How We Evolve

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http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/10/how_we_evolve_1.php


A growing number of scientists argue that human culture itself has become the foremost agent of biological change.


When the previous generation of life scientists was coming up through the academy, there was a widespread assumption, not always articulated by professors, that human evolution had all but stopped.

It had certainly shaped our prehuman ancestors — Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and the rest of the ape-men and man-apes in our bushy lineage — but once Homo sapiens developed agriculture and language, it was thought, we stopped changing.

Libido: Naked Brunch: Porn in Ancient Rome

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http://www.libidomag.com/nakedbrunch/archive/porninrome.html

"Good God, What a Night" by Petronius Arbiter

Good God, what a night that was,
The bed was so soft, and how we clung,
Burning together, lying this way and that,
Our uncontrollable passions
Flowing through our mouths.
If I could only die that way,
I'd say goodbye to the business of living.

From graffiti scrawled on the walls of Pompeii to the poetry of Ovid and Catullus, the Romans left behind an abundance of erotic material. In addition to poetry and artwork, there are many accounts of live performances ranging from the mild to the obscene that can be classified as pornographic.

Inconstant Moon: multimedia tours of the lunar surface

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http://www.inconstantmoon.com/

Explore the Moon... discover its dramatic features and phenomena - often beautiful, sometimes bizarre, always changing. Inconstant Moon will take you on a new tour each night, with maps, photos, explanations, animations, selected links and even music!

The Moon is the most easily observable astronomical object, and also the most rewarding. For the beginner, it is a breathtaking spectacle through even a modest optical instrument, and as the knowledge and resources of the astronomer increase, it will continue to provide fascinating new challenges and insights.

Inconstant Moon is intended as both an introduction to lunar astronomy for the beginner, and an ongoing reference point for the more experienced observer.

Project Earthshine

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http://www.bbso.njit.edu/Research/EarthShine/

To make a systematic determination of Earth's albedo, a ground based earthshine observing project, supported by NASA, was begun at Big Bear Solar Observatory in the summer of 1998....

The Bell Tolls for Thebes

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The Bell Tolls for Thebes 

Will one of the world’s most treasured cultural destinations fall prey to its own success?

Throngs of tourists walk along the avenue of the sphinxes at Karnak Temple. Unmanaged tourism, agriculture, and public works projects are putting the area’s countless archaeological sites in jeopardy. (Steve F-E-Cameron/Creative Commons)

Often considered the world’s largest open-air museum, Thebes ranks among humanity’s richest and most important archaeological destinations. The area’s allure comes from its extraordinary wall paintings, colossal statues of gods and once-mighty pharaohs, and the imposing edifices of the Karnak

and Luxor temples.

Among the sites flanking a four-mile stretch of the Nile are the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, the final resting places of Egypt’s New Kingdom rulers (ca. 1540–1075 B.C.); the Colossi of Memnon; vestiges of the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III; the village of Deir al-Medinah, home of the artisans who created so many of the region’s tombs and monuments; and thousands of lesser-known temples, tombs, and shrines.

For all their beauty, however, these monuments constitute one of the world’s greatest conservation challenges. The modern town of Luxor has grown up around the east bank temples, while on the west bank, sugar-cane fields, roads, and mud-brick villages lie in and among the valley temple ruins.

The environmental impact of public works projects, unmanaged tourism, and destructive agricultural policies threaten to destroy an extraordinary cultural landscape.        

                                        

Statue fragments from the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III once sat in destructive salty water. Today, the surviving fragments are being protected until the groundwater problem can be solved permanently. (Steve F-E-Cameron/Creative Commons)

While the sheer number of Theban sites makes their care and management a formidable task, the burden increased dramatically in 1970 when the Aswan High Dam was completed. Since then, year-round irrigation of the flood plain for the production of sugar cane has caused a substantial rise in the local water table, inviting agricultural exploitation of fields in and around monuments such as the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III.

The dam also depleted the Nile of vital nutrients—now trapped in silt at the bottom of Lake Nasser—which, in turn, has led to increased fertilizer use downstream. And with the Nile’s annual flood cycle interrupted, soil salinity has risen in the lands along the riverbanks.

Further complicating the situation, burning is still used to clear fields, and the heat from it has caused even massive stones to split. Collectively, these processes are exacting a tremendous toll on the archaeological sites.

By Angela M. H. Schuster 

archaeology.org


 

Artifact: Romano-British Brooch

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Artifact: Romano-British Brooch

This brooch reflects the complexities of life on Rome's northern frontier, where native Celtic and classical cultures converged. 

Its curving animal heads and bright enameling are typical of Celtic art in northern Britain, yet it dates to a time after the invasion of the country by the Roman emperor Claudius in A.D. 43.

WHAT IS IT?
Romano-British
"dragonesque" brooch

PURPOSE
To fasten clothing
DATE
A.D. 80-175

DISCOVERED
In a hoard on Lamberton Moor, Scottish Borders, UK

MATERIAL
Copper alloy, enamel

DIMENSIONS
2.3 inches long Prior to the arrival of the Romans, Celtic brooches were almost universally safety-pin-type. The Celts combined new Roman styles, including animal-shaped and flat brooches, with local styles of decoration familiar from jewelry and horse gear to create a new indigenous type. The "dragonesque" brooch shows the hybridization of cultures and the innovation of Celtic art on the edge of the Roman Empire. 



Some 250 of these brooches have been found, mostly in the frontier area. But a few were scattered across the Empire, perhaps the property of troops who had served in Britain or souvenirs of visits to the northern frontier. 

This one, unearthed around 1840 with a hoard of metalwork, comes from a peat bog about 50 miles north of Hadrian's Wall in what is now Scotland. 

Unfortunately, much of the hoard was lost soon after its discovery. The surviving pieces include a matching pair of safety-pin brooches, two finger rings, and a torque (neck ornament)--probably a jewelry set--and a large number of bronze vessels, both Roman and Celtic in origin. 

The hoard's deliberate burial in a bog suggests that it was a votive offering, likely made by a local leader. The mixing of artifacts in the hoard and styles on the brooch show how Celts were adapting to the new world of Rome in the frontier areas.

By: Fraser Hunter

Principal Curator, Iron Age & Roman Collections, Department of Archaeology, National Museums Scotland

archaeology.org
 

PostSecret

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http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project in which people mail their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

The simple concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions were (or are) made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before.

Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to
confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams.

Estimated IQs of the Greatest Geniuses

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http://hem.bredband.net/b153434/Index.htm

This page is dedicated to some of the greatest minds of all time.


Introduction

A normal intelligence quotient (IQ) ranges from 85 to 115 (According to the Stanford-Binet scale). Only approximately 1% of the people in the world have an IQ of 135 or over. In 1926, psychologist Dr. Catherine Morris Cox - who had been assisted by Dr. Lewis M. Terman, Dr. Florence L. Goodenaugh, and Dr. Kate Gordon - published a study "of the most eminent men and women" who had lived between 1450 and 1850 to estimate what their IQs might have been.

The resultant IQs were based largely on the degree of brightness and intelligence each subject showed before attaining the age of 17. Taken from a revised and completed version of this study, table II shows the projected IQs of some of the best scorers.

For comparison I have included table I which shows the IQs' relation to educational level.

The Nietzsche Family Circus

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http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/

Refreshing and insightful, the Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote.

Moulin Rouge - El Tango de Roxanne

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This is a song from the 2001 Baz Luhrman musical tragic comedy "Moulin Rouge", a fantastic movie about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, love. With much of its content and its execution, it obviously belongs in pop-culture but it is also, quite a literary film, inasmuch as many of the ideas that shape it have a long literary history, something that probably goes overlooked by most of Hollywood. Perhaps the juxtaposition of unconventional style, techniques, objectives, etc. with such a conventional story, is that which frees the audience’s attention to focus on these other things, as well as the other levels in the film.

 

This one starts off with a classical guitar picked by Jose Feliciano himself, builds in trembling violins, a faintly massaged piano, and a section of strings being picked. 

The rhythm of the tango is clear from the first, but when Jacek Koman, playing the narcoleptic Argentinian, stops his muttering and sings--practically growls--that first line like a grizzly baritone possessed by Lucifer, it is clear: this is not The Police you're listening to, and Sting is not making an appearance. Ewan McGregor also gets a chance to show off his pipes, hitting beautifully high notes that accent the top of his range. 

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, everyone comes in together, a chorus overlaying Ewan McGregor's passionate wide-open high notes, and Jacek Koman's rumbling voice driving underneath it. A bass drum reminiscent of When the Levee Breaks pounds furiously, bringing the song to a anxious conclusion--though all the characters have poured out their souls, nothing is resolved, and that is as it should be.

 


The tango sequence also serves as the film’s emotional climax, bringing together all the elements of the story and holding them in stark contrast to each other.  Satine’s world has been turned gray reflecting the emptiness she feels with the duke.  Christian’s world is full of reds and blacks showing his burning love tainted by jealousy.  The Argentine tells the real story, his gritty voice singing the theme, “With no trust there can be no love, jealousy will drive you mad.”

 

While this sequence serves to advance the plot as well, its main purpose is to express feeling and emotion, and to draw parallels with the sub-textual triangle of art, sex, and commerce.

*everything2
*myliteraryquest
* Geocities 

Dante's Inferno Test - Impurity, Sin, and Damnation

http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv

Dante's Inferno Hell Test is based on Dante's Divine Comedy, written in the early 1300s by Dante Alighieri






A heavy thunder breaks the deep lethargy within your head....

...causing you to upstart suddenly, like a person who by force is awakened. Before you stands an enormous gate with an inscription that reads:





"Through me the way into the suffering city,

Through me the way to the eternal pain,

Through me the way that runs among the lost.

Justice urged on my high artificer;

My maker was divine authority,

The highest wisdom, and the primal love.

Before me nothing but eternal things were made,

And I endure eternally.

Abandon every hope, ye who enter here."







Welcome to the Dante's Inferno Hell Test. This test, sponsored by the 4degreez.com community, is based on the description of Hell found in Dante's Divine Comedy. Answer the questions below as honestly as you can and discover your fate. Based on your answers, your purity will be judged and you will be banished to the appropriate level of hell. Abandon all hope.

Philip Glass - Escape (The Hours OST)

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Philip Glass - Escape! (The Hours OST)

It is impossible to imagine this movie without the music, and the music without the movie.

The music of Philip Glass has the emotional depth and honesty; the sadness and enlightenment it provides is truly revolutionary.

The Hours is the original soundtrack album, on the Elektra/Nonesuch label, of the 2002 Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning film The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman (who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as "Virginia Woolf" in this film), Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. The original score were composed by Philip Glass.

The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (lost to the score of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).

Piano by Branka Parlic
5th of july 2005. synagogue, novi sad