Swiss Say No to Marijuana, Yes to Heroin

Voters in Switzerland today split the street drug referendum. 63% of Swiss voters rejected the Hemp Initiative, a proposal that would have legalized marijuana use, while 68% of voters supported the continuation of one of Europe's most liberal heroin policies.

The nearly ten-year-old Swiss heroin program enables authorities to supply the drug to long-term heroin addicts over the age of 18 years and provide addicts with free treatment.

Back at home, Michigan became the 13th state to legalize medical marijuana on November 4th. With the economy in recession, one can imagine the tremendous revenue that might be generated from legalized marijuana sales. Then again, this idea seems way too logical for a responsible government.

Distant Star

The speed of light is immutable. And it's very fast - 186,000 miles per second. In our experience, light seems immediate. Turn on a flashlight and there's a light spot on the wall. You can't follow the path of a flashlight's beam as you can, for example, the path of a baseball. Yet over astronomical distances light starts to look a little sluggish. Our Sun is approximately 93 million miles away. Therefore it takes light from the Sun over 8 minutes to reach the Earth. We are bathed in the Sun's past. From our perspective, more distant stars have older light. For the most distant light sources, we are looking billions of years into the past.

A distant star shone brightly last week when Guns N' Roses released Chinese Democracy, an album 15 years in the making. Suggestive of the strangeness of it all, Simon Reynolds has a review on Salon judging Chinese Democracy alongside Kanye West's new offering. I have not listened to the album, but based on Reynolds's review, Chinese Democracy was the last and fading light escaped before the explosion.

(image credit: Geffen/Universal, wikipedia.org)

Look Up

If skies are clear on Monday night, you will have the opportunity to see Venus and Jupiter close to a crescent moon (see image). It's a rare confluence of planetary orbits and an evocative lunar phase.

Who's the Boss? (Week 13)

The Boss came back to earth last week going 6-10. I finished an even 8-8. Picking NFL football games is difficult. With the victory (even if it was lame), the title Who's the Boss? returns along with Tony Danza. Feels like a warm bath. We're both off to a good start with all 3 Thanksgiving games correct.

Week 13
Tennessee (B) (-11) at Detroit
Seattle (+13) at Dallas (B)
Arizona (+3) at Philadelphia (B)
San Francisco (+6.5) at Buffalo (B)
New Orleans (B) (+4) at Tampa Bay
Carolina (+3) at Green Bay (B)
NYG (B) (-3.5) at Washington
Baltimore (B) (-7) at Cincinnati
Miami (B) (-8.5) at St. Louis
Indianapolis (B) (-5) at Cleveland
Atlanta (B) (+4.5) at San Diego
Denver (+9) at NYJ (B)
Pittsburgh (+1) at New England (B)
Kansas City (+3) at Oakland (B)
Chicago (+3) at Minnesota (B)
Jacksonville (+3) at Houston (B)

Mike season: 49-53-1
Boss season: 34-26

Anniversary: Phonograph

On this day in 1877, Thomas Edison first demonstrated his phonograph. Here is Edison's account of its invention, from wikipedia:

Instead of using a disk I designed a little machine using a cylinder provided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to be placed tinfoil, which easily received and recorded the movements of the diaphragm. A sketch was made, and the piece-work price, $18, was marked on the sketch. I was in the habit of marking the price I would pay on each sketch. If the workman lost, I would pay his regular wages; if he made more than the wages, he kept it. The workman who got the sketch was John Kruesi. I didn't have much faith that it would work, expecting that I might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future for the idea. Kruesi, when he had nearly finished it, asked what it was for. I told him I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted ' Mary had a little lamb ,' etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly. I was never so taken aback in my life. Everybody was astonished. I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.

Below is a 1906 recording advertising the Edison phonograph.



(image credit: Edison with phonograph, Mathew Brady, circa 1877)

Song of the Day - Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys - Sabotage
I can't stand it, I know you planned it
I'ma set it straight this watergate
I can't stand rockin' when I'm in here
'Cause your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear

Most Expensive Book in the World

Already looking for that perfect Christmas gift for 2009? Supercollide is here to help.

The recently published book "Una Dotta Mano" (The Learned Hand) is certain to impress your loved ones. However, you might want to order your copy well in advance and save some cash during the next year. Each book takes 6 months to make and costs over $100,000.

The front cover of the velvet bound book is made of white marble from Michelangelo's favorite quarry in the city of Carrara, Italy (the book weighs nearly 62 lbs). Inside you will find magnificent photographs of Michelangelo's drawings and sculptures.

You can preview your purchase by visiting the New York Public Library where the book will be showcased starting on December 2.

Bush's War

PBS Frontline's Bush's War is a must-watch. The story of the Iraq War has had only the vaguest public telling. As the feckless media and feeble Democrats push forward (expediency always first), our country risks losing the war's lessons. Madison Brookshire juxtaposes the portrait of Bush in Oliver Stone's W. and in Bush's War:

In essence, it is the opposite of Oliver Stone's W., which makes fiction out of a reality so compelling it needed no treatment. In effect, this is the film I longed for when I wrote my review of W. Some may think it unfair to compare a fiction film with a documentary one, but Bush's War is as literary as anything Stone has ever made. Its characters are compelling; its conflicts vivid; its ironies bitter, cruel and heartbreaking. It is a tragedy, really, with the State Department as the Greek chorus.

Madison's review of W. is here.

(image credit: Frontline's Bush's War, pbs.org)

Universal Aging

More evidence today on the commonality of aging mechanisms across species. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School and colleagues have demonstrated that similar proteins (of the sirtuin class) mitigate cell aging in yeast and mice. Sinclair is quoted in Technology Review: "Life, in general, has an Achilles heel, and this is it."

Sinclair is co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, much in the news lately.

(image credit: SIRT1 protein (red) clusters around mouse chromosomes (blue). Phillip Oberdoerffer, technologyreview.com)

Kingdom of Happiness

The global financial crisis has so far had little impact on Bhutan's foremost indicator of national wealth, the Gross National Happiness (GNH). The Kingdom of Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan nation with an apparent abundance of happiness. In 1972, Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuk elevated the GNH above the GDP. Efforts to increase the GNH have focused on honoring cultural traditions and conserving Bhutan's magnificent natural setting and resources. Of note, Bhutan is the only country to ban tobacco - on the grounds that it did not contribute to national happiness. Despite what would seem nontrivial impediments (low household income, limited public education, relatively low life expectancy), Bhutan is often ranked among the world's happiest countries (for the record, Scandinavia is obscenely happy). Of course, any evaluation of national happiness depends on a subjective measure of what happiness is. And while I don't doubt that the link between happiness and income is illusory, I will conjecture that national happiness campaigns are likely to skew results. In any case, it's an interesting experiment. And in recent years Bhutan's happiness quest has taken an intriguing turn.

In 2005, the King stepped down and announced the beginning of democracy and a plan for his son to assume the throne. Bhutan has since adopted a constitution and is now a parliamentary monarchy and the world's youngest democracy. They've held national elections in 2007 and 2008. The new King, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, crowned November 6th, has promised to continue his father's happiness campaign including democratization. He also appears to enjoy celebrity status in Bhutan. The Economist quotes a citizen who plays basketball with the new King, "He is awesome.... His favorite shot is two feet from the three-point line. And you know what: he sinks them." As a lover of basketball, I can attest that there is no surer path to happiness than knocking down deep 3's.

(image credit: the Bhutanese flag; Haa Valley in Bhutan, wikipedia.org)

Thanksgiving Boss

The Boss and I both take Tennessee, Dallas and Philadelphia. Full update and picks this weekend.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Anniversary: Happy Thanksgiving

The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held today in 1924 in New York City. The parade featured live animals from Central Park Zoo. In 1927, animal-shaped balloons replaced the real animals (Felix the Cat was the first balloon). The variety and size of balloon characters has since expanded (a balloon pun!). The Parade has always concluded at the Macy's building at Herald Square, where Santa Claus joins the festivities. At the first parade, however, Santa was crowned the "King of Kiddies".

(image credit: Charlie Brown balloon, Macy's; Uncle Sam balloon in 1941 Parade, the balloon was retired after this parade and the rubber donated to the war effort, Macy's, abcnews.go.com)

Song of the Day - The National

The National - Fake Empire
Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything it wants
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Terror in Mumbai

Terrorists have struck in Mumbai, India in a coordinated attack that killed at least 80 people and wounded hundreds in the country's financial capital. Reportedly using machine guns, grenades and bombs, terrorists attacked two high profile hotels, a train station, a hospital and a popular tourist restaurant. The terrorists were apparently targeting wealthy tourists and specifically attempted to take British and American hostages. A previously unknown group, the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police report that four terrorists were killed and nine suspects arrested. At this hour, the situation is still developing.

India has experienced increasing terrorist attacks in recent years. This incident represents one of the largest and boldest attacks to date. It is alarmingly atypical in that gunmen engaged victims and have taken hostages.

(image: a police officer cares for a wounded child, Reuters)

Anniversary: Dracula

On this day in 1476 Vlad III of Wallachia reclaimed the Wallachian throne for the third and final time. Wallachia is a historical region of southern Romania. Vlad III was infamous in his time for his cruelty as Vlad the Impaler and is most famous now as the inspiration for Bram Stoker's vampire Count Dracula in the 1897 novel Dracula. The name Dracula comes from his father Vlad Dracul ("Vlad the Dragon") who belonged to the chivalric Order of the Dragon, established by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund.

Vlad III led a life of near constant political contest and war - his father assassinated, he exiled and imprisoned, gaining and losing the crown, finally killed in battle with the Ottoman Empire. Vlad's cruelty quickly became legend as stories of his joy in dining among the impaled and nailing hats to his visitors' heads (when they neglected to deferentially remove them) spread and were passed down.

It's worth remembering that the Holy Roman Empire continued until the Napoleonic Wars when, across the ocean, Thomas Jefferson was President of the fledgling United States of America. And the Ottoman Empire, responsible for Vlad's death, didn't end until its formal partition after World War I. The world is small and history short, indeed.

(image credit: portrait of Vlad, c. 1560)

Pirates, Updated

Somali pirates have taken yet another ship in the Gulf of Aden, this time a Yemeni cargo ship. Iran is now calling for a confrontation with the pirates. These are but two developments in the bizarre ascent of modern day pirates.

New reports suggest that the Indian Navy may have sunk a Thai fishing boat and not a Somali pirate ship last week (the Indian Navy disputes this report). Pirates continue to hold the Saudi oil tanker captured last week off the shore of Kenya, though apparently the hostage crew is being treated "quite well" (surely that's a relative judgment). With brazen irony, the pirates have called for "honest" negotiations.

Now some are wondering, "Are Pirates the Problem, or the Solution?" (h/t Andrew Sullivan).

Background on the pirate crisis here.

Song of the Day - Warren Zevon

Betting Against Buffett?

You can bet against the Oracle of Omaha on Long Bets, an immensely enjoyable website where you can register and vote on (or make) a variety of provocative predictions and bets. Now on the front page, from predictor Warren Buffett "Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S&P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses." The challenger is hedge fund Protege Partners, LLC, the bet is $1,000,000 (I'll go with Buffett).

Some bets are resolved (Red Sox won the World Series), others will need some time (a 150-year-old person by 2150 - I say yes). The money is generally of little consequence (especially for whether the LHC will destroy the earth), it's an interesting experiment in how well we understand the present world and how we largely misunderstand the future.

(image credit: businesspundit.com)

Mission to Mars: Park By the Glacier

NASA spacecraft have made a huge discovery on mars. A number of vast glaciers have been discovered at the middle latitudes of Mars, one larger than the city of Los Angeles. Needless to say, the discovery of vast stores of water near the Martian equator is a tremendous leap forward for planning manned missions and permanent colonies.

Covered in a layer of rocky debris, the glaciers are a half a mile thick in some places. Just as glaciers on earth have provided valuable information of our planet's past, there is great hope that air bubbles in these glaciers on mars will tell us about the history of the martian atmosphere.

We can dare to dream that life forms may be frozen in the ice. Discovering life on another planet in our own solar system could change the way we think about life in the universe, and possibly jump-start colonization of the red planet.

Thank you to the University of New Brunswick's Planetary and Space Sciences department for the image, and their website, which has a database of space missions (including the incredible number that have failed) and a database of Earth Impacts.

Anniversary: Dynamite

On this day in 1867, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. With dynamite, Nobel finally harnessed nitroglycerin for controlled use. He had experimented with the explosive chemical for years, with sometimes disastrous effects - an explosion in 1864 killed his brother and several others. Dynamite became hugely important in construction and mining and, of course, in war. Seeking a legacy apart from dynamite (a premature obituary had labeled him "The merchant of death"), in his will Nobel established five prizes to celebrate the best of science and humanity. Here's a recap of this year's Nobel winners.

(image credit: Alfred Nobel; Nobel's 1864 patent application for nitroglycerin, wikipedia.org)

Shadow Universe

Dark matter is thought to represent most of the mass of the universe. Yet it is invisible and has so far resisted explicit detection. Now the effort to reveal it is heating up, accelerated in part by the chance to test theories in the Large Hadron Collider. From the Times article:

Dark matter has teased and obsessed astronomers since the 1930s, when the Caltech astronomer Fritz Zwicky deduced that some invisible “missing mass” was required to supply the gravitational glue to hold clusters of galaxies together. The idea became respectable in the 1970s when Vera C. Rubin of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and her collaborators found from studying the motions of stars that most galaxies seemed to be surrounded by halos of dark matter.

The stakes for dark matter go beyond cosmology. The most favored candidates for its identity come from a theory called supersymmetry, which unifies three of the four known forces of nature mathematically and posits the existence of a realm of as-yet-undiscovered particles. They would be so-called wimps — weakly interacting massive particles — which feel gravity and little else, and could drift through the Earth like wind through a screen door. Such particles left over from the Big Bang could form a shadow universe clumping together into dark clouds that then attract ordinary matter.

(image credit: NASA)

Song of the Day - Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley
The name she gave was Caroline
The daughter of a miner
And her ways were free
And it seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her

Anti-Aging

Anti-aging research is getting more attention, centered recently on resveratrol and efforts to correct mitochondrial malfunction. The Wired article quotes Super Collide favorite, the phenomenally bearded Aubrey de Grey "Powered flight research was fruitless until it wasn't.... The harder we try, the sooner we'll succeed."

We've discussed these anti-aging drugs before, more on the provocative Dr. De Grey here. While I'm at it, here's an article on the biologically immortal hydra.

(image credit: bristlecone pines may live 5,000 years, wikipedia.org)

Hitchens on Clinton

Christopher Hitchens continues the barrage on Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:

In matters of foreign policy, it has been proved time and again, the Clintons are devoted to no interest other than their own. A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set. Who can say with a straight face that this is true of a woman whose personal ambition is without limit; whose second loyalty is to an impeached and disbarred and discredited former president; and who is ready at any moment, and on government time, to take a wheedling call from either of her bulbous brothers? This is also the unscrupulous female who until recently was willing to play the race card on President-elect Obama and (in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications) to ridicule him for lacking what she only knew about by way of sordid backstairs dealing. What may look like wound-healing and magnanimity to some looks like foolhardiness and masochism to me.

Obama's pragmatism is much celebrated. But the choice of Clinton seems pragmatic politically, not for governing. Didn't the last 8 years prove that governing is far more than political perception? If you haven't read Ben's take, it's here.

The Ultimate Golf Ball

It's about perfecting the dimple and now supercomputers are helping. Video here. It's not going to help Charles Barkley.

Anniversary: The Origin of Species

On this day in 1859 Charles Darwin's seminal work, The Origin of Species was published. It is also worth noting that Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day, February 12, 1809. That's a lot of pressure for anyone born February 12th. An excerpt from Darwin's introduction to The Origin of Species follows:

WHEN on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin of species — that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it.

Civic Illiteracy

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) tested civic literacy with disconcerting if unsurprising results. You can take the quiz here. Results page here, including the ugly result that elected officials scored 44% on average, 5 percentage points worse than the general population. Shouldn't this constitute a national emergency? Here's Bill Maher's memorable exchange with Senator Mark Pryor.

The Boss (Week 12)

The Boss continued his dominance last week, going 9-7 to my embarrassing 7-9 (the Pittsburgh game screwed us both). This is every bit the rivalry of the great white shark and seal.

Week 12: my picks in bold, Boss with (B)

Cincinnati (-9) at Pittsburgh (B)
Houston (+2.5) at Cleveland (B)
Buffalo (B) (-2.5) at Kansas City
NYJ (+5.5) at Tennessee (B)
New England (B) (+1.5) at Miami
San Francisco (B) (+10.5) at Dallas
Tampa Bay (-8.5) at Detroit (B)
Philadelphia (B) (+1.5) at Baltimore
Chicago (B) (-7.5) at St. Louis
Minnesota (+2.5) at Jacksonville (B)
Oakland (+9.5) at Denver (B)
Carolina (B) (+1) at Atlanta
Washington (B) (-3.5) at Seattle
NYG (B) (-3.5) at Arizona
Indianapolis (B) (+2.5) at San Diego
Green Bay (B) (+2.5) at New Orleans

Mike season: 41-45-1
Boss season: 28-16

Jungle Buddha

A Nepalese teenager believed to be the reincarnation of Buddha by his followers has, after briefly emerging, returned to his jungle meditation. Ram Bahadur Bomjam appeared and convened with his followers, offering blessings before resuming his ritual meditation. Bomjam, now 18, began his meditation in 2005 and is reputed to go long periods without food or water. These reports have generated considerable controversy. The Nepal Buddhist Council disputes the claim that Bomjam is Siddartha Gautama reincarnated. The Discovery Channel did a show on the phenom, it can be seen here.

Fire in the Sky

Pretty amazing police camera footage of a meteor over Canada.

2009, Hold Your Hats

The Economist's 2009 Predictions. 2009 in science? You guessed it - the lamentable advance of those damned pretentious evolutionists. Couldn't they have saved that for the big advances in religion 2009 section?

More interesting is English's millionth word.

The Global Recession

Nouriel Roubini on Bloomberg last week. Not a pretty picture. Roubini calls for an enormous stimulus, a new New Deal.

Excerpt from a Novel: In this episode Mr. Barefoot Interviews Representatives of the Provisional Governing Authority

I was pushed forward by someone trying to get to the front of the crowd. The bell of the horn turned towards me. People around me hunched their shoulders, almost cowering. It seemed too late for me. I saw the eyes of the soldiers.

“Do you want to ask something?” the man on the bullhorn challenged, uninvitingly. People looked at me. I saw them looking at me and felt a wave of nausea. I answered, in a loud, clear voice:

“It seems like a lot of people are missing. Where'd they go?” JLI pulled on my arm.

I don't know how many people heard me, but at that moment, I thought everybody did.

“I'm not sure I understand what your question means. Are you suggesting we are responsible for the recent depopulation?”

CONTINUE "Excerpt from a Novel"

New Fiction Series

We are hoping to feature new fiction on Super Collide from time to time. Today we are excited and proud to bring you the work of one of our own, Guy Benjamin Brookshire. An excerpt from his new novel follows. Please contact supercollide@gmail.com for inquiries on the novel or Guy's work.

Excerpt from a Novel

(image credit: "donnybrook", GBB)

Quantum Entanglement

Quantum entanglement is among the strangest realities of quantum mechanics. It means that 2 particles can be connected in such a way that manipulating one can instantaneously affect the other, even when the particles are separated in space - any amount of space. It bothered Albert Einstein, he called it "spooky action at a distance".

For example, defining the spin of an photon will instantaneously render the same spin in its entangled counterpart, even if that counterpart is across the universe. This connection trumps the speed of light and is simply a real and bizarre property of the universe. The Irish physicist John Bell (pictured) resolved Einstein's paradox and proved quantum entanglement. You can read more about him here. Entanglement has lots of important implications including for quantum computing and the possibility of teleportation.

An unavoidable truth of this reality is that our perceptions/intuitions are woefully inadequate. They offer a hopelessly limited and biased picture of the world. In Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land, the narrator Frank Bascombe mentions an Aldous Huxley thought on Einstein that seems applicable. I don't know if Huxley actually said it, but it's worth repeating. And I enjoy the confluence of Ford, Huxley and Einstein.

Aldous Huxley said--after reading Einstein--that the world is not only stranger then we know but a lot stranger then we can know.

(photo credit: Renate Bertlmann, physicsworld.com)

Anniversary: Miracle Year

On September 27 (sometimes reported as this day*) of 1905 the journal Annalen der Physik published the fourth and final of Albert Einstein's now famous "Miracle Year" papers. The paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", established mass-energy equivalence, leading to history's most famous equation e=mc2.

Now an international team using supercomputers has definitively corroborated the equation. The principle has, of course, been utilized throughout science and technology over the last 100 years, perhaps most (in)famously with the atomic bomb.

*The date listed on the paper is September 27, 1905. There are several references to November 21 as the date on the internet, which may be the journal release date. Or it may be wrong entirely. In any case, the more we talk about Einstein, the better.

Song of the Day - Graceland

The Boss (Thursday Night Game)

The Boss and I both take Pittsburgh (-9) against Cincinnati. These early games are disorienting.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Armband Religion

Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post wrote a thin analysis with gooey lumps of style about the honeymoon being over between the Religious Right and the GOP. It is forgettable. But a term she uses -- "Armband Religion" -- has caught the imagination of interested parties from The Lead to Verum Serum.

It has certainly captured mine.

I have been deeply saddened over the course of my life at the aggressiveness and self-assurance with which the word "Christian" has been applied to everything from music to movies to politics. When I think of Christian music, I think of Bach or Handel. Not Among Thorns.

The idea that "Christian" politics is about enforcing censorship of sexual images but not violent ones, about making sure that babies are born, but not necessarily fed, educated, or given proper health care, about making sure gay people can't get married or adopt children instead of encouraging everyone to live in a loving family, makes me terribly sad. This isn't "Christian" politics, this is the politics of a culture that is afraid of change rallying around the cross, because it gives them the ability to claim that their prejudices are God's law.

Unfortunately for them, there are Christians -- organized into churches -- that disagree with them. They just don't wear their religion on their arm.

Copernicus Found (Still Lost to Many)

Scientists have found the grave and remains of famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, a giant figure in the history of science. They have matched skeletal DNA with hair from a book of Copernicus and rendered facial reconstructions consistent with his portraits.

Copernicus established scientific heliocentrism - the theory that the sun is at the center of the solar system with the earth and other planets orbiting it. He is commonly credited with beginning the modern scientific revolution. Though he was a priest and his theories conflicted with church teaching, Copernicus escaped the persecution famously suffered by his advocate Galileo Galilei. This was in part because, though he had developed his theories decades before, his seminal work On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, was not published until the year of his death, 1543.

Almost 500 years later, 20% of Americans have not yet discovered Copernicus and believe the sun orbits the earth.

(image credit: title page of 2nd edition of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 1566)

Anniversary: Moby Dick Strikes

On this day in 1820, the whaleship Essex was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale. The crew endured a horrible ordeal over the days and weeks to come - most perished and survivors resorted to cannibalism. Nathaniel Philbrick tells the fascinating story in his book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Herman Melville based Moby-Dick in part on the account of the Essex's First Mate.

(image credit: Sail Plan of the Whaleship Essex, sketch by Len Tantillo, nathanielphilbrick.com)

A Mammoth Practical Joke

Scientists are moving closer to reanimating the mammoth. Researchers have worked out much of the mammoth's genome from frozen specimens. When its full genome is decoded, scientists can manipulate its close relative the elephant's DNA to recreate the mammoth genome. Using an elephant surrogate, the first mammoth in 10,000 years could be born. It's Michael Crichton's stories come true. Theoretically, similar techniques could be applied to bring back Neanderthal and the Hobbit. Truly amazing stuff. And it will almost certainly be the most elaborate practical joke ever played on an elephant. Can you imagine the look on her face?

(image credit: BBC, dailymail.co.uk)

Biden's Son Says No to Senate Seat

For the first time in 35 years Delaware will not have a Senator with the Biden surname. Vice President-elect Joe Biden's son Beau Biden, Delaware's Attorney General, recently released a statement that he will not accept an appointment to fill his father's vacated Senate seat----at least for now. (Nothing has been said about the special election for the seat which will be held in 2010).

Beau will spend the next year in Iraq fulfilling his obligations to the National Guard and then plans to return to his post as AG.

(photo of Beau Biden is from the Associated Press)

Take My Slave . . . PLEASE!

The Oldest Joke Book, the Philogelos, or Laugh Addict, is back in print at www.yudu.com/oldestjokebook.

The Ancient Greeks really did lay the foundation for just about every worthwhile tradition in our world, including comedy.

Consider the gem about the man who returns to the dealer with a dead slave. Hilarity ensues.

Below, a slightly updated version.

Stars and Stripes Over London? Obamania Goes to the Next Level

The Guardian is reporting that Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, considered flying our flag over London City hall to celebrate Obama's victory. He did not. He may still? Unclear.

In Africa there is a baby-naming craze meaning that there will be a whole generation of Baraks and Michelles.

Carla Bruni Sarkozy was on Letterman last night, and expressed in a semi-official capacity that France was similarly taken with our president elect.

In a recent "This Message Brought to You by Al Qaeda" Zawahiri has called Obama a "house slave" and admonished him for abandoning Islam, the religion of his fathers. The statement also claimed that he had "prayed the prayer of the Jews" and pretended to be a Christian to get elected.

But I bet, secretly, he was pretty psyched Obama won, too. I mean, America may be the Great Satan, but it can elect the son of a Kenyan whose middle name is Hussein. That's just cool.

Nano Smart Shirts

Nanotubes on Project Runway? Not yet, but perhaps soon. At the University of Michigan, Nicholas Kotov and colleagues are incorporating carbon nanotubes into cotton thread. Nano-textiles have great promise as noninvasive biomonitors. (h/t TechnologyReview).

In vaguely related news, less intelligent Hypercolor shirts appear to be making a comeback. See the video below. (h/t The Tastemaker Diaries)

LIFE on Google

Google has an enormous, searchable catalog of LIFE magazine photographs, many never published. (h/t Andrew Sullivan).

(photo credit: Willie Mays, 1954, Loomis Dean)

Somali Pirate Crisis, continued

The stunning return of sea piracy to international prominence continues as an Indian warship, part of a larger international force, attacked and sank a Somali pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday.

When the Indian patrol attempted to identify and requested search of the vessel, pirates opened fire. The warship returned fire, devastating and sinking the large pirate ship and chasing off two smaller pirate speedboats. This after the same Indian warship successfully defended a vessel from pirates last week (see photograph).

The Somali pirate crisis has intensified as pirates grow more daring, expanding their reach and targeting larger ships.

(image credit: November 11, 2008 photo, Indian warship INS Tabar escorts the MV Jag Arnav ship after rescuing it from pirate attack, AP Photo/Indian Navy)

Anniversary: Gettysburg Address

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania only months after Union victory in the deadliest battle of the Civil War. The text:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

(image credit: Lincoln with intelligence officer Allan Pinkerton and General John McClernand at Antietam, October 1862, Library of Congress)

Extinct: Hobbit

Human-like creatures, roughly the size of 3-year-olds, hunted pygmy elephants in Indonesia as recently as 18,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis (the real-life hobbit) is thought to have lived alongside modern humans on the now Indonesian island of Flores. The discovery of their diminutive bones in 2003 has sparked great controversy over whether "the hobbit" represents a new species or pathological variant of Homo sapiens (us). Our strange brethren, the "Man of Flores", is the latest installment in our Extinct series.

Charles Darwin developed his grand theory in part by examining islands, famously finches on the Galapagos. Islands - with isolated, naturally restricted populations - accentuate evolutionary pressures. They have fostered all manner of strange creatures from the dodo to the Komodo dragon (another Flores inhabitant). Australia's collection of beasts is curious island evolution writ large.

Which is to say - if a mysterious, tiny, recently extinct people was going to be found, it's not surprising that it would be on an island. Nevertheless, the 2003 discovery in Liang Bua Cave on Flores was breathtaking. Paleoanthropologists researching human migration found parts of a miniature hominid skeleton - what appeared to be a small-bodied, small-brained new Homo species. As the search continued, they found pieces of separate, similar skeletons including jaw and wrist bones. Stone tools (also small) and pygmy Stegodon bones (at least ironically small*) were found alongside some of the hominid bones. Astonishingly, the hominid skeletons were dated to as recent as 18,000 years ago, suggesting the hobbit lived alongside modern humans and that floresiensis, not neanderthalensis, finished second in the race to evolution's great champion Homo sapiens (a little self-congratulation never hurts).

Some scientists have theorized that Homo floresiensis is not a new species but represents pathological Homo sapiens. They suggest the skeletons represent people who suffered microcephaly, a disorder rendering small heads and brains. Recent intriguing studies using CT scanning of skulls and analysis of wrist structure refute this theory and support the separate species contention.

PBS's Nova recently aired a program on Homo floresiensis called "Alien From Earth". You can watch it here.

*It's possible the pygmy Stegodon and Homo floresiensis experienced convergent evolution, in which unrelated species develop the same trait. Flores might have shrunk them both, though this theory, like everything with the mysterious hobbit, is much disputed.

(image credit: representation of male Homo floresiensis with stylish crew cut; skulls of Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens, from National Geographic)

Hitchens on Clinton

Christopher Hitchens less diplomatic than Ben on Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. It's always strange (and welcome) to see Hitchens on these shows, his immensely entertaining and smart hyperbole clashing with a political world of abject buffoonery.

Incidentally, I can barely understand Chris Matthews. No one uses more idioms. I think he invents several every show. He is the Thomas Edison of idioms.

Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton has accepted perhaps the highest profile cabinet position in American government: Secretary of State. The position held now by Condoleeza Rice and by Colin Powell before her and by Madeleine Albright before him, will now go to the junior Senator from New York who is married to the most popular, if also the most controversial, living ex-president, William Jefferson Clinton. It is a surprising move, and the first bold decision of the Obama presidency has been made before it even begins.

Why is it bold? Hillary Clinton is undeniably intelligent, hard-working, and hard-nosed. In its let-bygones-be-bygones symbolism it paints Obama as bigger than petty rivalries, and forces Clinton to eat her words about Obama being unprepared: if she is going to work for him, she is tacitly admitting she was either wrong or playing politics in a way that merely endorsing him never could. So what is the reason for the gasps from some observers?

Well, there have long been behind-the-scenes murmurs that Clintonian team-building and leadership, on the organizational level, is based on creating an us-versus-them mentality which spreads to all areas of interaction with the "outside" world. The worries are that the Clintons, who built their own powerful machine largely separate from and superior to the shriveled labor-left dinosaur of a party that failed presidential candidates from an incumbent Carter to an ill-starred Dukakis, might form a faction within the government that plays its own games and keeps its own score.

The Clintons introduced elaborate, PR-infused, focus-group-based, obsessive polling and aggressive, media-circus spin to American politics. In conjunction with the development of the 24 hour news cycle, the emergence of the internet, and a new spirit of take-no-prisoners partisanship, the Clinton administration changed politics forever. And not just in the United States. Tony Blair and New Labor were unabashedly in the new, centrist Democratic party's mold in both policy and public relations. To a great extent Sarkozy is possible because of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Like Clinton, both Blair and Sarkozy are personally polarizing, exciting passionate responses to the men themselves. That is, a politics of personality that transcends the policies they personify, useful both in maintaining the initiative and obscuring the real issues.

What does all this have to do with Hillary Clinton? If we believe her most ardent supporters -- and her most rabid detractors -- Hillary Clinton wasn't merely present at the creation of the new politics, she was instrumental in its formulation.

Mrs. Clinton was by many accounts equal partners with her husband in his rise to the highest office of the most powerful nation in the world. This rise, which was accomplished largely out of the public eye -- how many people knew who the governor of Arkansas was before 1992? -- was masterful and Machiavellian. Hillary was the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm, the oldest west of the Mississippi River, whose Clinton-era clients included Walmart, Tyson Foods, and the Arkansas Gazette. She was consistently ranked as one of the most powerful lawyers in the nation. Her husband was State Attorney General and a player in Democratic politics. The Clintons, like the Obamas, were not wealthy people by Bush standards when they left school, and yet their political climb was mirrored by an impressive financial success accomplished exclusively through remarkably prescient investments. Though no charges ever "stuck" despite massive and expensive federal investigations of these dealings, the larger questions of where the Clinton's political power ends and personal enrichment begins remains open.

Naming Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff and now Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, Obama, himself only briefly a junior senator and before that a state senator, has surrounded himself thus far with Clinton-era power-hitters. The shape of the cabinet from this moment on will be influenced by the knowledge of future nominees that they are joining a team already dominated by hardened veterans of the Whitewater wars with vast networks of vassal-operatives at their personal disposal. The role of President Clinton himself is yet to be determined, as he has been far from idle over the past eight years, building both a personal fortune and a forward-thinking international network of philanthropic investment and development. His personal life has often threatened to become public during this time, as well.

Time will tell. Either Obama has harnessed an incomparable work-horse, or invited trouble to dinner.

Bionic Limbs: Coming Right Up

Researchers at the University of Cardiff in Wales have developed a neuro-electrical interface which they say they can plug into brain tissue and allow the implantee to directly control bionic limbs. The device is the size of a match-head.

In late 2006, Claudia Mitchell was the first "bionic woman." The arm sensed the movement impulses sent to a group of nerves in her pectoral muscles which had been "rewired" to serve the region where her left arm should have been. The breakthrough was achieved by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

The University of Cardiff development, only a brief two years later, is a generation beyond. Building on research done in the United States in which robotic arms were controlled by monkeys via a "Brain-Machine Interface," this development means that, in principle, a person who was paralyzed from the neck down could control mechanical limbs with very sophisticated articulation. The American research has also established that computers could be controlled by impulses sent directly from the mind to a processor.

(Thanks to Doc in the Machine for the image of Claudia Mitchell)

Somali Pirate Crisis, continued

Somali pirates have seized their largest booty yet, taking a Saudi supertanker off the Kenyan coast. In response to increasing pirate attacks, an international naval force has been patrolling the waters of Gulf of Aden. Yet the pirates were able to capture the aircraft carrier-sized oil tanker (see picture), acting south of the patrols. The hijacked vessel is presently docked at the pirate-dominated town of Harardhere.

The ship, the MV Sirius Star, is owned by a Dubai oil company and has a 25 person international crew and had $100 million in crude oil aboard when taken. Reportedly, no crew members have been harmed. Negotiations are ongoing with the pirates. Past negotiations have typically ended with the payment of large ransoms. This is the largest ship seized by the increasingly bold pirates.

$21 Million to Fix LHC

Another update on the progress of the Large Hadron Collider from the AP.

(photo credit: www.cern.ch/)

The Devil's Cancer

The Tasmanian devil population is being ravaged by a fearsome cancer. Over the past 12 years, the devil population has been decimated, down two-thirds to only 50,000. But now a new inoculation initiative offers hope to save the devil.

(image credit: Cedric, the saved Tasmanian devil, G.M. Woods, nytimes.com)

Abandoned

A five year old boy has been abandoned at a medical center Nebraska. It was perfectly legal. In fact he is the 34th child to have been abandoned under a state law intended to ensure superior care for infants by making it legal for parents incapable of supporting their babies to put them in the keeping of the state. The law did not include an age limit, however, and minors up to 17 years of age have been dropped off.

The state legislature is meeting at the time of this posting in a bid to change the law.

Tragically, there is a steady trickle of stories about young mothers who put their newborns in garbage cans. Speaking in terms of signs, symbols, and metaphors, the act is one of the most incredible crimes to contemplate. And yet, in all these cases, it is impossible not to feel heart-wrenching sympathy for unprepared mothers who felt that there was nowhere and no one in the world to which they could take their baby. Nobly, Nebraska's legislature wanted to change that.

Nebraska is not the only state to have such a law, but it was the only state not to have an age limit. The changes that are being proposed raise difficult questions about our society. At what age does the state refuse to take a child whose parents do not want it? Some legislators have said that the age should be as high as 15. Some say it should be 3 days. In other states, a child's first birthday is the cut-off.

I would hope that whatever age they decide on would be before the child is conscious of having been abandoned. Then again, at what age do we, as a society, want children to lose the opportunity to be fed, clothed, housed, and educated by people who are willing to provide for them rather than by parents who are forced to, begrudgingly?

If the Nebraska state legislature can agree on a new bill, it will take effect as soon as the governor signs it. One wonders if there are parents at this moment speeding to Nebraska, to take advantage of the law before it expires.

(Thank you to Neonatology for the image of London's Foundling Hospital, circa 1750)

Torturing Democracy

PBS's Torturing Democracy is, unfortunately, a must-watch.

Umbilical Cord Stem Cells and Congenital Heart Disease

Umbilical cord stem cells can be used to repair certain congenital heart defects according to researchers at the University Hospital of Munich. Cardiologists at the institution report that in 5-7 years they will be able to transplant new heart valves into children with valvular anomalies. The valves would be grown from the children's own stem cells in their cord blood. The investigators recently presented their remarkable findings at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.

Tens of thousands of babies are born each year with congenital heart defects. You might remember hearing about the issue a few weeks back when Senator Dick Durbin, the number two ranking Democrat in the Senate, lost his oldest daughter Christine to complications from congenital heart disease.

The Next Big Thing? UFC 91

UFC 91 tonight is an intriguing sporting event. The undercard isn't very inspiring but the main event is crazy - Brock Lesnar challenging Randy Couture for the heavyweight title. Lesnar is a former professional wrestling champion and collegiate wrestling champion. He has proven a talented fighter and he's a monster. Couture is an amazing athlete and has the heart of lion but he's giving up over 50 pounds and 15 years. It's going to be interesting. We'll have updates here. (image credit: fouledout.wordpress.com)

10:23: With an impressive jiu-jitsu display, Damian Maia forces Nate Quarry to tap via rear naked choke at 2:13 of the first round.

10:33: Gabriel Gonzaga looked very strong in defeating Josh Hendricks by TKO at 1:01 of the first round. Gonzaga landed some hard shots, Hendricks looked overmatched in his UFC debut. It's worth remembering that the smaller Couture stopped Gonzaga last year. Two short fights so far.

10:48: Presumably this fight was earlier in the night. Matt Brown endures a game Ryan Thomas and a couple of slams to gain a submission victory via arm bar at 0:57 of the second round. By the way, Ryan Thomas's nickname is "The Tank Engine", I enjoyed that.

11:05: Dustin Hazelett vs Tamdan McCrory is a match-up of mild-looking, tough guys. Hazelett's beard looks fake. McCrory lands some good shots and obviously hurt Hazelett with a leg kick. But the fight goes to the ground and Hazelett is a magician. Hazelett wins by arm bar at 3:59 of the first round in a skillful, highly enjoyable fight.

11:25: Back and forth fight between Jeremy "Lil' Heathen" Stephens and Rafael dos Anjos (shown from earlier) until Stephens lands a vicious uppercut early in the third round and wins by TKO.

11:38: Kenny Florian looks very impressive in dismantling Joe Stevenson, ending the fight via rear naked choke at 4:03 of the first round.

12:08: Lesnar is enormous. He almost completely obscures Couture from many of the camera angles. Couture succeeds in establishing a tactical fight. Lesnar just seems too big but Couture is making a fight of it. A close first round. In the second, Lesnar connects with a right to the temple and Couture is stunned. Lesnar overwhelms the champion with hammer fists, winning by TKO at 3:09 of the second round. Couture is a champion and battled a much bigger man. Lesnar is the real deal.

Alan Keyes v. Barack Obama (Round 3)

Less than two weeks out from losing yet another presidential race, Alan Keyes has started a fresh campaign against President-Elect Barack Obama---in the courtroom.

Keyes most recently ran for president with the newly formed America's Independent Party. Yesterday the party announced that Keyes filed a lawsuit in Sacramento's California Superior Court which will attempt to prevent President-Elect Obama from receiving California's 55 electoral votes until Mr. Obama provides proof of United States citizenship.

This is the third time in four years that Mr. Keyes has challenged Mr. Obama, if you can call it that, at some level (2004 Senate, 2008 President).