The Truth(s) about Halloween

"Believe it or not, higher education is linked to a greater tendency to believe in ghosts and other paranormal phenomena, according to a new study." --LiveScience.com

As our Halloween treat to you, here are some links related to cherished Halloween beliefs:

• Halloween's Celtic Roots, from Archaeology
• Archaeology of the Undead, from a zombie expert for Archaeology
• Vampire Stars, from Earth & Sky
• "They said that Charles Addams slept in a coffin and drank martinis with eyeballs in them." The Father of the Addams Family, from NPR's Morning Edition
• Ghost writing really is scary, a commentary on NPR's Morning Edition
• Halloween Is an Economist's Biggest Nightmare, by Kevin Hassett for Bloomberg.com
• Why We Love to Be Scared, from LiveScience.com
• Frankenpumpkin, from Radio-Canada.ca
• Halloween Facts--2006, from the U.S. Census Bureau

"26 pounds -- Per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005; it is believed a large portion is consumed around Halloween." --U.S. Census Bureau [PDF]

Storm Chaser

Mike Hollingshead lives in Blair, Nebraska. In 1999 he decided to do a little more than watch storms from a hill in Blair, and he started chasing them. He also started taking a few photos while he was at it, using a Canon Digital Rebel and a couple of kit lenses. In 2004 he left his job as a maintenance contractor and started chasing storms full-time.

The results are stunning and at time unearthly. (Which brings to mind the start of the Nebraska fight song, "There is no place like Nebraska.") His images are so amazing that some people aren't content with the truth that these are summer Midwestern storm scenes and have attributed them to more dramatic situations. After Katrina, an email circulated with several of Hollingshead's pictures. The email opened by saying, "Photos of Katrina over Mississippi (Sure let's you know who's in charge.)" See Snopes for more detail. Hollingshead, by the way, has never been in a hurricane.

His web site Extreme Instability offers a portfolio of exquisite storm photos. The background information he provides also makes for interesting reading.

Famous Fictional Folks

The Observation Tower at the top of Petrin Hill in Prague is a 200 foot tall miniature version of the Eiffel Tower. In the base of the tower you will find the Museum of Jára Cimrman, who was voted “Greatest Czech of All Time” in a 2005 Czech Poll.

Cimrman "was one of the greatest Czech playwrights, poets, composers, teachers, travellers, philosophers, inventors, detectives and sportsmen of the 19th and early 20th century" (Wikipedia). In addition to helping design the Effiel Tower and rewriting a Checkov play, Radio Praha reports his "achievements include proposing the construction of the Panama Canal to the Americans, inventing the light bulb and then getting to the patent office five minutes too late to register it, and even making it to within seven metres of the North Pole before being chased away at the last minute by a starving tribe of Native Americans." (Link).

The results of the poll rather irritated Czech Television, sponsor of the contest, which declared him ineligible. The producers had been rather thinking of real people instead of Cimrman, a fictional character who first appeared in a 1967 satirical radio play.

Speaking of fictional people, a new book is out entitled The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History. Some notable fictional characters include:
Robinson Crusoe
Oedipus
Hester Prynne
G.I. Joe
Rosie the Riveter

(You'll have to check out their web site to see where these rank in the top 50. USA Today has a story on the list entitled "They Were Never Born, but They'll Live Forever." They also provide the complete list.)

Where to Start

Creating Passionate Users is a fine web log written by authors in O'Reilly's Head First series. It's a bit difficult to generalize about the entries here, but they tend to focus on various ways to achieve excellence in the workplace. Think of it as a collection of tips and tricks for combating the mind-numbing world of the Dilbert cartoons.

Kathy Sierra's October 22 posting "Better Beginnings: how to start a presentation, book, article..." is a useful look at capturing an audience's attention in a presentation. Tips include

• Do NOT start at the beginning!
• Show, Don't Tell
• For the love of god, DO NOT start with history!
• DO NOT start with prereqs
• MYTH: you must establish credibility up front

The blog is full of excellent graphics, clear writing, and interesting topics.

The Six Word Short Story

The November issue of Wired Magazine has a fine feature entitled "Very Short Short Stories."

Taking a cue from Hemingway, who once wrote a short story in six words, (link), Wired asked 38 science fiction and horror writers and designers to create their own versions of the six word story.

Notable entries include:

• It’s behind you! Hurry before it
  - Rockne S. O’Bannon
• Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
  - Richard Powers
• The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
  - Orson Scott Card
• Kirby had never eaten toes before.
  - Kevin Smith
• TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
  - Harry Harrison
• Epitaph: He shouldn't have fed it.
  - Brian Herbert
• Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
  - David Brin

For more stories, read "Very Short Short Stories."

Lawson Inada Reads

It was billed as a poetry reading, and that it was, but we can't say it was a typical poetry reading.

For one thing, about 200 students, community members, and college staff showed up in the Nelson auditorium for a two hour program that most will long remember.

For another, there was a Northwest College jazz combo, featuring Ronnie Bedford, that provided the music which punctuated the readings. And then there were NWC English faculty Renee Dechert and Burt Bradley, who joined Lawson on stage to add a local perspective.

But finally there was Lawson, weaving poetry, autobiography, music, and memory into a narrative about pride in place, pride in culture, and pride in family. It was a narrative skillfully done, a subtle homily about the injustice which results from denying the fundamental human connections which transcend race and nationality to bind us.

Five Myths About Community Colleges

Being partial to community college education as we are, it was nice to see msn.com run a story by Jennifer LeClaire entitled Five Myths About Community Colleges. The upshot of the article is that there are a number of misconceptions about community college education that need to be dispelled. Interesting tidbits include the fact that 40% of traditional age students start at community colleges and Walt Disney and Ross Perot each started their educations at a community college.

Here are the myths that LeClair refutes:

1. Students only attend community college because they can't get in to a four-year university.
   
2. A degree from a community college is not as good as a university degree.
3. Community colleges are inexpensive, so the education is not high quality.
4. Community college credits do not transfer to four-year universities.
5. Community colleges have low academic standards.

We recommend the full article for explanations of why each of these statements simply aren't accurate.

The Stewart-Colbert Ticket

Normally we avoid posting about politics, but the potential of a new ticket seems worthy of comment, even if only to spread the news that John Stewart steadfastly maintains that he and Colbert are not running for office. In an Oct. 9th Associated Press article, Stewart is quoted as saying, " 'Nothing says "I am ashamed of . . . my government" more than "Stewart/Colbert '08." ' " [Students: on the off chance that any of you are actually reading this, please note the deft use of a quote within a quote within a quote in the previous citation.] The article goes on to quote Stewart as saying " 'There's no way you could get the news from us . . . . I've seen the show. It couldn't happen.' "

Actually, however, it turns out it can. According to a study done at Indiana University, the news on The Daily Show is "as substantive as network coverage." As the Huffington Post's media page Eat the Press puts it, "It may be a fake newscast, but the news it reports and comments upon night after night is all too real." In fact, CNN Entertainment reports in an article entitled "Daily Show viewers ace political quiz" that Daily Show viewers know more about election issues than people who regularly read newspapers or watch television news, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey" and they are better informed than viewers of Leno or Letterman. (Note: you can go to the CNN article and take the quiz yourself.)

Clever

When computers were first being developed, you have to think no one imagined that someone would figure out this particular use for them.

What, you rightly ask, is "this," and we have to answer by saying we're not sure what to call it. But here's how it works. Click on the link to Dylan. While Dylan's song "Don't think twice, it's all right" plays, the lyrics--in Garamond typeface--scroll into a line which sketches a portrait of Dylan. It is oddly addictive to watch. Here are some more:

Bob Dylan, portrait, Garamond
Notorious B.I.G, portrait, Baskerville Old Face
The Beatle, Lennon, Book Antiqua
Jose Feliciano, California, Century Gothic
Nirvana, Helvetica, Helvetica
Led Zeppelin, Bush, Times New Roman

These files are from ni9e.com, which is maintained by two individuals in New York who have backgrounds in architecture. They define their site as "a space on the web where we could experiment in ideas free of budgets and committees."

The Plight of Sydney Mcgee

It seems only right to put up a quick post about Sydney Mcgee, a Texas 5th grade teacher with 28 years of teaching experience who was fired after taking 89 students on a school approved field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. She was accompanied by four other teachers, twelve parents, and a museum docent. The New York Times reports that "She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: 'During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.' It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.” (Link)

We've been around education long enough to know the tip of an iceberg when we see one, and it's clear that there are other issues involved in Mcgee's situation than the field trip. Indeed, a letter from the school district which was posted on Boing Boing stated " What is getting lost here is that this is not about a field trip, censorship, or a parent complaint. It is not about age, tenure or salary level as has also been suggested in the media. This is about a school administrator working to help an employee improve her job performance and to improve the educational experience of students." (Link. Note: scroll down to the bottom of the page for the letter exchange.)

If that's the case, it's just too bad that the principal felt compelled to use an excuse for non-reappointment that apparently didn't have anything to do with the real reasons she and the Board were not happy with Ms. McGee's work.

We feel obligated to include photos of the offending images from The Dallas Museum of Art. (Unlike some Dallas television stations, we are not blocking out the potentially offensive portions of the statues.)

that's A relief

An Australian computer programmer, Peter Shann Ford, has found the missing "A" from Neil Armstrong's first words on the moon.

In 1969, Armstrong reportedly said, "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"--which, grammatically speaking, is the same thing as saying,"That’s one small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong always has maintained that he had included a missing "A"--for a man.

According to The New York Times, "Mr. Ford said he downloaded the audio recording from a NASA Web site and analyzed it with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using nerve impulses. In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, Mr. Ford said he found evidence that the missing 'a' was spoken and transmitted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

From the Department of Worries in Development

From the October 6th Chronicle of Higher Education . . .

Variety informs us that Legendary Pictures, in partnership with Warner Brothers, is developing a film version of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. To remind you: Lucifer, fresh off his failed coup attempt in heaven, engineers Adam and Eve's fall from grace.

On paper, anyway, the onetime undergrad theology student Scott Derrickson, attached to direct, seems like the man for the job; his filmography includes Love in the Ruins (1995), Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005).

nHumanities would add that Derrickson has a film titled Devil's Knot also in production. We smell a trend.

Sadly, Milton gets only third billing on writing credits for the Paradise Lost production.

World Teachers' Day 2006

We pause at nHumanities to remember Mrs. Clara Becker, principal and 7th-8th grade teacher at the grade school in Murray, Nebraska. What teacher will you remember on World Teachers' Day?

"New" Poem by Robert Frost

In 1918, Robert Frost inscribed a new poem, "War Thoughts at Home," in a copy of North of Boston, his second book. In the eighty-eight years since, the poem never quite resurfaced--until now.

The Fall 2006 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review scoops the world with a newly discovered, hitherto unpublished poem by Robert Frost. Robert Stilling, a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of Virginia, discovered the poem, in which Frost reflects on the fighting in Europe during World War I.

Listen to a good story on the rediscovered poem--including a reading of the first two verses--on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday.

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(04Oct06) Nikkie Proffitt points us to another good story on the poem's discovery from Inside Higher Ed (includes a paraphrase of the entire poem).