Melodic-Mnemonics

Making Robots with my Arduino

2011-10-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Making Robots with My Arduino
A Music-Video about Robotics Education
set to a Country Western Rock-a-Billy Beat
by T.H. Culhane
copyright 2011 T.H. Culhane
Culbrain Records

Em7b5      A7b5                        Dm7b5      G7 (Slowly, arpeggiated, no beat)
How would you make, (a robot that can make) the world a be-tter place...

(Drums, bass kick in here for 2 bars)

C7

With my Arduino, you know that I know that I can build one myself
C7
With a couple of sensors and some motors and some servos and some
Bb                                              G7hardware you can buy off the shelf.

C7
With my Arduino, the open source world is open to me
C7
I can program in Python, I can program in Java
             Bb7                                G7
and of course I can program in C

C7
With my arduino...
(It’s almost a cult thing...)

C7
Putting Lego bricks together makes a Mindstorm of fun
F                                           Fm If you got a lotta money a designer kit’s the one
C7
But if you’re trying to put together a nifty robot on your own
                          F                                       Fm
You wanna make it inexpensive and you want to make it run
C7
using cheap microcontrollers that you can hack ;em all you want
             F                                                          Fm
using open-source programming software you’ll be the savant
        G7
in the avant-garde of the
G#7              G7
Ro-bot van-guard

C7

With my Arduino, I’m building robots on and under the sea

Using Sea Perch as my base,with this circuit board in place,
            Bb                        G7
I bring autonomy to my ROV
C7

With my Arduino, yeah I can learn to program robots for free
C7
I can make a robot do things that are good for you and me
                        Bb7                         G7
while learning science math and technology

                C7
With my arduino... (It’s kind of a STEM thing...)

Bridge section:
Em7b5      A7b5    Dm7b5      G7
(Boy 1:) You can afford (Chorus of Girls background vocal: “It’s open source”)
(Boy 1:) This circuit board
( Girl 1:)You won’t get bored (Chorus of Boys working on R2D2 and C3PO background vocal:: Just use the force!)
(Team of girls) We’’ll win awards.... G, G#, G7
                                C7
(All students holding up their micro-controllers): With our Arduinoooooooos!
Yeeeeha! (The students do a line dance with a group of robots).

C7 F   G7 G# G7

(Vocal follows classic Country chicken pickin’ lick:)
C7                                                                                                                                        F
First run a simulation, testing out your new creation, then model it with parts you can afford,
                G7
Then you enter a competition, take the software code you’ve written, download it to your Arduino
C7
board.

C7
Make your robot relevant, like, you could save the elephant,
                F7
surveillance and security are two
    G7
of the tasks for which we program, saving people and environments is something we can make
    C7
our robots do.
                               C7
“Build them with: VEX Robotics, LEGO Mindstorms, Lynxmotion Erector Sets and Fischer
                               F7
Teknic, Parallex Boe Bots
    G7                                                                                                               C7
Aldebran and Robosoft and Corobot and Pioneer and Traxter and Create from IRobot
                                   C7
“There - are - so - many options out there, there are robots lurking everywhere, and all you have
                     F7
to do is be a-ware...
G7
Robots are embedded, from the workplace down to Toys are Us, you might find one inside your
           C7
Teddy bear..”

(Bear says, “yeee-ha!” Getta along there little coder!”)

After country lick part go to walking bass: C E F F# G A Bb B C
Voice over:
“The Office of Naval Research and the AUVSI, (the “Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International”) are working with Hollywood technology company Motion Picture Marine and a host of University and Institutional partners to create an international STEM education program that is designed to make robotics engineering affordable, accessible, relevant and FUN for all students. The program is called “PORPOISE: Precision Oceanic Robotics Program On and In the Sea Environment” and it’s geared toward mentoring young people from all walks of life to develop robots and prepare for careers that can tackle the biggest challenges confronting their futures: ~~pollution, oil spills, overfishing, habitat loss, wildlife conservation, coral bleaching, piracy, homeland security, energy security, food security, storm prediction and climate change.~~ PORPOISE is engineering education with a purpose -- so get involved and join the mission today for a better future tomorrow through robotics that works for everyone!

C7

So now that we know
C7
that we can make a robot all on our own
C7
We can run it using windows, using Linux or a Mac,
   Bb7                                             G7
or using bluetooth from our new Android phones
                       C7
Because Arduino,
C7
is agnostic to the platforms we run
Em7b5                                                A7#5
It can be built from scratch by you or me

Dm7b5                                G7
programmed wireless or by USB
C7                                         Bb7             A7
We're talking black, white, Asian or Latino...

               D7                                    G7
Arduino makes robotics so much fun....
                Dm7
and within the reach...
         G6
of eve-ry-one...

                C7
With our Arduino...
               G7
We can make a better world
      G#        G                C7
for you.... and .....me...

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School

2011-01-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School,

By T.H. Culhane, 1995

D.E.M.M.O. Productions (Digital Engineering for Multi-Media Occupations) is an experimental program at Hollywood High School that integrates the technical, technological and vocational areas of students instruction (digital engineering), the academic areas that underpin our multi-media information age (language arts, history, science and math) and career oriented instruction that helps students relate their school experience to the workplace. It conforms to the Perkins 2+2 and 2+4 models that link high school to higher education while allowing students who are not college bound to find their niche in growth industry trades. D.E.M.M.O. Productions conforms to WASC guidelines for school improvement by offering project based/portfolio assessed instruction to its students; the teachers in the program use a coaching model and a product driven curriculum.

The emphases in this program are critical thinking, creative thinking and real world problem solving. The students are nurtured in their ability to "confront the blank page." -- to solve the fundamental problem of how to create something of value where nothing existed before. The class teaches students how to draw on prior knowledge and use what is known and relevant to them as the raw material from which they can fashion new product.

The class helps students overcome writers block, artists block and other creativity blocks such as stage fright, "boredom", circular reasoning and "infinite iteration". It supplies techniques for overcoming fear of censory and criticism -- fear that freeze the mind and shut down higher cortical functions. When fear and low self-esteem do impede student progress and interfere with motivation, the curriculum teaches students how to work with their limbic system and their fight or flight response as tools for focusing and directing creative energy.

D.E.M.M.O. Productions draws on a solid research foundation in "Brain Compatible Learning" and "Multiple Intelligence" Theory and uses the art ,psychology and science of what used to be called "film-making" in order to teach students how to fashion a compelling, engaging and socially useful story out of the uninflected data stream supplied by academic education. The art and science of story-telling through many media then becomes a valuable tool that students can use to order their world and make sense of the vast amounts of information that can be so intimidating and bewildering in our information age.

The program uses all creative and technical arts tools and manipulatives that are available, from pencil and paper to sophisticated multi-media audio-visual computers, video and audio production hardware, musical instrument digital interface technology, clay, paint and paper mache and and electronic test equipment. With guidance from the instructor, students put these tools to use in the creation of multi-media presentations that illustrate and explain concepts drawn from the academic curricula they are confronting in their other classes.

In effect then, D.E.M.M.O. Productions is an "Edu-tainment" class in which students learn how to process and manipulate information and create their own learning materials -- content based, entertaining instructional materials that are "of the students, by the students, and for the students."

Course Description

The major emphasis 0f this course is to develop the student’s ability

to communicate visual ideas using basic filmmaking techniques. Story

writing, story-based display, basic visual composition, and general

reproduction, and skills will be included with camera techniques, animation,

and line action planning.

Representative Objectives

In accordance with his or her ability and capacities, the student grows in ability to:

Recognize filmmaking as a basic method of communication in our economy.
Apply the art elements and principles to filmmaking.
Acknowledge filmmaking as an art form.
Perceive filmmaking as a medium that unites the visual arts, the literary arts, and the performing arts.
Recognize the role of film in professions other than entertainment including medicine, education, space exploration, and business.
Coordinate thinking processes with technical skills.
Develop objective aesthetic visual criteria related to filmmaking.
Value experimentation and originality.
Experiment with light and design as they apply to filmmaking.

Compare the content, intent, and use of different kinds of films including drama, comedy, documentary, and commercial.Assess vocational aptitude and interest in a career in filmmaking or related professions.

Application of Basic Skills

The student will use:

Language skills related to the preparation of stories and scripts for film.
Reading and research skills to write a paper on the history of film.
Appropriate technical vocabulary.
Reading and conprehension skills in the study of camera and equipment manuals.
Matematical skills to plan the length of films, and the timing of scenes and actions for animation.
Organizational skills to plan and produce a film.

Visual discrimination skills through application of the art elements to set design, character, and lighting.

Performance Skills

The student will:

Research information for media productions.
Organize work activities to meet project deadlines.
Funtion as an informed consumer of the visual media.
Identify the occupations and professions related to the mass media.
Identify the occupations and professions that use filmaking.
Communicate an idea using visual symbols.
Apply the art principles to the design and construction of sets and props.
Demonstrate basic drawing skills.
Compare various films made by students and other filmmakers.
Verbalize personal reactions to a film.
Write a report on the history of cinema.
Prepare a script.
Develop a storyboard.
Use a camera.

Instructional Units

Topics

Phisical Properties of film and light

History of Cinema

Animation Techniques

Live Action Filming

Preproduction Planning

Camera Techniques

Design Elements in film

Sound

Editing

Lighting

Careers in Film

Set and Prop Design

Treadle Pump, Treadle Pump...

2010-10-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

" ... if I can build a treadle pump that you can build a treadle pump too!!"

This melodic-mnemonic is a music video intended to introduce the concept of the treadle pump. It also demonstrates our latest Solar CITIES initiative training Africans in diaspora (particularly Nigerians, like Paul Chido Iwunna, our Nigerian-German colleague featured in the video) in "Green-collar jobs and sustainable development technology" here in Germany and then traveling to our mother-countries to share the knowledge and technologies with our homeland communities. In this case Chido and I and Dr. Charisma Acey (American professor of Urban Planning married to a Nigerian) traveled to Port Harcourt with Chido's mother to build a treadle pump with local craftsmen for the family home so they no longer have to pull water from the borehole with a small bucket and a rope. It is our intention to involve many more Africans and Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants here in Germany and abroad so that we can all participate in the "Sustainable Green Brain Gain"! Won't you join us?

Chords and Lyrics:

(Chorus: G6, A7, Cm, G )

Treadle Pump Treadle Pump, if I can make a treadle pump then you can make a treadle pump too!
A cool effective water pump that runs on human power and functions as a stair master too!

(Verse I section 1: Em, A7, Em A7, Cmaj7, Em, A7)

You start by building pistons cut from 4 inch PVC 'cause it's cheap and it's fast and the plastic will last.
A great new use for sewer pipes, just cut them to 9 inches, then glue them in caps,
Drill two holes, just like that
Use a half inch plastic nipple, threaded with one-half-inch taps... but you can use a metal nipple too, just screw and screw!

(Verse II section 2: Em, A7, Em, A7, Cmaj7, C#dim, D)

Now you mount your check valves, note each piston has one in and one out... (uh, huh, upstroke in, downstroke out!)
These connect to water hoses carrying your water about (as you tread you can dance, twist, and shout!)
'cause we want to make things simple, cheap and fun as they can be -- your legs will run your water pump for free!

(Chorus: G6, A7, Cm, G )
Treadle pump Treadle Pump, why use electricity when you can get a workout and pump your water too?
Treadle pump, Treadle pump, if you're still using fossil fuels, something must be wrong with you!

(Verse II section 1: Em, A7, Em A7, Cmaj7, Em, A7)

Cut two five inch pieces of your PVC to make the piston discs -- each has three where the leather will be;
Cut each section open and then put it in the oven -- it will soften and flatten to make plastic mats and then...
Cut six discs out -- three per piston -- watch out, middle discs must quite precisely fit...
that's the tricky bit!

(Verse II section 2: Em, A7, Em, A7, Cmaj7, C#dim, D)

Five inch circles made of leather, two per piston under the discs -- after soaking the leather gets soft.
All the rest is carpentry, the pistons are the hardest piece; the treadle is made out of bamboo or wood.
Just connect the treadles to two pulleys pulling up and down...
It'll pump water from 7 meters underground!!

(Chorus: G6, A7, Cm, G)
Treadle Pump Treadle Pump, if I can make a treadle pump then you can make a treadle pump too!
A cool effective water pump that runs on human power and functions as a stair master too!

Treadle pump Treadle Pump, why use electricity when you can get a workout and pump your water too?
Treadle pump, Treadle pump, if you're still using fossil fuels, something must be wrong with you!

Tags:
Treadle Pump, Solar CITIES, do-it-yourself, Nigeria, NIDO, Nigerians in Diaspora Organization, T.H. Culhane, IDE

Ode to the Hadron Collider

2010-01-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

G Dm Bb C

(G) Once our species believed
That the (Dm) atom was the smallest thing
our (Bb) Earth -- Center of Everything
(C) Euclidean Geometery was (G) king. (bass: G, G#, D, G, G#)

(G) Then our physics conceived
Of a (Dm) special relativity
A (Bb) general relativity
and the (C) hope for theories of Grand (G) Unity

But there's been a crisis in the field
And world's been turning upside down
by a paradox we can't understand
Quantum mechanics and relativity can't be held within one hand.

In the collider (G)
We'll (Cmaj7) find out (Fmaj7b5)
The (G) right and the (F) wrong (C) about
Our (G) deepest (Cm) beliefs of (F) space and (Em) time.

Power from Hell

2009-12-15T14:58:00.001-08:00

Power from Hell
(A heavy metal riff... real heavy!)

c 2001 T.H. Culhane

The sky god gave us wind and rain
and the holy sun to light the day
He gave us everything we need
and sent his son to show the way

We turned our backs, we turned insane
And with the devil now we play
He tempts our everlusting greed
with oil and coal on which we feed

We've chosen power from hell
we've chosen power from hell

Of course there is another way
the winds of heaven, sunny days,
the force of water, gentle flows
combined can make our nation grow

But if we want to get rich quick
with Satan we will always stick
continue mining Hades store
no matter that it makes us sick

We've chosen power from Hell
And we will never get well
If we can buy cheap and sell
expensive power from hell

We've chosen power from hell
Oil, gold and diamonds as well
coal and uranium -- hell
Look what we're eatin!
Goodbye to Eden
Look what we've done since we fell...

We're using power from hell!

Hey there you consumer I have heard this vicious rumor
that you want to drill into the river styx
Hey there Mr. Politician what the hell is your religion
do you worship golden calves as well?
Forget about the prophets; as you quest for higher profits,
still you never stop to gaze up at the sky
The answers up not down below but all you do it send the flow
of capital down deeper where it goes....

That's where it all goes to HELL.
Down to the bowels of hell
The gate to hell: the oil well
We're using power from hell

Making Biogas is a Gas Gas Gas!

2009-11-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

(144 bpm)

Chords: D, C, G

Making Biogas is a Gas Gas Gas
It‘s the same gas as the gas we pass.

Verse I:
When you see trash piled in the middle of a third world country street
And you hear the food for fuel debate and wonder how we‘ll eat
Would we really save much energy if we all gave up meat
Do we really need those nukes or is that just the drum they beat?

Must be some (F) other way. (G) Is there (Bb) another way? You bet your ass (A!)

And it‘s a (D) gas. (C, G) And it’s a (D) blast (C, G) . It‘s (D) biogas. (C, (riff c b a G!)

Verse II:
We've lived through the age of stupid; the U.S. was king of fools
spreading blatant propaganda that we needed fossil fuels
Though we've always had bacteria and other microbes too
making methane gas and alcohol and other biofuels

Since Henry (F) Ford, (G) and way (Bb) before (G)
There's been no (F) need (G) to go to (Bb) war (C)
There is an (F) answer (G) -- to please Al (Bb) Gore ("A Convenient Truth" ) (A7)
We can't (F) afford to (G) just (A7) ignore (!)
The simple facts of biogas...

D, C, G
D, C, (c b a G!)

(Bb) Methane from (F) microbes, from (Ab) garbage (Eb) recyled by (F#) thermophiles, (D#) mesophiles (E) psychrophiles (B) too.
(Bb) This is the (F) only true (Ab) natural (Eb) gas, the (F#) other is still fossil (F) fuel,
(G7) Fossil fool
(A7) Don‘t be fooled…
(bass run eighth notes: A C# A F E D C# D) it‘s time we switched to biogas.

(Dm, C Gm)

Don't you think it's kind of funny,
All the reasearch, all the money
that we spend each year on nukes and fossil fuels

When every city, every household
has enough organic garbage
To produce all of the energy we use

'cause everybody has bacteria
from the south pole to Siberia
and they live to turn our wastes into new fuel
There is NO energy crisis
Christ, the planet's trying to help us
all the answers are in nature; ain't that cool?!

Let's change the (Bb) rules (A)
We have the (Gm) tools (A)
Harness the (Bb) sun (C) and biofuels (Dm)

Use the things (Gm !!) last (A !!)
Forget the (Bb!!) past (A!!)
We must move (Gm !!) fast (A!!)
Jump in and (Bb) make some biogas (C)

(Spoken)
(A!!) "Anybody can make biogas, folks,
you can try this one at home.
(Bb/A!!)
Just a couple of plastic containers,
one filled with some gravel and water and manure or
(B/A!!) lake mud for the microbial starter culture,
the other to(C/A!!) collect the gas. Feed the tank your
kitchen waste today and (C#/A!!) tomorrow you get up to 2 hours of truly Natural
(D) Gas! (C, G)

Making biogas is a gas gas gas
It's the same gas as the gas we pass
(Microbes are taking care of business every day...
Taking dirty business and making it okay)

(D!) Anaerobic respiration is the pathway that we (G!) use
It starts with hydrolyzing foodwastes
into simpler molecules
Acetogenesis forms hydrogen, acetic acid too
They're reassembled by methanogens into a gaseous brew

Of CO2 (F) (under 40%) (G)
and CH4 (Bb) (60 or more) (G)
which we can (F) burn (making power and heat) (G), or we can (Bb) store (C)
It can be (F) used to cook or (G) heat our homes
run (Bb) generators frigerators (A) cars and trucks and more
(over the riff A C# A F E D C# D)
It's time we switch from oil
(A C# A F E D C# D)
No need for nukes at all
A C# A F E D C# D
It's time we switched to biogas. Dm C G7, Dm C G7
Bb F, Ab, Eb, F#, C# Dm.....)

مما يجعل الغاز الحيوي هو غاز غاز غاز

انهه نفس الغاز كنفث الغاز

عندما ترى القمامة مكدسة في وسط بلد من بلاد العالم الثالث في الشوارع

وتسمع النقاش علي الطعام للحصول على الوقود وتساءل نفسك كيف نأكل

هل ممكن ننقاذ الطاقة إذا توقفنا نكل اللحوم

هل نحن في درورة الطاقة نووية أو أنه كذبة؟

هل هناك طريقة أخرى؟

يجب أن تكون هناك وسيلة أخرى

لدينا الحل!

وانه الغاز. وانه ‏ نفخة. انه الغاز الحيوي.

لقد كنا نعيش في عصر الجهلية ، والولايات المتحدة هي ملكة الجهل

و قد نشرو الأكاذيب

1. أننا بحاجة الوقود الأحفوري

علي رغم من عندنا دائما البكتيريا والميكروبات الأخرى

صنعو غاز الميثان والكحول و أنواع اخرى من الوقود الحيوي

منذ عصر هنري فورد ، و من قبله

ليس هناك حاجة للذهاب إلى الحرب

هناك جواب -- لإرضاء

Al Gore

الحقيقة المريحة

لا يمكننا أن نتجاهل

الحقيقة البسيطة ... هي الغاز الحيوي

غاز الميثان من الميكروبات ، من القمامة عن طريق إعادة تدويرها

mesophiles thermophiles psychrophiles ايضا

هذا هو الغاز الطبيعي الحقيقي ، والآخر لا يزال الوقود الأحفوري

الوقود الأحفوري مجنون

لا يخدعوكم...

ولقد حان الوقت ان ننتقل الى الغاز الحيوي.

لا تظن انه شأن مضحكا ،

كل البحوث العلمية ، كل المال

الذي ينفق كل عام على الطقة النووية والوقود الأحفوري

على الرغم من الحقيقة أن في كل مدينة ، في كل بيت

عندنا ما يكفي القمامة العضوية

للانتاج الطاقة التي نستخدمها

لان كلن عندنا البكتيريا

من القطب الجنوبي الى سيبيريا

ويعيشون لتحويل النفايات الى وقود جديد لدينا

لا توجد أزمة الطاقة

و ان كوكب الأرض في محاولة مساعدتنا

كل الاجابات موجودة في الطبيعة ؛ ليس هذا عظيم؟!

دعونا نغييرالنظام

لدينا الأدوات

لازم نسخير الشمس والوقود الحيوي

لازم نستخدم الأشياء الذي تعمر

ننسي الماضي

ويجب علينا التحرك بسرعة

هيا بنا ننتج الغاز الحيوي

يمكن لأي شخص أن ينتج الغاز الحيوي ،

يمكنك أن تجرب هذا وحدك في منزلك.

انك تحتج مجرد حاويات من البلاستيك ،

مملوءة ببعض الحصى والماء وروث البقر أو من بحيرة الطين للثقافة الميكروبات في البداية

وحاوية الأخرى تستخدم لجمع الغاز.

غذي الخزان نفايات المطبخ اليوم...

وغدا تحصل على ما يصل الى 2 ساعة من الغاز الطبيعي

مما يجعل الغاز الحيوي هو غاز غاز غاز

انهه نفس الغاز الغاز الذي نضرطه.

الميكروبات ورعاية الأعمال التجارية يومية...

انهم يخذو الأعمال القذرة ويفعلها بخير

التنفس اللاهوائي هو الطريق الذي نستخدمه

وهي تبدأ في تحليل الماء من فضلات الطعام

في أبسط الجزيئات

Acetogenesis أشكال الهيدروجين وحامض الخليك خلال

وتحولت في الميثان

الغاز CO2 تحت 40 ٪

CH4 أكثر ٪ 60 من

التي يمكننا حرق (صنع الطاقة والحرارة) ، أو يمكن أن نقوم بتخزين

أو يمكن أن نقوم بتخزين

تشغيل مولدات الثلاجات و السيارات والشاحنات وأكثر

هان الوقت نتحول من النفط

لا نحتج طاقة نووية على الاطلاق

هان الوقت نتحول الى الغاز الحيوي

Biosphere, the Music Video

2009-09-24T05:46:00.000-07:00

"We don't have a thing to fear, we're living in a biosphere -- of life!"
With those words ringing out as the chorus of this MTV-style homage to the Biosphere II experiment, Jefferson High School science teacher T.H. Culhane and his inner-city students challenged both the doom and gloom that had infected the environmental movement and the public education system which separated the sciences and the arts. Circa 1992 this is a gem of the D.E.M.M.O. productions "Melodic-Mnemonics Science Education through Music and Video" collection produced "of the teachers and students, by the teachers and students, for the teachers and students."
D.E.M.M.O. stood for "Digital Education for Multi-Media Occupations", and was a program run by T.H. Culhane and his students in South Central Los Angeles from 1989 until 1997.

Marsville

2009-09-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

Back in 1991, when I was a NASA Challenger Center Teaching Fellow (one of the seven American teachers chosen in honor of Christie McAuliff and the Challenger Space Shuttle Astronauts) I received a $1000 grant to create this music video with my students at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles. Carlous Galloway, an enterprising young rapper in my biology class, got inspired by the Marsville project and wrote the rap around which we created the song and video. This music video was packaged with the Challenger Center "Marsville" curriculum and put into thousands of schools. Hopefully one day all people, regardless of race, class, creed or social status, will be able to fulfill Carlous' dream of building a true "eutopia" on Mars..

Mammals of the Ocean: The Water Ape Hypothesis Set to Music

2009-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is a song written and sung by T.H. Culhane when he was a science and multi-media teacher at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles. It was produced and recorded with Byron DeLear at Ogden House Studios in Hollywood around 1995. David Grober, president of Motion Picture Marine, is also in the recording and took DeLear and Culhane and his students from the D.E.M.M.O. Productions program on the Motion Picture Marine Boat into the Ocean to video tape marine mammals and expose the inner city students to the marine environment for the first time. Unfortunately we don't have any of that early footage. Now T.H. brings his melodic-mnemonics songs around the world (Palestine and Israel are featured here) and teaches students the lessons by having them illustrate the lyrics with web images that they select. The first step is to create what is essentially a powerpoint presentation or video slide show of relevant images. The process of selecting and assembling the images reinforces the concepts and vocabulary. Different student teams will create different takes on the same songs. Advanced students continue by writing their own environmental songs in their own languages and illustrating with their own images and footage.

Lyrics:

Good morning class!
and welcome to D.E.M.M.O. Productions' Melodic-Mnemonics Education thru Music Video! Today we're going to study about Evolution... you know all about that stuff. But we've got an
alternative hypothesis to the one you've been learning! Ever come and think you might have come from the ocean?

(Mammals of the Ocean, Mammals of the Ocean)

Let's go!

In some ways we're more like the whale then we are like the ape
Maybe Charles Darwin he make him a big mistake
the natural selection always she operate
in a harsh new environment 'cause baby now that's what it takes

coming down from the trees was not enough, no, no, no, no...
to make us what you see things had to be tough (real tough!)
He threw us into the water to sink or swim
the adaptations we have make us...
Far more like... HIM!?

More like the
Mammals of the Ocean
Look at the hairless skin, woah-oh
Mammals of the Ocean
Look at the fat we've got within
(you mean the blubber, beneath the cover)
Mammals of the Ocean
Look at the downward pointing noise
(keeps out the water, when we go under)
Mammals of the Ocean
Look at the finger-webbing and the paddle like toes...

Why do we build our fine houses out down by the sea
If we came straight from the ape we would build in the trees!
We hang around in the bathtub long after we're clean...
When God said we're born from the water, baby
just what did he mean?
Unless we're...

Mammals of the Ocean
Why so much hair stacked only on top of the head?
Unless we're...
Mammals of the Ocean
While bobbing and breathing the sunstroke would have killed us... dead!
Unless we're
Mammals of the Ocean
What's with the eyebrows where all other monkeys are bare?
So water won't drop in our eyes as it drips from our hair...
Mammals of the Ocean

Na na na na na, yeah-eh, yeah-eh-eh,
Oh yeah-ee-yeah-ee-yeah-ee yeah... yeah.... uh, uh-uh...

Our upright anatomy, more like the Manatee
Even the way we make love...
is more like the dolphin
who rescues us often
reminding us all where we're from...

Face down in cold water an ape really oughta
be drowned in a minute or two
but our reflex for diving keeps us humans thriving
when hunting like sea lions do...

(Key change)

Why else is sea food considered a delicacy?
Most other primates would rather eat fruit from the trees!
Why else do swimming pools signal high society?
Maybe Atlantis and Little Mermaids aren't just fantasy....

Mammals of the Ocean
I'm talking mammals, not fish...
We're Mammals of the Ocean...
I think that they ALL made a big mistake.
Mammals of the Ocean...
We're talking about YO' MAMMAL, man!
(Hey, don't be talking about my mamma that way, dig?)
(Just pullin' your fin, man...
of course we're doing it with a porpoise...)
Mammals of the Ocean
(my lips are sealed... and you fell for that hook, line and sinker...)
Mammals of the Ocean
Having a whale of a time here in Biology Class this time...
Now come on class, open your books up to page 377
and let's jam, come on, let's boogie down!!

I love Biology!!

Mammals of the Ocean.

Eutopia

2009-09-09T05:48:00.000-07:00

Lyrics by Byron DeLear and Seth Kaufman from the concept recording "Eutopia":

"The gifts are for givers, the makers not the takers
cause the givers are the livers and lovers of life they're the mothers
to the Human Race Viva La Raza!
Rastafaria -- Bonzai! I be smellin' trouble in the USA
'cause the givers are the livers and the lovers of life
and all the other's druthers are bringing down the Motherland -
"Apple pie and baseball" -- is that all?
Well if it is, then, I think, we're going down y'all
past the morgue -- straight to hell,
it sure ain't heaven in the bottom of a wishing well.
But a "brand new" dot dot dot (...) would sure be nice
but what's the price -- a bowl of rice, huh, would never suffice for us
but for more than half the world it must -- is that just?

Time to come together and start to live as one
We've been through stormy weather
And now we need the sun
to shine on through
To get to a...
EUTOPIA

"A brand new dot dot dot" -- the age of manufacturing consumers like products rolling off an assembly line is upon us.

Do you want to be manufactured?

Your desire and want for trivial consumables ramped up by the advertising
light and sound show we almost constantly bathe in?

Well, that's what most of us are suffering under today.

Plants are fighting battles too...

2009-09-01T13:13:00.001-07:00

E, C7 B7

They’re upwardly mobile its true
Extending their leaves up there to the sun

The world a desert before the plants came

Photosynthesis took away their impetus (to move)
Now because of this they have to use an arsenal or lose

Each plant has an arsenal of weapons it can battle with
Bark and thorns and chemicals and drugs make you … all prove:

That plants are fighting battles too.

The Sound and Light Show

2009-09-01T13:12:00.001-07:00

The Sound and Light Show
Copyright 2004 T.H. Culhane
Melodic-Mnemonics
presents:

Spoken: “When you’re sitting by the ocean
Putting on your suntan lotion
To protect you from the Ultra-Violet Rays
And you hear the surf that’s crashing
Waves of energy and passion
And you feel the wind a-howlin’ night and day”
When you’re riding ‘cross a sand dune
By the light reflected off the moon
And see the rippled shadows in the sand
When you throw a pebble in a pond
And watch the way that it responds
These images will help you understand
So you’ll remember that…”

Sound and Light are WAVES

Sound and Light are WAVES

SOUND though, is MECHANICAL
While LIGHT is in ELECTROMAGNET RAYS

Sound and light are waves

Sound and Light are WAVES

Organisms use them both to find out where they are in time and space
Waves PROPOGATE
And BOUNCE off every object;
Their REFLECTIONS help us all to NAVIGATE
So just remember folks, that sound and light are waves….

Spoken: “On the surface of the ocean you can see some waves in motion
It’s their height that science calls their “AMPLITUDE”

And the lengths of time and space
Between the crest of every wave
are the “FREQUENCY” and “WAVELENGTH”… which we use

To understand the nature
Of what goes on in nature
The subtle architecture
No longer just conjecture
In fact we know the structure
Though we can’t see it directly
We know that sound and light are waves

Spoken: “Deep inside a bat cave
A bat can’t bet on light waves
She’s got to learn to SEE WITH SOUND
For these creatures of the night
There’s no way to see with light
Sound reflection is the way they get around…

It’s called SONAR
Or “Echo-location”
Whales and dolphins do it too…
Underwater, so would you…

Sound and light are waves

Sound and Light are WAVES

And a wave is a DISTURBANCE
That travels through a MEDIUM
And a medium’s a substance
Like a solid or a liquid or a gas…

All waves behave…
As carriers of energy
From oscillating objects
Do reflection and diffraction…
Both have frequencies and amplitudes…
But here’s what’s really gnarly dude:
Only light can travel through the void…

Through outer space…

Where no-one can hear you scream…(scream, scream)…

Because sound, you see, is mechanical
But light is an electromagnet wave…

But all YOU must remember is that…

Sound and Light are waves…
Sound and light are waves…
“Oh BEHAVE!”
Let there be SOUND!:
Guitar solo.

Frequency makes our eyes see in color
Frequency is harmony and music, yeah…
Amplitude is volume dude, and brightness…
Amplitude is thunder, dark and lightness….

Sound and light are waves
Energy in waves
That’s how sound behaves
That’s how light behaves
Sound and light are waves
Sound though is mechanical
While light is in electromagnet rays

Sounds a pressure wave
Light’s both particle AND wave
Sound travels through objects
Light can go through space
But both of them are waves
Sound and light are waves
“Oh BEHAVE!”
Let there be LIGHT!

The Cytoplasm Blues

2009-09-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Cytoplasm Blues
Copyright 1989 T.H. Culhane
Melodic-Mnemonics

I’ve got a NUCLEUS for a brain
That’s where I house my DNA
It’s got my BLUEPRINT tucked away
In GENES on CHROMOSOMAL CHAINS

To be TRANSCRIBED by RNA
Contained within the CELL MEMBRANE

Down on the CYTOPLASMIC Plain
Down ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM WAY
Is where the RIBOSOMES at play
Are making PROTEINS every day
Shipped down to GOLGI COMPLEX bay
Where they are packaged and sent away…

Down at the LYSOSOME there lies
A bunch of ENZYMES, creepy guys
Who through DIGESTION win the prize
For breaking food stuff down to size
But these AEROBIC CELLS are wise
At getting ENERGY supplies

They send it off to the MITOCHONDRION
That’s where the battle for ATP is won
Making POWER so the CELL can run
‘cause these poor ANIMAL CELLS can’t use the SUN!

So we gotta WORK
We gotta EAT
We go beserk
Trying to COMPETE
But that’s why LIVING
Is sooooooooo much FUN!
(Yeah you gotta believe in the lives of a cell!)

The Five Senses Song

2009-09-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Five Senses Song
Copyright 2004 Melodic Mnemonics
Taha Rassam Culhane
with assistance from Amira Dibsy

I’ve got a nose right here
I’ve got a pair of ears
I’ve got a really big mouth filled with tongue and teeth
I got a pair of eyes
and a pair of hands
So now let’s sing so you understand…

The Five Senses!

We’ve got taste
We’ve got smell
And we see very well
And through touch we can feel
And we hear with our ears
Oh these sounds they appear very clear

With our eyes we see
With our ears we hear
With our nose we smell
With our tongues we taste
With our hands we touch
And that’s why we know the world so well…
5 senses here
5 senses there
5 senses:    SEEING and  HEARING and SMELLING and TASTING   the world - it feels amazing!

Photons hit your eyeballs
Waves of sound bang on your eardrums
little molecules alight upon your tongue and your nose

Sensitive receptors take such tickles, tones and pressures
They become electric signals that then flow
And go…
…through your nerves they flow
It’s a secret code from your head to your toes

Everything’s connected through a telephone like network
And this nervous system feeds into your brain…

So we’ve got taste
We’ve got smell
And we see very well
And through touch we can feel
And we hear with our ears
Oh these sounds they appear very clear

With our eyes (we what?) we see
With our ears (we what?) we hear
With our nose (we what?) we smell
With our tongues we taste
With our hands we touch
And that’s why we know the world so well…

5 senses here
5 senses there
5 senses:   SEEING and  HEARING and SMELLING and TASTING  the world - it FEELs amazing!
I’ve got five senses
We’ve got five senses
And the world it feels so wonderful
Yes the world feels so amazing!

Welcome to the Coral Reef

2009-09-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

“Welcome to the Coral Reef” 
The Zooxanthellae Rockabilly Song
Copyright 2003 By T.H. Culhane, Melodic Mnemonics
UCLA Dept. of Urban Planning
Environmental Analysis and Policy

Spoken: “There are more phyla and more orders of creatures underwater than exist in all the terrestrial biomes above
And while the jungles of the world contain more actual species there almost 4 times as many phyla on the reef than in all the rainforests combined…,
Coral reefs contain over 25,000 species from 32 of the 34 animal phyla living on the planet earth;
But coral reefs are very rare and very threatened
25% of all marine species live in an area that is less than 1% of the ocean floor. And this area is getting smaller and smaller every day.
Pollution and over fishing and unsustainable development practices are destroying what was once the most stable ecosystem on the planet
Nonetheless, there is HOPE! And that hope grows every time one of YOU begins to take a serious interest in this fantabulous and fragile environment.”

Sung:
Invertebrata:
Coelenterata,
Echinodermata
and Arthropoda
and the Porifera
(“Sponge Bob”!)
And the Annelidae
(Sea Worms!)
Phylum Mollusca (snails!)
And Vertebrata (Whales?)
like Osteichthyes (fish!)
And the Chondrichthyes (Fish!)
I mean the Sharks and Rays…
And the Delphinidae…
They all live here!
Under the water, under the water…
Under the water, under the water…
There’s such diversity…
Biodiversity –
Welcome to the Coral Reef!
(Let’s Go!)

The Coelenterata
Only found beneath the water
Are the corals and anenomes
That look like pretty flowers
But they’re animals…
Yes they’re animals…
And those weird Porifera
Those sponges that grow everywhere
From blobs of red and yellow
To giant purple barrels too
Are animals…
True they’re animals…

But they tend to live in colonies
That grow to look like coral trees
But they’re just apartment houses undersea

Hard corals form the basis
Of this undersea oasis
With the exoskeletons that they secrete…

That’s how they form the coral reef…

Coral polyps are strange hybrids
Of producers and consumers
Using tentacles to catch and stun their prey 
But like some clams and slugs and nudibranchs
And Tridacnidae in fish farm tanks
They feed by photosynthesis by day
It’s a form of symbiosis
Where green algal zooxanthellae
Make the sugars that make everything else run

Now it may sound kinda silly, but a girl with Zooxanthellae…
Thus could eat by simply sitting in the sun…
Every girl’s dream…
Except she’d have to be green…
Welcome to the coral reef…

Shells and corals crushed by pounding waves
Get turned one day to tiny grains of sand
And over eons earth’s geology’s transformed by creatures of the sea
These animals create what we call land…
(and limestone and marble…and concrete!)
Your house may once have been a reef…

The echinodermata also live beneath the water
They’re the urchins and the starfish
Some have stomachs that come out when they digest their prey…
It’s a strange display…
And the Mollusca form the phylum
Of the Mussels, Snails and Bivalves
That make all those pretty seashells
That you find along the beach
They’re rather marvelous…
Cousins of octopus…
And how many of you really knew
That bug-like creatures live there too…
The arthropods with crabs and shrimps and more
And there are worms that look like Christmas trees
Within the strange annelidae
The reef is filled with aliens galore
No need to go to outer space
The coral reef’s a stranger place
If you’re looking for a brave new world…
The ocean is the place to be…
Welcome to the coral reef!

Interphase: Mitosis set to Music

2009-07-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

INTERPHASE
Mitosis Set to Music
Copyright 1990 T.H. Culhane Melodic Mnemonics

PROPHASE
METAPHASE
ANAPHASE
TELOPHASE
PROPHASE
METAPHASE
ANAPHASE
TELOPHASE
CYTOKENISIS…!”

(We INTERrupt this mitotic program for a brief INTERmission…
INTERPHASE

INTERPHASE
Mitosis set to Music

You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
You’re in INTERPHASE ‘til DNA starts to REPLICATE
You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
When you grow
Making PROTEINS in THREE PHASES
G1, S, and G2 STAGES
Then MITOSIS recreates us
CELLS DIVIDE, rejuvenate us
There are 4 mitotic phases:
Prophase
Metaphase
Anaphase
Telophase
You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
You’re in INTERPHASE ‘til DNA starts to REPLICATE
In PROPHASE…
Your CHROMATIN condenses
coiling up to form distinctive CHROMOSOMES

The CENTRIOLES then REPLICATE and move into position at the POLES

The MEMBRANE of the NUCLEUS dissolves within its CYTOPLASMIC home
And SPINDLES start to form anchored on CENTROMERES within the central zone
In METAPHASE,
the middle of the CELL is where the SPINDLES guide each CHROMOSOME
…on spider-web like THREADS that make the CENTROMERES line up at the EQUATOR…
… and later…
In ANAPHASE -
the CENTROMERES divide,
Each CHROMATID transforms into a CHROMOSOME in its own right…
And SPINDLE FIBERS drag them to the POLES
In TELOPHASE –
a new NUCLEAR MEMBRANE forms
Around each set of CHROMOSOMES
Their COLORED BODIES* start to fade away
MITOSIS is complete but now the cell must REPLICATE
It must divide!
That’s when CYTOKINESIS…
Splits the cell in two pieces…
Dividing your CYTOPLASM
And all your ORGANELLES…
Making from one cell two!
You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
You’re in INTERPHASE ‘til DNA starts to REPLICATE
You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
When you grow
Making PROTEINS in THREE PHASES
G1, S, and G2 STAGES
Then MITOSIS recreates us
CELLS DIVIDE, rejuvenate us
Cells divide and divide and divide ‘til we’re old…
Then your TELOMERES shorten like an ever dwindling fuse…
And though your consciousness resists, your cell cannot refuse
Mitosis stops, your cells shut down…
And here’s the really awful news:
One by one they stop dividing…
Bit by bit you find you’re DYING…
It’s the end of your SOMATIC LINE…
I hope you REPRODUCED in time!
“The only way to escape death that we know of (so far) is through MEIOSIS,,
– whereby you go and create HAPLOID GERM CELLS
that must combine with other HAPLOID GERM CELLS
from some other SOMATIC LINE
then these GAMETES DNA must RECOMBINE
and begin the process of MITOSIS all over again!
Uh…
it’s called “SEX”…
You’re in INTERPHASE when you grow
You’re in INTERPHASE until MITOSIS makes your CELLS DIVIDE again…
It’s INTERPHASE when you grow
When you grow
When you grow
When you grow

Talkin' Trash

2009-01-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

Hi class,

Speaking of Disasters, Toxic Hazards and Pollution, I just finished writing this song about pollution called "Talkin' Trash" for the upcoming documentary film "Recycle Circus", part of the trilogy of documentaries about our Circus Guy Musical Goodwill Ambassador Program. Check out http://greenheadmedia.org/pages/documentary.html if you want to see the first documentary, Solar Circus, and parts of the second documentary, Water Circus.

In a week or so I will hopefully finish a demo recording (a scratch version) for you to hear. Meanwhile, here are the chords and lyrics (any musicians among you?).

Talkin’ Trash c 2007 T.H. Culhane Cairo, Egypt

(Bb6/F arpeggio to F#7/E arpeggio twice)

(Bb6/F) Look beyond the garbage in the (Gm) streets to find the (Gm7/F) garbage in your (F#7/E) mind…

Then (Bb6/F) rise above your prejudice of (Em7b5) class to see there’s treasures there to (Ebmaj7) find… (Ebmaj7/C) in (Gm9 pull off )garbage… (Ebmaj7b5 pull off) in garbage… (Gm9 pull off to Ebmaj7b5 pull off)

(Bb) Everyone is told (Everyone is told) (Bb/A) that one man’s garbage is another’s gold

But (Gm) why’re we never told (why’re we never told) (Gm/F) that one man’s gold creates another’s (Cm) garbage? (Ebmaj7) (F#7/E)

(Bb) Lies are often told (Lies are always told) (Bb/A) If they obscure the facts they think our hand will fold (Gm) We’ve got to lay it on the table’n BOLD (Gm/F) that “Pollution is always someone else’s (Cm) profit”… (Ebmaj7b5 pull off) (They’re makin’ lots of money off it…)

Dm / Cm / Dm / Cm / (with cello)

(Dm) (spoken): “It’s a fundamental idea in economics that surplus value creates profit. If that (C#m) surplus can no (Cm) longer be extracted from labor then it must come from the externalization of production residuals – what we call (C#m) “garbage”.

(Dm) This means to both the firm and the family that ‘negative externalities’ must never be paid for, (Cm) must never be accounted for, must (Cm) always be thrown into, dumped into, someone else’s back yard…” (Gm pull off)

(sung): (Dm) When we gonna learn (when we gonna learn)
That one man’s gold creates a-(C#m) nother’s (Cm) garbage?
It’s an adage we recycle, we reverse the lesson that we all earn our
(Dm) Livings from a dustbin from a trash heap of worn ideas (C#m) gleaned from (Cm) garbage

(Cm!)that one’s man’s trash can be another’s gold obscures the (Cm!) darker story that’s never told

(Ebm!) For all that glitters, new or old, is (Ebm!) in the mind, spun into gold by
(B!) those who learned “sell high, buy low”,
the dogma (B/A) behind the status quo is (Bb) garbage… (F#7/E) just garbage… (Bb) (F#7/E)

And it’s (Gm) more than mere frustration

without (F) point-source (Cm) separation

we (Gm) enforce immiseration

having (F) no appreciation

(Cm) that there’s a (Gm) downstream side relation to it (F) all… (Cm)

There (Gm) persists a sad delusion

that the (F) problem of (Cm) pollution can be (Gm) solved by mere dilution –

but that’s (F) not the right (Cm) solution

and there’s (Gm) still too much confusion about it (F) all…

(Cm) We’re now (Gm) plagued by concentrations,

(F) caused by bio-accumulation (Cm)

for many (Gm) toxins simply don’t disperse at (F) all (Cm)

(Ebm) There’s two spheres in which we should operate
One well established, one inchoate
(B) An ecosphere and a technosphere
put organics there, inorganics here (B/A)
this industrial ecology’s the (Bb) way… (F#7/E) to…

(Bb6/F) Look beyond the garbage in the (Gm) streets to find the garbage in your (F#7/E) mind

Then (Bb6/F) rise above the blindness of your (Em7b5) past to see the profits men have (Ebmaj7) mined…

(Ebmaj7/C) from (Gm pull off) garbage…

from (Ebmaj7b5 pull off) garbage…

It’s all (Gm pull off) garbage…

(Ebmaj7b5 pull off) garbage…

We’re talkin’ TRASH…

Bb5 A5 Gm6/9 !!! Bb5 A5 Gm6/9 !!!

Maey Oh Maey! (Water, oh Water!)

2009-01-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Maey Oh Maey! (Water, oh Water!)
copyright 2005 T.H. Culhane, Melodic-Mnemonics

This is the song we performed in Kuwait (2005) and Morrocco (2006) on our Circus Guy Goodwill Musical Ambassador tours. This video (powerpoint) was projected on a screen behind the band as we played the song. We also performed this in a Palestinian refugee camp during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. The recording was done in Dobbs Ferry, New York in January 2007.

This is one of the two songs (along with "Springtime by Design" that will be featured in "Water Circus", produced by James Dean Conklin and Elissa Zazzerra at Greenheadmedia.org

In the goodwill concerts we did during Education Week in Kuwait with the U.S. State Department, before our song and presentation, we thanked the Kuwaiti people and government saying the following:

Spoken:.
"Through Hurricane Katrina, we have seen the power of water for good and ill, in its various forms as rain, storm, flood, contaminated sink of dangerous pollution and, of course, life sustaining blessing for drinking, irrigating and cleansing. From this tragedy we have learned much about the importance of respecting and taking care of water, and we have learned much from the international goodwill response to this terrible event.
“Circus Guy would like to personally thank the government and people of Kuwait for their generous financial and humanitarian support, helping the people of America recover from the environmental and social tragedies that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.
It is in that spirit that we offer this song about that most precious of the world’s resources… something every Arab knows very well!"

Then we began the song:

(tempo 118 bpm, 8 beat)

Verse I
Fmaj7 add G arp, Fdim add G arp, Em7, Am7, Dm, Dm/G G7
Spoken:
Allah made *{of water every living thing}* (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:30),
...و جَعَلنا من الماءِ كُلَّ شَيءٍ حيٍّ أفلا يُؤمِنونَ (سورة الأنبياءِ ٢١:٣٠ )
The total volume of water on Earth is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers, but only 41 million of this is fresh water that we can drink and use. We must protect this precious heritage. We must recycle it, we must purify it and make it good to drink again, as Allah intended. We are the stewards of the earth.. and the water…

(Am) There´s lots of talk about (F#m7b5) disasters that are coming down the (F) pike…
(D7) We´re told we´ll soon run out of water and we´ll one day have to (Bb) fight (E7) (riff e g# b e, ´live and let die!´)
(F) But water´s not like oil, it never disappears…
(Dm) It´s so abundant there´s no need for all these fears
(Bb13) Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink?
(E7) Purifying water, friends, is easier than you think…
(F) Making new fresh water is as simple as can be
(D7)Through Distillation and osmosis and some fun technology, You’ll see… (E7) … Because we´re…

(Chorus)

(Am) Living on a water planet
(F) Blue and green on top of granite… (Am) Maey! (bass and horn riff a e g a c a)
(Am) You may call this planet ´Earth´ but
(F) Water is our place of birth…
(D7) A hypersea of living liquid (G7) LIFE!… We´re alive…
´Ashan Maey! (Am) (bass and horn riff a e g a c a) (´Ashan Maey means ´because of water´)

Spoken:
"About 80% of the diseases that plague humanity are water-borne – cholera, typhoid
Amoebic dysentery, diarrhea, and other pathogenic diseases, not to mention
arsenic, lead, mercury and other forms of heavy metal poisoning. These are all completely avoidable. All we have to do is stop dumping our biological and chemical wastes into our water supply. Drinking quality fresh water should NEVER be used to carry our filth. Polluting our water supply is an inexcusable and criminally dangerous practice. Nobody should ever have to get sick or die because of dirty water"

Verse II
(Am) Khilafah means earth stewardship, to (F#m7b5) keep our wastes and filth away from (F) Maey
(D7) Amana is the trust Allah bestowed on all of us to learn and (Bb) try… (iqra!) (E7)Try to do right!)
(F) We must learn from Allah´s plan…, the balance, `Al-Mizan`
(Dm) Learn the hydrologic cycle as water goes through plants to man
(Bb13)Wastes don´t belong in water, not in the toilet nor the sink
(E7) Filth must be composted, water must be fit to drink
(F) Our rivers can´t be sewers, not for home or industry
(D7) We can keep our water pure and clean for all eternity, you’ll see (E7) … because we`re…

(Chorus)
(Am) Living on a water planet
(F) Blue and green on top of granite… (Am) Maey? (bass and horn riff a e g a c a)
(Am) You may call this planet ´Earth´ but
(F) Water is our place of birth…
(D7) A hypersea of living liquid (G7) LIFE!… We´re alive…
´Ashan Maey! (Am) (bass and horn riff a e g a c a) (´Ashan Maey means ´because of water´)

Am-F Am Am/B C11, C9

Bridge:

There are (F) Living Machines that can (F#m7b5) make water clean again… (C)
Plants and (F) algae, it seems, like to (F#m7b5) play on our team…
(G) Cleaning our wastes, puri- (E ) fying our streams…
(F) Wind and sunlight can power desalinization, making
(F#m7b5) salt water fresh water through distillation

(C ) Maey…. oh… (Am) Maey….
(F) Oh why can´t we (F#m7b5) see it´s the (C ) reason we thrive (Am)
(Am7) Allah gave us Maey! (Fmaj7 add G arp) But we have to be wise… Fdim add G arp)
(Em7 arp) We must practice Amana, be the viceroys of life! (Am 7 arp) Allah gave us (Dm7 arp) Maey, oh maey oh maey! (Dm/G) (G7)

(Chorus)
(C) Living on a water planet
(Am) Blue and green on top of granite… (Fmaj7 arp) Maey! (bass and horn riff a e g a c a)
(C) You may call this planet ´Earth´ but
(Am) Water is our place of birth…
(F) A hypersea of living liquid (G7) LIFE!… We´re alive…
´Ashan Maey! (C arp) (Am7 arp) (C arp) (Am7 arp) (Fmaj7 arp)

When we performed the song, singing to hundreds of schoolkids (including the children of the Sabah oil sheikh family) in front of the IMAX theatre screen in the Kuwait Science Center, with our video behind us on the 70 foot screen, we made the mistake of having the slide with the Qur'anic quote showing while the musical intro began. This deeply offended our fundamentalist hosts, who told us that one must never associate the Qur'an (Koran) with music or entertainment of any kind! We thought we were honoring Islam! In subsequent concerts we remedied the problem by simply showing the slide before the music began and after it stopped. As long as there is no music playing while referencing the Koran, we were told, things are okay.

Quranic environmental science quotes from various Arabic web sites:

*{Then set your face upright for religion in the right state-- the nature made by Allah in which He has made men; there is no altering of Allah's creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know.}* (Ar-Rum 30:30)
In the Quran, men and women are viewed as God’s vicegerents on Earth. (2:30). God created nature in a balance (“al-mizan”) and mankind’s responsibility is to maintain this fragile equilibrium through wise governance and sound personal conduct."

"The Quran also describes the believing men and women as those who “walk on the Earth in humility.” (25:63). Scholars have interpreted this verse, and others like it, to mean that Muslims are to protect nature’s many bounties given to them by the Almighty. Preservation is therefore more than a good policy recommendation - it is a commandment from God.
Allah has blessed the earth on which we live with abundant natural resources, and He has given the human race intelligence and power to use these resources for its benefit. At the same time, Allah has bestowed upon human beings the honor and responsibility of khilafah (stewardship) of these natural resources. The concept that it is our sacred duty to respect, preserve, and sustain the animals, plants, and inorganic resources of the Earth was revealed to the Muslims 1400 years before the term "human habitat (environmentalism)" was coined in the West. Allah has revealed, "Behold, thy Lord said to the angels, 'I will create a vicegerent on earth.' They said: 'Wilt Thou place therein one who will create mischief therein and shed blood?' ..." (Surah Baqara, ayah 30), for, unfortunately, man has been learning the hard way the lesson that wanton exploitation of natural resources leads to irreversible destruction."

The Future is Here, The Future is Now

2008-12-31T04:53:00.000-08:00

"The Future is Here, The Future is Now" is a song that T.H. Culhane and Frank DiMassa created for their renewable energy educational campaigns. The song was taken on the road by the Circus Guy Musical Goodwill Ambassador program (performed by T.H., Mike and Andrew Culhane, Anais Mitchell, Ted Stern, Greg Ross, James Dean Conklin and Frank Marino) and performed in a series of solar and wind powered concerts at the Wadi Environmental Science Center in Egypt and throughout the country with the U.S. State Department Cultural Affairs Program. It was then performed in Kuwait during a series of tours that culminated with its performance for the Sabah family children (kids of the oil sheikhs) and their classmates in the Imax Theatre at the Kuwati Science Center. It was recently performed on KPFK radio's "Healthy Me, Healthy Planet" hosted by Sherry Beale.

The Future is Here
Words and Music copyright 2004 T.H. Culhane, Melodic-Mnemonics

(Starts with conga drums with implied D7 as fifth of the key, bass note descends E D, B A, G into a Gmaj7)
Spoken:
(Gmaj7) “Every day we live our lives oblivious to the ( Gmaj6) deleterious effects of our actions,
as we (Em9) unwittingly and indiscriminately burn gas and oil (Em7) in our internal combustion engines, turbines and boilers.
(Am6) But the bell is tolling for these irresponsibly ( Am7) inefficient and unhealthy technologies,
and it is time we heeded the call of our mother earth…
(D7) ‘The stone age did not end because we ran out of stones’”… (D7b9)

(C7 with descending bass line)
Hey!
(G7 with descending bass line)
Check it out!
(C7 with ascending bass line)
I want to tell you about it!
(G7 with 1 5 8 arpeggio).

Because the (C7) future is (G7) here
Because the (C7) future is (G7) NOW
Because a (C7) few things are (G7) clear
No need to (Am) fear… (A7)
Just watch the (Bb) bad times disappear (D7)

Because the (C7) future is (G7) wind
Because the (C7) future’s the (G7) sun
Because the (C7) future is (G7) green
The future’s (A7) clean
And there’s (Bb) enough for everyone… (D7)

Since (G7) Time Immemorial…
The Earth’s been making coal an oil
(C7) Sunshine stored in wood and fossil fuels
(G7) We’ve been dipping in the past, for energy that will not last.
(C7) An alien would think that we are fools
(G7) Cause all along we’ve had the choice
To use the sun sustainably
(C7) And make a brighter future for us all
(G7) We now have the technology
To free us from dependency
(C7) And wean us from the grip of foreign oil

Because the (C7) future is (G7) here
Because the (C7) future is (G7) NOW
Because a (C7) few things are (G7) clear
No need to (A7) fear…
Just watch the (Bb) bad times disappear (D7)

(G7) Carbon was the enemy
an element in you and me
(C7) Sequestered by the flowers and the trees
But (G7) burned, it makes a mess of things
And a host of new carcinogens,
and (C7) all the global warming that we see
(G7) The future should be carbon-free
With new clean forms of energy
Like (C7) Hydrogen and Boro-Hydride Salts
(G7) Micro-Hydro, Wind and Sea
Geothermal and PV
You’ll (C7) see we don’t need carbon fuels at all.

(Eb7)Take a joy ride on the Hydrogen (Bbm) Highway
(Eb7) Check out all the wind farms by the (Bbm) road
A (Eb7) million solar roofs around the (Bbm) country
Are (F#7) shaving costs and handling peak (F7) loads…

(F#) We’ve got the power…
(Bbm) Tremendous power…
(F#) Plenty of power…
(Bbm) Clean and Green Power
There’ll (Dmaj7) never be a crisis here again… (D7)

(C7 with descending bass line)
Hey!
(G7 with descending bass line)
Check it out!
(C7 with ascending bass line)
                 I like a clean future
                     (G7)
             That’ what I’m talkin’ about!

We DON’T (G7) NEED atomic plants, sir
Fuel Cells are the answer
(C7) They produce only pure water with their kilojoules
(G7) Screw the radiation and runaway inflation
(C7) Everyone can make their own clean fuel
By (G7) electrolyzing water, using sunlight and wind power
(C7) You can make your hydrogen in your own home
And (G7) how to store the hydrogen? This has been the problem
But in (C7) fact we’ve had the answer all along
(G7) A liquid soap solution
That can clean up our pollution
(C7) It’s detergent, yes,
It’s BORAX, and it’s clean
(G7) It comes from desert sands
Produces H2 on demand
It can (C7) create the Hydrogen Economy (D7)

                      (D7b9! D7b9! D7b9!)

Because the (C7) future is (G7) here
Because the (C7) future’s the (G7) sun
Because the (C7) future is (G7) green
The future’s (A7) clean…
And there’s (Bb) enough for everyone (D7)
Shine on! (G)

Lyrics only:

The Future is Here
Words and Music copyright 2004 T.H. Culhane, Melodic-Mnemonics

Spoken:
“Every day we live our lives oblivious to the deleterious effects of our actions,
as we unwittingly and indiscriminately burn gas and oil in our internal combustion engines, turbines and boilers.
But the bell is tolling for these irresponsibly inefficient and unhealthy technologies,
and it is time we heeded the call of our mother earth…
‘The stone age did not end because we ran out of stones’”…

Because the future is here
Because the future is NOW
Because a few things are clear
No need to fear…
Just watch the bad times disappear

Because the future is wind
Because the future’s the sun
Because the future is green
The future’s clean
And there’s enough for everyone…

Since Time Immemorial…
The Earth’s been making coal an oil
Sunshine stored in wood and fossil fuels
We’ve been dipping in the past, for energy that will not last.
An alien would think that we are fools
Cause all along we’ve had the choice
To use the sun sustainably
And make a brighter future for us all
We now have the technology
To free us from dependency
And wean us from the grip of foreign oil

Because the future is here
Because the future is NOW
Because a few things are clear
No need to fear…
Just watch the bad times disappear

Carbon was the enemy an element in you and me
Sequestered by the flowers and the trees
But burned, it makes a mess of things
And a host of new carcinogens,
and all the global warming that we see
The future should be carbon-free
With new clean forms of energy
Like Hydrogen and Boro-Hydride Salts
Micro-Hydro, Wind and Sea
Geothermal and PV
You’ll see we don’t need carbon fuels at all.

Take a joy ride on the Hydrogen Highway
Check out all the wind farms by the road
A million solar roofs around the country
Are shaving costs and handling peak loads…

We’ve got the power…
Tremendous power…
Plenty of power…
Clean and Green Power
There’ll never be a crisis here again…

We DON’T NEED atomic plants, sir
Fuel Cells are the answer
They produce only pure water with their kilojoules
Screw the radiation and runaway inflation
Everyone can make their own clean fuel
By electrolyzing water, using sunlight and wind power
You can make your hydrogen in your own home
And how to store the hydrogen? This has been the problem
But in fact we’ve had the answer all along
A liquid soap solution
That can clean up our pollution
It’s detergent, yes,
It’s BORAX, and it’s clean
It comes from desert sands
Produces H2 on demand
It can create the Hydrogen Economy

Because the future is here
Because the future’s the sun
Because the future is green
The future’s clean…
And there’s enough for everyone
Shine on!

"Our Father", The Lord's Prayer

2008-11-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

I used to attend the Santa Monica Church in Los Angeles and heard a version of Our Lord's Prayer that had this basic melody and chords at the beginning. It enchanted me. I can't find a recording of it anywhere. So I've sketched out here what I remember, with some of my own embellishments up until "And forgive us our trespasses" at which point I'm freestyling with my own chords and interpretation. But I think it makes a nice melodic-mnemonic for learning the Our Father. (My apologies to the original composers of the melody and chords.)

          (G) (Em)
2.1 "Our Father, ( "Our Father) who art in Heaven" ( who art in Heaven")
           (C)      (Am)       (F)    (D7)
2.2 "Hallowed be thy Name"

                (G)
2.3 "Thy kingdom come" (Thy kingdom come)

              (Em)               (C)           (Cm) (D7) (G)
2.4 "Thy will be done, (Thy will be done)on earth as it is in heaven"

          (Gmaj7)                                                                      (Em7)
2.5 "Give us this day our daily bread" (Give us this day our daily bread)

                (C)                     (D)
2.6 "And forgive us our trespasses,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
(Bm)                                (Em)                   (F) (D7)
as we forgive those that trespass.....     against us"........
               (G)                     (Em)
2.7 "And lead us not (and lead us not) into temptation"
               (C)
2.8 "But deliver us from evil" (Lord deliver us from evil),,,

    (A7)
2.9 "For thine is the kingdom, (For thine is the kingdom)
(C)               (Cm)
and the power, and the glory,
        (Am)    (D7)   (Eb)     (Cm/F) (G)
for ever and ever. Amen "

Tools for flash

2008-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to be able to create an animation in Flash MX 2004 where the sun rises and sets over a graph showing TOU (Time of Use). To guide the animation I wanted to draw an arc as a path. But the pen tool doesn't seem to work like it does in photshop, so for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do it.

Fortunately, Ric Ewing over at Adobe created some free Action Script Tools that will do the trick and posted them for all of us free to use here:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/adv_draw_methods.html

To create the sun:

From http://www.axialis.com/tutorials/tutorial-misc001.html

Create a Transparent Image using Adobe PhotoShop®

To be able to duplicate layers and delete empty frames these Macromedia Flash Extensions are key (note you have to download Macromedia Extension Manager 1.6 for Flash MX 2004).
http://www.flashguru.co.uk/category/flash/extensions

Building a dynamic tool for input of solar energy economic variables

2008-11-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

I've always been inspired by SimCity and The Sims, and wondered how we could use these "games" for more important work -- particularly the design of "Solar Cities". Inspired by the folks at Digital Urban, I tried my hand at building a virtual Egyptian Darb Al Ahmar community in the "Oblivion" Game Engine and then placing solar panels on a couple of the roofs there.

You can see my results below:

and

.

I also tried my hand at using Google Sketchup to create a tutorial for how to adjust our solar hot water system on the Zabaleen school in Muqattam:

Then I discovered Metroquest , the first serious SimCity oriented planning tool.

While it isn't a 3D virtual reality tool, it does a great job of helping planners create future scenarios for evaluation by stakeholders. There are fascinating examples of its use in Yellowknife
and Niagra that you can work through to see how effective the tool is.

The question now is, how do we develop a similar tool for Solar CITIES?

Flash MX may hold part of the answer, so we will start here.

One of the great features of MetroQuest is their use of sliders as input mechanisms. I have long argued (and most recently do so in my Ph.D. thesis) that urban planning should be like mixing a song, working to achieve a harmonious balance of all the elements that make living in cities worthwhile and desirable. My postmodern professor Ed Soja at UCLA, author of "Thirdspace", challenged us to move beyond the binary logic of "either/or" and into the hybridity friendly thirdspace of "both-and". But he cautioned that both-and was not liscence to simply mash everything up.

Coming from a music industry background, I was always comfortable with both-and, finding that the way to achieve beauty was through the proper mix. I have worked on enough mixing boards over the years to appreciate the subtlety and importance of "faders", tweaking the amount of bass and drums and synth pads and vocals until something great came out of the mix.

So when developing a tool to help calculate the costs and infrastructure parameters of effective solar energy set-ups, I knew one of the first tasks I would have to undertake would be figuring out how to create and use faders in Flash.

Fortunately, http://www.maximized.co.uk/flashintro/slider1.html has a great little tutorial with the necessary code in it.

I'll reproduce the code here; for the tutorial click the link above.

Open this Button Movie Clip for editing, select the button symbol that is embedded in it, then add the following Actionscript code to the button:

on (press) {
startDrag("", false, left, top, right, bottom);
dragging = true;
}

on (release, releaseOutside) {
stopDrag();
dragging = false;
}

Go back to the main Timeline and select the Button Movie Clip. Add the following Actionscript code to the Button Movie Clip:

onClipEvent (load) {
top = _y;
bottom = top + 100;
left = _x;
right = _x;
}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if (dragging == true) {
// execute this code
}
}

They say at the end of the tutorial: " To get the button to do something, look back at the second section of code you added - any code you place in the section marked // execute this code will be executed while the slider is being dragged.
One thing you should try is to use the slider to control the volume of a music clip. Create a sound object and set it to play continuously. Add a slider to your Flash movie and add code so that it will alter the volume of the sound when it is dragged. Hint: the slider can move up and down in a range of 100 pixels. Sound volume has a range of zero (lowest volume) to 100 (highest volume)."

So that is a great start!

But if you are a non-programmer like me, you have no idea how to build the code to add functionality. Fortunately there are some other great tutorials, like this one from http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/slider.htm

The relevant code is:

this.ratio=0 ;
dragger.onPress=function(){
this.startDrag(true,0,0,line._width,0);
this.onEnterFrame=function(){
ratio=Math.round(this._x) ;
}
}
dragger.onRelease=dragger.onReleaseOutside=stopDrag;
or this:

this.ratio=0 ;
dragger.onPress=function(){
this.startDrag(true,0,0,line._width,0);
this.onEnterFrame=function(){
ratio=Math.round(this._x*100/line._width) ;
}
}
dragger.onRelease=dragger.onReleaseOutside=stopDrag;

Now we can use the slider to output ratios from 1 to 100, great for percents!

GET URL

One thing we want to be able to do in the program is to make us of the California Solar Initiative Incentive Calculator found at http://www.csi-epbb.com/. So we need to create a button in flash that calls that website.

The simple action to attach to the button is

on(release){getURL("http://www.csi-epbb.com/");
}

(You can find functions like "getURL" by clicking on the + sign under actions at opening "Global Functions" and then "Browser/Network". Make sure you put them after the on(release) command.)

The only problem is that though the .swf launches a browser when testing on your desktop, when you upload the .swf to a website and click on the button it launches the url in the same window. This can be a hassle if you are doing on-line training as we are and you want the user to be able to simultaneously view the flash document AND the website the URL reffered to.

What to do?

According to ShawnJC:

"Something you all might be interested. I've been using similar javascript to open windows for some time now, but recently have found out that the new SP2 upgrade for windows XP will install a pop-up blocker by default that blocks a window opened with javascript from a signal from Flash even though it is a user inituated click. I've been trying different things and found that the only way I can get a window to open with Flash that the XP pop-up blocker won't block is with the basic GETURL ("website","_blank") method. So anyway, might wanna test that out if you plan on using Flash and Javascript to open windows..."

So now my code reads: on(release){getURL("http://www.csi-epbb.com/", "_blank");
} and it works great!

But wait, there's more!
The only dissatisfaction I have with using the "_blank" command is that I often already have too many tabs open on my browser (I use Firefox, and I LOVE the new tab feature, but for keeping people involved in a web-based training program it can be distracting to have to keep clicking on different tabs wondering where on the far right of the screen that particular browser window went!) So I want to be able to open the url in a new window (like a popup).

The code to do that is found here: http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/22/1/Pop-Up-window-within-flash/Page1.html

The basic idea is that you replace on(release){getURL("http://www.csi-epbb.com/", "_blank");
} with a piece of Java Script that looks like this:

on (release) {
getURL ("javascript:openNewWindow('http://www.csi-epbb.com/','thewin','height=600,width=800,toolbar=yes,scrollbars=yes');");
}
Note that instead of using double quotes in the javascript you use single quote marks. You can decide if you want the user to have toolbar access (so they can use the window you created to go elsewhere) or scrollbars. I set them to yes because I like giving people freedom. Vive la liberte! You can also set the height and width. I like my pop-ups fairly large but not overwhelming.

All fine and good; it works with the .swf file. What about opening applications, like Google Earth?

Opening Applications

Here I encountered a lot of problems. Seems that somebody created a flash virus once upon a time and so, to protect users from these, the way flash handles functions that call .exe files has been changed.
But an explanation of how to run files is found here:
http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/08/07/Conquering-FSCommand-EXEC-Part-1-Proxy

What I learned to do is to create a folder called "fscommand" in the folder that contains my .fla source file and my .swf.

Inside that folder I used notepad to create a text document that held this text:

"C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\googleearth.exe" (because that is where Google Earth is on my computer)

I saved the file and then changed the extension from .txt to .bat. I called the file "openGoogleEarth.bat". When I click on it I notice it launches a DOS command window and then launches the program. All fine and good.
Then, in flash, in my action script for the button I put the following:

on(release) {
fscommand("exec", "openGoogleEarth.bat");
}

I notice when I test the movie it does nothing. But if I PUBLISH the movie as a Windows Projector (an .EXE file) as well as an .swf (you find these options under File/Publish Settings) the windows projector will let me launch Google Earth with that button. The .swf file, however, does nothing.

I also downloaded a nice little app called proxy.exe that hides the black DOS box. The trick there was to place "proxy.exe" in the fscommand folder and then rename it "openGoogleEarth.exe" (or whatever name your bat file has.Then IT calls the .bat file which then calls the program. (You can get better instructions here: http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/08/07/Conquering-FSCommand-EXEC-Part-1-Proxy)

Thanks to a Swedish forum user named j0h@nB we get the following advice:

1. A.swf has to be an exe-file, that is, export it as a Flash projector (A.exe)
2. B.exe has to reside in subfolder fscommand. So, if A.exe is saved in folder C:\somefolder\, then B.exe has to be saved in C:\somefolder\fscommand
3. You should then be able to use fscommand to execute B.exe as follows...

Code:

on(release){
      fscommand("exec","B.exe");
}

What about opening files on Macs as well as PCs?

I turned to this website, http://www.northcode.com/ , for the following advice for how to prepare for cross platform functionality:

Northcode says the following:

"If you want to be a little smarter about it you can replace the fscommand exec calls with something like my SmartExec function below.

SmartExec will figure out what platform it's running on and launch the correct helper to open the target file. The trick is to give your helper applications names that are similar to the file you're trying to open.

thefile.pdf - name of the file you want to open
thefile.exe - EXE helper app that opens thefile.pdf on Windows
thefile_script - AppleScript the opens thefile.pdf on the Mac

Now to open thefile.pdf you just put SmartExec("thefile"); in your button release events and SmartExec figures out which application to run based on the platform and the helper application does all the work.

Code:

function SmartExec(target)
{
   platform = substring(getVersion(), 1,3);
 
   if (platform == "WIN") 
   {
      // we're running on Windows, target an EXE file
      fscommand("exec", target + ".exe");
   } 
   else 
   {
      // we're running on a MAC, target an AppleScript file
      fscommand("exec", target + "_script");
   }
}

There's an article on my blog "Conquering FSCommand EXEC Part 1 : Proxy" that describes how to use a free tool I created and BAT files to open files on a Windows system. If you're using Flash CS3 then you'll also want to have a look at this article FSCommand EXEC is Broken in Flash CS3.

On the Mac, you would use a compiled AppleScript instead of the BAT file and EXE combination. Like the Windows solution you'll need an AppleScript for each file that you want to open. You can use this script as a tempate.

Code:

--set the name of the file to open 

property fileName : "thefile.pdf"

--get the path to the containing folder 

set myPath to (path to me as string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
set the parentFolder to ¬
   ((text items 1 thru -2 of myPath) & "") as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

-- find the file and open it 

try
   set targetFile to alias (the parentFolder & fileName)
on error
   --ie if there's no  file here by this name, it will quit. 
   return quit
end try

tell application "Finder"
   open file targetFile
end tell

I cut and paste Northcode's SmartExec function into my actions layer and tested it on the PC and it seems to work great. Thanks Northcode!

Using Flash MX 2004 to create educational materials

2008-11-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

Frank DiMassa Utility Consulting has hired me again to work out in California creating educational materials to help us realize the dream of the "million solar roofs" initiative and to aid in water and energy conservation efforts.
Because the materials we are creating are destined for web training, but budgets are tight, we are working with Flash MX 2004 (a.k.a. "Flash 6") and Dreamweaver (though we create our videos in Final Cut Pro).

As Flash has a steep learning curve (particularly when you are a non-programmer and are working with Action Script) I have decided to post my notes here in this blog post instead of on my physical pad-o-paper notepad (remember pencils and pens and paper?). This way others can benefit from our climb up the learning curve and we can access our notes wherever we happen to be in the world without having to carry a suitcase full of paper!

Step 1: Converting .mov files to .flv files.

Since we begin our process by creating our video segments in FC Pro on a Mac, but do our Flash creation on a Windows XP machine, we should start this lesson by exporting from Final Cut to a Quicktime Movie (.mov). Those files are big -- a 3 minute video takes up nearly 600 MB. We pop that onto a USB stick and carry it over to the PC and copy it into our Flash Video folder. Now we have to turn it into a Sorenson compressed .flv file for use in our web presentation.

A hunt through the user forums revealed this from editorX:
"hi, it´s possible to create .flv in MX2004.
import the chosen movie (embedded) in the flash library. select the movie in the library and then right-click on it. select properties and then export in the appearing dialogue."

Once you do that, you will notice that while the .mov file is now in your library, the .flv file you just created isn't. Don't panic. It should be in the same folder as the .mov file on your hard drive, but it must be now imported into your project library.

How do you use a video in flash?
"Basically, it's like a Graphic symbol because the timeline where the video resides needs enough frames to accommodate the entire duration." says UltraShock Tutorials (a great site to go to to learn all about working with video in flash).

They also say,
"Remember that because Flash compresses the audio at publish time, it's best to only import .flvs with little or no audio compression and adjust Flash's audio compression settings through the publish settings. (to avoid generation loss due to recompression)."

If you don't have Flash MX Pro, there are other ways -- free ways -- to convert .mov files to .flv files:

You can download a free media converter, called Quick Media Converter, here:

http://quick-media-converter.en.softonic.com/download#pathbar

Inserting an entire column of frames (shifting all frames in all layers to the right):

If you want to add frames and extend the timeline for all existing layers accordingly, you merely select the column of frames of all layers at the chosen point in the timeline and F5 them

How to Delete Frames

(from http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/webdesign/flash/frames/)

"Note: Flash has two ways to delete frames - Clear Keyframe and Remove Frames. They're a little confusing. The way to figure out which one to use is to ask yourself why you want to eliminate a frame.
If you want to eliminate a frame because you want to reduce the length of the movie, then select a frame, and choose Edit > Timeline > Remove Frames, or Shift-F5.
If you want to remove the status of a keyframe (and therefore, its content), and keep the movie the same length, then select a keyframe or blank keyframe and choose Modify > Timeline > Clear Keyframe (or hold down the mouse and select Clear Keyframe from the menu).
Clear Keyframe changes a keyframe or a blank keyframe into an in-between keyframe. It removes the content it contained. The new in-between frame displays the content of the previous keyframe."

Other helpful notes:

Motion Tween only works on symbols
F8 converts to symbol
F6 inserts a new keyframe
F5 inserts a frame (and can carry over information from the previous frame)
ctl-enter is used to view motion
to advance by a frame use the "." key, to go back a frame use the "," key.

Creation of motion/shape tweens in the basics of flash.

Before you can specify values in Action Script you need to give each text field an instance name in Property Inspectior

Componenets -- movie clips that add advanced functionality without you having to know advanced Action Script.

To labe a Button component: Go to Property Inspector, parameters tab - Label.

Event handler "Handling Events" in Action Scripts
Reference Guide Help

A Button Component has its own timeline. In Timeline hierarchy, component time line is the child of the main timeline. Point to the parent: _parent.

Set audio to 192 kbps

Embedding video: a video over 16000 frames will not sync properly and audio quality suffers. But it is more interactive.

Expand the timeline so all frames are displayed!

"You'll have to provide your own controller for an embedded movie; flash components (and their skins) won't work".

Upload of main swf to server -- unlike uploading streaming video, main swf is the only file to worry about.

Need Flash's video encoder.

Recommended against using scenes; use framelabels instead.

on(release) {
gotoAndStop("scene2", 1);
}

is not ideal. Don't use scene names, just the UNIQUE frame labels and add _root to your path.

Like this:

on(release) {
_root.gotoAndPlay("frame-label");
}

test the scene using (ctl-alt-enter).

DON'T USE SCENES!

"Scenes are an evil kludge created to destroy the minds for otherwise sane flash developers and newbies alike. They are just a way of hiding frame numbers to try and make flash movies more human readable that fails utterly." wrote one flash user on a forum. I agree.

Helpful action scripts for beginners:

The following little scripts are your friend for buttons that go back a frame or advance a frame:

on(release) {
prevFrame( );
}

on(release) {
nextFrame( );
}

My preferred method, if you are going to use the same buttons over and over on every frame, is to attach this action script NOT to the button, but place it in a layer you call "Action Script". If you name the instance of the buttons you can use this function:

this.forward_btn.onRelease = function( ) {
nextFrame( );
}

and

this.back_btn.onRelease = function( ) {
prevFrame( );
}

on(release) {
if(_currentframe = = 1) {
gotoAndStop(10);
} else {
prevFrame ( ) ;
}

The conceptual basics:

Graphics objects
Button objects - normal, mouse-over, click, target
Movie Clip

In the button timeline, target is the area of the button you want mouse events to react to (the center of the button for example, but you could make the target another area of the screen if you wanted).
Movie Clip is similar to Graphics object on the surface but can be used to create entire animations that can be dragged onto the main movie. Animations created as graphics objects simply loop over and over, but you can control movie objects completely.

How I finally got the Media Clip to play:

To get my .flv to play and be interactive, so that I could pause it for the instructional moment and then continue, I first created a mediaclip to embed in one of the frames of my presentation. Then I double clicked on that clip to open its own timeline and created a buttons layer in that timeline and a video layer. I dragged the .flv into the video layer and then created enough frames in the buttons layer to cover all the frames that were in my video layer. Then I created my start and stop buttons and my frame advance and previous frame buttons in that layer. I called them play_btn, stop_btn, prevframe_btn and nextframe_btn.

Rather than attach an action script to the buttons themselves, I created an actionscript layer in the mediaclip timeline, again with enough frames to cover the whole .flv. Then I only had to type in the following code once:

this.play_btn.onRelease = function() {
play();
}

this.stop_btn.onRelease = function() {
stop();
}

this.prevframe_btn.onRelease = function() {
_root.gotoAndPlay(1);
}

this.nextframe_btn.onRelease = function() {
_root.gotoAndPlay(4);
}

Note that "_root" is necessary in order to have the button take us out of the media clip timeline and back into the scene's timeline.

Using the Component Inspector

It took me a while to find the component inspector after I added the Media Component. Now I know where it is: Look in the Properties window after selecting the media component. There should be a button that says "Launch Component Inspector" under text saying "This component's parameters must be edited using the Component Inspector". You should then see two tabs on the right: Properties and Parameters. Click on Parameters.

5 is a beautiful number

2008-08-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

5 is a beautiful number
lyrics by T.H. Culhane
for David Korn on account of he likes this tune!

(Sorry, this is just a draft; there are no visuals yet, and lots of mistakes!)

Sung to the tune of "Oh What a Beautiful Feeling"

5 is a beautiful number
Think when you multiply 5: All ends in 5 or in Zero...
That's how you know that its right!

Zero times 5 gives you zero,
One times five's naturally five,
5 times 2's 10 -- 1 and Ze-ro!
3 fives 15 -- 1 and 5

4 rows of 5 gives you Twenty (2-0)
5 times itself's Twenty-Five (2-5)
6 groups of 5 gives you 30 (3-0)
7 times 5's 35! (3-5)

8 groups of 5 gives you 40 (4-0)
9 groups of 5: 45 (4-5)
10 groups of 5 gives you Fifty (5-0)
Just Alternate Zeros and Fives!

Even ones end with a Zero (2,4,6,8,10)
Odd numbers end with a Five (1,3,5,7,9)
Learn them and you'll be a hero,
when you can multiply five

Five's products add up in series (0, 5, 1, 6, 2...)
There's always 5 in between (7, 3, 8, 4, 9...)
The first series starts out with zero
The odd one off course starts with 5...

Let me explain somewhat clearer:
Think of 10 -- zero plus 1
you...
then see 15 's 5 plus one: SIX!
20's "2-0" makes 2

"25" adds up to 7
"30" would add up to 3
"35" adds up to 8 and
40 is four, you can see

5 is a beautiful number
There's so much to be done with five
5 is a magical number
Listen, I'll try to describe:

5 x 11's just fifty (5x10) PLUS five times one's 55
5 x 12's easily 60: 5 x 10 plus 5 x 2

5 x 13's al-so easy: 5 x 10 plus 5 x 3
5 x 14 -- just add 20
Now you try 5 x 15!________

5 x 16 start with 50 (5x10)
plus thirty from 5 groups of 6
Add them together, that 80!
Now you are learning some tricks!

17 5's: start with 50
+ (7x5)'s 35
This way you use your addition
to help you when you multiply!

5 x 18: you take 50,
then multiply 5 x 8
50 + 40 make 90;
Some day you won't hesitate!

5 x 19, you add 50
to 5 x 9: that's 45
95 ends up the answer
Odd numbers end always in five

Fi-na-lly we have 5 20's
5 Twenty green dollar bills
5 x 2's 10, plus a zero
That makes one hundred - now drill!

Cause 5 is a beautiful number
Think when you multiply 5 All ends in 5 or in Ze-ro
That's how you know that its right!!

Math in the summertime...

2008-08-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

This simple Melodic-Mnemonic is for the Korn family to sing on a summertime road trip to pass the time and help the boys enjoy learning the times tables. Enjoy!

(The original Mungo Jerry song with Karaoke lyrics is below:)

Math in the summertime...
lyrics by T.H. Culhane

Sung to the tune of "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry:

In my 4 x 4, driving down route SIXTEEN
was a 2 x 4 and an 8 track machine,
singing 5 x 4 is 20, 3 x 4's a dozen
eggs are on my mind!
"Timesing" 6 x 4, gives you twenty-four, 2 dozen eggs to fry!

When it's 8 x 4 then you have 32
But we still have more multiplying to do
9 x 4 is 36, yeah, and with 4 by 7 you get 28.
That leaves 10 x 4 -- equals 40 acres and a mule... but wait!

(there's more... mul-ti-plica-tion!)

4 x 12: that one makes 48
And 11 fours? 44 it creates
and then 13 groups of 4 is 52
but 1 times 4 is simply 4
When you multiply by the number 1 it doesn't get you more.

Finally 4:15 -- that makes 60, not more
When I'm 64 then its 16 by 4
And 4 17's is 68 and 18 4's creates 72
End with 20 4's you get 80; I'll leave 19 4's for you...

(76 Trombones in the big parade!)

Here's a QND (Quick 'N Dirty) mp4 of the song to sing along with, with Karaoke style melodic-mnemonic lyrics: See if you can edit your own visuals to it that help you learn the 4 times tables! The learning comes through repetition and interaction!

As We Sow, So Shall We Reap

2008-08-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

I wrote this song in 2000 while travelling by bus from Mexico to Panama, travelling with Angel Orozco and Jill Sourial as part of our Mundo Iximche Maya Breadnut mission. Most of it 'God downloaded to me' (as my gospel mentor Iris Stevenson from Crenshaw High School used to say!) in a home stay in El Salvador. I recorded it in the summer of 2001 in Damascus, Syria, with Syrian television and recording star Rasha Rizk singing and her husband playing lead guitar; Rasha and I multitracked the gospel choir parts and I played acoustic guitar (a baby Taylor that could fit in the overhead rack of the airplane). Rasha played bass and keyboards and syn drums. As an Arab-American Christian it was delightful to perform this with Rasha and her husband, who are Druze and Muslim, as it became the perfect interfaith dialog song. When the Sept. 11 tragedy happened shortly thereafter we knew the song was needed in order to bring Christians and Muslims and Jews and people of other faiths back together. The song was broadcast at the Bosra festival in Southern Syria in the ancient Roman Ampitheater after our Circus Guy Musical Goodwill concert to an international audience and we hope that it will be used to help create a new healing dialouge now that the horrors of the Bush years are over!

Lyrics and Chords found below:

Lyrics:

As We Sow, So Shall We Reap
(a.k.a. "More and More: the thanksgiving song")

copyright 2000 T.H. Culhane
sung by Rasha Rizk and T.H. Culhane
recorded in Damascus, Syria, summer 2001

Life seems full of problems
Never time enough
Work yourself to death just to accumulate more stuff

No time for true Thanksgiving
No room for Christmas Cheer
Seems we've lost our meaning and forgotten why we're here

But Lord I'm not a taker
And Lord my needs are small

I want to make this holiday be holy after all

For as we sow, so shall we reap
The more we give
The more we really keep
And when we learn to give it all away
We find there's more...
and more...
and more...

Hallelujah...
Hallelujah...
Allah...
Allah...
Hallelujah... Hallelujah...

Considering the lilies
considering the birds
In Nature lies the evidence concealed within His words

He gives with such abundance
That we should do the same
And if our lives are short and mean...
we have ourselves to blame...

For as we sow, so shall we reap
The more we give
The more we really really keep
And when we learn to give it all away
We find there's more...
so much more...
than we thought...

There's always more and more and more and more...

(Gospel choir):

"Because it's world without end
'til God comes again
As it was in the beginning, as it is and ever shall be
We should be good to Men
Make all Men our friends
For blessed are the pure in heart...
we've got to make a start...

Blessed the meek,
The makers of peace...
The world is not so bad a place as some would try to make it...
It's a world without end...
'til God comes again...

Amen"

Allah.....

For as we sow... so shall we reap...
There's always...

more.

More and More c 2000 T.H. Culhane
Lyrics with Chords:

(Gmaj7) (Gdim) (F#m) (Bm)
Hmmm mmm hmmmm mmm hmmmm
(Em7)   (A7)     (D6/9)
Hmmm mmm hmmmm mmm hmmmm

(VERSE)
(Gmaj7)
Life seems full of problems
(Gdim)
Never time enough
(F#m)                                            (Bm)
Work yourself to death just to accumulate more stuff
(Gmaj7)
No time for true Thanksgiving
(Gdim)
No room for Christmas Cheer
(F#m)                                                (Bm)
Seems we've lost our meaning and forgotten why we're here
     (Gmaj7)
But Lord I'm not a taker
(Gm)
And Lord my needs are small
(F#m)                                     (B7)
I want to make this holiday be Holy after all

CHORUS:
                  (Gmaj7)             (Gdim)
For as we sow, so shall we reap
(F#m)
The more we give
   (Bm)
The more we really keep
   (Em7)              (A7)
And when we learn to give it all away
(Bbmaj7)
We find there's more...
(Gm7)
and more...
   (D6/9)
and more...

GUITAR SOLO
(Gmaj7) (Gdim)
Hallelujah...
(F#m) (Bm)
Hallelujah...
(Gmaj7) (Gdim)
Allah...
(F#m) (Bm)
Allah...
(Em7) (A7) (D6/9)
Hallelujah... Hallelujah...

VERSE
(Gmaj7)
Considering the lilies
(Gdim)
considering the birds
(F#m) (Bm)
In Nature lies the evidence concealed within His words

(Gmaj7)
He gives with such abundance
(Gm)
That we should do the same
(F#m7)
And if our lives are short and mean...
(B7)
we have ourselves to blame...

CHORUS:
                  (Gmaj7)             (Gdim)
For as we sow, so shall we reap
(F#m)
The more we give
   (Bm)
The more we really keep
   (Em7)              (A7)
And when we learn to give it all away
(Bbmaj7)
We find there's more...
(Gm7)
and more...
   (D6/9)
and more...
                      (Bbmaj7)          (Gm)                (D6/9)
There's always more, so much more, than we thought
                                        (Bbmaj7)   (Gm)    (D6/9)
There's always something more, ever more, ever more

(GOSPEL CHOIR):
                        (Bbmaj7)
"Because it's World Without End
      (Gm)
'til God comes again
   (D6/9)
As it was in the beginning, as it is and ever shall be
   (Bbmaj7)
We should be good to Men
   (Gm)
Make all Men our friends
(D6/9)
For blessed are the pure in heart... we've got to make a start...
(Bbmaj7)
Blessed the meek,
(Gm)
The makers of peace...
(D6/9)
The world is not so bad a place as some would try to make it...
(Bbmaj7)
It's a world without end...
(Gm)
'til God comes again...

(D6/9)

Amen"
(Bbmaj7) (Gm) (D6/9)
Allah.....
               (Gmaj7)
For as we sow...
                   (Gdim - slide up neck of guitar)
so shall we reap...

There's always...
(D6/9)
more.

Demonol: The fuel of the future (of the people, by the people, for the people)

2007-09-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

When George Bush Senior launched Operation Desert Storm Iraqi-American inner city science teacher T.H. Culhane decided to teach his Jefferson High School "biosphere" and "eutopia" students how to make ethanol fuel out of waste cellulose. Working with auto mechanics teacher Mr. Aguilar, with drafting teacher Bill Hernandez, carpentry teacher Harold Campbell and Vice Principal Mr. Scott, they successfully converted the high school's cars to run on alcohol fuel and were experimenting with ways to use solar distillation and cockroach enzymes to convert cellulose into a fuel they called "Demonol - a fuel of the people, by the people for the people." This video was a "trailer" the class made for a documentary of the project. Unfortunately a threatening letter from the California Energy Commission, warning the kids and teachers against violating "federal anti-tampering regulations" got the project shut down! Imagine not being able to "tamper" with a car in auto mechanics class!

The Insight Zone: Part II

2007-07-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

his is the last 7 minutes of Jefferson High School's 1993 dramatization of how sheltered instruction can help improve education. Listen as the students themselves explain why they are failing their classes and why traditional textbooks and teaching methods fail the students, discriminating against anybody who does not come from a privileged background. In effect, we learn that schools teach those who already know and fail those who need to be taught.

The Insight Zone: Part I

2007-07-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

n 1993 "Sheltered Instruction" was introduced to Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles to facilitate learning by students whose reading and language skills were not commensurate with the materials or instruction available in the classroom. Mathematics teacher Bill Hoyst and Science teacher T.H. Culhane worked with former gang banger turned student video producer Evan Rivas to create this look at what proper sheltered instruction would be like if adopted by the school. In this video the students explain why they find it so hard to learn from the typical class room.

The Safety Test: Chapter Two

2007-07-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

his second part to Jefferson High School's mid-1990's gore-fest vocational training video pulls out all the stops. With D.E.M.M.O. Productions' T.H. Culhane behind the camera we get a chance to see Harold Campbell playing himself, illustrating what can happen when students don't observe proper safety procedures. Here class valedictorian Edgar Gutierrez costs Anna her finger by wandering into the safety zone of power machinery. We then see Anna lose rip off her thumb instead of ripping woodstock. A series of other accidents top off the video, edited by the students to some of their favorite rap tracks. Who would have thought preparing for the safety test could be so much fun! Makes you want to go back to high school... or not!

The Safety Test: Chapter One

2007-07-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

The hazards of working with the Circular Saw, Disk Grinder and Drill Press are graphically illustrated in this first part of the Los Angeles Unified School District's bloodiest video production from the early 1990's. Created by T.H. Culhane, Harold Campbell and the students of Jefferson High School's D.E.M.M.O. Productions (Digital Engineering for Multi-Media Occupations) Program.

The Safety Test: Musical Intro

2007-07-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Every student in the vocational education training program at Jefferson High School in South Central L.A. in the mid-1990s had to suffer through a paper/pencil "safety test" before being allowed to start the training program. Ostensibly this was to prove they had internalized the textbook instruction about safety that would prevent accidents and save their lives. The reality was that the text book materials and the test were so poorly written and illustrated and so hard for the kids to relate to or understand that most failed the exam over and over and never got a chance to get even a laborer's education. And you wonder why there are so many jobless unskilled workers in America!
Instead of teaching our students to simply learn to repeat "Would you like fries with that?" Multi-media science instructor T.H. Culhane and woodshop instructor Harold Campbell (a thirty year veteran teacher and winner of the Harold Bunche award) decided to use the power of video to make the safety test more comprehensible. This playful, if bloody and graphic video, was the result! (more)

Pep Boyz in the 'Hood

2007-07-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

In the mid-1990s Pep Boys awarded science and vocational instructors T.H. Culhane, Harold Campbell and Mr. Aguilar a $3000 autoparts grant so they could work on building a hovercraft and convert a truck to run on ethanol fuel as part of the federal Perkins program to integrate academic and vocational instruction in imaginative ways. To thank the Pep Boys, who also employed many of our students from Jefferson High School, the kids put together this little video with a song Culhane had composed as the soundtrack.

The Peristalsis Revue

2007-07-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

In 1993, Harvard buddy Adam Button joined T.H. Culhane (author of this song) and rapper Robert Jones along with some students from Jefferson High School and Crenshaw High School in south Central L.A. when they went into the Beverly Hills Community Access TV studio to record this fun look at a chapter in the biology textbook on the Digestive System.

It was another of Melodic-Mnemonics' attempts to bring a boring school textbook to life using blue screen technology.

Adam Button was co-singer in "The Quintessentials", an L.A. based accapella singing group made up of Harvard grads T.H. Culhane and Paul Sagawa of the Harvard Krokodiloes, Paul Leher of the Harvard Glee Club and Adam Button of the Harvard Water Polo team (!) along with Princeton grads Jason Matthews and John Blazer of the Princeton Nassoons. Jason went on to record T.H. Culhane's song "The Peristalsis Revue" with his accapella group at Columbia medical school.

The Challenge: NASA's Challenger 7 Teaching Fellows

2007-07-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

In the late 1980's The Challenger Center for Space Science Education and McGraw Hill awarded 7 teachers from around the United States as innovators, improving American Education, following the mission of Christa McAuliffe and her fellow astronauts. T.H. Culhane, then teaching at Crenshaw High School in "The 'Hood" (1989-1991), was one of the recipients of the award. When he became a mentor teacher for Teach For America he and his students and mentees created this video to celebrate the Challenger Center program. The video was produced by and features teachers T.H. Culhane, Dr. Sherry Kerr and students Robert Jones and Kofi Narty, along with teacher trainees in the "Teach for America" program at USC, where T.H. and Dr. Kerr were mentor instructors.

LEARN - UCLA's Advanced Management Program for Educational Reform

2007-07-29T08:06:00.001-07:00

UCLA's Advanced Management Program (AMP) for L.E.A.R.N. teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District is shown in this music video

Labor of Love: The Reproduction Rap

2007-07-29T07:50:00.001-07:00

Student Robert Jones created the rap he does here to get an A in T.H. Culhane's biology class at Crenshaw High School in 1991.

Solar South Central

2007-07-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

Al Silva Hernandez and T.H. Culhane produced this little advert in Al's Solar South Central photovoltaic powered production studio in the 'hood in Los Angeles near Jefferson High School. It shows efforts we made in the "ghetto" to address environmental justice issues, working with Mundo Iximche, a transnational (Guatemala, Mexico, California) NGO formed by Angel Orozco, Jill Sourial, Kay Gilbert, Jennifer Ito and T.H. Culhane when they were Urban Planning students at UCLA.

It's All Genetics

2007-07-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Paul Sagawa of Harvard Krokodiloes fame stars as Gregor Mendel in this "melodic-mnemonics science education through music video" from the early 1990s in which we tried to literally "bring the textbook to life". Sagawa also plays the saxophone throughout the track. Dr. Sherry Kerr cameos as Charles Darwin's pious wife -- Darwin was played by a substitute teacher at Jefferson High -- while biology teachers Todd Ullah and colleague play Watson and Crick. T.H. Culhane plays Alfred Russel Wallace while his beloved Harvard Professor E.O. Wilson is represented by photographs. The idea was to take images from the standard biology textbook and, using early blue screen technology available at the Beverly Hills Community Access Television station, superimpose the teachers playing the historical characters over the images from the book to tell the story of how evolution, genetics and sociobiology have transformed our view of the world. The audio was recorded on a little Tascam 4 track cassette recorder. Nobody involved in the production was a professional; we did our best to demonstrate what a small group of inspired inner city school teachers and their students could do to enliven the lesson and "bring biology to life".*

* Talk about redundancy! "Enliven" "bring to life" and "biology" -- but perhaps we need to "kick a dead horse" to get people to realize that science is the most lively subject and that it is a crime if students are turned off to science because of poorly designed and delivered materials. If we live in an age of recidivism and superstition in which people are turning away from science and enlightenment and toward the dark ages of demagoguery, blame the school systems and their atrocious choices of teachers, pedagogical methods, slavish devotion to "standards" and "exams" and their use of horrible books and materials.

Impact II: The Network of the Teachers

2007-07-28T15:04:00.001-07:00

Immune System

2007-07-28T14:46:00.001-07:00

The Heterotrophic Blues

2007-07-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

"Heterotroph Shmeterotroph" declares the Crenshaw High School student to his father, "I'm not going to learn this stuff anyway. Might as well kick it and watch MTV". Thus starts this zany little music video in which a kid finds he can learn all about "the heterotroph hypothesis" by watching "Elvis Parsley" sing a rockabilly lesson about how tough it is for those of us who depend on autotrophs for our daily bread. The video, made in 1990, features T.H. and his kids from the 'hood playing horns while Dr. Sherry Kerr's students from Beverly Vista Middle School in Beverly Hills play vegetables. Shot at Beverly Hills Television, this was a pioneering attempt to bring kids from the poor areas of L.A. together on a project with wealthy kids from Beverly Hills, and it occurred during a time of economic depression in L.A. that preceeded the L.A. riots. Because of our Melodic-Mnemonics program we were able to bring the communities together during the time of the worst violence and intolerance that followed.

Earthwatch Bug Holiday

2007-07-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest delights I had as an inner city high school science teacher was being able to bring the outside world into the ghetto through video production. On this occasion, in 1993, I was fortunate to receive a Helen Bing Award for teaching that paid for me to go on an Earthwatch Expedition to study arthropods (spiders and insects) with Dr. Roger Kitching in Australia in the Lamington Park rainforest (near Brisbane). Kitching was using the technique of canopy misting shown in the film "Arachnophobia". Helen Bing, a patron of the arts, also graciously paid to bring me, educational reformer Dr. Sherry Kerr (who had also been on the Earthwatch expedition) and my students and fellow teachers into 7th Avenue Recording Studio (Rick Ballentine, engineer) down in the 'hood so we could record the song for the melodic-mnemonic video. She even came in to sing on the chorus with us all! Then the students took all the footage we shot in Australia and cut together the video, including a pre-song rap in which they talk about their desire to leave the inner city and see the rain forests. Magical! (more)

The Classification Rap

2007-07-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

This is the Video that Started it All! In 1989 T.H. Culhane, a brand new science teacher at Crenshaw High School in South Central L.A., joined forces with video instructor Phil Kuretski and together with their students they created T.H.'s first "Melodic-Mnemonic" -- a rap song that successfully embedded the Linnean system of classification -- Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species -- using rap and melody as the carrier wave for the textbook data that students were expected to memorize. Culhane's "Melodic-Mnemonic" method worked so well that his "at-risk" students were able to successfully compete with "gifted students" and test scores went up on biology exams. For the next near decade Culhane expanded the subject matter he and his students covered using the Melodic-Mnemonic approach. Recently, Culhane has been using the approach with the U.S. State Department's Cultural Affairs program, teaching science workshops in schools in Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Morrocco, Israel and Palestine.

More History of Melodic-Mnemonics: At Harvard between 1980 and 1985, T.H. Culhane had the honor of taking classes on Evolutionary Biology with Professors Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson and Chemistry with Dudley Herschbach. Each of these legendary luminaries inspired in T.H. a love of the natural sciences and they taught him that science could be taught in an infectiously fun and engaging manner. E.O Wilson captured the attention of his students with an exciting narrative storytelling style that made each class an eye-opening adventure. Dudley Herschbach did explosive hands on experiments, told jokes and played Tom Lehrer's Chemistry song. Stephen Jay Gould performed songs about science that he sang with his barbershop quartet. To T.H. the message was clear: A Harvard Education in the sciences integrates all of the senses, all the modalities and engages every part of our brain and its multiple intelligences.

For his Senior Thesis with Professor Terry Deacon, T.H. not only videotaped and analyzed the vocalizations of the famous "Hoover, the Talking Seal" at the New England Aquarium, but he wrote a rap song called "A Talking Seal? Get Outta Here" that explained the essence of his thesis and made a music-video (edited by Steve Sessions, and recorded with John Axelrod and Michael Culhane) that was his first "melodic-mnemonic". The music video was shown to Dr. Lou Herman and his dolphin researching staff at the University of Hawaii when T.H. was on tour their with the Harvard Krokodiloes in the summer of 1985; Dr. Herman shared with T.H. the research he was doing on interspecies communication and agreed that music (and other forms of sound patterning) could aid in transcending barriers between foreign minds.

Without getting into the possibilities for using the Melodic-Mnemonic method to connect with "aliens" (although T.H. admits to being a fan of Stephen Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind) T.H. decided to take the pedagogical techniques he had learned and elaborated on at Harvard into the 'Hood, and see if he could use them successfully to communicate his love of science within communities of "illegal aliens" and disenfranchised, alienated youth. He noted that so called "at-risk" youth who couldn't memorize textbook material seemed to have no problem memorizing complicated rap or pop lyrics, and decided that both enthusiasm and the use of rhythm and music as carrier waves for syllabic sounds were the keys to assisting memorization of complex scientific topics.

He picked the topic of Classification for his first Melodic-Mnemonics video because he resented the fact that when he was in high school the only mnemonic devices available for memorizing the sequence "Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species" were even greater abstractions such as "Kooky Purple Carrots Often Farmers Grow Separately". "How on earth" (or any other planet for that matter!), Culhane reasoned, "is it easier to memorize that sequence, and then try and use it as an aid to remember the real sequence?" Culhane decided that any mnemonic that requires the memorization of even more arbitrary information is not a memory aid at all.

What you will see in this video is what every musician has known since Mozart composed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and every child knows who sings the alphabet song: Music IS the best mnemonic device.

T.H. was aware that this idea had been used before in "SchoolHouse Rock" and Sesame Street -- what hadn't been done, was to apply these methods to high school science in general and to inner city schools in particular. And the biggest missing piece was involvement "of the students, by the students, for the students." Only by doing do we learn, and The Melodic-Mnemonic Method was all about getting the students to think critically, write, create and perform their material, bringing the "boring" text books to life.

Thus, in 1989, at Crenshaw Hight School in South Central Los Angeles, Melodic-Mnemonics was born.

The "Bored" of Education

2007-07-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here, from 1990, during my first year teaching science at Crenshaw High School in South Central L.A., is a speech we wanted to deliver to the School Board, but we were never granted an audience to do so. So instead we made this video AS IF we were in front of a cheering audience of school officials, AS IF they welcomed the changes we were bringing to science education. It was really an attempt to try out a new sampler we had bought (on which we created the soundtrack) and this wretched little video camera. The classroom scenes were at Crenshaw; the auditorium was at Beverly Hills High. The only people in the audience, miming to the laugh track, are Sherry Kerr and Emily Keaty. 17 years later we can say with pride that at least some of the ideas we pioneered are being used in inner city schools around the world, so perhaps we succeeded!

Text of 1990 speech:

"Once upon a time, school was boring. But that was before "Bio-Rhythms". Bio-Rhythms -- Science Education through Music Video. Feel the Beat!"
(Applause).

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou Ladies and Gentleman, Thankyou.
Now who says school shouldn't be a three ring circus, huh?
You, ah, see anybody buying tickets to get into biology these days? (Laughter).

But all that is going to change and let me tell you why...
Over the past 40 years, ever since the advent of the electric guitar, the technologies of music and television production have changed the way we learn. There was simply no way that high school could compete.

"Now let's face facts folks, you would have rather been home watching T.V. and listening to the radio, right?

But today, the means of production have fallen into the hands of the masses. And that means that the same technology that the entertainment industry was using to "woo kids away from their studies" is now affordable by even the most poorly paid professionals in our country -- I'm referring to the American Teacher. (applause)

Today, with a little bit of creativity and enthusiasm, the classroom can be turned into a production workshop, a place where students and teachers from every discipline can put their subject knowledge to use, creating not busy work but a product that they can be proud of.

"Now I teach science in the inner city but our approach can be applied to all areas and all curricula, turning our children from idle consumers into active producers, having fun and learning at the same time. That's what Bio-Rhythms is all about.

"All of our children are capable of creative genius. The education problem isn't with them, the challenge is for us to teach them in the ways they learn best.

"Biorhythms -- isn't it time that all our children got turned on to science?"

Blood

2007-07-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

You've heard of Blue Bloods? What about Blood Blues? This early melodic-mnemonic music video was broacast on BHTV October 31st, 1990. It was created by T.H. Culhane and the students of Crenshaw High School and co-produced by Crenshaw video instructor Philip Kuretski, and educational reformer Sherry Kerr, "Blood" is a blues song that takes place inside the heart and bloodstream where Dracula and a host of Zombies compete for the "hearts and minds" of students who are bored by biology class. A Halloween special for those who hate school!

ATP Reggae Sunsplash

2007-07-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Who on earth would write a song extolling the virtues of Adenosine Triphosphate? That wacky melodic-mnemonicist T.H. Culhane, of course. Since his time scatting with the Harvard Krokodiloes, when T.H. created a " Phocal" rap song for his Senior Thesis project called "Hoover: A Talking Seal? Get Outta Here!" T.H. has always been fascinated with the way polysyllabic scientific jargon lends itself to music. Melodic-Mnemonics was his way of making science fun in the inner city schools by putting a beat and a melody behind the textbook vocabulary to make it more... mnemonic!
This video was a summer celebration of the power of ATP, featuring a rock band from a high school in San Diego performing with teachers and kids from south central L.A., Beverly Hills High (where it was filmed) and a dancing gorilla... all powered by the conversion of ATP back to Adenosine DiPhosphate. Created in 1990 on 3/4 inch tape with primitive pixillated CG and recorded on a TASCAM four track cassette recorder, its lack of production value should not get in the way of taking home the message of the importance of the mitochondrial powerhouse that makes all life possible. Enjoy!

Reform School

2007-07-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun music video we as faculty and students put together at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles back in the very early 1990's, right after the Los Angeles "riots" ("uprising"). We got the principal, Phil Saldivar, and the vice principals Merle Price and Roselyn Weeks, to rap about school reform alongside the teachers and students. 30 year Teaching Veteran and Woodshop Instructor Harold Campbell and Biology teacher Todd Ullah were particularly instrumental in the creation of these videos and reform school projects and can be seen rapping alongside their students in this MTV style look at school reform.

Composed by T.H. Culhane and edited by the students of D.E.M.M.O. Productions (Digital Engineering for Multi-Media Occupations), "Reform School" expressed the optimism that "we can reform school, yeah yeah!" at a time when many of us thought the school system was partially to blame for the despair we find in our inner cities.

Melodic-Mnemonics: Science Education through Music and Video

2007-07-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Melodic-Mnemonics" is a method I created in the inner-city schools in South Central Los Angeles in 1989 when working as a science teacher at Crenshaw High School, the school featured in the Ice Cube movie "Boyz in the Hood". I took the method in 1991 to Jefferson High School near Central Ave and 41st street (the neighborhood featured in the film "Devil in a Blue Dress") and built a program there called "D.E.M.M.O. Productions - Digital Engineering for Multimedia Occupations". Later, in 1995, while attending the Musician's Institute of Technology, I tranferred the program to Hollywood High School's program for at risk youth.

The three television specials reproduced here - KCOP's "Sprocket Science" produced by former CIA agent Frank Snepp, CBS's "How'd They Do That", and NBC's "Save Our Streets", illustrate the evolution of the program and the media attention that we got.

1990: Sprocket Science (KCOP Television, Frank Snepp, Producer)

1992: How'd They Do That (CBS Television)

1994: Save Our Streets (NBC Television, Ashley Rogers, Producer)