Factoid of the day

Funny, I don't remember this part in the movie: Jane was killed by the evil Germans? Huh?

Audiobook at Librivox:

Tarzan the Untamed

by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 - 1950)

This book follows Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar chronologically. The action is set during World War I. While away from his plantation home in East Africa, invading German troops destroy it and kill his wife Jane and the Waziri warrior Wasimbu who is left crucified.

one of 26 audiobooks by Edgar Rice Burroughs at Librivox...

Obviously written during the anti German propaganda era of World War I. And Burroughs made up most of the African stuff himself, of course. There is no Waziri tribe, for example...

The background for the novel is Germany's East African campaign, which was pretty bloody, at least for the locals, and much of the fighting was done by Germans and the German's African soldiers on their side and South Africans and Indians on the British side, often using local people to carry supplies.

The British Commonwealth forces lost over 10,000 men, ⅔ of them from disease. German losses were about 2,000. But the black people of East Africa suffered far more as carriers who died from disease, exhaustion and military action. One modern estimate is 100,000 dead on all sides. Black civilians also suffered dreadfully. War devastated many localities, bringing hunger, disease and death in its train. Thousands of Africans perished in the outbreak of influenza that swept over their continent at the end of the war.

Here is another point of view: a sympathetic article about the Germans and their Askaris troops. 

----------------------
correction: I accidentally wrote World War II...now fixed. This of course happened during the First World War, when Germany still had colonies in Africa.

The good news of the day

Bimbo heart Twinkies

According to the Christian Science Monitor, while food producers ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, have expressed interest along with Little Debbie baker McKee Foods, Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo may hold the inside track.

Grupo Bimbo is the world’s largest bread-baking firm, which already owns parts of Sara Lee, Entenmann’s and Thomas English Muffins and previously made what was considered a low-ball offer of $580 million a few years ago, Forbes reports. Now Hostess may only be worth $135 million.

But I bet you didn't see this: the real reason the company was in trouble:

Economists say high sugar prices tied to US trade tariffs were a big reason Hostess was struggling, but a Mexican company could be a lifeline for Twinkies because it would be able to take advantage of access to lower-priced sugar in Mexico.

Non PC LOL's of the day

For Democrats:

 

 

for Republicans:

Stories below the fold

Middle Earth radio taken down to protest Obama's reelection?

Oh well: the European based Father Roderick's podcasts are still around to keep up on what's going on, as are the Riddles in the Dark podcast by the Tolkien professor...

-----------------------------------------
Another article by "experts" saying let your child suffer with a high fever, which helps him fight infection.

Sorry, but I think 5000 years (at least) of Mom's insisting we lower the fever has some merit.
and the experts base their instruction on "opinions" not hard science.
and no, it is not "big pharma" causing the problem: even our tribal African moms would dose their kids with herbs for fevers: to stop overdoses, we gave out bottles of vitamin placebo for them to use instead.

Most of the opinions are based on questionable studies (including self reporting and theoretical reasons)....Anyone do any "double blind studies" on animal fever? I couldn't find any with a quick google...

--------------------------------
While trying to google for "fever" in babies (and failing to find any good scientific studies) I ran across this delightful study:

GaGa for GooGoo

analyzing why people want children.

Includes this:

the researchers found three factors that consistently predicted how much a person wanted to have a baby. The first factor was positive exposure -- such as holding and cuddling babies, looking after babies and looking at baby clothes and toys -- that made people want to have a baby. The second factor included negative exposure -- such as babies crying, children having tantrums and diapers, spit-up or other 'disgusting' aspects of babies -- that made people not want to have a baby. The third factor included trade-offs that come with having children -- education, career, money and social life.

which is why if one woman in the workplace has a baby, soon others start getting starry eyed then pregnant...
and why the idea of globalists, to free women for the workforce to improve the economy and save money by limiting families, works against motherhood.

-------------------------

This movie review for the new "Anna Karenina" gives it a thumbs down:

those sorrows come across as tepid, due in part to the fact that the bland, 20-something actor playing Vronsky, who bears a vague resemblance to a mustachioed Justin Bieber, seems more boy toy than heartthrob ..

Well, actually the Vronsky character was a boy toy...in the novel... Sounds like this movie is the usual meme "evil good people drive Anna nuts because they disapprove of her pure love".

But in the book, Anna is self destructive: adultery wasn't the problem in her circle, as long as you kept it quiet...so she wasn't exactly ostracized. But if you read the novel, she saw herself as "good" and then reframes her husband as "cold and uncaring" in her mind...so insisted that everyone approve of her actions, even those outside her sophisticated circle, and when they didn't approve, she became self destructive and her behavior very erratic...

and I never could figure the reason for her erratic behavior (it seemed to go beyond guilt or depression) until I saw the TV version, which openly shows she got addicted to drugs and alcohol,(although her addiction was probably "innocent" to start with, becoming addicted after being given morphine when she was suffering from childbed fever)...

Since everyone is rewriting famous novels from the bad guys's point of view (from Grendel to the one about Mr Rochester's wife) maybe someone should write a novel from nerdy but reliable husband's point of view, or even Vronsky, whose flirtation with a married woman (very common back then) left him saddled with an erratic "wife" who destroyed his career and life...which is why ironically his mother is one of the few in the book who calls Anna an "evil" woman (most of the good people in the book see her as a good woman who fell into evil ways and they want to rescue her from it)...

--------------------------
Related item: I finally got around to watching the Brad Pitt movie on "Troy".
They seem to have changed a few of the details from the book.
But ironically, they did what good story tellers do: reframe the story to their audience and, to use a Tolkien comparison, take some parts and make it into a new stew.
So the Achilles theme (which was about accepting death) is reframed into accepting death and mercy, and the mercy part, which in the book is found in Priam's visit, is changed by love for Breseis...

And the ending is a bit fake: Achilles trying to save Breseis, but killed accidentally because Paris thought he was doing the dirty...it's not in Homer, but later stories attribute his death to being in love with Priam's daughter Polyxena....and he died in an ambush while making a sacrifice with the aim to marry her and end the war...

So is the rewrite accurate? No, but it is good story telling. Having Paris steal a wife during signing a peace treaty makes the insult more important to modern men, who don't recognize his breech of the taboo of visitors. And the more modern themes of love changing people is in the movie: so not only Achilles learns compassion, but by the end of the film, Paris goes from being a coward and a boytoy to a responsible man.

Too bad they had to kill of Menaleus, however. And I like Sean Bean's portrayal of Olysses: the best one I've seen since the old Kirk Douglas version.

------------------------------

Important question of the day:When Brain Implants arrive, will we still be "us"?

Kurzweil discusses this in a longer article at Slate.

Not a new discussion: Are we merely a "ghost in the machine", or as the ancient philosophers insisted, a combination of mind, body, and soul...the ancients recognized the mind and soul were not the same, and perhaps we should do the same, as the mind can be destroyed by drugs, injury, or improved by drugs and modern medicine, but the soul is the inner "ME"...don't believe me? Ask your wife if when raging hormones affect her mind and body if she is in reality a raging beast or merely a nice woman who wants to do the right thing but is not able to control the anger caused by too much progesterone...

---------------------------------
Mrs. Gay Caswell continues her fight with the local bureaucracy in the oh so politically correct Canada...

give it a few years, and all the Christian schools in the US may face a similar problem.

----------------------------------------
Uncle Orson rereads and then reviews the classic "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"...

and shudders at parallels to today's world's propaganda and political spin. He also reviews books on WWI and the American Civil war...

Factoid of the day

from LiveScience

A 4,000-year-old skeleton discovered in India is the oldest known archaeological evidence of leprosy. The fact that the skeleton survived suggests the person was an outcast: Hindu tradition calls for cremation, and only those deemed unfit were buried.

more HERE.
Before this skeleton was found, there was a question where the disease originated.

The latter half of the third millennium B.C. was a period of social complexity in this civilization, characterized by urbanization, a system of writing, standardized weights and measures, monumental architecture, and trade networks that stretched to Mesopotamia and beyond.
The presence of leprosy in India toward the end of this period indicates that M. leprae existed in South Asia at least 4000 years ago, which lends support to the idea that the disease migrated between Africa and Asia during a period of urbanization, increasing population density, and regular inter-continental trade networks.

The Breezy Point Madonna

Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

The New York Times has an article on the flooded area of Breezy Point, that later burnt down, and the Madonna that stayed there to comfort folks.

The statue is one of the only recognizable remnants of the swath of Breezy Point where more than 100 homes burned to the ground while a flood kept firefighters from reaching it. Since the waters withdrew early on Oct. 30, the image of the Breezy Point Madonna has reached the nation, indeed the world, through vivid news photos. Pilgrims have come to leave offerings: a bouquet of yellow roses, four quarters, a votive candle, a memorial card for the victims of Sept. 11, a written admonition that healing begins with acceptance...

“It will be a symbol of the suffering,” Monsignor Curran said of the statue, “but also of our rise from the ashes. It will be a symbol of what we’ve been through but also of our resurrection. It will be a reminder that for all the property we lost, God never left.”

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these madonnas are quite common in working class catholic areas. We had ours in the back yard, where we could see it when we sat out in the evening after supper, but our neighbor had one in the front of his garden facing the street....

He was a retired coal miner, and his five suns were mechanics or coal miners....

Pstt: Top secret: Pass it on...

Sigh.

Ah, but don't worry:


Top Secret recipes has instructions on making

Hostes Twinkie Recipe

 Twinkies creme filling.

or you can try the Twinkies Gluten Free recipes

or if you prefer chocolate, here's the recipe for Dingdongs.

how to clone a twinkie video

 

and then there is the Twinkie project...

a bunch of geeks experimented on Twinkies, and published their results...in Haiku:



The Experiments

Twinkies don't burn well
unless doused in alcohol.
Then they make good fires.

Twinkies in water
expand to near twice their size
and look really gross.

When they are pureed
Twinkies can be compressed much.
Really mostly air.

Do Twinkies conduct?
Run lots of current through them.
Very resistive.

Dropped off of sixth floor
Twinkies are not injured much.
Just a small fissure.

Microwaved Twinkies
emit a great deal of smoke
and smell very bad.

Is the Twinkie smart?
Is it just ignoring us?
Maybe never know.

Poor control Twinkie.
Its conditions never change.
I guess I'll eat it.

-------------------------------------

headsup FreeRepublic. 

"Do you like gladiator movies?"

I was just checking youtube about the old Helen of Troy miniseries (LINK LINK2) and guess what? It's full of the old "sword and sorcery" type movies.

What young boys watched before they had playboy.

And then there is this historical gem...



or if you prefer your humor British style, try CarryOnCleo...
all of which reminds me of this...
which I would post but this is a PG rated blog...

Musical Interlude of the day

Mozart, anyone?


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Yesterday was the feast of Christ the King, so mass was crowded...we left before the procession (which the kids love, which is why mass was crowded...)
In the US, the kids are kept in the "crying room" but here, the babies are usually quiet (rare to hear one crying). Of course, the restless kids do tend to prance quietly up the aisles before they are grabbed by mom or an older sibling and taken outside to play. We don't have Aircon in church here, only fans mounted on the walls, but all the doors are kept open.

So that means the bugs and birds (and sometimes the dogs) wander in and out too.

as the bible says:

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

so watch your head...
That part in the bible about the birds finding nests in your altars? yup...watch your head.

Those cuddley Dwarves

Brian Sibley had an article on the art of Disney's Snow White, which along with the Hobbit has revised the traditional "evil dwarf" as a sympathetic character.

 watch it here

.

The "WAGD" post of the day

LINK.

the latest scandal: Photoshopping a child killed by a Hamas rocket as a child killed by Israel. And of course 30 years of the MSM ignoring the toxic education of the Arab media propaganda. Sigh.

Magellan had it coming

Tea at Trianon Blog has a book review about Magellan.

Yes, the Philippines is mentioned there too:

By the end of their adventures in South East Asia, where Magellan was hacked to pieces in the Philippines by an irate chieftain, there was only one ship left out of the original five. The caravel Victoria was sailed back to Spain by the Basque captain Juan Sebastian Elcano, amid many hardships. 

Of course locals remember it a little differently:

The plaque is a bit ingeneous: He wasn't planning to invade, just get restocked in food and water. But his men, once they were recovered from scurvy, decided to enjoy the delights of local Pinays, and their men got a bit annoyed.

On the other hand, Magellan did leave a legacy behind him: The Santo Nino de Cebu.

and LapuLapu? His name is commemorated in the most delicious local fish.

And factoid of the day:

Magellan wasn't Spanish, he was Portuguese (he only worked for the Spanish).

Gift item of the day

StrategyPage has an article on "DIY" Submarines.

November 18, 2012: Over the last two decades, luxury boat builders have begun building recreational submarines in large quantities. There are now hundreds of them in use, some built by hobbyists...
At the low end you have hobbyist home-builts that cost less than $50,000 for components, plus over a thousand hours of labor by the do-it-yourself submarine builders. Commercial subs starts at a $100,000

Wired has an article about it HERE.
 
You can buy a kit here for $50 thousand dollars.

Philippines in the world news

Oil company BP will pay a measly 4 billion for destroying the Gulf coast due to being too cheap to fix a plug, but the latest news about a fire of another oil platform that killed 2 and injured 14 will probably get little press in the US. Why? Because most of those killed/injured were Filipinos.

Probably a million Filipinos work in Saudi/Persian Gulf region: and although most are probably health care workers, clerks or drivers, quite a few work in blue collar jobs, including in the oil fields. They also work in the petroleum industry in countries from Kazakhstan to Nigeria.

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StrategyPage has an article on piracy: most of the headlines is about Somalian pirates, but it is present in other areas.
Last time I check, over 100 of the mariners held hostage in Somalia are Filipino seamen, but piracy affects other  sea-lanes, including the South China sea and various Indonesian straits.

according to Wikipedia, 25 percent of the 1.5 million seamen are from the Philippines, and yes one of our relatives is a seaman.

University of Houston has a course on the history of Piracy if you are interested in the subject.

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Want to invest money? The only country who was upgraded by the IMF is the Philippines.

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StrategyPage reviews a book on the Buffalo soldiers.

The other half of the book is devoted to the service of black volunteers in the Spanish-American and Philippine Wars.  As these are largely overlooked subjects, the essays are often ground breaking. 

----------------------------

Cat Item of the day

\

actually, we give them a bath in our shower, which has a hand held shower head. We remove the shower curtain then
put the cat across Lolo's shower chair, with legs off the sides, and hold them down while we wash them...which isn't very often.
----------------------------

Related item: from Librivox: Cats by the Way 


by Sarah E. Trueblood (1849-1918)

Between these pages you will find only the good, old-fashioned, every-day cat. No Angora or thoroughbred has been entered here, unless it be "Hansie," who is little more than mentioned. 

more cat stories:

1. Aesop. "Belling the Cat" (in "Junior Classics (vol 1), The") · (readers)
2. Baum, L. Frank. "Pussy Cat Mew (from Mother Goose in Prose)" (in "Bed Time Stories for Aidan Christopher") · (readers)
3. Brauns, David. "Cat's Elopement, The" (in "Coffee Break Collection 005 - Love and Relationships") · (readers)
4. Cox, Kenyon. "Octopussycat, The" (in "Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 06") · (readers)
5. Crane, Walter. "Cat and the Fox, The" (in "Baby's Own Aesop") · (readers)
6. Crane, Walter. "Cat and Venus, The" (in "Baby's Own Aesop") · (readers)
7. Crooke, William. "Cat and the Sparrows, The" (in "Cocoa Break Collection") · (readers)
8. Hearn, Lafcadio. "Boy Who Drew Cats" (in "Children's Short Works, Vol. 010") · (readers)
9. Jerome, Jerome K.. "On Cats and Dogs" (in "Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow") · (readers)
10. Lawson, Henry. "Bush Cats" (in "Australian Miscellany") · (readers)
11. Lee, Mrs R.. "Cats" (in "Cat Tales") · (readers)
12. Lovecraft, H. P.. "Cats of Ulthar, The" (in "Short Story Collection Vol. 007") · (readers)
13. Lynd, Robert. "Cats" (in "Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 008") · (readers)
14. Norton, Andre. "All Cats are Gray" (in "Short Science Fiction Collection 019") · (readers)
15. Reid, Mayne. "Cats" (in "Cat Tales") · (readers)
16. Weir, Harrison. "Our Cats and All About Them" · (readers)
17. Winslow, Helen M.. "Concerning Cats: My Own and Some Others" · (readers)
18. Wodehouse, P. G.. "Man Who Disliked Cats, The" (in "Selected Short Stories.") · (readers)
19. Miller, Olive Beaupre. "Three Little Kittens" (in "In the Nursery of My Bookhouse") · (readers)
20. Pierson, Clara Dillingham. "Kitten Who Lost Herself, The" (in "Cat Tales") · (readers)
21. Wells, Carolyn. "Funny Kittens, The" (in "Jingle Book, The") · (readers)
22. Wordsworth, William. "Kitten and Falling Leaves, The" (in "Long Poems Collection 006") · (readers)

Stuff below the fold

Are Giants beings from outer space, or just very large humans (who just look like giants because everyone else is short)?

Ancient Standard discusses.

Found inside an abnormally long tomb, the man’s height measured 6 feet, 8 inches (202cm)—which would have been gigantic in ancient Rome, where the typical man averaged about 5.5 feet (167cm). For comparison, it’s worth noting that the modern-day “tallest man” is 8 feet, 3 inches high (251 cm).

They discuss if it was due to "giantism" (i.e. pituitary  problems) but it could also be nutrition related: I saw this in my son's home in southern Colombia. They were 5'6", and a little taller than most of the men in the area, but when we went across the border to visit Ecuador, where it was poorer, the average man was only about 5'0"...
Similarly, the children attending high schools (boarding schools) in Zimbabwe tended to be a few inches larger than the local kids who did not, again due to nutrition.

which is why the Romans and Greeks who ate the low fat/low protein "Mediterranean diet" were so short next to the cattle raising barbarians, and American soldiers tended to be smaller than the Native Americans of the plains who hunted.

------------------------------
Nat Geo has a new film on the Human family presumably a remake of the previous special.
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Dr. Mary Beard notices the eco nannies in L.A.

The hotel I'm in is already a good start -- "environmentally friendly" gone engagingly mad. I mean not just the usual (sensible) notice in the bathroom about using your towel more than once, but also a rather stern list on instructions left on the pillow about refilling your own reusable bottle of water from the tap, and turning off the lights when you are out of the room, etc.
All of this is absolutely right, and it's what I would do anyway ("turn the bloody lights off" having been drummed into me in the womb). But -- counter-suggestibility again --when I see the rules all written down and left on my pillow, even I start to feel like turning the aircon up to maximum, and going out for the day. Or even marking myself out as a self-confessed eco-criminal by prominently displaying the "Daily laundering requested" notice.

------------------------

Science news you can use: The heck with Global Warming: beware of Local Warming...

(via Improbable research): caution: put down coffee before watching....link

Once were Giants

I usually ignore posting obvious conspiracy theories which are all over the web, but then you read stuff like this: From Atlas Obscura:

ocal legends passed down by the Paiute Indians tell of a race of giants who were exterminated by the tribe. It is said this was done by trapping the giants in a cave, shooting arrows at them, and then starting a large fire at the mouth of the cave. When the Lovelock Cave was later mined, many giant skeletons and artifacts were found in the area; there was also a large quantity of arrowheads found in the cave. Many of the artifacts were lost in a fire, but some of the skulls and artifacts are located at this museum.
You'll find a small, barely marked collection of the artifacts (arrowheads, etc.) on the second floor, in the display case by the window. The skulls themselves are kept in a back room, where the curator stores them out of view so as "not to offend the Indians." Ask her about the legend and she'll lead you downstairs to her office, where she keeps them unceremoniously lined up in a cabinet.

Yup. Legends of giants all over the place LINK

The problem, of course, is trying to figure out the real story from the crazies.
you know some reports are crazy when the Freepers pull apart their claims.

However, there are red headed albinos in some South West American tribes. (we delivered one when I was doing some training in Gallup).

Or were they Vikings who got lost? or were they Irish? or related to the red haired mummies of ancient China? Or ancient Greeks? Menaleus and Odyseus were red haired according to legend, and Athena had grey eyes.

So is there any DNA or dating evidence on the skeletons?? a few have been found to be faked in the past, ) (piltdown man was not the only "fake" in those days) but one does wonder..

And the book 1491 suggests that a lot of the advanced civilizations in the USA/Americas has been ignored.

Nat Geo article on Kennewick man and that other skulls out there are going to be tested for DNA.

The local Tribes object to the Smithsonian etc. showing off the bones of their ancestors as "artifacts", and after a century of abuse, they have the courts behind them . As a scientist, I'd like the bones to study, but more traditional cultures see the bones of their loved ones as something to be respected.

Fashion items of the day

LINK

and then there is Daryl Dixon's HelloKitty Iphone Case: 

Group think

Via NotDeadYet:

Janis identified eight symptoms that put a group of individuals at risk for falling into groupthink:

1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
2. Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group’s assumptions.
3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.
4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, disfigured, impotent, or stupid.
5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of “disloyalty”.
6. Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
8. Mindguards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

NDY is talking about bioethics manipulation by those who think cripples are useless eaters (to put it bluntly) but it also seems to apply to any group.

One of the problems with groupthink is that when it is pushed by the MSM, the public ends up losing it's moral vocabulary to be able to discuss things, to recognize nuance, or even to recognize reality if it disagrees with the meme.

Hobbit stuff

Joseph Pearce interview on the Hobbit at EWTN about the Catholic references in the Hobbit.

and PhilStuffOfDoom is up to the Battle of Pellenor fields...enjoy!

TORN links to Empire which is playing the soundtrack (streaming music).

The secret to a longer life

Be married, and have lots of friends and....puppies!


will kitties do?

From Recently Updated

Food stories

YUM Brussel Sprouts!
recipes at link
one veggie we don't have here in the Philippines, thank God.

-------------------------------
What about Second Breakfast?

Try this Blackberry cake.

No we don't have blackberries here either (although I used to collect them along the abandoned train tracks when I lived in Pennsylvania mountains).

But they do grow strawberries in Baguio...

--------------------------------------
Father Z has an article on giving out Communion to those with celiac disease...there are now gluten free hosts, and if your parish doesn't have them refer them to the link which includes addresses.

-------------------


YUM! WORMS:

Biopharmaceutical company Coronado Biosciences is conducting clinical trials using the eggs of the pig whipworm to regulate immune activity. The treatment is centered on the “hygiene hypothesis,” which asserts that today’s sterile, germ-free homes can actually make us sick. Lack of exposure to pathogens could prevent immune systems from properly regulating, explained Dr. Bobby Sandage, CEO of Coronado.

Excuse me for being cynical, but then why are there so many autoimmune disorders among Native American?

Genetics has a lot to do with it...

As for "too clean" homes, maybe it's not the cleanliness but that they see doctors more often and get diagnosed when they have very mild disease...or maybe it is the chemicals in their diet...

Science stuff

TPM Barnett, a globalist, notes how malaria has now returned to Greece, and comments:

Malaria still existed throughout much of the US in the 1930s/40s.  Since then it has gotten much warmer throughout the US.  But malaria is basically gone now.  Why?  Rising incomes.
So the point on global warming is, it'll create real problems wherever states and societies don't have the money to deal with the challenges - such as insect migration.
Now take a look at this chart from the WSJ and realize what happens when incomes fall - and how quickly.

 BBC article on how Malaria contributed to poor health, miscarriages and child mortality in ancient Rome, maybe contributing to it's fall. Apparently it was brought with the Egyptian grain shipments, and infected locals, partly due to local swamps.

Key to Coluzzi's ideas was the thriving trade throughout the Mediterranean region during Roman times. Coluzzi believes that one way the malaria reached mainland Italy was by cargo ship. Passengers on the boats could be carrying the malaria in their bloodstream even before showing symptoms. The water barrel on board could contain mosquito larvae.

so why didn't they just drain the swamps? They did:

Malaria article about the Pontine swamps and malaria from Pop Sci, 1876 edition. 

this was written before it was recognized that the culprit was the mosquito...but they noticed how construction/disturbed land, swamps, higher rainfall, and night air all led to more malaria, and that draining the swamp lessened the disease.


------------------------------------------

A Toxic sea led to Devonian extinction? No, not the dinosaur or the Permian extinction: a different one that affected mainly sea creature.

Climate change and a devastating meteorite have both been fingered as causes for the decimation of marine life during the late Devonian period.
But research published in a recent issue of the journal Geology suggests the extinction occurred as a result of a toxic ocean, devoid of oxygen.
"We think there was anoxia, where toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide are released into the zone where light penetrates into the ocean," says organic geochemist Professor Kliti Grice, of Curtin University.
"A modern analogue of the conditions that existed at this time is the Black Sea."

Wikipedia article HERE.

but they don't know the cause....

------------------------
Dream symbols could help pscyhotherapy. Heh. this theory is a bit old and is now being pushed again.

Yes, dream symbols can help psychotherapy, but psychotherapy is not very helpful for treating mental disease. If done correctly, it can lead to insight, but so can religion and philosophy and the arts. But the writer is pushing Jungian (as opposed to Freudian) theory to be recognized as a therapy to help the mentally ill...follow the money?

I hate to say it, but the new health care payments and the stress on practice "efficiency", will push us into giving out drugs instead of counseling, because the drugs act faster and are more efficient. So this is a study trying to insist we  should be reimbursed if we use old fashioned methods too.

-----------------------------------------
The unconscious brain can read and do math.

tell that to your teacher when he catches you mapping in class.

Lecture of the week

The late Dr. J. Rufus Fears, of Univ of Oklahoma (and who has several teaching company lectures series) has some lectures on line at that site.

It is an open source course on American history, which you can get on iTunes or Youtube.



a great teacher who will be missed.

Factoid of the day

LINK

Snuffleupagus has a first name — Aloysius.

and Barbie's real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts

Good news headline of the year.

Middle class now rivals poor in Latin America-World Bank

By ANNA YUKHANANOV, REUTERS November 14, 2012 2:42am

WASHINGTON - Rapid economic growth and more inclusive social policies in Latin America in the last decade have lifted 50 million people into the middle class, which for the first time rivals the poor in number, the World Bank said in a study on Tuesday.

"Most countries in the region are on their way to becoming middle-class societies; this represents a historic change," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told reporters...

Roughly thirty percent of the population now falls into that category, equal to the third of people still in poverty -- a remarkable shift in a continent that has been known for its vast income inequalities, dominated by the poor and a narrow slice of the rich.

Quips of the day

How exactly did national-security and military affairs come to resemble Keeping Up with the Kardashians?


-------------------------

so is this the new theme song of the CIA?

Cat item of the day

A Grandmother and her Cat:

For the last nine years, Japanese photographer, Miyoko Ihara, has been taking photos of her grandmother, Misao Ihara, and her white, odd-eyed cat, Fukumaru. Misao and Fukumaru share a special bond and go everywhere together. Although Misao is 88 years old, she still works in the fields, planting and weeding under the sun, with Fukumaru always at her side.

slideshow at link

Photo credit: Miyoko Ihara

Video of the day

Feeling Low? Well, Youtube to the rescue:
complete with arabic subtitles.

In Our Prayers

My Pennsylvania relatives seemed to be okay after Hurricane Sandy, but Col Updraft in New England, where many have ties to NYCity, sent me this link from 30 Oct at the UKMail, which has photos.

But what is more disturbing is a more recent report (9Nov) from SuicideGirlsBlog on Staten Island.

with rumors of makeshift morgues, volunteers turned away, and the mayor telling non "official" charities helping folks to go home so they wouldn't embarass the experts.

Stories below the fold

Instapundit links to a Wired story on how modern video games now have dads as heroes.

The gaming site that mourned VileRat noted that he introduced diplomacy into their space war game, to the point that one group actually changed sides.

And I once noted that few westerners outside of WOW knew about Admiral Yi and his turtle boats.

Hmm...wonder if any Anthropology major is doing a study on how video games educate our young?

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Some Catholic blogs are lamenting that  half of Catholics voted for Obama...Excuse me for being cynical, but Romney care was Obama care lite: And it also required Catholic institutions to give out abortifactant pills and fund birth control.


Don't get me started on the American bishops...some of the newer ones are stuck cleaning out the mess of the past, but until they clean up their bureaucracy who allowed a lot of the pedophilia and theft to go on, they will not be able to be Christian spokesmen.

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Oh Canada: harassment of schools that won't teach the feminist propaganda.
GuessMrs Gay Caswell isn't as paranoid as she sounds when she discusses how bureaucrats harass those opposed to the agenda.

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Foreign Affairs magazine argues that ex military officers shouldn't run for government posts because

a 2012 survey we conducted of registered voters measuring the effectiveness of these endorsements -- clearly indicates that veterans, especially retired generals and admirals, are involved in U.S. electoral politics in a way that could erode the public’s powerful support for the country’s armed forces.

Translation: Unlike the past, where Democrats like JFK or Reverend Wright were proud veterans, the modern elites of the Democratic party disdains the military, which is why there was so little outcry in the press about the soldier's votes being lost or arriving too late to be counted.

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Was that Sudan raid a "headsup" to Iran that they are next?


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Book review on the "MadMax" aftermath of World War II...one of several new books telling this story that was mainly ignored in the west for the last 60 years.

a similar horror occured after World War I, but unless you had a relative to tell you about it, you probably didn't study that in school either.

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Big Brother is watching you, or at least watching your emails. No, the general and his bimbo weren't caught by the Patriot act: it was the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that allowed snooping into data stored more than 180 days without a warrant.:

SenseOfEvents has more background, and a cynical analysis of the kerfuffle: the FBI is trying to hide that the initial FBI investigator started snooping as a favor to impress his own honey, not to see if there was a crime.

presumably this will be made into a Danielle Steele novel or a major TV movie in the near future, if Law and Order doesn't beat them to it first.
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They obviously didn't check Dave Barry for email advice:

ATTENTION, INDIVIDUALS LOOKING FOR AN AN EMAIL DOMAIN THAT SUGGESTS SOPHISTICATION AND CLASS? Look no further.

actually, don't check the link, instead read about it at Wikipedia. 

Want a good education on the cheap? Come to the Philippines

LINK

The world’s “budget English teacher.”
This was how a recent BBC News report described the Philippines in highlighting the relatively cheap access to education in the country compared to other English-speaking nations.

Stories below the fold

The Next war in Mali: Al Jezeerah reports why negotiation with the seperatists might not work: outside extremists took over what was a local dispute, where the Tuareg wanted more independence.

The nearby African states are worried, since many have similar tribal disputes which would be vulnerable to a similar takeover by extremists.

and of course guess who suffers?  Fides reports on the civilians

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   You heard about "The Great Escape", but you probably missed this mass escape by POW's...from an Australian POW camp:

During World War II, the prisoner of war camp near Cowra was the site of the Cowra Breakout, one of the largest prison escapes of the war. On August 5, 1944, a tip from an informer led authorities to plan a move of all the POWs to another camp....
From the historian Gavin Long: "At about 2 a.m. a Japanese ran to the camp gates and shouted what seemed to be a warning to the sentries. Then a Japanese bugle sounded. A sentry fired a warning shot. More sentries fired as three mobs of prisoners, shouting 'Banzai,' began breaking through the wire, one mob on the northern side, one on the western and one on the southern. They flung themselves across the wire with the help of blankets. They were armed with knives, baseball bats, clubs studded with nails and hooks, wire stilettos and garotting cords."
During the breakout, hundreds of Japanese were killed and another 108 prisoners wounded. Several Australian soldiers were also killed in the planned escape. Many of those who did escape committed suicide or were killed by their countrymen to avoid recapture. Everybody else was recaptured within ten days.

Wikipedia link HERE.

  Memorial at the cemetary in Cowra
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 Daniel Lawlor from Los Angeles poses after winning first place in the Freestyle Moustache category at the third annual USA National Beard and Moustache Championships in Las VegasPicture: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

link
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one small step for man, one giant step for HAMBURGERS.

A group of Harvard students took fast food to new heights by sending a hamburger attached to a helium balloon and a camera 100,000ft into space and seeing it come hurtling back down to earth in 'Operation Skyfall'..

One of the students, Renzo Lucioni told boston.com that he had wanted to launch something into space for a while, and got the idea from MIT students who sent a camera into space via helium balloon in 2009.
The computer science student got together with friends Nuseir Yassin, Daniel Broudy, Matthew Moellman and Jamie Law-Smith.
He said they were ecstatic at the result, but are hungry for more.

'We’re happy with that, but it can always be better,' he said.

Next up could be a potential 'burrito in space' project.

headsupDaveBarry
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All your emails are belong to us:

BoingBoing has some questions about Bimbogate...

Since when is the FBI available (for anyone with the right social connections) as a private troll-uncloaking cyber police force?

and includes links to this story at Wired.

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There is a petition to award Malala the Nobel Peace Prize.

The United Nations has announced celebrating November 10 (Saturday) as Malala Day. People around the world celebrated Malala as a beacon for 32 million girls who can not go to school. In Pakistan, demonstrations in support of Malala were held in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. This day was celebrated in more than 100 countries across the globe.
But in Malala's hometown open house events couldn't be organized out of fear of possible terrorist attacks.

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And the "YUM ASO STEW" story of the day: LINK

Stories below the fold

Two "Moscow on the Hudson" stories on the internet.

If you watched the movie, it starts with the Robin Williams character being a hero for finding toilet paper in the stores.

Which brings us to this item from StrategyPate: Iran: the Toilet paper revolution.

The government is trying to cope with the stricter sanctions, but inflation continues to rise. It is currently 25 percent and headed for 30 percent in the next few months. Most luxury goods imports (including toilet paper) are now banned. The only items allowed in legally are those that preserve jobs (raw materials and components for factories) and keep the security forces going (“legal” smuggling of weapons and items needed for the nuclear and other weapons development and production.) But there is already more illegal smuggling of luxury goods. People with money are willing to pay a big markup to get iPhones and softer toilet paper. 

No, I don't approve of sanctions because they hurt ordinary folks, not the elites who are the problem. Yet since Iran is a semi democracy, public pressure might work.

The second item is from TPMBarnett, about the increased move for local soverignty by minority groups (like the Catalonians or Scots) in the European Union.

You might think it's the Eurozone troubles that is responsible, but that's the proximate opportunity - not the ultimate enabler.  Real federalism is coming, so why not get out of your unhappy marriage in the bargain?
Here's the counterintuitive part: it's often the most competent and richest that want out.  The better want to leave behind the worse.

Again, the theme of the movie was that the free wanted opportunities to be free, despite the difficulties.

And here in the Philippines, where ten percent of our population are working overseas, it is often the hardest working and most ambitious who do so. With the rich families controlling things, the middle class (like us) often has trouble making a living, so it's easier to work elsewhere. If they go to the US or Europe, they often stay and become citizens, sometimes marrying a local (we have relatives living in Germany, Italy, the US and the UK).

If PNoy cleans up the corruption, more will come home to work.

If not, well they'll just stay in Chicago, London, or San Diego...

Happy story of the day

Charley, a new retiree-greeter at Wal-Mart, just couldn't
seem to get to work on time. Every day he was 5, 10, 15
minutes late. But he was a good worker, really tidy,
clean-shaven, sharp-minded and a real credit to the
company and obviously demonstrating their
"Older Person Friendly" policies.

One day the boss called him into the office for a talk.

"Charley, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic, you do
a bang-up job when you finally get here; but your being
late so often is quite bothersome."

"Yes, I know boss, and I am working on it."

"Well good, you are a team player. That's what I like to hear".

"Yes sir, I understand your concern and I will try harder".

Seeming puzzled, the manager went on to comment, "I now
you're retired from the Armed Forces. What did they say to you there if you showed up in the morning late so often?"

The old man looked down at the floor, then smiled. He chuckled quietly, then said with a grin,

"They usually saluted and said, Good morning, Admiral,
can I get your coffee, sir"?



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from an email from Tiamaria

We knew the freeze dried MRE's would be good for something

Hmm...maybe those Doomsday preppers are on to something, says the HuffPost

Coraine believes the prepper mentality for businesses now seems less extreme and more sensible. "The more thoroughly you prepare ahead of time, the more agility you have to get back up and running," he said. "I learned that from my grandmother."

YUM!

Good bye Metamucil, Hello, high fiber Pepsi.

The real problem with Bimbos: they defend their honeys on youtube

The president blamed a redubbed B porn film for the death of the American ambassador, and put pressure on Hillary, the State Department, and the CIA to keep quiet about what was going on there, including the fact that four people died who might have been saved.

(I should note that we don't get Fox news in the Philippines, so if this is old news, I apologize).

but now it turns out that the real story is on youtube, unnoticed until the Petreus love scandal hit the fan and someone noticed she spilled the beans last month in a speech to her university.

Youtube video here. 

the Benghazi part is at 31 minutes.

story from Israel national news that inlcude part of the transcript.

Broadwell was speaking at her alma mater, the University of Denver, on October 26....(and) confirmed the reports on Fox News that the CIA annex asked for a special unit, the Commander in Chief's In Extremis Force, to come and assist it. She also said that the force could indeed have reinforced the consulate, and that Petraeus knew all of this, but was not allowed to talk to the press because of his position in the CIA....

"They were requesting the – it's called the C-in-C's In Extremis Force – a group of Delta Force operators, our very, most talented guys we have in the military. They could have come and reinforced the consulate and the CIA annex. Now, I don't know if a lot of you have heard this but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner, and they think that the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back. It's still being vetted.

"The challenging thing for Gen. Petraeus is that in his new position, he's not allowed to communicate with the press. So he's known all of this – they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya, within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening."

Heads up GatewayPundit.

formerspook has a couple posts on the affair of the affair for more background on the many problems of the story, and how Petreus' resignation might prevent Congress and the public from knowing the truth.

The reason for the low turnout

I think the pundits might be wrong, and Grim has the real reason:

It wasn't because they were satisfied with their government. It was because they believed that Obama was evil, but the Republicans were corrupt, and the system was wholly rigged against them. They saw no benefit to voting or engaging in the political process at all.

They didn't believe things could be changed for the better, saw no one they identified with for whom they could vote, and generally have come to regard the government as a pack of thieves -- both parties.

So they have checked out of our political system

Happy Veterans Day

It's Veterans day, originally Armistice day...
Because the Great War ended on November 11th 1918....

this is my Uncle George and my grandmother in 1917...

From dad's family

and this  is Lolo's brother (in his police uniform after the second world war).

and this is an old photo of John and family from a few years ago.

Hobbit stuff

Brian Sibley has a lot of hobbit stuff on his blog, including the fact that his new book is ready to be published. Official movie guide to the Hobbit.

Just heard that there are some 106,000 English language copies of my Official Movie Guide out there waiting to be bought, plus over 232,000 copies of foreign co-editions: which sounds like rather a lot of trees have given up their lives in the interests of Hobbit fandom... What would Treebeard say?

he also has lots of pictures and discusses the linked book, visual companion to the Hobbit.

No, I won't be able to buy them, unless they arrive in the used book kiosk in 9 to 18 months.
Ironically there are a lot of "coffee table" books there, so it is a possibility.


 I always wondered what was that thing on the side of Oin's head: Here is the closeup:

it's an ear trumpet. Heh. Maybe I should bet one for Lolo.

Factoid of the day: usually the ear trumpet is used in video/TV/films for one of three reasons:

• Type 1: Serving an accurate role in a Period Piece, where they reflect the setting.
• Type 2: Used for comedic effect, to make it obvious that the person cannot hear.
• Type 3: Another comedic usage, usually to illustrate how ridiculously old a character is.

Frequently accompanying an I Can't Hear You gag.

so what is Oin doing with it in the movie? (No it's not in the book).

The NZ blog FilmIsAHarshMistress has this information:

Brother of Gloin and uncle to Gimli, Oin (played by New Zealand actor John Callen) is appropriately depicted with similar facial features to his two kinsmen. Apparently hard-of-hearing, he is depicted as carrying an ear-trumpet (a detail not in the books) which may be the basis for his cinematic character...
Oin, tragically, was also part of Balin’s party to retake the Mines Of Moria and was killed by the creature known as the Watcher In The Water (the tentacled monster that attacked the Fellowship sixty years later and tried to take Frodo).....
In the novel, both Oin and Gloin are reknown to be bickering brothers who constantly attempt to shirk their adventuring duties onto each other,

lots of photos at the link too, if you are a fan...

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addendum:

Brian Sibley also notes that the Latin Version of the Hobbit has been released.

'in foramine terrae habitabat hobbitus...'

Family news

Chano and Joy went to another seminar yesterday and today (Ruby is staying with her cousin in Manila). After today's seminar, they will go to Manila and see if they can buy a pump, preferably a used one that is good quality. It's a bit hot, so we are staying indoors.

Musical interlude of the day

link
full Requium HERE.

Miscellaneous stuff

Dr. Sherman of the gravely voice has finished with Tolkien lectures and now is on CS Lewis. Today's lecture is Out of the Silent Planet, the first Lewis book I ever read (and one of the few of his books that I enjoy)...

Trivia: Some say the Ransom character is based on Tolkien. My favorite part: When he realizes the Hrossa is speaking, and has visions of writing a Martian English dictionary... It's a triology but part 2 and 3 are a lot more boring, and Lewis just can't write women characters well,  even though the themes are about proud men destroying creation to become supermen.





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one of the themes of the third book of Lewis' trilogy is the aim of the superman scientist to "cleanse" the world of dirty organic stuff. Thank goodness, the green movement has made that idea obselete (and gone too much the other way) but it is also the them of this movie:

Huey Dewey and Lewy save the world. Yes Silent Running is on line.
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PhilStuffOfDoom is now on the Return of the King: This week's episode: the Ride of the Rohirrim



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Other stories to check:

 Whale Rider....

The Lathe of Heaven is not as good as the book, which asks how changing things can result in unexpected problems.

Video of the week

pretty pretty earth.

Factoid of the day

According to analysis of the tartar on the teeth of some Neanderthals, they cooked veggies and herbs, but didn't floss.

as for the herbs mentioned, both would more valuable as a source of vitamin C...technically they are weak for other uses.

Cost effective? Bah Humbug

NYTimes article tries to figure out why docs order expensive medicines (and leaves out the real reason for so much testing: Lawyers), althoug they mention why sometimes we don't follow the experts "guidelines": Too many tests not available for those of us in rural practice. But another reason is that too often the cases mix up apples and organges. Let's take this snippet:

For example, one study found that generic diuretic pills that cost pennies a day worked better for patients with high blood pressure than newer drugs that could be as much as 20 times as expensive. Because hypertension affects tens of millions of Americans, this finding had the potential to save the health care system billions of dollars. But the finding never really took hold; the percentage of patients taking the cheaper diuretics barely increased.

Not mentioned: They mainly work in populations that retain fluid (e.g. the black population), they often dehydrate our patients and make them low potassium and weak, and the really important fact: That ten to twenty percent of our men get sexual dysfunction from the pills.

Similarly, the "pril" drugs can cause a nasty cough (an allergy that gives you a "tickle in the throat") in ten percent of the patients.. So a doc with a patient who is not too good at giving you history or keeping appointments might prefer to prescribe a "sartan" drug that has the same advantages without the cough, but costs three times as much.

Finally, if you live in an area where you can't keep an eye on the potassium, you might want to use the medicine with the least side effects: the "pine" pills (amlodipine, nifedipine). That is why I spend the extra money to send Sister Euphrasia in Africa this pill instead of the cheaper ones: I can't monitor her potassium or her BUN, and I don't have to worry she will collapse from dehydration in the heat.

One more item on the population: When I worked with Native Americans, most of our high blood pressure was diabetes related. So a "pril" (or "sartan") type drug was preferred, since these medicines slow the rate of renal deterioration from diabetes.

Don't forget your towel

LINK