Humboldt’s Maps : Mapping Thoreau Country In his eulogy at Thoreau's funeral in Concord in 1862, in a line that was omitted from his published remembrance, Emerson singled out three men who had deeply impressed his late friend: the abolitionist martyr John Brown, the poet Walt Whitman, and Penobscot wilderness guide and tribal leader Joe Polis. To this list, Emerson might have added—along with Samuel de Champlain—Alexander von Humboldt, who was widely regarded as the world's foremost 'man of science' during the first half of the nineteenth century. As Champlain had before him, Humboldt traveled the world to gather facts about a dizzying array of natural phenomena, "so that," as Emerson remarked, "a university, a whole French Academy travelled in his shoes." And Humboldt's works were, as Thoreau characterized Champlain's maps,"crowded with information, geographical, ethnographical, zoological, and botanical." Laura Dassow Walls, William P. and Hazel B. Explore Humboldt's contributions to understanding climate change.
Lettre d'une pigiste perdue dans l'enfer syrien Ce texte sur son expérience syrienne a été publié le 1er juillet 2013, sur le site de la 'Columbia Journalism Review', par Francesca Borri, journaliste indépendante italienne, par ailleurs auteur d'un livre sur le Kosovo et d'un autre sur les rapports entre Israéliens et Palestiniens intitulé 'Quelqu'un avec qui parler' (Manifestolibri, 2010). Il a suscité de très nombreuses réactions, auxquelles Francesca Borri a elle-même répondu sur le site du 'Guardian'. Il nous a semblé qu'il méritait d'être traduit en français. Il m’a finalement écrit. Voilà plus d’un an que je lui envoie des articles à la pige. Le même jour, dans la soirée, j’ai retrouvé le camp rebelle où je vivais, au beau milieu de cet enfer qui s’appelle Alep, et dans la poussière et la faim et la peur, j’ai espéré trouver un ami, un mot compatissant, un geste tendre. A vrai dire, j’aurais dû comprendre ça la fois où mon rédacteur en chef m’a demandé un article sur Gaza, parce que Gaza, comme d’habitude, était bombardé.
Town gears up for garage sale MALDON is gearing up for a town-wide garage sale on Saturday with more than 50 households, or garages, on the list. See your ad here Town gears up for garage sale READY: Bonnie and Mark prepare for the sale. MALDON is gearing up for a town-wide garage sale on Saturday with more than 50 households, or garages, on the list.Everything from books, clothes, furniture and antiques are expected to be offered according to organiser Mark Blythe.With his partner Bonnie Gainger, they’ve been organising the garage sale since 2008 when it was a side event to the Maldon Antique and Collectables Fair.Maps of participating homes are available for a gold coin donation at Beehive Oldwares on the corner of Main and Phoenix Streets.The sale starts at 7.45am on Saturday.
The amazing history of the Nobel Prize, told in maps and charts Click to enlarge. (Max Fisher/Washington Post) The United States added three more Nobel laureates to its roster on Monday, all in economics, bringing the national total to an astounding 347 in the prize's history. That's the most of any country in the world, by far: next-highest ranked is Britain with 120 laureates. Up top is a heat map showing which countries have had the most Nobel laureates in the prize's history. Just over 1,000 Nobels have been awarded since the prize was first established in 1901. A stunning 83 percent of all Nobel laureates have come from Western countries (that means Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand). Looking at the data this way, it becomes awfully clear that people outside of Europe and North America don't win very many Nobels. To give you a better sense of the degree to which the Nobel really is a predominantly Western prize, here's a pie chart showing the breakdown of the prize-winners by region and country. 1.
9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask The United States and allies are preparing for a possibly imminent series of limited military strikes against Syria, the first direct U.S. intervention in the two-year civil war, in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad's suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians. If you found the above sentence kind of confusing, or aren't exactly sure why Syria is fighting a civil war, or even where Syria is located, then this is the article for you. What's happening in Syria is really important, but it can also be confusing and difficult to follow even for those of us glued to it. Here, then, are the most basic answers to your most basic questions. First, a disclaimer: Syria and its history are really complicated; this is not an exhaustive or definitive account of that entire story, just some background, written so that anyone can understand it. Read award-winning novelist Teju Cole's funny and insightful parody of this article, "9 questions about Britain you were too embarrassed to ask
Five wonder materials that could change the world | Science "The history of materials is a history of mistakes," says Mark Miodownik, a materials scientist at University College London, who traces his own fascination with materials to the moment he was stabbed in the back with a razor while ambling to school one day. The remark is spot on. Over the centuries, scientists have been as likely to stumble on the next wonder material during a botched experiment as to create it from scratch on purpose. But the chance discovery of useful materials might not carry on for much longer. The materials here are so new that their ultimate applications are still tentative – or not even being guessed at. Graphene The Friday evening antics that led to the invention of graphene have become the stuff of scientific legend. And all for good reason. "Graphene has huge potential," says Andrea Ferrari, director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. The money has poured in. Spider silk "You can't use spider silk to make a bulletproof vest. Metamaterials Harry Potter. Shrilk
Workwankers Ineffable. — American Dreamers These lights will make you feel brand new. Burning Man, it’s something that could never happen anywhere than American. It’s most powerful expression of the individual and its potential, the quintessence of the American lifestyle. There is a deep humanism, a faith in the human being that we are able to build magnificent things. Be Amazing. When Alicia Keys sings with Jay Z “These lights will make you feel brand new”, that’s exactly how it is. I always thought that an intense expression of individuality would never be livable in society but it’s actually ok. I was born in Morocco, a magnificent country but filled with tons of taboos, coercive rules and society principles that are pretty strict. Oh, I would have never thought staring at more creation, seeing more value in giant mushrooms on fire than the whole Wall Street district.Since my college times, I really had a hard time enjoying beauty for what it is and completely stop to see things in an utilitarian way. La Reina De Los Muertos.
If Your Lawn Is Green, It’s Pretty Likely You Aren’t Yards were the first thing I noticed when we pulled into our new neighborhood two years ago. Mature landscaping with plenty of huge flowering rhododendrons and trees, but most of all, lush green lawns. Every house sported a beautifully kept expanse of grass, and the constant tsst-tsst-tsst of expensively installed sprinkler systems attested to the homeowners’ devotion. Our yard, in comparison, was the only brown one. I once jokingly apologized to a neighbor for having the “hooptiest lawn” on the block, and she waved a hand: “Oh, that yard has always looked like that.” In a strange twist of fate, my husband and I ended up buying the house next door to our rental, and we’ve been making improvements here and there. And watering. You’d think that living in Oregon would mean you’d never have to water the grass, but you definitely do during the summer months if you want a green lawn. Of course, all those green lawns aren’t linked to green living.
{ k j e r s t i s l y k k e } Now Is The Time For All Good Nerds To Come To The Aid Of The Internet The Internet is broken. It is burning. Facebook and Twitter fiddle while it smokes and we, the sapped members of the Internet class, watch the flames and wonder what’s next. Say what you want about the politics of whistleblowing or the tendency of the exhausted sysadmins to finally give up, now is the time to fix this before all we hold dear – the freedom that NSA snooping was ostensibly designed to protect – is gone. Ignore this moment at your peril. How can we start? Encrypt your hard drive. Require transparency and control of your service providers. Support open source. Don’t consent to be identified or use hardware that does. The absence of privacy is tragic and dangerous. One way of beginning to understand privacy is by looking at what happens to people in extreme situations where it is absent. You are all smart people.
50 ways to reuse your garbage Ralph Waldo Emerson once described a weed as, “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Might we not consider garbage in the same way? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, after all. To the non-recycler, an empty bottle is garbage. To the reuse enthusiast, that empty bottle could be a chandelier, a vase, a drinking glass, a candelabra … you get the picture. In a world being consumed by waste, it’s time to think of our trash in a different light (and save some money while we're at it). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Related stories on how to reuse your garbage: