Category: Teaching

Many of you who read my posts regularly know that I am a very dedicated numismatist, and that I have written many posts about coin collecting.  I have also written about the history of United States coins extensively.

What you may not know is that I specialize in Lincoln one cent pieces, minted from 1909 to the present day.  This is the longest running series of all United States coins by a large margin, lasting 101 years now with little change on the obverse, but with some.

This post will let you know a bit more about them, and also some of my passion for what most people think of as something insignificant.  They are far from insignificant.

Native voices heard at national language summit By Rob Capriccioso

Cultural Survival Quarterly recently reported that “unless dramatic action is taken now, more than 70 Native American languages will become extinct within the next 10 years.” The publication helped sponsor the summit, citing its concern about the situation.

The biggest problem a lot of people have with transfolk is that we know who we are because of what goes on in our minds…and nobody but us can truly see what that is.  There is often nothing measurable from outside other than a million tiny clues.

So too many people fear the worst and classify us as sexually perverse…as some sort of bizarre fetishists who would go to extraordinary lengths to pray on women and children in public restrooms (Nobody every worries about transmen sexually abusing men and boys in men’s restrooms).

What puts the lie to a lot of such crap are the trans kids.   In  Development, Risk & Resilience of Transgender Youth (2010), (pdf) Kimberly A. Stieglitz, doctor of nursing and certified pediatric nurse practitioner, has produced a gem.  I read the pdf’s so that you don’t have to.  

“Remove justice and what are states but gangs of bandits on a large scale? And what

are bandit gangs but kingdoms in miniature?”

 – Augustine

  Hollywood has treated us to yet another over-produced Robin Hood movie. At least this time it won’t have Kevin Costner miscast as the lead.

  While watching the trailer I couldn’t help but noting how Robin Hood’s character has been slowly transformed over the years.

  The early Robin Hood was a yeoman, a commoner, fighting against a corrupt establishment in 14th Century sonnets. It wasn’t until several centuries later that Robin Hood transformed into a wronged aristocrat, loyal to King Richard, and fighting to restore the status quo.

  The whole “class war” thing was just forgotten.

Scientific terms are often corrupted, and the wingnuts often do it.  They conflate hypotheses with theories, and theories with laws.  They also reduce the value of a theory to what they make out as just a guess.

This post is an attempt to separate the words and make the scientific method more sensible to folks who are not trained scientists.  As always, if I not clear, comments and questions are always welcomed.

Atomic Rooster was in interesting band.  They were certainly British, and very eclectic.  There are also connexions with other bands (some of which I have covered here) and with other, less well known ones.

This band came to be in much part between the collaboration betwixt the folks producing The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and several other bands, including The Who.  Their connexions include King Crimson, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and a couple of other bands that I would rather folks mention in the comments.  Shall we see more about them?

OK, I admit that I got you to read this because of its title, but it is not too far from the plot of the old, classic horror flick.  In a nutshell, everyone turns against each other, except for the Living Dead that were united because they had no brain tissue of their own.

The classic line of the film was uttered by the Sheriff, who said, after being asked a question about the motives of the Living Dead, deadpan,, “They’re all messed up.  They’re dead.”

Thus is the performance of the entire cast of the unfortunate episode about the Shirley Sherrod episode, with everyone being brain dead except for her (who acted with dignity), the vile Breitbart, and the FOX “News” Channel.  Please read more.  This is more opinion than fact, but the film puts it in a sort of bizarre perspective.

Approach

When I grew up, we almost always referred to the dam as Boulder Dam, rather than Hoover Dam.  Maybe that had to do with the fact that I grew up in a democratic, union household.

Actually, it shouldn’t be the Boulder Dam either.  While Boulder Canyon was the original site selected, it turned out there was a geologic fault right down the middle of that canyon, so they kept looking until settling on Black Canyon.

This is a continuation of a series of photo-journals of things to see near Las Vegas.  

Next up will be Red Rock Canyon.

Usually I have a longer break between summaries of news of interest to the trans community and perhaps to our allies.  But I have only had a couple of days since I returned from the desert to gather my wits together and try to develop a topic and an essay…and one of those was consumed by a medical test.

Additionally, there have been several items of interest that have transpired while I was gone.  I doubt many of them were covered by anyone else.  A few of them were touched on in previous trans news diaries…so consider this to be a set of updates, if you wish.

Without further ado, here is the introduction to the first story:

Vandy Beth Glenn was a legislative editor in Georgia who came out to her boss about beginning to transition at her workplace.  She was fired by Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby  because he believed her transition would make her colleagues feel uncomfortable and be viewed as immoral by Georgia legislators.  

Most of us have heard of zinc in passing comments.  Some TeeVee commercials tout the virtues of it in the diet.  Actually, it is an essential trace element, and part of some coenzyme systems, and so is essential for health.  Interestingly, it is more important for men than for women because the prostate gland needs lots of zinc to produce semen and to maintain health.

That does not mean that women do not need zinc, just that they do not lose lots of it in seminal fluid.  The requirements for zinc in the metabolism is the same betwixt the sexes, but, as females lose iron during menstruation, men lose it during ejaculation.  Please follow, and I promise not to be so graphic for a while.

Many of you who read my posts know that I monitor the Fox “News” Channel from time to time so that you do not have to do so.  It is a high risk avocation, because insanity by osmosis is, in my scientific opinion, possible.

Today the repulsive John Stossel, the Fox “News” Channel “contributor” went on a tirade about warning labels on consumer products.  His thesis was that they are there only because of “trial lawyers” who fatten their pockets on the backs of big business.  By the way, the Fox “News” Channel regularly carries adverts by trial lawyers, mostly for mesothelioma, adverse drug effects, and firms that advertise about getting out of legitimate federal income tax cases.

This has been sort of a recurring theme for me the past few years for the installment nearest Independence Day.  You can hit my profile and find the earlier entries in this series.

This time, I intend to focus on the single greatest improvement in technology (other than the development of black powder) that has made modern, highly colored fireworks possible.  Until relatively recently the only colors available were white, yellow, and a dull red, with very faded out, compared to today, other colors.

First some theory, then some facts.  Please follow.