Scribal Terror

Antarctic Ice Fish

From National Geographic. Photograph © J. Gutt/Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

How neck rings work

I had always thought that these rings gradually caused the neck to stretch upward. In fact, as this video shows, the collar bone and the ribs are lowered. Photo from Tribune India

When matter originated

Bogol has the answer.

Baked Oatmeal

From The Anchoress. Sounds really good. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
    * 3 cups rolled oats
    * 1 cup brown sugar
    * 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    * 2 teaspoons baking powder
    * 1 teaspoon salt
    * 1 cup milk
    * 2 eggs
    * 1/2 cup melted butter
    * 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    * 3/4 cup dried cranberries

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Beat in milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in dried cranberries. Spread into a 9×13 inch baking dish.
   3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

An Embarrassment of Jesuses

I made the point the other day that finding a tomb in Jerusalem with the name "Jesus" on it and concluding that it belonged to the Lord is a little like looking over a baseball roster and concluding that He has come back as a shortstop from the Dominican Republic. But you don't have to listen to me. Here's what real archaeologists have to say:

Archaeologist Amos Kloner, a professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, documented the tomb as the Jewish burial cave of a well-off family more than 10 years ago.

He says there is no evidence that it was the burial site of Jesus, and that that the names are a coincidence.

"I'm a scholar. I do scholarly work which has nothing to do with documentary film-making. There's no way to take a religious story and to turn it into something scientific," he says.

"Who says that 'Maria' is Magdalena and 'Judah' is the son of Jesus? It cannot be proved. These are very popular and common names from the first century BC."

Kloner says that of 900 burial caves found within 4 kilometres of Jerusalem's Old City and from the same era, the name Jesus or Yeshu was found 71 times, and that 'Jesus son of Joseph' has also been found.

Professor L Michael White, director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at the the University of Texas, says he also doubts the claims are true.

"This is trying to sell documentaries," he says, adding a series of strict tests needed to be conducted before a bone box or inscription could be confirmed as ancient.

"This is not archaeologically sound, this is fanfare."

East Germany in the Caribbean

Ace found this article at Strange Maps.com:

In a military exclusion zone in the Gulf of Cazones, not far to the south-west of the infamous Bay of Pigs, lies a small island formerly known as Cayo Blanco de Sur. The island is 15 km long, but never more than 500 metres wide (although another source claims it is 24 km long and 1 km wide). It is uninhabited but for the iguanas and birds that are indigenous there, and the occasional tourists stopping over. The area is very biodiverse, hosting several endangered species of fish and coral. The reefs make the island inaccessible to any but the smallest boats, and even then landing often involves wading ashore.

In June 1972, Fidel Castro while on a state visit to East Berlin gifted the island to East Germany. Cuba renamed it Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, after the German communist politician. Ernst Thälmann (German spelling) was leader of the German Communist Party (KPD) during much of the Weimar era, unsuccessfully stood for the presidency against Hitler and was imprisoned without trial from 1933 until his execution in 1944.

The southern beach of the island was renamed Playa RDA (‘GDR Beach’), and in August 1972, the East German ambassador to Cuba erected a bust of Ernst Thälmann on communist Germany’s one and only foothold in the tropics. In 1975, East German Schlager singer Frank Schöbel traveled to the island to record ‘Insel im Golf von Cazones’ on the spot – a musical effort which apparently has been lost to posterity. The island wasn’t mentioned in the treaty unifying both Germanys, which makes it at least thinkable that at present it’s the last remaining piece of East German territory. For the reunified (and capitalist) Germany post-1990 never made any formal claims on the island. In 1998, the island was severely battered by hurricane ‘Mitch’ – the bust of Thälmann fell over and hasn’t been replaced since. In 2001, the German online newspaper ‘Thema 1’ learned of the existence of Ernst Thälmann Insel and attempted to parcel it up for sale. The renewed interest by a re-united, ‘capitalist’ Germany embarrassed Cuba, which denied German journalists access to the island and declared that the 1972 transfer was ‘symbolic’ only.

Retinal vein occlusion

This is a picture of a branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) that is much worse than the one I have. If I can get a copy of the photo that my optometrist took, I'll scan it in so you can see what the inside of my eye actually looks like, but in the mean time, imagine just a few little flecks of blood here and there, like pepper,  not a huge cloud. I'm pretty sure the hemorrhage in my eye is in a branch vein rather than the central vein. Here's the definition from the website where I found the photo:

BRVO is a retinal vascular disease most often related to hypertension, elevated lipids/triglyceride/cholesterol, diabetes, carotid artery disease, cardiac disease, or hematologic (blood) disorders. In BRVO there is an occlusion of a branch retinal vein by a compressing, sclerotic retinal artery. This often leads to hemorrhage (bleeding), edema (swelling), or ischemia (poor circulation) of the retina and macula with resultant visual loss.

The vision loss I have is pretty minimal. I feel like I'm looking through a smear of oil on the left side, but I can still read the computer screen with that eye with a certain amount of squinting and peering. It would be extremely annoying if it affected both eyes, and I probably wouldn't be able to keep working for more than a half hour at a time. Fortunately, though, my right eye is not involved.

The mystery is what caused it. I don't have diabetes. My blood pressure is at the high end of normal and so is my cholesterol, so you wouldn't expect a vascular incident to result from either of those conditions. I'll be doing a stress test and a carotid artery sonogram as soon as I can get them scheduled and I'll keep you all posted. In the mean time, please forgive any typos or slow blogging while I deal with the mayonnaise on my glasses.

Here's a really good source I found to explain the condition. One of the schematics looks very much like a drawing of my eye--except that in my case the macula (yellow spot) is partially covered:

The door is open . . .

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing syllepsis, dirty syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.

"The Truth About Petting"

". . . this casual kissing—’petting’, as they call it—is something I never dreamed that a girl as refined as Mary would indulge in for a moment. Can there be a coarse streak in her that I never knew of?” From Physical Culture (1937) via Modern Mechanix

Tame Hippo

On Lake Edward in Congo. Rob of the Congo Rangers blog writes:

This picture was just sent to me that I think is really great… the Hippo, a male, lives near Kasindi Port on the shores of Lake Edward. The Hippo is habituated to humans and likes playing with the fishermen on the boats. Apparently I am told he also likes having his neck scratched which you can see here.

The hippos and the rangers have been through a lot together. Mai Mai raiders have been slaughtering hippos wholesale and terrorizing the rangers and their families, but apparently the situation is under better control now, thanks to the efforts of the rangers featured in Rob's blog.