Visualizing the Decline of Empires

This visualization is based on the research for Pedro M Cruz's master thesis. He's interested in using scientific and statistical number-crunching and then displaying the data in visual ways that straddle the very thin line between art and science.

In this case, the data behind the visualization is the evolution of the four leading maritime empires of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French navies. Most of the historic data regarding dates of historic events is from Wikipedia; this is thus, more a proof of concept than a demonstration of scholarly data utilization.

In Flander's Fields

Tomorrow is Veteran's

Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in much of the former British Empire. When I was a child people wore little red paper poppies in remembrance of the soldiers who served in World War I, especially, as well as later wars. I very much associate this day, and of course the custom of wearing poppies, with the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian ArmyLieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Dr. McCrae left his position at McGill university to serve as a physician on the scene of some of the bloodiest battles in World War I, in Flanders, in southwest Belgium. McCrae served as a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade. He was dressing the wounded by the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres when the poem came to him, and he scribbled it down in a notebook.

On the previous day, McCrae had served as Chaplain at the grave site of a former student and friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of Ottawa killed by a shell burst on May 2, 1915. The death was very much still on McCrae's mind as he sat on the back of a parked ambulance in the field dressing area, surrounded by wounded and looking out towards a field peppered with graves, and the bright blooms of poppies, stirred into growth as the spring soil was turned over by grave diggers.

McCrae was not pleased with the poem, and cast it away, but the poem was rescued by fellow officer Francis Alexander Scrimger. Scrimger sent the poem to English newspapers, who published it. The popular humor and political commentary magazine Punch published the poem more formally on the 8th of December, 1915.

It rapidly became associated with Veterans' and Remembrance Day, and that led to the association with poppies for remembering the service of veterans.

You will often seen only the first two stanzas of the poem quoted, since some feel the final stanza is an exhortation to war; I would argue, instead, that it is a reminder that those soldiers who died, and lie beneath green mounds covered with red poppies, died for a reason and a cause, and that they did not die for small, casual things, but for the sake of those they left at home.

McCrae died of pneumonia in 1918, an infliction that was in part associated with his military service.

20 years since the Wall came down

Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the end of a split Germany. So break out your Scorpions and Hasselhoff CDs because it’s time for the Winds of Change to blow through.

I would like to share my story about the Berlin Wall: At the young age of about 7 or 8 I had the unique experience of passing through the wall. My father is a scientists and he was speaking to a group of East German scientists. Just 10 years before my brother had skateboarded on the West German side of the wall. He was among the first to ride a board in Europe. Although my memories are foggy, there are some details I remember clearly. The architecture was form concrete. The doors were big and made of riveted steel. At every door were armed guards, machine guns. Behind a tall desk sat an East German officer. We had trouble getting access because my mother had a Mexican passport and the East Germans had never seen one before. I don’t know exactly what the delay was but we were held up for quite some time as they tried to validate the Mexican passport. All the doors were heavy and clanged loudly when they were opened. We were finally admitted. I don’t remember much else about the trip aside from watching my father speak and the odd habit the East Germans had of pounding their fists on the table instead of clapping to show their appreciation for my father’s talk. I also remember looking across a river or aquaduct at a guard in a tower across the wall and my dad trying to explain to me why that man would shoot people trying to cross the Wall. Those were good days when the world seemed to be on the upswing, morality was evident. Today of course, our nation has been undermined by bankers, politicians and Wall Street robbers. 

Souling

Soul, soul, a soul cake!
I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Him what made us all!
Soul cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, anything good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, one for Paul, and three for Him who made us all.

This song is a traditional lyric performed by "mummers," going house to house on and singing in hopes that the mistress of the house would reward them with a soul cake, a small cake usually made with a mixture of oats and flours, and seasoned with spices and dried fruits, in exchange for the singer's prayers for the dead. The idea is that the prayers will assist the departed souls in Purgatory to move on to Heaven. The cakes, and the custom, date back to the Middle Ages in England, and the practice of "souling" is often pointed to as an ancestor of modern day Halloween trick or treat. "Souling" was performed on the Feast of All Souls, Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, or in Latin commemoratio omnium fidelium Defunctorum.

There are genuine medieval recipes for soul cakes but they're generally not very tasty. They tend to be a bit too heavy with respect to spices, for modern taste. Later recipes are much more like a modern somewhat spicy scone with dried fruit. This page has a modernized version of a recipe from the English recipe compilation referred to as Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book. The original recipe from 1604 is as follows:

Take flower & sugar & nutmeg & cloves & mace & sweet butter & sack & a little ale barme, beat your spice, & put in your butter & your sack, cold, then work it well all together, & make it in little cakes, & so bake them, if you will you may put in some saffron into them and fruit.

There's a modern version of the recipe here, as featured on The Food Network.

And here's Sting, from the Today Show, singing the song, with the traditional melody, and some lovely but not quite so ancient additional lyrics.

German-American History Month

German heritage runs deep in my family. My husband’s ancestry is largely German, and my great-grandparents from my father’s side are from Germany. Both my husband and I have German surnames as well. You’d think that with this much history, our daughter would be more well versed in her heritage; but the truth is that the only thing I’ve mentioned to her on the subject is, “Stop walking like that—people frown on Germans who goosestep!”

Seriously, though, she’s only three, so it’s not like she needs a complete history lesson; but to be honest, we really don’t know that much about our heritage. Neither of us speak German, we’ve never been to Germany, and when we both wrinkle our noses at sauerkraut my dad is always shocked.

So I’m thinking that we need to learn more—if not because we’re interested (we are), then so we can teach our little girl about where she came from, especially if she asks. I certainly don’t want to have a “duh” expression on my face as I tempt to explain things I know not much about.

So here are a few things we’re doing for German-American History Month. Feel free to do some of them with your own family, or add your own to share with others.

  • Visit a German town. We live near quite a few of them; my father is from one, and his grandparents are buried there. My husband’s great-great grandfather (okay, probably several other “greats” but we don’t know how many) founded another.
  • Make or eat a German meal. German cake is actually my favorite and we’re making that for our daughter’s birthday this month, but we’ll also either try a dish in the town we visit or attempt to create our own. I’m really no fan of bratwurst (though my husband is), but I’m willing to try some German noodles. (Actually, after looking at these foods, it seems that my mother made quite a few German dishes while we were growing up…)
  • Learn a few German words and phrases. I actually bought a German dictionary and language program on cassette tape (cassette tape!) a few years ago but I can’t seem to find it. I think this time around we’ll go to the library and see what we can find.
  • Visit the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis. It’s been on my Living To Do List since I was a teenager, and while my great-grandparents left before World War II really broke out, I still think it’s an important thing to learn about.

Only Extant Film of Anne Frank

The footages was shot July 22 1941.

There are two brief glimpses of Anne Frank leaning out of the window of her childhood home in Amsterdam as the couple from the house next door gets married. The bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family also lived on the second floor, but at number 37. The footage was provided by the Anne Frank House, with the help of the bride and groom in the footage. Anne Frank is of course primarily known for the diary she kept as a young girl while she and her family were in hiding. She died in the Bergin Belsen concentration camp. The newly released video is part of the materials from the new Anne Frank YouTube channel; there's an interview with her father Otto as well.

NASA: Maya off'd themselves

New research from NASA reveals that the Maya most likely were responsible for their own downfall, according to Archeologist Tom Sever. When times got tough on one of the more successful cultures on Earth, they turned to cutting the forest down for fuel and building. This action caused environmental fluctuations. Their decline also coincided with a massive drought. Its possible the Slash and Burn technique the Maya used caused the drought thus exacerbating the environmental problems. According to Sever, land needs at least 15 years to recuperate from just three years of farming. This was a regeneration rate the Maya could not allow as their growing societies plummetted into famine and revolt. The population average in Maya cities was 200 per square mile, equivalent to modern Los Angeles.

"The cities tried to keep an 18-month supply of water in their reservoirs," says Sever. "For example, in Tikal there was a system of reservoirs that held millions of gallons of water. Without sufficient rain, the reservoirs ran dry." Sever said.

Mass graves of suspected elites suggest political revolt against a top-heavy and ineffective royal system. At the time of the decline, the Maya had cleared huge swaths of land entirely of trees. It took 20 trees to create enough heat for just one square meter of limestone plaster for their temples and buildings. The destruction of trees for construction and to clear space for corn, was the cause of their downfall.

NASA's satelites were able to identify hundreds of previously unknown Maya sites that helped paint a complete picture of the expansive culture.

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