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Francis Galton’s Eugenic Novel Kantsaywhere Published Online

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2011Cultureeugenic marriage, eugenic novel, eugenics, father of eugenics, forensic fingerprinting, francis galton, kantsaywhere

Francis Galton’s eugenic novel Kantsaywhere has been published for the first time by UCL. (more…)

‘The History of Angels’

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2011Cultureangels, angels are everywhere, archangels, authorities, Bible, celestial hierarchy, cherubim, christ as an angel, christian ascetic monks, christians, companion angels, diane swanbrow, dominions, early years of christianity, egyptian monks, ellen muehlberger, guardian angel, keepsake ornaments, lapel pins, magnetic dashboard figures, near eastern studies, north american christianity, principalities, pulitzer prize winning play, seraphim, song of the angels, syria, thrones, united states, university of michigan, virtues, virtuous behaviour, widespread modern notions about angels, william adolphe bouguereau, worldly activities

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Angels are everywhere today—on lapel pins, magnetic dashboard figures, keepsake ornaments and in a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. But interest in angels is more than a contemporary fad. According to a University of Michigan historian, angels stirred intense interest in the early years of Christianity as well.

“Just as many people today think of pets as part of their families, many people in the first 500 years of Christianity were convinced that angels were part of their lives,” said Ellen Muehlberger, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies and history at the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. (more…)

Women See Naked Men Differently Too

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2011Culture, Scienceability, amount of skin shown, bedroom, benevolent sexism, career advancement, factors, feminist theory, inanimate object, kinds of mind view, kurt gray, men and women, mind, negative effects, northeastern university, people with bare skin, perception, psychologist, revealing attire, self control, sexes, united states, university of maryland, yale

COLLEGE PARK, Md – For both men and women, wearing revealing attire causes them to be seen as more sensitive but less competent, says a new study by University of Maryland psychologist Kurt Gray and colleagues from Yale and Northeastern University. (more…)

From the Man Who Played God, a Vampire and a Statesman: Don’t quit

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011Culture, Entertainment1968, academy award for best actor, academy award winning actor, actor, brilliant director, broadway debut, bruce almighty, chubb fellow, clint eastwood, driving miss daisy, fast black, film studies program, glory, god, hello dolly, invictus, jackson state university, james bundy, long walk to freedom, los angeles, lucious fox, million dollar baby, mississippi born actor, morgan freeman, ned logan, nelson mandela, new york, nobel peace prize winning statesman, pbs children show, ron gregg, sergeant major john rawlins, south african leader, street smart, the dark knight, the electric company, the shawshank redemption, unforgiven, us air force, vincent the vegetable vampire, woolsey hall, yale

Woolsey Hall was packed with his fans on Nov. 8 when Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman took the stage for an “Actor’s Studio”-styled interview with Ron Gregg, a senior lecturer and programming director in Yale’s Film Studies Program.

Among those who came out to see the 74-year-old-actor — visiting the campus as a Chubb Fellow —was a 95-year old woman who listened as Freeman described his acting career and his history on television, in theater and in film. When given the opportunity to ask a question, she simply gushed, “Morgan Freeman, I love you. I’ve seen every movie you’ve been in.” She then told him, “I don’t want to show you any disrespect” for being so bold. (more…)

Dr. Livingstone’s Lost 1871 ‘Massacre’ Diary Recovered; Discovery Rewrites History

By Guest PostNovember 3, 2011Culture, General1874, account of a massacre, adrian wisnicki, africa, arab slavers, birkbeck, british academy, british government, central africa, congolese village, david livingstone, doug emery, east african slave trade, eastern democratic republic of congo, evening standard, expedition, henry m stanley, horace waller, imperialist in africa, indiana university of pennsylvania, ink from berry seeds, keith knox, livingstone 1871 field diary, london standard, mike toth, national hero, new york herald, nyangwe, original diary, roger l easton jr, slave trade, spectral imaging, the last journals of david livingstone, the unspeakable horror, ucla, united states, university of london, victorian explorer

In Africa 140 years ago, David Livingstone, the Victorian explorer, met Henry M. Stanley of the New York Herald and gave him a harrowing account of a massacre he witnessed, in which slave traders slaughtered 400 innocent people. Stanley’s press reports prompted the British government to close the East African slave trade, secured Livingstone’s place in history and launched Stanley’s own career as an imperialist in Africa.

Today, an international team of scholars and scientists led by Dr. Adrian Wisnicki of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, publishes the results of an 18-month project to recover Livingstone’s original account of the massacre. The story, found in a diary that was illegible until it was restored with advanced digital imaging, offers a unique insight into Livingstone’s mind during the greatest crisis of his last expedition, on which he would die in 1873. (more…)

Black and White American Voters Live in One Country, But Two Different Worlds

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2011Culture, Politicsafrican american problems, african americans, aftermath of hurricane katrina, Barack Obama, black political effectiveness, change, euphoria, first black president, katrina disaster, michael dawson, new orleans hurricane in 2005, political outlook of blacks in america, racial harmony, the nadir of black politics, uchicago political scientist, united states, university of chicago, warfare in iraq and afghanistan, william harms

The political outlook of blacks in America has undergone dramatic swings in the last ten years — from the depths of powerlessness during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to the zenith with the election of the first black president, Barack Obama.

Now, with another presidential election looming, blacks are again confronting new issues as they judge and sometimes question the impact of Obama’s election, contends UChicago political scientist Michael Dawson, whose work finds sharp contrasts between how African Americans and whites feel about their country. (more…)

Fighting Violent Gang Crime with Math

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2011Culture, Scienceactivity on social networks, alexey stomakhin, algorithm, andrea bertozzi, anthropology, applied mathematics, crime patterns, crime patterns of the hollenbeck gang network, criminal activity between gangs, east los angeles police district, gang crimes, hollenbeck, jeffrey brantingham, lapd, los angeles police department, martin short, mathematical algorithm, missing information, police, set of simulated data, sophisticated methods, street gangs, the best job in the world, ucla mathematicians, victim or perpetrator, violent crimes

UCLA mathematicians working with the Los Angeles Police Department to analyze crime patterns have designed a mathematical algorithm to identify street gangs involved in unsolved violent crimes. Their research is based on patterns of known criminal activity between gangs, and represents the first scholarly study of gang violence of its kind.

The research appears today on the website of the peer-reviewed mathematical journal Inverse Problems and will be published in a future print edition. (more…)

Joint Palestinian-American Dig Near Jericho Yields Clues About Early Islamic Culture

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2011Cultureamericans and palestinians, archaeologists, artifacts, bananas and lush vegetation, Bible, byzantine empire, caliph, christian and islamic communities, citrus fruits, city, culture, donald whitcomb, early islamic site, forbidden in islam, gil stein, hamdan taha, hisham palace, iconic site, ipads, islam, islamic civilization, jericho, joint palestinian american project, joshua, khirbet al mafjar, mafjar project, michael jennings, middle east, nephew, north of jericho, palestinian, palestinian director of antiquities, qasr hisham, rome, rule of caliph hisham, spatial relationship, sub tropical environment of palms, Technology, the tree of life, walid

As the Byzantine Empire was in decline, Islam began to dominate the Middle East, with a remarkable culture that showed a command of technology and an appreciation of art and decoration, research by archaeologists shows.

In order to study Islamic civilization in its earliest days, Donald Whitcomb, who directs the Islamic Archaeology project at the Oriental Institute, is undertaking a project with Palestinian colleagues to further excavate an early Islamic site north of Jericho that contains a palace, a bathhouse and what was probably a settlement to the north. (more…)

Category Archives: Culture