Sunday: The nation of Japan consists of 4 main islands. But the nation covers over 3000 separate islands altogether.
Monday: All across the eastern US there are 1000s of earthen mounds, which were “discovered” by Europeans when they first arrived in America. They are basically big piles of dirt, but who could make them? Monk’s Mound in Illinois is 70 feet (21m) and covers as much area as the largest pyramid in Egypt. Serpent Mound in Ohio is in the shape of a snake, is 5 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and over 1330 feet long (1.5m X 6m X 405m). Another mound is in the shape of a bird that is 70 feet high and 700 feet wide (21m X 210m). The oldest are at least 2000 years old, and some believe them to be constructed as early as 3500 BC! And many of them had beautiful sculpture and ancient skeletons inside (http://www.ohioarch.org/PastArticles8.htm) So who build them? Well, Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries had dozens of theories. Maybe it was Vikings, or some other early European. People suggested that Egyptians, or Chinese, Hindus, Africans, Greeks, the people of lost Atlantis, or the Lost Tribe of Israel built them. One pastor even claimed that the Snake Mound was built by God to mark the place of the Garden of Eden. Anything was possible, except the Native American Indians. Maybe because this was during the time when whites were trying to claim Indian land as quickly as possible, and they didn’t want to think about Indians having a “civilized” history. Instead everyone like the idea that a civilized race of people had lived in America before, and the Indians had destroyed them. To make a long story short, (too late!), it wasn’t until 1894 that a Smithsonian researcher released his official opinion that the Indians had built the mounds. By then the Mound Building Civilization had indeed been destroyed.
Tuesday: For a population of 300 million in the USA, only about 1.8% of the population is engaged in farming to provide food.
Wednesday: Have you ever asked a small child “what does a doggie say?” Well, be careful, because what about animals from other languages? Think it doesn’t matter? Think again! It seems that even animals suffer from the language barrier, since they also speak different languages! (spellings are for how they sound in English, not the correct spelling in the language)
Dog Cat Pig Cow Frog Duck
English: Woof! Meow! Oink! Mooo! Ribbit! Quack!
Czech: HafHaf! Mnyaw! KroKro! Buuu! Kunyk! Kvak!
Japanese: Wan! Nya! Booo! Moe! KeroKero! Gwa!
French: Ouah! Miaou! Groin! Meuh! CoaCoa! CoinCoin!
(For many more, see: http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/)
Thursday: Did you know that if you put a heavy bookcase filled with books over your internet network cable, it can dramatically slow your connection speed? I didn’t!
Friday: All you Americans probably remember “Freedom Fries,” right? For everyone else, during the beginning of the war with Iraq, France didn’t like the idea of the war at all, and tried to stop America from going to war. During this time it became so popular and patriotic to dislike France that some restaurants renamed “French Fries” and called them “Freedom Fries!” Well, apparently this isn’t such a new idea. When America entered WWI against Germany in 1917, The Committee on Public Information officially announced that sauerkraut was now to be called “Liberty Cabbage.” Fortunately, neither name stuck.
Saturday: When Lenin rose to power in during WWI, his main goal was to stop the fighting with Germany. This was very popular with the Russian people, but not so popular with France and England, who would then be left to face the full force of Germany’s armies. Lenin was so focused on an end to the conflict, in fact, that the leaders of Western countries were absolute sure that Lenin was a German spy sent to “hijack” Russia’s part in the war. The interesting thing is that this theory is not as crazy as it sounds. Lenin moved to Austria in 1913, right before the war began (Austria and Germany were fighting together), where he was arrested one year later as a revolutionary. But he was released surprisingly quickly and allowed to live in Switzerland (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSlenin.htm). When he wanted to join the revolution in Russia in 1917, specifically to call the people to stop the fighting, he made a deal with Germany to travel on a sealed German train through Germany to Russia. (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/556/redscandals.htm) When he wrote a peace treaty with Germany he gave 25% of all Russian territory to Germany, which certainly didn’t change any opinions in France or England. Today, this theory is alive and well. At the events for 80 years after Lenin’s death, a reported asked on Russian man what he thought of Lenin. “I don't even know how to put it in respectable words” the man answered “he's a German spy who took power without the slightest idea about what to do with that power.” (http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/01/7840e170-c08c-46ac-80b1-b98eaf4e792e.html) Well, who knows?
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Discover Something New #2
Sunday: Usually we think of Mexico as Spanish-speaking, and it's true that out of 107.5 million people, at least 100 million speak Spanish. But Mexico has over 60 major different languages, and over 280 different languages are still spoken in the country. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MX
Monday: For the western world, Hollywood is where entertainment begins. But Bollywood (in Mumbai, India), now creates at least twice as many films per year more than Hollywood! Known as "Hindi cinema," Bollywood is already much more popular in the world than Hollywood, even if Hollywood makes much more money. In 2002 Bollywood sold 3.6 billion conema tickets, and Hollywood 2.6. However, their overall profit for 2002 for tickets, DVDs, television, etc., was Bollywood: $1.3 billion; Hollywood: $51 billion.
http://www.businessweek.com//magazine/content/02_48/art02_48/a48tab37.gif
Tuesday: The Aztec empire in pre-European South America may have been so brutal that it caused its own destruction. They were ruthless against their neighbors, even forcing them to engage in "Flower wars." This sounds pleasant, and they were less violent than total war because the goal was not to kill anyone. The goal for the Aztecs was to capture prisoners alive. The prisoners would be fattened up and then used as living sacrifices for the Aztec gods. When the Spanish explorer Cortes arrived to conquer the Aztecs, 10,000s of native Indians joined his small army to destroy the cruel Aztecs. Without this help, it probably would have been impossible for 550 Spanish soldiers to end the Aztec empire.
Wednesday: In North-West China there is desert called Taklamakan. It is about 100,000 square miles (270,000 square kilometers). In Turkik the name means basically "if you go in, you won't come out." It's probably the most dangerous place in the world to get lost. Fast wind moves the sand so quickly that cities can be buried in a few days. It's so dry that rivers run out of the Himalayas and simply disappear into the sand. Here is a quote from a traveler in 1950: "Never once until we reached the plains were we out of sight of skeletons. The continuous line of bones and bodies acted as a gruesome guide whenever we were uncertain of the route" (Hopkirk, 1980). So why did people continue to go there? Basically, money. The famous Silk Road that connected trade routes of China to Europe ran on the north and south edges of the desert.
Thursday: Around the turn of the 19th century, the USA was urgently looking for new foreign markets, and this pushed the development of its navy at amazing speeds. In 1889, the US navy was 12th best in the world. Albania and Chile had better navies at this time! And of course England was the 1st. In 1900, US had the 6th strongest navy in the world. And by 1914, it was 3rd. In 25 years, the US went from an international weakling on the waters to being an important world power, just in time for World War I!
Friday: Most people agree that World War I was started by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (who lived in modern-day Czech Republic, in Konopiště castle). But few know how Improbable that event was. Ferdinand was in Sarajevo, Bosnia June 28, 1914, trying to diplomatically claim that country for his empire. Of course some nationalists didn't like that, so seven men planned to kill him. When Ferdinand's car went by, one man threw a grenade at the car, which missed, and Ferdinand raced to the castle. After the excitement wore off, they had to return to the other side of the river to leave the city. Unfortunately for the world, the driver made a wrong turn, and had to stop in front of a cafe to back up. Meanwhile, the leader of the plot, Gavrilo Princip, had apparently given up on the assassination and walked into a cafe to get a sandwich. When he walked out (sandwich in hand?), he amazingly saw the Archdukes car slowly backing up past him! He pulled out his pistol and fired twice into the car. It seems that his training and marksmanship was not good, because one shot when into the door of the car. But amazingly again, this bullet went through the door and hit the Archduke's pregnant wife in the stomach. The other bullet hit Ferdinand in the neck. Both were dead in minutes. Princip then swallowed a cyanide pill to kill himself, but it seems that the poison was old and just made him throw-up. Because he was under 19, the maximum penalty was 20 years in prison. The only justice is that he died in prison before the world war he caused was finished. (If you want to see the bullet that killed Ferdinand, take a trip to Konopiště castle south of Prague. The bullet is there in the castle museum).
Saturday: Ladybugs are carnivorous (they eat only meat), and they hibernate through the cold seasons like bears!
Monday: For the western world, Hollywood is where entertainment begins. But Bollywood (in Mumbai, India), now creates at least twice as many films per year more than Hollywood! Known as "Hindi cinema," Bollywood is already much more popular in the world than Hollywood, even if Hollywood makes much more money. In 2002 Bollywood sold 3.6 billion conema tickets, and Hollywood 2.6. However, their overall profit for 2002 for tickets, DVDs, television, etc., was Bollywood: $1.3 billion; Hollywood: $51 billion.
http://www.businessweek.com//magazine/content/02_48/art02_48/a48tab37.gif
Tuesday: The Aztec empire in pre-European South America may have been so brutal that it caused its own destruction. They were ruthless against their neighbors, even forcing them to engage in "Flower wars." This sounds pleasant, and they were less violent than total war because the goal was not to kill anyone. The goal for the Aztecs was to capture prisoners alive. The prisoners would be fattened up and then used as living sacrifices for the Aztec gods. When the Spanish explorer Cortes arrived to conquer the Aztecs, 10,000s of native Indians joined his small army to destroy the cruel Aztecs. Without this help, it probably would have been impossible for 550 Spanish soldiers to end the Aztec empire.
Wednesday: In North-West China there is desert called Taklamakan. It is about 100,000 square miles (270,000 square kilometers). In Turkik the name means basically "if you go in, you won't come out." It's probably the most dangerous place in the world to get lost. Fast wind moves the sand so quickly that cities can be buried in a few days. It's so dry that rivers run out of the Himalayas and simply disappear into the sand. Here is a quote from a traveler in 1950: "Never once until we reached the plains were we out of sight of skeletons. The continuous line of bones and bodies acted as a gruesome guide whenever we were uncertain of the route" (Hopkirk, 1980). So why did people continue to go there? Basically, money. The famous Silk Road that connected trade routes of China to Europe ran on the north and south edges of the desert.
Thursday: Around the turn of the 19th century, the USA was urgently looking for new foreign markets, and this pushed the development of its navy at amazing speeds. In 1889, the US navy was 12th best in the world. Albania and Chile had better navies at this time! And of course England was the 1st. In 1900, US had the 6th strongest navy in the world. And by 1914, it was 3rd. In 25 years, the US went from an international weakling on the waters to being an important world power, just in time for World War I!
Friday: Most people agree that World War I was started by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (who lived in modern-day Czech Republic, in Konopiště castle). But few know how Improbable that event was. Ferdinand was in Sarajevo, Bosnia June 28, 1914, trying to diplomatically claim that country for his empire. Of course some nationalists didn't like that, so seven men planned to kill him. When Ferdinand's car went by, one man threw a grenade at the car, which missed, and Ferdinand raced to the castle. After the excitement wore off, they had to return to the other side of the river to leave the city. Unfortunately for the world, the driver made a wrong turn, and had to stop in front of a cafe to back up. Meanwhile, the leader of the plot, Gavrilo Princip, had apparently given up on the assassination and walked into a cafe to get a sandwich. When he walked out (sandwich in hand?), he amazingly saw the Archdukes car slowly backing up past him! He pulled out his pistol and fired twice into the car. It seems that his training and marksmanship was not good, because one shot when into the door of the car. But amazingly again, this bullet went through the door and hit the Archduke's pregnant wife in the stomach. The other bullet hit Ferdinand in the neck. Both were dead in minutes. Princip then swallowed a cyanide pill to kill himself, but it seems that the poison was old and just made him throw-up. Because he was under 19, the maximum penalty was 20 years in prison. The only justice is that he died in prison before the world war he caused was finished. (If you want to see the bullet that killed Ferdinand, take a trip to Konopiště castle south of Prague. The bullet is there in the castle museum).
Saturday: Ladybugs are carnivorous (they eat only meat), and they hibernate through the cold seasons like bears!
Discover Something New #1
Sunday: If you covered 100 km² (39 miles²) of the earth’s land every hour of your life, without sleeping, for 75 years, you wouldn’t even see half of the world.
Monday: It seems that many cultures have a phrase which they say before every meal. From Italian “Boun Appetito!” to Czech “Dobrou Chut’”, even the Japanese “Itadakimas!” The Japanese even add an end-of-meal phrase to the tradition; “Gochisousama!” While this custom is uncommon for English speakers, other cultures follow this tradition almost religiously and find it extremely strange that English speakers have no equivalent, besides some rarely-used phrases such as “Dig in!”
Tuesday: The Great Wall of China is 4,000 miles (6,500 km) long, often nearly 20 feet (6.5 m) high, and wide enough for 6 horses to walk on top side by side. Although it is most likely the largest man-made structure on earth, some well known “facts” about it are not true. The Great Wall is not visible from the moon. It is visible from a low-orbit satellite, but just barely. It is also is not 1000s of years old, since the wall we see today was built mainly in the 1600s or later. The first wall was built about 2200 years ago, but almost nothing of that wall survives today. The Great Wall was not always the strongest symbol of China. Until the 1950s, the wall was a symbol of tyranny and brutality to the Chinese people, and often ignored. Today it is used to display the power and determination of the Chinese people. This is ironic, because although no other nation ever created something similar, the Wall was never at all useful. Two Chinese dynasties, the Ming and Qing, were founded by people who came over the wall.
Wednesday: Two weeks ago was New York City’s annual “No Pants Subway Ride.” It is designed to make people laugh and have an interesting New York experience.
Thursday: A few weeks ago Ethiopia attacked Somolia. This brought up the fact that one of Somalia’s current warlords is a United States Marine! If you’ve seen the movie Black Hawk Down, you know that in 1992-3 the USA was in Somalia trying to kill/capture the leader/warlord Mohammed Aidid, because of his cruel and inhumane treatment of the Somali people. What you don’t know is that before the conflict, Aidid’s son, Hussein Mohamed Farrah, went to America at the age of 14, became a citizen, and eventually joined the Marines. During the fighting, Farrah was accidentally sent to Somalia, but when there was “trouble” with his father the marines moved him to a different country. When Aidid died in 1996 (killed by a competing political group), Somalia asked Farrah to become their next president. Farrah immediately resigned his job with the Marines and accepted the offer, taking the position of his father, the man he was sent to fight a few years earlier. Like his father, Farrah is not clearly accepted as leader of Somalia, and it’s uncertain whether he should be called president or warlord. He’s a strange mix of America and Africa, sometimes seen in an expensive western-style business suit while walking barefoot. He claims to want to repair Somalia and open it to western aid, but if his is really willing or able to do this remains to be seen.
Friday: The sub-continent of India was originally a part of Africa. Then it broke off, drifted through the Indian Ocean, and finally collided with the ‘coast’ of Tibet. The force of the collision pushed up the Himalayas, caused the ‘bulge’ of east China, and formed the course for the 10 major rivers of Asia. Seashells have been discovered in the Tibetan Plateau, which is now landlocked behind the Himalayas and 1000s of miles from the sea, but was once a coastal region. Even today India continues to move into Asia about 5 cm a year.
Saturday: Aleš Hrdlička (pronounced Al-esh Hrd-lich-ka) was born in Czech Republic and became the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in America in 1903. Although he was brilliant, he had a number of strange habits. He collected human brains and saved them for later study. One of these brains was Ishi’s, the last known wild American Indian, who lived near my home in Chico, California. Hrdlička also studied several Eskimos who were persuaded to come to New York City by the explorer Robert E. Peary. When all but two of the Eskimos quickly died from disease in the city, Hrdlička sent them to be boiled down into skeletons and put on display in the museum. Legend says that when the Eskimo son of one of these victims accidentally saw his father’s skeleton in a showcase, he tried to shoot both Peary and Hrdlička. On the positive side, Hrdlička was one of the first scientists to argue that Native Americans came from Asia across the Bering Strait and support the theory with field research. Today he is a well known as an early former of the field of Anthropology. In WW II A battle ship was named “SS Aleš Hrdlička” in his honor.
Monday: It seems that many cultures have a phrase which they say before every meal. From Italian “Boun Appetito!” to Czech “Dobrou Chut’”, even the Japanese “Itadakimas!” The Japanese even add an end-of-meal phrase to the tradition; “Gochisousama!” While this custom is uncommon for English speakers, other cultures follow this tradition almost religiously and find it extremely strange that English speakers have no equivalent, besides some rarely-used phrases such as “Dig in!”
Tuesday: The Great Wall of China is 4,000 miles (6,500 km) long, often nearly 20 feet (6.5 m) high, and wide enough for 6 horses to walk on top side by side. Although it is most likely the largest man-made structure on earth, some well known “facts” about it are not true. The Great Wall is not visible from the moon. It is visible from a low-orbit satellite, but just barely. It is also is not 1000s of years old, since the wall we see today was built mainly in the 1600s or later. The first wall was built about 2200 years ago, but almost nothing of that wall survives today. The Great Wall was not always the strongest symbol of China. Until the 1950s, the wall was a symbol of tyranny and brutality to the Chinese people, and often ignored. Today it is used to display the power and determination of the Chinese people. This is ironic, because although no other nation ever created something similar, the Wall was never at all useful. Two Chinese dynasties, the Ming and Qing, were founded by people who came over the wall.
Wednesday: Two weeks ago was New York City’s annual “No Pants Subway Ride.” It is designed to make people laugh and have an interesting New York experience.
Thursday: A few weeks ago Ethiopia attacked Somolia. This brought up the fact that one of Somalia’s current warlords is a United States Marine! If you’ve seen the movie Black Hawk Down, you know that in 1992-3 the USA was in Somalia trying to kill/capture the leader/warlord Mohammed Aidid, because of his cruel and inhumane treatment of the Somali people. What you don’t know is that before the conflict, Aidid’s son, Hussein Mohamed Farrah, went to America at the age of 14, became a citizen, and eventually joined the Marines. During the fighting, Farrah was accidentally sent to Somalia, but when there was “trouble” with his father the marines moved him to a different country. When Aidid died in 1996 (killed by a competing political group), Somalia asked Farrah to become their next president. Farrah immediately resigned his job with the Marines and accepted the offer, taking the position of his father, the man he was sent to fight a few years earlier. Like his father, Farrah is not clearly accepted as leader of Somalia, and it’s uncertain whether he should be called president or warlord. He’s a strange mix of America and Africa, sometimes seen in an expensive western-style business suit while walking barefoot. He claims to want to repair Somalia and open it to western aid, but if his is really willing or able to do this remains to be seen.
Friday: The sub-continent of India was originally a part of Africa. Then it broke off, drifted through the Indian Ocean, and finally collided with the ‘coast’ of Tibet. The force of the collision pushed up the Himalayas, caused the ‘bulge’ of east China, and formed the course for the 10 major rivers of Asia. Seashells have been discovered in the Tibetan Plateau, which is now landlocked behind the Himalayas and 1000s of miles from the sea, but was once a coastal region. Even today India continues to move into Asia about 5 cm a year.
Saturday: Aleš Hrdlička (pronounced Al-esh Hrd-lich-ka) was born in Czech Republic and became the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in America in 1903. Although he was brilliant, he had a number of strange habits. He collected human brains and saved them for later study. One of these brains was Ishi’s, the last known wild American Indian, who lived near my home in Chico, California. Hrdlička also studied several Eskimos who were persuaded to come to New York City by the explorer Robert E. Peary. When all but two of the Eskimos quickly died from disease in the city, Hrdlička sent them to be boiled down into skeletons and put on display in the museum. Legend says that when the Eskimo son of one of these victims accidentally saw his father’s skeleton in a showcase, he tried to shoot both Peary and Hrdlička. On the positive side, Hrdlička was one of the first scientists to argue that Native Americans came from Asia across the Bering Strait and support the theory with field research. Today he is a well known as an early former of the field of Anthropology. In WW II A battle ship was named “SS Aleš Hrdlička” in his honor.
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