San Francisco replica made of toothpicks

YouTube link.

Scott Weaver has spent the last 35 years painstakingly constructing a replica of the city of San Francisco made of toothpicks! Not only that, but it is also a marble run, allowing ping-pong balls to take various tours through the city. His artwork will be on display in the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium until June 19th.

Spending money

May 10, 2002
SUBJECT: Spending Money

When people spend their own money on themselves, they are careful about how much they spend and about what they spend it on.  If people spend their own money on others, they are careful about how much they spend, but not as careful about what they spend it on.  If people spend other peoples money on themselves, they are not careful about how much they spend, but they are careful about what they spend it on.  If people spend other people's money on other people they are not careful about the amount of money they spend, nor are they careful about what they spend it on.  That is government.

(One of the "Snowflake" memos written by Donald Rumsfeld during his tenure as U.S. Secretary of defense, from Harper's Magazine, May 2011).

A map of the current U.S. drought

According to NOAA's Drought Monitor, 8 states from New Mexico to Florida are experiencing an exceptional drought - the most severe drought possible. Portions of Texas are running 20"+ below normal in the rainfall department since last autumn.

I wonder if this is contributing to the apparent near-absence of Monarch butterflies here in Wisconsin so far.  This time last year we had large caterpillars already undergoing metamorphosis; this year we haven't seen even a single egg on our bumper crop of 200+ milkweed plants.  The spring has been unusually wet and cool, but our early spring population migrates up via the Texas flyway, so perhaps the problems occurred there rather than in the Mexican mountains.

Via Paul Douglas' excellent On Weather blog.

Are America's children doomed?

George Santayana's famous quote referred to "those who do not LEARN from history," not those who do not KNOW historical facts (which may not be the same thing), but a recent survey suggests that many American children fall into the latter category. From a StarTribune report:

U.S. students are less proficient in their nation's history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released Tuesday, with most fourth-graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify the issue at the heart of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling...

Diane Ravitch, an education historian who was invited by the National Assessment's governing board to review the results, said she was particularly disturbed that only 2 percent of 12th-graders correctly answered the question concerning Brown v. Board of Education, which she called "very likely the most important decision" of the U.S. Supreme Court in the past seven decades.

Students were given an excerpt -- including the passage "We conclude that in the field of public education, separate but equal has no place, separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" -- and were asked what social problem the 1954 ruling was supposed to correct...

The tests were given last spring to a representative sample of 7,000 fourth-graders, 11,800 eighth-graders and 12,400 12th-graders nationwide.

History is one of eight subjects -- the others are math, reading, science, writing, civics, geography and economics -- covered by the assessment program, which is also known as the Nation's Report Card...

And this from the WSJ coverage:

The overall lackluster performance is certain to revive the debate about whether history and other subjects, such as science and art, are being pushed out of the curriculum because of the focus on math and reading demanded under the No Child Left Behind federal education law. The federal law mandates that students be tested in math and reading...

A few sample questions are available at each link.

"Toyko Compression" photos

"Tokyo compression," by German-born Hong Kong-based photographer Michael Wolf is a collection of images showcasing local commuters through the aperture of foggy subway car doors. At once a snapshot of the capital city's density, urban infrastructure, and societal makeup, the voyeuristic series captures subjects ranging from sleepy indifference to dazed confusion. 

The photographer's website.

Prince Baldwin's leprosy

I had never heard this interesting story until encountering it at Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog:

And this brings us to the a rose garden near Jerusalem 1170 where William of Tyre, personal teacher to prince Baldwin, later Baldwin IV, was watching his young liege, then nine play with other noble children...

It so happened that once when [Baldwin] was playing with some other noble boys who were with him, they began pinching one another with their fingernails on the hands and arms, as playful boys will do. The others evinced their pain with yells, but, although his playmates did not spare him, Baldwin bore the pain altogether too patiently, as if he did not feel it...

William did not initially worry:

At first I thought that this happened because of his endurance, not because of insensitivity. Then I called him and began to ask what was happening. At last I discovered that about half of his right hand and arm were numb, so that he did not feel pinches or even bites there. I began to have doubts, as I recalled the words of the wise man [Hippocrates]: ‘It is certain that an insensate member is far from healthy and that be who does not feel sick is in danger.’ ...

William’s blood must have run cold as he ran a needle over the young prince’s hands for the hopes of the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem were vested in Baldwin. This after all was not an England or a France that could be wracked by occasional civil wars and survive. This was not even a frontline state like, say, Castille, caught between the Muslim and the Christian world. This was the Kingdom that should never have been, far behind ‘enemy’ lines, where one lost battle, never mind a lost war might leave the sparse western communities in the Holy Land at the mercy of implacably hostile states. Jerusalem could simply not afford to have an idiot or a weakling on the throne: and yet the nine-year-old Baldwin was showing the first symptoms of leprosy.

I reported all this to his father. Physicians were consulted and prescribed repeated formentations, anointing, and even poisonous drugs to improve his condition, but in vain. For, as we later understood more fully as time passed, and as we made more comprehensive observations, this was the beginning of an incurable disease. I cannot keep my eyes dry while speaking of it. For as he began to reach the age of puberty it became apparent that he was suffering from that most terrible disease, leprosy. Each day he grew more ill. The extremities and the face were most affected, so that the hearts of his faithful men were touched by compassion when they looked at him...

And the cruel irony is that all the signs are that Baldwin would have been an outstanding king, perhaps one of the greatest of the Middle Ages, perhaps even – though this seems impossible – a man capable of saving his father’s realm.

He had the will-power to learn to ride on horseback without the use of his arms – as one was practically useless and the other was needed for his sword. Even modern revisionist historians have not questioned his extraordinary courage. And this determination in his personal affairs he carried over into matters of state. He defended his Kingdom from Saladin, a master general. Indeed, he defeated Saladin on one occasion: the memorable battle of Montgisard where a seventeen-year old Baldwin – known as the ‘pig’ by his Islamic enemies for his leprosy – led the cavalry charge against Saladin’s much more numerous lines. He also ably arranged his succession knowing that he would soon be dead.

However, when Baldwin passed away in 1185, aged twenty four – leprosy finally defeating its host – the Christian subjects of the tiny Kingdom of Jerusalem might have been forgiven for thinking that their God had played an unkind practical joke on them. Jerusalem itself would fall in 1187 and all Baldwin’s courage had been for nothing.

Image: William of Tyre discovers Baldwin's first symptoms of leprosy (MS of L'Estoire d'EraclesHistoria), painted in France, 1250s. British Library, London.)

"Bohemian Rhapsody" controversy in Wasilla

From the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman:

WASILLA — When members of Wasilla High School’s symphonic jazz choir heard Friday it wouldn’t be singing the popular Queen hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” at this year’s graduation ceremony after working on it all year, the students couldn’t get their heads around it.

WHS Principal Dwight Probasco reportedly had received complaints from at least one parent that the 1975 hit written by Freddie Mercury wasn’t appropriate for the ceremony simply because Mercury was gay.

“The whole thing was just ridiculous,” senior Rachel Clark said Monday. “They’d played the song on the school intercom and we played it at prom. It’s a great song and the choir was really excited to be singing it. And the senior class felt like it defined them.” Choir member Casey Hight, a junior, was angry enough to contact a gay and lesbian support organization in Anchorage for help. They told her to contact an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Although Probasco wouldn’t comment on the issue Monday, Senior Class Advisor Deb Haynes said Probasco has now agreed to allow the choir to sing an edited version of Bohemian Rhapsody that doesn’t include lyrics in one section about killing a man.

The definitive TYWKIWDBI post about Bohemian Rhapsody is here.

"Broadway isn't just for gays any more"

YouTube link.

 "Come in and be inspired.  There's no sodomy required."

The rather startling opening number by Neil Patrick Harris at the 2011 Tony Awards ceremony.

The myth of Betsy Ross and the American flag

From the Washington Post's "Five Myths about the American Flag" -

The Betsy Ross story is the most tenacious piece of fiction involving the flag. There simply is no credible historical evidence — letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, bills of sale — that Ross (then known as Elizabeth Claypoole) either made or had a hand in designing the American flag before it made its debut in 1777.

The story cropped up in 1870, almost 100 years after the first flag was supposedly sewn, when William Canby, Ross’s grandson, told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that his grandmother made the flag at George Washington’s behest. Canby’s sole evidence: affidavits from family members. The iconic 1893 painting of Ross sitting in her Philadelphia parlor with the sun beaming down on the flag in her lap is a scene invented by Charles H. Weisgerber, the artist and entrepreneur who profited from the Betsy Ross legend.

While Ross did make flags in Philadelphia in the late 1770s, it is all but certain that the story about her creating the American flag is a myth.

For additional detailed information about Betsy Ross, see the extensive post at Common-Place.

Since this is "Flag Day" in the U.S., it's worth taking a moment to note some of the Standards of Respect delineated in the United States Flag Code:

• The flag should never be stepped on.
• The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, firefighters, police officers, and members of patriotic organizations.
• The flag should not be used as "wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery", or for covering a speaker's desk, draping a platform, or for any decoration in general (exception for coffins). Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes.
• The flag should never touch anything beneath it. Contrary to an urban legend, the flag code does not state that a flag that touches the ground should be burned. Instead, the flag should be moved so it is not touching the ground.

One hundred cinema threats

YouTube link.

I probably don't even need to advise you that this compilation is NSFW because about 2/3 of the clips contain profanity, highlighting the rather formulaic nature of such episodes.

Via JazJaz.

Finally, a postage stamp commemorating something important

Issued by The Åland Islands on June 7, "the design features a small stack of four ridged chips, highlighted and set against a dramatic gradated blue background. "

Text from The Posthorn ("Official publication of the Scandinavian Collectors Club").  Photo via World Online Philatelic Agency.

Disenchanted ?

I photographed this sign along Highway 70, near the Minnesota/Wisconsin border this weekend.

A brief history of "The Twist"

YouTube link.

Excerpts from an article at The Guardian celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the appearance of the dance:

The absence of body contact is significant. Rather than going through a set of predetermined steps, you are free to use dancing as a means of self-expression, of doing your own thing, though that phrase will not come into use until the 60s have become fully swinging. It is a narcissistic dance, but it also gives you the chance to watch your partner's moves, and read their intentions. And since you are not physically attached to your partner, there is nothing to stop you drifting away to dance with someone else who has caught your eye (of course, you can also have that humiliation visited upon you, and find yourself dancing alone). Finally, there is no leader: here is the first dance in which the genders are created equal...

No one knows how the Twist began. The word was used in connection with dancing in a number of songs during the first half of the 20th century, but the song itself seems to have been written, in its first form, in 1957 by Brother Joseph Wallace of the Sensational Nightingales, a prominent gospel group. Its profoundly secular nature prevented him performing it himself, but when the Nightingales found themselves sharing a Florida hotel with the popular (and very secular) Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Wallace offered them his song...

King Records' boss was Syd Nathan, an archetypal cigar-chomping philistine who liked the Twist so little that it first saw the light of day, in January 1959, as the B-side of a ballad called Teardrops On Your Letter, which edged its way into the Top 100... This was quickly spotted by Philadelphia-based disc jockey Dick Clark, who already had a national following for his own TV show, American Bandstand... it would be a good idea to record a cover version of this new song, to feature on his show. Lowe selected one of his contracted artists, a cheerful, good-looking, puppy-fattish 19-year-old called Ernest Evans whose professional name, Chubby Checker, paid homage to Fats Domino... Chubby Checker and the Twist were duly given their first national exposure in August 1960 to the broader audience offered by Clark's Saturday night show, broadcast from New York...

On West 45th Street in midtown Manhattan, a small nightclub called the Peppermint Lounge was setting aside its past as a sleazy leather bar... it had acquired as resident band a young New Jersey group called Joey Dee and the Starliters. They were joined on stage by three teenage girls from Spanish Harlem who had turned up at the club one night in high bouffant hairdos, lavish mascara and matching frocks, with Kleenex stuffed in their bras, and were given a job as the world's first go-go dancers. Later they would become known as the Ronettes...

Within weeks, Joey Dee and the Starliters were not only topping the charts with Peppermint Twist but entertaining Manhattan's social elite at a charity ball in the Plaza hotel and a party at the Museum of Modern Art. Jackie Kennedy, the epitome of the new carefree spirit of the post-Eisenhower era, did the Twist in a Capri nightspot... Arthur Murray, the dance teacher, added it to his curriculum, setting an example followed with some reluctance by Fred Astaire's nationwide chain of academies...

What the Twist had done, however, was create a powerful hunger among modernist youth for new dance crazes based on the template of dancing on the spot, with no contact. And so along came the Locomotion, the Fly, the Madison, the Hitch Hike, the Watusi, the Hully Gully, the Frug, the Stroll, the Monkey, the Dog, the Mashed Potato and countless others...

And re the embedded video:

Clips include the following actors and actresses dancing to The Twist: Route 66 (Julie Newmar), Pulp Fiction (Uma Thurman, John Travolta), Spiderman 3 (Kirsten Dunst, James Franco), Leave it to Beaver (Jerry Mathers), Mad Men and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Matthew Broderick).

"Blood farming" explained

Excerpts from The Red Market, a book by Scott Carney, subtitled "On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers."

For the last three years the man had been held captive in a brick-and-tin shed just a few minutes’ walk from where the farmers were drinking tea. The marks on his arms weren’t the tell-tale signs of heroin addiction; they came from where his captor, a ruthless modern-day vampire and also a local dairy farmer and respected landowner named Papu Yadhav, punctured his skin with a hollow syringe. He had kept the man captive so he could drain his blood and sell it to blood banks...

They sprung the lock and revealed a medical ward fit for a horror movie. IV drips hung from makeshift poles and patients moaned as if they were recovering from a delirium. Five emaciated men lying on small woven cots could barely lift their heads to acknowledge the visitors... One man stared at the ceiling with glassy eyes as his blood snaked through a tube and slowly drained into a plastic blood bag on the floor. He was too weak to protest.

A crumpled nylon bag next to him held five more pints. Inside were another nineteen empty bags ready for filling. Each had official-looking certification stickers from local blood banks as well as bar codes and a seal from the central regulatory authority...

A healthy adult has between 14 and 18 grams of hemoglobin for every 100 milliliters of blood. The men averaged only 4 grams. Leeched of their vital fluids to the brink of death, all of them were gray and wrinkled from dehydration...

It is tempting to view the horrors of Gorakhpur’s blood farm as an isolated incident: the sort of aberration that only happens on the margins of the civilized world and unrelated to the blood supply anywhere else. But the existence of the blood farm suggests a deeper problem with the circulation of human materials in the market. The blood farm could never have existed without eager buyers who were either incurious about the supply or just didn’t care about the source.

Via Wired Science.  I've requested the book from our library.

"Generally speaking, dead things don't move"

From a report at Wired Science re the motions of a desert plant's seeds:

Biologist Matthew Harrington and his colleagues at Germany’s Max Planck Institute set out to explain the mysteries of the “ice plant,” Delosperma nakurense, a succulent that grows in arid and semi-arid regions of eastern Africa. The plant has adapted to dry conditions by producing special seed capsules that protect their cargo with a boxlike lid of five petal-like sections. When it rains, the capsules unfold. When the capsules dry up, they return to their original shape.

The cycle can happen over and over, though by the time ice plant seed capsules perform their origami feats, they’ve long since been separated from the living plants that created them.

“Generally speaking, dead things don’t move,” said Harrington, whose examination of ice plant origami is published June 7 in Nature Communications. “So when they do, it’s of obvious interest.”..

Specialized cells in the capsules are filled with a cellulose layer that can absorb large amounts of water. As the cellulose swells, the cell’s unique honeycomb structure translates the increasing pressure into movement along a single axis — like blowing into a noise-maker party favor.

Photo credit: M. J. Harrington.

Addendum: 80-second video of the process here (found by Wayne Conrad).