Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 119
July 16, 2009
Doin' It All for Xbalanque
Though the practice of seppuku is virtually synonmous with ritual suicide, it's worth noting that feudal Japan hardly had a monopoly on ceremonial self-slaughter. The Mayans were also enthusiasts, though the details of their process obviously differed from those of their peers across the Pacific. As this fascinating paper makes clear, the Mayan method involved the severing of one's carotid artery with an axe or knife, then dancing until Death came knocking.
At least that was the ritual in its pur
The Final Word on Cloud Seeding?
India's making a big, expensive stab at determining once-and-for-all whether man can make it rain. (No, not in the figurative sense.) Color us a little skeptical; we've always thought that positive cloud-seeding results were often due more to luck than the effects of sprinkled silver iodide. (For the umpteenth time, people, correlation is not causation.) And this recent Scientific American interview with an American cloud-seeding expert doesn't do much to allay our suspicions. Note the man's cau
July 15, 2009
The Eyes of Ms. T.J. Eckleburg Diaz
We recently stumbled across the photo above while sifting through the National Archives "Picturing the Century" website, in search of images of child coal miners. Something about the two girls' sharply differing expressions stuck with us—the one on the left strikes us as the contemplative member of the duo, the one on the right the impulsive hellraiser. The caption, alas, provides little background as to who these girls were, or how they ended up gazing into the lens:
Two Latin girls pose in fro
The Mysterious Mr. Mason
Talk about one-hit wonders: the above tune, famously sampled in a couple of hip-hop gems, appears to be the only single ever churned out by Lee Mason & His Orchestra. The group is so obscure, in fact, that it's often not even credited with "Shady Blues"; the song was apparently re-released in the U.K. under the name Pete Moore, and it's Moore who usually receives the credit on soul compilations. But the genius here is actually all Mason's, right down to the flute solo.
We'll follow up soon with
Poison on the March
A loyal reader recently sent us the above graph, culled from a recent issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The accompanying text only explains what's obvious to even the untrained eye: as the age-adjusted death rates linked to firearms and motor-vehicle accidents have declined, poison has become an increasingly efficient killer of Americans.
Does this mean our nation's children are becoming more proficient at opening kitchen cabinets and getting at the cleaning supplies? Not at all—th
July 14, 2009
The King of Guyana, via The Cleve
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of Father Bernard Darke, a Jesuit priest who worked as a photographer for a Catholic newspaper in Guyana. Darke was beaten to death while snapping pictures of an anti-government protest. His assailants were all members of one of the most curious quasi-religious groups to ever grace the Western Hemisphere: the House of Israel, a black supremacist cult that doubled as a paramilitary in the service of Guyanese President Forbes Burnham.
The House of Isra
The Man Behind Eddie
We were never the biggest fan of Iron Maiden's music, with the possible exception of "Prowler" (later memorably covered by the great Trans Am). But we've always had a soft spot for the band's ghoulish cover art, starring a wrinkly, gore-loving skeleton called Eddie. So yesterday, when we saw a fellow Harlemite non-ironically sporting a t-shirt from the Dance of Death tour, we were inspired to learn about the artist who brought Eddie to the world.
His name is Derek Riggs, and he's apparently quite
Airplanes Out to Pasture
Depression v2.0 may be rough all around, but that doesn't mean there aren't more than a few economic winners amidst the widespread misery. You already knew about foreclosure specialists and pawn shops; now cast your jealous gaze toward the folks who operate commercial airplane graveyards, where flailing carriers are stashing the aging jets they can no longer afford to keep aloft. And judging by the stats, airlines are far more eager to cast off Airbus models than Boeings—perhaps because of Euro-
July 13, 2009
"Dim the Lights and Turn Up the Jodeci"
Been meaning to post this Lost Boyz classic for ages, but it took the invention of the Grooveshark widget to provide the necessary technological push. We were definitely latecomers to this whole album, and for years our fandom extended only as far as the remixed version of "The Yearn" (which we actually scooped up on a Pete Rock compilation). But the cut above came on shuffle a few months back, and we've been revisiting it on a regular basis ever since. Great song, but not exactly a mood bright
Mailroom Intelligence
We first fell in love with the oral-history format eons ago, when a copy of Studs Terkel's The Good War found its way into our grubby hands. Ever since, we've rarely passed up the opportunity to comb through typed-up question-and-answer sessions with the sorts of characters who otherwise would be excluded from the history books. And our diligence has paid off handsomely on occasion—we were able to track down the only man known to have met Herman Perry's half-Naga son by stumbling upon a nugget a
