Desiccated Paleofecal Matter

And a week later, I provide you this fascinating word of the week to make up for absence last week:

"it has been found that many organic remains can survive surprisingly well after their journey through the human digestive tract, to await the intrepid analyst of desiccated paleofecal matter (often wrongly called coprolites, which means fossilized/petrified excrement)." p. 311 of Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, 5th ed. Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn.

I am DONE learning about how faunal remains survive the vagaries of time to end up on the microscope of an "intrepid analyst" studying ancient poop. This sentence has finished me off for the night.

Tactile Cartography

Tactile maps are a counterpart to Braille--maps for the blind. The lines on tactile maps are raised so that a blind person can trace a route with her fingers. Below see an example of a tactile map as well as a "talking" tactile device. A tactile map is mounted on the talking device, and when the blind person touches a point on the map, the device reads off the place name.

Tuesday Times

Phytoliths

Phytoliths: Minute particles of silica derived from the cells of plants, able to survive after the organism has decomposed or been burned. They are common in ash layers, pottery, and even on stone tools and teeth. They are helpful for understanding the fluctuations in vegetation over time in very ancient times. 

(Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, 5th ed. Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn.)

Birthday Flowers in the new year's light

Snow Falling

Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison: "The first acclamation in the Ordinary of the Latin Mass, sung directly after the introit. The basic text, which is Greek, consists of ‘Kyrie eleison’ (three times), ‘Christe eleison’ (three times), ‘Kyrie eleison’ (three times): ‘Lord, have mercy ... Christ, have mercy ... Lord, have mercy’. The phrase ‘Kyrie eleison’ was used in Eastern and Western litanies from at least the 4th and 5th centuries, and St Gregory the Great (pope 590-604) is credited with establishing its use together with ‘Christe eleison’ in the Roman Mass. By the 10th century the ninefold shape was established" (Taken from the Music Encyclopedia).

To hear Puccini's Kyrie, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj7ZmevJgbw.

Artsy Dabblings (In Dark Conditions)

Rallentando

Rallentando or rall.: Broadening of music tempo (indistinguishable from ritardando or progressive slowing of tempo).

"Rallentando!" was cried to the masses last Tuesday evening by Irene, director of Gonzaga's chorale and owner of Micah, the poodle.

Consanguines

"Relatives related to ego by descent or filiation and not by marriage are collectively called cognates or consanguines." Kinship: An Introduction to the Basic Concepts, by Robert Parkin (2007), p. 35.

Graduate Student's Microwave

The Lantern

Scheherazade casserole

Scheherazade: in The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is the Sultan's bride who saves her life by maintaining the Sultan's interest in the suspenseful tales she tells.

Etymology: German, Scheherezade, from the Persian, Shīrazād.

The casserole: 1 c. raw bulgur, 1. c. boiling water, 1 Tb. olive oil, 2 c. minced onion, 3 large cloves minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. cumin, 1 and 1/2 tsp. basil, black pepper and cayenne to taste, 1 large diced bell pepper, 3/4 c. soaked soybeans, 14 and 1/2 oz. drained tomatoes, 3 Tb. tomato paste, 1/2 c. finely minced parsley, 1 and 1/2 to 2 c. crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 in. baking pan. Mix the bulgur and boiling water, cover and let stand 15 min. Saute onion, garlic, salt and seasonings in olive oil for 5-8 min. Add bell pepper and saute 5 min. more. Drain soybeans and blend them with 1 c. fresh water--grind them to a coarse batter. Add all ingredients (minus some feta cheese) to the soybean paste, place in baking pan and sprinkle lightly with some of the feta. Cover and bake for 30 min. at 375, then uncover and bake 15 min. more at 350 degrees F. Serve hot (Recipe courtesy of the New Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen).

The meaning of the name: Unknown.

Success of the recipe: Unknown.

Hieratic

Hieratic is a cursive writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related. It was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time consuming hieroglyphs (which were typically only used when incising on stone of some sort, as in tombs, stele, and temple walls). (thanks wikipedia for a concise and more-accurate-than-others definition)

Monique is learning hieratic and it's "challenging, so hopefully rewarding" to learn.

Up Among the Cloudy Tops (or, Mt Rainier in snowy majesty from my little plane)

Another Thinly-Veiled Reference to Lewis