Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 139

Hippos Get the Shaft

In light of February’s horrific chimpanzee attack in Stamford, Connecticut legislators have proposed a sweeping ban on pets deemed capable of harming humans. And they’ve spared no effort in identifying animals who they’d like to render bestia non grata in the Nutmeg State. This entry in the bill’s verboten list caught Microkhan’s eye:

(10) The elephantidae, including, but not limited to, the hippopotamidae, including the hippopotamus.

Now, no question that hippos are dangerous creatures; why, just

“Anyone Should Have Seen Catastrophe Approaching”

The Bengal Famine of 1943 receives barely two paragprahs’ worth of ink in Now the Hell Will Start, a lamentable oversight that we now hope to correct as part of NtHWS Extras Month.

Our interest in the famine has less to do with its devastating scale—as many as 4 million Indians may have perished from hunger—than its obvious preventability. Because so much of Eastern India’s arable land was given over to tea production, the British raj made Burma the region’s bread basket—or, more accurately, its

The Fallibility of Folk Medicine

Since folk-medicine techniques ostensibly develop over many centuries, one would think its practitioners would slowly come to realize that some practices are actually harmful rather than helpful. But, alas, it turns out our species isn’t always aces at connecting cause to effect. And so we keep using treatments that are several degrees worse than doing nothing at all.

One troubling case in point is traditional birthing in Timor-Leste, where infant mortality is unusually high by regional standards

Redoubt in (Almost) Realtime

Alaska’s Mount Redoubt, a 10,197 volcano located a little over 100 miles from Anchorage, is burbling anew. Witness the ashy stir via the Alaska Volcano Observatory’s three Mount Redoubt webcams; Microkhan’s favorite snaps regular pics from the volcano’s northern flank, though the angle from a nearby seismic station is mighty intriguing, too.

I, Milkbot

Growing up in Los Angeles, I always idealized cow milking. It seemed like such a delightful, salt-of-the-earth activity, with just the right amount of grossness thrown in for good measure. Plus, being the curious sort of bairn, I was always fascinated by the thought of tracing my beloved Kraft Singles back to the source.

Turns out, of course, that milking is a royal pain, which is why some dairy farmers are now opting for the Lely Astronaut A3 Robotic Milking System. Unlike many other milking ro

“The World Meets Nobody Halfway”

Let Microkhan go on record as saying that we’ve enjoyed at least one frequently derided Sylvester Stallone flick (the campy-yet-terrifying Cobra). But when it comes to Over the Top, we have no choice but to agree with the masses. Like so many of Sly’s 1980s vehicles, it’s all-too-easy to envision the movie-exec brainstorming that went into this schlock. Someone obviously caught a few minutes of arm wrestling on ESPN, and then ordered his minions to build a movie around the sport. Throw in a tale

“Greater Liberia”

The earliest draft of Now the Hell Will Start contained a long passage about the efforts of Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-Miss.) to deport America’s black population to West Africa. The Bilbo tangent got lost in the shuffle, and probably for the best. But the senator’s vitriol is something to behold, and it’s worth reviving for NtHWS Extras Month. From a 1939 Time magazine article (all offensive language left intact from the original):

Mississippi’s Theodore (”The Man”) Bilbo arose in the Senate one day

Nixon in Ceylon

In 1953, America dispatched Vice-President Richard Nixon to the island nation of Ceylon (still nearly two decades away from being rechristened Sri Lanka). The Eisenhower Administration was mighty worried about reports that Ceylon was shipping strategic materials to newly Communist China, a sign that the former colony might be contemplating an even more dramatic leftward shift. So Nixon alighted in Colombo, intent on letting the Ceylonese know that the United States was the Cold War side to choos

The Novelty of Schizophrenia

An intriguing debate (PDF) over whether schizophrenia is a uniquely modern disease. Given the ailment’s genetic origins, Microkhan has long assumed that it’s been with our species since time immemorial. But based on their examination from 15th-century Islamic medical textbooks, a pair of South Carolina doctors disagree:

Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu (1385-1470) was a general physician who practiced during the 15th century in central Anatolia, which is now Turkey. Written in Turkish with Sabuncuoglu’s ow

“…Like Them Dudes in Red Shirts Off Star Trek”

Breaking early today to head downtown and catch a screening of Adam. (Thanks, James.) In my absence, enjoy the above slice o’ lyrical genius from MF Doom (or, as he now prefers to be called, DOOM). Any rapper who knows his Star Trek minutiae is worthy of only the highest praise.