Monday, January 6, 2014

Things to Do in Boston

Okay we are going to Boston in 2014!

Now we get to start learning about Boston and figure out what we want to do there. Here is a starting point.

I think we should definitely go to this exhibit at the Kennedy Museum about the cuban missile crisis. There is also a movie called Thirteen Days we should all watch about this as well before we go.

If we go on the fourth of july we could go to the Boston Pops -- what do you think? We could hear A Reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Old State House, Boston. Or do a walking tour?  I think the Road to Revolution walking tour looks pretty good?

OOoh this tour looks good!

Or how about a photo-tour -- where we learn about photography and about boston?

I think right around the fourth there is a 92nd Annual Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow on Cape Cod.

I think we should go to Salem  -- there is a museum about the witch trials (this is very important to me to go see as it is very similar in my mind to what happened around ACORN  -- how fear can make people believe anything)  and a cool exhibit about artist-animal collaboration.

What about this exhibit at the Museum of Science?

Red Sox game anyone?

We definitely have to visit the Mapparium

As for Cape Cod -- we'll spend a day or two there...how about kayaking? whale watching? or hands on ocean cruise?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A Leap Back In Time

So Joe has an interest in the Borgia's, the Knights Templars, Assassins ....Who knew you could learn history from a video game.

So here are some web resources to better understand the Borgia's. Remember, just because it says it on the internet it doesn't mean it is true. There might be some parts that are true or partially true. And sometimes we just don't know and historians make their best guest. And sometimes...things are just wrong. So take everything with a grain of salt. (what a funny phrase...where does that phrase take it with a grain of salt come from...guess what...from an antidote to poison. )

1) Here is a virtual tour of the vatican. And a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. I've been there -- it's amazing!

2) A great presentation about the Renaissance (you can't tell who did it..so it may not all be accurate). And a website that talks about the transition from medieval ages to the renaissance

3) There is a Colorado Renaissance festival...in Larkspur

4) Here is an article about Machiavelli, Da Vinci and Cesare Borgia. (you need a subscription so I copied it here)

What happened when a philosopher, an artist and a ruthless warrior – all giants of the Renaissance – met on campaign in northern Italy? Paul Strathern explains.
Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di TitoPortrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di TitoDuring the latter half of 1502, when the Italian Renaissance was at its height, three of its most distinguished yet disparate figures travelled together through the remote hilly region of the Romagna in north-eastern Italy. Cesare Borgia (1475-1507), backed by his father Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), was leading a military campaign whose aim was to carve out his own personal princedom. He had hired Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as his chief military engineer whose brief was to reinforce the castles and defences in the region as well as to construct a number of revolutionary new military machines, which he had designed in his notebooks. Accompanying this unlikely duo was the enigmatic figure of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), who had been despatched by the Florentine authorities as an emissary to the travelling ‘court’ with instructions to ingratiate himself with Borgia and, as far as possible, discover his intentions towards Florence whose position to the west, just across the Apennine mountains, left it particularly vulnerable to Borgia’s territorial ambitions.

5) Here is an article about the Death of Cesare Borgia on March 12th, 1507.
Alleged portrait of Cesare Borgia by Altobello Melone. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara. 1500-1524Alleged portrait of Cesare Borgia by Altobello Melone. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara. 1500-1524
The Borgias came from Spain originally and the most famous of them died there, killed at the age of thirty-one in a minor skirmish by attackers who did not even know who he was. Christened Cesare, which would give him the welcome opportunity to take Aut Caesar aut nihil (‘Either Caesar or nothing’) as his motto, he was one of the illegitimate sons of Pope Alexander VI by Vanozza Catanei. He was trained for the Church and made Archbishop of Valencia and a cardinal when still in his teens, but he was no godly pastor but a formidable man of action.
Brave, daring and determined, he was insatiably power-hungry and entirely ruthless. Murder, bribery and deceit were all in the day’s work to him and his pleasures were women, hunting and fashionable clothes. He was considered the handsomest man in Italy, there were inevitably rumours of incest with his sister Lucrezia and he had syphilis from his early twenties.

His father put Cesare in command of the papal army in 1496, when he was still only about twenty. In alliance with the French the two of them set out to bring the central Italian cities back under direct papal control and carve out an Italian kingdom for Cesare himself. Machiavelli, who greatly admired Cesare, believed that he would have succeeded if it had not been for Pope Alexander’s death in Rome of malaria in 1503 and the fact that Cesare himself came down with the disease as well and was temporarily put out of action. The doctors sank him in a huge jar of iced water as a cure and he somehow survived the shock, but the cardinals chose as the new pope a dedicated enemy of the Borgias, Giuliano della Rovere, who succeeded as Julius II.
When Italy was at last united in the nineteenth century, Cesare could be hailed as a forerunner of Italian unity, though his motives were entirely self-interested. He was now arrested and packed off to prison in Spain. He managed to escape and took service with his brother-in-law, King John of Navarre. He planned to return to Italy before long, but meanwhile there was a rebellion against King John to contend with and Cesare took command of a 5,000-strong Basque army to deal with the rebels.

One of the rebels was Luis de Beaumonte, lord of the castle of Viana. King John and Cesare set siege to the castle early in March. Commanded by de Beaumonte’s son, it seemed an easy target, weakly garrisoned and inadequately provisioned. However, on the night of the 11th, a Wednesday, de Beaumonte was able to get a convoy of mules carrying provisions into the castle under cover of a sudden torrential storm. Cesare, alerted, led seventy horsemen out to attack de Beaumonte and his escort, who were now riding away from the castle. In his eagerness he far outdistanced his men and the enemy spotted him and ambushed him in a ravine. Hopelessly outnumbered, he was dragged off his horse and overwhelmed. His killers stripped his armour off and left his naked, bloodstained body with the marks of at least twenty-five wounds showing he had sold his life dearly.
The attackers did not realize who Cesare was and de Beaumonte, when he discovered, was furious at the loss of an exceptionally valuable potential captive for ransom. Cesare’s men found the body and King John had it buried in the little parish church of Viana. The inscription on the marble tomb said: ‘Here in a scant piece of earth lies he whom all the world feared.’

Monday, January 14, 2013

Too Fun -- Check This Out

This is a dance company called Pilobulus...I like how the images get bigger and smaller.


Friday, September 21, 2012

More on Longitude

The discovery of how to figure out longitude while out in the ocean changed the world. Suddenly countries could have a powerful navy that didnt get lost in the ocean and trade became much more reliable. Here is the first of a film about how the problem of navigating the ocean was solved. It's the first of six parts.

Longitude also tells us about time zones. Let's figure out the time zones for Tracy and Mariola in Washington DC; you in Boulder; Ben in the Yucatan; Gill in Austrialia; Your dad and JoeJoeLilyand Little Ray Ray in LA; and Godzilla in Japan.

Everything starts in Greenwich England (the prime meridian) -- that's just becuase the brits were the ones to document all this. Here is a website that shows all the time zones. Australia has three so we need to look up Kingscliff where Gill lives.

Here is a really good video about the history of telling time

Latitude and Longitude Games

Hi Joe -- When you mentioned latitude and longitude I realized I couldn't remember anything about it. So I looked it up on the internet. Here are some cool sites I found.

Songs
I love this song -- it makes it easier for me to remember longitude and latitude
And here is another song. it's helpful but not as good a song.

Video Review
Here is a video of how to use google maps to find longitude and latitude of a place. 
Here is a great review of latitude and longitude. 
And a short movie. You have to answer a question and then it starts.


I like this one. It is a a  teacher from australia using google earth to teach about latitude and longitude

This reviews the topic and shows a lot of the math behind it

Games
And here are some games to practice:

Other Websites about using maps
You were so good at using the map in washington dc. everytime i would get turned around you could find us on the map. Here are a lot of websites about learning to use maps

Let's Do Together
Let's see if we can figure out the longitude and latitude of places we have been to. Here is a video of how to use google maps to find longitude and latitude of a place. 

  • Crystal Lake?
  • Washington DC
  • Isla Holbox (where the whale sharks are)
  • Boulder
  • Santa Fe
Maybe we can draw a map with the longtitude and latitude with all these wonderful places? We can draw a picture for each place to -- an icon. 

I'm going to try to find something that explains who invited latitude and longitude and why it is important.


Sunday, September 9, 2012

Where oh Where?

Where oh where should we go? There are so many incredible places to go in the world...and just in the U.S. states!

Here are some websites for places to go in the US and the world? What is your top ten places you would like to go to someday?

In the US 


In the World

This is top 100 travel experiences
National geographic has the best info -- here are lots of countries and cities and you can click to learn about them and see beautiful pictures.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Going Back in Time

Wherever we go on our travels I am sure we are going to see things that make us think about the past. 

It might be the geology we see. Remember in the Yucatan we were walking on limestone made from shells. 

Or it might be walking the same paths at Calakmul that people did in 600 A.D.  In fact, there was a structure there from sometime between 400 and 200 BCE (isn't it weird how the numbers get bigger the farther back we go in BCE).

Or it could be creatures that have been around for a long time like horseshoe crabs.

If we go to California, Alaska or Peru -- what are the things we might see that remind us of past times?  Can you imagine if you were pulled into the past what it might be like?

And here is a cool tv show where kids get to help on archeological sites. You can watch the episodes from this link.