Mile High

MileHigh.jpg
Two visitors from Virginia sit a mile above sea level on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol. After the original marker was stolen four times, the step was carved in 1947 to read “ONE MILE ABOVE SEA LEVEL.” In 1969, engineering students from Colorado State University found the measurement was incorrect. They marked their concept of one mile with the the brass marker you can see between the boys. Last year yet another correction was made. That marker, a few feet lower than the others is not shown in this photograph, but click here to see a close up.

For all the attitude about being a mile high, you’d think Colorado could measure it consistently.

Historians rate the Bush Presidency

A very unscientific survey of historians by History News Network:

Of 415 historians who expressed a view of President Bush’s administration to this point as a success or failure, 338 classified it as a failure and 77 as a success. (Moreover, it seems likely that at least eight of those who said it is a success were being sarcastic, since seven said Bush’s presidency is only the best since Clinton’s and one named Millard Fillmore.) Twelve percent of all the historians who responded rate the current presidency the worst in all of American history, not too far behind the 19 percent who see it at this point as an overall success.

It’s a lengthy, detailed (with charts, no less) essay.

And, to be honest, NewMexiKen would not link to this if it documented the opposite. I like corroborating my own assessment.

Climbing

AAA says the national average for unleaded regular yesterday was $2.009, up 20 cents in a month. The highest state average price for regular is $2.318 in California. The lowest, South Carolina at $1.856.

On the trip to Denver and back this week NewMexiKen paid as little as $1.999 and as much as $2.199 for mid-grade.

The highest price for gasoline in constant dollars was $2.812 in 1981. We still have a ways to go to break the record.

Hole in the head

Wired News: New Dinosaur Stumps Scientists.

A curious piece of bone spotted by a University of Pennsylvania professor during a horseback ride in southern Montana led to the discovery of a new dinosaur with a long neck, a whip-like tail and a mysterious extra hole in its skull.

The new find — a Suuwassea emilieae — is a sauropod, a classification of plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails, small heads and four elephant-like legs. At 50 feet long, it’s a smaller cousin of better-known sauropods Diplodocus and Apatosaurus.

The 150-million-year-old creature is described (PDF) by scientists in the current issue of the paleontology journal, Acta Paleontologica Polonica.

“It has a number of distinguishing features, but the most striking is this second hole in its skull, a feature we have never seen before in a North American dinosaur,” said Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study….

Scientists are probably over-thinking this. NewMexiKen’s theory is that one day this dinosaur said “I need that like I need a hole in the head” and another dinosaur obliged him.

Brown v. Board of Education

NewMexiKen missed noting the actual anniversary of the Brown decision on Monday, so let me do so in a simple way. Of all the “important” people I have ever seen in person — and that includes presidents, at least one king and one queen, cabinet heads, sports figures and celebrities — the one I treasure most was a glimpse of Chief Justice Earl Warren at the New York World’s Fair (1964).

Jon Stewart, William & Mary, Class of ’84

Jon Stewart’s Commencement Address at William & Mary. Geez, when NewMexiKen attended William & Mary graduations the speakers were (yawn) James Baker and (yawn, yawn) George Will.

Some highlights:

I know there were some parents that were concerned about my speech here tonight, and I want to assure you that you will not hear any language that is not common at, say, a dock workers union meeting, or Tourrett’s convention, or profanity seminar. Rest assured.

Today is the day you enter into the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is. It’s actually not that different from the environment here. The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by three-foot brick wall. And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors—they are poor. Help them. And in the real world, there is not as much candle lighting. I don’t really know what it is about this campus and candle lighting, but I wish it would stop. We only have so much wax, people.

College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency which I imagine, after going through the program here, is quite strong….

Talking the Talk

From Sideline Chatter in The Seattle Times (catching up from earlier in the week):

• Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe, to The Denver Post, on his academic career: “I was a terrible student. I graduated ‘Thank You Lawde.’ ”

• Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times, on the Pac-10’s stance on adding an extra national-title game to football’s bowl season: “The conference is adamantly opposed to extending play beyond the regular season, and proved it this year in the NCAA basketball tournament.”

• Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel, on Jessica Simpson singing the national anthem at this year’s Indianapolis 500: “At least we won’t have to worry about the (exhaust) fumes killing any of her brain cells.”

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

Sunday, Pope John Paul II canonized Dr. Molla. The Catholic Community Forum tells us:

Mother of three, she continued her medical career, treating it as a mission and gift from God. During her pregnancy with her fourth child, she was diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst. Her surgeon recommended an abortion in order to save Gianna’s life; she refused and died a week after childbirth, caring more for doing right by her unborn child than for her own life.

And, apparently, also caring more for her unborn child than for her living children, ages 5, 4 and 2.

See also the Blessed Gianna web site for background such as: “She became engaged to Pietro Molla and was radiant with joy and happiness during the time of their engagement, for which she thanked and praised the Lord.”

Thanks to Quirky Burque for the pointer.

Homesteading

In case you were wondering, public land was sold to homesteaders before the Homestead Act made it essentially free. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, the price was $1.25 an acre.

The Homestead Act

From Today in History at the Library of Congress:

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of continuous residence. Designed to spur Western migration, the Homestead Act culminated a twenty-year battle to distribute public lands to citizens willing to farm. Concerned free land would lower property values and reduce the cheap labor supply, Northern businessmen opposed the movement. Unlikely allies, Southerners feared homesteaders would add their voices to the call for abolition of slavery. With Southerners out of the picture in 1862, the legislation finally passed.

The National Park Service provides some additional background.

People interested in Homesteading first had to file their intentions at the nearest Land Office. A brief check for previous ownership claims was made for the plot of land in question, usually described by its survey coordinates. The prospective homesteader paid a filing fee of $10 to claim the land temporarily, as well as a $2 commission to the land agent.

With application and receipt in hand, the homesteader then returned to the land to begin the process of building a home and farming the land, both requirements for “proving” up at the end of five years. When all requirements had been completed and the homesteader was ready the take legal possession, the homesteader found two neighbors or friends willing to vouch for the truth of his or her statements about the land’s improvements and sign the “proof” document.

After successful completion of this final form and payment of a $6 fee, the homesteader received the patent for the land, signed with the name of the current President of the United States. This paper was often proudly displayed on a cabin wall and represented the culmination of hard work and determination.

What’s Going On?

The great Marvin Gaye album, What’s Going On, was released on this date 33 years ago. The title song is so sadly pertinent still.

Listen to the song and its story from the NPR 100.

Across the Pond

Charles Lindbergh departed Long Island for Paris on this date in 1927.

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland on this date in 1932, the first woman to solo the Atlantic.

James Stewart…

was born on this date in 1908. Stewart was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role five times, winning for The Philadelphia Story in 1941; the other four: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, Harvey and Anatomy of a Murder.

The Orgy in Your Backyward

University of Wyoming Professor Jeffrey A. Lockwood celebrates the cicadas. His essay in The New York Times concludes:

We would do well, I believe, to begin to think of periodical cicadas as moving, living national parks. Maybe the Department of [the] Interior should declare a new category: national events. These would be wondrous natural happenings that define the character of our nation, occasions that warrant our attention, or processes that merit celebration. These events would honor the ways in which we are connected to the earth, recognizing that we are embedded in a marvelous natural world.

As candidates, I’d propose the migration of monarch butterflies from Mexico to Canada that unites our continent, the flickering of fireflies that turns suburban hedges into enchanted forests, the bugling of elk in the Rockies that is as primordial a sound as one could ever hear, and the turning of leaves in the New England autumn that reminds us of the cycle of life and death in which, for all of our medical technology, we are still a part.

And I nominate the exuberant arrival of the periodical cicadas as the inaugural national event. Rather than a few million of us visiting Yosemite or Yellowstone this summer, a few trillion cicadas will come to visit us. They will remind us that the world is yet to be tamed and that wonder is our birthright. Even staid scientists are entranced by these creatures — why else would the genus have been named Magicicada?

NewMexiKen notes that Professor Lockwood does not reside where he has to deal with these trillions of pests.