Space - the next frontier

This month's issue of Wired magazine has a fascinating sidebar on the space-related activities of the Island of Man...you read this correctly...the Island of Man. It seems that the Manx have been up to all manner of curious activity without many folks paying attention. Like developing a Space Law Initiative, for instance. And being at the forefront of space tourism activities. Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic and the new Spaceport America speak to the same impulse. It looks as though approaches to a most global concern - the use of space - might well be answered exclusively by entrepreneurs and not governments. The fact that the government of the Isle of Man has shown this kind of initiative, and that Spaceport America is in New Mexico (because of the vision of Governor Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Legislature) further reinforces a sense that societies in the 21st century will, and will have to, organize themselves around different institutions than the industrial age did.

America 3.0? What's that?

America 3.0 is the name I give to the contemporary age - the third age of the American nation. I hold that the history of the United States can be understood to divide into three ages each of which is marked by two qualities. First, each of these ages is qualitatively and quantitatively different from the other and these differences can be observed in the historical record, analyzed and critiqued. Second, each of these ages, while revealing significant differences one from the other, still occur within a sociocultural matrix that is American (and I define this American sociocultural matrix as existing as early as the first generation of European settlement in England's colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America.). What interests me in this blog is not America 1.0 (the colonial period through the founding of the nation until the industrialization of the eastern cities, roughly 1815) or America 2.0 (America in the industrial age, roughly 1815 through the early 1970s) but the contemporary age, which I am defining as showing evidence of manifestation as early as the 1950s but which is certainly emerging in the 1970s. This is the age we live in now - demonstrably American and radically, fundamentally different from the America of 40 years ago. This blog will explore the character of the contemporary age by investigating critical questions in contemporary American society, culture and politics.

If the history of the United States between 1815 and 1875 (that period when America 1.0 gave way to America 2.0) offers any wisdom, the transition between America 2.0 and America 3.0 is likely to be turbulent, difficult, generational in duration and marked by schism, anger, instability, disequilibrium and anxiety. I will firmly embed much of this blog in the Braudelian tradition of the Annales School of historical thought and inquiry. In "A History of Civilizations," Braudel posits that historians work in three time frames. The first, the "A" frame, is that of narrative history - the trees, rather than the forest. The "B" frame is that of "events of long duration" (Braudel, 34), where historical events are seen as interacting with each other in ways much like I described above. While it is in this frame that I will spend the majority of my effort, there is an additional "C" frame. This is the frame that goes beyond the day-to-day or even the decade-by-decade, in describing it, Braudel writes: "on this scale, the French Revolution is no more than a moment, however essential, in the long history of the revolutionary, liberal and violent destiny of the West" (Braudel, 34). While I am most interested in the "B" frame as an historian, the "A" and "C" have virtues as well. - I don't plan to limit myself to one or the other. I will close by citing Braudel citing Foucault regarding the nature of civilizations. Foucalt writes: "One might trace the history of the limits, of those obscure actions, necessarily forgotten as soon as they are performed, whereby a civilization casts aside something it regards as alien. Throughout its history, this moat which it digs around itself, this no man's land by which it preserves its isolation, is just as characteristic as its positive values. For it receives and maintains its values as continuous features of its history; but in the area which we have chosen to discuss it makes its essential choice, the selection - which gives it its positive nature - the essential substance of which it is made" (Braudel, citing Foucault, 31). In studying the transition of the past 40 years and the emergence of America 3.0, I hope we will regularly consider the limits we have imposed on ourselves as a people in the past and consider the limits that our contemporary decisions impose or lift.

Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom

David McCandless is doing fascinating, award-winning work on informationisbeautiful.net and this diagram is a great example of it. While McCandless acknowledges that the ideas present in the diagram are not particularly new, he demonstrates that his new organization of it proves the power of beautiful, clean design to make complex ideas understandable and then actionable. We often forget that complex understanding is built from smaller units of knowing. In education, we seem to fetishize the base of the pyramid, hence our obsession with high-stakes testing, multiple-choice exams and endlessly fiddly grammatical exercises. To achieve our long-term goals, however, we need to spend much more of our effort moving students up this pyramid rather than grinding away at the base.

A colleague of mine has a way of teaching the mechanics of writing that speaks to the deep wisdom of McCandless' way of organizing understanding. She speaks to students about "word-level concerns," "sentence-level concerns" and "paragraph-level concerns," regarding their writing. This is a powerful way of helping students understand what they are doing in their writing, particularly when it is not effective writing. It helps them become intuitive users of words and discriminating editors of their sentences and paragraphs. Once students have learned the base of the pyramid, it is incumbent upon us as educators to help them orient their thinking to the bigger picture.

Learning in the 21st century is being fundamentally transformed by the ever-present availability of data in the form of Google search, Wikipedia and other sources. Our first responsibility as educators, therefore, must be to resist our old temptation to spend our time and effort at the base of the pyramid. We should be teaching to "knowledge" and "wisdom," helping students use the data and information they have readily at hand to make sense of the world.

Technology and Education 1.0

The transformation of American society from its agrarian roots (America 1.0) to its industrial near-past (America 2.0) took place over some 60 years, between roughly 1810 and 1870. Our present transformation, launched in the 1950s, has accelerated year on year, creating a most astonishing and productive gap between students and teachers, between the needs of the future and the capacity of the present. School leaders have the extraordinary challenge and opportunity to help their faculty and students bridge this gap. One way to do this is by looking not to the future, but to the past.

ISTE's National Education Technology Standards call on administrators to "create, promote, and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for all students." Too often, education technology teachers and school administrators seem to operate on the principle that the tool (Wordpress blogging software, for example) take precedence over the learning that the tool is supposed to facilitate (i.e. collaboration, critical thinking). This is a half-measure.

In order to be effective with teachers who are not digital natives and students who are, administrators need to make clear connections between a particular tool and the meaningful learning that tool is supposed to facilitate. Technology for its own sake will always intrigue a select group of teachers and students. The ISTE standard isn't speaking to them. Nor am I.

I have said in previous posts that from my perspective the Greeks got it right - the purpose of education is to empower the young to be able to ask good questions, think critically and give sound answers to those and other questions. We have never needed students who can think like philosophers more than we do now. The great advantage of living in the dawning of America 3.0 is that we get to ask questions to anyone and to crowd-source wisdom before making final judgments. Digital immigrant faculty who are either confused by or mistrustful of technology in the classroom will surely agree that students need the capacity to think critically more than ever.

Administrators must empower their educational technology staff to respond flexibly to the needs of teachers and students. They have to be many things to many people and have to be evaluated on that principle! Furthermore, administrators must encourage their teachers to boldly experiment with technology tools within a framework of developing student critical thinking. At my school, two teachers constructed a final exam for their 19th and 20th century world history class in which a documentary film made with iMovie and other tools formed the core of the students' work. One teacher was a digital native, the other, a digital immigrant. Both agreed that the form of a documentary film was appropriate for a final exam. What made the project work was not the technology but rather the questions the students were expected to answer by means of the technology. I would encourage school administrators to reward experimentation, flexibility and creativity, but to do so within a framework of the expectation of critical thinking.

Intentions

You can hardly turn over an iPad without finding a website or blog or forum talking about technology in the classroom, 21^st century skills and/or 1-to-1 computing in the classroom. Many of these blogs are excellent - valuable resources to aid teaching and enhance student learning. I read Teach Paperless, Free Tech For Teachers, Magistra, For The Love Of Learning and Design For Education and find them a great help to my teaching practice. A reasonable person might take a jaundiced view to a writer launching another education blog talking about technology in the classroom.

It's a good thing that this isn't one of them.

In this blog I will argue the following points:

1. The state of the nation and the circumstances of our education system demand radical, urgent change.

2. Our conventional ways of organizing knowledge are at best counterproductive and at worst dangerously limiting.

3. Unless we create and cultivate learning practices that develop critical thinking, our young people will suffer and, as a result, so will the future.

4. At the time I am writing this post, the graduating class of 2020 is enrolled in the 2^nd grade; the idea that what we are doing now will prepare them for that world is indefensible.

In many circles, these points are not especially radical. I hope that the solutions I will be proposing might be seen as both radical and doable.

The purpose of education is to provide children with the means to make dignifying choices about their life and work in adulthood and to sustain our democratic, American experiment by giving the young the capacity to meaningfully participate and critique power and injustice.

I look forward to the conversation.

Top 5! - Nonfiction TV Presenters

Who doesn't love really great TV? I can't think of anyone. I have been watching some fine television lately and, one program in particular, got me to thinking about how critical a good presenter is to making a nonfiction show (NOT reality - which is a different genre altogether - await another post for discussions of that). Here are 5 that would make any show worth watching.

5. Rachel Allen
Host of the Cooking Channel's "Bake," she is the most appealing host on this very promising network. She makes everything seem easy (and having done some baking, I know that what she's doing only looks easy), loves her subject and loves teaching it. The cookery class segments that run through each episode showcase her finest skill - teaching. A program like this should really teach, and Rachel does. I think I'm going to make some Florence's Orange Cake tonight.

4. Alistair Appleton
I know, I know. Another person from the British Isles (don't worry - more are coming). I know Appleton's work from BBC's "Cash In The Attic,"where he is superhumanly engaging. It doesn't matter how off-the wall the subjects of a week's show might be (and there have been some batty folks on this show), Appleton's breezy accessibility, ease and poise are always on display.

3. Carl Sagan
1980's Cosmos was such a triumph that in my belief no program has surpassed it. Still completely watchable, deeply philosophical and deeply human, it was Sagan's intelligence, warmth and capacity to explain that remains the series' hallmark. Anyone who wants to know how to teach engagingly about difficult topics could do worse than have a watch of this program.

2. Clarkson, Hammond and May on BBC's Top Gear
Proof that a program can be about anything provided its presenters are engaging, and Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have engaging in excess. Essentially three middle-agish men behaving like 12-year-olds (being given triple dog dares by producers who are just as juvenile), Top Gear is nominally about cars. Its content is of the highest quality, but it is the relationship between these three guys that make Top Gear the most informative and funniest show on TV.

1. James Burke
Oh, James, with your fashionable leisure suits and penchant for fine dining on remote mountaintops. As good as Cosmos was, in many respects Connections was even better, because it not only does science, but society, culture and predictive futurism. Watch the first episode of Connections and you'll see what I mean. Burke was on to something - something that lots of us are thinking about these days. I don't think his recent series have been anywhere near in quality to Connections and The Day The Universe Changed, but Burke himself is and remains the best presenter there is.

Franklin's Wisdom

I never cease to be motivated, intimidated and awestruck by Benjamin Franklin's wisdom and intentionality. As regular readers will know, I am an ardent devotee of the Information is Beautiful blog. This morning, David McCandless offered an image of Franklin's daily calendar as an example of beautiful information. And it certainly is that. Have a look at this and tell me what it motivates you to do.

What good have you done? And what good will you do tomorrow?

Top 5! - Foreign Words for "Snow"

We all know the great "Eskimo's have 100 words for snow" hoax, but to honor my East Coast family and friends, Bricole offers five words for snow from other languages to tickle your uvula and give you some more colorful language to describe the white stuff piled shoulder-high in driveways and on lawns.

5 - apaq qar (Uyghur)
Literally "pure white snow." Uyghur, a Turkic language, is spoken mainly in Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China. Uyghur is spoken by about 10 million people.

4 - vtsi (Cherokee)
Cherokee, an Iroquoian language, is spoken by about 15,000 people primarily in North Carolina and Oklahoma.

3 - huka (Maori)
Maori, an Austronesian language, is spoken by about 150,000 people, primarily in New Zealand.

2 - ergh (Cornish)
Cornish, a Celtic language, was spoken in Cornwall. Extinct since the 1700s, it is enjoying a small revival.

1 - elur (Basque)
Basque is one of the most fascinating languages still spoken because linguists have never been able to show any relationship between it and any other spoken language. It is spoken by more than 600,000 people in southern France and northern Spain.

Duran Duran and Barenaked Ladies - new albums returning to roots

My mother-in-law sent me an iTunes gift certificate for my birthday last month and I just got around to using it. I bought the most recent albums from two of my favorite bands - Duran Duran and Barenaked Ladies.

I've been a Duran Duran fan since "Planet Earth," and I've stuck with them through all of their lineup changes and radical departures from the "Duran Duran" sound. I was thrilled when the original lineup returned in 2004 with the great album "Astronaut," but was left a bit cold by its follow-up "Red Carpet Massacre." Their new album, "All You Need Is Now," is a definitive return to their roots. I am not saying it's their best album, but they have embraced their old style with determination. The title track has become infectious after a half-dozen listens. I don't find much to love in the dischordant first minute, but when it gets to the chorus, I'm taken back (in the best way possible) to the mid-1980s. "The Man Who Stole A Leopard," strikes notes that call "The Chauffeur" to mind. "Runway Runaway" has got great hooks and "Leave A Light On" sounds like a lost "Arcadia" track. The most infectious song on the album is "Girl Panic!," which manages to sound like it could have been released along with "Girls on Film," and totally contemporary at the same time. This is the album that should have come after "Seven And The Ragged Tiger."



Barenaked Ladies, an alt-rock mainstay of the 90s, is the only band I've seen in concert more than 15 times. Their legendary live shows notwithstanding, they write some of the cleverest songs in pop music. Their most recent album "All In Good Time" was released early last year. The first album without former lead singer Steven Page, the album clearly demonstrates his absence. This is not a bad thing, but the record is definitely missing elements of Steve-ness. Like "All You Need...," "All In Good Time" feels like an early BNL record, namely "Maybe You Should Drive." It's more stripped down and honest than some recent BNL offerings, while keeping the irony, storytelling and lyrical reversals that always marked their best material. I am still warming to this record, but "You Run Away" is likely to become one of my favorites. I've always preferred Ed as a BNL lead singer. This album, which could easily have come after "Maybe...," will probably not expand their fan base, but the die hards like me are, and should be, pleased.

Top 5! - Memorable (Though Not Necessarily Auspicious) Beginnings

I'm sure I'm not the only one who can think of events and experiences in life that started in a particularly memorable way. Often these starts are memorable enough to color the perception of the whole. Here are 5 beginnings that do that.

5 - "Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect."
Okay...this is not going to be like other stories...the now famous first line of Franz Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis" paints a picture so visceral and horrifying that, every time I've taught this story, I have had to spend a significant amount of time right here, at the story's doorway, because students do not want to suspend disbelief.

4 - The opening 4 minutes of "Charade" (1963).
It's not enough, though it is something, that Charade's title sequence is still one of the most audacious, memorable and catchy examples of the genre from any era. Roll out of that into a mountain chateau with the devastating Audrey Hepburn and the dashing Cary Grant? That's a sure sign that the next 120 minutes are going to be perfect.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiMGMD_4G6A&fs=1&hl=en_US]

3 - "Emissary" - Deep Space Nine, episode 1.
By far and away the best of the Star Trek television pilots, Emissary's opening scene, in which the main character's ship is destroyed and his wife killed by the Jean-Luc Picard led Borg (directly relating DS9 to the TNG franchise), sets the tone for the whole series. DS9 was not to be an conventional Trek. Darker, edgier, brooding, it would become the most compelling of the Trek series' because of its commitment to long-form stories and big, multi-season sweeping arcs. "Emissary" is also full of excellent scenes of characters meeting for the first time. Sisko and Kira, Kira and Bashir. Brilliant!

2 - The opening riffs to New Order's "Blue Monday." (1983)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyoDbX1EkPQ&fs=1&hl=en_US]

1 - George H.W. Bush introduces his choice for Vice President, Senator J. Danforth Quayle, to the nation (1988).
The least auspicious induction into national politics in contemporary memory, Senator Quayle's performance on the stump was notoriously juvenile (he was said to have scampered about); his performance in press conferences and on television erratic, incoherent and sometimes loopy. His election is emphatic proof that the vice president selection can not torpedo a campaign.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW2K0-VItAk&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Top 5! - Best Lines from "The Lion In Winter"

1968's "The Lion in Winter" is my favorite film. Extraordinarily well acted from a script that crackles with energy, I could watch this film over and over. I could listen to it over and over too, because the dialogue is better than any other film I know. Here are 5 of the lines that I hope represent the film. If you haven't seen it, do so - this weekend!

5 - King Henry II of England
I've snapped and plotted all my life. There's no other way to be a king, alive and 50 all at once.

4 - Eleanor of Aquitaine
I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How's that for blasphemy? I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted half-way to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn...but the troops were dazzled.

3 - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Is Philip here yet? Let's hope he's grown up like his father, Simon Pure, Simon Simple. Good, good Louis. If I'd managed sons for him instead of all those little girls, I'd still be stuck with being Queen of France and we should not have known each other. Such my angels is the role of sex in history.

2 - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Of course he has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It's 1183 and we're barbarians!

1 - Eleanor of Aquitaine
One son is all I've got and you can block him out and call me cruel? For these ten years you've lived with everything I've lost and loved another woman through it all and I am cruel? I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!

And a bonus exchange between Eleanor and Henry II, ending with the most blistering put-down in film.

H Out of curiosity, as intellectual to intellectual, how in the name of bleeding Jesus can you lose me? Do we ever see each other? Am I ever near you? Ever with you? Am I ever anywhere but somewhere else? Do I write? Do we send messages? Do dinghies bearing gifts float up the Thames to you? Are you remembered?
E You are.
H You're no part of me. We don't touch at any point. How can you lose me?
E Can't you feel the chains?
H You know me well enough to know I can't be stopped.
E I don't have to stop you, I have only to delay you. Every enemy you have has friends in Rome. We'll cost you time.
H What is this? I'm not mouldering! My paint's not peeling off, I'm good for years.
E How many years? Suppose I hold you back for one, it's possible. Suppose your first son dies. Ours did. It's possible. Suppose you're daughtered next? We were. That too is possible. How old is daddy then? What kind of spindly, rickett-ridden, milky, wizened, dim-eyed, gamey-handed, limpy line of things will you beget?

Top 5! - Cuisines

I'm not an especially adventurous eater, the hakarl notwithstanding. There are, however, a number of cuisines which, thanks to thoughtful friends who could help me navigate the menus when I didn't know what was what, I have come to really appreciate and want to get to know better. They are:

5 - Soul Food
I know there might be those of you out there who might quibble that Soul Food might not be that adventurous (or, if you're a philistine, that it isn't even a cuisine), but for a New Englander like me, it certainly was when I tried it the first couple of times. John and I regularly visit a Soul Food restaurant we love in Palm Springs (Simba's), but I think it's time to branch out.

4 - Vietnamese
A cuisine I really want to get to know better. I've had pho, of course, and other dishes that tasted like lighter versions of Chinese dishes, but I'm pretty sure that there's more to Vietnam's cuisine than I know so far.

3 - Tamil
I have a (now) decades long love affair with the foods of India. It was here that I first broke out of the foodways prison that is New England eating (where salt was a spice, pepper a vulgar corruption and boiling the preferred method of cooking everything). But my Indian food experience has been mostly in northern Indian cuisine. Last year I had the chance to visit a Southern Indian (Tamil) restaurant and have a dosa. It isn't much, but it sure isn't northern Indian food!

2 - Moroccan
Ooohhh...do I love me some Moroccan food, but I don't get to eat it nearly enough, even though there are good Moroccan restaurants in LA. Some of the most lovingly prepared food I've ever eaten was when I was in Dimona, in Israel, on a tour with dozens of other LA teachers. We were invited into a private home and served course after course of the most savory dishes...even though I ate this meal 8 years ago, I remember its fish courses, its fruit-infused lamb stews and its complex sweets like it was yesterday.

1 - Afghan
Afghanistan is such a crossroads anyway, it's no surprise that its cuisine melds qualities of Middle Eastern and Indian food in ways that just explode with flavor. There aren't enough Afghan restaurants in Los Angeles! I'm going to be looking for palao, flatbread, dumplings and kabob this year!

Top 5! - Comics to Film (That Haven't Yet Been Filmed)

We live in the Golden Age (I use the term advisedly) of the comic-inspired movie. There are a lot of characters and properties out there that would translate well into film and deserve a closer look by the powers that be. I offer 5 here for your consideration.

5 - "The Establishment"
One of the quirkiest superteams of this decade, the Britain-based Establishment had a brief run under the Wildstorm imprint and is definitely worth picking up if you read comics. It is worth a second look because the characters are subtle and well-fashioned (I loved Mister Pharmacist), the European setting feels increasingly both global and accessible and the writers had a way with dialogue. All of this would translate well to the big screen.

4 - "Nexus"
Horatio Hellpop has the name, the cred and the science-hero-ey out-there-ness to be the hero of the 21st - or indeed the 26th.

3 - "Sandman Mystery Theatre"
One of my all-time favorites (the disastrously inappropriate recent mini-series notwithstanding), featuring powerful characters (Wesley Dodds has great depth, but his girlfriend Dian Belmont, arguably, has even more), a rich 1930s setting and an appealing groundedness. Think Batman without all the naval-gazing brooding. If I were writing this script, I would probably set it during the 1939 World's Fair.

2 - "Global Frequency"
Another Wildstorm entry, this one conceived and written by Warren Ellis, the master of storytelling in the comics form. "Global Frequency" was offered as a TV pilot in 2005 but didn't succeed and, by my read, wouldn't have as a series (though I would have watched). The radical shifts in character and focus issue to issue makes any one of the 12 issues worth bringing to film right now. Deep backstory, richly relevant to the problems of today's world. If you haven't read this - do so!

1 - "Xombi"
The very best of the criminally underappreciated and undersupported Milestone line from the mid-1990s, Xombi tells the story of David Kim, rendered immortal by means of nanotechnology. He's almost achingly believable as a character but he's surrounded by sidekicks and friends who add a levity to what might otherwise have been too serious (Nun of the Above and Catholic Girl...awesome!).

Top 5! - Places I Wish We Could Still Visit (But, Sadly, Can't)

As a traveler, I've always been fascinated with the out of the way and the off the wall. 60 miles to world famous date shakes? Done...

But these are places where it is no longer possible to visit, but I sure wish I could!

5 - East Germany.
I had an East German pen pal when I was a kid and I was endlessly fascinated by his descriptions of his life. Having visited a unified Berlin recently, it would have been interesting to see what life was like during the time of tension and how the East Germans tried to build a society. I wonder what all of that brutalist architecture looked like before westerners came in? And don't forget the Ampelmann!

4 - Greenwich, Massachusetts.
One of the five "Quabbin towns" well-known to local historians of Massachusetts, Greenwich is the only one largely below the water line.

3 - The Old Man of the Mountain.
All New Englanders mourned when the Old Man collapsed in 2003. An iconic image of the region.

2 - The Buddhas of Bamyan.
Yet another crime of the Taliban, the destruction of these priceless statues was a crime against human culture.

1 - Kowloon Walled City.
Torn down by the Chinese and British authorities in the early 1990s, the KWC was unlike any place on this Earth. I am sure I would have been overwhelmed, but I am fascinated by what this place was.

Top 5! - Things I've Done That You (probably) Haven't (and that you might do this year)

Building on a meme I first picked up at Jay Lake's website, here are 5 things that I've done so far in life that perhaps you haven't. Have you? If so - share a comment! Think you might do it this year?

5 - Been in an environment above 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
John and I love Palm Springs in the summer, and two summers ago, during the middle of our summer week, the temperature at our hotel rose to 125. In the shade? Lovely...

4 - Attended a Spalding Gray live performance.
Sorely and deeply missed, Spalding Gray was a virtuoso storyteller and live performer. I was certain I was going to pass out from laughing when I saw his live performance of "Gray's Anatomy" in Columbus.

3 - Seen the complete "Ring Cycle" by Wagner.
John and I saw all four operas (Das Rheingold, Die Valkure, Siegried and Gotterdammerung) over a year while it was being performed by the Los Angeles opera.

2 - Eaten kangaroo.

1 - Climbed a glacier.
The Snæfellsjökull, while I was studying in Iceland in July, 1998. Fun! Only very slight risk of falling into a glacial rift and never been seen again.

Can't wait to hear what you've done that I probably haven't. Help give my year some structure, people!

20 Untranslatable Words

An awesome post about language...

...wishing you all great hyggelig tonight and throughout the New Year.

Top 5! - Words in English That Are The Most Fun To Say

A quick list for y'all today...can't wait to hear what you think - and like to say.

5. Slumgullion (from Scots)...a kind of stew.
4. Praseodymium (from Greek)...element 59.
3. Dithyrambic (from Latin via Greek)...wildly enthusiastic.
2. Taikonaut (from Chinese and Latin via Greek)...an astronaut from the People's Republic of China.
1. Fantod (origin obscure)...to be suddenly overwhelmed by powerful feelings (generally of outrage or anxiety).

Top 5! - Things My Advisees Said I Should Do Now That I Have Earned My EdD

One of the best parts of working with young people is that they always come up with interesting ideas when they're posed a question. A month ago or so, when I was really and truly done with my doctorate, I said to them, "well, now what should I do." I meant it rhetorically, but they took a shine to it and the next day, they had a bunch of suggestions. Here are the top 5 (I'm leaving out 'breed exotic animals' and 'start a Rolls-Royce dealership' for being too organic and too unrealistic, respectively).

5 - Get a pilot's license.
I have no idea what this would cost, but it's an intriguing suggestion. My grandfather had one. I am always attracted to hobbies with ruinously expensive gear and a fierce learning curve. It would be nice to fly to Vegas, rather than drive, I must admit...

4 - Have a zero-g experience.
I have said for years now that the first orbital hotel will open before 2020. I intend to visit that hotel. Might just as well start training now...

3 - Go to Alaska.
Odd that this is the second Alaska references in as many Top 5! lists, but I think 2011 will be the year that I complete my inventory of the 50 states. I need Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota. Two flights and a single road tip LA to Seattle to Coeur d'Alene to Missoula to Minot and back will do the business.

2 - Work out.
What exactly are my students telling me? Something I've told myself for a long time...

1 - Adopt a baby.
Are we ready?

What do y'all think?

Top 5! - Foreign Policy Successes of the United States

Since Bricole is meant to be a place where all topics are fair game, and since I've always been obsessive about lists and list making (yes, I read "The Book of Lists" in the 70s...and the 2 sequels - shameful, I know), it was only a matter of time before I started list making here. I inaugurate these lists with a short discussion of American foreign policy.

5 - President Lincoln releases John Slidell and James Mason Ending the Trent Affair (1861).
This early diplomatic row between the United Kingdom and the United States inflamed popular opinion in the UK against the United States at a time when the Civil War was still in its infancy and the cause of the Union far from success. The decision by an American ship's captain to seize the Confederate diplomats Slidell and Mason off of the Trent, a British ship carrying them to the UK, proved too provocative for the British to slough off. After weeks of talk of war and rising tensions, the President decided to release the Confederates. They ultimately failed in their goal to achieve diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy. By releasing them, President Lincoln averted what might have been a fatal (to the cause of the Union) UK intervention into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

4 - Alaska Purchase (1867)
Secretary of State William Seward's belief that purchasing the Alaska territory from the Russian Empire was a great idea - and it certainly was. The natural resources of Alaska notwithstanding, I would argue that a Russian Alaska would have aggravated Red Baiting in the 1950s, destabilizing American culture and taking this country in a dangerous direction. Soviet nuclear weapons deployed in the Alaskan Panhandle? No thanks.

3 - Signing the Antarctic Treaty
By signing the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, the US and the other signatories placed Antarctica under global stewardship. While this has not always been a perfect solution or easy, it speaks to the capacity of nations to put global concerns ahead of national ones. In the 21st century, global stewardship of resources might be our best hedge against resource warfare.

2 - Reconstructing Japan and Germany After World War II (1945)
The United States, taking the lead in the post-war period in a way it failed to after World War I, put in place systems in both Japan and Germany that lead to two critical features of the late 20th century. First, both of these countries were effectively demilitarized in practice and, most critically, in culture. The postwar economic boom in both countries in the 1950s stimulated the rise of the Japanese and German middle classes and a cementing of those countries into Western systems of governance. This was a tremendous boon to the United States in the generation after the war - when industrial-age America was at the zenith of it's power to provide a better life for its people.

1 - Louisiana Purchase (1803)
It is hard to imagine the United States becoming the country it became if President Jefferson did not take Napoleon's offer to sell the entire Louisiana Territory in 1803, despite Jefferson's constitutional principles. Louisiana guaranteed the long-term security of the country while also demonstrating the idea that the Constitution should not be read narrowly but rather interpreted to serve the needs of the age.

Haiku #2

Skaldic Irish lass
Samhain singer's sweet embrace
Otherworldly eyes