Below is a roundup of news, politics science, and humor. I hope you enjoy.
But first some personal stuff. Here is a film about the Latvian synagogue that is being restored thanks to my efforts circa 2003-2004:
For more information, here is the diary I recently wrote on my efforts, my reasons, and the success: Never Give Up: Saving my family history and thumbing my nose at Hitler
And here is a book written about life of Latvian Jews at the time my family would have lived there: A Woman's Voice: Sarah Foner, Hebrew Author of the Haskalah by Sarah Foner
Unemployment has kicked in. It helps, but isn't enough. One extra, small source of income is people buying through my Amazon Affiliate store. If you are doing any Amazon shopping, consider doing it through the above link.
This week's book recommendation is Dream in Color: How the Sánchez Sisters Are Making History in Congress, the autobiography of Loretta and Linda Sanchez, children of immigrant parents from Mexico who became Congresswomen from California. Loretta is a Blue Dog Dem and Linda part of the Progressive Caucus. Both are brilliant and tough individuals who took on a white male dominated Congress. An excellent read.
Recent video of Loretta Sanchez in Congress:
Linda Sanchez on the "It Gets Better" project:
Read about them both in Dream in Color.
Other recommended books that are among my top sellers are Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (And Their Parents)
Second, anyone in the NYC area, if you know someone who needs tutoring or other kinds of help, here is my page on the University Tutor website. I am also available for editing college essays, scientific papers, resumes, etc.
Finally, any scientists out there who need someone to edit a paper, I am freelancing through ScienceDocs.com. Soon will be blogging for them as well!
Sorry for the self-advertising. Now onto the news, science and randomness below...
HEALTH, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
Big breakthrough: Whole organ 'grown' in world first
New studies on why allergies are increasing: Scientists sniffing out the Western allergy epidemic. Some time back I wrote about another aspect of the allergy and asthma epidemic: America's Asthma and Allergy Epidemic.
Climate data underestimates human impact because of poor accounting: Global coal 'binge' missed in data...all the more reason to switch YOUR home to green energy. My wife and I have been doing it for over a decade.
More bad climate news: 'Widespread methane leakage' from ocean floor off US coast
POLITICAL NEWS:
Is anyone still claiming we are in post-racial America? St. Paul police violently arrest a black man for sitting on bench, waiting for his children (VIDEO)
Nato: Russian troops invade Ukraine...are the teabaggers in America cheering?
Wonder how the USSR...er, I mean Putin's Russia would feel if Finland intervened in Karelia or Turkey intervened in Chechnya: Canada and Russia in Twitter fight over map
Hah, hah! Poland blocks Russian minister's jet
I was one of the first to report the NYT endorsing Wu...I happened to be posting an article on a variety of NY races that we need to work on to clean up Albany: Breaking...NY Times endorses Tim Wu...We Have Less Than 2 Weeks to Clean Up Albany
CLICK HERE TO HELP CLEAN UP ALBANY! We are running out of time.
Critical and generally ignored: Want to make sure every vote counts? Get involved in these key races for secretary of state
Well, at least the world isn't facing inflation these days...Eurozone inflation rate nears five-year low. That is good in many ways, but usually isn't great on the job market front. Unless Bill Clinton is in charge, then we seemed to have low inflation AND high employment.
This is being called the most effective political ad of the year:
It usually pays to keep fighting: Rush Limbaugh Plagued With Deserting Radio Stations, Sponsors, And Now - Dead Air?
CLICK HERE TO TELL LIMBAUGH SPONSORS WHAT YOU THINK OF HIS HATE SPEECH.
And again...it usually pays to keep fighting: Market Basket sale to former boss ends bitter dispute
If you live or travel through New England, click here to find the locations of Market Basket stores. In the end they did the right thing and deserve our business.
In depth: Protests over Michael Brown's death in Ferguson show America's struggle with inequality
The Republican Party has become so detached from reality it is hard to imagine they will ever come back to facts: Six Studies That Show Everything Republicans Believe is Wrong...It's time for the right wing to stop lying about the minimum wage, taxes, global warming and more.
HISTORY:
Mostly Forgotten History: Spinosa and the Declaration of Independence
On Aug. 25, 325 - Council of Nicaea ends with adoption of the Nicene Creed establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity...forever more baffling Jews and (later) Muslims.
Born on Aug. 25, 1530 - Ivan IV [Ivan the Terrible], 1st tsar of Russia (1533-84)
On Aug. 25, 1802 - Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian freedom fighter, imprisoned in Fort de Joux, Jura, France
Born Aug. 25, 1903 - Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian/US psycho-analyst, author of The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales and Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory
On Aug. 25, 1916 - US Department of Interior forms National Park Service
On Aug. 25, 1920 - Russia suffers a decisive defeat in the battle of Warsaw against Poland. Poland maintains independence until German/Soviet invasion of 1939.
On Aug. 25, 1925 - Labor organization landmark: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organizes (Harlem NY)
On Aug. 25, 1940 - Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia incorporated into Soviet Union
On Aug. 25, 1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a US commonwealth
On Aug. 25, 1989 - Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary.
On Aug. 26, 1071 - Battle of Manzikert, critical battle between Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks that established Asia Minor as the stronghold of the Turks.
On Aug. 26, 1346 - Battle at Crécy-England's longbows, led by King Edward III, decisively defeat French knights. Cannons used for 1st time in battle.
On Aug. 26, 1498 - Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.
Born on Aug. 26, 1743 - Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, father of modern chemistry
On Aug. 26, 1839 - The ship Amistad is captured off Long Island.
Born Aug. 26, 1935 - Geraldine Ferraro, (Rep-D-NY) 1st female Dem VP candidate
On Aug. 27, 1610 - Wladyslaw Vasa (later Polish King Wladyslaw IV Vasa) crowned king of Russia...Most Russians are not amused! This is one of the last major periods of Polish strength in Europe.
Born Aug. 27, 1698 - Baal Shem Tov, Founder of the Chasiddic movement of Judaism.
On Aug. 27, 1789 - French National Assembly issues "Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen"
On Aug. 27, 1883 - Krakatoa erupts with a force of 1,300 megatons and the eruption and ensuing tsunami kill approximately 40,000 people. One of histories greatest disasters. 32 hours after the eruption, seismic waves from the eruption raise the level of the English Channel.
Born on Aug. 27, 1908 - Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President (1963-1969). Among our best and worst Presidents.
On Aug. 27, 1912 - Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes "Tarzan of the Apes"
On Aug. 27, 1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact signed, 60 nations agree to outlaw war. War never happens ever again...
On Aug. 27, 2008 - Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States. Yes we did!
On Aug. 28, 476 - Formal End of the Roman Empire: Roman general Flavius Odoacer ousts emperor Romulus Augustulus and returns imperial regalia of the West to Constantinople.
Born Aug. 28, 1749 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German social philosopher and scientist, author of Faust.
On Aug. 28, 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue.
On Aug. 28, 1864 - The first Geneva Convention, governing rules of warfare, signed by 26 nations.
On Aug. 28, 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream speech" adressing civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
On Aug. 28, 1981 - National Centers for Disease Control announces high incidence of Pneumocystis & Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Early recognition of AIDS as a new illness.
On AUg. 28, 1994 - 1st Japanese gay pride parade
On Aug. 28, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina his the southeastern United States. George W. Bush and John McCain eat cake while Americans drown.
Born on Aug. 29, 1387 - Henry V, king of England (1413-22) and France (1416-19) and victor of the battle of Agincourt.
August 29th was a good date for the Ottoman Empire:
Aug. 29, 1521 - The Ottoman Turks capture Belgrade.
Aug. 29, 1526 - Hungary defeated by Ottoman Turks in the pivotal Battle of Mohács
Aug. 29, 1541 - The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
On Aug. 29, 1758 - New Jersey Legislature forms 1st Indian reservation.
On Aug. 29, 1786 - Shay's Rebellion in Springfield, Mass. Although many of the complaints were valid, the main consequence was the realization that a Tea Party-like government didn't work and we needed a stronger, Federalist government, leading to the Constitution.
On Aug. 29, 1825 - Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil.
On Aug. 29, 1831 - Michael Faraday demonstrates 1st electric transformer
On Aug. 29, 1833 - Britain's Slavery Abolition Act becomes law. This creates new tensions between Britain and the slave-holding nation of America.
On Aug. 29, 1842 - Great Britain & China sign Treaty of Nanking, ends Opium war and guaranteeing the continuation of British drug cartel in China and the continued domination of China by European powers.
On Aug. 29, 1871 - Emperor Meiji begins dismantling of Japanese Medieval system and introduction of modernizing reforms. Aspects of these reforms set up a rigid and unwieldy interaction between civilian and military governments and indirectly set the stage for the lead up to Pearl Harbor.
Born on Aug. 29, 1920 - Charlie "Bird" Parker, jazz saxophonist
On Aug. 29, 1939 - Chaim Weizmann informs England that Jews of the former Ottoman province of Palestine will fight in WW II
On Aug. 29, 1958 - George Harrison joins The Quarrymen (Lennon-McCartney-Best-Sutcliffe). On the same day in 1966 The Beatles play their last public concert.
On Aug. 29, 1975 - A star in the constellation Cygnus goes nova, becoming 4th brightest star in sky. Actually, technically on this day the light from the nova reached earth. The actual event happened 6,360 years before.
This is cool: Watch 1000 Years of European Borders Change In 3 Minutes
And on a related note, this is a great resource even if, occasionally, overly simplistic: 40 maps that explain the Roman Empire
RANDOMNESS:
Quote of the week:
"...the prejudice of race alone blinded the American people for the debt they owed to the desperate courage of 500,000 Haitian Negroes who would not be enslaved.”
--Henry Adams, American Historian of the 18th and 19th centuries, grandson of John Quincy Adams, author of History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
This week's moment of jbou:
Please keep your hands inside the bandwagon at all times.
A real moment of Zen: (From Deoxy Koans)
Eating the Blame
Circumstances arose one day which delayed preparation of the dinner of a Soto Zen master, Fugai, and his followers. In haste the cook went to the garden with his curved knife and cut off the tops of green vegetables, chopped them together, and made soup, unaware that in his haste he had included a part of a snake in the vegetables.
The followers of Fugai thought they had never tasted such great soup. But when the master himself found the snake's head in his bowl, he summoned the cook. "What is this?" he demanded, holding up the head of the snake.
"Oh, thank you, master," replied the cook, taking the morsel and eating it quickly.
From
BBC News: Today's African Proverb:
“Don't expect a dove from a snake's egg”
---Sent by Molla Ejigu, Assosa, Ethiopia
For last week's issue:
Mole's Cool News Roundup 19