Dumbledore's Army

So I read today that a woman in Georgia is trying to ban the Harry Potter Books from her local Elementary School Library. This is not a surprise, but it is a dissapointment. I wish these stories would be accepted as fictional flights of fancy and not the spawn of the devil, as they are made out to be.

Please let me know what you think.

Odds and Ends

Here are some questions that I’m just getting to now because they’ve been rather tricky to answer. As you can see, I wasn’t able to answer all of them perfectly. Thanks to Mother, Margaret and Angela, who sent them in.

1) Can you help me find recent (last 10-15 years) qualitative studies of race and racism, preferably sociological studies? In particular, I'm interested in studies that examine either public or private “race talk.”
You might find these sources helpful :

Pollock, Mica. Colormute : Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2004.

Giroux, Henry A. Channel Surfing : Race Talk and the Destruction of Today’s Youth. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

“See no evil, speak no evil: white police officers' talk about race and affirmative action” McElhinny, Bonnie. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 2001; 11(1): 65-78.


2) What is the by-product of Hydrogen when used as fuel for vehicles?
Heat and water.

Source : A Student’s Guide to Alternative Fuel Cells


3) Where can I find information on aliasing?
While I could not find the answer, I suggest you use the useful tool that the Virginia Institute of Marine Science advertises on their website : Ask Dr. Bob , where anyone can pose questions regarding Oceanography to a scientist.


4) How many fiction books carry the same title?
I was not able to find a number, but I was able to find a short list, as well as to learn that the reason why there are many different books with the same title is because titles cannot be copyrighted. Characters, yes (which is why no one can publish a book about Luke Skywalker without George Lucas’ permission).

Fun with Science and Technology

1) When were plants first recorded as being dried and pressed in order to study them later?
Luca Ghini (1490-1556), an Italian herbalist, is the first botanist to do so in order to preserve them in herbariums for further research and study.

2) Who invented the condom?
Gabriele Fallopius (1523-1562) claimed to have invented the sheath (condom), but this is questionable since a variety of types were in use for hundreds of years. The term ‘condom’ was not recorded until after the Renaissance. Throughout history, various materials have been used as a condom is today : sheep intestines, linen cloth, oiled silk paper, sausage casings, and a hard material developed by the Japanese that not only prevented conception, but also aided the impotent. However, it was not until Charles Goodyear discovered how to vulcanize rubber that his company produced the first modern latex condoms in 1844.

Krebs, Roberts E. Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 2004.

3) What’s with the American Chestnut tree?
The great North American Chestnut exemplifies a critical concern about importing exotic species. First recorded in 1904 in New York City, a disease from Asian Chestnuts spread rapidly through the American Chestnut, and almost completely wiped out the species by killing the bark and girdling the tree. As a result, American chestnut trees have typically been excluded from landscaping plans.

4) What is the most common tree disease in North American?
Bulldozer blight.

Sternberg, Guy, with Jim Wilson. Native Trees for North American Landscapes: From the Atlantic to the Rockies. Portland, OR : Timber Press, 2004.

5) Have all the species of animals and insects been discovered?
No. New invertebrates (insects, etc.) are still being discovered regularly, but it is rare to encounter previously undocumented mammal species. You can imagine the surprise when, in 1994, the forests of Southeast Asia yielded three new species of small deer known as muntjacs.

6) Besides their pouches, do female marsupials have any other reproductive difference than most mammals?
Featuring two uteri and two vaginas, the internal anatomy of female marsupials differs markedly from that of placental mammals. In addition, male marsupials differ from other mammals; they have a forked penis, which directs semen into both vaginas. Once a female becomes pregnant, she develops a third vagina as a canal for the birth of her young.

Encyclopedia of Animals: A Complete Visual Guide. Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, 2004.

7) Why haven’t any probes or satellites landed on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune?
These planets, known as the gas giants, have little or no solid mass. They are made up of gasses and liquids. One space probe that was sent out traveled right through Jupiter’s “surface” and into the core of the planet before it disintegrated due to the pressure and temperature.

8) What is the closest star to the sun?
The star nearest the sun is Proxima Centauri, at 4.2 light years away from the sun.

Scagell, Robin. Children’s Night Sky Atlas. New York : DK Publishing, 2004.

Shirley Ann Galor Savage 24 September 1927 - 30 November 2006

The reason why I haven't posted for a while is that Gramma died. Yesterday I was planning to write up how much I loved her and that I wasn't a very good granddaughter because I hadn't been to visit her in awhile. I had a whole long paragraph in mind, but my sister beat me to it.

If you are lucky enough to still have your grandparents living. Go call them. Now. Don't wait. Please.