deanperchik

The Fourth Step Among the things about humans that I find annoying, and there are many such things, is that so many people claim that there was a Golden Age in North and South America before the European conquests of the continents. They envision a world where Indians [i] lived in harmony with the planet and treated the earth on whic h they lived with the respect due a deity or deities. What utter nonsense. The Indians of that period were humans like us, which means that they trashed the land... Read Full Story

posted by Dean Perchik 8:47 AM 0 comments Thursday, July 17, 2008 The Third Step From the very moment our ancestors climbed down from the trees and walked upright across the savannahs of Africa, humans have left their mark wherever they went. At times, those marks have not been either terribly attractive or even pleasant. From the time humans invented the wheel, assuming, of course, that we invented it, each new advance in technology has proven to be less than beneficial to the planet than... Read Full Story

The second step Time is nothing more than a convenient convention that humans have adopted so that everyone can keep track of stuff. It really makes no difference at all what method one uses to keep an eye on things, so long as everyone agrees. Andrew Dickson White, in his book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) improves on the work started by James Ussher in the seventeenth century. White comments on John Lightfoot’s use of the James Ussher’s chronology... Read Full Story

The first step An ivestigation into why global warming is a good thing.Apparently, when sheets of ice the size of Brazil start dropping of the Antarctic ice shelves, it is easy to accept the idea of global warming. Having done so, we also see that things in our unceasing war against the environment are starting to heat up rapidly. We have seen the event horizon yet we still consider ourselves as being just a drop of water in an endless sea. If you think you can buy yourself out of this mess... Read Full Story

Giovanni Battista Castagna was born on the 4th on 1521. Somehow, he finagled his way into the papacy on September 15, 1590, taking the name Pope Urban VII. He contracted malaria and died twelve days later [i] . Some are of the opinion that becoming pope is more than enough distinction in a career in the theological field. Castagna wanted more though. His papacy is the possibly the shortest one. Boniface VI may have come in first; the records are unclear. Are you annoyed by all the... Read Full Story

Elisha Graves Otis was born on the 3rd in 1811. His name lives on to this day and is so generally associated with elevators that many believe that he invented the damn things. He did not. What he did invent was the safety device [i] that kept the elevators from falling and sending its passengers to an agonizing and painful death, something that I believe most people probably want to avoid. To plug his work, in 1853, at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City [ii] , he... Read Full Story

Have you ever abandoned a project before you had completed it? If so, did you regret it? Well, Elisha Grey [i] , born on the 2nd in 1835, did and I am pretty sure that, man, he had to have regretted giving it up a whole lot. He was an inventor. He made a bunch of money with a telegraph and then turned his sights on a telephone. On February 14, 1876, he filed a caveat with the US Patent Office. A caveat isn’t a formal patent application but is a sort of heads up to the agency; it didn’t... Read Full Story

No, no, no, I got here first, that’s my seat! Get out now!! Maria Mitchell [i] (I know that sounds a lot like Margaret Mitchell but she is not Margaret, trust me) was born on the 1st in 1818. You know how some girls always have their heads in the clouds? Well, of course she became an astronomer. In 1847, she discovered what was then referred to as a telescopic comet, one that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye because comets had to be properly dressed in the 19th century. King Frederick VI... Read Full Story

What the heck is potash? In addition, just why does it need a process? I am not sure that I understand what a process even is. But if people are going around inventing processes, can I get one too? I don’t know if I even need one, but if potash got one, I want one too. Whatever potash is, it apparently does need a process because on the 31st, in 1790, Samuel Hopkins was awarded the first patent [i] in the United States. It was for a potash process [ii] . [i] The patent was signed by both... Read Full Story

I am fairly certain that most people enjoy going out to dinner, particularly if you are someone’s guest. Having a good dinner at a nice restaurant with someone else picking up the tab is an opportunity that no one would pass up. There are times however where you might want to turn down the invitation. On the 30th in 1975, Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone invited James Hoffa to have dinner with them at a restaurant in Michigan. Shortly after dinner, Hoffa disappeared and unless he... Read Full Story