published on the national sample survey of registered nurses and the national agricultural workers survey. also learned hippos nocturnal to stay cool
read..
(1) rotating locomotion in living systems
given
the ubiquity of wheels in human technology, and the existence of
biological analogues of many other technologies (such as wings and
lenses), the lack of wheels in nature has seemed, to many scientists, to
demand explanation
wheels have several drawbacks relative to other means of propulsion (such as walking, running, or slithering)
dung
beetles form spherical balls of animal excrement, which they roll with
their bodies, generally by walking backwards and pushing the ball with
their rear legs. phylogenic analysis indicates that this rolling
behavior evolved independently several times. the behavior of these
beetles was noted in ancient egyptian culture, which imparted sacred
significance to their activities. although it is the dung ball that
rolls rather than the beetle itself, the beetles face many of the same
mechanical difficulties that rolling organisms contend with
among
animals, there exists a single known example of an apparently freely
rotating structure, though it is used for digestion rather than
propulsion: the crystalline style of certain bivalves and gastropods
the
only known example of a biological "wheel" or "propeller" - a system
capable of providing continuous propulsive torque about a fixed body -
is the flagellum, a corkscrew-like tail used by single-celled
prokaryotes for propulsion. the bacterial flagellum is the best known
example. about half of all known bacteria have at least one flagellum;
thus, given the ubiquity of bacteria, rotation may be in fact the most
common form of locomotion used by living systems - though its use is
restricted to the microscopic environment
wheeled locomotion..will not evolve if its incomplete form does not serve to propagate the organism's genes
richard
dawkins describes the matter: "the wheel may be one of those cases
where the engineering solution can be seen in plain view, yet be
unattainable in evolution because it lies [on] the other side of a deep
valley, cutting unbridgeably across the massive of mount
improbable..wheels might sit on a highly favorable "peak", but the
valley around that peak may be too deep or wide for the gene pool to
migrate across by genetic drift or natural selection
recruitment of previously evolved structures to serve new functions is called exaptation
the
central question can be reversed: not "why does nature not produce
wheels?", but rather, "why do human vehicles not make more use of
limbs?" the use of wheels rather than limbs in most engineered vehicles
can likely be attributed to the complexity of design required to
construct and control limbs (see robot locomotion), rather than a
consistent functional advantage
when the empire collapsed and its
roads fell into disrepair, wheels fell out of favor..stephen jay gould
explains this curiosity of history, asserting that, in the absence of
maintained roads, camels required less manpower and water than a wheeled
cart pulled by oxen
the hoop snake, a creature of legend in the
united states and australia, is said to grasp its tail in its mouth and
roll like a wheel towards its prey
sonic the hedgehog
arthritic axles
in harmony with the surrounding landscape
37m high nail-less church using nothing but an axe
an onion dome covered with shingles
rival imperial ambitions
the imperial japanese navy opened hostilities in a surprise attack..at port arthur
in
1901, tsar nicholas ii told prince henry of prussia, "i do not want to
seize korea but under no circumstances can i allow japan to become
firmly established there. that will be a casus belli"
the 1890s and 1900s marked the height of the "yellow peril" propaganda by the german government, and the german emperor wilhelm ii (r. 1888-1918) often wrote letters to his cousin emperor nicholas ii of russia, praising him as the "saviour of the white race" and urging russia forward in asia
russian logistics were hampered by the fact that the only connection to european russia was the trans-siberian railway, which remained incomplete as at lake baikal the railway was not connected. a single train would take between 15 and 40 days to traverse the railway, with 40 days being the more common figure. a single battalion would take a month to transport from moscow to shenyang. after the line's eventual completion, 20 trains ran daily and by the conclusion of the war some 410,000 soldiers, 93,000 horses and 1,000 guns had been carried down it
the city of liaoyang had the misfortune to be sacked three times within three days: first by the russians, then by the chinese police, and finally by the japanese
after a stopover of several weeks at the minor port of nossi-be..the russian baltic fleet proceeded to cam ranh bay in french indochina passing on its way through the singaporean strait between 7 and 10 april 1905. the logistics of such an undertaking in the age of coal power was astounding. the squadron required approximately 500,000 tons of coal to complete the journey, yet by international law, it was not allowed to coal at neutral ports, forcing the russian authorities to acquire a large fleet of colliers to supply the fleet at sea
in compliance with the rules of war, the two trailing hospital ships had continued to burn their lights, which were spotted by the japanese armed merchant cruiser shinano maru..the japanese were able to position their fleet to "cross the t" of the russian fleet
following the victory of the battle of tsushima, japan's erstwhile british ally presented a lock of admiral nelson's hair to the imperial japanese navy, judging its performance then as on a par with britain's victory at trafalgar
the real world co-director alan cohn followed cast members home from a blind date and told them, "he wasn't going to leave until they kissed"
the clip shows cops and america's funniest home videos (both premiered in 1989) were also "the first draft of internet culture"
it's in our smartphones, which normalize the concept of an ever-present camera, always ready to capture the material of "real life" and transmogrify it into entertainment
the alternatively chilling and thrilling fact that reality-televisual modes of acting and interacting have pervaded contemporary life
(5) the procurator of judea by anatole france
why, on resigning your governorship in judaea, did you withdraw to a voluntary exile on your sicilian estates?
a tribal deity, named moses
does it matter in the least what estimate men may form of us hereafter?
my house stands on the seashore, at the extreme end of the town in the direction of misenum. you will easily recognize it by the porch, which bears a painting representing orpheus surrounded by tigers and lions, whom he is charming with the strains from his lyre
refuse an aqueduct! what madness!
they worship jupiter, yet they abstain from naming him or erecting a statue of him
they judge worthy of the extreme penalty all those who on divine subjects profess opinions opposed to their law. and as, since the genius of rome has towered over them, capital sentences pronounced by their own tribunals can only be carried out with the sanction of the proconsul or the procurator, they harry the roman magistrate at any hour to procure his signature to their baleful decrees, they besiege the pretorium with their cries of 'death!' a hundred times, at least, have i known them, mustered, rich and poor together, all united under their priests, make a furious onslaught on my ivory chair, seizing me by the skirts of my robe, and by the thongs of my sandals, and all to demand of me - nay, to exact from me - the death sentence on some unfortunate whose guilt i failed to perceive, and as to whom i could only pronounce that he was as mad as his accusers. a hundred times, do i say! not a hundred, but every day and all day. yet it was my duty to execute their law as if it were ours, since i was appointed by rome not for the destruction, but for the upholding of their customs
a young galilean thaumaturgist..i cannot call him to mind
in 2024, google reported that its search results were being inundated with websites that "feel like they were created for search engines instead of people"
ai-slime
(7) an interview with robert caro and kurt vonnegut
(8) notes on guinea by matt lakeman
a little smaller than michigan, a little larger than the united kingdom
there are no guinea pigs in the guinea region; they're native to south america..wikipedia also doesn't know why "guinea pigs" are called "pigs," so they are clearly just a mysterious animal in general
the only country on earth without any telephone lines
in the garage system, vehicles don't leave at a set time; they leave whenever they get enough customers
i am american, and therefore rich, and thus the driver believed that i should have purchased most of the vehicle's seats from the start so that we could have left earlier, so we wouldn't have hit this traffic. i tried to laugh it off but the driver really did look pissed
the driver was very rude "like all french people"
soldiers, many from the presidential guard, burst into the stadium and fired at close range on the thousands of people who had gathered there in a carnival-like atmosphere, dancing and praying. once the troops ran out of ammunition, they attacked the unarmed civilians with daggers, bayonets, bludgeons and even catapaults..soldiers shoved a gun inside one victim of gang rape and pulled the trigger
alpha conde (cool name)
50% of china's annual bauxite requirements, a huge figure for the largest industrial power on earth
doumbouya is only 43, making him the second youngest head-of-state in africa behind fellow military coup leader, mali's colonel assimi goita (age 42)
as almost certainly the most well-trained and experienced military individual in all of guinea, conde invited doumbouya back to guinea in 2018 after his long military absence to form the special forces group (sfg), a sort of praetorian guard for the presidency. in retrospect, this was not a great decision
"...although numerous u.s.-trained officers have seized power in their countries - most notably, gen. abdel fattah el-sisi of egypt - this is believed to be the first time one has done so in the middle of an american military course"
if this thing ever actually gets going, guinea could become the largest per capita iron producing country on earth
omnipresent giant photos of a scowling dictator
more condemnations of my character and failed americanness
what if a tourist brought a torn visa to the american border?
the driver's anger was quickly muted as he saw me being interrogated by two scary military guys. the driver said something, and then the head guard held up my torn visa and said something like, "look what this american did." the driver's face tightened up and anger came to his eyes as if he had just witnessed me defecating on a guinean flag
why do you tear everything?
conakry has a cool statue of an elephant kicking a soccer ball
(9) notes on mauritania by matt lakeman
virtually every old car is a de facto taxi
desert pro-tip - wear a turban. most of the men in mauritania wear them for a reason. i guess i always thought they were just a religious thing, but turbans in the desert are amazing. they somehow cool you down while also keeping the sun off your skin and hair, and you can optionally cover your face to keep out dust and sand. you're only one quick trip to the nouakchott central market and a youtube tutorial away from wearing your very own turban
the practice of force-feeding women to make them obese to get a husband..'leblouh' or 'gavage,' a french term that refers to 'the process of fattening up geese to produce foie gras..only 7% of urban women undergo the fattening process, but 75% of rural women do..the current mauritanian female obesity rate at almost 27%, and overweight rate at about another 27%, which isn't terribly high by global standards, but is very high by regional standards in a part of the world not known for its food abundance. ex. - senegal is at 6%/16% and burkina faso is at 6%/7.2%..then again..obesity estimates are all over the place. plus, i am inherently skeptical of big statistical estimates about very poor countries with terrible infrastructure and internal records. so i have no idea
eventually i figured out they were advising me not to try to bribe the soldier
covered in tens of flies..do mauritanians have a weak sense of touch? have they mastered stoicism?
riding the iron ore train is the main hardcore tourist thing to do in mauritania..i recommend doing it once, and then never again
of course you won't actually sleep, but closing your eyes makes the night go faster
nouakchott, nouadibou, zouerat, rosso, terjit, fderik, choam, aleg, bon lanuar, iwik, tintane, rachid... does mauritania have the best sci-fi city names of any country in the world?
(10) notes on tajikistan by matt lakeman
kyrgyzstan: shaped like a squid
the most-remittance based economy on earth
like uzbekistan and kyrgyzstan, tajikistan was largely relegated to cotton production by the ussr despite cotton being extremely water-intensive and the region having very little water [thus leading to the death of the aral sea]. cotton is still a fairly significant portion of the tajik economy, but its proportional value has been waning, and in 2023, the cotton industry was a net-loss for the country
it is 165 meters high, which i know not through wikipedia, but because four separate tajiks quoted the figure to me without prompting..sadly, the dushanbe flagpole lost its status as the world's tallest in 2014, only three years after its construction, to the jeddah flagpole in saudi arabia, which i have already seen without knowing its illustrious status in the world of flagpole standings
the tajikistan national museum..just mea and the 50 babushkas stationed throughout the museum making sure i didn't steal any pottery shards
i, appearing russian to locals, would be considered a foreigner on sight
a lot of tajik men have a hair style that i can only describe as "beetles"
supposedly, the tajik government has arrested hundreds of thousands of men for beard violations and forcefully shaved at least 13,000 men in 2016 in a single reason. beard permits are available for actors and other men who have good secular reasons for needing hair on their faces
i asked a taxi driver with surprisingly good english, "is the president good"? his verbatim response: "of course, how else could he rule for 32 years?"
say what you want about the ussr, but it apparently allowed individuals to rise from obscurity to great power
an obviously rigged vote which he nevertheless only won with 58%
the border has been relatively quiet but completely shut down for travel for native tajiks or kyrgyz. only tourists can get through
i met a few non-russian tourists, but every single one of them was an experienced traveller..if i go back to tajikistan ten years from now, i doubt the traveller cohort will be the same
dushanbe was previously known as "stalinbad" from 1929 to 1960
"dushanbe," derives from the persian word for "monday," which was the traditional market day for this settlement on the silk road
buzkashi..tajikistan's unique form of the game largely does away with teams in favor of a free-for-all individual play
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