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POPSEternalism, Nihilism: new forms, old superstition <<<Throughout the Buddha's long period of teaching the Dhamma to His followers, He actively discouraged speculative arguments. During the 5th century B.C. India was a veritable hive of intellectual activity where scholars, yogis, philosophers, kings and even ordinary householders were constantly engaged in the philosophical arguments pertaining to human existence. Some of these were either ridiculously trivial or totally irrelevant. Some people wasted valuable time arguing at great length about all manner of subjects. They were far more concerned about proving their powers in mental gymnastics than seeking genuine solutions to the problems that beset humanity.>>>
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POPS840 CE: Trade between Viking Scandinavia and the Arab World We take for granted that our world is more international today than it ever was before in history. Though our speed of trans-national communications, commerce and travel is truly staggering, ancient civilizations were not necessarily isolated islands. Understanding that the Arabs and Vikings, Romans and Chinese were all part of a single international system, not monolithic bastions of "clashing" civilizations is the first step towards understanding how we can live peacefully with each other today.
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POPSDinosaur Skin Mag: Hot chicks, skin totally preserved! Fortunately, Paleontologist Theagarten Lingham-Soliar of the University of KwaZulu-Natal announced that the Psittacosaurus unearthed in Liaoning Province had intact, fossilized epidermis proving once and for all that the integumentary structure of Mesozoic Reptiles was in fact one of scales of hardened epithelial tissue, probably constructed from keratin (a) protiens, rather than feather like appendages constructed from keratin (b). 'Nuf said! (Spell check that you bastards!)
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POPSWhere the Heck do Fortune Cookies Come From? (In Bed) Confucius say: "Oh man, why don't you f***in' stop it? Sh**, this is too f***in' big for you, you know that? Who did the baking, who made the fortune cookie, f*** man! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The f***in' bakers don't even know! Don't you get it?" (In Bed) - David Farrie Apoplectic Ethno-Culinary Conspiracy Theorist
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POPSWetland thrives beneath the Antarctic Ice This is actually an entire new world, possibly preserving ancient life. The complex system that has apparently existed unseen beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is another great example of truth being much more exciting than fiction.
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POPSWhy Are Pygmies Short? Because of their short life expectancies, the researchers speculate that pygmies have had to shift their reproductive years forward. The average life expectancy at birth for different pygmy populations ranges from just 16 years to 24 years. Very few pygmy women reach the end of their reproductive period, as only a small percentage survive past age 40.
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POPSAll our thinking is based on Feelings John Hellevig's website is rich and thick with good stuff. It includes a copy of his exciting book about how we are creatures who feel first and foremost. For me, it has been one of the best finds of 2007, and if I came upon it by reference from another Clipper, yo her or him my love!
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POPSHeartbreaking Nature Story We know that whales are intelligent. Whether they are self aware is another matter. Yet, there is something very poignant about this story.
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POPSShipwreck: Real Pirates, Actually of the Carribean Underwater Archeology is a fascinating field, but it's badly in need of legal support, since currently looters and scavengers not only enjoy the benefit of legal ambiguity, they exalt in their shameless destruction of historical heritage for crass commercialism and sensationalism.
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POPSGIANT Crystals! Uh, yeah, I know, it's a stupid title and I normally have something more cerebral to say, but this is just plain cool. I wonder what could possibly explain my fascination with these crystals?
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POPSSEXY (Totaly hot naked picture of a Mono-monostatic object: perfect geometric equilibrium) Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce the Gomboc! It's an object of absolutely perfect geometric equilbrium. There is only one position in which it can rest, and it will always return to the exact same posture, because the balance of its proportions all pull it to a single incredibly narrow center of gravity. And, it is TOTALLY NAKED! I mean, just check out the curves on this one! How did we get this Gombloc? Well, there were a few Russian mathematicians sitting around (probably stoned) who thought it would be cool. So they just sat down and did the math "for a few years" and then tested thousands of pebles (once again, STONED!) until they just decided to make one themselves. I am so not worthy!
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POPSHow Do You Psyche Yourself? Up? Or Out? The moral of the story? No matter how high you jump, how fast you run or swim, how powerfully you row, you can do better. But sometimes your mind gets in the way. “All maximum performances are actually pseudo-maximum performances,” Dr. Morgan said. “You are always capable of doing more than you are doing.” From an article on how athletes trick their brains into letting them achieve what their bodies are capable of. I think this anecdote perfectly encapsulates what makes pushing one's personal boundaries so maddening yet rewarding. If I had more time, I would come up with some witty, insightful comments right about here, but I'm afraid I need to run (for work, unfortunately, not for pleasure). Anyone else have some thoughts? :)
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POPSFrat-boy ritualism and the ancient Maya Dude, check this out! The more things change, the more they stay the same: rich kids on the Yucatan drinking until they puke: apparently this was a strong tradition even before the advent of "Spring Break." In all seriousness, most of the hippies who like to talk about "spiritual power zones" of the ancient world, and the serene wisdom of the Maya know nothing of what they are talking about. It looks to me like a Mayan religious leader probably had more in common with John Belushi than Ghandi.
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POPSMarvelous Mysteries of Cartography As a huge fan of Martin Waldseemuller, I'm glad to see his work in the news. Cartography used to be a really cool job, requiering research and interviews, and a healthy dose of speculation. The great thing is that history is so much more complex than the writing of it, and this map is a perfect example of that. Maps were very cloak and dagger stuff back in their day. Although the story comes down that Columbus discovered America and Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. But a clever sleuth could have figured out that there must have been something dividing the eastern coast of China from the eastern coast of the new continent. Also, there is the very sexy possibility that other unknown explorers had already made forays into the Pacific before Balboa got the credit. I think its great when history starts to sound like an Arturo Perez Reverte novel!
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POPSWhat Dinosaurs Really Looked Like - sort of... Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life. Growing up I often lamented the problem of knowing how dinosaurs looked. After all, we find their bones fossilized and fragmented. Although it is easy enough to accurately reconstruct the individual bones, but since they are often found in jumbled dumps, it is virtually impossible to accurately reconstruct how they all fit together without a lot of subjective guesswork. A lot of times they can't even tell which bones come from which dinosaurs. Now, I know that lately the National Geographic Society has been pulling Discovery-Chanel-league stunts of leaping ahead of the facts to promote splashy and unverified history, but this is still a major leap forward. We may not know what color they were, but we are one step closer!
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POPSSocial Networking for Zebras Ecologists have turned to computer scientists to develop dynamic graphs of social behavior among Zebra populations, revealing why some are thriving while others are endangered: The difference showed that the Grevy's zebras tended to hang out in cliques, whereas the onagers spent time with different buddies on different days. The methods developed turn out to applicable to human networks, too: In the meantime, Berger-Wolf is testing her methods on other datasets, including the records of e-mails exchanged at Enron that became available after they were subpoenaed. She has found some surprising connections between the two kinds of networks. "We can see that our method to detect when a lion was in the area of zebras detects very well when the subpoena was issued at Enron," she says. When faced with a lion, the zebras flee and follow one lead zebra. Similarly, after the subpoena was issued, e-mail traffic to the lawyers increased dramatically.
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POPSCult of the Wolf: An Ancient Roman Cave Shrine Archaeologists have finally discovered the lost Lupercal underneath the ruins of the Emperor Augustine's palace. It was the underground shrine to the she-wolf who raised the legendary fratricidal twins who founded Rome, Romulus and Remus. Somehow my job suddenly seems very boring. But I do like that Italy's Minister of Culture, Mr. Rutelli, appears to believe this is historical validation of the Myth of Romulus. After all, if there's an ancient temple there that must prove the myth to be true in its entirety. (Hey, it worked when they found "Troy," right?) Welcome to the Evans-Schliemann School of Hokey Historiography and Wistful Thinking.
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POPSMonkey Sacrifice at the Ancient Peruvian Fire Temple! I must admit, I clipped this partly just so I could be the first to tag a clip with "Monkey Sacrifice." (Look it up! I'm the first!) This is a fascinating temple to me for many reasons. It shows a diversity in Pre-Columbian cultures that is often overlooked in favor of stereotypes of a few high-profile cultures (The Inca, the Maya, the Aztecs, etc.) But it also seriously shows that it is time for us to start considering whether to retire the rusty old land bridge theory. Increasingly, it seems only logical that trans-oceanic travel was not the exclusive domain of "civilized" Europeans. Nor was being "civilized" for that matter. World history is a lot more complex than our myopic record of it. Fortunately, there are still exciting archaeological finds like this one to open our eyes.
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POPSGiagantic Canibalistic Mongolian Trout! The best news is that conservation efforts now center on catch-and-release fly fishing! The Chinese utter lack of comprehension when it comes to conservation means I still haven't been able to find any good fishing around Beijing, but Mongolia, that ain't so far away! So that settles it, I'm headed to Mongolia! But first I have to learn to tie a fly that looks like a dead marmot... (Any tips?)
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POPSRubens was right? Overweight People Live Longer? Not dying today basically just means you'll die later. (Citation: The Onion, Our Dumb Century: US Mortality Rate Holding Steady at 100%) So I would be really interested in seeing how they crunch the numbers on "Death Rates." How they account for things like age and inevitability. For instance, aren't most really old people under-weight? As life goes on, most of the people I've seen either bloat up (Marlon Brando) or wither away (George Burns) so it would seem unlikely that the people who are at the time in their life where dying is a reality might be merely overweight. What we need is statistics tracking death rates based on a person's weight at a give age, such as 15, 25 or 45, that way we can see how life-long weight may affect a person's life expectancy. Seems like this is more skewing of the numbers to try to convince Americans they can have their cake and eat a lot of it too. On the other hand, it can't hurt to be jolly!
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