Blogcation

Autumn garden chores, leaf-peeping, football games, family activities, financial matters, house repairs, noncomputer hobbies, books to read, and blogging burnout are all coming together to take me away from TYWKIWDBI for a while.

Those who feel bereft are reminded that it is possible to browse the archives of this blog by modifying and pasting this url -

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html

- to a month before you became a regular reader (choose year/month back to 2008) (or go to "archive" in the right sidebar).

Back in about a week. 

How To Make A Pocketed Placemat Tutorial By Lisa Jordan of Lil Fish Studios

Wouldn't it be great if your placemats had pockets and were handmade with the help of your kids or grandkids. Think how special they would be. If you're wondering about this then check out the "How To Make A Pocketed Placemat" tutorial that Lisa Jordan has on her Lil Fish Studios blog. Have fun with the kids or grandkids.

How To Make A Pocketed Placemat

Copyright © 2011 - All Rights Reserved - Written by Lisa Jordan of  Lil Fish Studios.

Here's what Lisa had to say about her tutorial:  It has been a while since I've spent time crafting for myself. I decided to change that this week and do something with the canvas dropcloth I've been tripping over in my workshop. I love the almost linen-like look of the untreated canvas and decided to use it on my tabletop. A few cuts, a few stitches, and some collaboration with my little ones and I had myself some placemats.

Please respect Lisa's TERMS OF USE:  When sharing my tutorials, photos, or content, please link back to my Lil Fish Studios blog @ http://lilfishstudios.blogspot.com/ and give proper attribution. It's just the right thing to do.

Lisa's Bio:Living under the poplar and pine in rural Minnesota I find inspiration in the nature that surrounds me. I'm especially drawn to mushrooms, moss, and the oddly lumpy and beautifully textural bits found on the forest floor.

I'm especially enthralled with wool and wood. Sustainability is important to me and is reflected in the materials and processes I use.

Copyright © 2006 - 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Lisa Jordan of  Lil Fish Studios.

Please visit her  Lil Fish Studios blog at  http://lilfishstudios.blogspot.com/, her Lil Fish Studios Big Cartel shop at http://lilfishstudios.bigcartel.com/, and her Lil Fish Studios Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lilfishstudios .

How To Create A Dolls Face Tutorial By Kaaren Johnston of The Painted Quilt

When it comes to dolls there isn't anything I don't love.  But, I'm especially partial to cloth dolls with painted faces. So, I was happy to see that Kaaren Johnston had a wonderful tutorial on her The Painted Quilt blog showing you how to create a dolls face.

How To Create A Dolls Face Tutorial

Copyright © 2010 - All Rights Reserved - Kaaren Johnston of The Painted Quilt

Here's what Kaaren had to say about her tutorial: At the outset, I’d like to share with you some words of wisdom that one of my art teachers used to say to her students…”There are many ways of right”.

Now having said that, I am not saying that my way of creating a doll’s face is the ‘right’ way, but it is the way that works best for me when teaching students who have had little or no artistic training and are too insecure to even attempt a face. I promise you that if you follow the steps that I am about to share with you, your doll’s face will look as good as or better than mine.

So without further ado, let’s get started. Plan to stay awhile because this tutorial is loaded with pictures and is quite long.

Please respect Kaaren's TERMS OF USE:  The use of my pattern/design and tutorials is limited to individual and personal use only. Distributing or selling my pattern or tutorials in any form is not permitted. They may not be used for commercial purposes unless written permission is granted. Credit for my pattern and tutorials should be included if displayed in any manner. Individual users may enlarge or reduce the size of the drawings for their personal use but may not alter them in any other way.

Kaaren's Bio: I am an artist and have recently retired from actively designing, publishing and travel teaching in the decorative painting industry. A short while later, in December of 2010, we moved from Eastern Ontario to the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Quilting, stitching, applique and most recently rug hooking have become my new passions. Oh, and did I mention that I love to make and collect pincushions and needlecases! Join me on the First Friday of every month when I release a new Freebie design for you to make and enjoy.

Copyright © 2009 - 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Kaaren Johnston of The Painted Quilt.

Please visit her The Painted Quilt blog at  http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/ and her The Painted Quilt Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/kaarenjohnston.

Baltimore Ravens fans chant their displeasure

YouTube link. 

I was watching this when it happened and was surprised the audio wasn't filtered out by the network.

Oops

Found at The Dish.

Foliage

This is one reason why my blogging will be limited during the next few weeks.  Leaf-peeping (and also autumn chores putting the garden and yard to sleep for the winter).

This image from Travel Wisconsin; your state/country will probably have one you can find using the Google.

A child completes a poem for her mother

Slightly cropped from the original posted by geni91782 at Reddit pics.

A reminder to guard your privacy

YouTube link. 

A public service announcement from a Belgian bank - worth watching.

"Coke nail" illustrated

Image cropped and annotated from the one at imgur, discussed at Reddit.

Seneca expresses "YOLO" sentiments in 55 A.D.

I am always surprised to see some people demanding the time of others and meeting a most obliging response. Both sides have in view the reason for which the time is asked and neither regards the time itself—as if nothing is being asked for and nothing given. They are trifling with life’s most precious commodity, being deceived because it is an intangible thing, not open to inspection and therefore reckoned very cheap—in fact, almost without any value...

No one will bring back the years; no one will restore you to yourself. Life will follow the path it began to take and will neither reverse nor check its course. It will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but glide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king’s command or a people’s favor. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. What will be the outcome? You have been preoccupied while life hastens on. Meanwhile death will arrive, and you have no choice in making yourself available for that.
 
Can anything be more idiotic than certain people who boast of their foresight? They keep themselves officiously preoccupied in order to improve their lives; they spend their lives in organizing their lives. They direct their purposes with an eye to a distant future. But putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately... And even if you do grasp it, it will still flee. So you must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.

You can read more of the essay in the current issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

Popcorn on the cob

We bought several ears at a local farm.  I don't think it tastes any better than commercial mass-market popcorn-in-a-bag, but it's more fun to microwave, and I think would be more interesting for small children.

District attorneys behaving badly

Some of them have been renting their name and official seal to debt-collecting companies, as explained in a NYT article:

The letters are sent by the thousands to people across the country who have written bad checks, threatening them with jail if they do not pay up.

They bear the seal and signature of the local district attorney’s office. But there is a catch: the letters are from debt-collection companies, which the prosecutors allow to use their letterhead. In return, the companies try to collect not only the unpaid check, but also high fees from debtors for a class on budgeting and financial responsibility, some of which goes back to the district attorneys’ offices...

Debt collectors have come under fire for illegally menacing people behind on their bills with threats of jail. What makes this approach unusual is that the ultimatum comes with the imprimatur of law enforcement itself — though it is made before any prosecutor has determined a crime has been committed...

Prosecutors say that the partnerships allow them to focus on more serious crimes, and that the letters are sent only to check writers who ignore merchants’ demands for payment. The district attorneys receive a payment from the firms or a small part of the fees collected...

Even after Ms. Yartz paid $100.05 in February to cover the bounced check, the returned item fee and an administration fee, she got a letter signed by the Alameda district attorney informing her that her remaining balance was $180 for the class. After consulting with a lawyer, she decided to take her chances rather than pay for a class she could not afford, to avoid being punished for a crime she said she did not commit. Ms. Yartz also questioned the need for a class on budgeting and financial accountability: “If I meant to bounce this check like a criminal, why do I need a class on budgeting?” 

More details at the link, via BoingBoing.

Women of Wikipedia Unite project

For some of you out there, you might be interested in two upcoming efforts to improve female scientist's Wikipedia pages and improving the numbers of women editing Wikipedia.

I'm all for whatever it takes to get more people editing whatever gender they are.  And want all pages for scientists and skeptics to be improved.  Female or not. 

I say if these two projects inspire you to finally take the plunge and contact me, then Hurray!  I am always ready and willing to train.  Please contact me susangerbic@yahoo.com if you want to join our Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project. 

Or, I'm sure the people listed on the links below would love to hear from you.

Women of Wikipedia event planned

WikiWomen Unite!

Rhiannon - the witch and the song

First, some excerpts from Wikipedia about the historical/mythological Rhiannon:

Rhiannon is a prominent figure in Welsh mythology, mother to the Demetian hero Pryderi and wife to Pwyll... Upon ascending the magical mound of Gorsedd Arberth, the Demetian king Pwyll witnesses the arrival of Rhiannon, appearing to them as a beautiful woman dressed in gold silk brocade and riding a shining white horse...

Under the advice of his noblemen, Pwyll and Rhiannon attempt to supply an heir to the kingdom and eventually a boy is born. However, on the night of his birth, he disappears while in the care of six of Rhiannon's ladies-in-waiting. To avoid the king's wrath, the ladies smear dog's blood onto a sleeping Rhiannon, claiming that she had committed infanticide and cannibalism through eating and "destroying" her child. Rhiannon is forced to do penance for her crime...

The Mabinogi do not present Rhiannon as anything other than human. Scholars of mythology have nevertheless speculated that Rhiannon may euhemerize* an earlier goddess of Celtic polytheism. Similar euhemerisms of pre-Christian deities can be found in other medieval Celtic literature, when Christian scribes and redactors may have felt uncomfortable writing about the powers of pagan gods...

According to Miranda Jane Green, "Rhiannon conforms to two archetypes of myth - a gracious, bountiful queen-goddess; and as the 'wronged wife', falsely accused of killing her son."

Now, on to the song:

Nicks discovered Rhiannon through a novel called Triad, by Mary Leader. The novel is about a woman named Branwen, who is possessed by another woman named Rhiannon. There is mention of the Welsh legend of Rhiannon in the novel, but the characters in the novel bear little resemblance to their original Welsh namesakes... Nicks bought the novel in an airport just before a long flight and thought the name was so pretty that she wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon... After writing the song, Nicks learned that Rhiannon originated from a Welsh goddess, and was amazed that the haunting song lyrics applied to the Welsh Rhiannon as well.... Nicks avoided wearing black clothing for "about two years" in an effort to distance herself from the witchcraft and dark arts associations surrounding her as a result of the lyrics to "Rhiannon" giving fans the wrong impression.

This post was prompted by my recent viewing (and recording) of the VH1 Behind the Music Remastered segment on Fleetwood Mac:

Get More: Fleetwood Mac, Behind The Music Remastered

For an embed of the song itself, I'll use the version recently posted at BoingBoing, a live performance from 1976 which is way better than the shorter, more controlled and nuanced, studio version:

YouTube link.

* "Euhemerize" was a new word to me, explained here.

A landscape in the Dolomites

The topography is stunning (and I'm wondering what crop it is that is farmed on those slopes).  Click for bigger.

Photo by Kevin Kunstadt, from a collection of images of the Dolomites.

Death of a Guantanamo prisoner

Excerpts from a report at Salon:

Adnan Latif was found dead in his cell on September 10, 2012, just a day before the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. He was 32. Latif, a Yemeni citizen, had been detained at Guantanamo Bay for over a decade, despite a 2010 court ruling that ordered the Obama administration to “take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate Latif’s release forthwith,” due to lack of evidence that he had committed any crime...

A car accident in 1994 left Latif with a head injury, which he was attempting to get treated in Afghanistan when he was captured near the border by Pakistani authorities. In January, 2002, he was sent to Guantanamo, with the unfortunate distinction of being one of the first detainees. According to the ACLU, Latif was cleared to be released in 2004, 2007, 2009, and again in 2010 by US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy. The Obama DOJ appealed the 2010 decision, in part because of a policy of not transferring detainees to Yemen, and so Latif remained in custody – not because of what he had done (which was nothing), but because of where he was born. The decision to appeal his release wasn’t a holdover from the Bush era. That was an affirmative decision made by the Obama administration, and any supporters who hoped Obama would close Guantanamo Bay should understand that fact.

And these observations from a column in The Guardian:

He is the ninth person to die at the camp since it was opened more than ten years ago. As former Gitmo guard Brandon Neely pointed out Monday, more detainees have died at the camp (nine) than have been convicted of wrongdoing by its military commissions (six)...

...  a camp spokesman acknowledged that he "had not been charged and had not been designated for prosecution". In other words, he has been kept by the US government in a cage for many years without any opportunity to contest the accusations against him, and had no hope of leaving the camp except by death...

Put another way, even if Congress had given Obama everything he wanted, the system that means that death is the only way out for many detainees would have been fully preserved. The excuse-making for Obama – "oh, he tried to close the camp but Congress would not let him" – is simply a deceitful tactic Democrats have concocted to justify their total silence about a grave injustice they once pretended to find so appalling and their raucous swooning for a president who supports it.

Last week I had a long conversation, with a friend I've known since childhood, about indefinite detention without trial of Guantanamo prisoners.  I told him I found the practice outrageous and reprehensible.  His reply was that the situation is different when you're dealing with terrorists rather than ordinary criminals, and that bringing these men to trial might reveal and jeopardize the sources of information that led to their apprehension, thereby endangering our country's security. 

I remain unconvinced.  In my view indefinite confinement without trial is equivalent to a nonjudicial declaration of guilt, and is a violation of basic human rights that apply as much to a terrorist as to any other human being.  If some reader here can give me a well-reasoned justification for the actions of the Obama administration, I'd appreciate it.

Sincere congratulations to Everlasting Blört and to The Presurfer

 

Two of the internet's iconic and pioneering blogs - The Presurfer and Everlasting Blört [with an umlaut] are celebrating their 12th birthdays today.  I have followed both of them since long before I began TYWKIWDBI, and my blogging style has undoubtedly been influenced by them.

How I became an Atheist and how that concerns Wikipedia

At a lecture for Reason 4 Reason, San Francisco Skeptic group on 9/22/2012.  I shared how I  found atheism.  The family consequences and my reasoning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQs4IxX_-kQ

How I link this up to the reason why we need to edit Wikipedia.

Shouting and belittling believers does nothing but force them to circle the cognitive dissonance wagons and shut down. Allowing them to do their own research and think things through independently, without pressure, is the only way to potentially change minds. 

When they are ready to start thinking about their beliefs they first go to their friends/family.  Then to some kind of research (usually the Internet).  They probably will find themselves on Wikipedia and we better be waiting for them, with well researched, well linked articles.  And great citations for them to follow to the source.


We may never know that Wikipedia page changed their mind, there is no comment feature (thankfully), and they are unlikely to leave a message for an editor any more than they would have written to the encyclopedia editor years ago.

Besides, Wikipedia still has a stigma associated with it, people are unlikely to state that they changed their mind after reading Wikipedia. 

Video recording by Paulina Mejia.

We Got Your Wiki Back - Nina Burleigh

I had never heard of Nina Burleigh when I happened upon her badly written Wikipedia page.  She had lectured at CFI and has written about topics relevant to our movement.  So of course I was interested. 

When researching her I was VERY impressed with her writing style.  Very engaging and page turning.  I dare you to read this one Elle article and not be discussing it with friends this week.  "The Race to Find Myself".

Before

After

Enjoy!

A charming little girl dances to "Coppélia"

YouTube link. 

She's a very special girl, as noted by her parents:

We knew Clara loved the Coppélia ballet, but little did we know she memorized the whole thing! She performed this solely from memory!

This is just a small snippet of her dancing to it. We would see her doing some ballet moves around the house thinking it was ballet moves she learned in ballet class, till one day someone decided to whip out a computer and compare her moves to that of the Coppélia ballerina, and, VOILA, we realized she memorized it, and can dance it!

Clara has been diagnosed with DiGeorge Syndrome and Autism. She spent her first 16 months in hospital, has gone through multiple surgeries since she was two weeks due to the complications with her syndrome. Before she was two, we noticed that she had difficulty connecting with people, was in a world of her own, and two years later she was also diagnosed with autism. Clara also had a lot of physical complications, and could not walk till she was four. She never spoke until she was six...

Here's some relevant background on the DiGeorge Syndrome:

... a syndrome caused by the deletion of a small piece of chromosome 22...

... affects between 1 in 2000 and 1 in 4000 live births. This estimate is based on major birth defects and may be an underestimate, because some individuals with the deletion have few symptoms and may not have been formally diagnosed...

Characteristic signs and symptoms may include birth defects such as congenital heart disease, defects in the palate, most commonly related to neuromuscular problems with closure (velo-pharyngeal insufficiency), learning disabilities, mild differences in facial features, and recurrent infections.

And a summary of Coppélia:

Coppélia is a comic ballet originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles Nuitter... based upon two stories by ETA Hoffmann: Der Sandmann (The Sandman), and Die Puppe (The Doll). Coppélia premiered on 25 May 1870 at the Théâtre Impérial de l´Opéra, with the 16-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi in the principal role of Swanhilde...

Coppélia concerns an inventor, Dr Coppelius, who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Franz, a village swain, becomes infatuated with it and sets aside his true heart's desire, Swanhilde. She shows him his folly by dressing as the doll, pretending to make it come to life and ultimately saving him from an untimely end at the hands of the inventor.

And finally here is Clara's tumblr.

Via Reddit.

A football game has only 11 minutes of action

From a 2010 article in the WSJ (the numbers might have changed a bit since then):

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes...

So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show...

This is why the only way I watch football nowadays is by using a DVR and speeding through the game (and past the commercials).

Popular (and unpopular) 4-digit PIN codes

Everyone knows that "1234" is an overused 4-digit PIN (the three most commonly used numbers account for almost 20% of all passwords).  Some excerpts from a Slate column:

On the other end of the scale, the least popular combination—8068—appears less than 0.001 percent of the time... Rounding out the bottom five are "8093," "9629," "6835," and "7637," which all nearly as rare...

Data Genetics came up with the numbers by analyzing a database of 3.4 million stolen passwords that have been made public over the years. Most of these are passwords for websites...

Among seven-digit passwords, the fourth-most popular is "8675309," which should ring familiar to fans of '80s music.

The 17th-most popular 10-digit password is "3141592654."

This is a "hurricane simulator"

Created at Florida International University’s International Hurricane Research Center, the "Wall of Wind" can create sustained winds of 157 MPH.  It's used for testing structural integrity of building materials and techniques.

Via Technabob.

"Bath salts" are unique psychoactive drugs

Excerpts from an extensive writeup at PBS Newshour:

“Bath salts” are nothing like the epsom salts often added to bathwater; it's just the most common code name given to a specific type of synthetic drugs made in underground labs and marketed as household items. The drugs have been camouflaged as plant food, stain remover, toilet bowl cleaner and hookah cleaner. They've been sold online and in "head shops," businesses that sell drug paraphernalia. The boxes usually contain a foil wrap or plastic bag of powder, though sometimes they take the form of pills or capsules. The color of the powder ranges from white to yellow to brown, the price from $30 to $50. And nearly every box has a label that says “not for human consumption.”...

Early on, doctors began noticing something else that was strange. Compared with other drugs, bath salts didn't follow a normal dose-response pattern. With cocaine or methamphetamine, the drug entered the bloodstream, and, within hours, began to wear off. Not so for bath salts...

In the 1970s, a medicinal chemist named Richard A. Glennon was studying what it would take to convert a stimulant drug to a hallucinogen and vice versa... By introducing an oxygen atom to the side chain of amphetamine, he created something called a beta-keto amphetamine. Beta-keto amphetamine was what we now call cathinone, and at the time, in the U.S., it was a new class of stimulant...

Methamphetamine, amphetamine and cocaine all produce excessive dopamine in the space between two neurons -- the synapse -- but through different mechanisms. Both amphetamine and methamphetamine primarily work by causing an abnormal amount of dopamine to surge forth from the nerve cells, shifting the brain's reward pathways into overdrive. Cocaine on the other hand is what's called a reuptake inhibitor. That means it acts like a stopper in a kitchen sink, blocking the retreat, or reuptake, of dopamine back into the cell. It's this excessive dopamine, which goes on to stimulate the next neuron, which causes a dizzying rush of energy and a fierce, sometimes euphoric high...

Taking bath salts, it seemed, was similar to taking amphetamine and cocaine at the same time. Except for one thing: MDPV is as much as 10 times stronger than cocaine...

Authorities like Ryan have also noticed another trend -- one possibly as dangerous as the drugs themselves: they're changing. In Louisiana for example, after the five common bath salts ingredients were banned, the products didn't disappear, they just evolved. As soon as the drugs were declared illegal, drugmakers began finding new ways to get around the law by making slight tweaks to the formula, creating substances that don't show up on drug tests while skirting the law...

“There's no consistency to what's in the package,” Ryan continued. “We tested packages for how much MDPV was in them. One of them only contained 17 milligrams. One contained 2,000 milligrams.” It explained why one person might have a mild reaction to the drug, while another would end up in the psych ward or counting imaginary police cars outside their window.

Much more at the link, which also has a long comment thread.  Via BoingBoing.  

A Neolithic dental filling

Evidence of prehistoric dentistry has been limited to a few cases, the most ancient dating back to the Neolithic. Here we report a 6500-year-old human mandible from Slovenia whose left canine crown bears the traces of a filling with beeswax. The use of different analytical techniques, including synchrotron radiation computed micro-tomography (micro-CT), Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), has shown that the exposed area of dentine resulting from occlusal wear and the upper part of a vertical crack affecting enamel and dentin tissues were filled with beeswax shortly before or after the individual’s death. If the filling was done when the person was still alive, the intervention was likely aimed to relieve tooth sensitivity derived from either exposed dentine and/or the pain resulting from chewing on a cracked tooth: this would provide the earliest known direct evidence of therapeutic-palliative dental filling.

Image and abstract from a recent publication in the Public Library of Science (PLOS); fulltext at the link.

Alexis conquers the hurdles

This video has been featured widely on the internet.  I'm going to repost it here because it struck a chord with me on a very personal level, which I'll explain at the end.

This is a remix; the original video (which you can view here) shows an 8th-grade girl named Alexis participating in her first school track event.  The YouTube poster comments "This video is 6yrs old. Alexis did run the hurdles again and didn't fail. She did give me permission to post the video and all of her friends have seen it, while they do find it funny they do support her and her courage."

The remix adds the audio of the Scala and Kolacny Brothers' version of Radiohead's "Creep."

The classically trained Kolacny brothers, Steven (piano) and Stijn (conducting) have turned this Belgian girls’ choir into an international phenomenon, performing imaginatively reworked covers of Radiohead, U2, Rammstein and Nirvana songs...

One can debate whether the lyrics for Radiohead's "Creep" are totally appropriate for the hurdles video, but the rendition by this girls choir is so beautifully executed, and some phrases are so perfect that the remix really "works" for me.  The original hurdles video was time-stretched to match the audio, and the resultant slo-motion effect is quite dramatic.

I've reviewed the comments about the video at 3-4 different websites.  Not surprisingly perhaps, given the shallowness of many websurfers, the dominant theme is that this is a "fail" video.  That the girl is a loser, that she missed a hurdle, that her coaching was dreadful, that this is the funniest LOLs video they've ever seen.

I have a different viewpoint.  And for that I need to tell a story.  In 1952 I contracted polio; after recovering I was left with some residual atrophy of my right quad, so I could ambulate, but couldn't run very fast.  I attended a school where participation in sports was mandatory all three seasons of the school year.  In the spring the school also held an all-school track day in which everyone was required to participate in several events.  I was entered in the discus and the 220 yard run.  For the latter event I can still remember being in the back stretch when the leaders were crossing the finish.  By the time I got to the finish line they were setting up for the next heat.

When I crossed that finish line, the school's track coach came over to me.  Mr. Bettels was a man who knew what impairment was.  He had what I think in retrospect was severe kyphoscoliosis, but he was an inspirational coach and classroom teacher.  He came to me and very quietly and privately congratulated me on finishing the race.  I hadn't viewed my circling of the track as anything heroic; I was just doing what was expected.  He viewed it a bit differently, and it took me some time to fully appreciate the import of his commendation.  In the decades since then I've won a variety of non-athletic honors and have a smattering of trophies and plaques, but those words from Coach are one of the treasured memories of my youth.

So... I offer my congratulations to young Alexis.  I don't find the video to be funny at all - it's inspirational, and it choked me up to watch it.   It's also a good reminder that every day there are children whose bravery and courage goes unrecognized.  We all need to take moments now and then to commend the "losers."

Reposted from 2010 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Radiohead's initial release of this, their debut song.

See also this animated version and Chrissie Hynde's cover of the song.

Copenhagen building "highways" for bicycles

Every day, one-third of the people of Copenhagen ride their bikes to work or school. Collectively, they cycle more than 750,000 miles daily, enough to make it to the moon and back. And city officials want even more people to commute, and over longer distances.

So a network of 26 new bike routes, dubbed "the cycling superhighway," is being built to link the surrounding suburbs to Copenhagen...

One of the first things you learn about these bike lanes is that you have to move in fast. This is not leisurely biking — this is serious stuff in Copenhagen... Each mile of bike highway will cost about $1 million. The project is to be financed by the city of Copenhagen and 21 local governments. And in a country where both right- and left-leaning politicians regularly ride bikes to work, it has bilateral support...

Several innovations are being tested, like "green wave" technology, which times traffic lights to suit bikers. If you maintain a certain pace, you can ride all the way through into the city without stopping. There are also footrests with bars to lean on at traffic lights, and a bike pump every mile in case you have a flat...

Once the highway network is completed, an estimated 15,000 additional people will switch from driving to biking. And that, say officials, will have a direct impact on the environment, public health and finances.

From NPR.  Image by Tatsuro Kiuchi.

Don't discard your candy wrappers

YouTube link. 

Across the UK, six chocolate bars will have a GPS chip hidden inside the wrapper; when the wrapper is taken off the bar, it will activate the chip, so that Nestlé can track down the winner within 24 hours and hand them a cheque for £10,000. The chips will be hidden in the wrappers of KitKat 4 Finger, KitKat Chunky, Aero Peppermint Medium and Yorkie Milk chocolate bars.

From CNet, via Neatorama.

John Keats postulated to be an opium addict

The claim is made in a new biography, to be published on Monday, by Prof Nicholas Roe, chair of the Keats Foundation and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Roe admits his finding will be contentious. "This has never been said before: Keats as an opium addict is new."...

Roe maintains that Keats, a trained physician, gained access to laudanum in the autumn of 1818 while administering the drug to his brother.  Tom was dying of TB, the disease he gave to Keats and of which the poet died three years later. Opium was the only painkiller that could alleviate the young man's pain.

After his brother's death, Keats began taking the drug regularly "to keep up his spirits", as Brown said later. Brown warned him of the "danger of such a habit". This, said Roe, "suggests Keats was indeed an 'habitual' user of opium and had been dosing himself for a considerable time."...

"When Keats writes in Ode to a Nightingale of having 'emptied some dull opiate to the drains' he means – very precisely – downing a decanter of laudanum," he said.

"Like Coleridge's Kubla Khan and like Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Ode to a Nightingale is one of the greatest re-creations of a drug-inspired dream-vision in English literature – a poem that frankly admits his own opium habit."

Ode on Indolence, added Roe: "grew out of a reverie induced by taking laudanum to ease the pain of a black eye, got while playing cricket on Hampstead Heath in March 1819".

More at The Guardian.  Painting from the National Portrait Gallery.

Sand sculpture of - and by (!!) - an elephant

The process is explained at The Chester Zoo, via Nothing to do with Arbroath.

A flight through the universe

Youtube link. 

This is, on the surface, a "simple" video, presenting in visual form some of the data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey documenting the number and location of celestial objects.

It's "simple" until you realize - and personally I still have difficulty wrapping my mind around this - that those white specks you are "flying past" are not stars.  Each of those is a galaxy composed of billions of stars.

The movie starts by flying right through a large nearby cluster of galaxies and later circles the SDSS-captured universe at about 2 billion light years (a redshift of about 0.15) from Earth...

This was NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day several weeks ago.  It's not a "high-resolution" video, but for mind-boggling purposes I do think it's best viewed at fullscreen.

Islamist militias destroying cultural treasures in Timbuktu

YouTube link. 

These actions, by the Ansar Eddine, are a form of cultural genocide and can only be viewed by the enlightened world as the behavior of human scum.

[The region] is being plunged back in time. At its core is Timbuktu, an ancient city that’s bearing the brunt of grinding social devastation. Intent on achieving its own form of Year Zero, the militia announced that it will enforce the stoning of adulterers, as well as the punitive mutilation of thieves and the veiling of all women. And that’s just the start. The city’s historic monuments and shrines are being leveled, its cultural heritage being ripped to pieces, all this as the traumatized population flees. There’s not enough in the way of food, water, or basic medicine, and most vestiges of modern society are being targeted. Soccer, recorded popular music, television, and even videogames have been on the militia’s hit list, too. Men and women who are unmarried or unrelated are forbidden to walk down a street together or even to sit beside each other on a bus.

Via The Dish.

Mitt Romney's unprecedented unfavorability index

A review of Pew Research Center and Gallup favorability ratings from September finds that Romney is the only presidential candidate over the past seven election cycles to be viewed more unfavorably than favorably.

Via The Dish.

At last, a funny political video ("bipartisan" at that)

YouTube link. 

The national political discourse has been so unremittingly dreary in recent months that I was delighted to find this video today.  It recycles some familiar material in a refreshing way.  (And it reminds me that I'm looking forward to the next season of Mad Men).

Sand sculpture by a puffer fish

While diving in the semi-tropical region of Amami Oshima, roughly 80 ft below sea level, Ookata spotted something he had never seen. And as it turned out, no one else had seen it before either...

On the seabed a geometric, circular structure measuring roughly 6.5 ft in diameter had been precisely carved from sand. It consisted of multiple ridges, symmetrically jutting out from the center, and appeared to be the work of an underwater artist, carefully working with tools...

Underwater cameras showed that the artist was a small puffer fish who, using only his flapping fin, tirelessly worked day and night to carve the circular ridges. The unlikely artist – best known in Japan as a delicacy, albeit a potentially poisonous one – even takes small shells, cracks them, and lines the inner grooves of his sculpture as if decorating his piece. Further observation revealed that this “mysterious circle” was not just there to make the ocean floor look pretty. Attracted by the grooves and ridges, female puffer fish would find their way along the dark seabed to the male puffer fish where they would mate and lay eggs in the center of the circle. In fact, the scientists observed that the more ridges the circle contained, the more likely it was that the female would mate with the male.

The lower embed shows how small the fish is in comparison to his artwork.  I've seen tiny little scooped-out nests in the sand made by freshwater fish, but never anything this elaborate.  It reminds me of the creations of bower birds.

Photos and text from Spoon and Tamago, via BoingBoing.

Cape Kamui, Shakotan, Hokkaidō

Nice walking path.

Photo credit.

Wikipedia World - 2 Months - How are we doing?

This is an update on the World Wikipedia project.  Our two month anniversary is here and so much has been accomplished since my last update 5 weeks ago.

If you are not familiar with the World Wikipedia Project please first check us out here.  

Currently we have 45 World Wikipedia editors. 

In no special order these are the current groups.  16 language groups.

French - français - La guérilla scepticisme
German - Deutsch - Guerilla Skepsis
Russian - Русский - Партизанский скептицизм
Korean - 게릴라 위키 회의주의 (한국어)
Portuguese - Português - Ceticismo de Guerrilha
Spanish - Español - Escepticismo de Guerrilla
Arabic - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia 
Turkish - Türkçe - Skeptik Vikipedi Gerillaları
Polish - Polska - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
Farsi - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia فارسی
Norway - Norsk - bokmål - Geriljaskeptivisme på Wikipedia
Danish - Dansk - Guerillaskepticisme på Wikipedia

Hebrew - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia - עברית

Dutch - Nederland - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
Swedish - Svenska - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
English - Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
-------------------------------------
Jerry Andrus - 

Nix Dorf finished the first Jerry Andrus page. 

We Got Your Wiki Back Jerry Andrus in Portuguese.

We have the Andrus page started in French, Arabic, Dutch, Swedish and Russian.


------------------------------------


Bob Carroll -

I noticed that Bob Carroll had a WP page in French - actually it was a stub.  I took the English picture (I photographed at SkeptiCal 2011) and added it to the French page.  Editor Patrick Mahoney translated the English caption and while he was at it, he translated a lot more of the page.

Before

After

While I was at it, I added the picture to Carroll's  German, Spanish, Czech, Japanese and Romanian pages.


 -------------------------------------

Massimo Polidoro -

I emailed Massimo Polidoro and asked him to upload a new image to Wikimedia Commons that we could use on all the pages that exist for him.  He did so and I added the picture to his English, French, Italiano and Eesti pages. I keep trying to add it to the Finnish page (Suomi) but a bot keeps deleting it.  We don't have any Finnish editors to help fix this.  Also don't have any Italian editors, I explained this to Massimo and hopefully some will step forward.

Look at the image that was being used.  Pretty awful isn't it?

Patrick Mahoney, again came in after I added the picture, and changed the caption to French.
---------------------------------------

Ray Hyman - Portuguese by Nix Dorf is almost done but didn't make the two month deadline.

---------------------------------------

Penn & Teller - Portuguese by  Filipe Russo

Before
After

Blog link
---------------------------------------

James Randi -

Nicola Mazbar added the IIG beard photo and a Arabic translation to his page.

Istem Fer added the Beard image to the Turkish Randi page along with a caption.

Nicola Mazbar added the photo to the Hebrew page as well.

---------------------------------------

Video captions

You might remember that we are trying to caption videos (where we know the video owner) in English.  Once translated in English, then it is easier for the video to be translated into other languages.  Once that is done then we can use the captioned video as a citation on other language pages. 

We have one editor Brad McDowell from Iowa who is systematically captioning videos, first we focused on Jerry Andrus videos.  Now he is working on James Randi and Ray Hyman videos.  This is a big help, but a big project.  Brad could really use some help, and I can train, so please be in contact if you want to help.

Here are a few that we have finished right now...

Ray Hyman on Jerry Andrus on Wikipedia
English, Portuguese, Spanish

Rex Young and Jerry Andrus at TAM
English, French, Dutch

James Randi Describes Jerry Andrus
English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch

James Underdown Wrestles a Bear
English

Wendy Hughes Explains Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia
English

Ray Hyman and Mark Edward discuss Mentalism
English

Ray Hyman on Sylvia Browne
English

Conversations with Ray Hyman (part 3)
English

Conversations with Ray Hyman (part 2)
English

Conversations with Ray Hyman (part 1)
English

Conversations with Ray Hyman (part 4)
English

-------------------------------------

We were given a lot of space on the "Flying Teapot" blog which is one of the largest Portuguese blogs.  Nix Dorf arranged and wrote this article.

-------------------------------------

A few interviews about the project in the last two months.

Penny Chan from The Skeptic Zone podcast
Tumbling Brain Matter Public Radio
TAM 2012 with Chris Brown
The Skeptical Teacher blog
Tim Farley lecture at Dragon*Con
Tim Farley lecture at TAM 2012

-----------------------------------
 I hope I didn't forget someone or something.  Its been a busy 2 months just getting organized.  We are just getting started.  I hope to catch everyone up on what is happening with this project every few months.

You know my plea!  We have a lot of people involved, yet, we have room for so many more.  Don't think just because I already have a Spanish or German or whatever group we don't need your help. Some of these groups only have one lonely editor, they need company.   And look at how many missing languages we don't have.   

And even if you don't speak another language, or you feel rusty, don't be shy.  You will quickly pick on these skills.  I read only in English, yet I'm making edits in Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and more.  We also need more people captioning videos in English so they can be translated to other languages.  We need more pictures uploaded, more videos uploaded and so on.  There is enough work to be done for a thousand editors, and still need more. 

Please please please consider helping with this project.  Contact me at susangerbic@yahoo.com and I'll help you get started.

Thank you

How you can be tracked by your car or cell phone

First, re your car.  A Salon column explains that automated license-plate readers tied to data analysis and storage capability allow your movements to be tracked:

The inconspicuous devices are sometimes installed at fixed points, as the DEA has been doing in several border states, but they’re most often mounted on local police cruisers, where they automatically scan and record every license plate that comes within range of their optical sensor.

When they pass an LPR-equipped police car, drivers both innocent and guilty have their whereabouts recorded and tagged with GPS coordinates, along with a color photo and a time stamp. The resulting information is often kept for years, allowing law enforcement to engage in a kind of retroactive surveillance to find out who was where, and at what time.

The data is collected and accessed without the need for warrants or probable cause, because courts have so far held that a license plate – which, after all, is posted very clearly on every driver’s bumper – can’t be considered private information. Privacy advocates think the courts may reevaluate that stance, as LPR systems become so widespread that they allow for tracking on a massive scale.

There's discussion at the link as to whether or to what extent this is an invasion of privacy.  For the cell phone, see Cory Doctorow's post at BoingBoing:

Cell phones are tracking devices that make phone calls. It’s sad, but it’s true. Which means software solutions don’t always matter. You can have a secure set of tools on your phone, but it doesn’t change the fact that your phone tracks everywhere you go. And the police can potentially push updates onto your phone that backdoor it and allow it to be turned into a microphone remotely, and do other stuff like that. The police can identify everybody at a protest by bringing in a device called an IMSI catcher. It’s a fake cell phone tower that can be built for 1500 bucks. And once nearby, everybody’s cell phones will automatically jump onto the tower, and if the phone’s unique identifier is exposed, all the police have to do is go to the phone company and ask for their information...

...remember that whatever governments can do with technology, organized criminals can do too (this is doubly true of back-doors that governments mandate in telecoms equipment and software to make spying easier -- they can be used by anyone, not just "good guys").

More info at the link, and many useful reader comments.

Metric American football

...the colleges of Carleton and St. Olaf held the first NCAA-sanctioned metric football game. The “Liter Bowl,” played on September 17, 1977, featured a gridiron measuring 100 meters (109.36 yards) long and 50 meters (54.68 yards) wide. The expanded dimensions favored St. Olaf’s outside running game. The Oles ended up winning the contest—which was supposed to be a game of centimeters—by a score of 43-0.

Text from the MN70s tumblr; image from the Carleton College digital archives.

From the Republican Party platform (1956)

On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln: "The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere."

Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: "In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people's money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative."

While jealously guarding the free institutions and preserving the principles upon which our Republic was founded and has flourished, the purpose of the Republican Party is to establish and maintain a peaceful world and build at home a dynamic prosperity in which every citizen fairly shares.

We shall ever build anew, that our children and their children, without distinction because of race, creed or color, may know the blessings of our free land.

We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.

We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.

To these beliefs we commit ourselves as we present this record and declare our goals for the future. 

Excerpted from the complete document.

Fire tornado

YouTube link. 

Here's a still image of a fire tornado at a domestic fire, and here is a video showing you how to make a fire tornado in your back yard.

YouTube link. 

The bottom video is via Physics Buzz.

"Jesus said to them, my wife"

A most interesting article in the Harvard Gazette today:

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies today.

King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the existence of the ancient text at the congress’ meeting, held every four years and hosted this year by the Vatican’s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. The four words that appear on the fragment translate to “Jesus said to them, my wife.” The words, written in Coptic, a language of Egyptian Christians, are on a papyrus fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches.

 “Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim,” King said. “This new gospel doesn’t prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry, but it was over a century after Jesus’ death before they began appealing to Jesus’ marital status to support their positions.”..

The gospel of which the fragment is but a small part, which King and Luijendijk have named the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife for reference purposes, was probably originally written in Greek, the two professors said, and only later translated into Coptic for use among congregations of Coptic-speaking Christians. King dated the time it was written to the second half of the second century because it shows close connections to other newly discovered gospels written at that time, especially the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Philip...

The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, if it was originally written in the late second century, suggests that the whole question of Jesus’ marital status only came up over a century after Jesus died as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage, King said. King noted that contemporary debates over celibate clergy, the roles of women, sexuality, and marriage demonstrate that the issues were far from resolved.

“The discovery of this new gospel,” King said, “offers an occasion to rethink what we thought we knew by asking what role claims about Jesus’ marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy, and family. Christian tradition preserved only those voices that claimed Jesus never married. The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife now shows that some Christians thought otherwise.” 

More at the link, where there is also a video of Karen King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, discussing the authenticity and interpretation of the papyrus fragment.  It's worth emphasizing that this item does not prove Jesus was married; it proves that some early Christians thought he was married.

Amazing baseball cards found in an attic

From an AP story earlier this summer, via the StarTribune:

DEFIANCE, Ohio - Karl Kissner picked up a soot-covered cardboard box that had been under a wooden dollhouse in his grandfather's attic. Taking a look inside, he saw hundreds of baseball cards bundled with twine. They were smaller than the ones he was used to seeing...

The cards are from an extremely rare series issued around 1910. Up to now, the few known to exist were in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn edges. But the ones from the attic in the town of Defiance are nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white...

The best of the bunch — 37 cards — are expected to bring a total of $500,000 when they are sold at auction in August during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. There are about 700 cards in all that could be worth up to $3 million, experts say. They include such legends as Christy Mathewson and Connie Mack.

Kissner and his family say the cards belonged to their grandfather, Carl Hench, who died in the 1940s. Hench ran a meat market in Defiance, and the family suspects he got them as a promotional item from a candy company that distributed them with caramels. They think he gave some away and kept others...

The Hench family is evenly dividing the cards and the money among the 20 cousins named in their aunt's will. All but a few have decided to sell their share.

Pretty good video at the link.  Presumably some of these have been sold by now, but I haven't seen the report.

The "fiscal cliff" explained

Informed readers are aware that the U.S. is facing a "fiscal cliff."  It has been more alluded to than specifically discussed in the broadcast media, but there is a detailed explanation at (where else?) Wikipedia.  For today, I'll just offer some excerpts from a nice summary at The Guardian:

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a man of endless accommodation, drew a hard line under the one thing he could not do to save the US economy. Bernanke told the press:

"If the 'fiscal cliff' isn't addressed … I don't think our tools are strong enough to offset the effects of a major fiscal shock." 

The warning was clear: a "fiscal cliff" could cause the Lehman moment of all Lehman moments. It didn't even send a ripple through Washington. Congress went on campaigning and strategizing over election-year politics. They've heard it before. Nothing will be done until after the election. And when something is done, it will be done at the last minute, in the latest custom of these economic disputes...

Here's what to expect: shortly after 1 January, unless Congress intervenes beforehand, we'll see two things happen: $100bn of automatic spending cuts, along with the demise of a batch of tax cuts that have been a crutch for the weak economy – the Bush-era tax cuts that have kept taxes low for eight years; and Obama's 2% payroll-tax holiday....

Each of these separately – tax hikes or spending cuts – would not be enough to dent the US economy by much. But together, the spending cuts and the tax hikes are enormous. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Congressional Budget Office both expect that a recession would immediately follow if Congress does not address the fiscal cliff.

The spending cuts, for instance, will add up to $100bn pulled out of the economy by the government, in everything from the defense budget to Medicare. The idea is to reduce the federal deficit by $1tn over 10 years. The tax hikes will return tax rates to what they were before 2003, which means the top tax rate for households could be over 39%, according to press reports.

There are two tricky things about fixing this particular problem. The first is the politics. Everyone in Congress knows this will be a hard-fought battle, and they're happy to put it off.  

Say no more.  Congress and the President haven't done diddly-shit about this and obviously won't until after the election in Novermber, because nothing they do will please everyone, and they all want to get re-elected.  They are just kicking the can down the *%#@ road.

But here's some additional insight from the article:

The question is whether it's already here. There's reason to believe that Congress's delay in addressing the fiscal cliff has already had a psychological effect on corporate America. A group of economists told the Wall Street Journal that is exactly what is happening: They blame our lackluster recovery this year on a pullback in spending and investment by US companies, which are afraid that the fallout from a fiscal cliff could compromise their ability to find funding or function normally. They've been preparing by essentially rolling into the fetal position in preparation.

Creative dog grooming

Meet Duchess, one of many dogs included in the annual Pet Stylist Super Show in Knoxville, Tenn. The highlight of the event is the Creative Grooming competition, where owners use nontoxic dyes to "design" their pets. Duchess will be transformed into a member of the Queens Court from "Alice in Wonderland."

 

Sami Stanley works on her standard poodle, which has a dragon sculptured on one side and a jumping gold fish on the other. She calls it a Zen poodle.

When i create posts about dog grooming (Aug 2009, Oct 2011), I have to restrain myself from offering disparaging comments.  I am reminded by a variety of readers that these people love their dogs, and the dogs love the attention.

So I'll just post the pix and let the res loquitur for ipse.

There are additional examples of artistically enhanced dogs in a photoessay at ABC News.  Both of the above photos credit Meredith Frost/ABC News, via the always interesting Rue The Day.

Marriage in the Bible

It's not as simple as some would suggest.  Here are some excerpts from a column at Salon written by an Anglican bishop:

Some people would have you believe that marriage began with Adam and Eve. But in the account in Genesis where Adam and Eve become one flesh (presumably through their mutual commitment and sexual intimacy), there is no mention of an “institution” of marriage nor any liturgy, vows, promises or other ritual used to solemnize their relationship. This prehistorical account can only serve as a backdrop to the meaning (not the “institution”) of marriage that developed over time.

The fact of the matter is, marriage has not been consistent or unchanging over time. Indeed, even in biblical times, we see a constant evolution in the practice of marriage. One man and one woman, united in marriage for life, mutually exclusive and “faithful” sexually, and joined because of their love for each other, is a relatively modern notion of marriage. Such was not the case in ancient times.

From the earliest Old Testament accounts, polygamy seemed to be the practice of the day. Or, to be more accurate, polygyny (the practice of polygamy by males, not females) was practiced. In the ancient Hebrew culture, having more than one wife was commonplace. In addition to multiple wives, men who were wealthy enough to have slaves or concubines had sexual relationships with them. Even Abraham — father to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — when he was unable to produce an heir with his wife, Sarah, had a son by his slave Hagar. Abraham’s grandson Jacob married two sisters, Leah and Rachel. King Solomon was renowned not only for his wisdom and wealth but also for his 700 wives and 300 concubines! Over the years, marriage customs evolved, and by Jesus’ time divorce was discouraged and monogamy increasingly became the standard...

Jesus is quite clear that marriage is to be for a lifetime and that divorce is a serious issue, permitted to a man only in the case of “unchastity.” For either a man or a woman to marry anyone after divorce (“except on the ground of unchastity”), Jesus tells his disciples, is to commit “adultery” (Matthew 19:9; 5:31– 32; Mark 10:11– 12; Luke 16:18)...

More re biblical marriage and the subsequent evolution of the concept at the Salon link.