As many of you may already know, Google often has a themed homepage. Yesterday was Big Bird, today is Cookie Monster. Might there be some Sesame Street anniversary going on? Yes. The show will be 40 years old on the 10th of this month. Expect to see a different character for the next five days (I'm guessing Kermit will be the theme on the 10th itself). However, today's character, Cookie Monster, actually has a further Google connection.
Behold The Google Song--recorded 16 years before the corporation of Google even existed. Enjoy!
I stole this post title from the BBC article of the same name--it was just toooo good not to reuse. The study in the article is basically one of micropaleantology. The researches dug through soil, dated when the soil was deposited, then looked for fossils under the microscope. Specifically, they were looking for dung mite fossils. These mites, related to your everyday dust mites, live in the droppings of everyone's favorite Andean beast of burden. So by sampling soils from different geographical areas and historical strata, and counting the dung mite fossils, they were able to determine approximate population sizes for different regions during different epochs.
What they found was a huge increase emanating from Cuzco in the 15th century, then a big drop-off after the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. This is not exactly big news to Latin American historians, but I think it's neat to see the convergence of such diverse disciplines.
With that, I'll leave you with the Llama Song. (WARNING: IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, DO NOT LET THEM LISTEN TO THIS OR YOU WILL BE FOREVER CURSED WITH ITS REPEATING MONOTONOUS MELODY!)
The second season of HBO's series Rome debuts tomorrow night and a certain blogger is very excited about it.
Last season ended with the assasination of Julius Caesar, and this season I envisage to be about the rise of Octavian (as brilliantly played by the talented Max Pirkis). It appears that the central event this season will be The Battle of Philippi. This was where the Triumvirate led by Octavian Caesar and Marc Antony defeated the armies of the conspirators Brutus and Cassius.
Here's how Anthony Everitt described the second battle (there were two battles over 24 days) in his book AUGUSTUS.
Late in the afternoon of October 23, he (Brutus) led out his troops and combat commenced. There seems to have been little in the way of maneuver; the two sides simply slugged it out like tired boxers. Octavian's troops fought bravely, and silence about his whereabouts suggests that their general was sufficiently recovered to lead them. Eventually they began to push the enemy back "as though they were tipping over a very heavy piece of machinery." Retreat turned to rout. Antony led the pursuit until night fell.
In other words, a bloodbath. It should make for good TV.
In the meantime, which Roman Emperor are you?
You scored as Trajan. You are quite fortunate to rank as the emperor Trajan, possibly the greatest of Roman emperors. You have relentlessly expanded the empire and even humbled the mighty Parthian empire. Loved by all, vastly larger than life, you are the model for all future emperors. It is hard to find a bad thing to say about you. HAIL CAESAR!
