All posts by V.O.C.

First Same Sex Marriage in the U.S.?

April 24, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

1806. Or if not the first, one of the first. People didn’t generally talk about what they thought two spinsters, or two bachelors, who lived together did in the bedroom so there isn’t much in the historical records about it. This is a story of an exception to that, a marriage that was acknowledged by their neighbors and families.

While it was obviously a couple of hundred years before same sex marriage started becoming legal in some states, Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant met, fell in love, and spent the rest of their lives together.

The lived and worked together as tailors in Weybridge, VT. They shared a bed, combined their incomes, tithed to the church, led charitable organizations, and lived as any other married couple. They had enough business that they could take in other young women as apprentices for periods of time and teach them how to make men’s clothing.

While we might be surprised at how accepting the town was, for that time, it was also not that simple. The women had to work at being valuable members of the community. Along with their charitable activities, they were active members of their church (Sylvia also taught Sunday school), and helped their nieces and nephews pay for their educations.

They are buried together in Weybridge Hill Cemetery.

If you’re interested in reading more about Charity and Sylvia, there’s a book about them, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America by Rachael Hope Cleves.

Food & Drink, Nature, Technology

First Genetically Modified Corn?

April 20, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

All corn, or maize, is genetically modified. It began 6,000 to 10,000 years ago as a wild grass called teosinte. It was nothing like the tasty ears of corn we enjoy now, the seeds were hard and small with only about 5 to 12 seeds.

It looks more like something you would take a string trimmer to than it does an important food crop, doesn’t it?

Early Mesoamericans (people who lived in what is now Mexico and Central America, before Europeans came) bred the plants over thousands of years to get plants that were closer to what we think of as corn.

Modern corn needs people as much as people need it. If an apple falls off an apple tree, the fruit will rot and the seeds will have a chance of sprouting. If a corn cob full of corn falls off the plant the seeds are too tightly wrapped to be able to sprout. Even if it was shucked first, there are too many tightly spaced seeds. It would not have the room it needs to grow.

Corn growers realized they could breed together several varieties of corn and create hybrids that combined the most desirable qualities of the ancestor varieties. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “About 95 percent of our corn acreage now is planted to hybrid corn. We produce at least 20 percent more corn on 25 percent fewer acres than in 1930, when seed of hybrid corn became available in quantity to American farmers.”

Hybridization let us develop corn that was more vigorous, disease resistant, had shorter growing periods, and was sweeter. New seeds had to be bought each year since you cannot grow the same plant from the seeds of a hybrid. The plants from its seeds will revert back to the parent varieties.

Corn that had been genetically modified in a lab was first made commercially available in 1996 by Monsanto. There have been several genetically engineered modifications to corn:

Herbicide tolerant – This lets farmers use an herbicide that kills weeds without harming the crop. This helps prevent soil erosion because the lands needs less tilling to destroy weeds.
Bt toxin production – A toxin that is produced by a soil bacterium is inserted into the plant. It is harmful to insects that try to eat the plant but is not harmful to humans or animals. It reacts with the alkaline insides of the insect (our stomachs have acid). An extract of this toxin is used in organic farming. Using plants with this modification means the farmers can use less pesticides.
Starch breakdown – This GM corn contains a transgene for an enzyme that breaks the starch in the corn down into maltose. This speeds the corn’s production into ethanol.

Corn and other plant hybridization helped feed the world for a while, but to keep growing we need to continue to develop genetically engineered plants that provide more food, use less resources, and are more environmentally friendly.

Learn more about teosinte from the University of Wisconsin and the history of maize (corn) from History.com
NYT article about the history of corn

Find out the myths and truth about GMO corn from NPR

Read a post at the Skeptical Raptor’s Blog with lots of links to learn about GMO science vs. anti-GMO fear mongers.

Nature, Technology

Last Time the Planets were Aligned?

April 5, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

If you mean all in a row like the picture at the top of this post, the answer is never. The last time the view of them from the Earth had them within 30 degrees of each other was 561 B.C. In April 2002, a few of them – Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury – appeared to line up over the Western horizon. This same pattern of these five planets will repeat again on September 8, 2040.

The next full line-up, like the 561 B.C. one, will be May 6, 2492.

When an astronomer speaks of the planets being in alignment, it means that, when looking at them from the Earth, you can see them in the same general area in the sky.

Solar System Live – set the date and time to find the location of planets.

Pictures and news from NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

And just as an extra bonus, here’s David Bowie singing “Life on Mars?”.

Maybe some microbial life, definitely one little explorer bot. I know the Mars Rover isn’t alive, but on its birthday, it sings (hums? chimes?) to itself. Teaching a robot to do something that would be done out of loneliness if a human did it is a pretty clear sign that it will eventually develop sentience. I know this because I’ve seen a lot of scifi movies and TV shows. It Always Happens!

August 5 will be the anniversary of the Mars lander arriving on the planet.

Culture, Entertainment

First Full-Length Animated Disney Movie?

April 2, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

On December 21st, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs graced the Carthay Circle Theatre before being released nationally on February 4th, 1938. During this first release it earned 8 million dollars, taking the record for the highest grossing film with sound at the time. Since then it has been re-released in theaters multiple times until 1990 where it was released on VHS tape* for all to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes.

*For those of you unaware, VHS tapes are were what we used before we had your fancy DVDs and Netflix. Back when Blockbusters were everywhere instead of just in our distant memories, and we had to rewind the tape if we wanted to watch it again.

Snow White also spawned many memorable quotes, such as the phrase “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Which is actually a misquote, as the real line from the movie is “Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” And the very popular trope of ‘poison apples’ seen in a variety of other fantasy stories.

Not only was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Disney’s first animated movie, but the first animated full length film with color and sound in general, since before it came out animation was usually only used for shorts.

The Disney tale has had other adaptations as well as other entertainment based off of it and other fairy tales, such as Once Upon A Time and Ever After High, these shows being just two of the examples spawned from the Disney versions of the stories.

Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino holds up the championship trophy with his team after defeating the Michigan Wolverines in their NCAA men's Final Four championship basketball game in Atlanta

Entertainment

First Basketball Game?

March 26, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

Okay, first I want to say that while a Canadian invented the very American sport of basketball 1891, he was in the U.S. at the time and he continued to stay in the country, eventually becoming a citizen. When people say that immigrants do jobs that Americans won’t, this is the kind of outcome I expect. Move to America and create a game that becomes an important part of American culture. Especially if, like basketball, it generates almost $5 billion a year. (Only counting income from the NBA.)

James Naismith was working at Springfield College in Massachusetts as a physical education instructor. He needed a game that could be played inside during the winter. The first game had 9 players on each of two teams and it was played with soccer balls with vegetable baskets nailed to poles as nets. That meant that every time there was a basket, someone had to climb up and get the ball back down. (Or at least be up on the gym’s balcony, the same level of the baskets.) It took about a decade until the game was played with open ended nets.

We can thank vegetable baskets for the name basketball. Or thank the college’s janitor who was sent to find two boxes they could use as goals. If he’d been able to find them instead of the baskets, we’d now be playing boxball. Either way, I’m sure glad they don’t have to stop and fetch the ball after each basket. Talk about throwing off the rhythm of the game!

The original rules for basketball were:

The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands, but never with the fist.
A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man running at good speed.
The ball must be held by the hands. The arms or body must not be used for holding it.
No shouldering, holding, pushing, striking or tripping in any way of an opponent. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul; the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game. No substitution shall be allowed.
A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violations of Rules 3 and 4 and such as described in Rule .
If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the meantime making a foul).
A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do no touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and the opponent moves the basket, it shall count as a goal.
When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field and played by the first person touching it. In case of dispute the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds. If he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them.
The umpire shall be the judge of the men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.
The referee shall be judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in bounds, to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals, with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
The time shall be two fifteen-minute halves, with five minutes rest between.
The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner.

Here is a link to the NBA 2014 – 2015 rule book (pdf). From 13 rules to 66 pages.

Soldiers going to war in the First World War took the game with them. At home in America, the game went from one that was just played between sides in a PE class to intercollegiate games. These early games were not high scoring games – lower than a good baseball game, higher than an average soccer game. Still more than 100 times more interesting than soccer.

Now the NBA (professional basketball league) has 30 teams, 29 in the US and that one oddball in Canada. (I do think that Raptors is a fantastic name so I’ll overlook their not-in-Americaness.) There are 351 men’s college Division 1 teams and 348 women’s teams. That’s a lot of people playing basketball and it doesn’t even take into account all the high school teams, teams in other countries (except that one NBA Canadian team), and all of the pick-up games where everyone has great fun keeping the ball away from C.L. while singing Randy Newman’s song Short People. Ha Ha. That just never gets old.

RIP Jerry Tarkanian – August 8, 1930 – February 11, 2015

Culture

Community Playground started?

March 19, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

The wealthy frequently had outdoor spaces set aside for their children to play, at least as early as the beginning of the 1800s. Not long after that Friedrich Ludwig Jahn started a gymnastics movement in Germany. It became very popular and people began putting outdoor gymnastic equipment in the children’s play areas. This sounds like it fit the parents’ idea of what an outdoor play area should be more than it fit a child’s, but if the equipment could be climbed on, it was still probably all good.

Another German, Friedrich Fröbel created the concept of kindergarten. In the mid 18800s, as part of the educational play he promoted, he brought the sandbox into his schools. The popularity of having play areas set aside at schools spread through Germany but the first public playground was built in Manchester, England in 1859.

In the 1850s in the US, Frederick Olmstead and Calvert Vaux were designing New York City’s Central Park. They set aside one hill as a place for boys to climb, but that was the extent of the “child-friendly” part of the park. The city was already changing. Its population was growing, immigrants were moving in. They didn’t go to the park, they played in the streets and vacant lots near their homes.

A Tenement House Committee was formed to study the problem in 1889. As a result, the Brooklyn Society for Parks and Playgrounds was formed.It was described as a moral movement – perhaps playthings for children to keep their idle hands from becoming the devil’s playthings.

The earliest had sandboxes and slides plus an open area for sports and they were popular, Boston went from one sandbox playground in 1885 to 11 by 1887.

In 1895 New York made a law saying, “Hereafter no school house shall be constructed in the City of New York without an open–air playground attached to or used in connection with the same.” The first two in the city were located at 69th Street and Broadway.

And 95th Street and Amsterdam. Not much play area there now! Well, maybe if you think you’re Frogger. (We don’t recommend that.)

They were only open after school hours.

In 1897, the city wanted to build more playgrounds and have specially trained recreation specialists who would direct the physical energies of the children to good outcomes. Activities included marching, singing, drills, folk dancing, climbing on the equipment, arts and crafts, and basketball.

Between 1903 and 1905 nine new parks opened in Manhattan alone. By 1908 there were eleven playgrounds in Manhattan and five in Brooklyn.

Playgrounds have become an expected part of all parks now. In England after World War II they would upcycle junk in the playgrounds for kids to play with. Now it’s all smooth plastic with short slides over soft tire mulch. Seesaws and monkey bars have dropped in popularity because they’re considered too dangerous. But, really, isn’t that what made them great?

Culture

Facebook Started?

March 19, 2015 V.O.C. Leave a comment

Facebook was founded February fourth, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. At first it was only for Harvard students before expanding to other Ivy league schools, growing and adding more schools and then corporations until finally in September 2006, it was open to everyone.

Facebook is a social site much like the once popular Myspace, though once Facebook was launched to the public everyone herded onto the new, fresh site and left their old accounts on Myspace to collect dust. Mostly, Facebook is used to catch up with lost friends that only about ten percent of the time you actually wanted to keep in touch with, the other ninety being those people from High School you never cared if you’d see again, or better yet never wanted to see again, but still accept their friend requests to fool yourself into thinking you actually want to connect with these people. In the end you never speak to these people, but maybe groan at their terrible opinions or ignore their multiple requests for a flash game about farming or candy.

While being a nice social website that allows you to connect with Family members who barely know how to use a computer, or friends from elementary school whose name you forgot (but don’t worry they remembered your’s) it has the added bonus of time consuming games based off of popular TV shows, movies, books and then just games made to waste time and occasionally make you pay five dollars to get the special in-game currency.

Facebook also seems to know us better than we know ourselves, deciding that we want to see the most active, commented on or liked posts on our feed instead of the most recent, since actually seeing what is currently going on in people’s lives is just not possible, instead we need to look at this cute photo of a teacup pig from 2010, or a friend’s status made three weeks ago with a long argument over cheese in the comments.