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Helping Women Achieve in Academic Science

Archive for March, 2014

Getting It All Done

TimeManagementv2In science, there is a lot to be done. When you are an undergraduate, you had problem sets, lab reports, maybe even a capstone to complete. You were maintaining your grades while having some fun and doing some extracurricular activities. As a graduates student, you passed classes, TAed, performed novel research, became the world’s expert in your exact experiments, perhaps organized some science-related on-campus activities, attended conferences, made posters and talks, wrote papers and a thesis, and got a postdoc. As a postdoc, you juggled multiple projects, learned new techniques, wrote proposals for fellowships, mentored graduate students and undergraduates, perhaps juggled multiple mentors, wrote papers, edited papers, edited theses, attended conferences, networked, gave talks, wrote papers, applied to jobs, interviewed, got a job, and wrote papers.

Now, as a faculty member, your job tripled because in addition to doing all the stuff above, you are now having to manage other people (posts), get enough funds to support other people (write grants, see post), teach courses (perhaps some that you never took yourself, see post), work on service for the department and college (post), and take on larger and larger service roles for your scientific community. Each of these has a huge number responsibilities and components to it, and could be a job unto itself. So, how do you do everything?

I have had some posts about starting a new job here and here, but at the beginning, the job isn’t as much. It definitely ramps up over time. I have one post that is good for helping to organize yourself over a yearly time frame, but there is also something to be said for a monthly or weekly schedule that is conducive to getting everything done. One extra issue with academia, is that your schedule changes throughout the year depending on when you are teaching, what you are teaching, who is in your lab, and other what naught. I will give some examples of weekly schedules that worked well for me over the years, in a hopes that they will help you to organize your schedule, too.

Example 1 – 10am class for 1 hour. Several semesters, I taught at around 10am for about an hour three days per week. This time slot was pretty close to ideal, which is probably why they are so popular in the schedule. The students were awake, I had time for last minute prep before class, and I took the entire morning for “teaching.” Here is how I actually arranged my schedule. On the days I was teaching, I got in around 9am and did some last minute psyching up for class, making sure I had demos, and my computer was set up. I would print off and make copies of anything needed for class. I would go 15 minutes early to the classroom to set up projectors and demos and also talk to students as they came into the lecture hall. After teaching, I would go to the gym for an hour to get exercise and decompress after teaching. After the gym, I would shower and go to lunch. I would spend the afternoon working on leftover class stuff, like scanning and posting my notes or homework solution sets, office hours, and meeting with students. On the other days, I would try to take the entire day for writing grants and papers. In the evening the day before I would teach, I would spend a couple hours in the evening re-writing my lectures.

Example 2 – afternoon lab course. Other semesters, I taught afternoon lab courses two times per week for several hours in the afternoon. Lab classes take less preparation because there are not lectures to make up. I usually try to keep all the teaching stuff on the same day, so any preparation, photocopying, or equipment set-up that I might need to do would be done in the morning. Again, the other days are reserved for research. I would also try to go to the gym first thing in the morning on research days before going into work but after getting the kids to school. Sometimes working out was a great way to kick my brain into gear and get it working for the rest of the days on research days.

The key to all of these ideas is to give myself the time I need to do what I need to do. I block out full days for research and I do not allow committee meetings to be made on those days. The days I teach classes, I put other meetings and office hours, so that it is all on the same day. Although I have been failing recently, I also try to get to the gym 3 days per week. Also, I eat lunch with friends almost every single day, and I try to sleep 7-8 hours per night.

Also, none of this includes any family stuff, which happens outside of 9-5. But, here is the key, by giving myself time for stuff like rest and the gym, I have some slack that I can take up with family stuff happens. The week when the baby has a fever and he has to stay home, I cut out gym and some other stuff so that I can still get the important stuff done take the time I need to be with the baby at home. (My spouse and I split days off with sick baby, and negotiate which days/times we can be home. We often don’t schedule important, non-rearrageable meetings at the same time not he same days, so we can do this. We have a joint-shared set of calendars.) If my time is already stretched to the breaking point, a sick kid or other family emergency will wipe me out. If I am giving up going to the gym for a week, so I can get more research done, it isn’t as bad.

So, what do you think? Do you have a way to arrange your time that enables you to get it all done? Post or comment. You can receive an email every time I post by pushing the +Follow button.

Bullying Backfire

bullyFor the past several years, the topic of bullying has been hot in the media. Most people, especially nerds, realize that bullies have always been there. Although academia is supposedly some liberal bastion of cushy touchy-feely softies who “can’t do,” so they teach, it is actually full of bullies. Those nerds who were bullied most as young people are the most likely to bully others in the future. It is a cycle of abuse that is disturbing. It doesn’t help that many of the people in academia are not good communicators and can often be stubborn and unyielding in their emotional ideas. All of these circumstances lead to a high amount of workplace bullying. In addition to sexual harassment that is still pervasive, the more subtle workplace bullying by chairmen, peers, or even students can make women and minorities feel bad about their job and abilities.

Currently, UState is requiring a workshop on Workplace Bullying. Based on what I discussed above, this would seem like a great idea, right? Ironically, these workshops appear to have a backfire effect. What I mean by this is that known bullies are coming out of the workshop convinced that they are being bullied themselves. Mostly, they are claiming to be bullied by the very people they are bullying! Why is this happening? Because the bullies and the bullied are in fact having a disagreement. Unfortunately, the inept abilities of most scientists to communicate mean that the more aggressive person comes across as a bully. The less aggressive person seeks relief, help, or just a chance to gripe, and they are branded as talking behind someone’s back, forging alliances against the other person, or just a troublemaker. In the new definitions of bullying, these defense mechanisms are also a form of bullying.

In talking to my female peer-mentors, it seems like most women coming out of the workshop think to themselves, “Oh no, I have been inadvertently bullying someone. I need to try to adjust my way of acting.” On the other hand, many men have come out saying, “OMG, I am being bullied by everyone.” I think it would be interesting to perform a follow up survey to see if it the reaction to the workshop aligns with gender. There are always exceptions, I am sure, but my hypothesis would be that women are more likely to be introspective about the workshop. This is what I mean by a “Bullying Backfire.” The bigger a bully someone is the less likely they are going to see themselves as the bully, and the more likely they are to see how everyone else is bullying them. In my opinion, this is part of the mentality of a bully – to blame others for your problems.

So, how do we respond to bullying? Once we identify it occurring, we can only change our own actions toward others. Is it possible to change the actions of others who are bullying us? It is worse when you are a graduate student being bullied by your advisor, or an assistant professor being bullied by a senior faculty member? Do you act like the “bigger man,” and just pretend it doesn’t affect you? That can backfire, too. Especially if your bully is trying to tear you down and make you feel bad on purpose.

Popular culture tells me to stand up to bullies, and I have been accused of being brave. I am not sure if I am brave or just really stupid, but surviving can be a sort of standing up for yourself. I certainly did stand up to bullies in high school, and I fought back. I was protected by my honor-student status against being sent to detention or being suspended. I was able to fight back immediately at the time, and move past my bullies.

Now, revenge may need to be placed on the back burner and served cold. Much like my honor-student status, one can always overcome and get back at your science bullies through your science-cred. See, in science, she who has the best publication track-record laughs last. At the end of the day, if you have better, more publications, you will get more respect than your bully. I have done this with several of my science bullies. It takes having a long-view, because it is not a quick solution. So, sometimes I just keep my head down and move my science forward and try to ignore my bullies. Obviously, this only works if your bully isn’t seeking you out to suck up your time.

All this being said, it is absolutely essential that you have a support network to help you handle these situations. You need a good partner to listen and offer sympathy. You need a peer network, or group, to offer advice, consolation, and cheer-leading about how great you are. Most people will not admit this, but you probably also need a therapist. In all the times when I had to deal with a bully, I sought out a therapist to talk to on a weekly, or every-other weekly basis. These people are not in science, necessarily, but they can give you can outlet to gripe, a confidential confidant, and someone to help with people-solutions.  I am not ashamed to say I have been in therapy numerous years over my life, and I am a more well-adjusted, and better person for having done it. Younger generations of people do not see it as a stigma, but as a means to help to deal with difficult people. Older generations often see it as a signal that you are “crazy,” but the only crazy thing is to not use every option in your reach to deal with these problems.

So, what do yo think? Are you being bullied? Is it persistent? Or sporadic? Comment or post. You can follow the blog by pushing the +Follow button.

Public Science: Importance of COSMOS

1114_universe-crop-500x416So, are you watching COSMOS? We are. In fact, we are watching it twice each week – once live and once with our kids because they didn’t get to see it (their bedtime is too early). It was fortuitous because our daughter was just asking about where babies come from (she is in elementary school). Since we don’t like to lie to her we were giving her the scienciest explanation we could must with very little information on the dynamics of S-E-X. So, we were talking about DNA with a lot of hand-waving. We were super excited to watch COSMOS after both kids went to bed, and see the DNA illustrated. We were recording it, and are watching it tonight to show the kids. Both kids are super excited about it! I couldn’t be prouder. (We also watched Gravity this weekend, and my daughter thought it was scary but exciting and cool.)

I was also ecstatic because some of the science I work on was mentioned in COSMOS in episode 2! It was awesome to see it illustrated in beautiful graphic arts and brought to life. When it came on while my kids were watching, I ran to the TV, pointed at the stuff I study, and said, “That is the science I work on!”

I am super excited about COSMOS because I think science outreach to the public is so important. It is important to educate our representatives in government to ultimately improve science funding. It is important to educate people who deny evolution and global climate change. It is really important to educate future scientists to get them excited about discovery so we have enough hard working people to make new breakthroughs in science.

Also, I find that people are really jazzed and excited about science in general. I do a lot of random science outreach. Mostly, I do a lot of talking about it on airplanes, in airports, in taxis… I’ve been doing a lot of traveling, lately, have I mentioned it? When people sit next to me and ask what I do, they are often excited to learn I am a scientist. I have taken the opportunity to explain some of my science, why it is important to them, and what we could learn. They are often really excited and impressed.

Also, it is a great way for me to learn better ways of communicating my science not just for the public, but also to my classes. Teaching big service courses to hundreds of students is an essential way to make a science-literate public. For some, especially those taking ScienceForPoetsCourses, this may be one of the last times they come into contact with science in a class in college. The experience should be a positive one, and it should make them literate of what science can do for them.

Another place I have been doing a lot of outreach is to my Representative in the U.S. Congress. I have been going for the last several years to a Capital Hill visit day with one of the ScienceSocieties I am a member of. The first year I visited my Rep, I was happy to see that his office had pennants from the universities and colleges in his district. He was taking over our region due to an “ungerrymandering,” so I made sure to bring him a pennant from UState when I went to visit the second year. Mostly, I spent a lot of time talking to his staffer responsible for science, and informing her about how science works. I told her about how federal funding works, which she didn’t realize. I told her how the university only gives a research professor money to start a lab, but after that, we have to sustain it ourselves with outside funding. I told her how we don’t get paid to do research in the summer unless we bring in enough money. I told her that after we figure out how much we need to budget, we multiply it by 60% to determine how much overhead we give to the university. I told her how funding agencies typically still don’t give you what you ask for in your budget, and you get cut and have to make tough choices. Most importantly, I have kept in touch. When I get a grant funded, I email the staffer and let her know. I offer to show the representative around, if he should want a tour of some labs on campus. I offer to help with any science policy issues that might come up. The staffer knows my name and work enough to email me when she sees an announcement that my research got funding.

The next step, in addition to this helpful blog, is to try my hand at OpEds. I tried one, but it didn’t go anywhere. I was told by an expert that it wasn’t personal enough. I actually hate personal OpEds. Who knew I was supposed to like them?

I am not advocating that everyone, especially those pre-tenure write OpEds of even blogs (unless you want to write an entry here…), but emailing or visiting congress and talking science to random strangers is relatively easy and important. I do advocate that we all try to advocate a little more in our daily lives. COSMOS should help. It is easy to strike up a conversation about, “Did you watch COSMOS this week?” Then, you can talk about the stuff that was on there, if and how it pertains to your research, and the significance of the work for human-kind. What do you think? Post or comment. Push the +Follow button to get an email every time I post.

Conference Thoughts

2475011402_bf70c92575_oAs I am sitting in a session at the world’s largest conference in MyFieldOfScience, I am thinking about conferences. I am thinking about how important they are for your career in a lot of ways. For those of you who recently joined the blog (thanks for following!), you may have missed some previous posts about networking. I had one about general networking and another on networking on campus, which are both super important for getting tenure, getting jobs and just good for your career. Conferences are key for networking, being seen, and building your mentoring and scientific connections vertically and horizontally. I have come to the realization that networking is basically “professional flirting.” You can chat about science, but most convos are about family, travel, weather, grants, clothes, students, jobs, or whatever. Academic life has other aspects that we can talk about too. I had a great conversation about teaching and how to teach 400+ effectively with a colleague from another university.

Another thing conferences are great for is energizing your science. When I was young, and I think this is the case for my students, I loved going to conferences because it gave me confidence that people were actually *interested* in my science. I was able to talk about my work, have some people listen, and get validation that what I was doing was of worth. Further, seeing the work of other people that was similar to my own made me feel like I had a community of scientists who were interested in the science. Conferences re-energized me and made me look forward to working on more science and getting my work published.

Now, my science gets energized, but in a different way. Now, I look around and say, “Oh crap, we are more behind than I thought! Everyone is doing the cool experiments I thought of but haven’t gotten off the ground yet!” This is both bad and good. First the bad. It is scary to compete with your science against other groups that are better funded, have more students, and might be ahead on the same ideas you have. Also, I am so so crappy at hiding my science. I cannot keep secrets about the cool stuff we are doing. In some fields, telling people what you are doing helps to mark your territory. In others, it can be giving them the keys to all your best ideas. I have to be careful, but I can’t help but be communicative, open, and excited about our newest stuff. It might hurt me sometimes, but in the long run, I would rather collaborate than compete.

Now the good. Much like when I was young, seeing all the great stuff my colleagues are doing that is similar to my own work can be energizing and maybe even light a fire under your ass to get going. Further, it helps you to focus. If you had an idea to do X experiment and you see it done (probably slightly differently) at a conference, you can refocus your idea to probe the still open questions. Another good thing about people working on similar stuff – it shows your work is hot, important, and in fashion. As in other realms (like fashion) styles change, but if you are hitting hot you have a better chance of getting high profile publications and getting noticed.

So, those were my thoughts about conferences. What do you think? Post or comment here!

Ways to Get Women Speakers: A Solution

WomenPrisonRiot-1950sThere has been a flurry of conversations recently about women speakers at conferences. This was all spurred by a recent article in about the fact that a “theoretical chemistry” conference had ZERO women speakers. Here is the article. The subsequent, real, and valid outrage by women in the field resulted in a boycott of the conference by women of the field. It seems odd that we have to keep having the same conversations about how it is important to have diversity, yadda yadda. And women have to keep fighting to get invited to talk at conferences in their field.

When this situation occurs, the OrganizingGuys always claim that they invited A woman, but she turned them down. What are they to do?

As usual, they should ASK A WOMAN for the solution to this problem. No one asked me, but I am going to give my opinion anyway, because I have an advice blog! Here is a solution to the OrganizingGuys:

Let’s say, you want a program with a person you does fields/subfields/specialities we will call A, B, C, and D. Because there are so few women – especially at a certain level – there may only be 1-2 women in each of those fields/subfields/specialities. What is the first inclination for most organizers? Typically, you might invite 3 men who specialize in A, B, and C. Then you ask the one woman who does D. And, guess what, that woman cannot come because she is doing 100 other things. Now, there are “no more women who do D,” so you “have to ask a man.” (This statement may be debatable, but let’s assume that is true for some fields like “theoretical chemistry.”)

Here is how you can get more women: ASK THE WOMEN FIRST. Then backfill with men. If you ask your favorite woman in fields A, B, C, and D first, and some say no, you are likely to still get a woman. Whichever women say no, replace with a guy. The worst case scenario? A session of ALL WOMEN? Which doesn’t sound bad at all, actually. If all 4 women say “no” you could have a back-up list of women, but I feel the likelihood is pretty low that they would ALL say no unless you are competing your event against another event in your field (bad idea for conference/event planning in general).

This solution is very easy and results in a high representation of women, assuming that is actually what you want.

In an interesting side note to this story, I was recently asked to participate in a proposed session for a major national conference in a field related to my own. The organizers, two women, specifically put together an entire program with all women. Their goal was not only great science, but also a nod to the women in the field. Their session was rejected and told it was “not diverse” enough. I do not see one field in science where women are the at majority or even at parity with men at the faculty level. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thus, I feel like any session that is trying to bring the inequality of women in the field to light by having a session with mostly women should be applauded – not rejected – for their efforts. Alas, although we are ready to accept that “there were no available or acceptable women” resulting in a session with 100% men, we cannot accept a session with 100% women?

I also want to point out that the plight of minorities is EVEN WORSE. Many scientific societies cannot even publish statistics on minority graduation rates at the PHD level, because there are too few, and the results can be directly linked to the 1-2 minorities graduating each year. It’s not exactly anonymous aggregate data when there are 0-3 of you.

What do you think? Post or comment! You can follow this blog by pushing the +Follow button and putting in your email address.

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Categories » writing

Self Reflection for Writing
[embeddoc url="" download="all" viewer="google" ] (More)
Error Log
Error Log is a good way that help me to correct my writing. Although, working on these errors are harsh for me, but I can learn form these error mistakes. More)
Writing skill #APA citation
Reference is important for essay. Dr. Murphy had taught me how to cite a paragraph in APA style. (More)
In the beginning of this writing course, I had set up my SMART goals to help me improve my writing skills. Besides, I could be able to write an essay with citation, quote, and etc. This was first time that I had been experienced different education a (More)
Summary and Citation
In the beginning of this writing course, I had learn how to summarize the article and how to cite a scholar journal as APA citation. Then, I have found an academic journal from my field called"Advance Material". More)
Culture Shock
This was my first writing assignment. Based on this assignment, I had learned how to use APA citaion to cite an reference , to organize my outline and to write an essay. More)
Proofreading skill
Dr. Murphy had taught me about what is plagiarism. This is important for me because I will read a lot of papers and cite some paragraphs as references when I start to write an essay. More)

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XAU/USD: gold is getting cheaper

Current trend

The prices of gold dropped considerably during yesterday’s trading marking a new local minimum since November 14 and continuing to develop “bearish” dynamics formed on Wednesday. The instrument continues to be under pressure from optimistic tendencies in stock markets and moderate growth of USD on the optimistic fundamental background.

During today’s morning session gold is showing mixed dynamics of trading and investors are waiting for new drivers. On Friday they will focus on macroeconomic data on US PMI in November and speeches of the Fed’s representatives: James Bullard at 16:05 (GMT+2), Robert Kaplan at 16:30, and Patrick Harker at 17:15.

Support and resistance

In the D1 chart Bollinger Bands are showing flat dynamics. The price range is slightly widening from below. MACD indicator is reducing preserving a quite stable sell signal (the histogram is below the signal line). Stochastic preserves a stable downward direction.

Resistance levels: 1276.26, 1279.72, 1283.77, 1288.07.

Support levels: 1272.14, 1267.30, 1263.37, 1260.25.

Trading tips

Long positions may be opened after the breakout of the level of 1276.26 with target at 1283.77 and stop-loss at 1270.00. The period of implementation is 2-3 days.

A breakdown of the level of 1272.14 may be a signal for further sales with targets 1263.37 or 1260.25 and stop-loss at 1276.26. The period of implementation is 2-3 days.


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OfficeApp 2013 – Outlook Mail App unable to validate xml on build

I have been building a small App for Office during the weekend. My App is a MailApp for outlook and it was super easy to build, as it is all html and javascript and a few calls to a rest service. But man getting the App production ready and publish it to the Office Store is a whole different story, which I will explain in more detail in another post, here I just want to share the solution to the first problem you might face when you try to publish an app.

For the App Manifest to be valid to go into the Office store basically all settings on the General tab on the settings page must be filled out.

Easy you might say. Well that depends on the order you fill out the information. If you like me fill in the Icon Url last you will end up with a solution that will have build errors like this:
The element 'OfficeApp' in namespace '' has invalid child element 'IconUrl' in namespace ''. List of possible elements expected: 'AppDomains, VersionOverrides, Capabilities' in namespace ''. c:\users\simon pedersen\documents\visual studio 2013\Projects\OfficeApp1\OfficeApp1\OfficeApp1Manifest\OfficeApp1.xml

I will give you the solution first and then talk about how I figured this out. The solution is simple, you have to ensure that the xml nodes within the comes in the right order. With the right order being, IconUrl before SupportUrl. When using the General tab GUI elements are just inserted in random order, so you have to manually edit the xml file and correct the order, then your solution will build again. Here’s an example of the correct order

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OfficeApp xmlns="" xmlns:xsi="" xsi:type="MailApp">
  <ProviderName>Simon Pedersen</ProviderName>
  <DisplayName DefaultValue="OfficeApp1" />
  <Description DefaultValue="OfficeApp1"/>
  <IconUrl DefaultValue="~remoteAppUrl/Images/icon.png" />
  <SupportUrl DefaultValue="~remoteAppUrl/App/Home/Home.html" />
    <Capability Name="Mailbox" />
    <SourceLocation DefaultValue="~remoteAppUrl/App/Home/Home.html" />
    <Rule xsi:type="RuleCollection" Mode="Or">
      <Rule xsi:type="ItemIs" ItemType="Message"/>

My initial thought when I first encountered this error was, well they probably shipped the wrong xsd schema with Visual Studio 2013. So I first opened the XML manifest file, from the top ribbon I selected XML > Schemas, which brings up this window if you are not familiar with it
in the dialog I looked for the namespace and found that the xsd schema was defined in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Xml\Schemas\1033\offappmanifest.xsd. So I checked out the xsd schema to see if anything was missing, and to my surprise found that everything looked to be correct (no missing IconUrl). If I had looked more closely at the schema definition, I would have seen that the ComplexType named OfficeApp had its child elements wrapped in a sequence element which means that they have to be in the order specified in the xsd, but I didn’t pay attention to this detail at the time.

So in my quest to figure out what was wrong, I jumped in to Visual Studio Options and turned up “MSBuild project build output verbosity” to Diagnostics so I could get some more information from the build process. This helped me identify which build target that was being used.

It was the task ValidateOfficeAppManifest in the PerformManifestValidation target located in C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\SharePointTools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.targets that failed on me. Opening up Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.targets I could see that the task ValidateOfficeAppManifest pointed to an assembly Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Tasks.dll.

Luckily this assembly was not obfuscated (Most MS code is not), so I peeked inside it with dotPeek, and was able to get an understanding of what failed. I reproduced the failing code in a little test project that I have uploaded to github.

When I was able to run this test, then it became clear to me that it was the order of the elements that was messing my build up. Very annoying to spend time on a simple tooling error like this.

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Visiting Memphis 50 years after King’s assassination

Ja’Marieon Anderson looks out a window in the National Civil Rights Museum near the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. was struck down by a bullett on January 16, 2017 in Memphis, Tennessee. Hundreds marched from the north end of downtown Memphis in honor of the civil rights leader to the site where King was assassinated in 1968, which now houses the National Civil Rights Museum. (Photo by Mike Brown/Getty Images)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader’s shocking murder on April 4, 1968, marked one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.

The city’s role in the civil rights movement and King’s death has long made it a destination for anyone interested in King’s legacy. Museums, churches and even iconic Beale Street tell the story of King’s final days here.

Thousands of people are expected to make the pilgrimage to Memphis for the 50th anniversary. Several events honoring King’s work and commemorating the sanitation workers strike that brought him to Memphis have already taken place. More are scheduled in early April, including marches, speeches and conferences.

The Associated Press takes a look at places to visit with connections to King in Memphis and other U.S. cities, along with some events.

National Civil Rights Museum

The National Civil Rights Museum in the South Main area of downtown Memphis is the center for all things related to King in the city. The museum, built at the site of the Lorraine Motel, opened in 1991, then underwent a $28 million renovation and reopened in 2014 with many new interactive exhibits.

The former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum. (AP Photo)

From the street, visitors approaching the museum see a striking sight: a wreath on the balcony where King was shot. Inside, exhibits tell the story of the civil rights movement, including detailed scenes of the desegregation of a lunch counter and sanitation workers marching in Memphis. The workers were seeking higher pay and better working conditions after two of them were killed by a malfunctioning garbage truck.

Visitors end their museum tour back at the assassination site, looking into the preserved interior of room 306, where King was staying, and looking out, from inside the building, onto the balcony where he was shot.

The museum plans several anniversary events, including on April 4, a day of remembrance and the opening of an exhibit of more than 150 photographs looking back at the 50 years since King’s death.

A wreath marks the location where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death on the second floor of the Lorraine Hotel, now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, April 3, 2008 in Memphis, Tennessee. Tomorrow will mark the 40th anniversary of King’s death. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Clayborn Temple

With its tall tower and multi-colored stained glass windows, this 19th century church was the headquarters for the sanitation workers strike. Men and women regularly gathered at the temple for meetings, rallies and before marching to City Hall.

Led by King, supporters of the sanitation workers assembled at the temple before embarking on his first march in Memphis, on March 28, 1968. That march turned violent: Police and protesters clashed, and several storefront windows on Beale Street were smashed. Marchers ran to the temple, seeking sanctuary. Police beat protesters outside the building, and threw tear gas inside.

The Clayborn Temple was the home base for the sanitation workers strike. (AP Photo)

The temple eventually fell into disrepair and closed, sitting empty for 25 years. In 2016, a group called Clayborn Reborn announced it was renovating the church. Work is underway and a memorial honoring the sanitation workers is under construction. The stately building sits across from the modern FedExForum, home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.

Mason Temple

The night before he was killed, King made a stirring speech at this church, located near the Lorraine Motel. In his “I’ve Been To the Mountaintop” speech, King gave an impassioned account of his life experiences and seemed to foretell his death when he said: “I’ve seen the Promised Land … I may not get there with you.”

Martin Luther King III speaks at the Mason Temple where his father gave his final speech. (AP Photo)

Built in the 1940s, the gray church looks plain and boxy from the outside. But inside reveals a cavernous nave, with pews surrounding an elevated pulpit. Colorful flags are placed throughout the church. It’s easy to imagine people standing in the balcony during King’s speech, which was delivered on a stormy night, with thunder booming and winds shaking the building.

The Mason Temple is scheduled to host a “Mountaintop Speech Commemoration” event on April 3 with King’s children, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, and Andrew Young, a confidant of King’s and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The temple is also the finishing point for an April 4 march that could attract as many as 100,000 people. The rapper Common and other performers will kick off the march with a rally at the union hall where the sanitation workers organized in 1968.

In Washington, D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is inscribed with words from King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, which he delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.

In Montgomery, Alabama, the Dexter Parsonage Museum is located in the house where he lived while serving as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and while leading the bus boycott that started with Rosa Parks’ arrest.

In Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park includes a visitor center with a civil rights museum, King’s boyhood home and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King served as co-pastor with his father. At the nearby King Center, an outdoor memorial offers reflecting pools, eternal flame and the crypts where King and his wife Coretta were interred.

The tomb of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, in Atlanta. (AP Photo)

Georgia Tourism has launched a “Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Trail” with these and other sites, including the First African Baptist Church in Dublin, where King gave his first speech as a teenager.

A Somber Event

While Memphis hotels are mostly filled up for the anniversary of King’s death, it’s a much more somber event than what the city typically promotes, said Kevin Kane, president and CEO of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“The eyes of the world will be on Memphis,” Kane said.


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A Travellerspoint blog

Wren's wanderings come to an end

Wren is now back on her berth at Blackwater Meadow in Ellesmere and its back to life on land for the crew. Over the last 9 weeks the boat and crew have travelled over 650 miles along 11 canals and 5 rivers and also ascended and descended through at least 520 locks.The journey has been fascinating in many different ways and the help of friends has been invaluable and a great deal of fun. Sharing an experience definitely makes it more memorable (as does writing about it, I hope).

The final two days of the journey from Church Minshull to Wrenbury and then onto Ellesmere were very straightforward. The canal was quite busy as the school holidays had began so there was a bit of waiting at some of the locks. But nothing like waiting for a cross channel ferry!

On Sunday Alex canoed out to Wrenbury to accompany Wren on the last leg so on Monday morning the mini convoy proceeded up the Llangollen Canal to the first lock at Marbury where, unfortunately Alex and the canoe capsized just as Peter started filling it up. Luckily both Alex and the canoe were unscathed so after the lock there was a short break so Alex could change his clothes and warm up with a coffee. Needless to say that at all the subsequent locks he portaged the canoe along the towpath while his wet togs dripped dry on Wren.

After the final locks at Grindley Brook were completed and the 6 lifting bridges had been raised and lowered it was time to pause at Whixall (where else?) for a celebratory cream tea. At Colemere there was just time to greet Bill and Julie as we chugged along before continuing past Blakemere and through the tunnel. Then just before Wren approached the entrance to the marina there was a sighting of a vaguely familiar boat called Penny - we had met at Stoke Bruerne on the second day of the trip down the Grand Union and the chap had accompanied Peter on the Jews Harp when he played Ace of Spades on his ukelele. Isn't it a small world, especially on the canals.

Posted by peterandclaire 01:59 Comments (1)

Homeward bound

It's now Saturday 23 July - exactly two months since Wren left Ellesmere on her epic birthday voyage and she's back on familiar water near Middlewich heading towards Barbridge and the junction with the Shropshire Union.

The trip back down the Caldon Canal was completed on Thursday morning with just one notable wildlife sighting to report - 4 young mink playing on the towpath - Peter got quite a good photograph of one of them swimming across the canal. I hope Wren can explore this little canal a bit more sometime in the future.

Back on the Trent and Mersey there were more familiar places for Peter to spot. We made a short lunchtime visit to Middleport Pottery which still produces pots and also has a good cafe, serving the famous Staffordshire Oatcakes, and runs factory tours - worth another visit sometime. It was just a short journey from there, past Westport Lake, where Peter used to sail, before the entrance to the Harecastle Tunnel was reached and where there was a delay of more than hour while boats from the other end travelled south. Wren's journey northwards was completed by about 4pm and once back in the warm sunshine what was most noticeable was the strange colour of the water in this part of the canal - a deep shade of orange which is apparently caused by run off from the nearby mine workings.

After the tunnel there was just one more lock to negotiate before a mooring was found for the night and where our friends Alex, Roger, Mirjana and Biggles joined us for some refreshment and later for the pre-arranged music session in the Blue Bell which is located very close to the canal.

On Friday morning Alex took on his First Mate duties once more and provided much valued assistance down the next 25 locks before unfolding his trusty Brompton bike somewhere near Crewe to travel back to Ellesmere. He later sent a text to say that he'd arrived home in about 3 hours - it will take Wren another 3 days to do the same!

The last time Wren was on this stretch of the canal she ran out of diesel due to the incompetence of the crew. Luckily this won't happen today as we filled up yesterday after leaving the Harecastle tunnel. We've just moored in a very picturesque and popular spot overlooking the village of Church Minshull - it was somewhere very near here that the famous canal activist, historian and writer L. T. C. (Tom) Rolt moored his narrow boat Cressy in the 1940s. The book Narrow Boat tells the story very well.

Posted by peterandclaire 12:15 Comments (1)

Back to his roots

Cruising the Caldon

Wren is now exploring the Caldon Canal - a little detour before rejoining the Trent and Mersey through Stoke and up to Middlewich - we're getting closer to Shropshire every day. This part of the journey is a trip of reminiscence for Peter as he was born and brought up in the Potteries so he's been busy taking photographs of places he remembers - his old college which was actually being demolished as we cruised by! Tomorrow we'll carry on up the Caldon either by boat or bike before turning round and heading back to Etruria. Wren has to be through the Harecastle Tunnel (2926 yards long) by Thursday evening so that Peter can keep his musical date with Roger and Mirjana at the Blue Bell in Kidsgrove.

Over the last few days we've started seeing familiar names and places - boats from Ruyton X1 Towns, Market Drayton and Audlem, some Salopian beer at the Old Peculiar in Rugeley and the original Joules Brewery building in Stone (a very handsome canal side structure). From Fradley Junction to Stoke the Trent and Mersey Canal runs alongside the River Trent for much of the way and Peter has taken advantage of this by having a couple of swims near Shugborough where we spent a pleasantly hot Sunday afternoon and evening.

On Monday we took a lunch time break from the blazing sun in Stone before finally reaching our mooring at about 7pm in Barlaston, a village Peter knows quite well from his days of playing hockey for Michelin. After a good meal at the Plume of Feathers we took a walk uphill into the village to search out the village cricket club where the hockey matches were played, traditionally on a succession of freezing cold Boxing Days. There's still a cricket club but no longer any sign of hockey. We were then directed by a friendly local to take a circular route back to the canal via Barlaston Hall, the home of Josiah Wedgwood, another wonderful architectural gem which was made even better by being illuminated by the full moon (see the photo).

The trip from Barlaston into Stoke was fascinating moving from the rural to the urban and back to rural with distant views of the Staffordshire Moorlands - it all looked delightful in the morning sunshine! I'm really glad we decided to take this little trip up the Caldon even though we've encountered a couple of extremely low bridges (everything off the roof again) and one malfunctioning electric lifting bridge which had expanded in the heat - Peter and a passing cyclist jumped up and down on it a few times and that seemed to release the mechanism. Let's hope it works properly on the return journey.

As soon as a suitable mooring was agreed Peter began preparing the necessary equipment for a BBQ - something that's only happened once so far on this voyage. However, there was no cold beer on board so I had to go off in search of a shop which took a little time so the cook was a little thirsty by the time I returned. After that we spent a very peaceful evening reading and chatting to passing walkers and cyclists.

This morning Wren has continued as planned to Cheddleton where the winding hole was navigated and a mooring secured for the return journey. This really is a delightful canal - it meanders through farmland which rises slowly on each side. It's now lunchtime and the crew are now sitting in the Black Lion at Consall Forge - an archetypal riverside pub with beer, food and wifi!

Just one more thing, there's another Kingfisher sighting to mention - we saw one sitting on top of a No Fishing sign - he obviously couldn't read! Unfortunately the camera wasn't handy.

Posted by peterandclaire 04:46 Comments (0)

Star City Kingfisher

There haven't been many Kingfisher sightings on this trip but the most unlikely and definitely the best was yesterday as Wren travelled north through Birmingham. In an area of derelict factories, wire fences and walls of graffiti there was a rapid flash of iridescent blue between a couple of straggly bushes. What a wonderful surprise!
The journey from rural Warwickshire through a deep wooded cutting near Solihull and into the south of the city at Bordesley Green was pretty quiet apart from the occasional roar of traffic (M42) and trains. The canal guidebook warned that moorings were few and far between although it did mention that there were some available at Star City in Nechells - anyone who has driven, or, more likely queued on the M6 will have seen Star City - described as a massive "pleasure dome of Kubla Khan proportions" in the guidebook. The said moorings were safe and secure and shared with some very friendly boaters. They were also surprisingly pleasant considering how close they were to the famous Spaghetti Junction. The crew did a quick tour around Star City and can report that it is filled with restaurants, fast food outlets and a 29 screen cinema and everyone, apart from the boaters, travels there by car. A bit surreal to say the least particularly for someone who has been travelling at 4mph for the last six weeks!
After a peaceful night Wren chugged just a couple of hundred yards to Salford Junction where the Saltley Cut meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and where the massive concrete pillars that support the motorway mark out the route. The canal then moved relatively quickly from the industrial to residential before becoming pleasantly rural once again with ripening corn and real cows. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was surprisingly good in every way and it carried Wren and her crew to the junction at Fazeley, a suburb of Tamworth, to meet the Coventry Canal which would,in turn, take Wren to meet the Trent and Mersey at Fradley Junction.
Wren passed through Fazeley and Fradley on her southbound journey about six weeks ago with Steve, Debbie, Doug and Jenny on board so tomorrow she'll be retracing that journey although it will all be new territory for the present crew.

Posted by peterandclaire 12:50 Comments (0)

Low and narrow

Entering the Stratford Canal from the Avon is a bit of a surprise - most of the bridges are extremely low (everything has to be taken off the boat roof, chimneys, bikes etc) and the helmsman, or woman in this instance, has to crouch down even if they're only 5' 2"! And, as well as that, it's a narrow canal rather like the Llangollen and Wren hasn't been on one of those for about 6 weeks. A bit of adjustment was required.
Peter's plumbing work was unfinished but it was agreed to move off the river in order to try and find the necessary spare parts at a nearby boat yard. However, just as the decision to move was made the rain started to fall, at first in spits and spots but then gradually turning into a steady downpour. As the outskirts of Stratford were left behind the canal started climbing north through the Wilmcote locks and over two small cast iron aqueducts (not quite Pontcyllsylte).
Once the night's mooring was secured at Wootton Wawen (a funny name) and it had finally stopped raining Handyman Peter climbed into his overalls and got down and dirty in the engine bay trying to fix the little plumbing problem. After a short break for tea it was back to work (for Peter) until about 10pm. By then Wren's waterworks were functioning again if not absolutely perfect - she is 30 years old after all and she's had a busy couple of months.
On Wednesday morning the crew awoke to glorious sunshine but it didn't last although it wasn't as bad as Tuesday with just one heavy shower at lunchtime. There are a number of unusual lock cottages with barrel shaped roofs on this canal and most of them are located in very attractive surroundings - it really is a lovely canal and one it's been really nice to revisit.
At Kingswood Junction there is a choice of routes; straight on up the Lapworth flight of locks or turn right to meet the Grand Union. Both head towards Birmingham and each link up with other canals. The crew held a strategic planning meeting and it was agreed to leave the narrow but beautiful Stratford to explore the wide and unfamiliar Grand Union but not before finding a suitable mooring for the night with a good pub nearby as recommended by a man Peter got chatting to on the final lock.

Posted by peterandclaire 10:32 Comments (0)

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