The Disappearance of the Elephant Caused the Rise of Modern Man

Dietary change led to the appearance of modern humans in the Middle East 400,000 years ago, say TAU researchers

http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=15665

Origins of farming in Europe result of human migration and cultural change, study suggests

Origins of farming in Europe result of human migration and cultural change, study suggests

The Age of Thirst in the American West

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-debuys/the-age-of-thirst-in-the-_b_1130013.html

If you're involved in education, read this!

When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html

Yale: Art find in Egypt 15,000 years old

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Yale-Art-find-in-Egypt-15-000-years-old-2307625.php

Finds in Oman Push Back Date of Modern Human Exodus Out of Africa

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/finds-in-oman-push-back-date-of-modern-human-exodus-out-of-africa

Humans and climate contributed to extinctions of large Ice Age mammals, new study finds

Humans and climate contributed to extinctions of large Ice Age mammals, new study finds

The Viking Sunstone Revealed? - ScienceNOW

The Viking Sunstone Revealed? - ScienceNOW

Booze laws have had a tortured history in Washington

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Booze-laws-have-had-a-tortured-history-in-2211813.php

First North American hunters 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, speared mastodon fossil shows

First North American hunters 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, speared mastodon fossil shows

First North American Hunters 1,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought, Speared Mastodon Fossil Shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020145054.htm

Heard About The Irish Man, A Brooch, A Bowl And A Carved Stone?

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2011/10/heard-about-the-irish-man-a-brooch-a-bowl-and-a-carved-stone/

"What do a 7th century Irish brooch, a hanging bowl from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, a carved stone in Donegal, Ireland and a Marigold have in common? The answer is an unknown Irish craftsman who was in his time international famous."

Lock of hair pins down early migration of Aborigines

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15020799

"DNA from the hair demonstrates that indigenous Aboriginal Australians were the first to separate from other modern humans, around 70,000 years ago."

Moving beyond 'blame the teacher'

The problem with schools isn't teachers; it's a management system that pushes them aside.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-adler-teachers-20110916,0,2592824.story

Is the U.S. Reaching Peak Water?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petergleick/2011/09/07/is-the-u-s-reaching-peak-water/

"Adequate, high-quality freshwater is fundamental for health, growing food, natural ecosystems, and a productive U.S. economy including the production of energy and all vital goods and services. But as populations and economies grow, new constraints on water resources are appearing, raising questions about ultimate limits to water availability. In some parts of the world, including the U.S., the demand for water is outstripping the supply, causing political disputes and economic uncertainty, and raising the specter of peak water.”

A couple of good articles

What teachers really want to tell parents
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents/index.html

The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/benefits-mistakes-classroom-alina-tugend

More Water Issues

Q: What crop in the US uses the most water?
A: Your lawn.

El Paso Weathers Drought, Thanks To Lawn Policy
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/27/139994008/el-paso-weathers-drought-thanks-to-lawn-policy

Vegas tries to kick its water addiction
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/02/las.vegas.water/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

Gates Foundation: 'We need to reinvent the toilet'
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/07/19/toilet.design.gates/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2

Why rural education is failing

A very good article that goes into why standardization is bad for rural schools.

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/why-rural-education-is-failing

"The greatest challenge in rural education is the utter disregard for place. State and national governments pursue economic growth at the cost of communities, and such disregard is reflected in the way the state approaches public schooling. One of the most ugly and expedient trends in education is the “one size fits all” philosophy that identifies a set of best practices and ignores differences from place to place. The drive for homogeneity does not stem from a genuine concern for education, but a desire for administrative convenience. Having the same standards in all places may possess the ring of equality, but it conceals a bias favoring urban and suburban schools on which most educational standards are set." - Zach Wilson

West Virginia learns Finland's 'most honorable profession': Teacher

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/education.wv.finland/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

"When newly minted West Virginia Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Paine told parents, teachers and educators in 2005 that he wanted to use Finland as a model for their education system, he got a lot of blank stares: Finland? What, people asked, does West Virginia have to do with Finland?"

Water Issues

Desperate to drink, West Texas turns to wastewater
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/10/texas.desperate.to.drink/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

China's growing water crisis
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/10/chinas-growing-water-crisis/?hpt=hp_bn2
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/print/9684

Archeologists find remnants of 19th Century African-American village located in today's Central Park.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/vid​eo/world/2011/07/29/bs.seneca.​dig.nyc.cnn?hpt=hp_t2

Marine life facing mass extinction 'within one human generation'

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/oceans-on-brink-of-catastrophe-2300272.html

"The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing."

Donor aversion to 'unsexy' water projects threatens development goal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jun/27/donor-aversion-water-projects

"More than 1 billion people will not get the basic sanitation and the clean water promised as such projects shrink sharply as a proportion of global aid budgets"

Becoming a Teacher in Washington State

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12129463/becoming-a-teacher-in-washington-state

This is a funny video, but it's also pretty disturbing.

25 Common Items that Will Baffle Future Archeologists

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_216_25-common-items-that-will-baffle-future-archeologists/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

This reminds me of an imagined dig report I did for a class years ago. In 5000 years, what will archaeologists think about the Fremont Troll?

Göbekli Tepe

"We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization."

http://www.gobeklitepe.info/index.html

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html?device=iphone&c=y

The Bronze Age burnt mounds of Ireland are enigmatic; many theories have been proposed for their purpose, from cooking sites to prehistoric saunas. But were these monuments actually microbreweries for Bronze Age beer?

http://www.diggingthedirt.com/2011/06/04/past-orders-the-archaeology-of-beer-part-1/

http://www.diggingthedirt.com/2011/06/09/past-orders-part-2-the-great-beer-experiment/

http://www.diggingthedirt.com/2011/06/17/past-orders-part-3-a-hiccup-with-the-evidence/

Iron-Age brewing evidence found in southeastern France

"Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the occupants of southeastern France were brewing beer during the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago.
A paper in Human Ecology outlines the discovery of barley grains that had been sprouted in a process known as malting; an oven found nearby may have been used to regulate the process."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13776499

Hedge funds 'grabbing land' in Africa

Foreign hedge funds are behind "land grabs" in Africa to boost their profits in the food and biofuel sectors, according to a US think-tank.
"The same financial firms that drove us into a global recession by inflating the real estate bubble through risky financial manoeuvres are now doing the same with the world's food supply," the report said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13688683

http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-understanding-land-investment-deals-africa

Uruguay is trying to give a laptop, with internet, to every student in the country.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/node/633?cid=EXT_FBWB_D_EXT

Momentum Mounts to Again Embrace Two-Spirits

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/momentum-mounts-to-again-embrace-two-spirits/

"A growing body of scholarly work shows that many American Indian tribes had a place for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) members in their culture and ceremonies. Like many Native traditions, this acceptance was lost when the dominant society drummed traditional tribal beliefs out of a generation of Indians and replaced them..."

"Lake sediments in western Greenland confirm that abrupt climate change brought cold conditions to the region just before the collapse of the Norse settlements."
"Now, new research by U.S. and British scientists led by geologist William D'Andrea at Brown University, Providence, RI, reconstructs 5,600 years of climate history buried in lake sediments of West Greenland that links temperatures and three human migrations in the region, including the Norse. Their study was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

http://news.discovery.com/earth/shifting-climes-in-greenland-110601.html

http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573

This is an amazing letter that needs to read by everyone. A school superintendent in Michigan wrote to the governor asking that the schools be turned into prisons. He presents a great argument. I just find it sad that we are such a reactive society. We refuse to properly fund education even though we know of the links between not educating people and crime. Lets cut education now and spent 10x as much on prisons in ten years. Not a wise fiscal policy, yet that is exactly what we do.

Dear Governor Snyder,

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.

One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.

This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools

Geometry skills are innate, Amazon tribe study suggests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13469925

"Tests given to an Amazonian tribe called the Mundurucu suggest that our intuitions about geometry are innate.
Researchers examined how the Mundurucu think about lines, points and angles, comparing the results with equivalent tests on French and US schoolchildren.
The Mundurucu showed comparable understanding, and even outperformed the students on tasks that asked about forms on spherical surfaces."

Researchers Explore the Seafaring Culture of the Maya

http://www.history.com/news/2011/05/23/researchers-explore-the-seafaring-culture-of-the-maya/?cmpid=Social_Facebook_Hith_05232011_3

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/11maya/background/slideshow/flash_slideshow.html

This month, researchers are seeking a better understanding of Maya maritime trade by excavating an ancient port city on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Early Bronze Age battle site found on German river bank

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13469861

Fractured human remains found on a German river bank could provide the first compelling evidence of a major Bronze Age battle.

Inca success in Peruvian Andes 'thanks to llama dung'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13439093

Inca civilization may never have developed as we know it without the helping hand of llama droppings, a new study finds.

California Governor Puts the Testing Juggernaut On Ice

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/05/california_governor_puts_the_t.html

California Governor Jerry Brown has taken a big step towards reducing the testing mania in the nation's most populous state.

The tent that turns into concrete in less than 24 hours

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13430747

http://www.concretecanvas.co.uk/

"The past 12 months have seen a remarkable number of humanitarian crises with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand and deadly tornadoes in the southern US being among the most recent.
Among new innovations which could help relief efforts is a fabric shelter that, when sprayed with water, turns to concrete within 24 hours.
Invented by two engineers while at university, Concrete Canvas allows aid teams to construct solid structures in emergency zones quickly and easily.
Will Crawford and Peter Brewin showed BBC News how the concrete tent is put together and spoke about what inspired them."

If you were to be buried with grave goods, what would you take?. As you were pushed out to sea on a flaming boat, laid beneath you shield, or mummified and placed in a tomb; what would you have alongside? What would be the objects that would most define you? Who or what should accompany you?

Neanderthals in the far north 33kya.

It looks as if Neanderthals may have been living in the far north of Russia 33,000 years ago. This is a lot farther north than previously thought and provides more evidence they survived much later than previously thought. The stone tools look to be Mousterian (Middle Paleolithic).

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/neanderthal-last-stand-tools-ural-mountains-110512.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6031/778.summary

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6031/841.abstract

Anthropocene: Have humans created a new geological age?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13335683

Billionaire's role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/billionaires-role-in-hiring-decisions-at-florida-state-university-raises/1168680

"A dean says it would be "irresponsible" not to accept a large donation. A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.
A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/scientific-misnomers-71-nutcracker-man/story-fn5fsgyc-1226048900405

"After a half-century of referring to an ancient pre-human as Nutcracker Man because of his large teeth and powerful jaw, scientists now conclude that he actually chewed grasses instead."
"It turns out that the early human known as Paranthropus boisei did not eat nuts but dined more heavily on grasses than any other human ancestor or human relative studied to date."

Princess sheds new light on early Celts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13225829

The discovery of what is believed to be the oldest aristocratic female grave from the Celtic world could reveal a previously unknown way of life, writes Stephen Evans.

The Meaning of Words: New Evidence of Ancient Maya History

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/25/the-meaning-of-words-new-evidence-of-ancient-maya-history/?source=link_fb20110502ancientmayahistory

"The ancient Maya culture flourished in Mesoamerica. At the height of their splendor there’s an overwhelming rise in architectural construction, the type of buildings that pay homage to their rulers and their ancestors. Archaeologists call this phenomenon the Classic Maya Period, a time between 200 and 900 A.D. Within these centuries, archaeologists have found evidence that city-states expressed their power by creating unique architectural centers that in many ways were meant to replicate their cosmology."

It seems that the US isn't the only country trying to drive teachers crazy

In Britain:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/25/stress-drives-teachers-out-of-schools

"Stress is driving increasing numbers of teachers out of the profession, with some even considering suicide, a teaching union conference heard on Monday. Delegates at the National Union of Teachers conference in Harrogate heard there had been a "meteoric" rise in work-related stress due to demands to meet government targets."

In Chile:
http://www.economist.com/node/17679703

"[President] Piñera took office in March after two decades of centre-left rule. His centre-right alliance claims that despite a big rise since the mid-1990s in the proportion of young people at secondary school and university, standards have not improved. That is not borne out by the PISA results. Chile’s average scores have risen steadily since 2000."

Werner Herzog Enters 'The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams'

"German filmmaker Werner Herzog was one of the few people permitted to enter a cave in France containing the oldest recorded cave paintings. What he saw — and what he imagined — is the subject of a new documentary, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams."

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/20/135516812/herzog-enters-the-cave-of-forgotten-dreams

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664894/

BRICS in search of a foundation

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/04/emerging_economic_powers?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/briceinsearchoffoundation

This is worth reading. It's also worth knowing who the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and, now, South Africa) are and how they will end up shaping the world over the next few decades.

Q: How do you prove that public schools are failing and that charter schools will save our children?
A: Lie.

http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00503

"Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch tells reporters to dig deep when states or school districts or even individual schools claim big educational gains; chances are someone is gaming the system."

Cerabino: ZIP code edges are battle lines in FCAT war

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/cerabino-zip-code-edges-are-battle-lines-in-1392277.html

"If you want to know which schools will do well on the FCAT, you don't have to consider the teachers at all. You just need to look at the school's ZIP code.
The idea that there's a direct relationship between the value of the teacher and the test scores of his or her students ignores the obvious: That what goes on in the students' lives outside the classroom is the biggest determinant of FCAT success."

Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights

"The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry."

Prison spending bleeds education system

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/07/jealous.prison.reform/index.html?hpt=Sbin

There is a bipartisan tide of lawmakers who are trying to fix our nation's out-of-control corrections system, and make funding for education the priority.

Prehistoric Americans Traded Chocolate for Turquoise?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110329-chocolate-turquoise-trade-prehistoric-peoples-archaeology/?source=link_fb20110329chocolatetrading

Talk about a sweet deal—prehistoric peoples of Mesoamerica may have traded chocolate for gems from the U.S. Southwest, a new study suggests.
Traces of a chemical found in cacao—the main ingredient in chocolate—were found in several drinking vessels from various sites in Pueblo Bonito, a complex of sandstone "great houses" in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-03-28-1Aschooltesting28_CV_N.htm?csp=hf

A USA TODAY investigation into D.C. public schools raises questions about gains in standardized test scores.

South Sound Indian tribes go from humble beginnings to economic powers

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/27/1594195/native-comeback-major-employer.html

World Water Day

http://www.worldwaterday.org/

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kbVPnqJ73xQ

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/aquafinito/?utm_source=snagfilms.com&utm_medium=referral

http://www.irc.nl/

http://www.endwaterpoverty.org/

Mother hopes others will opt out of standardized testing

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/20/pennsylvania.school.testing/index.html?hpt=T2

A Pennsylvania mother has decided she does not want her two children to take the two-week-long standardized tests given by her state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law. And she hopes other parents will do the same.

U.S. Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status

An international education study says the United States must improve the way it recruits, trains and pays teachers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/education/16teachers.html?hpw

http://www.mcgraw-hillresearchfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/pisa-intl-competitiveness.pdf

Why Pre-K Education is Worth the Cost

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/early-education-pre-k-worth-funding-reasons-anne-obrien?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=Why+Pre-keducationisworththecost

This is definitely worth reading.

What the United States could learn from Finland about education reform.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/82329/education-reform-Finland-US?page=0,0

"In comparison to the United States and many other industrialized nations, the Finns have implemented a radically different model of educational reform—based on a balanced curriculum and professionalization, not testing. Not only do Finnish educational authorities provide students with far more recess than their U.S. counterparts—75 minutes a day in Finnish elementary schools versus an average of 27 minutes in the U.S.—but they also mandate lots of arts and crafts, more learning by doing, rigorous standards for teacher certification, higher teacher pay, and attractive working conditions. This is a far cry from the U.S. concentration on testing in reading and math since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, which has led school districts across the country, according to a survey by the Center on Education Policy, to significantly narrow their curricula."

This is truly psychotic. Leave it to New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/education/07winerip.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

Grading New York Teachers: When the Formulas Lie

A teacher in Manhattan earns effusive praise from her principal, colleagues and students. But the school system’s formula pan her performance?

Common Curriculum for Public Schools Is Supported by Bipartisan Group

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/education/07curriculum.html?hpw

The proposal would go beyond the academic standards in English and mathematics that about 40 states adopted last year, by providing specific guidelines about what should be taught in each grade.

This was well done. I don't know the author, but it's been spreading around Facebook. I had to share it.

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
by Meredith Menden on Friday, February 18, 2011 at 3:32pm

Are you sick of highly paid teachers? Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

State governments and the State Department must realize that even in times of financial crisis, it costs less and is more efficient to spend the money on education now than it is to have to spend 20 to 100 times as much building and maintaining prisons domestically, and managing wars overseas, twenty years from now.

Indian farmers are committing suicide after going into debt from using genetically modified seeds

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html

"When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared."

You often see human skulls used as drinking vessels in horror films. Well, the practice was real, though a little earlier than you might think.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017026

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12478115

"Ancient Britons were not averse to using human skulls as drinking cups, skeletal remains unearthed in southwest England suggest. The braincases from three individuals were fashioned in such a meticulous way that their use as bowls to hold liquid seems the only reasonable explanation. The 14,700-year-old objects were discovered in Gough's Cave, Somerset."

I've used this blog primarily to post URLs of history, archaeology, or education stories and articles. However, the last couple of weekends have been worth jotting a note about. Last Saturday, was the WSCSS teacher conference in the International District with workshops on the Japanese American internment during WWII. The locations included the Nisei Veterans Hall, the Wing Luke Asian Museum, and the Chinese Information Services Center. It was also the weekend after the Chinese and Vietnamese New Year so there were a few other things going on too.

Today, was a teacher conference concerning the Holocaust, antisemitism, Nazi propaganda, and the Rwanda Genocide. There were some wonderful presentations and workshops. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum provided excellent materials and some rather pricey books for us. It was all free. It's pretty amazing the information they provided us.

http://wingluke.org/home.htm
http://www.seattlenvc.org
http://www.cisc-seattle.org/
http://www.ushmm.org/
http://www.wsherc.org/
http://worldoutsidemyshoes.org/
http://www.panzifoundation.org/

The Last Acceptable Racism: Native Americans

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/the-last-acceptable-racism-native-americans/

This article is worth reading. People are quick to be offended at racist stereotypes toward almost any group except for Native Americans.

http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/answers-to-the-latest-quiz-on-the-baltimore-rhee-miracle/

One of the Michelle Rhee myths is that her students made spectacular test score gains during her brief teaching career in a Baltimore charter school. G.F. Brandenburg, a retired D.C. math teacher/blogger, examined the record: "This study is pretty conclusive evidence that Michelle Rhee was flat-out lying in her resume, in her testimony about her resume, and in her interview last month in the Washingtonian magazine."

- The above statement from the 'NOT Waiting for Superman' Facebook site is better than anything I could have written.

Speaking In Defense Of Science

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/02/09/133591874/speaking-in-defense-of-science?sc=tw

"Although it may seem like old news, science and the teaching of science remains under attack in many parts of the country. This "anti-scientifism" is costing the United States dearly. A country that distrusts science is condemned to move straight back to medieval obscurantism. While many countries are working hard to educate their young about the values of science and of scientific research, in the U.S. countless people are teaching them to mistrust science..."

Americans ignorant of Egypt uprisings.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/02/201128192448625688.html

"More than half of United States' citizens have heard 'a little or nothing at all' about the uprising and violence in Egypt, a survey has revealed. And those who have been following events seem noncommittal about what their impact is likely to be. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, some 52 per cent of the people interviewed during the past five days knew precious little about the events in Egypt. Only 28 per cent of respondents thought they would have a negative effect, while 15 per cent said the calls for political change in Egypt would be good for the US. Meanwhile, 58 per cent of the 1,385 people polled said the protests were unlikely to have much of an effect whatsoever on the US."

The Curse of the “Smart” Student

http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/2010/01/13/the-curse-of-the-smart-student/

What happens when students who have been doing well suddenly don't do so well when they're challenged?

Why I am not a defender of the ‘status quo’ in education — because the ‘status quo’ is failed ed reforms

http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/why-i-am-not-a-defender-of-the-status-quo-in-education-because-the-status-quo-is-failed-ed-reforms/

This is a great article about how many education reformers like to dismiss anybody who disagrees with their agenda as defending the status quo. And yes, the status quo is failing students. The reality is, however, that the status quo is NCLB, Race to the Top, resources pulled from schools, poor students having fewer resources than their wealthy counterparts, decisions being made by unelected millionaires with no background in education.

The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time?

This is an interesting proposal. Humans have made such an impact on the environment, that many millennia from now, it will be very noticeable in the geologic record.

http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1938

Why Keeping Little Girls Squeaky Clean Could Make Them Sick

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/03/133371076/how-keeping-little-girls-squeaky-clean-could-make-them-sick?ps=sh_sthdl

How girls are socialized may account for some disparities in the illnesses that affect them compared with boys. Young boys are more likely to be allowed to get dirty, which may expose them to more germs that help temper their immune systems.

Should iPads Replace Textbooks?

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/26711276/detail.html?source=lnta

Georgia state lawmakers are considering a pilot program that would replace textbooks with iPads.

On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1565/772.full

How did Viking explorers navigate through the overcast North Atlantic? The legends spoke of sunstones. One hypothesis stated that polarizing light crystals were used to find the sun. Now, an experiment seems to confirm this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12300228

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/humans-may-have-left-africa-for-eurasia-earlier-than-believed/?hpt=C2&hpt=C2

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6016/387.short

Modern humans may have emerged from Africa up to 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests. Researchers have uncovered stone tools in the Arabian peninsula that they say were made by modern humans about 125,000 years ago.

Seyward Darby of The New Republic argues that the media should focus more on shaming poor education policies rather than the teachers who must follow them.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/21/133107417/the-new-republic-media-dont-publish-teacher-data

Tribal history comes alive in state classrooms

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/01/03/1493106/tribal-history-comes-alive-in.html
Washington among states that require lessons on Indian events, culture

Scientists aim to bring mammoth back to life

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/T110108003296.htm
"A team of researchers will attempt to resurrect the species using cloning technologies after obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian mammoth research laboratory."

Oldest Winery Unearthed in Armenian Cave dates to more than 6,000 years ago

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/winery-oldest-armenia-110111.html

Ancient Farmers Swiftly Spread Westward

http://news.discovery.com/history/agriculture-ancient-farmers-110110.html

Sophisticated farming methods traveled quickly from the Middle East into Europe around 8,000 years ago.

Five myths about why the South seceded

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703178.html?sid=ST2011010703601

Cherokee, Apple partner to put language on iPhones

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/business/Cherokee-Apple-partner-to-put-language-on-iPhones-113080244.html