Category: history
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Luther, the Reformation, and the publication of ideas that matter
I watched the excellent 2003 film “Luther” last night, and it is fitting I saw it so close to the worldwide theatrical release of Dan Brown’s book “The Da Vinci Code.” For the past several weeks, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the issues raised by Brown in his book, as well…
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The moon the night Titanic sank
I was excited to learn about the amazing, free and powerful planetarium software program Stellarium this week, and have taken some time to play with it a bit since. This morning with one of our science professors, we used it to discover exactly where the moon was the morning of April 15, 1912 when the…
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Remembering the Holocaust
Milblogger Jason has posted haunting images of the Holocaust and reflected about his role in the US military serving in Iraq. I really don’t think it is possible for people who did not experience the Holocaust to adequately comprehend the magnitude of the suffering and evil which was endured and perpetuated during those years. Tragically,…
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Shay’s Rebellion
Great podcast interview by Eric Langhorst this week with RJ Cutter, the documentary filmmaker who covered Shay’s Rebellion for the History Channel’s series on 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America. Be sure to also check out Eric’s excellent show notes for related links.
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The 2nd US Civil War
I just finished watching an amazing PBS documentary, “American Experience | Reconstruction: The Second Civil War” via Netflix. The PBS website which accompanies and extends this documentary is superb. Watching this really makes me want to retract my statement from today’s keynote address, that we are living in the most uncertain times of human history.…
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Value of life, forgiveness, the Holocaust
We are living in a small world, but the ease of communication that is brought by the blogsophere and videoconferencing technologies does not change the incredible pain and suffering experienced by many in the past and present. While reading the Global Voices Online – Armenia blog posts tonight I read through to find Onnik Krikorian’s…
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Podcast48: Library of Congress Online Resources
This podcast features an interview with a Library of Congress employee who helped staff the LOC booth at the Florida Educational Technology Conference in late March 2006. She discusses the digital resources available for students and teachers at the Library of Congress, several oral history projects and resource websites including American Memory, and addresses the…
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Fun weather and exploration game
Windward! is a fun, FREE, online game from Cable in the Classroom that challenges students to learn about weather, ocean currents, and sailing to race around the world. The game reminds me of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that I liked in elementary school, which permit the reader to make a decision at different…
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Year of The Hangman Book Blog
Eric Langhorst’s 8th grade American History students in Liberty, Missouri are participating in a creative blogging activity. Eric has created the “The Year of The Hangman Book Blog” to encourage students to engage in thoughtful discussions with classmates and others in a dialog focusing on the book, its issues, and the questions it raises. Read…
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Climbing Popo
In the spring of 1993 I had an amazing opportunity to climb the Mexican volcano Popocatepetl. Popo is over 17,000 feet high and sits to the south of the valley of Mexico. Together with its sister volcano Iztaccihuatl (Izta), the two great mountains form the “Pass of Cortez” which was named because it was part…