Six So-So Sites to Check Out

Have you noticed a trend on websites with lists of the ten, or 24, or 100 most amazing, awesome,  or dangerous whatevers?  MUST SEE! is a frequent descriptor.  Do you click on them?  Sometimes? 

Lists are big on the internet.  I've known this, but I try to write how and what I want to write about, not use gimmicks to get people here, except in situations like this where I'm spoofing a bit and pointing out exactly what I'm doing.

But there are good reasons to use lists and ProBlogger listed a few of them way back in 2005: 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog

1. Lists are Scannable
2. Lists keep posts succinct
3. Lists look ‘neat’ [as in tidy I assume, not as in cool]
4. Lists are easy to link to
5. Lists can be comprehensive
6. Lists can add to the ease of writing
7. Lists as Memes He gives a little more explanation for each at the link.

I naturally use lists because of 2, 3, 5, and because they are easier for readers to find important points if they aren't buried in a paragraph. 

So here's my list of a few internet stops you may or may not find interesting:  

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From the May 2013 Vanity Fair

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winning economist whose work is on income distribution.

               
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Before I Die I Want To - A website about the end of the Polaroid camera,  psychological safety contracts, and getting people to think about what's really important.  Hundreds of photos and "Before I Die. . ." statements.  Here are just two.

On the site, scroll to the right.  

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A librarian's very patient, detailed, and thoughtful response to a patron who requested a book be restricted.  It's the kind of response I try for here, but rarely achieve. 

"Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Recently, a library patron challenged (urged a reconsideration of the ownership or placement of) a book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." Honestly, I hadn't even heard of it until that complaint. But I did read the book, and responded to the patron, who challenged the item through email and requested that I respond online (not via snail-mail) about her concerns. .  ."

Read it all at the link.  

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For those with a very short attention span:  One sentence stories.   Here's one example from July 2012.

StacyLynn

My deep resentment towards your family began when you were diagnosed during my FIRST semester of nursing school, because they expected me to be an oncology expert, and when I didn't have an answer they told me I was going to be a horrible nurse.

Screen shot from SFMOMA site

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Visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - it looks like they have all their art work here for you to explore.  Well, it says 6,793 pieces from their collection.

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Or use a figlet generator.  So far I'm not too impressed.  I used it to make the numbers on my list here.  I'm sure there's more to it than this.  You can find out more about figlets here.

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                 ___                       ___           ___           ___     
                /\__\                     /\  \         /\__\         /\__\    
               /:/ _/_       ___          \:\  \       /:/  /        /:/ _/_   
              /:/ /\  \     /\__\          \:\  \     /:/  /        /:/ /\__\  
             /:/ /::\  \   /:/__/      _____\:\  \   /:/  /  ___   /:/ /:/ _/_ 
            /:/_/:/\:\__\ /::\  \     /::::::::\__\ /:/__/  /\__\ /:/_/:/ /\__\
            \:\/:/ /:/  / \/\:\  \__  \:\~~\~~\/__/ \:\  \ /:/  / \:\/:/ /:/  /
             \::/ /:/  /   ~~\:\/\__\  \:\  \        \:\  /:/  /   \::/_/:/  / 
              \/_/:/  /       \::/  /   \:\  \        \:\/:/  /     \:\/:/  /  
                /:/  /        /:/  /     \:\__\        \::/  /       \::/  /   
                \/__/         \/__/       \/__/         \/__/         \/__/    
                                                                               
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                      ___                  /::\  \       ___         /::\  \   
                     /\__\                /:/\:\  \     /\__\       /:/\:\  \  
                    /:/__/               /:/  \:\__\   /:/__/      /:/  \:\__\ 
                   /::\  \              /:/__/ \:|__| /::\  \     /:/__/ \:|__|
                   \/\:\  \__           \:\  \ /:/  / \/\:\  \__  \:\  \ /:/  /
                    ~~\:\/\__\           \:\  /:/  /   ~~\:\/\__\  \:\  /:/  / 
                       \::/  /            \:\/:/  /       \::/  /   \:\/:/  /  
                       /:/  /              \::/  /        /:/  /     \::/  /   
                       \/__/                \/__/         \/__/       \/__/    
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                                          \:\  \       /::\  \         ___     
                                           \:\  \     /:/\:\  \       /\__\    
                                       _____\:\  \   /:/  \:\  \     /:/  /    
                                      /::::::::\__\ /:/__/ \:\__\   /:/__/     
                                      \:\~~\~~\/__/ \:\  \ /:/  /  /::\  \     
                                       \:\  \        \:\  /:/  /  /:/\:\  \    
                                        \:\  \        \:\/:/  /   \/__\:\  \   
                                         \:\__\        \::/  /         \:\__\  
                                          \/__/         \/__/           \/__/  
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                                                        /|  |         /\__\    
                                           ___         |:|  |        /:/ _/_   
                                          /\__\        |:|  |       /:/ /\__\  
                           ___     ___   /:/__/      __|:|  |      /:/ /:/ _/_ 
                          /\  \   /\__\ /::\  \     /\ |:|__|____ /:/_/:/ /\__\
                          \:\  \ /:/  / \/\:\  \__  \:\/:::::/__/ \:\/:/ /:/  /
                           \:\  /:/  /   ~~\:\/\__\  \::/~~/~      \::/_/:/  / 
                            \:\/:/  /       \::/  /   \:\~~\        \:\/:/  /  
                             \::/  /        /:/  /     \:\__\        \::/  /   
                              \/__/         \/__/       \/__/         \/__/    
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                                                        \:\  \      ~~~~\:\  \ 
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                                                          \/__/           \/__/
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              /\  \         /\  \         /\  \         _____         /\__\    
              \:\  \        \:\  \       |::\  \       /::\  \       /:/ _/_   
               \:\  \        \:\  \      |:|:\  \     /:/\:\  \     /:/ /\__\  
           _____\:\  \   ___  \:\  \   __|:|\:\  \   /:/ /::\__\   /:/ /:/ _/_ 
          /::::::::\__\ /\  \  \:\__\ /::::|_\:\__\ /:/_/:/\:|__| /:/_/:/ /\__\
          \:\~~\~~\/__/ \:\  \ /:/  / \:\~~\  \/__/ \:\/:/ /:/  / \:\/:/ /:/  /
           \:\  \        \:\  /:/  /   \:\  \        \::/_/:/  /   \::/_/:/  / 
            \:\  \        \:\/:/  /     \:\  \        \:\/:/  /     \:\/:/  /  
             \:\__\        \::/  /       \:\__\        \::/  /       \::/  /   
              \/__/         \/__/         \/__/         \/__/         \/__/    
                                                         ___           ___     
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                                                       /::\  \       /:/ _/_   
                                                      /:/\:\__\     /:/ /\  \  
                                                     /:/ /:/  /    /:/ /::\  \ 
                                                    /:/_/:/__/___ /:/_/:/\:\__\
                                                    \:\/:::::/  / \:\/:/ /:/  /
                                                     \::/~~/~~~~   \::/ /:/  / 
                                                      \:\~~\        \/_/:/  /  
                                                       \:\__\         /:/  /   
                                                        \/__/         \/__/    

Have fun. Don't forget to bookmark this website :)

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                            III   ff    oooo  uu   uu nn nnn       dd    aa aa 
                            III   ffff oo  oo uu   uu nnn  nn  dddddd   aa aaa 
                            III   ff   oo  oo uu   uu nn   nn dd   dd  aa  aaa 
                           IIIII  ff    oooo   uuuu u nn   nn  dddddd   aaa aa 
                                                                               
                           dd iii  fff  fff                              tt    
                           dd     ff   ff     eee  rr rr    eee  nn nnn  tt    
                       dddddd iii ffff ffff ee   e rrr  r ee   e nnn  nn tttt  
                      dd   dd iii ff   ff   eeeee  rr     eeeee  nn   nn tt    
                       dddddd iii ff   ff    eeeee rr      eeeee nn   nn  tttt 
                                                                               
                                                              iii tt           
                                                         sss      tt      eee  
                                                        s     iii tttt  ee   e 
                                                         sss  iii tt    eeeee  
                                                            s iii  tttt  eeeee 
                                                         sss                   

The second site calls itself an ASCII generator.  The first font was a called isometric and the second one is called letters.  I like that the letter is made up of its own letter.  There are lots more fonts to play with.  Don't worry, I don't think this will be my new style.  Just playing around to avoid doing all the things I need to do.  

Things I Couldn't Do With My Pocket Camera

We took an evening stroll around 10pm the other night to a nearby nature sanctuary and I experimented a little more with the new Canon rebel.  While I still have lots to figure out with this camera, these are shots I could never have gotten with the Powershot. 

These are really far away, but I was able to enlarge the images in reasonable focus.  I'm hoping to confirmation from my bird guru Dianne (got the confirmation), but I'm reasonably sure these are ring-necked ducks.   My Guide to Birds in Alaska says:

"Breeds in eastcentral Alaska in such places as Tetlin Lakes and the Yukon Flats and more rarely in southcoastal and southeastern Alaska."

And I don't recall ever seeing these before. At least never identifying them before.  But this camera makes it easier to remember exactly what they looked like. 

click to enlarge a bit

This camera makes it possible to see the ordinary in a new light.  Just look at the feather pattern on the wing of this gull.  (I think it's a ring billed gull)  Below it's circling back.



All that said about the new camera, it doesn't fit in my pocket and so it's not nearly as convenient to carry with me all the time.  So it will only be going out when I'm specifically going to look for birds or other distant objects.  For now anyway.  It's hard to remember the days when I dragged my old Pentax camera and telephoto lens around. 

Our Rights To Film Cops in Public

I ran into this post the other day - filming cops in public can get you in trouble:

Saturday, July 30, 2011

A disturbing trend: many innocent Americans arrested for legally filming on-duty public servants

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

In recent years an unsettling pattern in law enforcement interactions has emerged. American citizens, innocent of a crime, filming a public servant performing their duties in public, have been targeted and had their constitutionally protected rights destroyed.

The cases continue to pile up, some more disturbing and egregious than others. One of the most shocking examples is the case of the Las Vegas man, Mitchell Crooks, who was brutally assaulted by an on-duty police officer for filming the officer from his own property. [It goes on to give a number of other examples of photographers being harassed.]

I knew I'd written about this topic and it turns out that it was not quite a year ago - Photography is Not a Crime - Blogging, The First Amendment, and Your Camera.   It's an important enough topic for bloggers with cameras to be raised now and again.  That older post had three rules on how to film cops from Carlos Miller:

1 Get it on video.
2 Assert your rights.
3 Just leave.  
[The link has the details]

I looked for something newer and found that the Illinois' Supreme Court upheld photographer's rights.

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
November 26, 2012

The state of Illinois has some of the harshest “eavesdropping” laws on the books, and those statutes have been frequently abused to prosecute individuals for filming police actions in public in numerous cases.
Now, a fresh Supreme Court decision has declared this to be a violation of the First Amendment, refusing to hear an appeal from Cook County officials to allow prosecution of those recording cops, and instead upholding a lower court decision that resulted from an ACLU lawsuit.

Michael Zhang at Peta Pixal, in March of this year reports:

The US Department of Justice issued a statement this past Sunday that confirms the fact that the 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendment protect citizens’ rights to photograph police in public places.  (emphasis added)

The Statement of Interest document is a message to the US District Court in Maryland that it supports photojournalist Mannie Garcia in his lawsuit against the Montgomery County police. Garcia photographing police back in June 2011 when he was arrested and had his camera equipment (and photographs) taken away.  [Get the rest here.]

Below is a quote from the United States District Court in Maryland Court Decision.  It says that citizens, not just journalists, have First Amendment rights to record police conduct and other items of public interest:

"Courts have long held that recordings made by private citizens of police conduct or other items of public interest are entitled to First Amendment protection. See, e.g. , Glik , 655 F.3d at 84-85 (findingFirst Amendment right to record “clearly established”); Smith , 212 F.3d at 1333; Fordyce , 55 F.3d at439; Blackston v. Alabama , 30 F.3d 117, 120-21 (11th Cir. 1994); Lambert v. Polk Cnty. , 723 F. Supp.128, 133 (S.D. Iowa 1989). Similarly, the Supreme Court has established that journalists are not entitled to greater First Amendment protections than private individuals. See,e.g. , Nixon v. Warner Comm., Inc. ,435 U.S. 589, 608-09 (1978) (“The First Amendment generally grants the press no right to information Case 8:12-cv-03592-JFM Document 15 Filed 03/04/13 Page 12 of 13 13 about a trial superior to that of the general public.”); Branzburg , 408 U.S. at 684 (“It has generally been held that the First Amendment does not guarantee the press a constitutional right of special access to information not available to the public generally.”) (citing cases). Thus, this Court should make clear that Mr. Garcia’s status as a credentialed journalist does not influence its analysis of his First Amendment right to document police activity occurring in public."

The judge seems to be going out of his way to say that Mr. Garcia isn't winning because he's a journalist, but simply because he's a citizen.  I guess that's good for citizens, does it have downsides for journalists?  I'm not sure.  I'm glad everyone is protected, but is there some inherent loss for journalists?  I don't know.

This part of the decision might be a good thing to have on one's person if one might be filming cops who might object.  A way to follow Miller's second rule:  Assert your rights.

Don't take this as the last word on this.  Just a little more info to think about when you want to whip out your camera and take video in public.  

[UPDATE:  See July 30, 2013 post including video on filming Swedish cops.]

Sugar Shack Coffee Stand Trashed

Vandals hit the very popular Sugar Shack coffee stand at 37th and Lake Otis.  This isn't something I'd normally cover, but it's a place I pass frequently and as I rode by today I couldn't help noticing.

[UPDATE 9/10/13:  Sugar Shack reopens.]




The owner, Gary, explained what he knew.


)

I remember when the Sugar Shack opened.  I was telling a neighbor that I didn't see how it could survive.  Yes, Lake Otis is busy, but people would have to make left turns in the morning to get in and the afternoon traffic would make people hesitate to stop.  She looked me in the eye and said, "You don't drink coffee do you?"

Another part of my cross-cultural education.  Coffee drinkers think differently.  And boy was I wrong.  The Sugar Shack is always busy. 

This appears to be the window they broke in through.

Gary made a comment off camera that I appreciated.  Something like, we don't have problem kids, we have problem parents.







[UPDATE March 12, 2014: Viddler video replaced with YouTube.]
[UDATE October 10, 2014:  The stand was rebuilt, but now the land has been leased to Northrim Bank and they are working quickly to build a branch at this spot.  It's due to open in February.]

Peace Corps Will Accept Applications From Same-Sex Domestic Partners Who Want To Serve Together

From the Peace Corps today:  

Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet today announced that the agency will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas.  Same-sex couples may begin the application process starting Monday, June 3.

“Service in the Peace Corps is a life-defining leadership experience for Americans who want to make a difference around the world,” Deputy Director Hessler-Radelet said. “I am proud that the agency is taking this important step forward to allow same-sex domestic partners to serve overseas together.”
Expanding service opportunities to same-sex domestic partners who want to volunteer together further diversifies the pool of Peace Corps applicants and the skills of those invited to serve overseas in the fields of education, health, community economic development, environment, youth in development and agriculture. Married heterosexual couples have been serving together in the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961. Currently, 7 percent of Peace Corps assignments are filled by married volunteers serving together.

The Peace Corps requires formal documentation for all couples who want to serve, and same-sex domestic partners will be required to sign an affidavit before leaving for service that will act as verification of their relationship. The Peace Corps continually works with staff in host countries to identify placements that allow for safe and productive assignments.

Couples who serve together gain a unique perspective of host country customs and culture, but opportunities for couples are limited, as both applicants must apply at the same time and qualify for assignments at the same post. Many factors affect placements, including an applicant’s overall competitiveness, program availability, departure dates, and safety and medical accommodations. For any applicant, the number one factor in determining an assignment is the demand from host countries for skilled volunteers.

To learn more about serving in the Peace Corps as a same-sex couple, visit http://www.peacecorps.gov/learn/howvol/couplesfaqs/.

While there are still people whose religious beliefs or personal issues will have problems with this, for most of us, this is a good move. As you can see, there have been discussions about what might and might not be appropriate placements.  I guess they've narrowed it down to 'safe' and 'productive.' What happens when a country says they do not want same-sex couples serving?   What role will same sex trainees get in discussing these options with the people who make the placement decisions?  Yes, there are issues, but nothing that can't be worked out fairly easily. And besides, there have been gay volunteer from the beginning, though I'm not sure when openly gay volunteers started serving. 

Luke's Teaching This Summer In Denali National Park

We met Luke at the Murie Science and Learning Center in Denali National Park last Friday.  He'd just arrived a week before and was still in training as an education intern for the Student Conservation Association.







Here's some info from the Student Conservation Association website:

Conservation Internships

For college and graduate students, as well as other qualified individuals, SCA internships provide the opportunity to learn from resource management professionals, gain tangible skills and experience, and make a substantial contribution to our natural and cultural treasures. SCA Internships are available throughout the year, in all conservation disciplines, and range in length from 12 to 52 weeks.  All positions are expense-paid and most offer insurance and education awards.  Search internship opportunities.

The SCA is also listed in a book called Best 109 Internships.

Shots of Snowy Denali National Park

Is this a Denali post or a photography post?  These are the first out-of-the-house experiments with my new Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Without a doubt, these are pictures I would not have gotten with my Powershot.

As pristine and natural as the top raven scene looks, the bird was headed for the muddy red truck that you see in the lower shot, which sure looks like a Yupik dancer in a kuspuk.  It was snowing at the time.  And while ravens are very cool birds, the fact that I'm shooting ravens in Denali should be the first hint of how few animals of any sort we saw.  Just like the moose, these are common Anchorage sights, and when we go to Denali we generally are hoping to see critters we don't see in our back yards at home.

 

Nevertheless, given that the first day the biggest mammal we saw were two ground squirrels, and this was the only one we saw the second day, we stopped and spent some time.  We had given up on seeing any animals when this one showed up on the side of the road above us coming toward us.  And no matter how many times you see moose, they are magnificent animals.  And this one was not an urban moose.  

The landscapes were magnificent, even with the clouds cutting off the larger mountains.  I'm not sure what the bluish/greenish tinge in the forefront is.

 

Another critter I might overlook on a more active day, the mew gull is a bird one is sure to see in Denali.  White head, and the white dots in the wing tips.  And not shy around people.

I couldn't help noticing the stark black and white contrast between the fresh snow and the stubble of last year's shrubbery.

Here's one my Birds of Alaska book says I saw in Denali before - the American Tree Sparrow.  Trying to identify it was hard in my book, but once I found the picture on the  Cornell Lab of Ornithology,  it matched perfectly.  The two colored beak (orange on the bottom and black on top, which was clearer in the originals), the buff shoulder, the white bar on the wing.  The picture is actually the same bird photoshopped onto one picture.  From the Cornell link, where you can also hear its call:

Come snowmelt, these small rusty-capped and smooth-breasted sparrows begin their long migrations to breeding grounds in the tundra of the far North.

 And they had every right to believe it would be tundra and not more snow this time of year.  

[UPDATE 1:30pm:  Wickersham's Conscience has a more detailed post on hungry songbirds arriving in Alaska. Better photos too.]

This is a break in the ice on the Teklanika River.  We were walking from the Teklanika River bus stop - the end of the road open to the public until today - looking down.  When I got this picture up on the computer, I noticed there are tracks going from left to right (well, I'm not sure which way the animal was going).  They stop at the water and then pick up again on the other side.  (They are clearer if you double click.)  So, I thought, the ice must have broken since the animal went by.  But where would the ice go?  I assumed that open water like this just never froze, but the tracks made me think about it.  Ice floats, so it shouldn't just sink down and under the ice that didn't break.  I may have lived here a long time, but I don't live along a river.  Here's a bigger view of this hole in the ice.

So, when I ask a question like that, I know I should try google, though I wasn't quite sure what to ask.  There are a number of scientific studies of river ice break up online and ice chunks can go under sheets of ice.  But that seems to be when there is more water flowing than here.  The jagged edges of the ice would suggest to me it broke and not that this was open all winter.  Perhaps someone will leave an answer in the comments. 

Bookworms, Pagans, Hypathia, and the Loss of Knowledge

"Virtually the entire output of many other writers, famous in antiquity, has disappeared without a trace.  Scientists, historians, mathematicians, philosophers, and statesmen have left behind some of their achievements - the invention of trigonometry for example, or the calculation of position by reference to latitude and longitude, or the rational analysis of political power - but their books are gone.  .  .(p. 80)

"In this general vanishing, all of the works of the brilliant founders of atomism, Leucippus and Democritus, and most of the works of their intellectual heir Epicurus, disappeared.  Epicurus had been extraordinarily prolific.  he and his principal philosophical opponent, the Stoic Chrysippus, wrote between them, it was said, more than a thousand books.  Even if this figure is exaggerated or if it counts as books what we would regard as essays and letters, the written record was clearly massive.  That record no longer exists."  (p. 81)

In "The Teeth of Time" - chapter 4 of The Swerve -  Stephen Greenblatt accounts for the loss of this collected wisdom.  The teeth in the chapter title belonged to bookworms that devoured the papyrus on which much of this knowledge was recorded.  Climate was the other big culprit.

But intentional human destruction was another.

"The fate of the books in all their vast numbers is epitomized in the fate of the greatest library in the ancient world, a library located not in Italy, but in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt and the commercial hub of the eastern Mediterranean.  The city had many tourist attractions, including an impressive theater and red-light district, but visitors always took note of something quite exceptional:  in the center of the city, at a lavish site known as the Museum, most of the intellectual inheritance of Greek, Latin, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Jewish cultures had been assembled at enormous cost and carefully archived for research.  Starting as early as 300 BCE, the Ptolomaic kings who ruled Alexandria had the inspired idea of luring leading scholars, scientists, and poets to their city by offering them life appointments at the Museum, with handsome salaries, tax exemptions, free food and lodging, and the almost limitless resources of the library." (pp. 86-7)

This wasn't just a beneficent whim of the rulers.  They knew what the people of Boston and the Silicon Valley know: that having brilliant minds around is good for the economy.

"The recipients of this largesse established remarkably high intellectual standards.  Euclid developed his geometry in Alexandria;  Archimedes discovered pi and laid the foundation for calculus;  Eratosthenes posited that the earth was round  and calculated its circumference to within 1 percent;  Galen revolutionized medicine.  Alexandrian astronomers postulated a heliocentric universe;  geometers deduced that the length of a year was 365 1/4 days and proposed adding a 'leap year' every fourth years;  geographers speculated that it would be possible to reach India by sailing west from Spain;  engineers developed hydraulics and pneumatics;  anatomists first understood clearly that the brain and the nervous system were a unit, studied the function of the heart and the digestive system, and conducted experiments in nutrition.  The level of achievement was staggering."  (p. 87)

All this was done by people who would eventually be known as 'pagans.'  That sort of changes one's modern sense of that word which, beyond referring to polytheistic peoples also has  a sense of uncivilized, as in 'heathen.'

The Swerve is about the rediscovery in 1417 of a manuscript by Lucretius called On the Nature of Things that had been lost for 1000 years. It's a book outlines the Epicurean philosophy and world view, starting with the idea we now accept as atoms.

"The invisible particles from which the entire universe is made, from the stars to the lowliest insect, are indestructible and immortal, though any particular object in the universe is transitory." (p. 186)

 Yes, the most remarkable thing about this book for me is recognizing my own ignorance that these ideas are over two thousand years old.   They were thought out by pagans.  And I'm inserting this here so that when you see the word pagan in the next quote - on the destruction of the library in Alexandria - you understand it in context.

"The first blow [to the library] came as a consequence of war.  A part of the library's collection - possibly only scrolls kept in warehouses near the harbor - was accidentally burned in 48 BCE when Julius Caesar struggled to maintain control of the city.  .  . "(p.89)

"The Museum was, as its name implies, a shrine dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses who embodied human creative achievement.  The Seraperon, where the secondary collection was located, housed a colossal statue of the god Serapis - a masterpiece fashioned in ivory and gold by the famous Greek sculptor Bryaxis - combining the cult of the Roman deity Jupiter with the cult of the Egyptian deities Osiris and Apis.

The Jews and Christians who lived in large numbers in Alexandria were intensely uneasy with this polytheism.  They did not doubt that other gods existed, but those gods were without exception demons, fiendishly bent on luring gullible humanity away from the sole and universal truth.  All other revelations and prayers recorded in those mountains of papyrus rolls were lies. . .

Centuries of religious pluralism under paganism - three faiths living side by side in a  spirit of mingled rivalry and absorptive tolerance - were coming to an end.  In the early fourth century the emperor Constantine began the process whereby Rome's official religion became Christianity.  It was only a matter of time before a zealous successor - Theodosius the Great, beginning in 391 CE - issued edicts forbidding public sacrifices and closing major cultic sites.  The state had embarked on the destruction of paganism."  (pp. 89-90)

In Alexandria, the spiritual leader of the Christian community, the patriarch Theophilus, heeded the edicts with a vengeance.  At once contentious and ruthless, Theophilus, unleashed mobs of Christian zealots who roamed through the streets insulting pagans."  The pagans responded with predictable shock and anxiety, and tensions between the two communities rose.  

Christians found pagan sacred items buried beneath a Christian basilica and paraded them mockingly through the streets.  Pagans responded, but ended up baricading themselves in Serapeon [where, as mentioned above, the magnificent statue of Serapis was housed].

The Serapeon was then sacked and the statue destroyed.

A few years later, Jews were the victims.  Then the chapter describes the murder of Hypatia

"the daughter of a mathematician, one of the Museum's famous scholars-in-residence.  Legendarily beautiful as a young woman, she had become famous for her attainments in astronoy, music mathematics, and philosophy.  Students came from great distances to study the works of Plat and Aristotle under her tutelage." (p. 91)

She opposed the expulsion of the Jews from Alexandria and for her efforts had her skin flayed off and her body burned outside the city walls.  Greenblatt reports that the mob's hero was later made a saint.  

"The murder of Hypatia signified more than the end of one remarkable person;  it effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life and was the death knell for the whole intellectual tradition .  .  .  The Museum, with its dream of assembling all texts, all schools, all ideas, was no longer at the protected center of civil society.  In the years that followed the library vitually ceased to be mentioned, as if its great collections virtually the sum of classical culture, had vanished without a trace.  They had almost certainly not disappeared all at once - such a momentous act of destruction would have been recorded.  But if one asks, Where did all the books go? the answer lies not only in the quick work of the soldiers' flames and the long, slow, secret labor of the bookwork.  It lies, symbolically at least, in the fate of Hypatia." (p. 93)

Greenblatt quotes a Roman historian of that period, Ammianus Marcellinus,

"In place of the philospher the singer is called in, and in place of the orator the teacher of stagecraft, and while the libraries are shut up forever like tombs, water-organs are manufactured and lyres as large as carriages."  Moreover, he noted sourly, people were driving their chariots at lunatic speeds through the crowded streets." (p.93)

They say that people who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.  This book covers history I don't know well at all.  So I can't judge how accurate the book is.  As I pointed out in a previous post, part of the book has been strongly criticized as inaccurate.

But I do know that Americans tend to think that all great ideas - particularly in science - happened in the last few centuries and that our wisdom and knowledge exceeds by far what the ancients knew.  That's a conceit I don't accept and this book does document that a level of sophistication and intellectual power that we tend to forget ever existed before us.

And the fragility of intellectual infrastructure is important to note.  Stirring up religious fervor against gay rights, abortion, evolution, and climate change is alive and well in modern America.  Universities and schools are under attack.  The Swerve at the very least, reminds us that great knowledge can be lost easily. With today's rapidly changing digital technology, can we be sure that future civilization will be able to read what's on the chips they find, even if they can decipher English or Chinese?  

Now I have to finish the book for the book club meeting tomorrow night. 

Snow From North To South

Here's what it looked like in Denali Friday.  Lots of white, including the sky.  Still a beautiful landscape. 

As we drove back to the Park entrance it was snowing even harder.  OK, Denali is 200 miles north of Anchorage and the elevation is a couple thousand feet higher.  And the weather in one part of the state is different from other parts.  Let's head home for a little more seasonable weather.

screen shot from NOAA

Here's the Alaska weather map for today, but it couldn't have been much different yesterday.  That turquoise strip from North to South - that's what we drove.  It snowed from the Park to mile 142.  Then it seemed to change to rain, which was clearer when I realized that the snow wasn't lining the highway any more, trees weren't snowy, and just patches in the woods.  But at mile 67 it changed back to snow.  And then we got to Anchorage.

And this morning the deck had covering of light snow.

 

When we got to Anchorage in 1977, the gardening rule of thumb was not to plant anything outside until June 1.  You never knew when there would be a frost.  But over the years it got warmer and warmer and planting some hardier plants could be done May 1.  

This doesn't negate climate change.  The planet is, overall, warming.  But climate 'change' means just that.  Lots of weird weather as oceans warm, currents change, and there's lots of volatility.  

"America's First Climate Refugees"

"Like many if not most native Alaskan villages, Newtok owes its location to a distant bureaucrat. The Yup'iks, who had lived in these parts of Alaska for hundreds of years, had traditionally used the area around present-day Newtok as a seasonal stopping-off place, convenient for late summer berry picking.

"Even then, their preferred encampment, when they passed through the area, was a cluster of sod houses called Kayalavik, some miles further up river. But over the years, the authorities began pushing native Alaskans to settle in fixed locations and to send their children to school.

"It was difficult for supply barges to manoeuvre as far up river as Kayalavik. After 1959, when Alaska became a state, the new authorities ordered villagers to move to a more convenient docking point."

From a three part series published in the Guardian on Newtok, Alaska, including video. 


 NPR reported Friday that

A new study confirms that the vast majority of scientists who research the climate accept that the planet is warming and human beings are largely responsible. Yet a large slice of the American public believes that scientists are deeply split about global warming.

Meanwhile the Koch brothers and others do their best to convince federal and state legislators that climate change is a hoax.   History will record them among the evil doers of our generation for their willful ignorance and misinformation which has contributed to delaying humankind's efforts to ward off the worst effects of climate change.  But history's judgment offers little solace to the tens, more likely hundreds, of millions who will be most severely impacted by climate change.  Newtok is only one of the more obvious direct effects of climate change already disrupting people's lives.  

Where will, for example, the people of Miami and Manhattan flee when the water rises more?  Sandy, I'm afraid, was just the beginning.