History
ejohnson | September 8, 2009In the latest installment of Bloggingheads.tv Science Saturdays, ScienceBloggers Greg Laden and David Dobbs discuss David's book Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral.
gsmith | September 8, 2009
Below, Nick Matzke answers the second of our three questions.
History--old-fashioned, document-based, interpretive history--is a field that is ripe for an infusion of new methods and technology. Much as the biosphere and the organisms in it have evolved, individuals, documents, schools of thought, and cultures evolve. So far this is not a new idea, but what is novel is the mass digitization of print libraries. Just as we can search the web now, we are increasingly able to search back through the whole corpus of print media ever published - books, journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.,…
razib | September 6, 2009I was doing some digging around on the genetics of Central Asia and stumbled upon the data that 7% of the mtDNA lineages of the Hui, Muslims who speak Chinese, are West Eurasian. This is opposed 0% for the Han, and 40-50% for the Uyghur. No surprises. But then I thought, what sort of exogamy rates would result in the Hui becoming, operationally, 90% Han during their stay in China? I think 10% is a conservative proportion for how much total genome content they have that is West Eurasian because the historical records suggest a male bias in the migration (so mtDNA would underestimate the…
emjohnson | September 3, 2009
Inexplicably, a UFO appears over one of Earth's remote cities. Hovering a few hundred meters above the terrified citizens, a government mission to board the craft is executed only to find the strange beings living in disease and desperation. A decision is made to save their lives and relocate the aliens to the city's outskirts. In that moment, what seemed to be a compassionate action develops into an outdoor prison reminiscent of the worst crimes of colonialism. Imprisoned, literally in the shanty town that is created for them and figuratively within a society that shuns them, the…
oracknows | September 3, 2009As I mentioned the other day, September 1 marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the "official" start of World War II. I say "official' because the invasion of Poland marked the beginning of a true shooting war in Europe after a long period of escalating tensions and increasingly brazen provocations by the Nazi regime, culminating in March 1939 with its invasion of what parts of Czechoslovakia Britain and France hadn't already given it in the Munich Agreement from the prior year. Because of mutual defense pacts signed earlier, which declared that an attack on any of…
oracknows | September 1, 2009Seventy years ago today, the massed armies of the Third Reich poured across the Polish border, marking the official start of World War II. It would require nearly six years, millions of deaths, and the combined might of the Soviet Union, United States, Great Britain, and numerous other nations to bring the war to an end, with Hitler utterly defeated. I mark this occasion because of my interest in World War II history, the Holocaust, Holocaust denial, and because my heritage is Polish through my father's side. Another thing that needs to be understood about September 1, 1939 is that it marked…
emjohnson | August 28, 2009An op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times discusses the legacy of the murder that became a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement:
Fifty-four years ago today, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy visiting family in Mississippi, was abducted, mutilated and slain after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Several days later, his horribly disfigured body was fished out of the Tallahatchie River. Many such tragedies had previously happened to black Americans and then been ignored.
At Till's funeral his mother insisted that the boy's coffin remain open so that mourners could witness the…
grrlscientist | August 26, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Gates (from the inside).
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
Do you know how, when an amazing experience is coming to an end, and you just want it to last a little bit longer, you fill your eyes and your heart with as many memories as you can get in those parting moments? This is what I did, and I also snapped photographs of anything, just to preserve those last moments.
The shadows were falling, it was time to return to Helsinki.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.…
grrlscientist | August 26, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Grog.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
All hail to the mighty beer, brewed in the original style, using ingredients that approximate (as closely as possible) what was originally used. My beer had a distinct cinnamon flavor.
As you can see below, the table was outdoors under a large tent, and entertainment included waiter watching, people watching and live music. Here, you can see the waiter adding some finishing touches to a few meals before serving them to hungry patrons.…
emjohnson | August 26, 2009It took the threat of nuclear annihilation between the two greatest powers of the 20th century to solve one of the most profound scientific controversies of the 1800s. In 1952 Dr. Harry Ladd, a researcher for the US Geological Survey, convinced the US War Department to drill holes deep into the Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls just prior to their obliteration by hydrogen bombs. The reason for the drilling had little to do with the nuclear tests as part of Operation Crossroads, but was simply to conduct an experiment based on the hypothesis of coral reef formation first proposed by Charles Darwin…
grrlscientist | August 25, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A tunnel to an open street in Tallinn's Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
grrlscientist | August 25, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Light.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
I thought I was done sharing pictures from the wall surrounding the Old Town portion of Tallinn, but I was wrong. After looking through my images today, I realized I have more that I want to share with you.
The wall.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is a look at the wall as it curves around the city. I really like this image because there is so much to see…
grrlscientist | August 24, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Looking towards the next tower along the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular views I've ever had the pleasure to see. I hope my photographs from atop the wall around Old Town can capture this for you well enough that you understand what I saw and experienced while I was in Tallinn.
Looking towards the next tower along the inner portion of wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.…
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This is a room inside the wall that surrounds the Old Town portion of Tallinn, Estonia. As you can see, this room is in remarkably pristine condition, despite being older than god. Sorry that the pic is so bad, but the ambient lighting was impossible to deal with.
Another look at the room inside the wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 […
grrlscientist | August 23, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
The wall around Old Town.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
The Historic Center of Tallinn, known as "Old Town", was one of the best fortified cities in Europe, with 66 towers adorning the city wall. Today, only 20 or so of these cannon towers remain. The history of Talinn as a trading town is still evident in the beauty of its buildings (for example, refer to the lovely dragons that I photographed on this building, which is now an art gallery).
Entrance to the Castle…
pharyngula | August 22, 2009
Last night, I asked for a copy of an article (I have plenty now, thanks!) that was getting a lot of press. The reason I was looking for it is two-fold: the PR looked awful, expressing some annoying cliches about evolution, but the data looked interesting, good stuff that I was glad to see done. Awful and interesting — I'm a sucker for those jarring combinations. My favorite pizza is jalapeno and pineapple, too.
I'm going to split my discussion of this article in two, just to simplify dealing with it. This is the awful part. I'll do the interesting part a little later.
The paper is about the…
pharyngula | August 21, 2009
That Answers in Genesis crackpot, Terry Mortenson, is speaking on "Millions of Years" at the Creation "Museum". Those of us who visited that circus of charlatanry know that this is one of their obsessions — the idea that the earth is more than 6000 years old is one of the wrecking balls atheists use to destroy faith.
He's right, of course. It's a very useful tool. When fundamentalists tie their faith absolutely to a claim that is easily refuted, that contradicts the evidence, and that requires them to constantly escalate their denial and delusions in order to sustain their belief, it makes…
oracknows | August 21, 2009Sorry, but I guess I was incorrect when I pointed to Barney Frank's blistering putdown of a woman with a picture of President Obama decorated with a Hitler mustache who likened health care reform to Nazi policies as being the "only? correct response to such vile and obvious guilt by association gambits. Here's another, from a Jew at a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, who, while talking about the national health care system in Israel, was subjected to "Heil Hitler" salutes from another clueless woman:
The crazy is strong in this woman. Clearly, the Hitler Zombie has feasted on the thin gruel…
razib | August 20, 2009How inevitable was modern human civilization - data:
To me it looks like life, animals with nervous systems, Upper Paleolithic-style Homo, language, and behavioral modernity were all extremely unlikely events (notice how far ago they are - vaguely ~3.5bln, ~600mln, ~3mln, ~200k or ~600k, ~50k years ago) - except perhaps language and behavioral modernity might have been linked with each other, if language was relatively late (Homo sapiens only) and behavioral modernity more gradual (and its apparent suddenness is an artifact). Once we have behavioral modernity, modern civilization seems almost…
oracknows | August 20, 2009I don't normally like Barney Frank. At times, I've thought him to be a blithering idiot. However, this time around, he gets it exactly right in dealing with a woman who was carrying around a picture of President Obama with a Hitler mustache and comparing his health care reform initiative to Nazi policies.
Best quotes:
On what planet do you spend most of your time?
And:
Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.
Indeed. I actually have a bit more respect for Barney Frank than I once did.
In other news, Rush Limbaugh has cheered on this idiot of a…