Short review of Howell Raines' book on the 1st Alabama Cavalry, a Union outfit raised in the Appalachian foothills and pretty much written out of Alabama's history after the war.
Scott Siskind asks why depressed people listen to sad music.
Fascinating tomb of a Turkic Khan, c. 500 AD.
The big Christmas parties staged by the van drivers of London's Spitalfields Market for their families, 1950s-1960s.
Major purge of senior generals in the Chinese military, focusing on the rocket forces. Getting downright Stalinist.
About half the nitrogen in our bodies was artifically fixed from the atmosphere using the Bosch-Haber Process.
The Metropolitan Museum acquires one of the Tiffany studio's most impressive windows, Garden Landscape (1912), designed by Agnes Northrop and originally installed in coal heiress Sarah B. Cochran's Pennsylvania Tudor-Revival estate, Linden Hall. Huge image here.
NASA releases new images of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io taken by the Juno spacecraft in December.
According to this study, roughly 40% of Americans 26-40 have at least one tattoo, but twice as many women have them as men.
Amazing mosaic uncovered in Rome.
British archaeologists say the Cerne Abbas giant is not prehistoric as long thought, but dates to Anglo-Saxon times.
Japanese vs. American ghost stories.
Interesting essay on mathematician Kurt Gödel's belief in the afterlife.
Wreck of 400-year-old cargo ship found in German river near Lübeck.
Kevin Drum goes over the big numbers in the current budget debate.
Also from Drum, it seems that with the copyright finally expiring, Mickey Mouse may be appearing in several horror films. Can't wait for evil Batman.
And the other stuff that entered the public domain this year.
Something I did not know: in the classical world, lead sling bullets were often inscribed with names or messages.
Cool short video of a deed-sea squid carrying its eggs with it as it swims.
In the NY Times, Charles Seife asks the question I have been pondering about former Harvard president Claudine Gay. Her plagiarism seems like pretty minor stuff, but it raises the question of whether anyone read her work very closely before it was published. And, thus, whether any of it is any good. I am not impressed by anything I've read; seems to me like many newspaper reporters have written more insightful stuff about black political representation than anything I have seen from her. So I end up in the same place I did with fraudster Francesca Gino: you can get tenure at Harvard for this?
3 comments:
So I end up in the same place I did with fraudster Francesca Gino: you can get tenure at Harvard for this?
Well, no - for that, plus having the right connections / doing the right favors.
It's no secret that Harvard is not a meritocracy, after all - it's chiefly a country club for "The Right People".
Something I did not know: in the classical world, lead sling bullets were often inscribed with names or messages.
This caught me off guard - it seemed to me like very common knowledge, at first brush. But thinking about it, my familiarity with this fact (and my sense of its supposed ubiquity) stems from my interest in historical arms and armor.
I even had a moment where I subconsciously thought, "Wouldn't an archaeologist know this?", but then had to remind myself that North American focused archaeology deals with very different sorts of artifacts.
Anywho, yeah - the more things change, the more they stay the same. The impulse that drives modern soldiers to paint messages on bombs, artillery shells, etc, is the exact same impulse that drove ancient Romans to inscribe messages into the soft lead of their sling bullets, or directly into the molds from which said bullets would be cast. We humans always want to have the last word, even when the opposition is out of earshot.
I subscribe to Siskind's blog, and I found the depression essay quite interesting. But I wonder about the music angle. FWIW, I post the following comment on that blog, and I thought I would post it here too (apologies if this is inappropriate in some way):
I actually wonder if the music issue isn't a sort of false lead in this area, or simply too complex to be productive. Admitting that all this is subjective and anecdotal, I'm a long time blues fan, and if you watch blues musicians, they often smile broadly (and, so to speak, deeply) while playing, sometimes through a whole song. They absolutely love it, and I don't think that's in some sort of masochistic way. It's a genuine and deep joy. I'm not a musician, so I can't speak to that side of it--except, as I've just done, what I perceive from the outside--but listening to blues proper, dark ambient, and all sorts of sad music gives me great pleasure. I like to listen to it when I'm happy, doing the things I like to do, etc. I don't think I'm the only one (and apologies if I'm not the first to say this in the comments). I would add that when I'm depressed--as in, when I'm having thoughts like "I don't deserve anything and I think my friends all rightly hate me"--I don't want to listen to music at all (or read or watch something or do anything). Among other problems, all this seems to me to complicate what would fit into the category of "happy" music. I will say I find at least some music that many might consider happy--like "Who could ask for anything more" or "Good morning" from "Singing in the Rain"--manic and annoying rather than "happy."
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