An introductory undergraduate course and/or supplemental resource. (online)

Produced by K. Lee Lerner and curated by LMG's academic subject-matter experts and editorial teams, Intorduction to Sociology is a fully customizable undergraduate course crafted in partnership with Intellus Learning and Macmillan Learning editors, instructors, and compliance experts. Topics include: An Introduction to Sociology; Sociological Research; Culture; Socialization; Groups and Organization; Deviance, Crime, and Social Control; Media and Technology; Social Stratification in the United States; Global Inequality; Race and Ethnicity; Gender, Sex, and Sexuality; Aging and the Elderly; Marriage and Family; Religion; Education; Government and Politics; Work and the Economy; Health and Medicine; Population, Urbanization, and the Environment; Social Movements and Social Change.

Jacobsen's book does great service by making it clear that the evidence from studies and war game simulations overwhelmingly shows that strategic or large scale nuclear wars involving the U.S. Russia, and now China are unwinnable. Everyone loses. Everyone.  Always. 

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Though often misreported, there were no formal Articles of Surrender. Lee’s Surrender was effectively arranged and then memorialized in an exchange of several letters and messages – some delivered under a flag of truce while fighting was still taking place – between the generals.

Prior to their meeting at Appomattox, Grant wrote to Lee, “...By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Sincerely hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life…

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Introduction

The story of the Alamo is at the heart of the story of Texas. Both its facts and myths are foundational to the identity of Texans and what distinguishes them from others. 

This is a selected collection of both published and unpublished writings, poems, photos, and primary source transcriptions drawn from thousands of pages of notes made while researching the Texas Revolution. Originally crafted as a potential graduate studies thesis or capstone project, it quickly focused on use, evaluation, and integration of primary sources in journalism and in academic publishing. I plan to update it annually while observing annual remembrance days commemorating the siege of the Alamo that begins February 23rd each year and ends on the anniversary of the battle and fall of the Alamo on March 6th. -- K. Lee Lerner, Cambridge , Mass. March 6, 2012.

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A compilation of selected poems about the Alamo and Texas Revolution

San Antonio, Texas.   No matter where I roam in this world, I have dual citizenship, for Texas is my country too.

Accordingly, each year, to commemorate the siege and sacrificial battle of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad, and the victory at San Jacinto that secured independence for Texas, the American flag that usually flies in front Sibley is replaced by a Texas flag that once flew over the Alamo. If I am traveling, arrangements are made to continue the tradition.

Before dawn, on March 6, 1836, Mexican General and Dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered his forces laying siege to the Alamo to attack without quarter. The brief battle that followed ended 13 days of defiance that brought glory to the Alamo's Texian defenders and gave life to a revolution that would forge the Republic of Texas.

As is not uncommon with dualling depictions of history, the truth of the Alamo lies somewhere between Texas nationalist mythology and distortions crafted to cynically recast and reframe narratives related to the Texas Revolution so that they falsely align with fashionable ideological agenda. Ironically, hypocritically, and gallingly, some of the most progressive reframing of narratives related to the Alamo rely on suppressing or dismissing the accounts of witnesses who were women, enslaved men, Tejanos, or Mexican soldiers.

This is nothing new, of course. History is always contested territory. As with many great battles in history, fact mixes with myth concerning the battle of the Alamo and other events critical to the Texas Revolution. In our contemporary culture wars, how people view the events and motivations of those who fought at the Alamo and in that revolution usually runs close to how they view the founding of America and the intentions of its founders.

An honest effort to understand the Alamo must be careful to stay close to the scant evidence available  (read more)

Most people are trying to put the COVID-19 pandemic, with all it tragedies, disruptions,  uncertainties, and inanities in the rear view mirror.  The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 global health emergency over on May 5th, and the U.S declared the public health emergency over on May 11th.  Budget realities mean that governments and public health agencies are scaling down testing, with WHO recently estimating a 90 percent reduction in global COVID-19-related variant testing and reporting compared to levels in November 2021 during the Omicron variant outbreak.

Yet, the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 keeps evolving. Natural evolutionary mechanisms ensure that genetic mutations and changes keep creating new variants.

Not that every new variant is potentially more transmissible or lethal (in fact, most are not), but the combination of greatly reduced testing and sequencing combined with the evolution of highly mutated variants like the BA.2.86 variant discovered in July 2023 indicates a need to potentially shift vaccine strategies that have been primarily oriented to protecting against specific widely circulating variants.  (read more and download pdf copy here)

Highly recommended and, if you care about science, essential reading:  'A Paper That Says Science Should Be Impartial Was Rejected by Major Journals. You Can’t Make This Up,' by Pamela Paul, published in The New York Times (link below and in comments).

Anti-intellectual, anti-liberal, and anti-science movements shift about over time with regard to who holds the shame-stick. In the U.S., that baton is now firmly in the hands of the progressivista Leftists who have gained an outsize influence in the Democratic party.

Science is inherently able to withstand and eventually overcome the arguments of those who allow partisan or trendy ideology to supersede evidence, but they can do substantial damage that crosses generations.  (read more)

The most currect index is available at: https://blogs.harvard.edu/kleelerner/index/

Select Index  (last updated 23 June,2023)

Editor’s note:  I recently undertook a large scale reorganization of this blog. I have been revising the format of photos and reposting hundreds of “Taking Bearings” essays along with reprints from other publications. When this task is complete, I will remove this note. If you are following a broken link to a missing entry, please contact me at  kleelerner at alumni.harvard.edu and I will repost the entry as quickly as possible.

In publication since 1906, the venerable American Men and Women of Science remains without peer as a chronicle of scientific endeavor and achievement ..." -- WorldTrade Review Essays 

"The Cadillac of scientific biography" -- Booklist. Selected for collections at Princeton, Harvard,  MIT,  JPL/ Caltech; the Wellcome Trust Collection, and more 

K. Lee Lerner has served on the Advisory Board for American Men and Women of Science for the last 20 editions (21st through 40th edition;  2003-2022),  He is currently working as an advisor for the 41st edition due to be published in 2023.

First published as American Men of Science by J. McKeen Cattell in 1906, throughout its 116 year history American Men and Women of Science has recognized both men and women scientists who have made significant contributions in their field.  In 1971, the name of the series was changed to American Men and Women of Science.

American Men and Women of Science includes scientists selected for their contributions to science as measured by their publications in reputable scientific journals and media. Also included are those whose work cannot be published due to governmental or industrial security. Inclusion criteria include awards, grants and other forms of recognition, publication record, attainment of a position of substantial scientific responsibility, and nomination by peers in their respective fields. Scientists who are not citizens of the United States or Canada are included if a significant portion of their work was performed in North America.

Reading Julius Caesar is a wonderful exercise in propaganda detection and discussions about such detection in Caesar's commentaries are the quickest way to reveal a person' s depth of scholarly acquittance with the material. (download to read more)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has posed novel problems related to nuclear safety for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Western intelligence communities, and media outlets because this is the first time a large scale shooting war has threatened multiple nuclear power plants. Early concerns about perils posed by radioactive materials stored at the damaged and decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant have now turned to fears about evident damage to the Zaporizhzhia (also spelled Zaporizhia) nuclear plant located on the Dnipro river-fed Kakhovka reservoir in a southern area of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces.

The challenges include sifting sources for misinformation and disinformation.  (download to read more)

A select bibliography of published works by K. Lee Lerner  (this document is due substantial revision to include both academic and general writing prior to 2003. I will be revising the format and reposting hundreds of Taking Bearing columns and related posts. When the task is complete I will remove this note.  If you recall a specific entry or are following a broken link to an entry, contact me at  kleelerner at alumni.harvard.edu and I will do my best to provide you with a copy. Cheers, Lee