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Today in History

1626		Huguenot rebels and the French sign the Peace of La Rochelle.
1778		France recognizes the United States and signs a treaty of aid in Paris.
1788		Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.
1862		The Battle of Fort Henry, Tenn., begins the Mississippi Valley campaign.
1891		The Dalton Gang commits its first crime, a train robbery in Alila, Calif.
1899		The Spanish-American War ends.
1900		President McKinley appoints W.H. Taft commissioner to report on the Philippines.
1904		Japan's foreign minister severs all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.
1916		Germany admits full liability for Lusitania incident and recognizes the United State's right to claim indemnity.
1922		The Washington Disarmament Conference comes to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years.
1926		Mussolini warns Germany to stop agitation in Tyrol.
1929		Germany accepts Kellogg-Briand pact.
1933		Adolf Hitler's Third Reich begins press censorship.
1936		Adolf Hitler opens the Fourth Winter Olympics.
1941		The RAF clears the way as British take Benghazi, trapping thousands of Italians.
1944		Kwajalein Island in the Central Pacific falls to U.S. Army troops.
1945		MacArthur reports the fall of Manila, and the liberation of 5,000 prisoners.
1963		The United States reports that all Soviet offensive arms are out of Cuba.
1964		Cuba blocks the water supply to Guantanamo Naval Base in rebuke of the United State's seizure of four Cuban fishing boats.
1964		Paris and London agree to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.
1965		Seven U.S. GIs are killed in a Viet Cong raid on a base in Pleiku.
1968		Charles de Gaulle opens the 19th Winter Olympics in France.
1975		President Gerald Ford asks Congress for $497 million in aid to Cambodia.
1977		Queen Elizabeth marks her Silver Jubilee.
1982		Civil rights workers begin a march from Carrolton to Montgomery, Alabama.

Non Sequitur

The truth hurts

Did you know ...

About 5 creepy new ways the police can intrude on your rights

That the Justice Department plans to sue Standard & Poor's for fraudulent ratings that led to the mortgage meltdown

President Obama Checkmates Republicans By Offering a Sequester Escape Hatch Tied to More Revenue

President Obama took steps today to make sure that repugicans have already lost the sequester battle. He offered repugicans one way out, and that is to raise more revenue.
The president began by making reference to the signs of economic progress, but he also mentioned political dysfunction. Obama bluntly told repugicans that any deal to avoid the sequester will contain more revenue, “We can’t just cut our way to prosperity.” The president said the deep cuts repugicans are proposing don’t have to happen. Obama touted his balanced approach which he said has achieved 2.5 trillion in cuts. Obama said, “The proposals that I put forward during the fiscal cliff negotiations are still very much on the table.” The president said he has offered sensible reforms to Medicare and other entitlements, and his healthcare reforms that would reduce the government’s bills without shifting the burden on the elderly, poor, or working poor.
Obama said these modest reforms in entitlements have to go hand in hand with tax reform. The president said there is no reason that we should keep the loopholes, and use them for more tax cuts. The president said, “I think this balanced mix is the best way to finish off deficit reduction.”
Obama said a full budget might not be finished by the sequester deadline, but he offered repugicans an out. The president called on Congress to pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reform in order to delay the sequester for a few months until a budget is done. He said Congress is already working towards a budget that would replace the sequester, but they may need more time.
The president repeated that the economy is heading in the right direction, and the last thing we need is another self inflicted wound from Washington.
Obama is playing a winning hand. He is offering repugicans modest changes to Medicare in exchange for more revenue that will be generated by closing loopholes. Going after tax dodgers is a winning issue. The president has now put repugicans in the position of either having to defend tax dodgers, or face big cuts in defense spending. The repugicans can pick their poison.
For a party that is ideologically driven by the notion of starving the governmental beast, the idea of having raise more revenue for Uncle Sam is a bitter pill to swallow. The president offered repugicans an escape hatch from the mess that they have created, but their lifeline is dependent on raising taxes by closing loopholes.
There is a possibility that the president may be able to come out of this latest standoff getting the deficit reduction he wants, increased revenue, and the protection of Medicare. (Before anyone jumps off the cliff on Medicare, the repugican alternative to Obama’s non-benefits cuts is gutting and privatization.)
Everything appears to be stacking up against the repugicans.
The repugican gamble on the sequester is looking like it may turn into an ever bigger win for President Obama.

Isn’t That Cute? John Boehner Pretends Like He Has a Choice on Raising More Taxes

In a statement the other day, Speaker Boehner issued more tough talk about about no new tax hikes as a part of a deal to avoid the sequester cuts. The problem is that Boehner doesn’t really have a choice.
Here is the statement from Boehner:

President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law. repugicans have twice voted to replace these arbitrary cuts with common-sense cuts and reforms that protect our national defense. We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes. The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.

Speaker Boehner’s remarks were more empty tough talk. The reality is that the House repugicans have a choice between either raising more revenue, or letting the sequester cut defense spending. Boehner’s statement underplayed how desperate a majority of House repugicans are to avoid those defense cuts. As recently as December 20, 2012, the House voted to replace the defense cuts with cuts to food stamps and healthcare.
House repugicans have already shown their hand. They will do anything to get rid of the defense cuts. Boehner can talk a big game, but all he has is empty talk. House repugicans have so marginalized themselves that they no longer have a seat at the table. What many House repugicans don’t get is that there is a difference between making policy,and preventing policy from being made. After years of repugican led dysfunction in the House, the rest of the national policy making apparatus has decided to work around Boehner and his self destructive caucus.
The House repugican strategy has left them powerless, and on the outside looking in.
Boehner thinks that the sequester is the big trump card that he has left to play. The speaker has convinced himself that his caucus will stick together on the defense cuts, and force Obama to cave on the discretionary cuts. The problem with his thinking is that for the last few years the exact opposite has been happening. The president understands that all of the pressure is on House repugicans. Obama can afford to let them have their temper tantrums, and wait for them to cave.
The country has seen this movie too many times before. We already know how it ends. House repugicans are going to take the country to the brink of another disaster, only to give in when Obama doesn’t cave. Like an ill behaved child, the repugican controlled House continues to test their political daddy in the White House.
It is kind of cute that John Boehner is clinging on to his last illusion of power with such naivete. Boehner is bluffing, and everyone knows it. Boehner’s remarks today are the official start of the countdown until the next great House repugican cave of 2013.

Our growing income inequality causes 43% of the projected Social Security shortfall

Upward redistribution of income — what we’ve been calling the “looting of the economy” by the billionaire CEO class — is responsible for at least 43% of the projected Social Security shortfall for the next 75 years.
Let that sink in. This is yet another way that the looters want the victims to pay for their victimhood and hold the looters lossless. The CEO class has worked for three decades to create an economy where working people have a far less share of the economic growth than they used to have. One of the results of that inequity was an unexpected shortfall in the income collected by Social Security.
Think about it — everyone could see that the big demographic shift, the baby-boom generation, would show up on schedule. They could see that in the 1950s. But who knew 30 years ago (1983, if you’re not subtracting quickly), when the last Social Security adjustment occurred, that Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama would create a bipartisan consensus around handing all the fruits of productivity to the “rich and famous” set that you’re not a part of? That was not part of the calculation in those golden Reagan Days, and the Social Security Trust Fund has suffered ever since.

What changed that they didn’t take into account?

As I said, they saw the baby-boomers coming from 10 miles away (or 50, if each mile is a year). The single item they didn’t account for was the increasingly-lower percent of income captured by the Social Security salary tax. In 1983, the year of the Greenspan commission, that share of income was 90%. Dean Baker, the source of this information:

In 1983, the Greenspan commission set the cap at a level where 90 percent of wage income would be subject to the tax, meaning that 10 percent would escape taxation[.]
Since that date, the upward redistribution of wages has increased the portion of wage income over the cap to 16.8 percent, with just 83.2 percent of wage income subject to the cap. The share going over the wage cap is projected to rise further, reaching 17.5 percent of wage income in a decade. In this way, the upward redistribution of income directly worsens the finances of the program.

Because wages are lower than they would have been without our ever-rising increase in income inequality, Social Security benefits are now lower as well:

If wages had kept pace with productivity growth over the last three decades, the typical workers would be paid around 25 percent more than they are now getting.

So the first two factors pull against each other, if you’re calculating the effect on the Trust Fund. Because of income that isn’t being captured by the salary tax, the Fund has lost money. But all of that lost money would not be still in the Fund; some would have been paid out in increased benefits (a good thing, don’t forget!).
The net result of these two factors is shown in this graph, again from Baker’s group, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR):

The blue line shows the lost revenue; if income were taxed up to 90% as it was in 1984, this additional money would be in the Trust Fund. The red line shows additional payments to SS recipients, who would have received more benefits, since benefits are paid according to income against which taxes were levied. The net of the two is considerable. Baker:

[The] net increase in revenue [would be] $42.4 billion, before counting the additional interest.

But wait, there’s more.

What’s that about “additional interest”?

Because the Social Security Trust Fund is currently running a surplus (it’s a rainy-day fund after all), it invests its money. The more money it has to invest, the more it earns on that money. If you had $42.4 billion more to invest, you’d be earning more as well, right? Same with the Trust Fund.
So Baker calculates that lost interest. Are you sitting down?

Taking the cumulative net gain in revenue over the last three decades in the event there had been no upward redistribution of income, and imputing a 6.0 percent nominal interest rate, the trust fund would have $1,232 billion more in assets than it does at present.

Just in case it hasn’t hit you yet, “$1,232 billion” is $1.2 trillion.  As Chico Marx said, “Now you’re talking real money.” Just on lost interest alone, the Trust Fund is short $1.2 trillion. Baker concludes that if the Social Security tax continued to cover 90% of income through the 75 years of the shortfall projection, the Trust Fund shortfall would be less by 43%.

[I]f there had been no upward redistribution of wage income from 1983 to the present and the tax was projected to continue to cover 90 percent of wage income over the program’s 75-year planning horizon, the shortfall would be 43.5 percent less than what is currently projected.

As I’ve said before, 75 years is forever in fiscal-planning years — 2088 in fact. A lot could happen between now and then. Who knows, the climate could even change, catastrophically, making all other issue moot.
Now if we talk about raising the salary cap to tax 100% of income starting … how about, right now? … I think this shortfall thing solves itself completely. Don’t you think? [Update: That's a link to the Begich bill, before the Senate now.]
Of course, we’d have to stop the looting to make the good thing happen. And that means being bold enough to notice who the looters are … and who works for them.
Just saying …

The truth be told

Well, well, well ...

A cracked pot ...

... Holds no water.

The NRA’s American Wet Dream: Another Child Dead, Woman Points a Gun at School Official

The repugican/NRA American Wet Dream is coming true.

A 3-year-old is killed while playing with a loaded pink handgun and a woman pulls a gun at an all girls school during carpool pick up.
In South Carolina, WBTW reported today that Charleston’s Ashley Hall was on lockdown after a woman pointed a handgun at a school official during Monday’s carpool pickup. The police were called and luckily, no one was hurt. Gun-toting 28-year-old Alice Boland was arrested.
The NRA puppets were just explaining to us that women need assault weapons for safety purposes. If only Boland had been carrying an assault weapon! Stars and stripes, my friends. Oh, she’s the “bad guy” in this scenario — but of course we would not know that before she gets the assault weapon since background checks are a sin against freedom.
In much sadder news, funeral arrangements have been made for a 3-year-old South Carolinian boy named Tmorej Smith, who died due to a single shot in the head after he and a sibling were playing with a pink handgun they thought was a toy. The gun went off and killed Tmorej.
This is just a snippet of gun news reported over a 24 hour span in one state of “the land of the free and home of the brave”, per the NRA’s American Dream.
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, “In 2010, 5,597 people (58% of murder victims) were killed at or before the age of 30. The average American lives to the age of 78, so that’s at least 48 years of life un-lived by the average gun victim. 1,091 people (11%) were killed at or under the age of 18—not even adults. Killed before such milestones as marriage, children, grandchildren, or a career, 58% of the people murdered with a gun had barely begun to live their lives.” For more on the NRA’s vision for America and how it’s worked out so far, sit down before you watch this blood chilling graph.
In South Carolina, they conclude their news report with this sad homage to the NRA’s American Wet Dream, “Officials are reminding gun owners to keep them locked at all times and out of reach of children.”
I would amend that warning and suggest that perhaps we should keep guns out of reach of many adults as well. Especially during carpool pick up, because tempers flare. In the wild west, the only way to deal with your childish inability to cope when things don’t go exactly your way is to threaten other people with a gun. You know, for freedom.
Waiting too long to pick your kid up after school? Pull your gun and stand your ground, patriots! Jesus loves a winner. Kids bored? Leave a loaded pink handgun laying around and hope your kids know better than to touch it.
If these news stories scare you, then you definitely need an assault weapon to protect you from the “bad guys”, like the young children who didn’t know any better and the obviously off her rocker woman with the handgun at school. Gosh, if only those kids had had an assault weapon… because, say it with me, “guns don’t kill people.”
Note: NO, you should not leave loaded weapons around your house, even if you do not have children. And NO, you should not whip out a gun the next time you’re frustrated. Low frustration tolerance levels are just another thing we should test people for before we grant them access to a gun, as citizens are making abundantly clear of late.

The Solution to All Problems

If it moves and it shouldn't use duct tape. 

If it should move but doesn't, use WD-40. 

Consider your problem solved!

New York Times, 1924: Hitler's tamed by prison, "no longer to be feared"

From the Dec 20, 1924 issue of the New York Times: Adolph Hitler's rehabilitation is now complete, and he is "no longer to be feared."

Hitler Tamed By Prison

Might have gotten that one wrong.

Chest pain prior to a heart attack can protect the heart

Patients who experience chest pain in the 24 hours preceding a heart attack, also called preinfarction angina, have smaller heart attacks and improved cardiac function in the contemporary cardiac stenting era, researchers found in a study published Jan. 22 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. “Even before we began treating heart attack patients with angioplasty and stenting, physicians recognized that patients with chest pain prior to their heart attack seem to have better outcomes,” says the study’s senior author, Jay H. Traverse, MD, a research cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in Minneapolis. “The question ‘Given faster treatment times for stents, would the protective benefit be maintained?’ still remained.”
Prior to this study, there have only been a few, small studies to assess this effect in the cardiac stenting era. The researchers retrospectively assessed 1,031 patients admitted with a first acute heart attack, or ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). They then analyzed all patients who had ongoing chest pain duration between one and six hours who received a cardiac stent to treat their heart attack, with a procedure called primary percutaneous coronary intervention.
They identified 245 patients at the Minneapolis Heart Institute® at Abbott Northwestern Hospital who had occluded arteries on presentation, of which 79 patients had documented preinfarction angina, defined as episodes of similar chest pain within 24 hours of the onset of their heart attack. “Physicians may not realize that between 30 and 40 percent of all STEMI patients experience preinfarction angina,” Traverse says.
In the study, the researchers found that the occurrence of preinfarction resulted in a 50 percent reduction in heart attack size compared with patients without preinfarction angina. This translated into improved cardiac function at the time of the patient’s discharge.
“Preinfarction angina appears to be a trigger that activates endogenous protective mechanisms in the heart,” he concludes. “Future research should be focused upon identifying what these protective mechanisms are, as there may be a method of pharmacologically activating them.”

Medical cures from the mouth of a mamba

Here, scientists suck all the dignity out of a Jameson’s mamba — a snake capable of killing a human in just a few, painful hours. The photo is part of a story in the February issue of National Geographic, exploring the potential medical uses of venom. There are also more photos. And you will meet cobra farmers.

What does the world look like when you're color blind?

On the top is a picture of a woman with my bike. On the bottom is the same image, as it would be seen by a person with protanopia — a relatively common (as in, still very rare) form of color blindness that affects the ability to see green, yellow, and red colors.
The Color Blindness Simulator will allow you to do this with your own photos.

Random Celebrity Photo

Baseball Recovered from a War Between the States Battlefield

From April 6-7, 1862, Americans slaughtered one another near a small log church in Tennessee called Shiloh. The nation suffered more casualties those two days than in all previous wars combined. It was a horrible shock to the divided nation--and there were worse to come.
Giles Hellum, an African American employee of the Union army, found this baseball on the field. Slate's Frank Ceresi writes:

During the War Between the States, the game was played on the battlefields and even in wartime prison camps. Baseball was, after all, portable, and even amid the horrors of war, soldiers sometimes found opportunities to play on the vast open fields where they needed only a bat, a ball, and a few willing participants. [...]
The artifact is a “lemon peel ball,” looser and softer than today’s baseballs, and it is hand-stitched in a figure 8 pattern with thick twine. 

More

Poor Richard III - buried under the car lot

Update:

Richard III just can't get a break.  Maybe it's true that he wasn't a nice guy, but there are arguments that he should be presumed innocent of the murder of the princes in the tower.  And after his death his Plantagenet relatives were murdered and executed by the Tudors, and his reputation was slimed for all eternity by a descendent of the Oxford who led the Tudor forces against Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

And now...  The History Blog has the rest of the story:

One of his [Henry VII] first acts as monarch the day after the battle was to bring Richard’s body to nearby Leicester where it would be exposed, naked, and then hanged for all to see... the friars buried him unceremoniously in their abbey... In November of 1538, the Greyfriars abbey and church in Leicester was destroyed. There is no record from that time describing what happened to Richard’s tomb and remains... As the centuries passed, development entirely changed the cityscape and the exact location of Greyfriars church was lost...

University of Leicester experts used map regression analysis (a systematic comparison of different kinds of maps from different eras) to pinpoint the most likely site of the former Greyfriars church. It’s a parking lot used by the Leicester City Council... The parking lot was surveyed Friday with ground-penetrating radar, and several archaeological hot spots were identified. Today the excavation begins.

For more about the Greyfriars project and Richard III, see the University of Leicester’s microsite.

The History Blog also includes a video interview with the lead archaeologist on the project.

Addendum (Sept 2012): Archaeologists believe they have found Richard's skeleton:

The skeleton was an adult male, who appeared fit and strong. He had suffered significant trauma to the head where a blade had cut away part of the back of his skull; an injury consistent with battle.

A barbed arrow head was found lodged between vertebrae in his upper back, and spinal abnormalities pointed to the fact that he had severe scoliosis, a form of spinal curvature. This would have made his right shoulder appear visibly higher than his left, which is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance...

Miss Langley said: “This story has never reached a conclusion. The last two years of Richard’s life history were written by the Tudors and paint a picture of an evil hunchback with a withered arm.

“That is totally at odds with what we know about the last 30 years and it is quite normal for the vanquisher to paint a negative picture.

“Richard was responsible for a lot of the laws that today uphold personal freedom – the right to justice whether rich or poor, the presumption of innocence, the clear title of property – so everyone has an interest in being able to piece together his full story.”

DNA tests are expected to take 12 weeks."

Second Addendum  (Feb 2013):  The skeleton is confirmed as Richard's.  Here's a photograph of the rearticulated skeleton (via the BBC):

I'm impressed that the curvature is so low in the thoracic spine, and note that it's not from a vertebral collapse, which is probably why he was able to be so active, going to battle and all.  DNA from dental pulp has been matched to that of a living known descendant.  There are lots more details in The Guardian and elsewhere.

Richard III's Face Revealed

 

Advanced CT scans and wax modeling have revealed the face of King Richard III
Showing a hint of a smile, a prominent chin, and slightly arched nose, the facial reconstruction is based on a skull found along with other bones just 2 feet beneath a car park in Leicester, UK, last September.
The reconstruction follows confirmation that the skeleton was that of the king killed in battle more than 500 years ago.
According to Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the project at the University of Leicester, DNA tests had proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that the bones were those of the last Plantagenet king.
The model was created by digitizing a three-dimensional image of the complete skull and using the bone structure to estimate the thickness of the various layers of muscle and skin.
“When the 3D digital bust was complete it was replicated in plastic using a rapid prototyping system,” Caroline Wilkinson, professor of craniofacial identification at Dundee University, UK, said.
The head was painted and textured with prosthetic eyes. Using portraits as reference, the researchers created a realistic and royal appearance by dressing the king with a wig, hat and clothing.

According to historian John Ashdown-Hill, the model is so lifelike that it is “almost like being face to face with a real person.”
Although the essential features of Richard are quite similar to those shown in various depictions of the king, of whom no contemporary portraits exist, the model reveals a more pleasant and younger face.
Indeed, many of the later portraits of Richard showed him with a rather mean face — quite appropriate for the bloodthirsty usurper depicted by Shakespeare.
“It doesn’t look like the face of a tyrant… He’s very handsome. It’s like you could just talk to him, have a conversation with him right now,” Philippa Langley, a member of the Richard III Society who instigated the search for the skeleton, told Channel 4′s documentary “King in a Car Park.”
Richard III was killed in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth, which was the last act of the decades-long fight over the throne known as War of the Roses. The king was defeated by Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII.
Examinations of the skeleton revealed that Richard III was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and had a slender, almost feminine physique.
He suffered from scoliosis, a severe curvature of the spine, in line with the hunchback king described by Shakespeare.
The skeleton of England’s last medieval king may be reburied in Leicester Cathedral, which is a just short distance away from the car park where it was found.
The Cathedral is expected to approve the re-interring request later this year.

Richard III May Have Had a Brummie Accent

 

Not only have British experts reconstructed the face of king Richard III — they have recreated what he may have sounded like.
Despite being the patriarch of the House of York, Richard likely spoke with an accent associated with West Midlands rather than northern England, according to language expert Philip Shaw, from the University of Leicester’s School of English.
“That’s an accent you might well see in London,” Shaw said.
The researcher used two letters penned by England’s last medieval king more than 500 years ago to investigate Richard III’s language, spelling and grammar.
While secretaries would have written most of the king’s letters, two missives seem to be original.
One letter was written in 1469, when Richard was still the Duke of Gloucester, the other dates to 1483, when he was king.
In the first letter Richard, who was traveling with Edward IV to quell a disturbance in Yorkshire, urgently asks for a loan of £100 from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. To emphasize the urgency of his request, the king added a two-line note in his own hand.
A personal note also appears in the second letter, revealing Richard’s urgent call for the Great Seal to be sent to him as he was trying to suppress Duke of Buckingham’s rebellion.
“Unlike today, individuals were more likely to spell words in ways that reflected their local dialect. Therefore, by looking at Richard’s writing, I was able to pinpoint spellings that may provide some clues to his accent,” Shaw said in a statement.
For example, elongated vowels are a distinctive aspect of Richard’s speech patterns.
“There are interesting differences with words like ‘say’ and ‘pray’ and ‘fail’ where we have this ‘a’ sound which is what we call a diphthong — a glide from one sound to another,” Shaw said.
He noted that Richard may well have used a pure vowel in his speech — something like ‘saa’ or ‘praa’ rather than “say” and “pray.”
According to Shaw, the two postscripts show at least one spelling that may suggest a West Midlands accent.
“There’s nothing to suggest a Yorkshire accent in the way that he writes, I’m sorry to say for anyone who associates him with Yorkshire,” Shaw said.
Click here to listen to Dr Shaw mimicking King Richard’s likely accent.

Diary of a Body-Snatcher

In the 19th century, medical education was making great strides, and professors needed cadavers for demonstrations and lectures. However, the only legal way to procure bodies was after criminal executions, and there weren't enough of them. This gave rise to the profession of body-snatching, and grave robbers could make a pretty penny for their clandestine efforts. A "Resurrection Man" named Joseph Naples was one of the rare body-snatchers to keep a diary of his work. An excerpt:

13th January 1812

Took 2 of the above to Mr Brookes & 1 large & 1 small to Mr Bell. Foetus to Mr Carpue. Small to Mr Framton. Large small to Mr Cline. Met at 5, the Party went to Newington. 2 adults. Took them to St Thomas’s.

Large and small refer to adult and child corpses. The diary is in the possession of the Hunterian Museum in London. Read more about it at Atlas Obscura.

The "Out of Eden Walk" will be 21,000 miles long

Here's the project:

On January 10th, 02013, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Paul Salopek will begin a seven year journey on foot from Ethiopia to Patagonia, following the footsteps of the first migration of humans across the planet 60,000 years ago. The journey will not be an easy one. It consists of 21,000 miles of wildly varying terrain and environments, with only what Salopek can fit in his backpack. Salopek will be writing “narrative core samples” every hundred miles to get an embedded, on-the-ground look at the issues that are defining our age.

Progress will be posted at this link (currently at mile 0 in Ethiopia).

More details and links here, in the blog of the Long Now Foundation, which "hopes to provide a counterpoint to today's accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years" and where you can learn how geologic processes in the Cretaceous period helped determine voting patterns in the last presidential election:

Explained here.

The Neanderthals' Last Stand

Radiocarbon studies question whether a late Neanderthal population really did hang on in southern Spain long after the species died out in the rest of Europe.

Neanderthals Died Out Earlier Than Thought

The last Neanderthals had passed by southern Iberia about 45,000 years ago and not 30,000 years ago, as previously thought.

Awesome pictures

Tulip fields in the Netherlands

From a gallery of 14 photos of tulip fields in the Netherlands

Orchid named after the shrub

Orchid named after George W Bush

This is the rare Monkey Orchid, found only in high elevations of Ecuador and Peru.

The primate-esque flowers are formally known as Dracula simia but most people just call them Der Monkey Orchids.

Moles Can Smell in Stereo

Eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus)

Humans and most other mammals can see and hear in stereo, but now it’s known that a ubiquitous garden critter can smell in stereo too.
The super smeller is the common mole, according to a paper in the journal Nature Communications. This is the same animal that might be out in your lawn and garden right this very minute, digging holes and searching for something tasty to eat. We don’t often get to see moles up close, but as you can tell from the photo (above), it’s all about the nose.
Stereo smelling means that each nostril takes in different odors, with the brain recognizing those differences. The discovery is a first, since no mammals were thought to have this ability.
“I came at this as a skeptic,” neuroscientist Kenneth Catania of Vanderbilt University was quoted as saying in a press release. “I thought the moles’ nostrils were too close together to effectively detect odor gradients. The fact that moles use stereo odor cues to locate food suggests other mammals that rely heavily on their sense of smell, like dogs and pigs, might also have this ability.”
Catania’s study created a radial arena with food wells spaced around a 180-degree circle with the entrance for the mole in the center. He then ran a number of trials with a mole food fave — pieces of earthworm — placed randomly in different wells. The chamber was temporarily sealed so Catania could detect each time the mole sniffed by the change in air pressure.
“It was amazing,” he said. ”They found the food in less than five seconds and went to the right food well almost every time. They have a hyper-sensitive sense of smell.”
He noticed a pattern. When a mole would enter a chamber, it moved its nose back and forth as it sniffed, but then the mole seemed to zero in on the food source, moving in a direct path. That’s when the “stereo sniffing” idea dawned on Catania.
When the moles’ left nostrils were blocked, the animals’ paths consistently veered off to the right. When their right nostrils were blocked, they consistently veered to the left. They still found the food, but it took a much longer time.
Video: Submerged Sense Of Smell
Catania conducted further tests, inserting plastic tubes in both of the moles’ nostrils. He crossed these tubes such that the right nostril was sniffing air on the animal’s left and the left nostril was sniffing air on the animal’s right. When their nostrils were crossed in this fashion, the animals searched back and forth and frequently could not find the food at all.
The conclusion? Moles indeed smell in stereo, as he suspected.
Catania said he doubts humans have this ability.
Tests for this aren’t difficult to do on humans, he said. “You can ask a blindfolded person to tell you which nostril is being stimulated by odors presented with tubes inserted in the nose.”
These investigations suggest only when a strong odor irritates the nostril lining (such as whiffing a cut onion) can humans can tell which side is most strongly stimulated.

Animal Pictures