When Joan Baez recorded that song, the fear was that the testing of nuclear weapons was releasing so much radioactivity into the atmosphere that living things (including humans) would be adversely affected. We don’t yet know, of course, the degree to which living things might have been (or are being) influenced by the radioactivity, but—so far, at least—we haven’t had any major biological disasters (that we know of). The current fears about the climate are based primarily on what has been global climate change” or Global Warming And it certainly seems as though our climate has been . . . → Read More: What Have We Done to the Rain?
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 Comments are closed  Blog  atmosphere, California, centuries, climate change, climatologists, cold weather, College of Wooster, dinosaurs, Florida, furnace, global mean temperature, global systems, grandchildren, Ice Age, Joan Baez, large systems, life on earth, living things, Michigan, Midwest, nuclear weapons, October, Ohio, planet Earth, radioactivity, summer, summers, temperatures, the University of Redlands, University of Florida, University of Illinois, Western Michigan University, What Have They Done to the Rain, window fan, windows, winter In the days of sailing vessels, there were two main problems: too much wind (see Typhoon) and not enough wind (doldrums). Sailors also speak of the quiet before the storm. That pre-storm quiet is a well-known warning of things to come. I suspect the metaphor also applies to political life: there’s a period of quiet before “all hell breaks loose.” Metaphorically speaking, the same concepts apply to political life, where we fluctuate between having too much going on or not enough happening. We seem to be in such a period now—not just in the States, but in many countries around . . . → Read More: Slow Start for the New Year Comments are closed Blog doldrums, Eisenhower, faculty, Fulfillingness First Finale, graduate school, impeachment, jungle boots, liberty and justice for all, military service, New Year, New Year's Day, Nixon, Oakland Army Base, political life, politics, progress, quiet before the storm, Republican Party, Republicans, Richard, sailing vessels, Stevie Wonder, University of Illinois, Vietnam In some ways, a picture really is worth a thousand words. A picture can often tell a story or communicate feelings that would take a thousand words to tell. If you are old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks, you doubtless remember the video of the buildings on fire and smoking, and people jumping to their deaths to avoid being burned alive. That video has more emotional impact than any of the stories you might have read about it. Reading is more cognitive: we understand more fully. Video is more visceral: we feel more. When I was an undergraduate . . . → Read More: Who Reads? Comments are closed Blog 1950s, communicate, Dean Madonia, discussion, feelings, Frankenstein, group discussion, images, Mary Shelley, Melville, Moby Dick, movie, Nineteenth century, peace, picture, readers, sailing vessels, script, September 11, story, text, University of Illinois, verisimilitude, video, Vietnam War, visual presentation, war, whaling, writing fiction, Young Frankenstein The impetus for this blog is the recent spate of race-based violence we have experienced following the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. The history of the US has, of course, a long record of race-based violence. How could it be otherwise when slavery was present from our earliest days. It is easy to forget, for example, that the White House was built by slave labor. I am old enough to remember early TV news coverage of what were deemed “race riots” in the 1950s and ’60s. The principal minorities in the town where I grew up (Los . . . → Read More: What a Week Comments are closed Blog 1950s, 1960s, Alton Sterling, Anton Sterling, Athletes, Beatles, BET Awards, Blacks, Bob Dylan, Civil Rights, College of Wooster, Erick Garner, Ft. Campbell, Ft. Sam Houston, James Bradley Rogers, Jessie Williams, Long Binh, loosies, Los Angeles, Martin Luther King, Pete Seeger, Philander Castile, Philandro Castile, protests, race, referred publications, riots, Rogers and Hammerstein, slavery, University of Illinois, University of Redlands, US history, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Watts, we shall overcome, White House, white privilege, You've got to be carefully taught One of the problems with peeing in the pool (not that you would do it, of course) is that the pee goes everywhere. Humans, and perhaps other animals as well, tend to be short-sighted and do things for their own convenience. For however long humans have been on planet Earth, we have been metaphorically peeing in the pool and then moving to the other end. Whether we have finally discovered that there is no “other end” remains to be seen. The principal impetus for this blog entry is not some new information about the way humans have been damaging the . . . → Read More: Ecosystems: The “No Peeing” End of the Pool Comments are closed Blog African-Americans, Age of Aquarius, Alfred, architect, army, Blacks, California, Charleston, Cherokee, China, Civil Rights, clinical social work, college, Commissioned Officers, Computer Information Systems, construction, Department Chair, dissertation, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, English Department, environment, evening news, Executive Order, faculty, Filipino, Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, George Santayana, graduate school, historic Black church, Illinois, India, integration, JFK, John F. Kennedy, justice, karate, Lord Tennyson, Los Altos, Los Angeles, Mexican, Mexican War of Independence, Mexico, military, Nature red in tooth and claw, NCOs, Noncommissioned Officers, Okinawan Karate Academy, Oklahoma, Pakistan, peace, pee, peeing, politicians, pool, post-racial, President Truman, race, reconciliation, reparations, revolution, SC, short-sighted, Sixth Extinction, South Carolina, Spanish Conquistadors, swimming pool, Texas, Trail of Tears, University of Florida, University of Illinois, Urbana, Vietnam, war on Christians, Watts, Western Michigan University, Whites, WMU The question, “Are we there yet,” is a cliché of traveling with children. We expect adults, even those grown weary with traveling, to have a better understanding of how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B. This blog entry is about our collective journey from racism to a “postracial” culture. It was prompted by recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, following yet another police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. The policeman, as is usually the case, was white. One such shooting isn’t the real issue, of course. The problem is that this one was just one . . . → Read More: Are We There Yet? Comments are closed Blog are we there yet, Black Muslims, Brown v. Board of Education, Cherokee, College of Wooster, DNA, English, equality, ethnicity, Ferguson, Filipino, Hadrian, Hadrian's Wall, interracial dating, James Brown, Los Altos, Martin Luther King, Mexican, Missouri, Mt. View, Muhammed Speaks, Nashville, Norwegian, Palo Alto, Pict, Pitt, police, police shooting, post-racial, postracial, race, race riots, racial, racism, Roman Emperor, San Jose, Santa Clara, segregation, Stanford University, Sub-Sarahan Africa, Supreme Court, Swett's Restaurant, U.S. Army, University of Illinois, University of Redlands, Vietnam, Watts, white privilege, white separatist |
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