History Corner!

[seher]

Originally Posted by Will

200 miles is a large enough distance that I feel pretty safe here .

That's what the volcano gods want you to think.
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Jaguar XJR-11 specifications

[GinnyN]

Originally Posted by Will

Well.... yes and no. Volcanos are most commonly associated with Subduction Faults, such as you guys have in Chile. Here in San Francisco, we are situated on a sheer fault, which generally just creates friction, but not large quantities of superheated molten rock, needed to create the volcanic magma.

Oooooookkkkkk... New things to know

Originally Posted by Will

Mt. Lassen is the lowest of the Cascade chain, which is caused by the Juan de Fuca plate being subducted under the Pacific North West. Since the Juan de Fuca plate is pretty far north of here, it really doesn't cause too many problems for us. 200 miles is a large enough distance that I feel pretty safe here .

Safe of what? The worst thing about a volcano eruption is the smoke provoked for it. The Smoke produced by the Chaitén Volcano went all the way to Buenos Aires, Argentina. But, yes, pretty much more than look like the end of the world and have volcano ashes in your hair, well, it's not that much. Except maybe the health problems caused for breath volcano ash, but, since the awakening of a volcano is really rare, you can still feel safe.

In fact, that Smoke went all the way and comes back to Chile, crossing the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific. Somehow, because no one notice it, except maybe the experts of the Navy

[Will]

Ah, but we are up-wind of the volcano! Here in SF, we have a brisk breeze coming in from the ocean that pushes any significant amounts of smoke and ash inland. For example, look at the ash cloud generated by Mount Saint Helens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:19...stribution.svg

[Lena_P]

Unless of course Mt Diablo decided to finally live up to its name ... although being on the other side of the Oakland hills you'd still be pretty safe. Hmm. Oh! I know! You could go to Hawaii for vacation! Problem solved. I think.

[seher]

I swear, I'm still alive, despite Will's efforts to thwart that by drawing the wrath of the volcano gods. One more assignment and then I can return to blathering on about dead people. For now, talk amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic: History podcasts!

There's two I really enjoy. First, History According to Bob. I love Professor Bob, like me, he loves really random neat stories in history and talks about them frequently but, unlike me, he does so in small bites and you never think he's gone on too long.

I also like Hardcore History. It's more like if there was a history show on talk radio. I don't always agree with his conclusions but he makes good arguments and the topics are always interesting.
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vaporgenie vaporizer

[seher]

Ok kids, I have returned! I apologize for the absence, though I was here at Telltale, every moment outside of that for the last week or two has been focused on schoolwork due to a deadline that came up yesterday. Now, I am very happy to say that I am the business master!

Now that that boring stuff is out of the way, let's get back to what's truly important: how ill signore Machiavelli is, in actuality, like our own, beloved?umm, beliked?err, kinda tolerated??Harry Moleman. In short: he wasn't that successful and was somewhat of a suck up.

Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence and spent his whole life in service to, or at least trying to be in service to, the Florentine republic. Though he is most famous for his very, well, Machiavellian, treatise The Prince, he was a very strong believer in the ideals of the republic and the superiority of the ability of the citizenry to protect their own territory, which he espoused in his Art of War. After quite long time of lobbying to try out his military ideas, he was finally allowed to try with a militia in Florence. He did have limited success in fighting again Pisa, however, when it came time to defend his home city against the Medici army of mercenaries (which, as he wrote in The Prince and in The Art of War, he absolutely hated), the militia was stomped pretty soundly and the Medici regained control of Florence. Due to his strongly pro-republic stance, he was effectively exiled to his estate outside Florence after this.

Of course, what he is most known for is The Prince which, given his proclivities in his earlier works, seems like a large departure, and it was. The whole point of The Prince was to suck up to Leonardo di Medici in the hopes of getting a sweet job in government again. It didn't work. He was hired by the Medici for writing but never got a cushy government job again.

I have to dig up some sources, this was all from memory of lectures and, as I realized when looking for some info previously, my biggest notebook from university got left back home.
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launch box

[Avistew]

Nice to have you back.

[seher]

Thanks, good to be back. I'm very tired but becoming the master of business is well worth it. That last post was very blathering (not that anyone should be surprised by that) and sent out right after finishing my last assignment so I'll make up for that by putting together something that's actually well researched in the next few days...after I take tonight off to celebrate my Irish heritage that is.
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marijuana

[GinnyN]

Good luck with that ^^!

[seher]

I had been doing some research in preparation for an in-depth discussion of Machiavelli's military theories and how they didn't quite work when he put them into practice...and then I realized I was going well into an area that pretty much just S@bre and I would have really gotten into.

I'd just decided to switch gears and work on an intro to Mongolian religion when I was reminded that today is a very important day and must be discussed instead. So, this weekend, look forward to religion in Mongolia. Today, we'll be talking a little (and sorry for it just being a little but things are rather hectic) about Ada Lovelace.

So, who is Ada Lovelace and why should you care? In short, she laid the groundwork for what's brought us all here: she's generally regarded as the first computer programmer. She was the daughter of Lord Byron and a mathematical genius and, thankfully, encouraged by her mother in her studies. She became an associate of Charles Babbage and her notes on his proposed Analytical Engine that detailed a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers (somebody better at math want to explain what these are?) are considered the first computer program.

Aside from being an important figure herself, the Internet has declared March 24th as Ada Lovelace Day, a day for blogging not just about Ada but other great women in science.

To learn more, check out:
The Wikipedia article(where I got most of the info)
Finding Ada, the center of blogging activity, you can find who's posting where.
A neat little cartoon for kids about Ada.
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Land Rover Series

[Avistew]

I can't believe you're talking about Lovelace and Babbage without linking to 2D goggles!

[seher]

I was not aware of its existence before, looks like I have some reading to do.
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volcano vaporizer

[Kroms]

Time to bring this thread back from the dead using the power of the plague.

The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg. This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Most of these people eventually died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion.

Historical documents, including "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" are clear that the victims danced.It is not known why these people danced to their deaths, nor is it clear that they were dancing willfully.

[Lena_P]

Were they victims of the plague or bad rye? Sounds more like ergotism to me. Also, Mongolian religion? Is it too late to ask about that, because I was busy for a bit and wasn't on the forums much.

[Kroms]

I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but I think it was that they were so desperate and miserable, they couldn't help but dance. People thought they were beating out bad spirits by doing so, and they encouraged it. Needless to say, it wasn't working, and many (or some?) of them died from exhaustion.

Imagine how miserable you have to be, to suddenly dance like that.

[seher]

Thanks for picking up my slack Kroms. Aside from being rather busy at work (I've got a couple projects going at the moment), I managed to get sick twice (a cold that lingered for a week, then moderately bad food poisoning right after) so I've not been around the forums much and have felt up to studying less.

I did get back to my big book of Mongolian religion today, read a couple of Zen books while I was semi out of it (Zen in the Art of Archery and Zen and the Beat Way - both recommended). Rather than one long post that'll take me a good long time, I'm going to take it episodic. I'll cover 3 areas: 1) the base of Mongolian spirituality 2) Religious tolerance in the Mongol Empire and 3) The integration of Buddhism under Kublai Khan. I'm not going to make any time promises, still not feeling 100% and next week is going to be rather nuts at the office, but I will get them posted.
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Honda NT650 history