You Need to Know about the Hundredth Meridian

The Hundredth Meridian was identified by John Wesley Powell (a fascinating character in his own right) as a geographic tipping point separating the wet Eastern US from the dry West.  This has all sorts of implications for ecology and social structure.  Here is a fascinating YouTube video on the subject.

Basically, the dry West is due to the rain shadow from the Rocky Mountains (very broadly defined).  East of the 100th meridian, the land was wet and dominated by forests that were not dissimilar to those with which most European immigrants were familiar.  To the west of this line the land was dominated by grasslands and desert, to which the settlement patterns adopted in the East were not well suited.

"At the Hundredth Meridian" is also a great song by The Tragically Hip.

Domesticated Foxes

Apparently foxes were domesticated thousands of years ago. I guess it never stuck like it did with cats and dogs. Gizmodo has an article that a site in Spain had foxes buried with humans.

"Researchers from several institutes and universities analyzed bones collected at the burial site. They studied the isotopes found in the collagen preserved in the bones, which can provide insights into the diets of individuals. In human bones, we can learn about the diet of an adult in the last five to 10 years of life. In young adult dogs, the diet data spans from six months to three years."

During the 1950s in the USSR, there was a successful systematic attempt to domesticate the silver fox.  The researchers also successfully bred silver foxes for "violence"; a sort of anti-domestication.

You Think You Have Translation Problems?

In his book, Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose notes the following translation sequence occurred when Lewis and Clark met the Wallawalla Indians in April 1806. Lewis speaks in English George Drouillard or Francis Labiche, French Canadian soldiers in the expedition, translate this into French. Toussaint Charbonneau, a 45-year-old French Canadian trapper who speaks no English, translates this into Hidatsa, a language he has picked up in the course of trading with the Indians. Sacagawea, Charbonneau’s fifteen-year-old Shoshone wife who had been captured by the Hidatsa four years earlier, translates this into Shoshone. A Shoshone woman held captive by the Wallawallas translates this into Wallawalla, a language related to Nez Perce. This was considered an improvement over the sign-language they had been using with the Indians further west.

Making a Viking Plank Shield

After having made several viking style shields with plywood, I decided I would try making one out of planks.  This is more authentic, I understand, but I am still cheating by using some old pine boards that were once part of a set of shelves I no longer use.  I figured the lumber was essentially free and I still have lots of glue, nails, paint, fabric, etc. from making the plywood shields, so why not?

My online reading has led me to conclude that the planks in actual viking shields were simply butted together and glued.  The linen fabric and rawhide edging were very important in keeping the planks together.

Making Viking Shields

I had the crazy idea to make viking shields for myself, some family and friends.  I thought I would document how I did it and add some tips I learned.

The intent was to make something that was fairly accurate historically, but without too much cost.  As a result I used a lot of modern materials such as plywood, zinc-coated nails, wood glue, and vinyl fake leather.  The overall construction is pretty close to how the vikings appear to actually have assembled their shields, however.

Joseph Lejuene at the John Cockerill Statue in Seraing, Belgium

I was in Brussels Belgium for a conference last week and found myself with a Friday free, so Yeongmi and I took a trip to Liege, Belgium in the heart of Wallonia.  Before the trip my mother emailed me this photo of an ancestor of mine, Joseph Lejuene, who was from Liege.

After a long Google search I found the following entry at Wikipedia on John Cockerill, an industrialist who was responsible for building one of the first ironworks and a mechanical engineering companies in Seraing, Wallonia on the Meuse River, a few miles upstream from the city of Liege.

The statue in the photograph is a memorial to him and is located in front of the city hall in the town of Seraing.  Cockerill's grave is just in front of the statue.  The statue faces north toward the river, and on the northwest side of the pedestal is an iron statue of an ironworker that Joseph Lejuene posed for in the late 1880's.

Photo from the same spot taken on Oct. 2, 2015

Comparing Yeongdo in 1980 with 2011

I served in the island of Yeongdo as an LDS missionary from May through November of 1980.  I served with Glenn Leewright, Peter Stewart & Jed Hill as companions.  Other missionaries that lived in the same house at the same time were: Chris Morin, Jim Falconer, Dan Mitchell, Charles Cook & 김학수.

I went back this week with copies of some of the photos I took then on my iPhone.  I went back to many of the same places and took photos of what they look like today, after 31 years.  Here a some of the comparisons.

Book Review - Persian Fire

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West, by Tom Holland

This book came very highly recommended and it did not disappoint. It is the story of the Persian Empire's attempt to conquer Greece in the 5th century B.C. Holland is a very good writer and the story unfolds almost like a novel.

He starts off with a history of the fall of the Assyrian Empire to the Medes from the highlands of Iran, and then of their conquest by the Persians further to the east. He explains how Cyrus ruled his new empire and was succeeded ultimately by Darius, who ordered the first invasion of Greece.

He also explains the history of both Sparta and Athens and their different paths toward a government system that would provide stability for their citizens. Only halfway through the book do the Persians and the Greeks meet on the field of battle.

The first invasion in 490 B.C. is foiled by a surprise victory by the Athenians over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Holland explains how the Spartans refused to fight because of a conflict with their religious festivals.

Ten years later Darius' son, Xerxes, returns in person with a larger army and fleet to reattempt the invasion. The famous Battle of Thermopylae sees the death of the Greek contingent, lead by King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, guarding the pass between Thermopylae and Athens. Athens is sacked and Sparta and the Peloponnesian states blockade the Isthmus of Corinth and prepare for a Persian attack. However, in the end, the Athenians, who had in ten years time built up a substantial navy from scratch, lead an naval battle at Salamis, just south of Athens, and cripples the Persian navy forcing Xerxes to withdraw.

Holland points out repeatedly the importance of these Greek victories. Democracy as a legitimate form of government was begun by the Athenians only a few years before the Persian invasions. Had the Persians successfully conquered Greece the history of the world would have been quite different indeed.

He also points out more subtly, the parallels between this bit of history and the modern conflict between the West and the Middle East. Holland implies a great deal of similarity between Darius' professed devotion to Ahura Mazda, the god of Zoroastrian monothesism, and the professed devotion of the rulers of modern Muslim nations to Allah. There is also a parallel in the contrast between the autocratic rule of the Persian Empire versus the relative freedom enjoyed by the citizens of the Greek city-states.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone with even a remote interest in history.

Vintage Film Footage from China

I've been a bit under the weather for the past week or so and haven't posted anything here, but I am feeling better now and am back at it.

I ran across a fascinating post at a blog called "QuirkyBeijing" which links to old film footage at the Travel Film Archive on YouTube. The footage would be very interesting to anyone who has visited these places and wants to see how much things have changed since the early 1900's.

Listening to the narration is a real treat too. The English language has evolved a lot since these clips were made. Attitudes toward the rest of the world seem to have changed also, as these come across as pretty patronizing.

This is worth at least a little of your time.

Here's the link - http://www.quirkybeijing.com/?p=62

Reed Smoot Hearings

In 1904 the US senate held a series of debates about whether to seat Reed Smoot, the senator-elect from Utah, who was not a polygamist, but who was a member of the LDS church's quorum of twelve apostles. During the debates, senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania glared at one his Senate colleagues who was well-known as a womanizer and said, "As for me, I would rather have seated beside me in this chamber a polygamist who doesn't polyg than a monogamist who doesn't monog."

Some Random Phrase Origins

Cleaning out old files from by backups on the hard drive this morning, I ran across the following. I have no recollection where it comes from, and I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it's still interesting.

In Baltimore, in the mid 1800's there was a man who sold corpses to
the hospital for research. He stored the cadavers in cheap whiskey to
ferment them before turning them over to the researchers. He then
sold the whiskey to the medical students. Thus the term "rot gut."

It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a
month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his
son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer,
and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called
the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."

Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or
finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast.
Too cold, and the yeast wouldn't grow. Too hot, and the yeast would
die. This thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase "rule of
thumb."

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old
England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them
to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get
the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."

After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or
ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without
armor or even shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt"
in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.

In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the
Navy's rum. Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and
called Admiral Vernon, Old Grog, after the stiff, wool grograin coats
he wore. The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink
itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy", a word
still in use today.

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into
the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill,
they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is the
phrase inspired by this practice.

Book Reviews

I like to read; mostly for entertainment. But there are those rare occasions when I do read something educational. Recently my "serious" reading has been mostly history. Here are some of these books I've liked:

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford.

This book is a history of the Mongol conquests of Asia & Europe during the 1200's. It is an excellent look at many of the modern issues in international relations, but from the historic perspective of the Mongol Empire. The Mongols ruled over a very diverse set of cultures and peoples. Their rule was characterized by many institutions and practices we associate with the modern world. They were strong proponents of free trade, for example. The book is well-written and is a fun read.

Basilica, The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter’s, by R. A. Scotti

An enthralling account of the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome during the renaissance. The challenges of Bramante’s initial vision of putting the dome of the pantheon on top of the Basilica of Maxentius nearly bankrupt the church in Rome. This lead to increased sale of indulgences and ultimately to the Protestant reformation. The book is a fascinating recounting of the politics of renaissance Europe and the powerful personalities of the popes and architects who worked on the basilica. It is also an interesting description of the technical challenges and how they were overcome.

New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann

Almost everything you learned in school about the Americas before Columbus is wrong. For example, the Americas were not sparsely populated. Indeed, there were probably more people living here than in Europe. Civilization (i.e. city dwelling) was well established in the Americas before the pyramids were built. Native Americans in the Amazon “farmed” the rain forest for centuries and sustained huge populations while doing so. The huge herds of buffalo roaming the plains that white explorers encountered as they travelled west were probably not the “natural” state of the land. European diseases preceded the Europeans themselves and wiped out huge portions of the human population. This left the buffalo woth no check on their population and the herds increased dramatically in size. This book is very well written and quite thought provoking.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner

A very interesting rundown of the history of the CIA and some of its more colorful personalities. Wiener shows in example after example how the agency bumbled and bungled almost every facet of intelligence from its formation to its call of WMD in Iraq. Almost from the begining the CIA violated its charter to be a supplier of information and placed a much stronger emphasis on covert operations, most of which failed. Presidents tended to become quickly disillusioned with the advice and analysis they got from the CIA, particularly if it was in conflict with their preconceived view of the world. This often led the agency to tailor the information it sent to the president to conform to his views in order to avoid having the CIA marginalized. Weiner is often critical of presidents for ignoring the intelligence the CIA provided them, but this seems a bit unfair given the large number of intelligence failures he documents. An interesting, but somewhat depressing read.