"From ancestor worship to descendant worship"

From a brief essay in Intelligent Life magazine:

"... ours is the first civilisation to find its deepest fulfilment in its descendants...

There is the greater dismay we seem to feel at youth unemployment than at the poverty of pensioners, although some of the most disturbing scenes I’ve witnessed have been in the homes of the elderly. There is the way that older people are expected to give far more to voluntary organisations. We assume that the over-65s will take on almost the entire burden of supporting political parties, for which the young occasionally vote, and of maintaining the churches in which the young like to marry. We accept too easily that the young should not be called upon to carry the burden of sustaining communities because "their lives are too busy".

People who might once have been public figures, deeply invested in their work, are instead busy serving their children. Ours is a culture not of ancestor worship but of descendant worship. Children must sense that nothing an adult does is more important than their own desires. All political questions seem to come down to the interests of "the next generation".

Are you old enough to remember "card catalogues"

Not only am I old enough to remember them, but I created one of my own in the 1970s, with thousands of references on 3x5" cards, when I was a graduate student.

Photo of the Library of Congress in 1941, from the interesting Vintage Libraries tumblr.

DNA testing reveals fake "herbal supplements"

As reported in the New York Times:

Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.

Consumer advocates and scientists say the research provides more evidence that the herbal supplement industry is riddled with questionable practices. Industry representatives argue that any problems are not widespread. 

For the study, the researchers selected popular medicinal herbs, and then randomly bought different brands of those products from stores and outlets in Canada and the United States. To avoid singling out any company, they did not disclose any product names. 

Among their findings were bottles of echinacea supplements, used by millions of Americans to prevent and treat colds, that contained ground up bitter weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive plant found in India and Australia that has been linked to rashes, nausea and flatulence. 

Two bottles labeled as St. John’s wort, which studies have shown may treat mild depression, contained none of the medicinal herb. Instead, the pills in one bottle were made of nothing but rice, and another bottle contained only Alexandrian senna, an Egyptian yellow shrub that is a powerful laxative. Gingko biloba supplements, promoted as memory enhancers, were mixed with fillers and black walnut, a potentially deadly hazard for people with nut allergies...

Of 44 herbal supplements tested, one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle — only another plant in its place. 

More at the link.

The physics of sudden beer foaming

YouTube link. (the video is silent)

From Physics Buzz:

A team of three international scientists has explained the physics behind why beer in a bottle transforms into an overflowing mass of foam when the bottle receives a vertical tap on the mouth, as shown in the video. They will present their work and its applications outside of the bottle at the 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics.

Abstract: "A sudden vertical impact on the mouth of a beer bottle generates a compression wave that propagates through the glass towards the bottom. When this wave reaches the base of the bottle, it is transmitted to the liquid as an expansion wave that travels to free surface, where it bounces back as a compression wave. This train of expansion-compression waves drives the forced cavitation of existing air pockets, leading to their violent collapse. A cloud of very small daughter bubbles are generated upon these collapses, that expand much faster than their mothers due to their smaller size. These rapidly growing bubble clusters effectively act as buoyancy sources, what leads to the formation of bubble-laden plumes whose void fraction increases quickly by several orders of magnitude, eventually turning most of the liquid into foam."

A comparison of trephination techniques

"This skull shows four different instruments used for trephination. The instruments include a shark’s tooth, a flint-pointed bow drill, a flint scraper and obsidian – a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Each instrument makes a different type and size of hole. This skull was owned by Dr Thomas Wilson Parry (1866-1945), an English doctor who did extensive practical research into Neolithic trephination instruments and techniques."

Text and images from Science Museum (U.K.), via Sutured Infection.

A question about Terry Pratchett's novels

Over the past two months I've posted photos and stories about the bookcases and bookshelves of 18 readers of this blog.  After I featured Bruce and Carol's books and Emmy awards yesterday, I was struck by this comment from Adrian Morgan:

"I'm impressed that no fewer than three people in this series own a copy of the limited edition Once More With Footnotes -- the sure sign of a committed Pratchett fan..."

I've frequently seen Terry Pratchett mentioned at websites I harvest for this blog, but hadn't realized that such a high proportion of readers here were enthusiasts about his work.  Time for my confession:  I've not read anything by Terry Pratchett.  It's not that he lacks credentials or reputation -

Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and has sold over 85 million books worldwide in 37 languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US...

So my question to the readers of TYWKIWDBI is... where should I start?  It wouldn't have to be the best or most iconic work, but rather something to give me a flavor for the corpus of works.  (If I were introducing a naive reader to the Agatha Christie series, I wouldn't suggest The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as the first one to read).

Presumably the answer lies somewhere in the Discworld series.   I don't intend to read everything, so it shouldn't be mandatory to start with the first of the series.  On the other hand, if the novels build coherently on previous publications, would it be confusing or offputting to select a recent work for a first sample?

I await your advice...

The "inbred banjo boy"

YouTube link.

The actor is Billy Redden from Rabun County, Georgia who was 15-years-old at the time. Redden was "discovered" during a casting call at his school in Clayton, Georgia. Special effect makeup was used to augment Redden's already-unusual features. He didn't actually play the banjo. According to The New Yorker, "Boorman had had to deploy another boy to hide behind the swing and slip his hand through Redden’s sleeve to finger the changes."

Further details, and a video interview with the (normal-looking) adult Billy Redden at Boing Boing.

Opalized pine cone

"This beautiful specimen was found at... "Kens Retreat" in the Coocoran mining area N/West of Lightning Ridge..."

The centre of Australia used to be an inland sea. Miners now unearth opalized fossils from its hot dry deserts.  Opalized fossils include vegetation or wood from Boulder Fields and opalized clam shells from Coober Pedy.

Opalized fossils also include sea shells, teeth, and even opalised belemnites (squid). Opalised shells with good colour and small amounts of potch are hard to find, and many are worth more if left natural and unpolished. Among the rarest are opalized pineapple, found only in White Cliffs Opal Fields."

Text and image from Opal Auctions, via Bijoux et Mineraux.

Dice can "dramatically decompose"

Cellulose nitrate was used to make dice from the late 1860s until the middle of the twentieth century, and the material remains stable for decades. Then, in a flash, they can dramatically decompose. Nitric acid is released in a process called outgassing. The dice cleave, crumble, and then implode.

From Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell, 2002.

After reading that I immediately checked my box of D&D dice, which have been sitting on the shelf for years. They all seem to be intact.

Text and image via Sutured Infection.

How to make "Jello worms" - updated

The photo is self-explanatory.  The thread at Reddit discusses some of the details of preparation, including how to remove the worms from the straws.

For maximum gross-out effect, mix the worms with "dirt" (crushed Oreos!!).

I think we've found our front-door treat for next years' Halloweeners.  Yay!

Addendum:   I wanted to post a follow-up for those planning to create some of these.  It's not as easy as it looks.  I tried to make some for Halloween, and the result was dreadful:

The key appears to be in a casual comment at the original recipe about using extra gelatin.  The ones that I made (unfortunately camouflaged on the red plate) were too squishy to be of practical use.  If I do this again, I'm going to use a much higher gelatin/water ratio.  Also I didn't add enough cream to mute down the fluorescent color of the cherry jello.

And a final note re the straws.  I would have preferred to use the "bendy" straws as shown in the original to show the segmentation of the worms, but the straws I did find were larger (made for thick liquids/ice cream etc) and yielded a better-size worm than skinny straws.

Belt buckle = shiv

Found in a thrift store.  The best comment from the Reddit thread:  "Rick donated this after realizing that any combat advantages gained by having a small knife were immediately lost by no longer having his pants stay up."

And regarding shivs:

A shiv (possibly from the Romani word chivomengro, "knife") is a slang term for any sharp or pointed implement used as a knife-like weapon. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests shive, a razor, documented in 1915, as the root word.

Composite image made from photos posted at imgur.

JFK assassination conspiracy theory re Secret Service standdown

YouTube link.

Lots of JFK-related material will be posted this month in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of his assassination.  Here's an old video excerpt from some television program.

I presume the implications in the video have since been debunked by reliable researchers, but I was unable to locate such this morning.  I did find this comment in the relevant Wikipedia page:

Questions regarding the forthrightness of the Secret Service increased in the 1990s when the Assassination Records Review Board—which was created when Congress passed the JFK Records Act—requested access to Secret Service records. The Review Board was told by the Secret Service that in January 1995, in violation of the JFK Records Act, the Secret Service destroyed protective survey reports that covered JFK's trips from September 24 through November 8, 1963.

Conspiracy theory is often fascinating.

CCC stonework at Robert H. Treman State Park

Today's tour of the Robert H. Treman State Park (Ithaca, N.Y.) features photography by reader Flask Ehrlenmeyer, who was a contributor to the Watkins Glen post last month.

The Friends of the park provide this description of the Civilian Conservation Corps' activities:

"Company 1265, Camp SP-6, Robert H. Treman State Park, Enfield, NY was started up in May of 1933 with tents on platforms. By winter all structures were wooden, Army-style barracks and subsidiary buildings (garage, storage/supply bldg., officers' quarters and HQ bldg., latrine, shower house, infirmary, mess hall, recreation hall, pumphouse...and a covered boxing ring."

"During its first year Camp SP-6, Company 1265 won first place in inspection competition in NY State. It accommodated up to 200 young men, and had sports teams and evening educational programs. Men here did wonderful and still attractive work building bridges and trails in Enfield Glen, Taughannock Falls, and Buttermilk Falls State Parks, and took out flagstones from the creek bed above Taughannock Falls for use in stonework projects in many of the Finger Lakes State Parks of New York State. Some of the men stayed at Enfield Glen (now Robert H. Treman) State Park, while others were taken by truck to the other two parks mentioned above, for the day's work."

"Projects included building stone and timber bridges and retaining walls, constructing scenic foot trails, improving roads in the parks, grading, seeding, and planting trees"

"The Camp was the last to be disestablished in upstate New York, in 1941... The buildings were all sold and removed by the new owners, the land was deeded over to Robert H. Treman State Park, and the site is now an overgrown jungle with a concrete platform here and there under the vegetation, plus the circle of white-painted stones, mostly obscured, that surrounded the flagpole."

For once I'll just hush up and let Flask's photos speak for themselves.  There are dozens more photos in the Flickr photoset.

Wow, what a gorgeous park and awesome stonework.  For those who like me now have an insane desire to hike the park but live too far away from the Finger Lakes region to make a visit practicable, here is Flask's video tour of the stonework:

YouTube link.

Flask is a long-time reader and commenter here at TYWKIWDBI.  Her award-winning blog is at Forever, Flask. 

Attempt to protect part of the Antarctic Ocean fails

Someday I hope to post some good news about the health and future of the world's oceans.  Today is not that day.

Talks to create the world's two largest marine reserves in the Antarctic have broken down, with conservationists branding Russia a "repeat offender" for blocking an international agreement.

Delegates from 24 nations and the European Union have been locked in talks in Hobart for the past 10 days at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

But the negotiations have ended in frustration for the nations, including Australia and the US, that proposed vast protected zones around Antarctica, with Russia, Ukraine and China refusing to back the plans...

"It's a bad day, not just for Antarctica but for the world's oceans, because so many fisheries are over-exploited and this was the one place we could create a reserve," she said. "The fact it can be blocked by a few nations with interests in fishing is very hard to take.

The failure of the talks is the third time in the past year that the proposals for protected zones have failed to find agreement among the commission's nations...

The region is considered by scientists as vital to the health of the world's marine life. It is estimated that three-quarters of all aquatic life is sustained by the nutrient-rich waters of the Southern Ocean, which are transported by an enormous current into the northern hemisphere.

More grim details at The Guardian.

How thieves can bypass a door alarm

 

Image cropped from the original at Reddit, where the comment thread includes discussion of the tools/techniques employed by the malefactors.