Blog
Real Pirates
On the way home from Tennessee at the end of August, we spent the night in Cincinnati. In the hotel we noticed an advertisement for the Real Pirates exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It looked great, so we delayed the continuation of our journey the next morning and went to the exhibit. It was well-worth-it.
From the museum web site:
When the Whydah sank in 1717, it was believed that nearly four-and-a-half tons of treasure, her captain—notorious pirate Sam Bellamy— and 143 others went down with her. Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship is an exhibit that uses the actual artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the Whydah to tell the compelling story of the first fully authenticated pirate ship ever found in American waters.
Real Pirates takes visitors on a virtual journey aboard the mighty Whydah. Each of the 12 exhibit galleries represents a chapter in the ship’s biography, from its initial use as a slave ship to its takeover in the Caribbean by pirates to its demise in one of the worst nor’easters ever to hit Cape Cod.
From a review at azcentral.com:
The exhibit includes more than 200 of those artifacts, including the ship's bell and anchor, pirate clothes, muskets, cannons, swords, gold and silver coins, jewelry from the Akan people of Ghana, tableware, gaming tokens and clay pipes.
Even without the "Disney" touch, "Real Pirates" is highly theatrical, Lach says, beginning with a film on the ship and its two captains (slave ship captain Lawrence Prince and pirate captain Sam Bellamy). Another gallery tells the story of piracy and the slave trade and how they were the economic engines of the Caribbean.
A re-creation of a pirates' tavern shows daily life, and a reconstruction of part of the Whydah shows life aboard the ship, above deck where the crew worked and below where the slaves were housed.
Still another gallery re-creates Captain Bellamy's capture of the Whydah, while others show the treasure galley and the ocean floor as it looked when Clifford discovered the wreck. The exhibit even recreates the 1717 storm - complete with wind machines and sound effects full of crashing waves - that sank the ship.
Here are a couple photos from outside (no photos of the exhibit allowed): 
Cold Medicines
I've known that cough medicine isn't recommended for very young kids, but an article last weekend in the NY Times by Gardiner Harris reports that they may soon be banned for kids under 6:
Safety experts for the Food and Drug Administration urged the agency on Friday to consider an outright ban on over-the-counter, multisymptom cough and cold medicines for children under 6.
The reviewers wrote that there is little evidence that these medicines are effective in young children, and there are increasing fears that they may be dangerous. From 1969 to 2006, at least 54 children died after taking decongestants, and 69 died after taking antihistamines, the report said. And it added that since adverse drug reactions are reported voluntarily and fitfully, the numbers were likely to significantly understate the medicines’ true toll.
In the case of pediatric over-the-counter medicines, the agency decided decades ago that drug makers could market the medicines for children even though they had only been tested in adults. Back then, it was assumed that children’s bodies were simply smaller versions of adult ones. That assumption has proven untrue. Indeed, a growing number of studies suggest that cough and cold medicines work no better in children than placebos.
Spare the Rock
For the music fans out there who have kids, check out Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. It's a radio show out of Northampton, Mass. hosted by law professor and his daughter. It's all kid appropriate though not all kids music. You get it via podcast in iTunes. We've really been enjoying the opening set from the Sept. 22 episode:
They Might Be Giants - It's Spare the Rock
They Might Be Giants - Robot Parade (No!)
Jellydots - Sad Robot (pre-release)
Hypnotic Clambake - 500 Robots (Live)
Recess Rock - Kitty in Central Park
Dennis Caraher - You Can Call Me ABC (Live at VFR)
Keith Munslow - I Can't Get Up This Morning (Accidentally [On Purpose])
God's Masterpiece
God has created a masterpiece. What do you think it is? This passage jumped out at me the other day in the One Year Bible-on-Radio podcast:
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Eph. 2:8-10 New Living Translation
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