CRUMMY OLD WINE DEPT: buy your ticket to see Halley's Comet!

Comet Halley (1P/Halley) as it appeared to the embroiders of the Bayeux Tapestry (actually an embroidery) before the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In Panel 15, astrologers gaze up at it and the legend reads:

Isti mirant stella
These men gaze at the star

from Wikipedia:

1066: The comet was seen in England and thought to be an omen: later that year Harold II of England died at the Battle of Hastings. Thus it was a bad omen for Harold, but a good omen for William the Conqueror. Shown on the Bayeux Tapestry, and the accounts which have been preserved represent it as having then appeared to be four times the size of Venus, and to have shone with a light equal to a quarter of that of the Moon. This appearance of the comet is also noted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Having first seen it as a young boy in 989, Eilmer of Malmesbury declared prophetically in 1066:

"You've come, have you?…
You've come, you source of tears
to many mothers, you evil.
I hate you! It is long since I saw you;
but as I see you now
you are much more terrible,
for I see you brandishing the downfall
of my country. I hate you!"

Chaco Native Americans in New Mexico recorded this 1066 comet in their petroglyphs.

Hey! Look what I found! At first I thought I'd get a little cock-tease of 2 paragraphs, and then an invitation to buy the whole article for $4.95 . No way. I wrote the fucking thing, no way am I paying $5 for it again.

I'd read a little something in "Sky & Telescope" about Northern Hemispherites making advance reservations to places in the Southern Hemisphere with good seats for the flyby of Comet Halley (1P/Halley). It inspired me to try to squeeze a little money out of The New York Times with a travel article.

By the time I finished the article, I was totally obsessed with going to the Southern Hemisphere to see the goddam thing myself. We settled on Australia. The other top spots: Chile was at that time under the dictatorship of Generalissimo Pinochet, and I don't like my night sky viewing interrupted by the shrieks and screams of tortured and murdered political prisoners. Ditto South Africa, which was still in its Apartheid era. To the best of my knowledge, Australia has not tortured large numbers of its residents since Captain William Bligh was Governor-General and Botany Bay was in full swing as a prison colony.

Australia was just grand. I know I'm going back again. We took the Ghan train due north from Adelaide (lovely, lovely city) through the desert to Alice Springs. Next time I'll take the India-Pacific train all the way to Perth.

I have serious issues with trains, comets, polar bears and volcanos. And ships and ferries. The Australians threw in kangaroos for free!

In Alice Springs, I met a lawyer who represented the Aborigines of that area. They didn't like the comet at all, he said. They thought it was a nasty old man in the sky throwing rocks down on Earth, and they wanted it to leave quickly.

Before laughing at this amusing superstition, remember that until Edmond Halley demonstrated (years after his death, when his prediction of Halley's return was proven correct) that comets were solar system objects that obeyed Kepler's Laws exactly as the planets do, the most educated Europeans believed comets were omens of the deaths of monarchs, of defeat in war, of plagues, of the births of great princes, yadda yadda. Our sophisticated scientific understanding of the nature and behavior of comets beats the Aborigines by about 200 years.

Hey! Check out who the Big Science Guest Star was on the Royal Viking Pacific cruise to see the comet!!!

IN OTHER
SOLAR-SYSTEM
SHATTERING NEWS:

Large areas of the floor of my office are now visible, and BOTH copies of Bowditch's American Practical Navigator have surfaced, so Jim O. can claim his the next time he drops by. My nervous breakdown attendant to cleaning up this ghastly Slough of Despond is nearing an end. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

That's what optimists used to say about the American military effort in South Vietnam during the war. That's what optimists are saying about the American military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

Are you an optimist?Do you think we'll win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Will we have the boys home by Christmas? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2008? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2009? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2010? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2011? Will we have the girls and boys home by Christmas 2012? Will we have the girls and boys home by Christmas 2013? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2014? Will we have the boys and girls home by Christmas 2015? Do you think Kiera Knightly is about to knock on your door and jump in your hot tub with you? Or Queen Latifah? Or Matt Damon?

* * *

The New York Times (USA daily)
28 April 1985

Travel
This Journey Comes
Once in 76.3 Years

by Robert Merkin

Robert Merkin is a novelist whose next book, "Zombie Jamboree," is to be published by William Morrow. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Travelers dream of spectacular destinations throughout the world, but the next major trek for as many as 10,000 North American adventurers may be to gaze at something entirely beyond this world -- the return of Halley's comet next April.

The best seats on the planet will be in the Southern Hemisphere. But no one will be forced to travel below the Equator for a good show, according to the astronomer Stephen J. Edberg, coordinator for amateur observations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and unofficial high lama for every amateur Halley hunter on the continent.

''For those willing to make some effort,'' he says, ''there'll be a very satisfactory view in the Northern Hemisphere.'' The effort will require an exodus from urban areas to the nearest desert or clear rural or wilderness skies, but once there, Halley's comet, nucleus and tail, should be visible to the naked eye and clear and detailed through ordinary binoculars.

But stay-at-home or globetrotter, you might as well kiss the comet goodbye if you don't catch it in 1986; it returns to this neighborhood roughly once each 76.3 years. If a 10-year-old child is old enough to understand what he or she is viewing and remember it, that child will be 86 years old when the next opportunity knocks, around 2062. (It could be worse. The Great Comet of 1864 won't be back for about 3 million years.) The British Astronomer Royal, Edmund Halley, calculated his comet's average period, or circuit time around the sun, during its 1682 visit, but this period can be as short as 74 or as long as 79 years. One reason astronomers are so keen about next year's visit is to glean information to verify their best theories about these fluctuations or to suggest better ones. The best theory to date suggests that the comet ejects gases on a schedule determined by its day-night rotation and exposure to the sun, and this outgassing changes its course and speed through space.

However, as soon as California's Mount Palomar telescope confirmed, in October 1982, that Halley's comet was back in the neighborhood, knowledgeable comet watchers were able to calculate its closest approach to earth and make their reservations accordingly. The full moon interferes with good viewing, so its dark phases will leave a best-observation window from April 4 or 5 through April 20. (The comet will be visible to a greater or lesser extent from January through April. March and April will be the best months. February will be the poorest because the comet will be too close to the sun.) Past performance and guesswork about the weather determine the best observation sites. For purely scientific considerations, Mr. Edberg of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory favors the desert of northern Chile, followed by the desert of central Australia and the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. He explains that several other factors - local politics, personal finances, language and other things to do and see in the vicinity after you've seen the comet - will naturally lead many Halley hunters to Australia. But he's been frustrated in his search for relevant weather information about Australia. ''Almost all weather observations,'' he says, ''are made during the day, so that doesn't do us any good. As Halley's will be an early morning [pre-dawn] object, we have to make do with early morning [post-sunrise] observations from most places.''

The Chilean desert, however, has several world-class optical observatories, which have kept long records of precisely the right kind of weather observations, and the viewing news from Chile is certifiably superb, says Mr. Edberg. Telescopic observers dig for gems called ''photometric nights'' - nights free from even invisible clouds, which can degrade a telescope's image of the skies. ''Chile has many photometric nights in March and April,'' he reports, and the southern Peruvian desert offers much the same prospects.

To amateur astronomers or the curious, however, there'll probably be little or no noticeable difference between observing Halley's comet from any of the appropriate deserts. ''Madagascar's weather prospects are fairly good and it should be a location of convenience for many Europeans,'' Mr. Edberg explains,'' and New Zealand will also be a fine and popular spot.''

Charles Morris, an oceanographic meteorologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has had a date with Halley's since he began hunting comets in grade school, and he is now organizing what may be the most thorough, flexible and goof-proof of Halley's tours. Mr. Morris will lead an expedition to Australia while a fellow comet hunter (and professional fireman), John Bortle, will lead another to South Africa. Mr. Morris and Mr. Bortle are among the world's leading comet observers. Mr. Morris, who was the co-recoverer (first to spot the return) of comet Faye, expresses doubts about the value of some of the other scheduled tours he has heard about. He says some are going to the wrong places or during the full moon. (Some tours and cruises that will or intend to be in the right places at the right times are listed in the accompanying box.) D o-it-yourself navigators, Mr. Morris says, should head for the Southern Hemisphere belt between 20 and 40 degrees of latitude, where the comet is guaranteed to be nearly overhead in the night sky, and then consider political stability, weather and local attractions beyond the comet. His own tour, CHASE (Comet Halley American Southern-Hemisphere Expedition), 1986 expects to capitalize on such factors with locales in Alice Springs and Ayers Rock in the central Australian desert. The South African contingent will converge on the Sabi Sabi game preserve.

The CHASE tours in Australia and South Africa will be broken down to groups of no more than 45 people, each with its own professional astronomer-guide and transportation. The Australian expedition has also added Daniel Green, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, to its roster. According to the organizers, the tours are designed to accommodate any level of comet lust, from obsessive to merely curious, and no one will be forced to worship the comet any longer than desired. Mr. Morris says he is emphatically against expensive telescope purchases - the average lay person will get maximum pleasure from good binoculars, and may regret the expense, trouble and worry involved with sophisticated portable telescopes. ''The comet will be visible all night and there'll be plenty of high-quality telescopes available,'' he says. (The groups will include dedicated watchers with first-class equipment.) ''Take along a pair of binoculars,'' Mr. Edberg says. ''The field of vision of a Questar or Celestron (the best known brands of high-quality portable telescopes) is one degree [of the night sky] . Halley's comet is an object 20 to 30 degrees long. It will overfill these telescopes' field of vision.'' That's good, he adds, for a finely detailed closeup of the relatively small nucleus or head of the comet and its surrounding fuzzy, hairlike halo called the coma, but if you've traveled halfway around the globe to see a whole comet with tail, such high-quality telescopes can actually be a detriment or disappointment - like viewing a super closeup of the Mona Lisa's left nostril.

Meanwhile, the only mildly sentient ''earthers'' with tickets straight to the comet itself are robots, and foreign robots at that. The United States has chosen not to send a space probe of any kind on a Halley's comet mission, although several American multipurpose satellites will be doing their best to sniff the comet from a distance, and the Soviet probes are carrying some American experimental packages.

According to Dr. William M. Irvine, a radio astronomer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Soviet Union will send two probes to Halley's with local pauses first near Venus. These probes are acronymously named Vega, for Venus and Halley, whose name Russians spell with a G. One of these Vegas will be the first to approach Halley's nucleus, and the Soviets have agreed to share information about its precise location in space with the Japanese and the joint European space agency, both of whom are sending later probes to Halley's. The Soviet Union launched its two probes last December. The Japanese sent one up in January and will launch another in August. The Europeans have scheduled their probes for July.

The Europeans are also aiming for the nucleus and have named their probe Giotto, for the Italian painter. One of the Japanese probes, Planet A, will pass through the tail about 62,500 miles from the comet's nucleus. The Soviet and European probes hope to pass as near to the nucleus as 620 miles -- close enough to cause concern that some instrumentation may not survive.

At every wondrous sight, there's always a clown nearby who says, ''Yeah, but you should have seen it a few years ago. It was really great then.'' Halley's comet is no different. Each of the comet's visits offers a different view to the earth, because each time it dives for the sun - which is when we see it - the earth may be either quite close to the comet's path or far away, depending on the season.

You should have seen it in A.D. 837 when it was a mere 3 million miles from earth. (The closest that Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor, approaches is 25 million miles.) The Chinese were the first to record the comet's appearance in A.D. 66.

The last time Halley's cruised by was in 1910. Dr. Irvine says that this time around won't be one of Halley's better performances, with a nearest earth approach of 37 million miles. While this is bad news for ground-based professional optical and radio observations, it won't affect the space probes or amateurs. The Northern Hemisphere's professionals, with their huge, stationary installations, will have to look over the shoulders of their Southern Hemisphere counterparts, who will have by far the finest photographic opportunities, but even stay-at-homes won't be disappointed: their once-in-a-lifetime encounter will be merely spectacular.

Before Dr. Halley, comets appeared without warning or prediction, and the most common explanation was that they were omens of nasty historic events on the horizon. In the 16th century the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe carefully observed comets and proved that, whatever they were, they weren't atmospheric phenomena but objects in space well beyond the earth, in a class with the planets and stars. His protege, Johannes Kepler, used Brahe's reams of detailed observations to discover the fundamental laws of planetary motion, but failed to pin the same rules on the erratic comets.

Halley's analyses and inspiration led him to accuse the comet of 1682 of being the same frightening object that had appeared in 1606 and 1530, when earlier astronomer-astrologers had thoughtfully charted its sky path. He then predicted that it would return in roughly 76 years. He was right (and dead for 16 years) when it showed up on schedule in 1758. His confirmed prediction tore the veil of ominous superstition and mystery from comets forever; it ranked with Newton's feats as a stunning symbol of the power of Enlightenment science.

In our own century, astrophysicists like Britain's Fred L. Whipple have narrowed our notions of the physical makeup of comets. Unlike the planets, comets seem to be largely balls of frozen gases, chiefly methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor. They have a spherical nucleus or head and a long and far less dense tail. The ''snowball'' nucleus of Halley's comet has a diameter of about 620 miles.

The tails of some comets may be as long as 28 million miles and become visible as they pass within the orbit of Mars. The sun projects a radiation flux powerful enough to push against matter in far-off space, and the density of the comet's gaseous tail is so low that the solar radiation always points the tail away from the sun, so that, on the outbound voyage, the comet appears to be flying backward.

So why even think about flying 5,000 or 10,000 miles to see the comet? Everyone knows what a comet looks like (at least from cartoons of a knock on the head), and that a handful of times each decade a comet appears that's large enough to be seen in some detail with the naked eye. One appealing aspect of comets in general and Halley's in particular is that amateurs aren't unwanted nuisances in the total scientific picture. There are so many comets of all sizes, brightnesses and periods that a full scientific grasp of them depends heavily on the high-quality observations and tracking that amateurs love to make at their own expense. Amateurs and their small rigs rather than giant government or university telescopes are often the discoverers and recoverers of new or returning comets, and lay watchers regularly write the definitive papers on the latest developments in the comet population.

After Halley's vanishes into the void again, the robots may get the glory and the professors the prime-time interviews, but the observations and photographs of the southbound swarm of amateurs will contribute enormously to the new intimate knowledge about the most famous comet of all.

- 30 -

TOUR GUIDE FOR COMET WATCHERS

CHASE Tours

The travel agent booking the CHASE 1986 tours is Lynn R. Luehrs, of Astronomy Tours International, 19143 Victory Boulevard, Suite 13, Reseda, Calif. 91335 (818-505-0448). The 14-day Australian tour will include about 40 to 60 hours of comet viewing. The price, including round-trip air fare from the West Coast to Sydney, accommodations and some meals is $3,250. There'll be side trips to the major observatories in Australia, including NASA's ground tracking station at Woollahra. The South African package costs $3,600 from the East Coast or $3,750 from the West Coast. Other Trips Among travel companies offering Halley's comet tour packages are the World of Oz, 3 East 54th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022 (212-751-3250) and Discovery Tours, the tour organization of the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, N.Y. 10024 (212-873-1440). Sun Line Cruises, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 315, New York, N.Y. 10020 (212-397-6400 or 800-445-6400) and Royal Viking Line, 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, Calif. 94111 (415-398-8000 or 800-422-8000) have scheduled comet cruises.

World of Oz has trips to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Chile, and Rio de Janeiro and South Africa. Prices, including round-trip air fare from New York and hotel accommodations, range from $1,650 for a nine-day trip to Chile to $3,900 for Rio and South Africa, an 18-day package. Discovery Tours offers several land and sea programs at times when the comet will be visible. The director of the museum, Dr. Thomas D. Nicholson, will be aboard the Illiria on museum-sponsored cruises when it sails from Singapore to Athens (April 4-May 7) and from New Guinea to Fiji (Feb. 16-March 6), The Sun Line has announced that astronomers and other scientists will be on board as lecturers for eight sailings of the Stella Solaris and Stella Oceanis next January, March and April. March, the line says, ''is the optimum time for viewing Halley's comet in the southern latitudes,'' and among its cruises is one of 19 days leaving Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for Brazil on March 1. The fares, depending on cabin, range from $3,450 to $6,600 a person.

Royal Viking will have Dr. Carl E. Sagan, the astronomer, among its experts aboard two of its series of comet cruises. Dr. Sagan will sail with the Royal Viking Sea when she leaves San Francisco for a round-trip Panama-Pacific cruise next Dec. 19. Fares, which include round-trip air fare from many United States cities, run from $3,864 to $15,351 a person. Dr. Sagan will also be among the lecturers on the Royal Viking Star, leaving Auckland, New Zealand, on March 26 for a 14-day trip ending in Sydney, Australia. Fares: $2,828 to $10,220 a person. The line is also scheduling seven other comet cruises in the South Pacific from United States and Australian ports. Equipment Those who haul telescopes to distant deserts are warned by one globetrotting astronomer that equipment survivability through good packing and cushioning is one's own responsibility, not the telescope manufacturer's. If you can eventually prove a shattered telescope was the airline's fault, you may get a new one someday, but you'll still miss that intimate closeup of you-know-what.

Photographers needn't invest in expensive equipment, says Charles Morris of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ''Dust off your ordinary 35-millimeter camera with a standard 50-millimeter or 24-millimeter lens and get a sturdy tripod and a time-release cable. With today's high-speed black and white or, preferably, color film, you don't need a motorized tracking device for excellent star-trail photos.'' A star-trail photograph emphasizes, rather than eliminates, the comet's apparent trail (not its actual tail) caused by the earth's rotation during the 15-second average time exposure. Mr. Morris plans to concentrate on this kind of photo. -- R. M.

- 30 -

Turtles all the way down -- an alternate Creation theory to make schoolkids know more about science

Click, gets bigger.

Busy day -- Day 2 of the Hazmat Team cleaning out Bob's office, Day 2 of my nervous breakdown.

So not much text to go with this, and the stamp itself was Art Therapy last night, while I was babbling and drooling and weeping and muttering.

Texas, whose science education state agency seems to be run by a Holy Dentist -- I don't know if he's elected or appointed by the governor, which was President Bush's job before he got this new job which has done so much to shape and guide U.S. science policy -- is going to need all the alternative theories of Creation it can get so that it can teach schoolkids that there are lots more theories than just Natural Selection. President Bush is one of many thinkers who believe our kids get a much better science education when they're given all the different theories of when and how the World and the Universe came into being.

For the Earth's age, some say 4,540,000,000 years ago, and back it up with old rocks and Geiger counters. (I have a Geiger counter, if I can ever find the right size old batteries to get it running again, I could measure the age of old rocks myself.) Another guy says it was nightfall preceding 23 October 4004 BC. Now and then he's winning in Kansas and Dover, Pennsylvania, Polk County, Florida, and he just got the head of science education pushed under a bus in Texas. Our Man-On-The-Ground in Helvetia says he has influential advocates there, too.

This one is Hindu or Hindu-ish and comes from a famous story sometimes attributed to Stephen Hawking, who had just given a lecture on the Big Bang theory, when a woman in the audience demanded to know how his theory took into account that the world rested on the backs of an infinite number of turtles. He did the best he could to respond, but she was having none of it, and said:

"That's very clever, young man,
but it's turtles all the way down."

Me, I got my money on Flying Spaghetti Monster. If well-educated public-school kids deserve more than one theory of biological Creation, it makes the most sense to teach them about Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Oh No! My MEMORY is Kaput! / Also, big news: We don't need books anymore! I can get rid of all that Book Clutter!

Copyright (c) 2007 by Uwe Bressem,
All Rights Reserved.

My worst fear has come true. My beautiful, wonderful, near-photographic, amazing, synesthetic memory is broken. I have trusted my wonderful memory to reconstruct a famous old physics class poster -- and I'm wrong!

Here is the true, corrected old poster, received this morning from the Berliner/Wedding artist/Kunstler and chef (I think this word exists only in French) Uwe Bressem.

And I can testify from personal experience: He knows his gravy. My memory of all his sauces -- that's still crisp and clear.

~ ~ ~

It's this nervous breakdown I am having cleaning up this horrible radioaktiv toxik office so I can get the new Vleeptron Supercomputer installed.

Yesterday the Professional Woman I hired to help me clean up this Mother Of All Messes began our 3-hour session by asking:

"Do you really need all these books?"

She wanted me to throw out my books. I have a small office and a small house, and I have so many books, and they take up so much space.

She told me that these days, you can get almost every book you want from the Internet. So you don't need books anymore.

We compromised. I put my diamonds, my gold, my silver, my emeralds, my pearls, my coins, my paper currency into my 4x4 pickup truck and took them all to the City Dump. I threw out the hot tub with the identical triplet redheaded freckled cheerleaders Tifani, Amber and Heather. I kept the books.

gravity poster on physics class wall

This is the famous poster on the physics classroom wall referred to in the previous post, as best as I can remember its design; the text is exact.

Newton's portrait is an engraving on a 100 (Pfennig?) stamp (illustrating his discoveries in optics) issed by Deutsche Bundespost in 1993.

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards." -- Mark Twain

Christine Comer, former director of science education in Texas.
photo by Erich Schlegel for The New York Times

Agence-Vleeptron Presse backgrounder:

* Austin is the state capital of Texas, and is also the home of the academically prestigious University of Texas.

* Ms. Comer's quote in The New York Times:

“It’s not just a good idea;
it’s the law,”

is a reference to a famous classroom poster about Newton's Laws:

Gravity:
It’s not just a good idea.
It’s the law.

===============

The New York Times (USA)
Monday 3 December 2007

Official Leaves Post
as Texas Prepares to Debate
Science Education Standards

by Ralph Blumenthal

HOUSTON, Dec. 2 — After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the Texas Education Agency’s director of science, Christine Castillo Comer said she did not think she had to remain “neutral” about teaching the theory of evolution.

“It’s not just a good idea; it’s the law,” said Ms. Comer, citing the state’s science curriculum.

But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism — “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral,” according to a dismissal letter last month that accused her of various instances of “misconduct and insubordination” and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the product of “intelligent design.”

Her departure, which has stirred dismay among science professionals since it became public last week, is a prelude to an expected battle early next year over rewriting the state’s science education standards, which include the teaching of evolution.

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the state’s education agency in Austin, said Ms. Comer “resigned. She wasn’t fired.”

“Our job,” Ms. Ratcliffe added, “is to enact laws and regulations that are passed by the Legislature or the State Board of Education and not to inject personal opinions and beliefs.”

Ms. Comer disputed that characterization in a series of interviews, her first extensive comments. She acknowledged forwarding to a local online community an e-mail message from the National Center for Science Education, a pro-evolution group, about a talk in Austin on Nov. 2 by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, a co-author of “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” and an expert witness in the landmark 2005 case that ruled against the teaching of intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., schools.

“I don’t see how I took a position by F.Y.I.-ing on a lecture like I F.Y.I. on global warming or stem-cell research,” Ms. Comer said. “I send around all kinds of stuff, and I’m not accused of endorsing it.” But she said that as a career science educator, “I’m for good science,” and that when it came to teaching evolution, “I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination where I stand.”

Ms. Comer said state education officials seemed uneasy lately over the required evolution curriculum. It had always been part of her job to answer letter-writers inquiring about evolution instruction, she said, and she always replied that the State Board of Education supported the teaching of evolution in Texas schools.

But several months ago, in response to an inquiry letter, Ms. Comer said she was instructed to strike her usual statement about the board’s support for teaching evolution and to quote instead the exact language of the high school biology standards as formulated for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills test.

“The student knows the theory of biological evolution,” the standards read, and is expected to “identify evidence of change in species using fossils, DNA sequences, anatomical similarities, physiological similarities and embryology,” as well as to “illustrate the results of natural selection in speciation, diversity, phylogeny, adaptation, behavior and extinction.”

The standards, adopted in 1998, are due for a 10-year review and possible revision after the 15-member elected State Board of Education meets in February, with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry. The chairman of the panel, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday School teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, has lectured favorably in the past about intelligent design.

Ms. Ratcliffe, of the Texas Education Agency, said Dr. McLeroy played no part in Ms. Comer’s departure.

Ms. Comer said that barely an hour after forwarding the e-mail message about Dr. Forrest’s talk, she was called in and informed that Lizzette Reynolds, deputy commissioner for statewide policy and programs, had seen a copy and complained, calling it “an offense that calls for termination.” Ms. Comer said she had no idea how Ms. Reynolds, a former federal education official who served as an adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas, had seen the message so quickly, and remembered thinking, “What is this, the thought police or what?”

Under pressure, Ms. Comer said, she sent out a retraction, advising recipients to disregard the message.

But Ms. Comer, the divorced mother of a grown son and daughter and the supporter of an ailing father, was still forced out of the $60,000-a-year job, she said, submitting her resignation on Nov. 7. She and the agency said nothing about her departure until The Austin American-Statesman obtained a copy of the “proposed disciplinary action” and her resignation letter.

Ms. Comer said that Tom Shindell, director for organizational development, had told her to resign or be terminated for a series of unauthorized presentations at professional meetings and other reported transgressions.

“Tom,” Ms. Comer said she asked, “am I getting fired over evolution?”

- 30 -

===============

Austin American-Statesman
(daily, Austin Texas USA)
Saturday 1 December 2007

Editorial

Is misdeed a creation
of political doctrine?

by The Editorial Board

Is this state’s education agency being driven by a political orthodoxy so fierce that it dumped its science director for passing along a harmless e-mail? It’s possible.

Chris Comer was director of the science curriculum for the Texas Education Agency for nearly a decade when she was forced to resign recently. Her offense, as unbelievable as it is to relate, was forwarding an e-mail message about a presentation by an author critical of the intelligent design approach to science education.

The education agency, of course, portrays the problem as one of insubordination and misconduct. But from all appearances, Comer was pushed out because the agency is enforcing a political doctrine of strict conservatism that allows no criticism of creationism.

This state has struggled for years with the ideological bent of the state school board, but lawmakers took away most of its power to infect education some years ago. Politicizing the Texas Education Agency, which oversees the education of children in public schools, would be a monumental mistake.

This isn’t the space to explore the debate over creationism, intelligent design and evolution. Each approach should be fair game for critical analysis, so terminating someone for just mentioning a critic of intelligent design smacks of the dogma and purges in the Soviet era.

But then, this is a new and more political time at the state’s education agency.

Robert Scott, the new education commissioner, is not an educator but a lawyer and former adviser to Gov. Rick Perry. This presents an excellent opportunity for the governor and his appointee to step in firmly to put an end to ideological witch hunts in the agency.

The person who called for Comer to be fired is Lizzette Reynolds, a former deputy legislative director for Gov. George Bush. She joined the state education agency this year as an adviser after a stint in the U.S. Department of Education.

In her memo criticizing Comer, Reynolds said that Comer’s passing along the e-mail “assumes this is a subject that the agency supports.” That’s absurd, of course, but it is in keeping with enforcing a doctrine that says creationism must not be criticized.

Creationism is a religious belief that rejects Darwin’s theory of evolution and holds that life on Earth was created by a deity. Intelligent design is the theory that the universe is the result of an intelligent cause - a designer - not natural selection.

Intelligent design has been debated for two decades, and some view it as a way to explain both the biblical account of creation and aspects of evolution. Critics, such as the author whose presentation Comer passed along, believe it is mere cover for creationism.

Whether one accepts the theory of intelligent design or not, discussion encourages scientific exploration, which is what a science curriculum director should do. Forcing Comer out of her job because she passed on an e-mail about the critic’s presentation is egregiously wrong.

It looks like the Texas Education Agency has fallen victim to a smelly little orthodoxy, to quote author George Orwell. And that cannot be good for the schools or the schoolchildren of Texas.

If this agency is indeed in the grip of an unforgiving political ideology, it bears close scrutiny by all Texans.

- 30 -

Comments (32)
Click here to report comment abuse.

By Paul Burnett

December 1, 2007 6:45 PM

It’s too bad the editorial did not mention the 2005 Dover trial (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_trial for a summary) wherein a Federal court ruled “We have concluded that intelligent design is not science, and moreover that intelligent design cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.” - Judge John Jones, Harrisburg, PA, December 20, 2005.

Intelligent design creationism is not science, but religion, which cannot be taught in public schools. This lesson cost the Dover school district a million dollars, and every school board member involved was defeated in the next election. It is beginning to look like the State of Texas is about to make the same stupid mistake, and become another laughingstock in the long losing history of creationists’ attempts to regain ground lost to science, particularly (but not just limited to) evolution.

Forcing the resignation of a science curriculum director for mentioning science instead of religion is a step into the Dark Ages. To see what the theocrats in the Texas Education Agency were so terrified of, see Barbara Forrest’s paper “Understanding the intelligent design creationist movement: Its true nature and goals,” available at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/intelligent-design.pdf

But beware: If you are an employee of the State of Texas, you may be fired for reading (or thinking about) Dr. Forrest’s paper.

By Jay

December 1, 2007 7:18 PM | Link to this

When will the Great State of Texas finally grow up and enter the 21st century? Hopefully there will be some legal remedy for this controversy. And soon.

By AgentG

December 1, 2007 7:55 PM | Link to this

Intelligent design is not a theory, but also presupposes a belief in a designer, and thus cannot be scientific. The board has conflated the scientific meaning of a theory with the colloquial one. This mistake not only distorts the scientific significance of evolution theory, it misinforms the public about the nature of science and scientific theories. A theory in science is much more than a hypothesis, because it is supported by large numbers of independent facts, such as experimental results and observations. Examples of scientific theories are the theory of gravity, germ theory, or the theory of electromagnetism. Thus, a theory in science is a powerful concept, which has never once been refuted by a factual observation.

By FredT

December 1, 2007 8:06 PM | Link to this

Let’s actively teach ignorance in our schools. Doing so will protect our school graduates from being competitive in the world marketplace. With just a little more effort we can have Americans chanting to kill me for having a bobblehead Jesus doll. Fundamentalist religion isn’t about religion, its all about power.

By Jerome Thomas

December 1, 2007 10:27 PM | Link to this

Make a note about these TEA politico cretins for consultation at the next election. These kinds of underhanded moves are getting school administrators and board members dumped across the country. In the meanwhile, remember that America is short of cheap, illiterate labor - and that Texas has moved to insure a reliable supply.

By Michael Corrigan

December 1, 2007 10:41 PM | Link to this

We need to get the 2000+-year old “alternative scientific theories” of JudeoChristianIslam-ity, which are simply irrational superstitions, out of our school systems. Holding these beliefs is, ironically, an argument against Intelligent Design. Furthermore, to perpetrate the God agenda on our public school systems is un-American in the fundamental legal sense of the constitution which forbids government to pass laws concerning religion. Consequently, the executive branch, can’t do it by policies either.

By Kurt Faasse

December 1, 2007 11:12 PM | Link to this

Reading the previous comments reminds me that there are rational people in Texas as there are anywhere. Let us hope they are in the great state’s majority. (I’m a New Yorker. Go, Texas. Win this one for your children.)

By Jennifer

December 1, 2007 11:18 PM | Link to this

My question is - why did she resign? She should have made them terminate her and then filed suit. At least that way, it would be on the books to protect others who speak out against this absolute fictitious garbage in the future. She could have gotten a nice settlement out of it as well, and any educational agency worth a damn would hire her for having such high ethical principles.

By jim

December 2, 2007 12:20 AM | Link to this

normal procedure, appoint loyalists to top positions no matter how incompetent they are. find out who doesn’t agree completely and screw them until they can be fired or quit. then everyone else shuts up. especially those with mortgages or kids.

as completely as destroy that agency’s ability to function. then farm out the work to your campaign donors. prisons, social services, roads, public health, where can we send our friends some business. if they fail they still get to keep the money

By lloyd

December 2, 2007 11:04 AM | Link to this

thank you statesman. i know its hard for you sometimes but this is right on the money. all educators from our states great university’s should & will be raising hell. they will be coming for you next.

By Herman Cummings

December 2, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this

A Scientific Prediction From Genesis

Besides myself, all others that try to tell us what Genesis says do not understand the text, and are speaking from ignorance. I’m sorry to have to take this position, but there are too many false teachers and unqualified people talking about “creation\evolution debates” (when no such contest exists), and proclaiming false doctrines about Genesis, such as Creation Science, theistic evolution, progressive creation, and “gap” theories. There is even the fad of “Intelligent Design”, which is a big waste of time, and has almost nothing of value to offer.

There are no “creation accounts” in Genesis. The opposing view of evolution is what I call “the Observations of Moses”, which were visions of six days from the past, given to Moses by God, on Mt. Sinai in 1598 BC. Each day was taken from a different day of the week, each week being the first week from a different geologic age of mankind.

Having said that, I am now making this declaration, so that mankind may know that the words and events written in Genesis are true, and the humanist theories of our origins are false. I predict that secular science shall soon find, if they have not already, solid evidence of prehistoric mankind, which is earlier than 30 million years in age. The book “Moses Didn’t Write About Creation!”, states from Genesis that mankind has been in his present likeness for over 60 million years. Moses wrote about extinction and restoration.

Herman Cummings PO Box 1745 Fortson GA, 31808 Ephraim7@aol.com

By Wanda

December 2, 2007 1:23 PM | Link to this

The US advantage in world economy and affairs has been based on education. Today China and India are producing more scientists and engineers than the US. Jobs are going to India, and manufactoring to China as well as others.
We can not produce scientists and engineers when we do not teach science in public schools. The same people who want intelligent design taught are the ones who complain the the US is losing its status in the world.

By A Nichols

December 2, 2007 2:15 PM | Link to this

Lizzette Reynolds is a scarey, scarey person. Thank you for your editiorial, but you position is at odds with Saturday’s column that Hyde Park Baptist’s Church’s actions should be tolerated in the name of Christian love.

By JoeT

December 2, 2007 3:04 PM | Link to this

This was a good editorial. I can’t add anything to it. However, I would further point out the futility of promoting intelligent design. Even if that were taught exclusively, how would anyone, including the promoters and their religions, benefit? This is another non-issue that has no relevance other than to widen the gap between outdated religion, and modern religion.

I have always held to the notion that the biblical description of how the world was created had been subject to misinterpretation of the ancient languages the bible was written in. An example would be the aramic word that was widely interpreted as “day”, as in the seven days of creation. It appears possible the aramic word could also mean “eons” depending on its context. That would make the original biblical account of creation allow modern theories to be non-contradictory. Some misinterpretation was obviously intentional on the part of the catholic church, and later by fundamentalists. In fact, the catholic church as well as several fundamental groups have re-written the bible so it seemingly more closely corresponds to their respective dogmas, or supports their politics.

Its too bad, for it contaminates the search for truth.

I agree with Jennifer in asking “Why did she resign?” rather than fighting the pressure put on her.

Hopefully the demagogue neo-cons who conned their way to control Texas politics will get voted out of power in the upcoming elections.

By OleHippieChick

December 2, 2007 3:05 PM | Link to this

“This state has struggled for years with the ideological bent of the state school board, but lawmakers took away most of its power to infect education some years ago.”

That didn’t work out too well. Infected!

“Politicizing the Texas Education Agency, which oversees the education of children in public schools, would be a monumental mistake.”

Would be? Too late. Lizzie’s a bu$hie. TEA already IS politicized. IT’S WHAT THEY DO.

By RogerW

December 2, 2007 3:48 PM | Link to this

There is also an excellent Nova episode that thoroughly documents the Dover, PA, case. It was on KLRU several weeks ago. Here’s the link to the Nova site to view it online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html It should be required viewing for everyone in this country, especially TEA.

By Mike Gene

December 2, 2007 3:58 PM | Link to this

It is unfortunate that the concept of Intelligent Design has become entangled in the Culture Wars. I do not think ID belongs in the schools, as it is not science. But neither is it religion or creationism. My book, The Design Matrix: A Consilience of Clues, the clarifies this. Some of us are tired of the heated debates, name-calling, innuendo, and political fights. Such people might find themselves in the middle ground and would rather focus on the hypotheses, the arguments, and the evidence.

Check out the trailer for my book.

www.thedesignmatrix.com

By Dave

December 2, 2007 4:57 PM | Link to this

As a biology professor in Kansas, I have to admit that I am happy to have this particular spotlight move from my state to the great state of Texas. But I do hope that your state doesn’t have to go through the multiple spasms of irrationality that have plagued Kansas. Intelligent Design (aka born-again creationism) is not science, and does not deserve even a modicum of neutrality in any educational setting. It is religion in a cheap lab coat. Good luck - we’ll be praying for ya.

By Lawrence

December 2, 2007 5:06 PM | Link to this

Since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq I have heard countless criticisms of Muslim practice of Sharia law. This is an ‘Islamic religious law’ that forces people, sometimes violently, to follow a strict code of behavior. I see little difference between the practice of Sharia law in the Middle East and Africa and what is happing in the Texas Education Agency both are trying to impose a religious belief on those who may or may not agree.

By Ichthyic

December 2, 2007 6:11 PM | Link to this

“Such people might find themselves in the middle ground and would rather focus on the hypotheses, the arguments, and the evidence.”

here, let me correct that for accuracy, Mike Gene:

some people, who actually know better, would rather focus on the LACK of hypotheses, the incredibly poor arguments, and the entirely fictional and manufactured evidence (for ID).

good luck with your delusions, Mike.

one thing I’ll give you is that the arguments are just as poor for ID regardless of whether or not one attaches religious ideology to them.

By Kelly

December 2, 2007 6:18 PM | Link to this

Any editorial that begins with a wrong premise will end up at the wrong place. From all the evidence (eliminating surmise and speculation), Comer is no longer with the agency due to insubordination. Period.

By Russell

December 2, 2007 6:28 PM | Link to this

Evolution is ludicrous and shot full of holes. Intelligent Design simply attempts to address the shortcomings in this theory. How many so called “missing links” have later been found to be frauds? Some are acutally still taught as “science” in classrooms. Evolution is an atheistic religious dogma that is not supported by facts. I suggest you read some books by Dr. Hugh Ross, such as “Creation and Time”. Put your belief in evolution to the test and you will be glad you did.

By Marilyn Kircus

December 2, 2007 7:49 PM | Link to this

As an ex science teacher, I’m appalled at what passes for science education in Texas. Most Texans, including many teachers, can’t tell scientific data from opinion. Science is not taught as a process and as a way to determine if an hypothesis can be proven or not. But rather it is taught as a set of facts mixed with opinions. This is just another example of how Texans mix up facts and opinions and how politicians mostly completely ignore proven hypotheses. Right now one of the worst problems we are facing is global warming and for years, President Bush claimed this was a baseless opinion and even teachers still hold that view without the tools to determine how to test that hypothesis and how to determine the validity of the person presenting the data.

Until the multiple sides of every scientifically based issue is offered to our students and they are given the tools to test the information, we will remain in this sorry state where politics determines the science we are to even be exposed to.

By Jacque Rousseau

December 2, 2007 10:28 PM | Link to this

The ongoing revival of creatonism/intelligent design is not about religion, morality, or truth. This is all about political power—the manipulation, domination, and control of religious groups. Google—“the 14 points of Fascism” and read “The 12 Year Reich” by Richard Grunberger. Also read articles and books by Victor Klemperer—about the language of the Nazi’s. Deeply analyze the RNC minion organizations and you will find they operate by the same principles of Ernst Roehm’s SA brown shirts in Nazi Germany. They were used to suppress dissent and to keep the German people in line for the whims of the Nazi party.

By PulSamsara

December 2, 2007 10:28 PM | Link to this

As a Grand Exalted Wizard of the Eastern Texas Flat Earth Society I am gratified to hear we are finally taking a stand against these smarty pants sushi eating sandle wearin’ neo liberal pinko liberal ‘scientist’ ! I for one aint descended from no monkey ! ;)

By Mark Star

December 2, 2007 11:48 PM | Link to this

A famous Mark Twain quote was “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Than, he made school boards”

By Acleron

December 3, 2007 3:59 AM | Link to this

Congratulations the Austin-American Statesman. It is rare to see such a brave and forthright condemnation of such idiocy. England

By Pat

December 3, 2007 6:40 AM | Link to this

Sadly, this is merely the final stages of the disease - Texas has long been suffering this infection, and it is now terminal. My youngest sister came to me to discuss biology after her teacher in New Braunfels refused to discuss evolution any further than mocking it openly in class with a nod and a wink, and disabusing her of the notion that it was part of biology when she tried to ask further questions.

So I did what any good brother would do and gave her part one of Larry Gonick’s “A Cartoon History of the Universe.” Considering she learned more in two days of reading a comic book than her entire time in the Texas education system, it’s pretty clear that the disease is end-stage, and the patient is in the process of having life support removed, being now obviously brain-dead.

By Richard Palmer

December 3, 2007 6:58 AM | Link to this

As a Massachusetts Citizen, all I can say is (how do you folks put it?) Yippee!. Thanks to the Taxas Education Agency for making the state look like a bad place to put Biotech Companies.

In any case, I’m sad that children anywhere are abused by people who feel they have a right to foist off lies and drivel like intelligent design on an education process. The voting adults of the state have themselves to blame for putting people with a political religious agenda in ANY position of authority. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

By Mark

December 3, 2007 7:28 AM | Link to this

There is a cultural fight underway for today’s children. Acquiescence and talking won’t win it. As an evolutionist I don’t get into religious/creationist/atheist/istist debates but the solution to this seems pretty straightforward. Don’t send your kids to this school. Boycott it. Tell your kids if they already go there that they may be told lies. They are your kids. Reward open, honest and fair schools with their attendance.

By Richard B. Drumm

December 3, 2007 8:40 AM | Link to this

Thank you, Austin American-Statesman, thank you! Ms. Comer was doing her job and got fired for it. Pure and simple. She should be reinstated immediately and Ms. Reynolds should be reprimanded. She should not be fired, though, tempting as that might be. She should be watched carefully, though. Proponents of Intelligent Design Creationism (thanks, Paul Burnett for linking Creationism to ID this way, I’ll pass it along) often call for IDC to be presented in science classes because it’s only fair to air all sides of the (supposed) debate. However science is not a democracy, it is a meritocracy (if you will) where only ideas with merit survive. IDC is not an idea of scientific merit and should not, therefore, recieve “equal time” in a science classroom. Again, thank you Austin Americal-Statesman for having the fortitude to stand up for what’s right! Good on ya! I have a brother, brother-in-law & sister-in-law in Austin, BTW. Richard B. Drumm

By redx

December 3, 2007 9:53 AM | Link to this

I think there is a pretty big difference between advocating a flawed and religiously motivated attack on science and rational thought, and giving someone 200 lashes for being raped(and then probably killed by male family members for bringing shame on them).

I don’t think the hyperbole helps either cause.

batteries never included

Oh yes, certainly, please click.

The Brooklyn Bridge.The C-47 airplane -- still flying over Himalayas and Andes and deep into jungles and tundra, and will continue to do so indefinitely while pilots stay reasonably sober and awake. The C-47 (a great favorite for smuggling drugs by air) has outlasted most of the first humans who flew it. They're not walking anymore. The C-47 is still flying.

All the voyages of human beings to the surface of the Moon.

Skyscrapers, well past the era of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, well past the era of the Eiffel Tower.

The great ocean liners and naval and merchant vessels from the era of steam, and the submarines of both World Wars and the first nuclear submarines. All the world's railroads well past steam and into the Diesel and Electric era. And the great train stations, and the tunnels through the mountains for the railroads.

Relativity. Maxwell's Equations. The Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements. The atomic bomb.

All computed on a slide rule.

They never need batteries. They don't use batteries or electricity.

If the power goes out -- you can still compute. Perfect for being stranded on an island, and needing to compute so you can build a boat and navigate across the ocean to get home again safely. Perfect for your three-hour final examination.

How much precision do you need, anyway? In the physical universe, there aren't many questions that really need more than 6 digits of precision. A cheap student slide rule gives you 3 or 4.

Pay another $100 and you can get 5, maybe 6. But of course in the Great Age of Slide Rules, they made beautiful and amazing slide rules that cost $200, $300, $400 ... precision and dozens of special little extra tricks. My brother kept his in the refrigerator so the wood wouldn't warp in hot, humid weather.

They're extinct now.

Oh, want to use one again? Or learn how to use one for the first time in your life? Try this one.

How I love this noble man / Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann / Einstein's poem to Spinoza

Click charts to enlarge.

Natal charts of Baruch/Benedict Spinoza

and Albert Einstein

Notification of this oddity reached me by e-mail while I was away in Maine. It should hardly be surprising that as all the minds who ever lived wander about the ideosphere, Einstein and Spinoza would have bumped into one another admiringly. That Einstein would look back on all the thinkers who had lived before him and pick out Baruch/Benedict Spinoza and write poetry to him.

During World War II, a little boy, about 12,looked out the window of his home and saw his land, the Netherlands, occupied by Nazi Germany. The most pleasant thing that he saw in his homeland was that nearly every Dutch person was starving; there was practically no food, it had all been seized and shipped back to be enjoyed in the conquerer's Fatherland. Everything else the little boy saw in his homeland was worse than slow starvation of his family and all his neighbors.

Then one day in his father's library he found a copy of Spinoza's "Ethics." He recalled turning the pages of this strange book (probably an accessible translation into Dutch -- the original was in Latin) and how instantly offended and outraged he was.

Outside the window was mass starvation, and police leading his neighbors away to be exterminated and to serve the monstrous war machine as slave labor.

And inside the house, in the pages of this old Dutch book, was PROOF -- exactly in the style of the geometry proofs of Euclid -- that all men and women must behave ethically toward each other. Proven, in the pages of this book, beyond any doubt -- Ethical, moral, humane behavior was the only possible rational way for human beings ever and always to live. Proof that this is how God designed the World.

I don't know how many pages he read; I have the sense he dropped the book like a pustulant fœtid fester and has hated it and his fellow Dutchman who wrote it to this day, 63 year later.

The little boy grew up and continues to live on Earth. Coincidentally, there are several large, grotesque, genocidal wars going on on Earth as this is written.
Spinoza is one of the most admired inhabitants of Planet Vleeptron -- the planet in the Dwingeloo-2 Galaxy whose last war (The Second Garlic War) ended 120,000 years ago. On his own planet, I have made special trips and visited both Spinoza's surviving homes, one in Rijnsburg near Leiden, the other (Domus Spinozana) in den Haag.

In the little garden behind his cottage in Rijnsburg is a bust of Spinoza. He doesn't look at all like a bookish nerd philosopher. (His day job was as a polisher of glass lenses.) He's a handsome, even rakish-looking man, almost soldier or pirate looking, a man ladies would have taken to very easily.
Perhaps the most bitter thing in the world is to be confronted by startling evidence of the difference between How The World Could Be, and How The World Actually Is. The technical term for what this contrast does to the human soul is Weltschmerz: World Pain.

The Excommunication and Anathema
Read over Baruch Spinoza
by the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam 
 (near Waterlooplein)

from http://www.philosophyblog.com.au/

The ceremony

Different versions are circulating. For some reason, this passage from Lucas (who might be Spinoza's earliest biographer) is popular:

When the people have assembled in the synagogue, the ceremony which they call Herim begins with the lighting of a quantity of black wax-candles and the opening of the ark where the books of the Law are kept. Then the precentor, standing on a slightly raised place, intones the words of the excommunication in a doleful voice, while another precentor blows a horn, and the wax-candles are turned upside down so as to make them fall drop by drop into a vessel full of blood. Thereupon the people, animated with a holy horror at the sight of the black spectacle, respond Amen in a furious tone, which bears witness to the good service which they believe they would render to God if they could tear the excommunicated to pieces; as they would do without doubt if they met him at that moment or when leaving the synagogue.

The statement of excommunication

More accurate translations can be found in Gullan-Whur and Nadler. But I think the following, from Wolf 1910, is amusing:

The members of the council do you to wit that they have long known of the evil opinions and doings of Baruch de Espinoza, and have tried by divers methods and promises to make him turn from his evil ways. As they have not succeeded in effecting his improvement, but, on the contrary, have received every day more information about the horrible heresies which he practised and taught, and other enormities which he has committed, and as they had many trustworthy witnesses of this, who have deposed and testified in the presence of the said Spinoza, and have convicted him; and as all this has been investigated in the presence of the Rabbis, it has been resolved with their consent that the said Espinoza should be anathematised and cut off from the people of Israel, and now he is anathematised with the following anathema:

"With the judgment of the angels and with that of the saints, with the consent of God, Blessed be He, and of all this holy congregation, before these sacred Scrolls of the Law, and the six hundred and thirteen precepts which are proscribed therein, we anathematise, cut off, execrate, and curse Baruch de Espinoza with the anathema wherewith Joshua anathematised Jericho, with the curse wherewith Elishah cursed the youths, and with all the curses which are written in the Law: cursed be he by day, and cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lieth down, and cursed be he when he riseth up; cursed be he when he goeth out, and cursed be he when he cometh in; the Lord will not pardon him; the wrath and fury of the Lord will be kindled against this man, and bring down upon him all the curses which are written in the Book of the Law; and the Lord will destroy his name from under the heavens; and, to his undoing, the Lord will cut him off from all the tribes of Israel, with all the curses of the firmament which are written in the Book of the Law; but ye that cleave unto the Lord your God live all of you this day!"

We ordain that no one may communicate with him verbally or in writing, nor show him any favour, nor stay under the same roof with him, nor be within four cubits of him, nor read anything composed or written by him.

The cubit referred to is a vague and ill-defined unit, but my best guess is that 4 cubits was about 6 feet or 2 meters.

==========

Zu Spinozas Ethik
von Albert Einstein (1920)

Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann
Mehr als ich mit Worten sagen kann.
Doch fürcht' ich , dass er bleibt allein
Mit seinem strahlenden Heiligenschein.
So einen armen kleinen Wicht
Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht.
Der amor dei lässt ihn kalt
Das Leben zieht ihn mit Gewalt.
Die Höhe bringt ihm nichts als Frost
Vernunft ist für ihn schale Kost.
Besitz und Weib und Ehr' und Haus
Das füllt ihn von oben bis unten aus.
Du Musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n
Wenn hier mir fällt Münchhausen ein,
Dem als Einzigen das Kunststück gedieh'n
Sich am eigenen Zopf aus dem Sumpf zu zieh'n.
Du denkst sein Beispiel zeiget uns eben
Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben.
Vertraue nicht dem tröstlichen Schein:
Zum Erhabenen muss man geboren sein.

by Albert Einstein, written 1920
Albert Einstein Archive, 31-018
See also transcription by Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 267, and translation of first stanza, p. 43.
Note: There are a few discrepancies between Max Jammer's transcription and the one above done for me by someone else. I need to reconcile them:
There are a few discrepancies between your transcription and Max Jammer's.
(1) stanza 5, line 2:

Transcription above: Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben.
Jammer: Was diese Lehre den Menschen kann geben.

(2) stanza 2, line 2:

Transcription above: Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht.
Jammer capitalizes "Du".

(3) stanza 4, line 1:

Transcription above: Du Musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n
Jammer: no apostrophe in "verzeihn"

(4) stanza 4, line 3:

Dem als Einzigen das Kunststück gedieh'n
Jammer: no apostrophe in "gediehn"

Otherwise, Jammer uses ue instead of ü, but I assume this is just a typographical convention.
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:00:23 +0200
From: hans68@eunet.at
To: rdumain@igc.org

i think my corrections are ok, but I added others.
I added full-stops, and I changed a capital M in "Musst"

Ralph Dumain
> (1) Your second correction:
>
> "Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben."
>
> is rendered by Jammer as:
>
> Was diese Lehre ***den*** Menschen kann geben.
for me there is no doubt that Einstein wrote "dem Menschen" -
the singular for the pural
Ralph Dumain
> (2) stanza 2, line 2:
>
> "Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht."
>
> Jammer capitalizes "Du".
no capital "D"
> (3) stanza 4, line 1:
>
> "Du Musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n"
>
> Jammer: no apostrophe in "verzeihn"
there is an apostrophe in the hand-writing but no space between the final letters. But it seems that Einstein meant it like in "zieh'n" (stanza 3.
Ralph Dumain
> (4) stanza 4, line 3:
>
> "Dem als Einzigen das Kunststück gedieh'n"
>
> Jammer: no apostrophe in "gedieh'n"
same as above apostrophe without space in between.
Grammatically there are no mistakes in the poem -
as far as i can see for now it is 100% of Einstein's hand-wiriting.

---Zu Spinozas Ethik

Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann
Mehr als ich mit Worten sagen kann.
Doch fürcht' ich, dass er bleibt allein
Mit seinem strahlenden Heiligenschein.
So einen armen kleinen Wicht
Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht. [.]
Der amor dei lässt ihn kalt
Das Leben zieht ihn mit Gewalt. [.]
Die Höhe bringt ihm nichts als Frost
Vernunft ist für ihn schale Kost
Besitz und Weib und Ehr' und Haus
Das füllt ihn von oben bis unten aus
Du musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n [Musst]
Wenn hier mir fällt Münchhausen ein.
Dem als Einzigem das Künststück gediehn'n [Einzigem]
Sich am eigenen Zopf aus dem Sumpf zu zieh'n.
Du denkst sein Beispiel zeiget uns eben
Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben. [.]
Vertraue nicht dem tröstlichen Schein:
Zum Erhabenen muss man geboren sein.

Max Jammer's partial translation:

How much do I love that noble man
More than I could tell with words
I fear though he'll remain alone
With a holy halo of his own.

Charles Senger's translation (19 Nov 2006):

How I love this noble man
More than I can say with words.
Yet I fear he'll stay alone
With his glowing halo.

Such a poor wee wight
You won't lead him to freedom.
Amor dei leaves him cold
Life pulls at him by force.

Height just brings him frost
Reason is stale fare for him.
Possessions, wife, honor and house
Absorb him top to bottom.

You must kindly pardon me
If I think here of Münchhausen,
As individual thriving on tricks
Pulling himself from the swamp by his own bootstraps.

You think his example shows us just
What this doctrine can give a person.
Don't trust this consoling semblance:
One must be born to the sublime.

Albert Einstein
On the Ethics of Spinoza
translated by Riccardo Pozzo

How do I love this noble man
More than I can say with words.
However, I fear he remains alone
With his radiating aureole.
Such a poor little fruit
Will you not bring to freedom.
The amor dei lets him cold
Life drives him with violence.
The height gives him nothing but frost
Reason is for him flat food.
Possession, woman and honor and house
This replenish him from top to bottom.
You benevolently ought to pardon me
If I here am reminded of Münchhausen,
Which alone succeeded in the acrobacy
Of raising himself by his hair-tail out the swamp.
You think his example shows us then
What this doctrine can give to man.
Give no confidence to the consolatory illusion:
For the sublime one has to be born.

R. Dumain attempting to convert literal to more poetic translation, in process. I'm not sure who the "he" is from stanza 2 on.

How I love this noble man
More than any words I'd say could show.
I fear, though, he'll remain alone
With his halo all aglow.
Such a poor little thing
To freedom you will fail to bring.
Amor dei leaves one cold,
Life drives one harshly to and fro.
Height brings a man nought but frost
Reason's stale fare ....
Owning things, wife, honor, house
Consume his life from top to bottom.
You must kindly pardon me
If Munchhausen here comes to mind,
the only one who acrobatically
could pull himself out of a swamp
You think his example shows us then
What this doctrine can give to man.
Don't trust this consoling illusion:
One must be born to the sublime.

With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt / the blackleg miner goes to work

Coalminers in the vicinity of Newcastle (north of England) starting a midnight-8 am shift around 1939.

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Blackleg Miner

English traditional song, early 19th century
arranged and performed by Richard Thompson
Appears on "1000 Years of Popular Music" (2003)

It's in the evening after dark
when the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner.

Well, he grabs his duds and down he goes,
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town row
will look at the blackleg miner.

Oh, Delaval is a terrible place,
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a footrace
to catch the blackleg miner.

And even down near the Seghill mine,
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat, to break the spine
of the dirty blackleg miner.

They grabbed his duds, his picks as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell,
Down you go, we pay you well,
You dirty blackleg miner.

It's in the evening after dark
that the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner.

So join the union while you may,
Don't wait 'til your dying day
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner

Popular with folk revivalists, a song from the Durham coalfields, of North East England, of indeterminate age - Deleva and Segal Mines both saw industrial action (strikes) on many occasions. Blackleg being British for "Scab." A bitter song and a warning about what happens to strikebreakers. The pits at seaton delaval and Seghill are metioned, both about 60 miles north of Newcastle on Tyne. They were closed in the 1960s.

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Blackleg Miner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blackleg Miner is a 19th Century English folk song, originally from Northumberland (as can be deduced from the dialect in the song and the references in it to the villages of Seghill and Seaton Delaval).

It is not entirely clear how old the song is, although it is thought to have been written either in the late 19th or early 20th Century. Richard Thompson, who released a version of it in 2006, dates it as early as the first half of the 19th Century. However, if this was true, it must have been translated into more modern English, as the lyrics would not have been part of the language of 19th Century Northumberland.

The lyrics, which are traditional depict the aggressive stance against strikebreakers adopted by collectivised strikers - the term blackleg being an older word for scab. (Britain's mining sector has always been heavily unionised and strikes could cause bitterness both within and between pit communities).

For a period in the 1960s and 1970s, the song's aggressive lyrics were ignored and it became a common feature of many folk music societies. However, the UK miners' strike (1984-1985) saw striking miners using the song to intimidate those who continued to work.

Thereafter, playing the song became a political statement in support of the strike and many folk clubs avoided the song due to its description of violence. This was counterbalanced by an increase in bands that played the song. The most notorious of these was that by Steeleye Span, who played the song in Nottingham - an area that had seen a lot of violence during the strike - in 1986.

Other artists to have played this song include Ryan's Fancy, Lloyd, Smoky Finish and Clatterbone, Len Wallace, Seven Nations, Steeleye Span, the Angelic Upstarts as well as Richard Thompson.

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A scab is a worker who crosses a strikers' picket line to take a union member's job and keep working. Scabs often were/are men who, for various reasons -- criminal records, illegal aliens, etc. -- could not get into a union during normal times and so could not get work. A long, protracted strike opens doors of work opportunity for previously unemployable scabs. Scabs work cheap for cash by the day and enjoy no protections or benefits earned by decades of union struggle.