Why the vast emptiness of space isn't really that empty after all

Why the vast emptiness of space isn't really that empty after all

Space-time may seem empty, but the expanse between stars is filled with more interesting stuff than you may think, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

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Remote-learning technology just isn't good enough and won't be soon

Remote-learning technology just isn't good enough and won't be soon

Home schooling in the coronavirus pandemic has been the time for educational technology to shine, but flaws have meant it hasn't lived up to its promise, says Justin Reich

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Why you probably aren't as moral as you think you are

Why you probably aren't as moral as you think you are

Thanks to virtual reality, we can run experiments that test what people will do in situations where lives are on the line. We often find people act against what they claim to regard as morally acceptable, says Sylvia Terbeck

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Email should be obsolete by now, so why are we still using it?

Email should be obsolete by now, so why are we still using it?

Email is often slow, dull and annoying, yet its dogged determination has allowed it to weather dramatic changes in technology over the decades, writes Annalee Newitz

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Neetu Kapoor is Rehearsing for Ranbir Kapoor- Alia Bhatt's Wedding? Video Below

 

Neetu Kapoor is Rehearsing for Ranbir Kapoor- Alia Bhatt's Wedding? Video Below

A video of Neetu Kapoor rehearsing dance steps on Ranbir Kapoor's song has gone viral and fans are assuming it's for RK and Alia Bhatt's wedding. Watch the Video here...

Are they or are they not? Since last year rumour mills are abuzz that Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor are all set to take their relationship to the next level and get married in a traditional way. Alia stood like a rock by the Kapoor family during the sad times, when veteran actor Rishi Kapoor left for his heavenly abode on April 30.

It's been more than 2 years now since Alia and Ranbir are head-over-heels in love with each other and look every bit adorable together. It was during Filmfare Awards 2019 when a Raazi actress had confessed her love for beau Ranbir Kapoor on national TV.

While the wedding rumours of Alia and Ranbir don’t seem to die down anytime soon, a new video of Neetu Kapoor with Bollywood’s famous wedding Choreographer has added fuel to fire.Industry's renowned wedding and sangeet choreographer Rajesh Singh recently shared a video of Neetu Kapoor dancing with him.

Watch the video below and read a few more comments.

The short clip sees the former actress grooving to son Ranbir Kapoor’s Ghagra song from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Well, the video has left social media wondering if she’s prepping up for her son's wedding.

Well, yes! Not us but after watching Neetu Kapoor dancing with Master Rajesh Singh, social media is of saying that Neetu is gearing up for Ranbir and Alia’s sangeet performance.

A user asked, “Is this for Alia and RK wedding,” while another said, “Pls don't tell me this is for Alia n Ranbir's wedding plss I hate alia.”

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My Complicated Relationship with Mike Zunino , by Bayram Cigerli

My Complicated Relationship with Mike Zunino , by Bayram Cigerli 

My Complicated Relationship with Mike Zunino

Several years ago our Seattle Mariners took a catcher from the University of Florida (his choice of school could have been a clue) with the #3 pick in the draft.  This catcher was going to be special; he could command a pitching staff and had RAW power.  On paper, Mike Zunino was a unicorn for the catching position, he had a glove and bat that were scouted as plus skills.  After being drafted in June, we saw our first glimpse of our top prospect by September, and it looked like Jack Z had finally hit on a high draft pick.

Mike has gone from a can't miss to a, "God I wish he'd just hit .240 and cut back on strike outs."  I began to refer to him as Mike "0-2 Count" Zunino.  It got to a point I felt like I could get him out by peppering the outside corner with my 75+ mph fastball and an 0-2 breaking ball.  He flailed at breaking balls like the 9 hitter who's parents made him play back in 7th grade summer ball.  Zunino became a disappointment and Jack Z was fired; he was on his way to bust territory, and early this year was replaced by a 38 year old catcher and a guy named Tuffy.  I wanted him run out of town and rid our organization of having to wait for him to arrive.

Zunino became the butt of a lot of jokes on my Twitter account for about a year.  He could do nothing right in the box and it was my way (and other fans as well) of dealing with our lineup's easy out.  Although I kept joking about his failures, deep down I felt a little bad.  By all accounts, Mike Zunino is a great human being; someone young athletes should look up to.  It's probably just the whole Gator look, but he reminds me of Tim Tebow; bad at his position, but an exceptional person.  Unfortunately for Mike and Tebow, in sports low level play leads to hatred from fans.  Not hate in the normal sense of the word, but hate nonetheless.  I didn't want to see Mike suffer an injury or fall out of baseball completely, I just wanted him to finish his career away from Seattle and let someone who could go the other way with a pitch take his AB's in the lineup.

Sports hate is funny.  It's something that we all have, and in tense moments it rises and causes us to yell at inanimate objects like TV's or car radios.  I hate Mike Trout.  I hate Jose Altuve.  I hate Kobe Bryant.  I hate Tome Brady.  I think hate is the wrong word; it describes the feeling, but not the intent.  I don't want Mike Trout to stop robbing homeruns, just against the Mariners.  I don't want Altuve to stop leading the league in batting average as one of the Seven Dwarves; just go 2 for 12 in his series against the M's.  I want Tom Brady to fail, but who doesn't, he's a cheater.  As a Mariner fan my pessimism and the last 16 years have brought my sports hate to our own team.  Mike Zunino took the brunt of my sports hate toward the Mariners.  It was easy, he looked lost.

As April turned to May, everything I had said about Mike Zunino, the baseball player, on Twitter and to friends was true; he had hit a career low and was headed to Tacoma.  I pondered on whether DiPoto should have just thrown him into the Taijuan and Ketel Marte deal just to free up space on the 25 man roster.  Something happened down there in Tacoma.  And no not like in 2016 when he came back from Tacoma and mashed for a month before reverting back to what we saw in April of this year.  He was laying off the outside pitches and wasn't missing fastballs when he got them.  Mike Zunino is currently hitting around .220-.230 with 15-16 HRs and had the month of Junino.  The average isn't great, and he still strikes out a bit, but if this is what we get from Zunino in the box from here on out, and mix it with his Gold Glove caliber defense, I will be happy to call Mike Zunino our catcher.  It isn't flashy; it isn't all star caliber; it isn't what he was "supposed" to be, but it's what he has become, and is serviceable for an MLB catcher these days.

My sports hate for Mike Zunino has faded recently (he's still young, there's time for it to return), and I'm left wondering who to reallocate it towards.  Another Mariner?  Double up on Odor?  That evil ginger in Anaheim, Calhoun?  Well there's still time to figure that out, but from now on Zunino has my trust, as a fan (for whatever that counts), to be the general of our defense and keep becoming consistent at the plate; even if it's .230 with occasional 2B and HRs consistent.

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Of the Seattle Mariners Part - 3 , Baseball has helped fill that void. by Bayram Cigerli

Of the Seattle Mariners  Part - 3 , Baseball has helped fill that void.  by Bayram Cigerli 

Baseball has helped fill that void.  I love baseball.  I don’t think there is a more appropriate way to put it than that; I LOVE BASEBALL.  Everything about it: 10 to 9 games, 1 to nothing pitcher’s duels, how teams are put together, what the stats say about players, nostalgia, and looking ahead.  It’s a game I spent years of my life trying to understand and I don’t take that for granted.  Some call it boring, others say it’s dying; I say you have to understand it to appreciate it, and there will always be those who appreciate it.  It’s been around longer than football and basketball and isn’t going anywhere.  It’s a simple game, but at the same time complex.  The idea of it in a broad sense is to hit the ball and keep the other team from hitting the ball.  The intricacies of the game become apparent when you’re standing in the batter’s box with another guy standing 60 feet 6 inches away preparing to hurl a small, hard ball at you.  You know it’s coming, but where and how.  Is the pitcher left or right handed?  Is it coming at your body or head or over the heart of the plate?  Is it going to be three feet outside or behind you?  Is it going to be 90 mph or 70 mph?  Is it going to be a straight fastball or a breaking ball?  Is that breaking ball a slider which runs away from you or a curveball that drops off the table?  All of this has to run through your head before you decide to swing or not, and you have to make that decision in a split second.  And that’s just the batter, there are 9 players in the field on defense making similar split second decisions on every pitch.  Pitchers are constantly playing a game of chess to try and keep the hitters off balance.  Thoughts like, ôthey think I’m going to throw a fastball, so I’m going to throw a curveball...but if they think, I think they know I’m throwing the fastball, then they might think I’m throwing the curve, so I should throw the fastballà÷  That’s only two pitches, what if he had a changeup or slider?  Warren Spahn put it best, ôhitting is timing and pitching is upsetting timing.÷  A quote that appears simple, yet holds multitudes of possibilities.

Baseball is a game that can change in an instant.  One swing of the bat or one pitch can decide a game.  In basketball and football, you can hold a lead and kill clock at the end of the game to secure a victory; there is no clock in baseball.  Each team gets 27 outs.  That’s 27 outs to score more runs than the other team.  No matter if you have the lead going into the 9th or not, you and your opponent still get 3 more outs, and anything can happen until that final out is recorded.  You have to pitch to the other team whether you have a lead or not, you can’t just hold the ball and wait for the clock to hit zero.

So what does all this mean?  What do the Sonics have to do with why I love the Mariners?  Why do I live and breathe with a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since I was 11?  Why did I name my dog Griffey?  Is it insanity or loyalty?  Or a mix of both?  

The Mariners are a constant in my life between April and through September (October someday).  Not always a positive constant, but a constant regardless.  In 2008, the Sonics were taken from me, and moved to Oklahoma City.  They were my constant as a child who grew up playing basketball and watching games with my Grandma, and they were snatched away, by greed and a man who claimed Oklahoma City was a better economic market for a professional sports team than Seattle, who had supported the team for 41 years, along with the Mariners and Seahawks.  That hurt.  That still hurts.  In 1995, Ken Griffey Jr. and the Mariners made an improbable run that kept the team in Seattle and ultimately built Safeco Field, and that didn’t happen for the Sonics.  The experience taught me a deeper meaning of the phrase, ôyou don’t always know what you have until it’s gone.÷ I knew the Sonics leaving would hurt; I prepared for it.  I tried to be a Blazers fan, but even the proximity of Portland couldn’t fill the void of Seattle basketball.  The memories of Gary, Shawn, Nate, Ray, Rashard, Hersey, and on and on and on, were still there and still haunt me to this day.  I don’t know if I will ever be able to attend another NBA game in Seattle, but I do know one thing, and that is that I can still attend a Mariner’s game.  They may be heart-breakers and trash, year in and year out, but they’re my pile of trash and misfortune.  I already lost the Sonics and, I don’t want to see the Mariners go.

  

If it makes me insane to put so much into a team that rewards so little, then I don’t want to be sane.  What they have lacked to give me in wins or championship rings, they have made up for with memories and an undying love for a beautiful game.  So I thank you, Ken Griffey Jr., Dave Niehaus, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, Brett Boone, Ichiro, Felix, Adrian Beltre, Kyle Seager...hell even you Dustin Ackley.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank and appreciate you.   See you at the corner of Edgar and Dave for years to come.  My, Oh My! 

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Of the Seattle Mariners Part - 2 by Bayram Cigerli

Of the Seattle Mariners  Part - 2 by Bayram Cigerli 

It just so happened that during this time, the Mariners had also decided to be a fun team with winning ways.  The year 1995 was the year of the Mariners.  They had icons of the game, along with a future icon.  The team was led by the greatest player to ever grace the diamond: The Kid, Ken Griffey Jr.  They also had the most intimidating pitcher to ever take the hill: The Big Unit, Randy Johnson.  From the infectious smile of baseball’s brightest star, to the terror opposing hitters showed at the thought of Mr. Snappy, the 1995 Seattle Mariners made an improbable run into baseball’s postseason, and it almost never happened.  Early in the season, Griffey, the team’s heart and soul, crashed into the centerfield fence making an superhuman catch to steal extra bases, but shattering his wrist in the process.  The team hit the skids and floundered through the All-Star Break.  The M’s were out of it and had been written off, and then August rolled around.  As the season was winding down, the team went on a run that sparked the moniker, The Refuse to Lose Mariners.  Griffey returned and the Baseball Gods looked down favorably on this group of players that the rest of the league had forgotten about.  They just kept winning and forced a one game playoff with the Angels.  They won and went on to eventually play the Evil Empire from New York.  The series was in the Seattle and the Mariners were in a must win situation.  What happened next is simply known as ôThe Double.÷  ôThe Double÷ is a moment that still sends chills up my back when I see or hear Dave Niehaus belt out his excitement over the air waves.  ôThe Double÷ encompassed the entire 1995 season into a single play...into a single pitch.  With two men on, future Hall of Famer (yes, I said future Hall of Famer), Edgar Martinez stepped to the plate and with one swing of the bat saved baseball in Seattle.  Junior rounded third and the whole state waved him in; the throw was late and The Kid jumped into the arms of his teammates.  A dog pile ensued with sport’s most infectious smile beaming from underneath an 18 year old Alex Rodriguez and a pile of Mariner players; the Seattle Mariners had beat the Yankees. Yes those Yankees.  The same Yankees that have 27 World Series rings.  The same Yankees that had all the money in the world.  The same Yankees that fielded teams involving Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris, and keep going on, I’ll wait.  The rumors of the team moving had been, ôlined down the left field line,÷  and when Junior scored, support for a new stadium had a sharp uptick.  The Mariners had us excited about baseball, and the state was screaming, ôMy, Oh My!÷

Two years.  That all happened in two years of my life, at a time when I was fostering Big League and NBA dreams.  I still love basketball as a sport, but not like I love baseball.  The NBA took basketball from me, and I don’t know if I will ever get it back.  Sure I have Gonzaga and Husky basketball, but when you grow up with a Shawn Kemp poster hanging on your wall, sleeping in your Gary Payton jersey, and modeling your jump shot after Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, the Sonics become a part of your life.  A part that has left a void inside me.  

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Of the Seattle Mariners Part - 1

Of the Seattle Mariners  Part - 1 

 Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result (the internet says Albert Einstein said that, but the educated historian in me, knows he probably didn’t).   Insanity...that’s a good way to put it, I guess.  I am insane...I am a Seattle Mariners fan.

 I have and always will be a Mariner’s fan through and through.  Yes, those Mariners.  The same Mariners that haven’t seen the postseason in 16 years.  The same Mariners that had a $100+ million payroll and lost 100 games.  The same Mariners that traded Adam Jones for Erik Bedard.  The same Mariners that had the skinny, A-Rod.  From the Kingdome to Safeco Field, I have listened or watched games with an optimism that some find amusing, but I continue to come back year after year.  I come back with hopes of reliving æ95 or 2001, but I keep getting æ08 or æ10.   The team is a rollercoaster...a rollercoaster with deep lows, but moderate highs.

 I’m deeply rooted in the Seattle Mariners, so my insanity seems terminal.  I hit the age where you start playing organized sports when I lived in a small town on the west side of Washington, called Rainier.  It had nothing to do with the majestic peak, our state is known for, but is a small town of less than 1500 people.  The town had the feel of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley house and all.  Anyway, this is where I started to play organized and backyard sports with my friends.  It just so happened that this point in my life occurred around 1995 and 1996.  If you’re not a Seattle or Washington sports fan, let me put that in perspective.  The Seattle Sonics were still a thing, and, in fact, in the midst of one of their most memorable runs outside the 1979 Championship run.  They had The Glove and The Reign Man (Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp) and I was getting buckets in the Thurston County 2nd and 3rd grade league.  I remember watching the Sonics win their games in Seattle and send the æ96 Finals back to Chicago with a little pressure on MJ and the Bulls.  As the final buzzer sounded, I’d look down the hill from my grandparents house into Seattle from Kent, and see the colorful bursts of the fireworks being shot off the Space Needle.  The city was celebrating with the team and during the late Spring of 1996, every kid in the state was a part of that team; even those 20-30 year old grunge kids, put down Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, and Eddie Vedder for a 7 game series (even though it only went 6). 

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Good Lookin', May

Good Lookin', May

It’s pretty safe to say that if you grew up in Spokane you are familiar with the Hutton Settlement.  The Hutton settlement is that community of four three story cottages north of Upriver drive on Argonne; the property is currently on the National Registry of Historic Places.  The home was opened in 1919 by Levi Hutton on the premise, ôto provide a home for children deprived of a normal family through no fault of their own.÷  On average 78 children at a time called Hutton Settlement home; the children assimilated into the community through attending area churches and enrolling in school in the West Valley district.  Hutton Settlement was rare in that it didn’t accept any state or federal money; instead the settlement was able to sustain itself nearly entirely on the real estate it sat on.  The land and some money were given to the Hutton Settlement at the time of Levi Hutton’s death.  The children ran the settlement like a farm, as described in 1934, ô a model farm operated by families of boys and girlsà÷.  The Hutton Settlement has served the Spokane area for nearly 100 years, and it’s thanks to the memory of one extraordinary woman.

Levi Hutton grew up an orphan, making a life for himself, but it was not for this reason Mr. Hutton founded the Hutton Settlement.  Of course Levi had a soft spot for orphans and underprivileged children, but it was his wife, May, who gave him the idea.  May Arkwright Hutton was a character.  She was the illegitimate child of a pastor who ran a girls home.  May was raised by her grandfather in Ohio and at the age of 23, May packed up and moved to Kellogg, ID where she would run a boarding house.  Four years later, May and Levi met, married, and moved to the mining town of Wallace, ID.  

It was in Wallace where Levi and May would make their name, Levi financially and May politically.  She would start by fighting for labor rights for miners and rail workers, even writing a book on the subject (later in life she would buy back as many copies of the book as she could, as she was not proud of it).  May was soon a flamboyant spokeswoman for Women’s Suffrage in the Pacific Northwest.  After Idaho passed the right for women to vote in 1896 and Levi’s investment in the Hercules mine paid off millions, her ôPanhandle celebrity÷ began to inflate.  In 1903, during his tour of the Pacific Northwest, Teddy Roosevelt was entertained by the Hutton’s at their home in Wallace.  May would even run for Idaho State Senate in 1904 but would go on to lose.  By 1906, The North Idaho Panhandle had become too small for the new millionaires and they set their sights west into Washington.

They moved to Spokane so Levi could diversify his investments and May had a plan to bring women the right to vote in Washington by 1910.  It was in Spokane and Washington where May clashed with her political rival Emma DeVoe, even though they had the same goal, they differed how to reach that goal; but eventually women could vote in Washington in 1910.  She became a woman of firsts in Spokane; May was the first woman to sit on a jury in Washington, she became the first woman to speak at a Presidential convention in the 1912 Democratic National Convention; also became the first woman registered voter in Spokane county. 

 

May was an instant hit in Spokane.  Author James Montgomery described May and Spokane in his book Liberated Woman, ôthey were really made for each other; both were rambunctious, cocky, independent, and not very mature.÷  The Hutton’s lived in luxury in the penthouses of the Hutton Block on 1st between Washington and Sprague.  May was loved by the Spokane reporters, as it was said she was a woman who had never heard the term ôoff the record.÷  May was in town and was motivated to help make changes and she had the money.  

In her off time from politics and living the high life, May had a soft spot for single mother’s and hated to see these women and children struggle to get by.  May had a plan to alleviate some of these mother’s struggles by helping find them a husband and a suitable environment to raise a family.  She pitched the idea to the city and had the chance to make a match.  A mother named Lilly from a women’s home that May frequented was set up with a farm hand in the Palouse.  After a trial stint together, Lilly decided they made a good match and the two were married.  The farm hand received, ôa wife, housekeeper, companion and as an added bonus, a baby,÷ while the mother and child received a home and father figure.  A time later May returned to check up on the young couple and was pleased with what she encountered; the couple was happy, the child was growing and healthy, and Lilly was pregnant with the couple’s first biological child.  It was a match made in heaven, lonely farmers, single mothers, and May Arkwright Hutton.

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Hotel Lincoln/ Electric Hotel

Hotel Lincoln/ Electric Hotel

Fifty miles west of Spokane lay the small town of Harrington, WA.  Built on the backs of wheat farmers and the Great Northern Railroad, this town boasted something a little unexpected: it’s very own five star hotel.  On January 11, 1902, the doors to the Hotel Lincoln were opened and it quickly became the place to stay on the way between Spokane and Everett.  The hotel was (at its time) luxury at its finest featuring electricity, an upscale restaurant, and, after a remodel in 1912, steam heating.  Harrington soon became a weekend getaway for the surrounding farmers, as well as Spokane residents looking for a good time just a short train ride away.

The town was founded in 1882 by land prospectors from California, in anticipation of the Great Northern Railroad making Harrington a depot on its route from Spokane across the state.  By 1901, the Harrington Improvement Society began plans to turn Harrington into the Chicago of the West.  Along with water supply, electricity and the leasing of land, its main goal was to establish a hotel in Harrington to attract visitors.  That building became the Hotel Lincoln.  The hotel is a two story brick building with a basement.  The building was constructed by local businesses with local materials.  The timber was shipped from a nearby company and unloaded off trains just up the street from the hotel.  Each brick was made by local company Pratt and Rehms, and each brick was laid by hand by a local construction group headed by J.E. Lowery.  At its opening the hotel had 24 rooms, public restrooms and showers, a restaurant, and was fully staffed with cooks, waiters/waitresses, hostesses, and maid service.  

In 1912, the hotel underwent rehabilitation in which more rooms as well as employee living spaces were added, along with the steam heating unit.  Rooms were rented out nightly but also at a monthly rate.  Common guests included farmers, travelers of the railroad, investors, and socialites from Spokane.  One of these socialites was a local celebrity.  Although it is not documented, legend has it that the infamous Bing Crosby, who grew up in nearby Spokane, would visit Harrington regularly with his brother to get away from relatives for nights of singing and drinking.  While other hotels popped up in town, the Hotel Lincoln was the only one to stand the test of time remaining open until the 1980s.

Son of former owners, Frank Hansen, once stopped by to share some stories with the current owners.  At one time, the City Hall located across the street from the hotel used to house prisoners in a small jail house, as well as the fire department and other things.  The prisoners used to be lead across the street for lunch at the hotel, something that intrigued Frank as a young boy.  One day in the 1930s, due to the hotel’s proximity to the train depot, three of these inmates decided to make a run for it.  They bolted out of the hotel and onto the first moving train they could.  Unfortunately for them, trains can only go one way on the track, so the authorities knew exactly where they were going.  Not far outside Harrington, the sheriff of Bluestem captured the fugitives and returned them to Harrington.

The hotel is currently under renovation and planning to open its doors once more to the public in the near future.  The new owners are Jerry and Karen Allen.  With past experience in the hotel and construction field they are resurrecting the Hotel Lincoln to once again become the place to be when traveling between Eastern and Western Washington.  For more information you can contact them at electrichotel@gmail.com or visit the website www.electrichotel.info.   

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Tarih Notları, Atatürk Dönemi İç Politika Gelişmeleri, II.TBMM Dönemi,  Nasturi İsyanı, İsyanlar,  Atatürk Dönemi İsyanları,

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The Civil Wargasm

The Civil Wargasm

The reading of Confederates in the Attic this week started with a visit with Shelby Foote in his home in Tennessee.  Foote is a well respected expert on the Civil War, who appeared and became famous in Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War.  He speaks of the war much as Southerners must have in the 1860's.  He uses similies and metaphors, "If you look at American history as the life span of a man, the Civil War represents the great trauma of our adolescence."  As Horwitz puts it every answer Foote gave was, "a perfect sound bite."  Foote is a true Southerner; he is drawn to the land, the people, the culture, and that it's not the North.  Shelby Foote's favorite aspect of the Civil War was the Battle of Shiloh.  Shiloh was a major battle in the War's western theater and marked the begging of Ulysses S. Grant's rise to fame; this not being why Foote was so enamored with the battle.  Foote's great-grandfather fought in the battle and Shelby had visited the site over 20 times; when asked what drew him to the battle he replied, "If you've drawn or written about a particular historical incident in a particular place, the placebelongs to you in a sense.  I feel that way about Shiloh....I swear I can see and hear soldiers coming through the trees."  Shelby Foote has a very romantic view of the Civil War and his passion is evident in his musings with Horwitz.

Civil War enthusiast Shelby Foote.  Courtesy of Tumblr.

In Horwitz's visit to Shiloh, he encounters an anomaly.  Wolfgang Hochbruck, an ex-German military man wearing a blue Federal uniform.  If that's not weird enough, he was doing the exact thing Horwitz was and guessed his name.  Both were researching to write books on the memory of the Civil War and Wolfgang had emailed Tony months before to compare notes, but Tony never received the message.  Wolfgang was a professor of history who taught the Civil War in Germany.  The two a lot in common, so Horwitz joined Wolfgang on his tour of Shiloh.  The two chatted and hiked for awhile and had dinner that night.  As they parted Wolfgang told Tony, "I'm glad you didn't before [answer the email], it was much better that we met on the field of battle."  What a crazy coincidence.

Horwitz's trip into Mississippi was filled with drinking and racists.  Vicksburg was filled with casinos and had lost touch with some of it's past.  One thing is worth talking about and that's the Minie Ball Pregnancy story.  During the Civil War recruits were taught to aim low to improve their hit ratio.  The guns and bullets weren't terribly accurate.  Even with the invention of the rifled barrel and Minie Ball.  A smooth barrel is like throwing a knuckle ball in baseball, while a rifled barrel puts spin on the bullet like throwing a fast ball.  Unfortunately, curveballs, sliders, etc also require spin so you still didn't quite know where the bullet was going to go still.  Anyway, aiming low led to a lot of soldiers being wouned in the lower abdomen and groin.  Legend has it that one soldier was shot straight through the groin and the bullet hit a woman in the groin standing in the distance.  9 months later she had a baby.  The couple found each other after the war, married and had two more children conventionally.

Minie Ball Pregnancy exhibit in Vicksburg.  Courtesy of Greetings from Mississippi.

The highlight of our reading this week was the really long chapter on the Civil Wargasm with Robert Lee Hodge.  This sounds like it would be one helluva trip to take over the summer.  Not with Rob though, I want a change of clothes, a shower, and not to be crammed in a car in the Southern heat with a man wearing a thick wool uniform.  If anyone who enjoys shorts, showers, and beds wants to join in just let me know.  Rob and Tony took Tony's car and started driving the South for a weeks time, following the path of the war; starting at Manassass (Bull Run) and ending at Appomattox with Lee's surrender to Grant.  I'm not going to go into much detail about the Wargasm experiences because i don't have the time, they went to so many places and Rob had so many opinions.  Although I did think hiking in to Bloody Lane at Burnside's Bridge was pretty cool.  My favorite part of the Wargasm didn't occur in that week of driving though.  It occurred five days later when Rob called to get Tony to reenact Pickett's Charge of Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg.  I think this would have been so fun and exhilarating to do, not just because it's historical importance but also because of the crowd that formed to cheer them on while they stormed the hill.  It was probably just an adrenaline rush but Horwitz finally has his "period rush" (the high reenactors feel when traveling back in time) making Pickett's Charge.  I'd definitely have to "farb out" (Rob's phrase for not being fully authentic) but I think an experience like this would be a once in a lifetime and unique experience.

Artist rendition of Pickett's Charge.  Courtesy of Britannica.

"A University is just a bunch of buildings gathered around a library" - Shelby Foote

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Tarih Notları, Atatürk Dönemi İç Politika Gelişmeleri, II.TBMM Dönemi,  Nasturi İsyanı, İsyanlar,  Atatürk Dönemi İsyanları,

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The New South is the Old South

The New South is the Old South

After reading the first half of Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz, I've come to the conclusion that I would be fine if the South seceded again.  The book starts out nice enough with the reenactors in Virginia.  These seem like very nice men who look at the Confederacy for the historical aspects of the time.  They are a little weird in real life I'm sure, but they're just trying to relive history and you can't knock them for that; it's their hobby and they're not alone in the activity.  I liked what one of them had to say about why he does the reenactments, this isn't an exact quote but close: "I think we all feel a little guilty in the time we live in, it was harder back then so it makes us feel better if only 48 hours."  I don't know about the whole spooning train thing to sleep (call me "farb" I don't care), but these men are, (along with a few smaller acquaintances of Horwitz) the only people introduced so far who have the right idea of how to remember the Confederacy.  They offend no one, and keep it all about the war not a return to antebellum society.

The deeper South Horwitz goes, the more irritated I became.  The first part that made me apologize for America was the group he met with who was trying to keep the Rebel flag on the South Carolina capitol building.  These were some of the more ignorant people around.  They weren't even from the South, most of the protest leaders were from New England, and a couple were Jews.  The worst of all though was Walt.  Walt invited Horwitz to his home (trailer) to chat.  I would have loved to be there with Horwitz for this encounter.  Walt gets up on his soapbox and just starts off on his prejudiced tangents, including a hatred for Jews.  At this point you can almost see the grin on Horwitz face as he's shaking his head about to inform Walt that he was in fact a Jew.  Even in the reading there's an awkward silence and Walt asks what his last name is, and he responds, "i should have guessed."  That wasn't even the worst part.  Walt spends this whole time trying to convince a Jew about intolerance, and the last thing he brings up completely discredits his entire argument.  Walt decides to tell Horwitz his approach to life and politics: essentially, if the government supports it, I don't.  One of the most ignorant quotes I've ever read in a book.  Walt, I hope you're still somewhere in the Lowlands of South Carolina and haven't met a women willing to bear your seed yet.

South Carolina flag.  Courtesy of 50 States.

The title of this post is no more prevalent than in the chapter of Guthrie, Kentucky/ Tennessee.  You wanna know why the rest of the world hates us?  Look at the scene at Redbone's (the biker bar).  Granted I have no idea what Horwitz was thinking going there in the first place, but the people he encountered there are just a black eye on society.  The only decent one was the owner for not letting Tony get stomped out by that cross faded Harley rider; even then though his name is Redbone and he allows that place to exist to make a buck, so he's not exactly an upstanding citizen.  It's people like them that get me going, they shit on everyone elses cultures, beliefs, etc but once theirs get questioned then that's crossing the line. There's more to swastikas and Confederate flags than being rebellious; rebellious isn't a bad thing but the history of those two symbols isn't something that should be idolized, there's a sad and violent history that follows them.

Sesame street's Bert with a member of the KKK.  Courtesy of Bert is Evil.

The Michael Westerman murder was an interesting chapter.  At first I was sympathetic toward Michael, his family, and the whole situation, but as the chapter went on I began to realize a 19 year old new father was killed and people began using it as propaganda.  The KKK and Aryan Nation got involved and it turned into a money grab.  The family allowed it to happen too.  They turned this kid into a martyr for 130 year old cause.  He never knew the meaning of the flag he flew from his truck; I mean he drove it through a black neighborhood on MLK Day in a town he grew up in, he knew where he was.  His wife (who find more ignorant than him) even said he put the flag up because it made his truck look "sharp."  Every memorial service for Michael the story changed.  Michael went from a naive kid just looking to make his truck look slick, to a Confederate martyr who was obsessed with his old South lineage and for what: money and a PR move.  I'm not condoning whatsoever what Freddie and his friends did to Michael.  They could have dropped it and just let him be an inconsiderate, ignorant teen who was just showing off, or at worse pull him from his truck and beat him up; at least that way no one is dead and no 17 year olds would be serving life in prison. The whole situation is messed up and everyone involved made the wrong decision in how to handle it, including the families and the organizations that showed up to support either side in the case.  No one had to die, no one had to go to jail, but to ignorance and poor decisions someone is.

Confederate battle flag.  Courtesy of usflags.org.

I Don't know why it's been so hard to include minority history into our countries history.  It all happened you can't deny it.  It happened within our borders, why is it trying to be hidden?  I don't blame the whites for this discrepancy all together, minorities could have helped get their history out as well.  The Biddy Mason project was decades too late; the church burnt down in the 1890's and no one made an effort to immortalize her until the mid 1980's.  In a city like LA with a large minority population how did this happen?  It took four white women in 1985-86 to actually get this memorial done.  The absence of black and Indian stories in historic sites across the country is appalling.  Yes it's a violent, shameful history at most of these places, but it happened you can't deny it, there's records of it,  what are you trying to hide?  We are entering a time in which this is changing and I for one am happy and will help to this hopefully with my degree and future career in history.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone in class who read this, with ties to the South.  I know there are great people down South and this is just a small minority of the population.  I'm not trying to say to abandon your roots, culture, or history.  Embrace where you've come from, just know that certain aspects of history can be interpreted different ways by different groups of people and sometimes it's just better to keep your mouth shut.  Black, brown, yellow, red, or white, we all have our own opinions that are important to us, but to keep the peace and keep moving forward we need be aware of the good and bad aspects of our respective histories

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Tarih Notları, Atatürk Dönemi İç Politika Gelişmeleri, II.TBMM Dönemi,  Nasturi İsyanı, İsyanlar,  Atatürk Dönemi İsyanları,

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Everything in this world must adapt to the times,

Everything in this world must adapt to the times,

Everything in this world must adapt to the times, and history is no different.  Whether it's sports, politics, whatever, the "new" way will be the "old"way by tomorrow.  You can't become complacent.  For the field of history this means joining the technological world.  We can't fall behind the times and get lost in the shuffle.  Call it academic natural selection; only the strong survive.  At first, history was a little slow to see the benefits computers and the web could have on preserving our past.  Since the late 90's however some great strides have been made and digital archive websites have been popping up everywhere.  As the internet becomes more and more available and easier to use this field should explode, allowing our society to literally never forget anything. 

Old books and paper documents aren't built to last forever.  Courtesy of The Private Library.

In his essay "On the Web: The September 11 Digital Archive," James T. Sparrow chronicles the creation of one of our most important digital archive sites, the 9-11 Digital Archive .  Sparrow was one of the leaders in developing this site, and explains what makes and breaks sites like these.  In my opinion, he spends way too much time explaining the software, code, etc. of what went into the site.  While that's important, this is a history book, so more time should have been spent explaining what the pros and cons of digitizing our history could mean for our future. 

This site depends on contributions from the public.  People from all around the US can share their memories, photos, home videos, etc. of that fateful day in 2001.  As part of the ECHO (Exploring and Collecting History Online) program, the site has employees who sift through all the shared data and items and catalogs them correctly onto the site.  The benefit of having the public donate artifacts is that it allows people to have their personal experiences become part of US history.  Each item selected for the archive is number and cemented in its place in history.  A project like this would be doomed without the cooperation of the public; you wouldn't be able to get even a fraction of the stuff you'd need to make this viable.  As of 2006 (reprint date of Public History: Essays from the Field by Gardner and LaPaglia) there is over 140,000 items scanned, uploaded and cataloged on the 9-11 Digital Archive.

9-11 Memorial in NYC.  Courtesy of USA Today.

Beams of light into the New York sky representing the Twin Towers.  Courtesy of Lumination Network.

A con that Sparrow sees in the transition to digital history, is that it's making your everyday citizen an historian.  The transition is killing the need for, as Sparrow puts it, "experts."  If people can just browse the web and find primary sources on sites like these, what is the need for actual historians?

I see Sparrows point and think he's giving the public too much credit.  People are still going to rely on historians to do the hard research necessary write the books and make the documentaries the public uses to learn their history.  It's agreed that history is a dying breed.  I believe that sites like the 9-11 Digital Archive can help revive our field.  These sites give easy access to sources and artifacts, that before weren't readily available to the public.  The part of the public that will use these digital archives are hobbyist just generally interested in the past, high school and college students, and other historians.  These sites aren't going to flood the job market with historians. The digital archives just allow us to better preserve our past and makes it easier for a curious public to find a few more answers than before.  

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Tarih Notları, Atatürk Dönemi İç Politika Gelişmeleri, II.TBMM Dönemi,  Nasturi İsyanı, İsyanlar,  Atatürk Dönemi İsyanları,

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Preserving the past

Preserving the past

Something that is becoming more and more difficult to do is preserving histories around our country.  The public school system doesn't help, giving our youth the highlights in the K-12 system.  Historic sites and buildings are being lost to strip malls, parking garages, resorts, office buildings, etc.  In 50 years whats going to be left?  I mean they almost put an Islamic mosque up at the site of the 9-11 attacks at Ground Zero.  It's all become about money and US history is becoming the victim.

So who's to blame?  Well there's the obvious in politicians; damn Reagan and his right winged agenda.  You could point to the school systems.  History isn't a stressed subject anymore and children don't care.  About a month ago, Los Angeles Laker star, Kobe Bryant, took his  team out for a movie night to watch the new movie, Lincoln.  After the movie, Kobe decided to put a tweet out.  It read along the lines of, "I was real surprised to see that some of the younger guys were shocked to see him get shot at the end."  If that's not a major problem in our society, then count me out I don't want to live on this planet anymore.  While politicians have cut funding and school districts have lost the passion, I believe the history preservation movement itself should shoulder some of this blame.

Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.  Courtesy of Memesters.

Don't get me wrong, in their early years they did some very good work.  The New Deal era was an incredibly important time for history preservation.  The WPA, CCC, HAPS and other groups like them served a great duty to this country.  They created our National and State Parks, created historical guide books that covered the entire nation, and preserved thousands of historical sites from east to west and north to south.  The problem i have with them is how they let the success go to their head.  Instead of providing a much needed service to our people as they did through the 50's and 60's, they switched drastically once it was realized there was money to be made.  They went from non-profit to big business (same thing i believe the NCAA is doing now, but that's for another time).  They began marking areas as historical districts in cities, skyrocketing the property values.  A lot of these districts were poor areas of the cities, and a lot of these people (many minorities) were forced out of the place they had called home for their entire lives because they couldn't afford it anymore.  What this is telling me is that in order to make a place historical you need to make it so the people responsible for the areas history can't afford to live there.  Something's wrong with that picture.  In doing so they made it more about the money than the history.  Manhattan is a great example of this forced migration.  Once a poorer part of New York City, it was dubbed a historical district and, much like in New Orleans French Quarter, its poor inhabitants were forced out to make room for the high class citizens who would pay top dollar for property. This movement lost it's morals and in the depressions of the 70's and 80's did what they could to support themselves and along with budget cuts in our government have put pieces of our history at risk.

Manhattan circa 1929.  Courtesy of New Construction Manhattan.

The movement did make some good decisions in the 90's, that has reclaimed some if its integrity.  For example teaming with environmental preservationists.  They are beginning to get back their roots, which I would like to see, not only for history itself but also for our current recession (and coming soon, my job hunt).  It did it once in the 30's, getting back to preserving our past could create thousands of jobs for historians, environmentalists, teachers, architects, English majors, and contractors.

In his essay "Interpreters and Museum Educators: Beyond the Blue Hairs," Mark Howell brings up an interesting topic.  It's a part of history preservation that seems to be a bit lost in the mix of things.  Howell is an interpreter for a museum; he's the one who gives the tours and puts the exhibits into context.  This may be the most important part of history preservation.  Ok, so you have the building it's been marked as a historical site, what now?  This is only half the battle; the other half will be achieved through the sites years of operations, through historians like Mark Howell who put it all in perspective.  They tell the public what  the big deal is about this venue; without them it's just an old building with a plaque somewhere saying it's important.  They are an irreplaceable part of history preservation and there is not nearly enough funding or jobs for these people.

I want to close with a quote from Howell's essay by historian G.M. Trevelyan, that to me explains the importance of history:

The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once on this earth, on this familiar spot of ground walked other men and women as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions but now all gone, vanishing after another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall be gone like ghosts at cockcrow.

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Tarih Notları, Atatürk Dönemi İç Politika Gelişmeleri, II.TBMM Dönemi,  Nasturi İsyanı, İsyanlar,  Atatürk Dönemi İsyanları,

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Shahid Kapoor to make his big digital debut with Raj & DK's thriller web series?

 

Shahid Kapoor to make his big digital debut with Raj & DK's thriller web series?

Reportedly,Raj and DK, the directors of Stree and The Family Man approached Shahid Kapoor for a thriller digital series and the actor has signed the deal...

The digital space in the entertainment industry has evolved at a great speed. Several OTT platforms have faced a boom with some commendable projects as web shows and series. Even the biggest stars of the industry are now open towards working in the digital space, which was not the case until a few years ago.

Shahid Kapoor may be the latest actor to join the digital space as it is being reported that he has already signed Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's next digital series.

As reported by Pinkvilla, Raj and DK, the directors of Stree and The Family Man are collaborating yet again after the super success of the show The Family Man, starring Manoj Bajpayee. The duo have been signed on by a leading digital platform and will work on a new thriller series. "They approached Shahid for the same and he loved it. He has signed on the dotted line" informs a source."

If the reports are to go by, this will mark Shahid's big debut in the web space. Reportedly, he has signed a whopping Rs 100 crore deal with Netflix and this will be one of the projects bankrolled under the same deal.  

Shahid is yet to finish the shooting for the Jersey remake, post which he may commence filming for this digital project. The actor also has Shashank Khaitan's Yoddha in his pipeline.

On the other hand, Raj and DK are also supposed to direct Priyanka Chopra in Russo Brothers' Citadel.

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Night or Day for Shahid?

Night or Day for Shahid?

Shahid Kapoor is a night person. Read on to know more.

Most people believe in wrapping up their day's work before a good night's sleep. However, Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor follows a different routine altogether. Shahid is more of a night person and likes doing stuff during the night.

"Not many know that Shahid is an insomniac of sorts, and prefers doing the majority of his work at night. In fact, he even goes to the gym at night, where he spends a couple of hours. He even likes going on late night drives, something he can't even imagine doing during the day," says a spokesperson.

Shahid has become such a night person that he has developed a work schedule especially for those hours. At times, the Haider actor prefers reading film scripts at night.  The spokesperson further adds, "He sticks to it and finishes everything on time. He strongly feels that at night, the environment is way calmer. So, it helps an individual be more productive."

Interestingly, Shahid's character in his upcoming film 'Shaandaar' is also of an insomniac.

'Shaandaar' directed by Vikas Bahl; starring Alia Bhatt and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles is all set to release on 22nd October, 2015.

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