Category Archives: History

Subjective and Objective

Posted on April 19, 2013 by

Those who have studied English might call this a “watershed”. As a carpenter and mountaineer I always objected to this term as imprecise because what is really meant is ridge or divide where water flows one way or the other. … Continue reading →

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Something In Us Loves a Witch

Posted on April 14, 2013 by

Something in us loves a witch. We’ve already explored the irrational behavior demonstrated by Prohibition and the Salem Witch Trials. See “Global Warming and Prohibition”. The nature of the human condition is that we are constantly confronted with forces beyond … Continue reading →

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Wine, Volcanoes, and the Dioxides

Posted on March 24, 2013 by

Making wine teaches important lessons about the wee beastie soup we live in, call it the dim sum. It also holds lessons about Carbon and Sulfur. Carbon and Sulfur were instrumental in the evolution of life on this planet, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Biology, History, History of Life, Metaphor, Ocean Acidification | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Here’s the Beef, Or the World Economy Explained by a Billion Cows

Posted on March 9, 2013 by

Grasses coevolved with ungulates (we can call them cows). About 30 million years ago due to declining temperature, humidity, and atmospheric Carbon dioxide a bunch of plants including grasses evolved a more efficient form of photosynthesis called C4. This allowed them … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Climate, Climate Change, Economics, Geography, History, History of Life, Paleoclimate, Salvation from Cows | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Study in Science Magazine Shows Strongest El Ninos in 7000 Years Were During Little Ice Age

Posted on February 3, 2013 by

Kim Cobb and others published January 3 in Science Magazine a paper exploring 18Oxygen in coral cores as old as 7000 years. Living coral was not drilled. While showing some increase in amplitude since 1970, the strongest El Ninos in … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, History, Paleoclimate | Leave a comment

What is it with squares in nature anyway?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by

Actually, perfect squares are extremely rare in nature. Squares are human constructs. We imagine Pythagoras and the Greek philosophers drawing their squares in the sand, dividing the sides equally, connecting the divisions, and counting the resulting smaller squares to develop … Continue reading →

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Spreadsheet of Human History

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

Spreadsheet of human history Spreadsheets are really graphs. This one has time on one axis and space on the other. The space geography is arbitrary but intended to sequence human dispersion from Africa. I have lots of Teaching Company timelines … Continue reading →

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