by CKR
Just a few things I’ve picked up lately.
Nuclear History
An interview with Paul Tibbetts, the pilot of the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, interspersed with historical footage. (Hat tip to DS.)
Viral History
Our genomes carry a history of the viruses our ancestors were exposed to and developed immunological defenses against. So do the genomes of gorillas and chimpanzees. It’s not entirely easy to read this history, but one part has been deciphered and reported in the 22 June Science magazine. It appears that humans developed a defense against an ancient virus that our relatives are more susceptible to. But that same defense makes humans more susceptible to HIV-1.
Kitty Crack
I do enjoy the antics of Ripley (also the name of my sister’s ancient cat) and Madeleine at Plush Life, along with Kevin Drum’s Friday Catblogging. I’ve had cats, but I feel that my traveling schedule wouldn’t be fair to them. So here’s a little present for all those kitties out there. The instructions say that pure nepetalactone (the active ingredient in catnip) won’t hurt your cat, but if you extract it, I’d suggest you share it with your little friend(s) very carefully.
Medieval Blogging
In my conversations, I’ll refer to Helmut of phronesisaical or J. of Armchair Generalist or Eric Martin of American Footprints. That’s personal name (sometimes psuedonymous) plus blog name. Some of these people have last names, some don’t. It reminds me of medieval names: Wolfram of Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strassburg. People mostly didn’t have last names then, just an identifier of the town they lived in. Some of those names became “family” names, or sometimes the “family” name was the name of a father or grandfather, or further back as the name continued to stick. But the "family" name didn't show up in clickable blue.