More learning by ear

Laura asked me to find some more podcasts for her so I thought I’d list some of the goodies we’ve come across lately:
Dr. Temple Grandin is giving interviews to help publicize her latest book, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals; she was on CBC’s “Quirks & Quarks” science show last week, [...]

Our new favorite family magazine

Sometime last fall at the grocery store I was surprised to find a new magazine, BBC Knowledge — “for the curious mind: science . history . nature”. The layout is rather busier than I like and the articles not as in depth as Smithsonian’s, but the magazine is packed with all sorts of interesting articles, [...]

Poetry Friday: The February hush

The February Hush
by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911)
Snow o’er the darkening moorlands,
Flakes fill the quiet air;
Drifts in the forest hollows,
And a soft mask everywhere.
The nearest twig on the pine-tree
Looks blue through the whitening sky,
And the clinging beech-leaves rustle
Though never a wind goes by.
But there’s red on the wildrose berries,
And red in the lovely glow
On the cheeks [...]

“Deep, recurring human truths”

Reading through The Guardian online last week I came across the news that UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, an atheist (and also one of the directors of The Poetry Archive), has “called for an overhaul of the school curriculum to reverse the ‘depressing’ trend which threatened to leave future generations unable to fully understand the [...]

Mark your calendar

From PRWeb:
The official 50th anniversary of The Elements of Style is April 16, 2009, and an event to celebrate the occasion will be held in New York City with a panel of writers and journalists discussing the power of the “little book,” featuring acclaimed writers Roger Rosenblatt, Roy Blount Jr. and Barbara Wallraff, columnist for [...]

Writing that endures

From Jonathan Darman’s recent article on biographer Robert A. Caro, “The Marathon Man”, in the current issue of Newsweek:
By training, Robert Caro is a journalist. By profession, he is a biographer, among the most highly acclaimed living, thanks to his four books—three volumes on Johnson and a saga about the New York public-works titan Robert [...]

Selling (to) girls

Admission: Laura does have two American Girl dolls, just about all of their clothes, a nightgown for herself (now hitting mid-calf), the movies, and all of the hardcover collected historical stories, from Felicity to the WWII one (Molly?).  But I’ve always been aware of the marketing angle, one of the reasons we try to avoid [...]

Darwin 200: Day 6: Time for presents

It’s Mr. Darwin’s birthday, but we get the presents.  Last April The Guardian put up its seven-part online Science Course, in partnership with the Science Museum in London; where, by the way, entry is free, so that’s another present.
The Guardian’s Science Course: Part I, The Universe; Part II, Life & Genetics; Part III, The Earth; [...]

Poetry Friday II: Be Mine

excerpt from
Love-songs, at Once Tender and Informative –
An Unusual Combination in Verses of This Character
by Samuel Hoffenstein (1890-1947)
Maid of Gotham, ere we part,
Have a hospitable heart –
Since our own delights must end,
Introduce me to your friend.
—–
If you love me, as I love you,
We’ll both be friendly and untrue.
—–
Your little hands,
Your little feet,
Your little mouth –
Oh, [...]

Darwin 200: Day 5: Poetry Friday

A twofer, featuring excerpts from an 1802 poem by Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin; his last work, the volume was published posthumously. You can find the entire work here.
The Temple of Nature:
Or, The Origin of Society:
A Poem, with Philosophical Notes
by Erasmus Darwin
Canto I
Production of Life
I. BY firm immutable immortal laws
Impress’d on Nature by the [...]

“One of the wonders of the day”

“What did you think of the inaugural?  That rail-splitting lawyer is one of the wonders of the day.  Once at Gettysburg and now again on a greater occasion he has shown a capacity for rising to the demands of the hour which we should not expect from orators or men of the schools.  This inaugural [...]

Darwin 200: Day 4: The Big One

Illustration by Carl Buell at Olduvai George
Many thanks to Mr. Buell for sharing, and hat tip to Michael at The Dispersal of Darwin

Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln

(many happy returns and a tip of the old hat as well to The New Yorker and Mr. Tilley, both of whom are 84 years young this month):

“Abe Tilley Lincoln Builds a Cabin for His Friend” by Dailyode
And, as Laura noted, it’s a cabin not divided…
Another Lincoln-inspired entry, and another
But sadly not, as far as [...]

Darwin 200: Charles Darwin’s Day

(Previously posted last year as “Funny, you don’t look a day over 198″, with some updates and revisions)

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”
Charles Darwin

A very happy [...]

“The best Abe Lincolns”

The Horn Book Magazine has a new special feature about the best children’s biographies of our 16th President, from picture books for the youngest readers to titles for young adults.
If you have time to go to the library to find some new reading before tomorrow, go!

Darwin 200: Day 3 III: More Radio Darwin

CBC Radio’s Sunday Edition program finally has available for online listening their show from last Sunday, February 8, which includes ” ‘Darwin’s Ghost,’ a collection of interviews, characters, songs, poems and other stimulating bits about the legacy of Charles Darwin”, and other “debate, discussion and dissection of Darwin” with Brian Alters, Director of Evolution Education [...]

Darwin 200: Day 3 II: From a common origin

My father, the Old Curmudgeon, sent me Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s current article for The New Republic, “Charles Darwin, Conservative? Two hundred years later, the right still misunderstands him”.  From which (with a few links I’ve added):
Polls, particularly in the United States, tell us that many conservatives still distrust Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The bicentennial [...]

Darwin 200: Day 3: Teach Evolution

Colin Purrington is also the force behind the Evolution Outreach Projects page, which includes a wealth of educational and amusing links
National Center for Science Education, and the Center’s page of resources.  And, the NCSE’s latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach — a new journal to promote accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory [...]

A new home education adventure

I just read over at the I.N.K. blog — Interesting Nonfiction for Kids — that one of our family’s favorite nonfiction authors, Steve Jenkins and his family has plans to travel and begin home schooling. (This week, Steve’s Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution has pride of place on our coffee table along with [...]

Darwin 200: Day 2: Highly evolved toys

Some educational, others just for fun:
Toys for the young and young at heart
(I haven’t ordered from any of the following companies so you’re on your own)
If you or your kids get inspired by Project Beagle and want to build your own — ship, that is — you can, with the HMS Beagle plastic ship model [...]