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Four Minutes of Science, and Ten Minutes of Me Hurting Myself
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| 76) Brother Cadfael's Penance - Cadfael leaves his monastery without leave, in order to go save the life of his son. Olivier finds out that Cadfael is his father, and there's a very beautiful scene when Cadfael unlocks him from the jail cell he's in, and Olivier is mad, because he feels like he's lost years in which to learn about his father. True enough. But those two can never be mad at each other for long. Beautiful book. A+ 255 pages.
77) Angels and Demons - Much better than the Da Vinci Code. 569 pages.
78) Warriors: Eclipse - I wish I could put into words how much I love this series. 313 pages
79) Bluestar's Prophecy - Another warriors book, the first prequel, actually, taking place before Into the Wild. A tear jerker, the WHOLE book. The story of a leader who lost all those close to her, made some really severe sacrifices so that her people would survive, She even gave up her children, in one of the most heart wrenching scenes I've read in ages. But it was worth it, she saved not only her clan, but ALL the clans. 516 pages.
80) Sex with Kings - "Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge." 255 pages. A. 500 year old gossip, really, but fascinating all the same.
81) Sex with the Queen - "Nine Hundred Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics" A. 295 pages. This one included much more modern gossip, including a very detailed chapter just for Diana and Charles. If it was true, I suddenly felt very, very sympathetic to Charles. Diana, it seems, wasn't quite mentally stable. Not that finding out my husband had been in love with another woman for years wouldn't be a very hurtful blow, but really, she went LOOPY.
82) Thermopylae - The Battle for the West - A+ A very readable and well researched account of the entire year, wherein Xerxes was invading Greece, all the way to the battle of Salamis, and the Persians's expulsion at Plataea. 245 pagse.
83) Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People - B+ Exactly what it sounds like, a lot of stories of people seeing weird things, losing time, some even having conversations with the fairies. One chapter draws very intriguing parallels between fairies and UFO's, and notes how seeing one stopped at about the same time as seeing the other started, 161 pages
84) The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales - It was very solid piece of fairy tales and child psychology. A 309 pages
85) Haunted Savannah - Apparnetly the Offical Guide book to the haunted history tour. A. 202 pages.
86) Pioneers in Paradise by Bud Phillips - essentially the stories of some of the first people to live in my city. Really neat, everyone from doctors, midwives, preachers, hookers, blacksmiths, slaves, railway men, and a bunch of ghost stories, too. A+ 300 pages.
87) Swifts Silver Mines: And Related Appalachian Treasures - The Shawnee and Cherokee were mining silver when the Spanish first showed up, and it just goes on from there. Swift's lucrative mine was never found after he went blind and couldn't find the way anymore. B+ 241 pages.
88) The Marble - a collection of local ghost stories. I hope Doug didn't pay too much for that one. D 66 pages.
3972 pages in this bunch, 21,274 pages for the entire year. | comments: 3 People really like me! or Do you like me?   |
| When my parents were WAYY too young, they decided to get married. Or, as my mom now admits, my dad asked, and she said yes out of fear of being an old maid. She was the ripe old age of nineteen.
Anyway, my dad proposed at a really fancy restaurant, called the Parson's Table. It was an old church that had been abandoned and remodeled. Hence "Parson's Table."
http://www.theparsonstable.net/index.html
Apparently, since 2006, it is no longer a nice restaurant, and is now an "Event Facility." Which I guess means you can rent the place out for weddings and the like.
That makes me a Sad Panda. Mostly because I never got to eat there. Although, based on how my parents marriage fared, I wonder if it wouldn't be better luck to burn the place to the ground and start over.
Still, it's a lovely old historic building, and based on the pictures, they really know their stuff! | | comments: Do you like me? |
| http://www.lds-mormon.com/science_languages_reut.shtml
Merritt Ruhlen of Stanford University has found compelling similarities between Ket, a language spoken by just 500 people in remote Siberia, and Na-Dene, a family of Native American languages.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he gives examples of 36 words that are similar in the two language families, including the words for birch bark, children and rabbit.
Speakers formed a single population
Ket is a member of the Yeniseian family of languages. All the other languages in the family became extinct in the 19th century. Na-Dene (pronounced nah-den-EY) has four branches, including Tlingit and Eyak, spoken in western Canada and Alaska, as well as Navajo and Apache.
"It would seem that Na-Dene and Yeniseian must have once formed a single population in Eurasia," Ruhlen wrote.
Comparing words is a basic tool in linguistics and can help show how languages and the populations that speak them are related. For instance, English is an Indo-European language, one of a family of languages that ranges from Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, to German and French.
Related words are often easy to spot -- for instance the German word "mutter" is similar to its English counterpart mother, while the Russian word "brat" looks very much like brother and is similar to the Latin root for words like "fraternal."
Similar words for birch bark
Ruhlen stumbled onto the link between Yeniseian and Na-Dene languages while doing other comparisons. He found striking similarities.
"I like (the word for) birch bark quite a bit," he said in a telephone interview. "It's so specific. It seems to me that it would be extremely improbable that two families would invent the same word for birch bark."
In Ket the word is pronounced something like "ch'ee" -- a sound hard to transliterate into English. In several existing Na-Dene languages it is pronounced similarly.
The words for breast also correlate. In Ket the word is "tuhguh" and in the Na-Dene Koyukon language it is "t'uga.'"
Evidence of several migrations
Ruhlen found enough other similarities to convince him of the link. "I just picked out 36 for this article that looked like the best and most obvious and strongest," he said.
More evidence points to Native Americans crossing a land bridge over what is now the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska, including genetic, archeological and other linguistic comparisons.
Ruhlen pointed out that Eskimo Aleut shows a number of similarities with European and Asian languages.
But such close similarities between more isolated and rare languages supports theories that not just one migration took place, but several.
Some of the original Yeniseian speakers would have stayed behind in Siberia, while others moved across the land bridge to help establish the populations in North America, Ruhlen said. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| I think I forgot to update everybody about the position at the museum I was coveting mightily. It's very much a good news/bad news situation right now.
The position has been filled, which is bad news for me, good news for the museum. It was filled by one of the GA's, which is good news for everyone (including me, actually) because it means that it's not a stranger coming in and changing things, which is what led to the problems with the last Educational Coordinator. She's an Americorp employee, so neither ETSU nor the museum are paying her, which is also good news for everyone. It's only for a year, which is bad news for the museum, and good news for me, possibly.
I've made peace with it. After that one day in September, where I cried big alligator tears all the way home, I've pretty much accepted that that door is closed. I was actually kind of relieved when it was announced a official. Oh, there was a little twinge of disappointment, but it was gone in a moment. It might open when the Americorp contract runs out, she might get to keep it, though, if the ETSU board of directors stop being dicks. Which is a whole, other, miserable story. Suffice it to say, ETSU does NOTHING to help keep that museum afloat, if they can help it, and seem to view it as some sort of money pit with no intrinsic value. Not that they're putting much money in: only eight paychecks. Ten, at the most, if you count the GA's. Everything else, the museum has to pay for itself out of donations and admissions, and grants, I suppose.
Well, the carrot on the string I set for myself kept me going through a really tough time at work. And I still enjoy going down, I love everyone down there that I work with, and I feel like I'm making a difference and contributing with the project. Just because there's a turnip on my string now doesn't change anything about why I go and what I do when I'm there. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Recently, the doctors from ETSU, Schubert and Wallace, have been placed in charge of the Saltville, Virginia Ice Age site. Here's an article about their paper, they just recently published.
http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/10/the_stench_emanating_from_the.php?utm_source=nytwidget
A Short-Faced Bear's Mammoth Picnic
Category: Mammals • Paleontology
Posted on: October 23, 2009 3:31 PM, by Brian Switek
The stench emanating from the putrefying mammoth carcass carried for miles.
Though kept out of the sun by the long shadows of the surrounding pine trees, the corpse reeked as the flesh, sinew, and bone of the mammoth's body were slowly parceled out into the ecosystem by scavengers. The woolly elephant's eyes had been pecked out long ago, and the intricate musculature of its trunk lay in tatters, but there was still plenty of meat to go around.
The grisly death site buzzed with activity as less magisterial creatures went about their dirty work. Black birds jostled for the best access to blood-caked fissures opened up in the mammoth's hide, insects injected the beginnings of the next generation into what would serve as both cradle and pantry, and bacteria continued their surreptitious breakdown of the stinking hulk. Yet the olfactory lure that such a rich source of fat and flesh had not gone unnoticed by other more imposing scavengers.
At a distance it was difficult to see. The dense ranks of trees obscured its approach as it loped through the forest. It was not in a hurry, it could not smell any others like itself around, but it was hungry. It let out low huffs as it walked, not out of physical exertion but of anticipation, announcing its approach as the squabbling birds fluttered to the safety of branches just out of reach.
Had it not been so formidable a predator it would have almost been a comical sight. It was an immense bear, larger than any of its living relatives, but it looked as if it had been made out of mismatched parts. Its front legs were extraordinarily long, placing its shoulders so high that the beast almost looked hunchbacked, and its face looked like that of a grizzly bear that had run head-first into a wall at speed. This was Arctodus, the short-faced bear.
The carnivore snuffled the air as it approached the fallen behemoth. That the meat was not fresh did not matter. Normally it would have to chase down its prey, but now all it had to do was defend its prize. Even if others arrived it still would have time to fill its belly with flesh, enough to last it at least a few days. After locating a wound on the mammoth's foot, one that exposed the rich pocket of fat inside, the bear set its powerful jaws to work.
ResearchBlogging.org
This scene is imaginary, but it is based upon fact. A little more than 14,500 years ago both mammoths and short-faced bears lived in and around a prehistoric conifer forest that existed in what is now Virginia's Saltville Valley. Even better, in a new paper published in the journal Boreas, paleontologists Blaine Schubert and Steven Wallace describe evidence that at least one Arctodus may have had itself a mammoth picnic.
The Saltville site has been studied on and off for about a hundred years, and much of the material dug out of it (especially in terms of plants and small mammals) has yet to be described. Even so, the site has long been known for producing the bones of large herbivorous Pleistocene mammals. American mastodon, mammoth, musk ox, bison, horse, and elk bones have all been found at the site, but there has been no sign of any carnivores. (Or, if there were any carnivore bones found at the site, no one took the trouble to describe them.)
The lower right jaw of Arctodus with one molar still embedded within it. From the Boreas paper.
As Schubert and Wallace report, however, there is now evidence that at least two large carnivores lived in the same area at the same time. The most direct evidence comes from a partial right lower jaw bone with a molar tooth still embedded in it. It belonged to a very large bear, and the details of the teeth and shortening of the jaw (indicating a short face) allowed the researchers to narrow down their list of candidates to Arctodus simus, popularly known as the "short-faced bear." In fact, compared to other skeletons from this species, this individual from Virginia appears to have been especially snub-nosed.
A mammoth heel bone (calcaneus) damaged by a predator's canine. The arrow indicates the puncture mark. From the Boreas paper.
The second line of evidence comes from mammoth bones found at the same site. The scientists describe several parts of a mammoth ankle and foot that were chewed on by carnivores. The question is, "What kind of carnivores did the damage?"
One of the bones, the calcaneus (or heel bone) was bitten completely through by a predator with a large canine tooth. Only two known Late Pleistocene carnivores were large enough to inflict this type of damage; the American lion (Panthera leo atrox) and the short-faced bear. As big cats typically avoid chewing on bones, however, the bear is the more likely culprit.* This is consistent with the results of radiocarbon dating carried out on the mammoth bones and the bear jaw. The two animals lived within about 340 years of each other, so it is likely that both coexisted in the same place at the same time.
*[The authors point out, however, that American lions are often found with broken teeth. This suggests that they more regularly bit through bone and chewed hard parts of carcasses than their modern relatives in Africa and India. Though no remains have been found of the American lion at the Saltville site, it cannot be ruled out as a suspect.]
A mammoth ankle bone (astragalus) damaged by a wolf-like predator. The bite marks are circled in red. From the Boreas paper.
Yet there are other mammoth bones that show a different damage pattern. An astragalus (ankle bone) from the same mammoth is marked by a series of cone-shaped depressions. These tooth marks are more consistent to damage done by a large wolf than a bear, and the authors hypothesize that a dire wolf (Canis dirus) chewed on this particular bone. This means that there were at least two large carnivores living in the vicinity of the Saltville site around 14,500 years ago.
A 19th century restoration of an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) skeleton. Note the orientation of the toes. From The Royal Natural History.
But why would these carnivores have been gnawing on the mammoth's feet? Surely there were meatier parts of the mammoth's body that would have been preferred by these large scavengers. Contrary to what might be expected, mammoth feet probably had a fair bit of meat and fat on them. When their skeletons are reconstructed in museums mammoths look like they are standing on tip-toe, and in life they would have had a pad of flesh behind those foot bones to create a big, round foot as seen in living elephants. (See illustration above.) A mammoth foot would probably good eating for a hungry carnivore.
Even so, a foot may not be as enticing to a large carnivore as viscera from the body cavity or flesh that surrounded the limbs, so perhaps this particular mammoth died in a mud hole or other feature that covered most of its body. This would leave only a few bits (like the foot) sticking out above the surface. The authors note that the uncompletely-excavated mammoth skeleton, though unarticulated, is pretty well preserved and appears to have been covered quickly. If this was the case, then scavengers may have only fed upon what was poking above the encasing sediment. It may even be possible that the mammoth was completely buried, began to decay, and was only later partially uncovered by moving water or digging by scavengers.
Unfortunately our present perspective makes it very difficult to reconstruct such past events, but I still find this fossil evidence fascinating. We now have evidence that at least two, and maybe even three, species of large, extinct carnivores lived in what is now western Virginia only ~14,500 years ago. The chewed-up mammoth bones, whispers from the fossil record, speak to scenes from an ancient past that is just beyond our reach.
SCHUBERT, B., & WALLACE, S. (2009). Late Pleistocene giant short-faced bears, mammoths, and large carcass scavenging in the Saltville Valley of Virginia, USA Boreas, 38 (3), 482-492 DOI: 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00090.x | | comments: Do you like me? |
| | Time: | 07:38 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anksadg.gif) sick |
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| Well, three years.
Instead of actually celebrating, we are home having a quiet evening, because I have a sinus infection and bronchitis. I am drinking a tofu, strawberry, OJ, and banana smoothie, and eating lots of soup and antibiotics. I also have no voice, so any time I say anything, it comes out in a squeak.
It's just as well. I've gained too much weight, and so I no longer fit into my favorite medieval dress, which I was going to wear with my wedding jewelry for Halloween (a circlet, and a celtic knot bracelet). So, at least I didn't have to throw something together with cat ears and mascara whiskers. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| I looked at the cat's food dispenser this morning to see a mere handful of kibble, but when I went to the cabinet, I found that the bag had been emptied, and tossed away, but no one* had informed me that there wasn't another bag!
Well, I'm grocery shopping today anyway, so I put cat food on the list, and said to myself "The cats need food badly."
And then a deep, mysterious voice from my past jumped into my head and warned "Evie is about to die!"**
I am such a geek. No question.
*Not counting the cats, who have no opposable thumbs, there are only two of us in the house.
**If you don't get the joke, you are probably very young, and can use your own Google-Fu. This is doubly funny because Doug is always making fun of her for being... a little chubby. | | comments: 2 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| Scene: Rhapsody is upstairs on her desktop, while Doug is on the couch with his laptop, they could easily yell down to each other, but instead, have been chatting thru Facebook. Edited for clarity.
Emily: I didn't relize the ultrasound lady really was your girlfriend. At least now i know who to stalk.
Doug: (clacka clacka clacka clacka)
lol
You have to know which one it was, mwahahaha
Emily: I have my ways.
Doug: Ask for another ultrasound and then follow me? lol
I think that's going to come out creepy and/or silly, like the time you slipped a dollar to the guy at McDonald's and whispered "You know what to do"
Emily: Well, if she's really your girlfriend, I'll just follow you, and then watch from a distance.
What?
The time i did WHAT?
Doug: Unless confused/panicked is the correct answer to that super secret spy handoff move
Emily: I do not remember this McDonalds incident.
Doug:"Uh, I'm gonna have to speak to my manager" 'The yellow monkey chirps at noon!'
CA CAW! CA CAW! EEK!!
Emily begins laughing, and then begins coughing
Doug: Oh yeah baby, phlegm it up for me, you know how I likes it
Emily: I'm still trying to remember when i handed the guy at mcdonalds a dollar and said "You know what to do."
Doug: You can hock some of those thick brown loogies just like in those free movies.
That's just SO sexy. Who knew asphyxiation was sexy for both parties?
Emily: Can we please stick to the McDonalds incident I don't remember?
Doug:"Aw yeah baby, you're turning as purple as my dick...oh...oh..."
Emily: When did this happen? Was I in college, were we on a trip or something?
I have no memory of this.
Doug: I suppose not, since you shortly thereafter shouted "DEATH TO FRANCE!" while waving your pants above your head as you perched on the current Happy Meal toy display and then took what appeared to be Advil and came to pretending like you didn't remember anything.
But I know the real truth. You didn't realize I wasn't supposed to know and now this is how it has to be.
Emily: OK then. You're making this up.
Doug: You should hear the things I make up while I'm bored in the car ALONE.
Emily: Can I blog this?
Doug: Sure, why not?
Blow your cover, see if I care. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| I'm home with IBS today, hoping to convince myself to go into work around 2 or 2:30. Since I'm not at work, I'm still thinking about work, and I figured that this story was worth posting.
Two days ago, there was a bomb threat called into our center. One of my team mates answered, we'll call him Bob. He's a young guy, barely out of high school, I think, but he's got a very innocent looking and expressive face.
He answered this call, and the customer was a normal, if slightly perturbed customer. He verified all his information, his phone number, his account pin, his name, and then, as if in the course of normal conversation, he asked "Where is your office?"
"Well, our main offices are in Kansas City, if that's what you're asking."
"Well, I'm going to go set a f***ing bomb off there."
click
Bob looked freaked out the rest of the day. He got off the phone, alerted our Boss Lady, who tried to get ahold of our Corporate Security, but no dice. So, she had to call our local PD, who contacted Kansas City local PD, and also the local PD in the guys hometown.
Since, you know, we had all of his personal information at our fingertips.
(I'm reminded of a friend who has this huge fan-crush on that guy with the puppets, and she does a fairly passable impression of one, who's catch phrase is apparently "Dumbass!")
Apparently, he is going to (probably already has) received a visit from Homeland Security, who take things like this very, very seriously. Especially since this particular call was, by a great stroke of luck (not his), one of the 11% that actually gets recorded.
We all had to have a meeting wherein the situation was explained, how Bob did everything correctly, and we should all do this the same way in the future. Then, one of the girls said "I guess that's a "NO" for Bob, on his Advanis" (the company that calls our customers and asks how we did, for quality purposes).
Which, actually, was really funny as long as I didn't have to explain the joke. | | comments: 1 Person really likes me! or Do you like me? |
| There is a baby tapir fossil that the guys have been clearing out in the Elephant pit, but it's packed in pretty tight with other fossils, and the plaster cast is bigger than it should be. Also, because of the other things around it, and the shape of the hillside, the team is having trouble turning it over, as they normally would, to plaster cast the bottom. Currently, what they need out weighs a good ton, possibly more. They have done the only sensible thing they can think of:
They are looking to hire a helicopter to move it out of the pit and onto a pallet to be moved inside. This would more then likely result in appearing on the local news.
Oh, I hope I can get off work to see that. I'll take Doug's camera and video tape it! | | comments: Do you like me? |
| | Time: | 10:43 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankangryg.gif) furious |
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| http://www.alternet.org/blogs/healthwellness/143164/30_gop_senators_vote_to_defend_gang_rape/
I am SO pissed off right now. I really can't think of any time when I have been this angry, I'm sick to my stomach I'm so angry. I'm livid Go ahead, read the link, but what it boils down to is that a woman, a Haliburton employee, was gang raped by her co-workers in Iraq, and told that her contract said she couldn't press charges in a court of law, and if she left for medical attention, she was fired.
Thank God for people like Al Franken, who introduced a bill to stop government funding to ALL companies who put clauses in contracts forbiding them their day in court in cases of assault, sexual harassment, etc. The bill passed, Thank $DIETY we live in America, after all. What pisses me, off, what burns me up and is really raising my blood pressure is that SOME SENATORS VOTED AGAINST THIS BILL.
Even worse,
MY SENATORS VOTED AGAINST THIS BILL. BOTH OF THEM.
Senators Alexander and Corker, you sirs, are dirt. You are lower than dirt. you are lower than pond scum on the back end of a rabid flea, and I promise I WILL NOT vote for either of you in this next election. In fact, I will actually go vote in any mid term elections, just so I can try and vote both of you out.
This is disgraceful. It is horrid. I hope your mothers are still alive, and I hope they, and your wives, and any daughters you have know what you voted against. In fact, I want you to imagine that your daughters get hired at Haliburton, and I'll let your imaginations fill in the rest. You'd want to protect them, I'm sure. Well, apparently it's only YOUR children that need protecting. Apparently it's only YOUR daughters that should get their day in court. I think that NO ONE should ever be attacked in such a way, and if it DOES happen, the perpetrators need to be put in jail for life, and possibly castrated. I'm incredibly
I can not believe you. You, sirs, are supposed to stand for "decency". If I had a choice between someone who'll vote for Gay Marriage and someone who'll vote against this, I'll take the Gay Marriage thank you very much. (I'll probably take that anyway, but that's neither here nor there.) I'd rather allow my government funds to go toward fixing up the neighborhood CRACK JOINT than toward Haliburton. I would rather hand out that money to Tammy Faye, so she can get more makeup. I would rather you toss all those bills out from a plane out into the Smokies. At least that would make a few hikers happy.
I'm so furious right now I could spit. I'd write a real letter, but I don't have a printer. And anyway, I don't remember who I voted for, so they'll probably find out I really did vote democratic in the next election, and dismiss me anyway.
But I registered a Republican because all the good local politics are, or at least were when I registered. But then we got Frist. (Terry Shaivo looked ok to him....) And now we have these two brown-nosers. I bet they got passed bucks to vote that way. Too bad for Haliburton so many other senators were actual human beings. Note that ALL the female Republican senators voted for this bill.
At this point, the only Republican I'm willing to vote for ever again is Steve Godsey, and only because I've known him since I was tiny, and he's a good man. I can guarantee if he was a senator instead of our county mayor, he'd have thought of his daughter, and said "Haliburton can go take a swim in nuclear waste."
As far as I'm concerned, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker can too. Remember, that skin flaking off is perfectly normal, healthy even. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Rethinking Eastern Grasslands: A Deep Time Perspective
By Michael R. Hall
For eastern grassland enthusiasts, the questions and mysteries kept piling up. Ponder the background behind some of the answered riddles:
As far east as Ohio, prairie remnants can still be found, although 99% of this habitat has been lost to agriculture and development in historical times. The problem is that east of the Mississippi River the climate favors forests. In most instances, the prairies will disappear or degrade rather rapidly without almost annual burning. Yet, frequent burning tends to destroy the very insect populations, such as butterflies and beetles that the prairie plants depend upon for pollination. Such burning also takes a toll on certain plants (e.g., mosses and lichens) and other animals, and temporarily disrupts the microbiological life in the soil. In addition, although there is abundant evidence that Indians frequently burned grasslands and some forest areas to improve hunting and to get rid of ticks, this does not explain how prairies persisted in the east prior to such human intervention. Natural fires do not occur annually on eastern prairies.
There were other mysteries as well. Why is this region the main natural habitat of the federally-endangered Indiana Bat (Mysotis sodalis), a bat which recent studies have shown prefers open-canopy forests and savannas, when the climate virtually always results at present in closed-canopy forests? Their populations have been declining ever since they were first discovered as a separate species in 1935. Likewise, why are Osage Orange, Honey Locust, and Kentucky Coffee trees only found in limited areas in the wild in bottomlands when they grow perfectly well upland and were once, according to fossil records, far more abundant and widespread until the Holocene (i.e., the last 10,000 years)?
The late eminent botanist, E. Lucy Braun, after careful examination of both plant species and geology, concluded that the unusual mid-grass prairie remnants in southwestern Ohio (i.e., Adams County) were pre-Illinoian in age (over 600,000 years old).[1] The last warm interglacial interval that swept tall-grass prairies into the east from the Great Plains (the so-called Prairie Peninsula) occurred 6-8,000 years ago, and did not extend as far south as Adams County, Ohio. Examination of species from the Sangamonian Interglacial (120,000 years ago) suggests the wide-spread presence of large grazers and, therefore, grasslands in the east. The Sangamonian is now thought by paleontologists to have been a warmer interglacial than the more recent one which followed the Wisconsinan. For example, hippos occupied London, England and jaguars and tapirs occurred as far north as the southern Great Lakes states during the Sangamonian.[2]
It is apparent that prairies and grasslands had swept eastward during at least several separate interglacial intervals over the last million years or more. But how did these prairies and grasslands survive when the climate changed periodically to favor forests? The only plausible answer appears to be grazing and browsing by megafauna. However, when we look at all the extant megafauna that have ever existed in the Great Lakes region, none existed in pre-Illinoian times that would be suitable candidates for the task.
Bison did not enter North America until about 400,000 years ago, about the same time as elk (Cervus elaphus).[3] Likewise, tundra muskox (Ovibos moschatus) and the extinct woodland muskox (Bootherium bombifrons) are large grazers, but didn’t arrive until the Illinoian.[4] The tundra muskox likes colder conditions than the climate that favors prairies. The caribou (Rangifer genus) has been around for most of the Pleistocene (for at least 1.6 million years) and has been found as far south as Virginia and Tennessee, but it prefers tundra and woodland habitat.[5] Black bear (Ursus americanus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were certainly around in pre-Illinoian times, but no one would seriously argue that these forest and woodland-edge species could keep the woody plants from taking over a grassland when the climate favored forests.[6] The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) and the modern moose (Alces alces) are even more recent arrivals from Eurasia than the bison and elk (i.e., from the Wisconsinan).[7] Pronghorn fossils (Antilocapridae family) have never been found in the Great Lakes region.[8]
Clearly modern explanations for grassland habitat viability and long-term ecosystem health in the east are inadequate to explain pre-Illinoian prairies. Something important is missing. To find the answers, it is necessary to explore conditions of grassland ecosystems in the east prior to the appearance of extant megafauna from Illinoian glacial times and thereafter, and of humans some 15,000 years ago. How did these systems evolve? How were they maintained?
To look for the ecological origins of modern prairies and grasslands, one can begin with the Blancan Age, which commenced about 3.5 million years ago and ended with the start of the Pleistocene, some 1.9 million years ago. Rhinos had already become extinct in North America around the beginning of this time (over 3 million years ago), but the Great Plains were vibrant with horses, camels, mastodons, pronghorns and giant ground sloths.[9] Camels existed solely in North America until 4 million years ago and, in Blancan times, there were camels as tall as 12 feet at the shoulders with long necks.[10] They could browse almost as high up as modern giraffes. Likewise, some ground sloths grew up to 11 feet long with an additional reach of several feet with its long forearms when it stood, tripod style, on its hind feet and tail.[11]
Horses also originated in North America and spread to several other continents. In Blancan times, a one-toed American zebra (Equus simplicidens) shared the plains with the last survivors of the three-toed gazelle-horses.[12] Experts now agree that the American zebra was closely related to the living African species called Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi).[13] The Grevy’s zebra lives in smaller groups than the more common plains zebra of Africa, and prefers more arid conditions.
Although mastodons (Zygodont family) and stegomastodons (Bunodont family) had been in North America for a total of about 15-17 million years, representatives of the true elephants, the mammoths, wouldn’t arrive until 2 million years ago.[14] The last stegomastodon (Stegomastodon mirificus) is recorded from North America sometime around 1.6 million years ago.[15] The last America mastodon (Mammut americanum) survived until only about 10,000 years ago, and is now believed by some paleontologists to be the eastern seed disperser for many large seeded plants such as Osage Orange, Honey Locust and Kentucky Coffee trees.[16] Its browsing activities are also thought to have kept eastern forests more open in places, which might help explain the Indiana bat population in the east. Although the mastodon is said to have preferred spruce and pine forests as well as wetlands, its wide distribution throughout the continental United States and northern Mexico suggests it was not picky about its browse.
In Blancan times we also have a North American hyena (Chasmaporthetes ossifragus), although it was built more for speed in open areas than modern hyenas. In addition, we have an American cheetah (Miracinonyx studeri) found in an area that was thought to have forest–savanna at that time in the Great Plains.[17] This cheetah likely hunted pronghorns and deer. There was a scavenger-built dog, the bone-eating dog (Borophagus diversidens) with powerful jaws and short legs; and a saber-toothed cat, the western dirktooth (Megantereon hesperus).[18]
During the Pleistocene (1.9 million years to 10,000 years ago) we have some new and additional cast members of the megafauna on the American grasslands. Enter the mammoths, 95% of whose diet is grasses; the American lion (Panthera leo atrox); the short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) who was twice the weight of modern brown bears and more of a true long-legged carnivore; the flat-headed peccary (Platygonus compressus), a grassland species of peccary; a later cheetah species (Miracinonyx trumani); a later saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis); etc.[19] In fact, cheetahs are possibly the one genus of the cat family now believed to have evolved originally in North America.[20]
If the above descriptions appear more than coincidentally to resemble the Serengeti of Africa, we should remember that Africa was already connected to the Eurasian continents at this time which, in turn, were periodically connected to North America via the Bering land bridge during several glacial ice advances. Prairies and savannas and other grasslands around the world during the Pleistocene were the home of more and larger megafauna than any other habitat. By the Wisconsinan (100,000 years ago), the megafauna diversity on the Great Plains surpassed anywhere else in the world, including the modern Serengeti.[21] North America lost over 70% of all its megafauna just 8,000 to 12,000 years ago. Our native grasslands have been impoverished habitats ever since. They are like rivers without fish.
The arrival of ancient bison and elk around 400,000 years ago and the survival of one species of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) undoubtedly helped preserve the grasslands of the Great Plains after the demise of the other megafauna. A drier climate and, in some cases, dissolved minerals forming a hard pan a short distance below the soil surface kept out the woody plants there, but what about the eastern grasslands?
Unfortunately, there is almost no record of fossils in the east from the Blancan Age outside of Florida. In fact, there are few fossils at all until the warmer interval called the Sangamonian Interglacial (around 120,000 years ago) in the Great Lakes region. Although in this region there are a few fossils of peccaries, camels, and horses from Sangamonian times, their limited presence does not seem to provide an adequate explanation for grassland persistence. Likewise, giant ground sloths, like the jefferson ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), and the giant land tortoise (Hesperotestudo crassiscutata) have too slow a metabolism to keep grasslands clear.
The most probable answer in the fossil record of the Great Lakes area all point to one keystone group of species: the elephants. More specifically, we are referring to the mammoths and the mastodons. There are more mammoth and mastodon fossils (mostly teeth) from more counties from the southern half of the lower peninsula of Michigan and from all of Ohio than from any other region of the country.[22] Indeed, there are more fossils of elephants in these two states than of all other Pleistocene megafauna combined. This then was the center of North America elephant country. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) ate the grasses in the colder tundra or steppe-like areas during glacial advances, while Jefferson mammoths (Mammuthus jeffersonii) ate the grasses in the warmer prairie areas after glacial retreats. The mastodons were major browsers in this ecosystem that also helped keep out the woody vegetation and this, in turn, also encouraged prairie and savanna conditions.
What was it about this area that was so good for elephants? Elephant experts say that, while virtually all mammals need salt and water, elephants need these items in such large amounts that it is considered a limiting factor for their populations.[23] Their diet is high in potassium which gradually leads to a sodium imbalance which must be periodically corrected.[24] Ohio, southern Michigan, and northern Kentucky are especially rich in large salt deposits at the surface (i.e., salt licks) and, unlike some areas with large salt deposits out west, there is plenty of fresh water here as well.[25]
There is also abundant clay. Elephants are known to walk up to 200 miles to get salt and mineral rich clay. That puts all of Ohio and southern Michigan in easy range of such substances for elephants (and other mammals). Elephants also have enormous appetites, and the greater rainfall in the eastern United States allowed their grazing and foraging areas to recover more rapidly. It is well known that you can support more grazing animals in the east than in the more arid west on a given amount of acreage.
In addition, the most successful known predator of baby mammoths (except for man) did not exist in the northeast quadrant of the United States: the scimitar-toothed cat (Homotherium serum).[26] A distant cousin, the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) did occur in this region (or at least in southern Indiana) but it is not known to have been very successful at separating baby mammoths or mastodons from their protective mothers. To accomplish this it is believed that the scimitar-toothed cat likely hunted in pairs, unusual behavior outside of lions for large cats, with one adult drawing off or distracting the mother while the other slashed the infant’s neck or throat causing it to bleed to death.[27]
What is the significance of all these elephants to eastern grassland habitats? Preserve managers in Africa have observed that rhinos and elephants are keystone species to the grassland and savanna biomes.[28] They keep out trees and shrubs and fertilize the grassland with copious amounts of dung (buried by armies of dung beetles). When elephants are eliminated, African preserve managers note that the area reverts to thorny shrubland and, with enough rainfall, to eventual forest.[29] The mammoths became extinct only about 11,000 years ago in North America and the mastodons about 10,000 years ago. Eastern grasslands have been in trouble ever since, especially with the loss of other significant megaherbivores such as bison, horses, and camels, all of which were known to exist in the Great Lakes area.[30]
What are the implications for grassland restoration and preservation in the United States? First, while restoration of megafauna is important throughout North America, particularly for grasslands, such megafauna restoration is critical for grasslands east of the Mississippi River. Second, the prairies and other grasslands as far east as Ohio were once far more extensive than is commonly acknowledged. There is no other way to explain the large elephant populations in these areas. Jefferson mammoths and woolly mammoths are not forest elephants. Third, an eastern prairie with wild horses (such as Przewalski’s horse or Asian wild asses), camels (including bactrian camels and llamas), bison, and elk is a more natural ecosystem than one without them. Fourth, to support these large animals, prairie restorations must be on a much larger scale – thousands of acres. Finally, with the restoration of many large herbivores, fire management can be more infrequent, reducing ecosystem maintenance and species loss.
This approach will solve several other problems as well. In places such as Adams County, Ohio, several plant species such as false aloe (Agave virginica) are in decline because their present populations are said to be too widespread and fragmented to ensure long-term fertility. Even small grassland animals such as thirteen-lined ground squirrels, badgers, and a number of bird species need larger grassland areas to establish viable populations. Different grassland species of birds require different grassland heights, which disparate habitat needs cannot be met solely by a fire management approach. Large grazers are needed. Grassland species of birds are declining more rapidly in the east than any other habitat-dependent group of birds.
Alas, we cannot bring back the mastodons and mammoths, but the medium-sized and small mammals have not changed since the Pleistocene: i.e., badgers, bobcats, beavers, coyotes, weasels, rabbits, skunks, mice, moles, opossums, etc.,[31] Likewise, birds and reptiles and insects are pretty much the same but desperately need the restoration of their grassland habitats. Experimentation with combinations of large mammal species that will work in different areas of the country or within a given state is needed, but we must quickly change our idea of what is a “natural” grassland so far as the megafauna are concerned. In most instances, we should simply try to recreate the ecological niches of such animals as best we can in our respective climates to approximate the only remaining intact grassland ecosystem in the world: the African Serengeti. We should give preference to suitable North American species but, where a given ecological niche no longer has an appropriate North America megafauna species, we should not hesitate to experiment with large species from other continents. Of course, care should be taken to prevent species from getting loose just in case a particular species’ net effect should turn out to be more negative than positive (e.g., European wild boar and feral pigs in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park). | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Ever since it's very aftermath, the Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.E.) has been deeply set in the Western consiousness. Clearly Thermopylae was a location of great strategic importance, because it commands the pass through which one goes after traveling south from Thessaly through Lokris and into Boeotia. Holding the pass could block an invader and even turn him back, though on all three of the famous occasions the defense of the pass failed: the Athenians took up a position there in 352 and discouraged Philip II (Alexanders the Greats father) from invading, in 323 during the Lamian War, the last-ditch effort by Athens to break free from Macedonian control, the general Leosthenes blocked the Macedonian Antipater by stationing troops at Thermopylae. As celebrated as the Hot Gates (named for sulpher hot springs) are, the pass at Thermopylae was not the only way south from Thessaly into Central Greece; it was merely the best and easiest route.
But the modern visitor to the site sees two not very imposing looking hills; they lie to the south, not to the west. And the gulf of Malia that protected the Spartans right flank has gone MIA: a broad expanse of scrubby ground stretches out for about four miles to the sea. It looks today like no pass at all.
The reason for this is no mystery. Due to what geologists call "alluvial fans", a process by which rivers deposit silt (travertine and other sediments), the coastline of the Gulf of Malea has advanced from 3-5 miles over the last 2500 years. Kraft concluded from his studies that the pass was not more than 20-30 meters wide in 480.
There is a dispute to be noticed concerning the identity of the hill to which Herodotus says the defenders retreated before finally being overwhelmed. Until excavations it was generally assumed that this was the westernmost of the hills, Hill 1 by the remains of the Phokian Wall (rebuilt by the Spartans). However, the excavations proved that Kolonos Hill must be identified with Hill 2, due to the discovery of a large number of arrowheads similar in type to those found at Marathon, in a well at the Agora, and on the north slope of the Acropolis.
The stone lion, the memorial to the heroism of the defenders, has never been found (though there is a modern restoration in the wrong place for the tourists) nor have the bones of the dead. A commemorative stone was placed on top of the burial mound of the Spartans at Thermopylae bearing the famous inscription petitioning the passerby to report the fate of the Spartans to their city. This was supposedly on the hill on which the last of them died. The original stone has not been preserved, nor has it's original position.
In addition to the 1955 monument to Leonidas, the government of Greece has also put up a monument to the 700 or so Thespians, long over-looked, who also died to the last man defending their home. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| I called in to work today, my headache from last night is still not gone, although the light sensitivity did go away. Seeing as it started around 3, Ibuprofen didn't touch it, and by eleven, I was in so much pain, I just laid down in bed. I wanted to cry, but it hurt worse. I'm confident in calling that one a migraine. I'm still sore in my neck, as if the pain moved down from the top of my head to the base of my skull. For some reason, I am very, very weak.
I was going to have a friend over for dinner tonight, and I may still, but only if I feel strong enough to take a shower at least around 3 o clock. Then he can come over early. We'll see. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Doug is in Roanoke this weekend with his best friend and the baby. I'm jealous, but I have to work. Plus, I don't particularly like Roanoke.
I miss him. I don't talk about him much, but I'm totally glad I have him around. Tonight I boiled noodles and just put Parmesan on them. Without Doug to cook for, I would eat that kind of thing every night. He keeps me eating right, just because I have to make sure he does. Tomorrow he comes home, so meatloaf and veggies.
Plus, an empty bed is no fun either. Good thing I have the cats, at least. Jack's moped all weekend, so he's been really lovey. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Oh, yeah. That's all I need, my mother telling me to watch my language on my FB.
By the way, my mother used to be the neighborhood crazy cat lady. (Well, she's still that. At that lat cat show, Sootie was only four points away from Premiere Champion! Next time is Willow's turn!)
But once I gave her my free Sprint account and a Rumor (since she uses WAY more minutes than I do, and can then talk to the family all across the country for free), she's turned 17 again. First texting everyone and their brother, and now Facebook.
I feel like the kids in this commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CKzskjn4s
"Just because we're Facebook friends does not mean you can write "I love you" all over my wall."
Hmm. Am I showing non-company loyalty by linking to a Verizon ad when I work for Sprint? Better question, do I care? | | comments: 2 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| 72) Holidays in Hell - 257 pages. "In which our intrepid reporter travels to the world's worst places and asks "what's funny about this?" My favorite lines:
"A middle- aged heterosexual, college-educated male wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and a string bikini bottom and carrying a purse - what else could it be but a vacationing Frenchman?"
"I'm sure they (Harvard, on their 350th birthday party) were looking for a person who embodied democratic sprit, intellectual excellence and the American ethos, which is why they picked Prince Charles."
"Star and Stripes Captain ... Dennis Conner was there, also in a bad tux. He looked like the poster child for the Penguin Obesity Fund."
73) Republican Party Reptile - 220 pages.
"Freddie Aguilar, who's billed as "the Bob Dylan" of the Philippines." This is unfair, since he's good-looking, plays the guitar well, can carry a tune, and writes songs that make sense."
"A pick-up truck is basically a back porch with an engine attached. Both a pick-up and aback porch are good places to drink beer, because you can take a leak standing from either. Pick-up trucks are generally a little faster downhill than back porches, with the exception of certain California back porches during mudslide season. But back porches get better gas mileage."
"After ten years of polygonal civil war and invasions and air strikes by Syrians, Israelis, and multilateral peace keeping forces, the place (Beirut) still isn't as squalid as some cities that have never been hit by anything but government social programs.:"
74) Parliament of Whores - 233 pages. "A Lone Humorist attempts to explain the entire U.S. Government."
"The mystery of government is not how Washington works, but how to make it stop."
"The problem isn't a Congress that won't cut spending or a president who won't raise taxes. The problem is an American public with a bottomless sense of entitlement to federal money."
"Every government is a parliament of whores. The troubles is, in a democracy, the whores are us."
75) Driving Like Crazy - 258 pages. "Thirty years of vehicular hell-bending Celebrating America the way it's supposed to be - with an oil well in every backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in every carport, and the chairman of the federal reserve mowing our lawn."
"Rereading these tales of misadventure, a subtle pattern began to emerge... We were drunk all the time."
"After (September 11th), the Patriot Act largesse was showered on small town police departments... in case Osama Bin Laden has one tail light out."
968 pages of PJ, and 17302 total. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| PJ was totally great. He gave us a longish speech, but it was hilarious, so it didn't matter, we were all entertained. Although, having read so much of his work... I couldn't help but notice that he'd plagiarized himself quite a bit. The speech was bits and pieces of all of his books, it still made us all giggle and hee-haw.
He did tell one new joke that I will love him forever for. He'd apparently told a friend of his from New York where he was going, and that friend tried to tell him that since we were in the middle of nowhere, we couldn't be worth much. He said something along the lines of the greatest minds in New York City had come up with some very important things, like sub-prime lending, and the stock market. When he got down here, he found that the greatest minds of Bristol had thought up country music, and NASCAR.
"Now, what makes people happy? A pretty tune and a fast car, or bankruptcy and the IRS?"
Another of my favorites was actually during the Q&A session, wherein he said he was Libertarian, but he considered that to be a personal belief, rather than a political belief. He based this on the fact that true Libertarians can't really get elected because they'd have to be too honest. "Let me tell you how little I can do for you! Look how little I did while in office!" Another "what if politicians were honest" moment end up as "I'm sorry, I can't fix the American Educational System. It has nothing to do with budgets, better teachers, standardized tests, or how many computers are in the classrooms. It's broken because of YOUR STUPID KIDS." My high school English teacher (whom I was sitting behind) and I hee-hawed.
I asked him his favorite place he'd been (Baja California for an off road track and bird hunting), the place he wanted to go but didn't get to (Afghanistan as the Soviets were leaving). And he gave a bonus answer, that the worst place he'd been was Mogadishu. ("All these kids who want anarchy, I say "sure!" I'll take them down and leave 'em.")
Then he signed books. I thought I would stick out because I brought every book of his I owned (Give War a Chance, Holidays in Hell, Parliament of Whores, Republican Party Reptile, Age and Guile (Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut), and Driving Crazy.) Turns out, I wasn't the only one. People were lined up with all of their books, and he was generous enough to sign all of them!
In a decision I will probably regret, I took pity, and only asked him to sign three of them. My dad came, so he signed Give War Chance to him, and Holidays and Parliament for me, my two favorites. Before he signed, we had to tell him the story of Give War a Chance.
My grandmother got this book for my dad one Christmas. Around the same time (I was fourteen) I had to do a project for school for civics, and I used a bunch of my dad's old National Lampoons that had political jokes and articles. Well, afterward, I read them for fun, so my dad let me read Give War a Chance.
I read it twice thru before I gave it back, and then in subsequent moves, we would trade off. It would find it's way into his bookshelf, and then into mine, and then back, as we each re-read it. Well, when I got married, I managed to leave it behind, but then Dad was reading it out on the houseboat, and left it. Doug and I wandered by and I went "How did this get here?" and took it home.
It's currently at my dad's house, but I'm taking bets it finds it's way back here before next summer.
He signed Give War a Chance: "To Tim: Fight on!" he signed Parliament as "To Emily: Vote like crazy!" and he signed Holidays "To Emily: STAY HOME!" And I shook his hand. And my dad got pictures of us talking. Which hopefully will be posted here before too long, but, really, this is my dad we're talking about. Those pics will stay on his phone for years. (Now that I re-read that last sentence, isn't that an odd thing to say?) | | comments: Do you like me? |
| | Time: | 09:27 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankitteng.gif) blah |
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| I'm a little confused tonight for some reason, about mostly everything.
I'm not really reading anything new right now. My book on the history of Asia is very simply and straight forward, with little emphasis on the down and dirty politics of those ancient entitled kings. It's short, so it glosses over a lot, and it's mostly modern history, so I haven't learned too much.
I'm also reading "Holidays in Hell" again, my favorite O'Rourke book. I thought about buying "Parliament of Whores" of Amazon, but it wouldn't get here in time for the signing, anyway. This will make at least the fifth time I've read this particular book.
I don't have the angst that I normally do, due to a co-worker being out due to family issues, I've been filling her position (called a Super), which means I'm not on the phones unless a customer asks to speak to "a supervisor." Even knowing I'm speaking to angry people, it's not nearly as stressful, I guess because I know what's coming, and I don't have the nerves on edge that I normally do.
I'm getting ready for a doctors appointment Tuesday morning, work finally thinks FMLA would be a good idea. Not that I would've needed it these past couple of days, not being on the phone meant no horrendous stress, and no stomach cramps. If I can hold out for a few months, I may be able to move up into that position next preference (when the schedules change.)
I cooked dinner, we had pumpkin ice cream for dessert. My husband is watching Office Space. I can't really watch that anymore, it hits too close to home. I'm sorry, I thought it was hilarious when I was in college, but now that I'm IN that environment, it irks me to NO end. I watch movies to escape, not go to back to work.
So, I'm listening to music, and working on the Flora project for the museum. | | comments: Do you like me? |
| Mayak datat: An Archaeological Viewpoint of the Hairy Man Pictographs (Abridged from the site, pics and maps are displayed there.)
Introduction
Painted Rock is located on the Tule River Indian Reservation, above Porterville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of central California. This site, also known as CA-TUL-19, is a rockshelter associated with a Native American Yokuts village. The site, located immediately adjacent to the Tule River, includes bedrock mortars, pitted boulders, midden and pictographs. The pictographs are located within the rockshelter, and are painted on the ceiling and walls of the shelter. The pictographs include paintings of a male, female, and child Bigfoot (known as the family), coyote, beaver, bear, frog, caterpillar, centipede, humans, eagle, condor, lizard and various lines, circles, and other geometric designs. The paintings are in red, black, white, and yellow.
This rock art site is unique; not only because it contains a Bigfoot pictograph, but also because of the traditional Native American stories that accompany it. There are no other known creation stories involving a Bigfoot-like creature in California. As far as can be determined, there are no Bigfoot creation stories anywhere else in the west. There is also no evidence of any other Bigfoot pictographs. Most states, including California, keep a database of all recorded sites located on federal, state, county, city, or private land. Based on that information, there is no other known Bigfoot pictographs or petroglyphs anywhere in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, or Idaho.
Pictograph Description
( Read more... ) | | comments: Do you like me? |
| | Time: | 09:30 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappyg.gif) excited |
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| I totally forgot to mention, P.J. O'Rourke is coming to my local library, a week from tomorrow. I had enough notice so that I was able to swing leaving work early. I've got four of his books, I'm going to bring them all and beg him to sign them. I hope he talks to us a little bit, and it's not just him behind a desk, staring at a long line of people.
The lady on the phone said 9-17 at 7 o'clock. I'm assuming 7 pm, I can't imagine PJ getting up at 7 am. He'd probably still be hung over. I may go to the bookstore and see if they have another of his books that I don't have, then I'll have five for him to sign. | | comments: 3 People really like me! or Do you like me? |
| A friend of mine asked me an odd question today, I didn't understand what she meant at first. "Do you believe in the Bible?" Formerly, if any had asked me "Do you believe in..." it usually was followed by "God," "Satan," "Santa Claus." the answer was a simple yes or no; it dealt with the mere existence of the entity in question.
I must've gotten a confused look on my face, my first thought was "Well, there's one sitting on my computer desk right now, so obviously, yes." Then, I understood what she was asking. It was still an odd question.
I think I answered the question so that she understood it, but I'll try to do a better job here.
I do not believe the Bible is correct, word for word. I do not thing it is an accurate historical record, too much archeology has disproved parts of it.
I do believe that what the Bible teaches is important. The New Testament is a very good instruction manual on behavior, compassion, peace, and how to be a good person. I believe the Old Testament is a valuable record of ancient oral tradition.
The problem with oral tradition is that it will change. I don't care how carefully the story is memorized each time, the language is going to change, therefore the story is going to change. For example, the word "Myth." In English, this word means "something that isn't true." But it comes from a Greek word that means "A story" with no judgments on what is true or untrue.
As a child, I was taught that the Bible was Gods Word, and that it was directly inspired by Him, and He Alone was able to make changes. (There is a very huge debate about King James version, versus anything in modern English, which is another story, but it comes down to whether or not God was supervising the translations. Some people think He stopped supervising after 1600, for reasons not guessed at. I question whether he was supervising at all, considering how much even the Greek and Hebrew versions differ from the Dead Sea Scrolls.) Then, because I was curious about my religion, because my father had thankfully taught me to QUESTION EVERYTHING, I became an adult and started reading about why I was taught to believe those things.
As it turns out, using the Bible itself, one can trace the evolution of the Jewish religions, following right along with the conquering armies. Things I took for granted as being "TRUE" were actually borrowed from other religions, such as Zoroastrianism.
I suppose one can make the argument that God was making sure that happened, but if it was true all along, why did heathens, pagans, and other people who were going to be sent to burn in Hell have to be the ones bearing this news?
The Bible is a priceless collection of mythology and folktales. We're very lucky it survived. The newer parts are very useful as a compass, directions for living a good and rewarding life. The Bible is not literally true to the very last word, I'm sorry, it's not. There was no world wide flood, people didn't live to be over 800 years old, and the world was not created in six days.
This is not to say I don't believe in God, I do, very much. It's simply this: in all my life, and in all my readings, I've never seen or heard of the basic laws of physics, nature, and the universe being broken. God set up these rules, and He and His creation have followed them. Therein lies the miracle: That amazing things happen everyday, planes take off and land without having to resort to breaking, say, the law of Gravity.
The problem with this, and why Fundamentalists dislike this reasoning so much is this: breaking the Bible down into a collection of stories meant not as a historical record, but as symbols meant to show us how to live, means one can open up the playing field. The Greek myths, the Native American stories, and all those Hindu texts, well, now they can be studied and read with the same reverence, and the same mind. They were written with the same purpose after all, as instructions on how the world works and mans place in it.
Heaven forbid that ever happen, God knows what chaos that would bring. Do you know how many televangelists would be out of a job? Although, the real problem with that is that it means thinking for ones self, which has never been a strong point with the human race. | | comments: Do you like me? |
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Four Minutes of Science, and Ten Minutes of Me Hurting Myself
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rhapsody_98's journal
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embarrassed