo hubiese aceptado con menos resignación que alvio. También obliga a preguntarse si los diputados que el 23 de febrero se escondieron bajo sus escaños no encarnaban mejor la voluntad popular que quienes no se escondieron. En fin: quizá sea una exageración decir que en el invierno de 1981 Santiago Carrillo y Adolfo Suárez no representaban a nadie, pero a juzgar por lo ocurrido en la tarde del 23 de febrero no se diría que representaran a mucha gente.”

(…) “Es probable que aquellos generales (els capitans generals de les regions militars espanyoles) tuvieran un alto concepto de sí  mismos, pero, a juzgar por lo ocurrido el 23 de febrero, salvo excepciones sólo demostraron ser un puñado de militares cobardes y sin honor, podridos de molicie y de bravuconería: si hubieran sido militares de honor no hubiesen dudado un segundo en ponerse a las órdenes del Rey protegiendo la legalidad que habían jurado defender; si no hubieran sido militares de honor pero hubieran sido valientes hubiesen hecho lo que les exigían sus ideales y sus tripas y hubiesen sacado los tanques a la calle. Salvo excepciones, no hicieron ni una cosa ni la otra; salvo excepciones, su comportamiento fluctuó entre lo bochornoso y lo esperpéntico.”

Cercas, Javier. Anatomía de un instante. Mondadori 2009

E. D. Hirsch, who wrote the bestselling book “Cultural Literacy” in the 1980s, seems to have been validated by education reform in Massachusetts over the last 15 years.

His belief—which I completely agree with—is that background facts are an important piece of the educational puzzle, especially as opposed to the popular practice of teaching reading and writing as skills, completely disconnected from the world around us, and from our history.

His Core Knowledge curriculum, for example, specifies:

… in English language arts, all second-graders read poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, and Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as stories by Rudyard Kipling, E. B. White, and Hans Christian Andersen. In history and geography, the children study the world’s great rivers, ancient Rome, and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, among other subjects.

Today’s high school and college students have great difficulty writing effectively, and comprehending what they read (ask any college or high school teacher). I’ll join Mr. Hirsch in blaming that on the fateful decision to abandon in the early school years both the emphasis on facts, and on reading great literature about real people and places from history.

Context matters. History matters. Knowing what came before us matters. And it all matters in very real ways, not just in being good at Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit.

Hirsch on educating the poor:

“Cultural literacy constitutes the only sure avenue of opportunity for disadvantaged children,” Hirsch writes, and “the only reliable way of combating the social determinism that now condemns them to remain in the same social and educational condition as their parents. That children from poor and illiterate homes tend to remain poor and illiterate is an unacceptable failure of our schools, one which has occurred not because our teachers are inept but chiefly because they are compelled to teach a fragmented curriculum based on faulty educational theories.”

He’s right, and we know he’s right because we used to educate our children with more practical knowledge, as he advocates, and we didn’t have poor performance in our students that we see today.

But even though his system works, and he can prove it, Education schools have worked hard to discredit him. Hmmm. Whose interests are being served there?

Education schools have been experimenting on our children for decades, and it is not working.

More powerfully than any previous critic, Hirsch showed how destructive these instructional approaches were. The idea that schools could starve children of factual knowledge, yet somehow encourage them to be “critical thinkers” and teach them to “learn how to learn,” defied common sense. But Hirsch also summoned irrefutable evidence from the hard sciences to eviscerate progressive-ed doctrines. Hirsch had spent the better part of the decade since Cultural Literacy mastering the findings of neurobiology, cognitive psychology, and psycholinguistics on which teaching methods best promote student learning. The scientific consensus showed that schools could not raise student achievement by letting students construct their own knowledge. The pedagogy that mainstream scientific research supported, Hirsch showed, was direct instruction by knowledgeable teachers who knew how to transmit their knowledge to students—the very opposite of what the progressives promoted.

Please read the whole thing. I’ve just barely scratched the surface here.

Frankly, it comes down to a debate between what the Founding Fathers wanted, and what today’s Ed schools want. Do we really have to ponder that question for long? I know I don’t.

The future of our children depends, at least in part, on our understanding of (1) why we are failing to educate our children adequately, and (2) how to address it. E.D. Hirsch seems to have a pretty good handle on it. Will he continue to be largely ignored?

Bill Ayers has more legitimacy in Ed schools than a genuine educator like E.D. Hirsch. This tells us a lot. And frankly, it makes me ill.

I think I just found a new blog to love. It’s called Mean Street, at wsj.com, by a man named Evan Newmark. Here’s why.

He says we should be very careful about buying into this “the recession is over” stuff in A Sham GDP for a Sham Economy. Our GDP “growth” announced today is from government spending, much of it from cash for clunkers. This is just kicking the can down the road in the form of borrowing against the future. Remember how auto sales tanked horribly in September, after the program ended? That is not, by anybody’s definition, an “economic recovery”.

But even better, this post is a must-read: It’s Official — Obamanomics Isn’t Working.

You likely missed it. But Thursday’s Congressional testimony from Obama Council of Economic Adviser Chief, Christina Romer was the big story. She officially admitted what many of us already knew: Obamanomics isn’t working.

The $787 billion Obama stimulus package that was supposed to keep U.S. unemployment at under 8% will not only fail to keep it under 10%. But by mid-2010 “fiscal stimulus will be contributing little to further growth.”

As for President Obama’s big promise last January to create 3.5 or 4 million new American jobs. Forget it. “Unemployment is unlikely to end 2010 much below its current levels.”

Romer’s admission was startling. You’ll recall that it was her January 10th paper that outlined what a mighty job machine the Obama presidency would be. Every 1% boost in GDP would get a million new jobs.

Now here we are running stimulus-heavy budget deficits that will total almost $3 trillion over this year and next. GDP is on the rise again. And still, no new jobs.

What’s even more depressing, is that the Obama White House still hasn’t figured out why businesses aren’t hiring.

The White House seems pretty certain about how American businesses should behave. And it seems pretty certain that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, insurance companies and banks aren’t doing what they should be doing.

But all that joblessness? Who knows? Not Romer. It’s all a macroeconomic mystery of time-lags and GDP multipliers. In her testimony, she offers up seven different guesstimates on jobs created by the stimulus.

Does it ever occur to the White House to see the economy as businessmen do? Does it ever occur to the White House that America’s businesses aren’t hiring because they don’t trust Washington?

No. Business is E-V-I-L!

Just check out President Obama’s Saturday radio address on small business to see what I’m talking about.

The president paid tribute to small business, to “mom and pop stores and neighborhood restaurants we know and love.” Small business, he intoned, was the “engine of our economy,” “the heart of the American dream.”

So did the president propose new ways of cutting payroll taxes, employment costs and red-tape for the “engine of our economy?” Nope. Instead, he promised more federal SBA loans and health insurance reform courtesy of federal intervention and mandates.

How many small businessmen do you know that want government more involved in their business?

I know lots of small businessmen and I can’t think of one. I myself employ just one worker in New York City — and the amount of paperwork, fees, taxes and aggravation involved makes it feel like I’m employing a thousand.

I recently discovered that as a self-employed New Yorker I now have the pleasure of paying a new Metropolitan Commuter Mobility Transportation Tax. This measly 0.34% tax on wages is exactly the kind of stupidity that kills jobs. It’s the kind of tinkering that governments can’t resist. And it’s the very reason government terrifies businesses.

Read the whole thing.

How did we end up with a bunch of Keystone Cops in the White House?