What a real depression looks like

Homeless men line up for a place to sleep, New York, 1930.

As opposed to the current "economic slowdown" that everyone complains about.

Photo credit Bettmann/Corbis, via the New York Times and First Time User.

Olympic medals in art, literature, and music

"The Olympics used to include art competitions. Between 1912 and 1952, medals were awarded in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture... An exhibition at the 1932 games drew 384,000 visitors to the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art...

The categories included epic literature, chamber music, watercolors, and statuary; the 1928 games even included a competition in town planning.

In two cases champion athletes also won art competitions. Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós, left, who had won two gold medals in Athens in 1896, took home a silver medal for designing a stadium in 1924. And American Walter Winans won gold both as a marksman in 1908 and as a sculptor in 1912.

In 1954 the art competitions were dropped because most of the participants were professionals, which was held to conflict with the ideals of the games. But the Olympic charter still requires hosts to include a cultural program “to promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and others attending the Olympic Games.”"

Text found in the Futility Closet.  Image ("Jean Jacoby is the only artist to win two gold medals. He won his second with the above drawing, titled Rugby") credit here.  Additional information at Wikipedia.

You learn something every day.

Reposted from 2011.

Euler's Disk spins for a long time

YouTube link. 

The toy consists of a heavy, thick chrome plated steel disk, a slightly concave, mirrored base, and holographic magnetic stickers which can be placed on the disk. The disk, when spun on the mirror, exhibits a spinning/rolling motion (or spolling, a blend of "spin" and "roll"), slowly moving through different rates and types of motion before coming to rest – for example, the precession rate of the axis of symmetry accelerates as the disk spins down. Euler’s Disk has an optimized aspect ratio and a precision polished, slightly rounded edge to maximize the spinning/rolling time. A coin spun on a table, as with any disk spun on a relatively flat surface, exhibits essentially the same type of motion, but is normally more constrained in the length of time before stopping. The Disk provides a more effective demonstration of the phenomenon than more commonly found items.

...the total spinning time is

where is the initial inclination of the disk.

M is the mass of the disk, and mu is the dynamic viscosity of air.  More at Wikipedia.

An "extremely rare anti-masturbation device"

This object was offered for sale on eBay in 2008.

The rare 19th century item is made of copper and was designed to be worn by boys so they could not commit the 'sin'. Attached to a belt it would have encased the genitalia. The bizarre antique dates back to around 1880 and was used in Catholic France. It is being offered for sale on auction website eBay with a starting price of £750.

Seller David Burns, of Curious Science, says that during a quarter of a century dealing in medical curiosities he has never had one for sale... "This is the first example we have offered for sale in 24 years. The condition is excellent. Three and half inches top to base."

Via ein hod and Fuck Yeah Victorians.

Kites fly a man

"5 Perkins kites holding up a man at the Harvard Aviation Field, Sept. 1910"

When I saw this photo from the Library of Congress archives posted at Uncertain Times, my first thought was of the Nazca lines, which are described as only appreciable by someone up in the air.  I believe there has been speculation that ancient peoples might have used hot air balloons to elevate a designer or project foreman, but certainly the high plains of Peru would be a great place for kite flying.

The Smithsonian archives have one photo of a "human-carrying kite" from 1911.  The Wikipedia entry offers very little re human kite-assisted flight: "British Army used kites to haul human lookouts high into the air for observation purposes."

"Smile, darn you, smile"

Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July for a breach of the peace shortly before the cyclists arrived in Redhouse Park, Leatherhead, where he had sat down on a wall to watch the race. Officers from Surrey police restrained and handcuffed him and took him to Reigate police station, saying his behaviour had "caused concern".

"The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.

Worsfold, whose experience was first reported by Private Eye, claims police questioned him about his demeanour and why he had not been seen to be visibly enjoying the event. Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010, suffers from muscle rigidity that affects his face. He was released after two hours without charge or caution.

"It could have been done better. I was arrested for not smiling. I have Parkinson's," he said, adding that he realised the officers were working long hours and trying to control the event properly, but they had not, in his case, acted correctly.

Further details at The Guardian.

Are butterflies and caterpillars two different organisms?

Those of you who have read the posts in this blog's butterfly section know that I am fascinated by the process of metamorphosis, during which a caterpillar creates a chrysalis or cocoon, virtually dissolves into soup, then rearranges those constituent materials into a flying butterfly.

A column by Robert Krulwich at NPR offers a startling take on the process: that caterpillars and lepidoptera are two DIFFERENT creatures that have ?hybridized, and when the caterpillar dies, a butterfly or moth is "reincarnated."

Here's a dangerous, crazy thought from an otherwise sober (and very eminent) biologist, Bernd Heinrich... "[T]he radical change that occurs," he says, "does indeed arguably involve death followed by reincarnation."..

"In effect, the animal is a chimera, an amalgam of two, where the first one lives and dies ... and then the other emerges."

What he's saying is, while a moth appears to be one animal, with a wormy start and a flying finish, it's actually two animals — two in one! We start with a baby caterpillar that lives a full life and then dies, dissolves. There's a pause. Then a new animal, the moth, springs to life, from the same cells, reincarnated...

According to this theory, long, long ago, two very different animals, one destined to be wormy, the other destined to take wing, accidently mated, and somehow their genes learned to live side-by-side in their descendants. But their genes never really integrated. They are sharing a DNA molecule like two folks sharing a car, except half way through the trip, one driver dissolves and up pops his totally different successor.  

The mainstream scientific community totally disagree with this hypothesis and have presented counterarguments, which are elucidated in the column.

Credit for the butterfly image at the top to TYWKIWDBI reader Jenny at xenotropos.*

Addendum:  Reader BJNicholls found an excellent discussion of this topic at Scientific American.

*p.s. - if other readers have original (butterfly or non-butterfly) artwork that they would like to have displayed in this blog (with credit, but without remuneration), please leave a link in the comments.  No guarantees, obviously.

A prescriptivist society bites the dust

On 30 June, the Queen’s English Society (QES) downed its shutters. For 40 years it championed the cause of proper English. The assumption was that the royal use of language should be the model for all good writing and speech. The notion of prestige associated with the way the aristocracy used English has given rise to an enduring debate on the subject between prescriptive and laissez-faire grammarians. QES admitted to being prescriptive, committed to protecting the language from declining standards. The society, however, did not seem to enjoy general support. Only 22 people attended its annual meeting and no one offered to take up any official role...

There were many critics who wrote obituary notes on QES. They did not take kindly to the role that the society intended to play, namely to take control of the English language. The general complaint was that the society tried to preserve old rules of grammar, which really had no validity today...

What detractors of prescriptivism object to is the attempt by individuals to impose artificial and arbitrary rules on usage. A rule should be seen as a codification of existing practice. Grammarians point out that prescriptivists create such controversies by trying to fit English structure on to a Procrustean bed of Latin grammar. The history of English shows that language changes under the influence of good writers and speakers, not of academies of the French model.

From an essay by VR Narayanaswami at Mint (via lost; if it was your blog, let me know), via The Dish.

Remember to warm that stethoscope!

A newborn baby gorilla at Melbourne Zoo gets a checkup at the hospital and shows surprise at the coldness of the stethoscope. 

Text and image from imgur; original source unknown.

Marijuana use graphed by age cohort

According to the government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, majorities of every age group below 60 (with one anomalous exception) tell surveyors they have smoked pot sometime in their lives. Given that the surveys ask people to admit to illegal behavior, it's almost certain that the actual numbers are higher, though just how much higher we can't tell. While there are surely some people who have smoked pot but believe fervently that it should be illegal, the fact that half the electorate got high and survived suggests an ample constituency for legalization efforts.

My cohort is that last one on the right, and we are rapidly dying off.  Ironically we "came of age" in the 1960s and considered ourselves on the cutting edge of a new trend.  What I find most interesting about the graph above is not the "lifetime use" in red, but the decline in "past year" consumption with age.  As noted in the text, the numbers may not be precise, but it is likely the trend is true.  Why the falloff?  Lack of access? Health concerns?  Loss of interest?  Concerns about job and family interactions?  Interesting.

Text and graph from an article in The American Prospect, which also offers this graph/text:

This November, voters in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado have the chance to do something radical: legalize marijuana for recreational use. In all three states, activists secured enough petition signatures to place initiatives on the ballot to essentially treat cannabis like alcohol, regulating its distribution and taxing it...

One poll shows the Washington initiative passing by a 13-point margin, while a poll in Colorado predicts an even bigger margin in favor. These polls should be read skeptically, but they suggest the strong possibility that at least one of these initiatives could succeed.

If that happens, it will raise a whole slew of questions for the country about personal liberty, the costs of the drug war, and the relationship between the federal government and the states. But the momentum is clearly with those who would undo some of our nation's restrictions on marijuana...

Let's say one of the marijuana initiatives wins at the ballot box in November. What happens then? This is where things get complicated. No matter what a state decides, marijuana is still illegal under federal law. While Barack Obama's Justice Department said in its first year that it wouldn't go around arresting people who were complying with their state's marijuana laws, he turned out to be nearly as much of a drug warrior as any of his predecessors. Obama has never advocated removing marijuana from Schedule 1, the classification that puts it alongside heroin and cocaine as drugs that "have a high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."..

The only thing that would make things less complicated would be legalization, or at least decriminalization, on a national level. Despite the clear direction of public opinion, that seems a long way away.

Via The Dish.

George Speake - a travelling "preacher-scientist"

Electricity flashes from the thimble-topped fingers of traveling “preacher-scientist” George Speake. From the 1940s into the ’60s, he was one in a series of men affiliated with Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute who demonstrated religious faith by demonstrating scientific principles. To create the lightning effect, Speake would stand atop an electric transformer coil. The room would darken. Then, at his command, a brief high-frequency current would travel over his skin, up from his feet and out of his fingertips.

Photo credit Margaret G. Zackowitz (National Geographic, July 2010), via Fresh Photons.

Visualizing a magnetic field

Via Like a Physicist.

Why do so many murderers use middle names?

The neo-Nazi terrorist in Wisconsin was known as Wade Michael Page.  Other well-known examples include John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln), Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy), John Wayne Gacy (multiple), Jared Lee Loughner (Gabrielle Giffords), James Earl Ray (MLK), Mark David Chapman (John Lennon), and others.

A column at Slate ponders this question and concludes that it is a coincidence.

Addendum:  see the link in the comment by Onna B. re the frequency of "Wayne" as a middle name of murderers.

Sinistral Turbinella pyrum

The Harvard Museum of Natural History currently has an exhibit entitled Mollusks: Shelled Masters of the Marine Realm, showcasing 300 of the museum's ten million specimens.

A display case devoted to snails contains two shells of the same species of Indian sacred chank (Turbinella pyrum). One is coiled with an opening to the right, the usual thing; the other has its opening to the left. There are only three known examples of such a left-facing shell in the United States... A local amateur shell collector has observed that the shell is so valuable in the marketplace that armed guards should be positioned on either side of the case 24/7.

I found the photo of dextral and sinistral Turbinella at Reverse Coiled Gastropods:

A vast majority of the tens of thousands of marine and non-marine gastropod species are normally dextral (right handed - i. e., the shell opening is to the right when held spire upwards) while only a limited number of taxa such as Busycon sinistrum, the few species of the Fasciolariid subgenus Sinistralia and most of the speciose family Triphoridae, among others, are normally sinistral (left handed - the shell opening is to the left when held spire upwards). However, accidents of nature do happen, and occasionally a sinistral specimen of a normally dextral species or a dextral specimen of a normally sinistral species will be found - albeit rarely.

 In some 40 years of specializing in "reverse coiled" or "abnormally sinistral or dextral" gastropods, Jacksonville amateur malacologist Harry G. Lee has assembled a collection of 164 individual species which had coiled in a direction contrary to the norm. This collection includes 102 Recent, three fossil marine and 59 non-marine species.

How to chill wine

A column at the Smithsonian goes into details on proper serving temperatures for red and white wines.

Most red wines are served too warm; the “room temperature” rule originated in Europe, where room temperature is between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, chilled white wine came from the European cellar, where temperatures hover around 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

In America, to achieve the ideal wine temperature you actually have to cool red wines and warm white wines, assuming your reds are stored in a room temperature wine rack and your whites are kept cold (too cold!) in the refrigerator. Average room temperatures can be over 70 degrees and most refrigerators are a frosty 35 degrees Fahrenheit. One critic recommends putting a bottle of red wine in the fridge for 45 minutes before serving while taking a bottle of white wine out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to serving.

Personally if I want to enjoy a three-bottles-for-$10 Pinot Grigio and there isn't one in the refrigerator, I just drop in a couple ice cubes.

Oenophiles (and newbies to this blog) might like to read my 2009 post about freezing wine and medieval distillation processes.