Category: Follies of the Human Condition

Eric H. Cline’s “1177BC”: Bronze Age Bogeymen & the Fate of Civilization

Representative image of the precautions needed to protect my creative endeavors. Surviving photograph shows use of a Lite Brite
Representative image of the precautions needed to protect my creative endeavors. Surviving photograph shows use of a primitive Lite Brite

When I was young, I used to build elaborate castles out of wooden blocks. Then, my younger brother Ben, would come running through and smash it all to pieces. Ben was a metaphor for the way my high school history book1 presented a variety of groups like the Mongols, the Huns, the Vikings, and the Sea Peoples (oddly not the Conquistadors, etc.) as nightmarish, irresistible, and bent on wanton destruction. Like my brother, they were external forces of chaos that swept in, pushed “Western Civilization” to the breaking point, and then mysteriously vanished. Of these groups, the Sea Peoples distance in the past made them, by far, the most mysterious.

In Eric H. Cline’s 1177BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed2 does not set out to clarify the record on the Sea Peoples – they remain pretty clouded in the mists of time. Rather, Cline walks us through what historians know, suspect, and argue about. Cline’s goal is to help us understand what collapsed at the end of the Bronze Age, what “collapse” actually meant, why it was so important, and what were the factors that caused this change. Continue reading “Eric H. Cline’s “1177BC”: Bronze Age Bogeymen & the Fate of Civilization”

End of the World, 1826: Mary Shelley’s The Last Man

Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826)

BouguereauFirstMourningNot all post-apocalyptic fiction is about death. That might seem odd, given the high death toll in this genre. But most of it is about something else, like nature, war, technology, civilization, or even religion. Mary Shelley’s The Last Man is an exception: it is a book about death.

And death is what saves it from being just another 19th century door-stopper, doomed to bore contemporary readers. Shelley did what, as far as I know, no other writer in the genre has done. She turned her personal grief into the End of the World. In the Last Man, the deaths of her husband, her children, and her friends are transformed into the complete extinction of the human species. Continue reading “End of the World, 1826: Mary Shelley’s The Last Man”

Science for The People: Game Change

sftpThis week Science for The People is looking at the math and science of business decisions. They speak toDavid McAdams, Duke University Professor of Business Administration and Economics, about his book “Game-Changer: Game Theory and the Art of Transforming Strategic Situations.” Benjamin Ho about his economic analysis of apologies.

*Josh provides research help to Science for The People and is, therefore, a completely biased and cooperative member of the team. He does, however, insists on capitalizing the show name as he sees fit.

The Representative Disapproves

Representative Jackie Speier (CA, 14th District) has taken Science Magazine to task (PDF of full letter here) for their controversial cover and controversial response to criticism of that cover.

The July ll issue of Science Magazine featured a lurid cover photograph of transgender women in tight dresses and high heels with their heads cropped out of the frame.

Continue reading “The Representative Disapproves”

Narcolepsy update!

Last year, I wrote a post about the potential link between autoimmune dysfunction and narcolepsy. Today, a major study published in Science Translational Medicine linking narcolepsy and autoimmunity targeted at hypocretin expressing neurons has been retracted. Ed Yong wrote about the original study when it was released and posted this update on his blog at National Geographic.

Sometimes, even things in big journals (especially big journals?) turn out to be not quite true.