If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles. -- Howard Zinn. Declarations of Independence (HarperCollins, 1990). Page 118.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. -- Sinclair Lewis
Welcome to my home page. My professional card and
curriculum vitae (or is it a résumé, for us lowly
non-Ph.D. types) are available from the download page. I have recently
been doing a lot of public speaking. If you would
like me to speak to your class, peers, or astronomy
club about issues in astronomy and physics and the
teaching of astronomy and physics, please contact
me. A publicity/introduction bio is available from
the download page.
If you would like to provide financial support so I can
continue to attend professional conferences related to
astronomy and the teaching thereof, you can now do so!
I am currently working on two projects. The first is a
new introductory astronomy textbook built around critical
thinking and inquiry. The book can, hopefully, be used at
either the high school or college level. It will be a
radically different approach for either level. I've
selected Learning Critical Thinking Through
Astronomy as a working title. More information about
this project is available on the LCTTA page.
The second project is an attempt to bring geometric algebra and geometric
calculus into the introductory physics classroom
as a replacement for traditional vector algebra.
This will be a very gradual project, but may be
surprisingly easy to do locally. I have no illusions
about rapidly changing things elsewhere though.
My first book, Fundamental Ephemeris
Computations, was published in 2000 by, and is
available from, Willmann-Bell, Inc. It is
a combination textbook and reference book for anyone
who needs to know how to produce astronomical
ephemerides using the JPL development ephemeris data
files. Note that on Amazon.com, the reviews on my
book's page are not actually for my book. Repeated
appeals to Amazon.com to fix the problem have been
fruitless. Parts of the book are in need of
revision, but I am awaiting publication of some
important reference information before starting that
project.