David Attenborough's BBC Collection goes online.

Fifty of Attenborough's selected favorites are available to watch from the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p0048522
This is a great collection of work by an equally great naturalist.

Herculine/Alexina Barbin & Caster Semenya

"In the midst of the happiness that intoxicated me, I was frightfully tormented. What was I to do, my God, what was I to decide on?"
--Alexina "Herculine" Barbin

Thus wrote the mid-19th century hermaphrodite Alexina Barbin not long before taking her own life. At the time Barbin was born, it was customary for the child to have their sex chosen for them at birth, and to simply be raised as such. By the time Barbin died, the question was in the hands of legal and medical authorities. Barbin was raised as a girl in a convent orphanage and in the convent. When she reached maturity, she chose to go into teaching, a profession which required an initial medical examination. During the routine and invasive examination it was discovered that she had both male and female characteristics. These attributes had apparently been missed in all previous medical exams, but when it was time for her to leave the protection of the convent, the diagnosis changed and with it an entire social apparatus emerged. Ultimately, Alexina, as she referred to herself, was forced to live as a man. After writing her memoir, she committed suicide in a Parisian hovel.

It is certainly difficult not to think of the current controversy over the runner Caster Semenya when reading back over this text, and to consider how little distance there is between the Alexina and Caster in terms of how they are being diagnosed and regulated, at least by some. This BBC "World Have Your Say" is interesting in that regard.

Michel Foucault brought Herculine's story to light with his book Herculine Barbin, which collected Barbin's memoir and associated medical, legal, and literary documents.
He wrote in his introduction:

"Do we truly need a true sex? With a persistence that borders on stubbornness, modern Western societies have answered in the affirmative. They have obstinately brought into play this question of a "true sex in an order of things where one might have imagined that all that counted was the reality of the body and the intensity of its pleasures.

For a long time, however, such a demand was not made, as is proven by the history of the status which medicine and law have granted to hermaphrodites. Indeed it was a very long time before the postulate that a hermaphrodite must have a sex ---a single, a true sex--- was formulated. For centuries, it was quite simply agreed that hermaphrodites had two. Were they terror-inspiring monsters, calling for legal tortures? In fact, things were much more complicated. It is true that there is evidence of a number of executions, both in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. But there is also an abundance of court decisions of a completely different type. In the Middle Ages, the rules of both canon and civil law were very clear on this point: the designation 'hermaphrodite' was given to those in whom the two sexes were juxtaposed, in proportions that might be variable. In these cases, it was the role of the father or the godfather (thus of those who 'named' the child) to determine at the time of baptism which sex was going to be retained. If necessary, one was advised to choose the sex that seemed to have the better of the other, being 'the more vigorous' or 'the warmest.' But later, on the threshold of adulthood, when the time came for them to marry, hermaphrodites were free to decided for themselves if they wished to go on being of the sex which had been assigned to them, or if they preferred the other. The only imperative was that they had then declared until the end of their lives, under pain of being labeled sodomites. Changes of option, not the anatomical mixture of the sexes, were what gave rise to most of the condemnations of hermaphrodites in the records of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Biological theories of sexuality, juridical conceptions of the individual, forms of administrative control in modern nations, led little by little to rejecting the idea of a mixture of the two sexes in a single body, and consequently to limiting the free choice of indeterminate individuals. Henceforth, everybody was to have one and only one sex. Everybody was to have his primary, profound, determined and determining sexual identity; as for the elements of the other sex that might appear, they could not only be accidental, superficial, or even quite simply illusory. From the medical point of view, this meant that when confronted with a hermaphrodite, the doctor was no longer concerned with recognizing the presence of the two sexes, juxtaposed or intermingled, or with knowing which of the two prevailed over the other, but rather with deciphering the true sex that was hidden beneath ambiguous appearance. He had, as it were, to strip the body of its anatomical deceptions and discover the one true sex behind organs that might have put on the forms of the opposite sex.....
....
Here is a document drawn from the strange history of our 'true sex.' It is not unique, but it is rare enough. It is the journal or rather the memoirs that were left by one of those individuals whom medicine and the law in the nineteenth century relentlessly questioned about their genuine sexual identity. ---Michel Foucault, 1980 [1978]. Herculine Barbin: Being the recently discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century French Hermaphrodite. Pantheon Books.

from BBC News: "Makeover for SA gender-row runner"

'Dead' A-Bomb Hits U.S. Town, 1958.

Three years before I was born, an a-bomb happened to fall near my hometown in South Carolina. The pilots did not know that it had fallen until they landed at the nearby airbase and noticed that it was missing. My father took me by there a few times when I was a kid, and then I found this newsreel a few years ago at the Internet Archive (archive.org). One thing I like about the reel is that it is followed by a story about computer-assisted manufacturing, featuring Hughes Aircraft, who may very well have manufactured the bomb mounts in the plane. But not to worry in the computer-assisted factory of the future.
By chance we vacationed on Tybee Island last year, and I ran across this little story about another lost a-bomb somewhere just off the coast there. It seems that the proper authorities have never found this one!
It makes for a good reason to show Dr. Strangelove to my Intro. Cultural Studies students.

"Exhuming Rwanda's Gorillas: Fossey's Legacy"

NPR is currently running this series on its website. Researchers are at work ehuming the remains of the gorillas that were studied by Dian Fossey. Erin Marie Williams records the field dispatches available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106843731

Interpreting Weill and Eisler: Dagmar Krause and Ute Lemper.

Once one of my students approached me and excitedly related how she had just heard Ute Lemper. My student (whose name I will not mention) was so happy to have found this new music that I only encouraged her to listen to more. Actually, what I wanted to tell her was to listen to Dagmar Krause's interpretations instead. It must be said that Ute Lemper's interpretations of Weill are very popular, and that they are just that, popular. They are finely tuned for the ear of the lover of a musical theater that is either without social content, or that has been, as in the case of her interpretations, often stripped of its social aspects.
This might seem too harsh a judgment, and it can be countered by:
1] the songs themselves always carry their social meaning; and
2] that the setting of these songs was in popular musical theater, and so to emphasize this aspect of the songs is more important than their intended content. The last objection is of course akin to those who make comments like "I never listen to the lyrics, I just like the beat." Such a level of interpretation seems legitimate and difficult to rebut precisely because it is so lacking in any worthwhile content.

Krause elevates what might be a mere show-tune to the level of a song. Lemper's emphasis is on the show-tune. Now one might say that these are show-tunes and so Lemper's performance is more "authentic." This is to a certain extent quite true, if one is looking for authenticity. But the authenticity of a time is also its illustrative of its ideological apparatus. And so to be more authentic is just as much to put on the ideological blinders of the period and place, and these affirmations of this period and place were beyond a doubt to be found on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Krause on the other hand brings out the negative, critical aspects of the songs, for Broadway was not the only context for the songs of Weill and Eisler. Some of course come before their engagement with Hollywood and the musical theater. All the songs have a negative, or critical, aspect that only Krause is able to reveal to the listener. The larger context for the songs are of course the era of the World Wars, with all its social and political upheaval. Krause's interpretation places the songs not in the theater, but in the social world.

The differences in Krasue's and Lemper's interpretation carries over into their voices. Krause again places these in a larger context by reminding the listener of her earlier performances with Henry Cow, and The Art Bears bands noted not only for their music, but for their politics as well. That some insist on referring to her voice as "highly original and idiosyncratic" or even "the voice of the angel of the Apocalypse" is due only to the distance these bands were from the conventions of popular music. Knowing these earlier associations, the very fact of her interpreting them moves the songs of Weill and Eisler away from the theater and back into the stream of music associated with Krause's earlier solo and group recordings. In doing so, Krause has changed what it means to authentically interpret these songs.

Below are to clips that illustrate the point.
For Ute Lemper you have to follow the link as it cannot be embedded.

Ute Lemper ~ Surabaya Johnny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxz81DtK_9k

Dagmar Krause ~ Surabaya Johnny: Unfortunately the only one from the records that I could find.


See Krause's
Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht/Weill and Eisler (1986, LP, Hannibal Records)
Angebot und Nachfrage (1986, LP, Hannibal Records)
Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler (1988, LP, Island Records)
Panzerschlacht: Die Lieder von Hanns Eisler (1988, LP, Island Records)
Voiceprint Radio Sessions (1993, CD, Voiceprint Records)

These is another performance of Lemper that shows the show-tune side of a Weill song: Ute Lemper "The Saga of Jenny" at the Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/the_saga_of_jenny

BRBIII v. I.C. Wiley, c. 1977

White: BRBIII
Black: I.C. (Issac Cyrus) Wiley
c.1977
Opening: ELO A01 - Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack

1.P-QN3 N-KB3 2.B-N2 P-Q4 3.P-K3 B-B4 4.N-KB3 N/1-Q2 5.B-N5 P-K3 6.0-0 B-Q3 7.R-K1 0-0 8.P-KR3 P-QR3 9.B-K2 N-K5 10.P-Q3 N-N4


11.NxN QxN 12.B-N4 BxB 13.QxB QxQ 14.PxQ N-K4 15.P-N5 P-QB4 16.N-Q2 P-N4 17.R/R-Q1 N-B3 18.P-R3 R/R-N1 19.P-N3 R/B-Q1 20.K-N2 P-QR4


21.R-QN1 B-B2 22.R-KR1 R-N2 23.P-K4 N-Q5 24.BxN PxB 25.R/R-K1 PxP 26.RxP R-Q4 27.N-B3 B-N3 28.P-R4 R-B2 29.R-N2 P-N5 30.R-K5 R/2-Q2


31.R-N1 B-B2 32.RxR RxR 33.K-R3 K-R1 34.R-K1 K-N1 35.R-K4 B-N3 36.R-K5 RxR 37.NxR P-B3 38.PxP PxP 39.N-B4 B-B2 40.K-R4 K-B2


41.K-N4 K-N3 42.P-B4 P-R4+ 43.K-R4 K-R3 44.N-Q2 B-Q1 45.N-B3 B-N3 46.K-R3 K-R2 47.K-R4 K-R3 48.K-R3 K-R2

Draw Agreed ½-½

Louis Agassiz and the Timetree of Life

There is a resemblance between the representation of Natural History by Louis Agassiz and the Timetree of Life. Of course, there is a vast gulf that separates them. Agassiz comes at the end of the era of dominance of Natural History and of polygenism, the scientific theory that the "races" constitute separate species. Agassiz was a proponent of polygenism and one of the most powerful critics of Darwin. It is difficult to see, but at the apex of his representation is a crown that rests atop the entry for Man. in the center are the four elements and an indistinguishable mass (God). In the Timetree, the Earth is at the center of the table and humans are just one small line in a vast natural world. One can actually see the decentering of humans accomplished by Darwin's work.


The Timetree of Life.
Stephen Jay Gould had a nice little "unpopular" essay on this topic "Cones and Ladders: Constraining Evolution by Canonical Icons." Gould mentions too the enduring influence of Ernst Haeckel's Tree of Life ---which is topped by "Menschen"--- on the common understanding of nature. Gould also held the Louis Agassiz chair at Harvard. While writing his "Mismeasure of Man," Gould found in the Agassiz archive the full text of a letter from Agassiz to his mother in which he described is first encounter with Negros. In 1846 Agassiz had arrived in the United States a noted Naturalist and needing to avoid some debts back in Europe. He immediately traveled to Philadelphia to meet Dr. Samuel G. Morton. Morton was the leading scientific proponent of polygenism and had amassed one of the largest crania collections in the world. Gould spent a great deal of time replicating Morton's experiments measuring their cranial capacity.
This is the text of Agassiz's letter to his mother as first published by Gould:

It was in Philadelphia that I first found myself in prolonged contact with Negroes; all the domestics in my hotel were men of color. I can scarcely express to you the painful impression that I received, especially since the feeling that they inspired in me is contrary to all our ideas about the confraternity of the human type [genre] and the unique origin of our species. But truth before all. Nevertheless, I experienced pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, and their lot inspired compassion in me in thinking that they are really men. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to reprocess the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, their large curved nails, and especially the livid color of the palm of their hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race---to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes in certain countries! God preserve us from such contact!

It was during this time that Agassiz met Samuel Morton, whom Agassiz recognized immediately as a scholar who was “after Georges Cuvier... the only zoologist who had any influence on his mind and scientific opinions.”



Haeckel's Tree of Life

Electron microscope view of Ant (with zoom)

From the New Scientist "Short Sharp Science" blog
If you like ants, this will give hours of fun viewing. It might even be good for doing a bit of invertebrate zoology as well. I have sadly have not had an ant "farm" in many years. I once had one that was made from a tall window, about 5 feet tall, three inches wide, and 1 1/2 feet across. It was great but the thought that several thousands ants were living in my room really annoyed my house-mates at the time. Of course, it was great and I might build a new one sometime in the future.

The Hanging of Amy Spain

While reading the history of my home town, Darlington, South Carolina, I came upon a section of letters regarding the hanging of Amy Spain, a 17 year old slave, in March of 1865. It is a truly remarkable story about which I want to compile as much documentation as possible, perhaps for a small volume along the lines of Herculine Barbin. Of course, the difference being that Amy Spain never got to speak or write her side of the story. All that remains are the accounts of others. The hanging was important enough to appear in Harpers Weekly of Sept.30, 1865, parts of the account then being disputed in the pages of Darlington's New Era newspaper. Amy Spain was enslaved by a prominent local lawyer and hero of the invasion of Mexico, Major A.C. Spain, who acted as her counsel at her trial before a rebel military commission. Amy Spain was entrusted with the care of the Major's two daughters, and he wrote that: "Amy's temper was hot, hasty, and ungovernable, yet to me, as her master, she was always dutiful up to the unfortunate time when she exhibited traits of character, adopted a line of conduct, used expressions, and committed acts which contributed to the violent termination of her existence at the early age of seventeen." 

A.C. Spain had been called up in the final days of the war and, he said, left the care of his plantation in the hands of his "aged" father. Upon the appearance in town of a scouting party of Sherman's forces (I have almost narrowed down and after a bit more research think that I can identify which Union and Sesech units were in the area at the time), Amy Spain and many others thought that liberation had come. Unfortunately, from what I have read in the Union records, the main body of Federal troops remained outside the town because of flooded river crossings and so only dispatched a small detail to scout and retrieve supplies. The troops then returned and continued on into Florence (the site of a large prisoner of war camp which they were no doubt anxious to liberate) and to pursue retreating forces. Amy Spain had in the mean time declare that she was free and promptly took possession of many of the household goods of the Major, taking them to her own home and declaring that the fruits of slavery now belonged to the freed slaves. Unknown to her, Confederate troops had returned to the town and, to help establish "order," arrested her for her "crime." The Harper's writer describes what happened next, though this is disputed by some.

Hanging of Amy Spain
Harper's Weekly
September 30, 1865, page 613
One of the martyrs of the cause which gave freedom to her race was that of a colored woman named Amy Spain, who was a resident of the town of Darlington, situated in a rich cotton-growing district of South Carolina. At the time a portion of the Union army occupied the town of Darlington she expressed her satisfaction by clasping her hands and exclaiming, "Bless the Lord the Yankees have come!" She could not restrain her emotions. The long night of darkness which had bound her in slavery was about to break away. It was impossible to repress the exuberance of her feelings; and although powerless to aid the advancing deliverers of her caste, or to injure her oppressors, the simple expression of satisfaction at the event sealed her doom. Amy Spain died in the cause of freedom. A section of Sherman's cavalry occupied the town, and without doing any damage passed through. Not an insult nor an unkind word was said to any of the women of that town. The men had, with guilty consciences, fled; but on their return, with their traditional chivalry, they seized upon poor Army, and ignominiously hung her to a sycamore-tree standing in front of the court-house, underneath which stood the block from which was monthly exhibited the slave chattels that were struck down by the auctioneer's hammer to the highest bidder.

Amy Spain heroically heard her sentence, and from her prison bars declared she was prepared to die. She defied her persecutors; and as she ascended the scaffold declared she was going to a place where she would receive a crown of glory. She was rudely interrupted by an oath from one of her executioners. To the eternal disgrace of Darlington her execution was acquiesced in and witnessed by most of the citizens of the town. Amy was launched into eternity, and the "chivalric Southern gentlemen" of Darlington had fully established their bravery by making war upon a defenseless African woman. She sleeps quietly, with others of her race, near the beautiful village. No memorial marks her grave, but after-ages will remember this martyr of liberty. Her persecutors will pass away and be forgotten, but Amy Spain's name is now hallowed among the Africans, who, emancipated and free, dare, with the starry folds of the flag of the free floating over them, speak her name with holy reverence.

A sort of vindication/sermon letter-to the editor like the following is typical of those offering an apology for the execution of Spain: 

W. A. Gamewell. October 10, 1865.  For The New Era.   https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/sn84026895/1865-10-17/ed-1/seq-3/    https://historicnewspapers.sc.edu/lccn/sn84026895/

 
Note that the following story in the issue of the New Era details the Andersonville-like horrors at the POW camp known as the "Stockade" (officially the "Confederate States Military Prison at Florence") just a few miles away in Florence: "2,802 Union soldiers died there and most were buried in unmarked trenches in what would become the Florence National Cemetery after the war." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Stockade

One can draw a line connecting the general system of enslavement to the treatment of POWs in Florence to the system of justice that condemned and executed Amy Spain and to the justifications, forgetting, and rewriting of the stories of all of those events by people such as Rev. Gamewell. The historical truth is, of course, impossible to establish, but I think the story should be preserved. 

According to all accounts, Amy Spain was executed and then buried wearing the clothes of Spain's daughters.

 

See also:  Stumbled upon: An incident from Reconstruction Era South Carolina

[Updated May 2021]

A Small Game of Chess

I do not usually win against my many chess programs. That being said, I also do not believe that Chess programs "think". The problem with the computer is that, unlike a human, it can access every game ever played. It is like a human having access to every book ever written and every game ever played, and you have only what you can remember and tactics and strategies that you have learned. However, I play almost every day. The best program I have found is GnuChess and the engine associated with it called Phalanx. The following game was played against a weaker, but still passable, program.

Chess,MS - BRBIII [B50]
April 25, 2009

1.P-K4 P-QB4 2.N-KB3 P-Q3 3.P-QN4 PxP 4.P-Q4 N-KB3 5.B-Q3 P-K3 6.B-KN5 Q-R4 7.BxN PxB 8.N/1-Q2 P-N4 9.P-Q5 N-R3 10.N-N3 Q-R5

11.N/B-Q4 N-B2 12.Q-B3 B-K2 13.N-Q2 B-Q2 14.N/2-N3 R-QN1 15.0-0 P-KR4 16.R/B-K1 Q-R3 17.R-K3 Q-B1 18.K-B1 P-K4 19.N-KB5 BxN 20.PxB Q-R3

21.B-K4 K-Q2 22.Q-R3 P-R5 23.K-K2 Q-N3 24.R-Q1 R/N-N1 25.R-QB1 K-Q1 26.R-Q1 N-R3 27.R-KB1 B-B1 28.K-K1 B-R3 29.R-Q3 B-B5 30.B-B3 N-B4

31.R-Q1 N-R5 32.B-K2 N-B6 33.R-Q3 NxRP 34.R-R1 P-R4 35.R-B1 P-R5 36.N-Q2 N-B6 37.Q-B3 P-QR6 38.N-N3 P-R7 39.N-R1 R-N4 40.P-N3 PxP

41.RPxP B-B8 42.RxN PxR 43.QxP P-N5 44.Q-B4 Q-B4 45.QxQ PxQ 46.B-Q3 R/4-R4 47.K-K2 R-R8 48.RxR RxR 49.B-B4 B-N7 50.BxP BxN

51.P-N4 R-R7 52.P-Q6 K-K1 53.B-N3 B-Q5 54.B-R4+ K-Q1 55.K-Q3 R-N7 56.P-KB3 R-B7 57.K-K4 R-K7+ 58.K-Q5 R-K6 59.K-B6 RxP 60.K-Q5 R-B5 61.B-N3 RxNP 62.K-B6 P-K5 63.B-Q5 P-K6 0-1

Darwin's Reach A Celebration of Darwin's Legacy Across Academic Disciplines Thursday, Friday and Saturday March 12, 13 and 14, 2009

I will be doing a talk at this conference on the 14th. It should be good --- the conference, of course, not my talk.
It is a bit ironic that my kids confirmed to me that Darwin's names has never been mentioned in school science class so far, and this in New York City's PS/IS187. Anyway, here is the blurb and link to the conference program. --- BRBIII

---------------------------

The Hofstra University Library, Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Hofstra Cultural Center present a conference:
Darwin's Reach
A Celebration of Darwin's Legacy Across Academic Disciplines

Darwin’s Reach examines the impact of Darwin and Darwinian evolution on science and society in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin and the sesquicentennial of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859).

The central theme of this academic conference is an exploration of how Darwin’s ideas have revolutionized our understanding of both the living world and human nature.

Keynote speakers include:

Frans de Waal, Ph.D., Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University; author of Chimpanzee Politics and Our Inner Ape; preeminent researcher on primate social behavior

Niles Eldredge, Ph.D., Curator of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History; curator of the Darwin exhibition; author of Charles Darwin - Discovering the Tree of Life and numerous other books on the subject of evolution

Judge John E. Jones III, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, who ruled against the Dover (Pennsylvania) area school board’s attempt to introduce teaching on "intelligent design" into school science classes

Jay Labov, Ph.D., senior advisor for education and communications at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

William F. McComas, Ph.D., Parks Family Professor of Science Education, University of Arkansas; 2007 recipient of the Evolution Education Award sponsored by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS)

Online registration is available for this conference.
Conference Coordinator:
Carol D. Mallison
Hofstra Cultural Center
E-mail: Carol.Mallison@hofstra.edu

One group of Chimps found to modify tool.

In another of what is becoming an increasing number of specific studies, chimps in one group of chimps in the Congo have learned to modify their sticks to greatly increase the amount of food (termites in this case) that they are able to collect. This recent study appears in Biology Letters.

The lead researcher Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "They have invented a way to improve their termite-fishing technique."

Dr Sanz told the BBC: "We found that in the Goualougo Triangle in the Republic of Congo, the chimpanzees were modifying their termite-fishing tools with a special brush tip."

To make their rods, the chimps first picked some stems from the Marantaceae plant and plucked off the leaves.

"They then pulled the herb stems through their teeth, which were partially closed, to make the brush and they also attended to the brush by sometimes pulling apart the fibres to make them better at gathering the termites," Dr Sanz added.

Further research revealed that a stem with a frayed tip collected 10 times more termites than a pointed probe.

Dr Sanz said: "The chimps seem to understand the function of the tool and its importance in gathering termites."

So far, the team have only found this behaviour in chimps in the Goualougo Triangle.

The apparent absence of this in populations in eastern and western Africa suggests that it is not an innate skill found in all chimpanzees.

Instead it seems that the Goualougo primates are learning the crafting techniques from other chimps.

Chimps, Humans, and Social Life

One year, the final essay question for my course "History of Science and the Origins of Race" was one inspired by my simultaneous reading about the Hobbit (Homo floresiensis) find and Karel Capek's War with the Newts. The question was essentially this: Since it seems that modern humans and Homo floresiensis coexisted, imagine if we were to discover some populations of Homo floresiensis and discuss some of the social, scientific, and political implications of such a discovery. Do we grant them human rights, or do we enslave them, experiment on them, or perhaps do we keep them in "reserves" or sanctuaries? Of course, areas reserved for them as sanctuaries from us.
In Capek's 1936 book, intelligent newts are discovered on an island. First we trade with them, then we enslave them, and of course they revolt against us and chase us from the seas. It is great satire and quite funny as well as raising serious questions.

The responses to my essay question were really quite good. It seemed to encourage the students to think about what it means to "human" and the separation between species. Because a portion of the course was given over to the discussion of the classification of human variety, they were by then familiar with the Polygenic theory of human origins, which held that the different types of humans, organized by their "racial" characteristics, had originated in five different places on the globe and at five different times. Africans, being the most recently created, were therefore the most socially and physically primitive. It was the theory that first established the importance of American natural historians and the theory that Darwin was arguing against in the Origin of Species (notice the singular "Origin" of the title). In the Descent of Man, Darwin actually states that if his work has done anything, he hopes it is that the Polygenic theory would now die an silent and unnoticed death. A feat his work accomplished.

So when I read the story today in the New York Times ---Pet Chimp Is Killed After Mauling Woman--- about the events in Connecticut, I could not help but be reminded. What if "Travis" the chimp had survived? How would it have been treated? Should it have been put down as a wild animal? But it had lived all its life as a human. The story in the Times and the one on the BBC World Service refer to his many human-like behaviors, the unexpected attack from a chimp that had never displayed any aggression, his appearances in commercials, the use by his human of xanex to attempt to calm him, his being treated for lyme disease, that Travis dressed himself, and that Travis fled the scene and returned to his bed to die of his wounds.
There is no doubt that it is a terrible story all around and the woman who was attacked is in critical condition, but it does raise many issues beyond whether primates should be kept as pets.

I was also reminded of these studies and observations that have emerged over the past few years:

The first, Ancient Chimps 'used stone tools' notes that while "Chimpanzees were first observed using stone tools in the 19th century. Julio Mercader and colleagues found stone tools at the Noulo site in Ivory Coast" that are 4,300 years old.
The second, gorillas are observed using tools such as a stick to help them judge the depth of a stream while they are making their crossing. Wild Gorillas Seen to Use Tools One of the gorillas is pictured here.

The third, and one that reminded me of the events in Connecticut, when a group of construction workers entered the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone they were attacked by a group of chimps led by their male "Bruno." One worker was killed and the others were badly injured. More than twenty chimps along with Bruno escaped, but were tracked down and returned to the sanctuary. The WorldService story has a picture of Bruno snacking on some fruit. Police hunt Leone 'killer chimps'

And finally this one, which is to me a bit more chilling, though I am not sure why I find it so. Perhaps because it is one thing to use a tool and another to use a weapon..... well, perhaps. Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears' Anyway, females seem to be taking the lead in developing the use of spears. This is a picture of one of the spears.


The news stories contain the links to the actual journal articles.
Recently, Spain has extended some basic human rights to primates and the EU is set to follow the example: When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans

If you like, go to the Great Ape Project page and sign on to the Declaration on Great Apes

Two New Sources: history of the disciplines

Two new sources that I have come across recently. One, The Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine may be on hiatus, but some of the articles are very interesting in terms of both Natural History and the Sciences of Life, with articles such as "Balneology: A Concept of Public Health –Bath Houses in Arabian Life" Vol.5 , No.9 - April 2006. Arish M.K. Serwani, Mashkoor Ahmed, et al.

The other is an archive of French books and materials on phrenology and degeneracy.
Cite - Scientifica: Bibliothèque Histoire des sciences has a great collection on both subjects, as well as 19th century advice on infant and child behavior.

Who Knew? "Not too much, and not none at all."

Given my new found hobby of reading cancer literature and contemplating the nature of the thymus, I stumbled upon this piece of knowledge that was just too good to pass up. It is from WebMD. So it is bad for you when you are young but good for you when you are old. I am sure that this will be duly explained by evolutionary psychologists (as it is a field that is usually not humble about advancing explanations). But until then, one might ask about the reliability of the responses to the question "So how often do you masturbate?"

Masturbation Frequency Linked to Prostate Risk in 20s, Protection in 50s
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Jan. 27, 2009 -- Frequent masturbation in young men is linked to higher risk of early prostate cancer, but it lowers prostate cancer risk for men in their 50s, a study shows.
"Frequent masturbation during men's 20s and 30s increased their risk of prostate cancer," Dimitropoulou tells WebMD. "But men in their 50s who masturbated frequently had decreased risk."
Of course, masturbation frequency is relative.
For men in their 20s, "frequent masturbation" was two to seven times per week. Compared to same-age men who reported masturbating less than once per month, 20-something frequent masturbators had a 79% higher risk of prostate cancer by age 60.
For men in their 50s, "frequent masturbation" was one or more times per week. Compared to same-age men who reported never masturbating, 50-something frequent masturbators had a 70% lower risk of prostate cancer.
What's going on? The study wasn't designed to answer that question. But Dimitropoulou and colleagues have some theories. .........
Meanwhile, Dimitropoulou, now at England's University of Cambridge, advises moderation for both younger and older men.
"It is kind of logical that a moderate level of masturbatory activity has to be maintained," she says. "Not too much, and not none at all."


The graphics are from From Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols, 1920. Gutenberg

NPR on Television, Prisons, & the Digital TV Conversion

NPR did this story back in December that was noteworthy for the discussion of the use of TV to control prisoners. Prisoners have committees in one prison that decides the schedules of shows each week. A soap opera is one of the few programs that every prisoner wants to see. Marcuse would have to smile.

Prisons Excluded From DTV Coupon Programs
by Catherine Welch
All Things Considered, December 30, 2008
"Many cash-strapped prisons rely on analog television sets to keep prisoners occupied."

Humans driving rapid change in hunted/harvested species

In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month it was reported that a review of studies of species used by humans for food showed rapid changes in these species size and growth rates. The study shows:
"that average phenotypic changes in 40 human-harvested systems are much more rapid than changes reported in studies examining not only natural (n = 20 systems) but also other human-driven (n = 25 systems) perturbations in the wild, outpacing them by >300% and 50%, respectively. Accordingly, harvested organisms show some of the most abrupt trait changes ever observed in wild populations, providing a new appreciation for how fast phenotypes are capable of changing. These changes, which include average declines of almost 20% in size-related traits and shifts in life history traits of nearly 25%, are most rapid in commercially exploited systems and, thus, have profound conservation and economic implications."

Human predators outpace other agents of trait change in the wild
by Chris T. Darimont, Stephanie M. Carlsonc, Michael T. Kinnisond, Paul C. Paquete, Thomas E. Reimchena and Christopher C. Wilmers.

One of the best science essays I read last year was this one by Times Blogger Olivia Judson on the possibility of clouds being an unrecognized and unexplored ecological niche. The Wild Side, New York Times An excerpt: "Clouds. It’s been known for ages that microbes — bacteria, algae, fungi, and other tiny organisms — can be found in clouds. This isn’t surprising. Microbes often get airborne. They can be lofted by the wind from the leaves of a plant; or thrown into the air when a bubble of water bursts, and then lofted by the wind. They get high. They’ve been captured in the mesosphere — that’s the layer of atmosphere above the stratosphere — as much as 70 kilometers (more than 40 miles) above the Earth’s surface. And microbes regularly travel long distances by wind. Indeed, in 1832, Charles Darwin, at sea on the “HMS Beagle,” noticed that dust had landed on the ship; and from the position of the wind and the ship, concluded that it must have come more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the coast of Africa. He collected it, and sent it off for analysis; it turned out to contain numerous species of African freshwater algae. Similarly, clouds have been suggested to be a way that microbes get around the planet — a sort of bus system for bacteria. But the paper in “Geophysical Research Letters” went further. It claimed not just that microbes are traveling via cloud, but that some of them are actually living there — growing, metabolizing, reproducing — until plummeting back to earth when the cloud rains."

Melvyn Bragg In Our Time series: Darwin January 2009

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, Melvyn Bragg presents a series about Darwin's life and work.
Darwin: In Our Time site and schedule of programs.

DNA pioneer's own genes raise questions about the meaning of race

Commentary from By Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.
msnbc.com contributor http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22248094/
updated 8:36 a.m. ET, Fri., Dec. 14, 2007
"An Iceland-based genomics company, deCODE genetics, conducted an analysis of Watson's DNA, which Watson had allowed to be placed on the Internet, and found that 16 percent of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor.....
Indeed, the racial outing of Watson was quite a surprise — most likely to the 79-year-old Nobel-prize winner. This past October he was forced to cancel a tour promoting his new book in England after opining in a British newspaper that he felt “inherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.” Jim’s fretting left him without a job at home — he retired from his job as chancellor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York — and no longer especially welcome on the speaking circuit anywhere serious. Finding out one has black genes seems especially inconvenient for somebody proclaiming blacks to be genetically inferior."