Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel

For three straight hours this morning, Samantha Brown helped me travel to China. We went to Xian, Sichuan, and Beijing. My wife came trotting down the hallway because she heard Samantha promo the Terracotta soldiers, said to be the most significant archaeological find of the 20th century. So I set the Tivo to record.

Why was this important to me? First, I begin teaching China in a few weeks (days actually). Second, the 7th grade Social Studies department (there are 4 of us) are trying to work out details to take our 500 7th graders to the High Museum in Atlanta to see the exhibit of the Terracotta soldiers.

In essence, the curator of the museum in China told Samantha (and me) that the clay soldiers were secretly buried with Emperor Qin Shi Huang to protect him in the afterlife, much like the Pharoahs did in Egypt.

Now for kudos to the Travel Channel. All three episodes are available through iTunes for $1.99 each or $4.99 for all three and any future episodes in the series. TV the way it should be.


A poorly done movie is available too: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (The Mummy 3). I really liked the first two, but I think it is because Rachel Weisz was in those, and absent from #3. Either she made a good choice to stay out of Mummy 3 or she is the one who really made Mummy 1 & 2 as good as they were.

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You Got To Fight For Your Right To ... Blog

GAS (Geeks Are Sexy) has a story of Chinese bloggers who are writing their blogs backwards so as not to get caught by censors and face jail time.

We've probably heard of the proposed death penalty for disagreeable bloggers in Iran. I read about it at Read/Write Web.

So, in the context of perhaps "changing the conversation" in a different direction, what could educational bloggers do to help our counterparts in countries who are punished for what we tend to take for granted?



Can bloggers (especially educational bloggers) make a world-wide difference in basic human rights?

Do you recall when Will began working on us with Darfur.

I thought it was great. It is one or three primary reasons I wanted to get back to the classroom. Not sure I ever said thank you to Will or not...so here is a public thank you for taking me beyond the tool to begin tasting the world's reality again.

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