August 26, 2009
The John Brown 2009 Sesquicentennial Anniversary
The 2009 Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry is coming up, so break out your pronunciation tool and head out (or over, up, east, west, north, south, what have you) to the storied West Virginia town. Lots of events are planned in and around Harper’s Ferry, which was bustling during a quick stop last weekend. Fall is an even better time to visit this masterfully preserved town, when you can check out the foliage, the river views, and get up close and personal with Civil War history. (Photo from the John Brown 150th Anniversary Quad-State Committee’s website, which is planning many of the commemoration events.)
If you can’t visit in person, take this awesome virtual tour of Harper’s Ferry, courtesy of the National Park Service.
August 25, 2009
Health Care and the “Endowment Effect”
James Surowiecki of the New Yorker explains “status quo bias” and how it might be impacting the cause of health insurance reform. (Meanwhile, I just got the dreaded letter: My monthly insurance premium will spike by 20 percent starting next month. This has never happened. Surely I’ll get better service, right? Sure … .)
Descendants of Paul Jennings Visit White House
A great story, first reported by the New York Times and, today, by NPR: The descendants of Paul Jennings, former slave and footman to the fourth president, today visited the White House to have their picture taken in front of the George Washington portrait that Jennings famously helped saved from the fire set by the British in 1814.
The Montpelier Foundation organized the White House tour with dozens of Jennings’s family members (the Obamas are vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard). Lore has it that Jennings helped Dolley Madison save the now-famous portrait, even though she, unlike her husband, apparently did not treat Jennings or other slaves well. However, according to NPR’s blog post about the event, Jennings said in his memoir that he was simply asked to dismantle the portrait with the help of other servants so it could be moved.
Jennings was born into slavery at the Madison’s Montpelier, Va., home in 1799, according to the foundation. He eventually moved to the White House with the president, where he stayed until age 18, through two presidential terms. Jennings developed a strong bond with Madison and was at the president’s side when he died.
Dolley Madison failed to honor President Madison’s wishes that Jennings be freed after the president’s death, but he eventually achieved that status. He became a prominent citizen, famous abolitionist, and the first White House memoirist, authoring “A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison,” the foundation says.
Family members, some of whom only recently met, told NPR that as they looked at the portrait, they felt a sense of amazement. (Some of the family members are pictured here.)
August 21, 2009
Science Friday: The Physics of Splashing
Dive in below, or watch it here.
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August 20, 2009
Is U.S. Health Care the Best in the World?
A new Urban Institute analysis done with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation argues that claims that America’s health care system is the best in the world should be taken with a grain of salt. Authors Elizabeth Docteur and Robert A. Berenson argue in “How Does the Quality of U.S. Health Care Compare Internationally?” that U.S. health care excels in certain areas, like cancer care, but does less well preventing death from treatable conditions. The 14-page analysis is yet another source to inform the current health care reform debate.