More Trotsky

Wow, this guy runs a Trotsky museum in Mexico City. It''s actually Leon's old house. Bullet holes in the front door and all. What an amazing tragedy. Shakespeare would have been proud.

Trotsky Icepick alive and well, and I don't mean the band

So it would seem that the icepick used to kill Leon Trotsky, the fabulous leader of the Bolsheviks during the 1917 Russian Revolution has been found in Mexico.
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Read about the story here
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I love this guy. Read the amazing trilogy about him by Issac Deutscher: "The Prophet Armed", "The Prophet Unarmed", and "The Prophet Outcast".

Power Tool Dragraces

I thought I'd add this little bit in; I was one of the MC's for the PTDR's as seen on TV! I do this every year. It's a bit of zany fun Chicken John, Dr. Hal and I do, just to make fun of tech geeks...lie us.

Discovery Channel showed four, one hour, episodes in may of this year (2005). I'm the one in the lovely ice cream man blazer. I'm not the one on the mic. That's Dr. Hal of "Church of the Subgenius" fame, and the other fine chap is Chicken John of "The Odeon" fame.

Those bastards at Discovery Channel didn't want to offend anyone with my name (John Hell), so they added an "e" on the end of my last name. At the same time, they showed the flag girl in the skimpiest of outfits as much as they could. I don't want to even tell you about the pay. I will say, however, that Discovery Channel has their own zip code. Cheap bastards.

I have more photos up on my tribe site.

I like this blog!

Wow! Sometimes I find a blog that really blows me away. Song: Illinois really does it for me. A great collection of music.


They have two new Giant Sand tracks on their. Check it out.

You have got to be kidding

I'm teaching summer school in San Francisco right now. I teach a language arts class, and a history class. Seems simple enough, right? On the first day, I was told that the language Arts class was a mix of incoming ninth, tenth and eleventh graders, and half of them don't speak a lick of english. My history class is a mix of tenth grade Modern WOrld history and eleventh grade US History. This plans on being a challenge right from the start.

I'm not really one to complain, but how the hell does anyone expect me to do right by these students?

The Language Arts curriculum is actually scripted, so I didn't need to worry so much about lesson plans. the history class however was going to take some real imagination.

I decided to teach the kids about the French, American, and Russian revolutions, along with a unit on why 9-11 happened and a unit on Globalization. This isn't so bad after all.

The Langauge Arts class has this great kid, Edison, with cerebal palsey. He's a hard worker, but damn, is he a pain in the ass. He just loves to talk any time he damn well wishes, gets in people's faces, and even though he has an adult here to work with him every day, he insists on making me work with him. At times he walks out of the room, witout even asking me. That, along with the english langauge learners, makes for a very exciting time.

I'm really enjoying the history class though. I'm using the BBC's "Power of Nightmares" doc on the history of terrorism in the 20th century as the basis of my 9-11 curriculum. I'll use Cochabamba as a pretext for globalization, as well as showing "The Corporation".

Gotta go. Class is starting.