Blog, Jvstin Style

Dead Parrot sketch joke origin discovered

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7725079.stm

Via my friend Theresa

You've heard of or know the basics of the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch, I am sure, even if you haven't seen it. A pet store owner sells a dead parrot to a naive customer, who then comes back demanding his money. Said pet store owner blithely comes up with outrageous explanations for the parrot's state, denying that the parrot is in fact dead.

Well, it turns out the joke is old. Very old. It turns up in a recently translated group of jokes from 4th Century BC Ancient Greece, with a dead slave instead of a parrot.

Veteran's Day

Today is Veterans Day.

I am the son of a WWII Veteran, the brother of a Veteran of operations concurrent with the First Gulf War.

War is hell. Wars are often, but not always, fought for the wrong reasons, or greedy reasons, or evil reasons. The American soldier in the trenches, however, does not start the war in which he is asked to fight. His (or her!) sacrifice, especially the final one, should be honored, even if his deployment or the reasons for his deployment should be abjured.

I remember all those who have fallen in defense of our country.

A dark anniversary today

Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when German Nazis coordinated a nationwide attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Rioters looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. Before that night, the Nazis had killed people secretly and individually. After Kristallnacht, the Nazis felt free to persecute the Jews openly, because they knew no one would stop them.

Nicollet Expedition carvings

This is the inscription made by Joseph Nicollet and his expedition in 1838 at Pipestone. They were the first US Government expedition of explorers to reach the area.

Happy Birthday to the Brooklyn Bridge

Today is the 125th anniversary of one of the most over engineered (which is why it has lasted) and most beautiful Bridges in the United States, if not the world.

Happy Birthday to the Brooklyn Bridge!

I've walked across the full 5900 foot length of the bridge only once.

Unfortunately, I have no taken pictures of my own of the beautiful bridge. But here is a small "free" one instead:

Oldest bust of Ceasar found

BBC NEWS | Europe | Oldest known bust of Caesar found

First linked in a note in Google Reader, a bust of Gaius Julius Ceasar from 46 BC was found in the river Rhone in France. It looks a little different than more classical depictions I've seen.

Evidence of Pre Olympian Deity Worship in Greece

An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus - New York Times

Before Zeus hurled his first thunderbolt from Olympus, the pre-Greek people occupying the land presumably paid homage and offered sacrifices to their own gods and goddesses, whose nature and identities are unknown to scholars today.

But archaeologists say they have now found the ashes, bones and other evidence of animal sacrifices to some pre-Zeus deity on the summit of Mount Lykaion, in the region of Greece known as Arcadia. The remains were uncovered last summer at an altar later devoted to Zeus.

Cartographia

NPR : 'Cartographia' Showcases Maps as History, Art

NPR's Talk of the Nation interviewed the creator of yet another book on Maps and Cartography, called "Cartographia." The author, in the interview, has wonderful insights on what maps are and what they mean as cultural artifacts.

And the maps from the book, as seen in a gallery on NPR's website, are just too cool. This one is going onto the wishlist forthwith.

Tabula Peutingeriana

BBC NEWS | Europe | Ancient Roman road map unveiled

The Tabula Peutingeriana has to be considered one of the "greatest maps" in history. It's rarely shown to the public thanks to it being so fragile.

According to the BBC it was put on display for one day to celebrate its inclusion in Unesco's Memory of the World Register.

Thanksgiving

Darkness in the sky
A soft swirl of white snowflakes
Its Thanksgiving Day

Armistice (Veterans) Day

As the son of a (late) World War II veteran, and the brother of a veteran, I remember, and honor all of those who have served. As I said last year, without such veterans defending my country, my life would be a very different alternate history, if I existed at all. All I can say is, Thank You.

Funny enough, I didn't see any Veterans around here selling poppies to wear. However, my Second Life Sim, Prim Perfect Reporter Jvstin Tomorrow, has a virtual one to wear today.

Remember, Remember...

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Ever should be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys,
Let the bells ring!
Holloa boys, holloa boys,
God save the King!
A penny loaf to feed the Pope,
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him,
A pint o’ beer to rinse it down,
A faggot o’ sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say the Pope is dead.

50th Anniversary of Sputnik

On October 4,1957, the Soviet Union launched the first object into orbit, Sputnik 1.

The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers (18,000 mi) per hour and emitted radio signals at around 20.005 and 40.002 MHz which were monitored by Amateur radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on October 26, 1957.Sputnik 1 burned as it fell from orbit upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, after traveling about 60 million km (37 million miles) in orbit.

It was *not* the first object to reach space, however. In 1944, a V2 rocket was launched from Peenemünde on a vertical test shot sub-orbital trajectory to an altitude of 176 km (109 miles), well beyond the 100 km (62 miles) altitude generally considered to be the border of space.

World languages dying off

Via the NY Times and NPR's All things Considered.

Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists
say, nearly half are in danger of extinction and are likely to
disappear in this century. In fact, they are now falling out of use at
a rate of about one every two weeks.

Some endangered languages vanish in an instant, at the death of the sole surviving speaker.
Others are lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as indigenous tongues
are overwhelmed by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace
and on television.

New research, reported today, has identified the five regions of the
world where languages are disappearing most rapidly. The "hot spots"
of imminent language extinctions are: Northern Australia, Central
South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, Eastern
Siberia and Oklahoma and Southwest United States. All of the areas are
occupied by aboriginal people speaking diverse languages, but in
decreasing numbers.

The study was based on field research and data analysis supported by
the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for
Endangered Languages, an organization for the documentation,
revitalization and maintenance of languages at risk. The findings are
described in the October issue of National Geographic magazine and at
www.languagehotspots.org.

---

As for me, I am saddened at the death of languages. I am not a good or even an average linguist, sometimes much to my chagrin. I *wish* I had an ear and mind for languages, but mastery of languages eludes me. Maybe I need to learn in some other fashion.

Language is a tool for expressing ourselves, and truths about the world, and so when a language is lost, one of those methods of doing so is lost. Languages, and the control of language is a powerful thing. And so the loss of language is like a loss of biodiversity. It makes the social ecosystem of humanity just a little more diminished, to our loss and sorrow.

Jack Vance's novel The Languages of Pao illustrates this perfectly.

Atlantic Avenue Tunnel

BHRA: History

Via the OUP Blog, something I never heard of. In the 1840's, an underground railroad tunnel, a half mile in length was built at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It fell into disuse and was forgotten until 1980.

Jefferson Dollar Coin Released

WASHINGTON (August 16, 2007) – The Nation is getting a new coin today – the Thomas Jefferson $1 Coin – the third coin in the United States Mint’s new Presidential $1 Coin series.

Thomas Jefferson $1 Coins are available at most banks and financial institutions throughout the country, starting today. The golden-colored Thomas Jefferson $1 Coins may also be purchased in collector bags and rolls on the United States Mint’s Web site, http://www.usmint.gov/, at noon ET.

A Day in Pompeii and Ancient Greece Secrets of the Past

I went to see A Day in Pompeii at the Science Museum of Minnesota last Sunday. It's paired with an IMAX movie: Greece, Secrets of the Past

I've already joked on my livejournal about a display of a small statue of Venus which had in its plaque lyrics from the epynomous Bananrama song. This amused me and got me on the right foot to enjoy this look into the most perfectly preserved Roman city that we have...for the most tragic of reasons.

A Day in Pompeii has a couple of hundred artifacts from the lost city, from the statue of Venus to a lararium complete with the small devotional statues, to a recreation of a themopolium, the Pompeiian equivalent of a fast food joint. I especially loved the lovingly cleaned and polished coins, so beautifully restored that I could read "Nero Ceasar" on one particular aureus. The preservation of the ash was such that there is even a cast of a loaf of bread eaten by the Pompeiians.

All of this is accompanied by a free audio tour, with an adult track with fairly good context, and a family friendly track geared toward children and the more casual viewer. I strongly suggest that if you are going to visit the exhibit that you take advantage of the tour.

There is also a short excerpt from a computer recreation movie of what a couple of the houses of Pompeii looked like in their heyday.

The crowning room in the exhibit, however, is the room with the body casts. After going through several rooms of the artifacts, the exhibit takes a dark turn as it describes in the words of Pliny the Younger the eruption of Vesuvius on that fateful day in August 79 AD. The room with the body casts is low lit, and has a background ambient sound of destruction and devastation that provides a creepy feel. The body casts themselves are displayed on small piles of charcoal, in the positions that they were found in. It made me shudder to gaze at them, and imagine the horror of their final moments. Particularly poignant was a cast of a dog, struggling to escape the rope or chain that held it in place.

If the exhibit intended to bring home the emotional impact of the eruption, it succeeded.

After this room, the exhibit turns toward a more general look at Volcanoes. This mostly was not very interesting, except for a live exhibit I managed to catch where the demonstrator showed us some lava (melted basalt and some impurities to lower the melting point). As we watched, he poured it and it cooled to a pool of obsidian. That was neat to see and I wish I had taken pictures of the process.

Overall, I think the exhibit was well done, if a bit pricey on top of regular museum admission to see. There was a good variety of artifacts, well documented, and a honesty about what we know and don't know about the artifacts and the life of Pompeii. I think the souvenir book was skimpy and I eschewed buying that, although I may want to pick one up at some point on a second visit.

I don't think the exhibit is so strong as to be worth to cross state lines, for, but if it should come to a museum near you (the exhibit is slated to visit Birmingham, Charlotte, San Diego and Houston), I recommend the exhibit to anyone with an interest in the subject, so that you, too, might spend a Day in Pompeii.

I liked it enough that I intend to see it again before it leaves Minneapolis at the end of December.

---

Paired with the exhibit is an IMAX movie: Greece, Secrets of the Past. Hosted by Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), the movie focuses on a bronze age Proto-Greek culture on the island of Santorini, site of the Thera volcano eruption in the 17th century BC that may be an inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. It also touches on the Golden Age of Athens, including the building of the Parthenon.

While the digital recreation of the Parthenon at its height and the views of Santorini were beautiful to look at, I was not that impressed with the movie as a documentary. I don't think it hung together all that well. If it had focused exclusively on one of its subjects, I think it would have been stronger. Skipping back and forth weakened it, I think.

When I see the exhibit on Pompeii again, I don't intend to see this film again, although the movie, if it ever comes on DVD, would be nice to screencap for its views of Santorini.

New Seven Wonders of the World?!

The New7Wonders organization is happy to announce the following 7 candidates have been elected to represent global heritage throughout history. The listing is in random order, as announced at the Declaration Ceremony on 07.07.07. All the New 7 Wonders are equal and are presented as a group without any ranking.

The Great Wall, China
Petra, Jordan
Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichén Itzá, Mexico
The Roman Colosseum, Italy
The Taj Mahal, India

http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=633&L=0

Any list of Seven Wonders of the World that lacks the Pyramids at Giza isn't worth having, even if they were a "finalist". Bah!

Battle of Hadrianople

Peter Heather, a leading light on Imperial Rome and its relationship with the "barbarians" has an illuminating article on the Oxford University Press Blog about the Battle of Hadrianople.

The battle, a debacle for the Eastern Roman Empire, was one of the turning points in the history of Rome and Byzantium, helping to usher in the end of the Western Roman Empire (and very nearly the Eastern, too) in the process, even if many subsequent battles were far less catastrophic. It was a severe shock to the Roman Empire, especially given the size of the army wiped out, the loss of the Emperor Valens.

In a way, I see the Battle of Hadrianople being a parallel to the Battle in the Teutoborg Forest in 9 AD, where Augustus lost Varus and his Legions. That battle, too, marked a turning point, too--Rome would never attempt to add what is now Germany to the Roman Empire again.

And if you haven't read it before, the Oxford University Press blog is a fairly erudite, interesting blog full of stuff (its a group blog with a number of subjects and authors). I came across it thanks to Minnesota Public Radio, since a wordsmith from Oxford University who likes to delve into the origins of words occasionally stops by to discuss words and language. On his last visit,he plugged the blog and I added it to my newsfeeds.

The way the future wasn't

Making Light points us to an interesting blog called Paleo-Future,a showcase of previous depictions of the future.

Wild doesn't begin to describe some of these ideas.

Virtual Museum on Islamic Art

MEDITERRANEAN: VIRTUAL MUSEUM ON ISLAMIC ART 'OPENS ITS DOORS'

http://www.discoverislamicart.org/

Cairo, 20 April (AKI) - What's being billed as the first virtual museum of Islamic art "opened" officially on Friday providing a window on some of the traces of Islamic culture that are scattered across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The project, which makes accessible online the marvels of ancient Islamic culture, involves 17 museums in 14 countries.

More than 850 artefacts, 385 monuments and archaeological sites, covering 1280 years of history are accessible at the click of a button. From 634 AD when for the first time the Islamic army penetrated the Levante to the fall of the Ottoman empire to the start of the 20th century.

The creation of this museum, whose themed exhibitions involve Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Great Britain, seeks to boost understanding of the historic ties between Europe and North Africa and the Middle East.

The site is available in eight languages. "It can be used by tourists who want to decide on the route of their journeys based on the things that they want to see, or history buffs and even young people who have to do research in class on ancient times" explained Mohammed Abbas Selim, project spokesman in Cairo.

Sponsored by the European Union and by the Euromed Heritage programme, "Discover Islamic Art" (www.discoverislamicart.org), cost 3.2 million euros and is part of the wider "Museum Without Borders", a non profit organisation founded in 1994 in Vienna by Eva Schubert, who has dedicated her career to the development of multicultural projects at an international level.

Roman-style column bolsters Han Dynasty tomb

People's Daily Online -- Roman-style column bolsters Han Dynasty tomb

A recently found tomb dating back to the Han Dynasty, roughly 200 BC to 200 AD, has been found with a Roman-style column.

Very un-Chinese like.

Was there contact between Rome and China? Indirectly, to be sure and there were a few travelers that made the entire length of the journey. And then there was the Roman Legion captured by the Persians in this period, who might have been shipped east as slaves...

Happy Dual Birthday

Pharyngula: Happy 198th Birthday, Charles!

Happy Birthday to not only Abraham Lincoln , but another towering figure of the 19th Century, who was also not only born on February 12...but the same year as Lincoln, too, 1809.

Happy 198th Birthday to Charles Darwin AND Abraham Lincoln!

Parallels between Rome and the Modern US

NPR : Drawing Parallels Between Ancient Rome and the U.S. Today

Novelist Robert Harris draws some parallels between Ancient Rome and the modern US, with some eerie recapitulations of language in the way the pirate attack on Ostia in 68 BC was handled by those in power in Rome, as well as the reaction of its citizenry.

Harris made this point in a NY Times article that I saw back at the end of September, which will soon be going beyond the pay wall.

In the NPR segment, though, he also makes the parallel between a massive natural disaster early in the Roman Empire and a modern day natural disaster.

Katrina is our own modern rendition of the destruction of Pompeii at the hands of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Anyway, as a fan of things Roman, I found the parallels,once highlighted, interesting.

Mut Precinct Archaeological Dig Site

Brooklyn Museum: Mut Precinct

People who have been to New York or live in the area know that NYC has *two* world class Museum collections devoted to Egypt. One is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The other one is in the Brooklyn Museum. I admit, years ago, I was skeptical when I first went to the Brooklyn Museum, having been spoiled on the MET. The Brooklyn one, though, does hold up.

I discovered tonight that the Brooklyn Museum has a website, and a flickr photostream devoted to their ongoing archaeological digs in Egypt.