Elisabeth.Carnell.Com

Queer Eye for the Medieval Guy!

I love historical disease news - this bit is from nature.com: West Nile Virus may have felled Alexander the Great.

Nothing like putting things in perspective - (from the Globe and Mail) even ancient humans caused climate change.

On ancient astronomers: (from Scientific American) German “Stonehenge” marks oldest observatory and (from The Independent) discovery of buried megaliths completes Avebury circle.

(all found at fine, fine mirabilis.ca)

On fun with corpses:

Viking queen may be exhumed for clues to killing

Last month there was a stir about some historians wanting to open King Harold’s tomb - here’s the BBC update: exhumation of ‘HaroldÂ’ refused

And scientists in Florence are planning to exhume some 50 corpses of members of the Medici family - a link to come when I find one not requiring a subscription.

Found on The Volokh Conspiracy, and here:

(there, it’s settled - no worries about dying early for me!)

Peaking too early can kill you:

“Here’s some reassuring news for those of us whose career plans are slightly behind schedule: It turns out that peaking too early may kill you. That’s the finding of Stewart J. H. McCann, a professor of psychology at the University College of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.

McCann’s research, published in the February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, concerns what he calls the ”precocity-longevity hypothesis.” McCann analyzed the lives of 1,672 U.S. governors who served between 1789 and 1978 and found that those who were elected at relatively tender ages generally died earlier than their less precocious counterparts. Even when he controlled for the year that the governors were born, how long they served and what state they governed, the pattern held. No matter how he sliced the data, ran the regressions or accounted for various statistical biases, the story remained the same: governors elected to office at younger ages tended to have shorter lives.

And what holds for state executives seems also to hold for other young achievers. McCann also analyzed smaller but more diverse sets of accomplished people — including American and French presidents, Canadian and British prime ministers, Nobel laureates, signers of the Declaration of Independence, Academy Award winners and seven centuries’ worth of pontiffs. Again, he found that ”those who climb to the loftiest peaks in the shortest time also die younger. For the eminent, and perhaps for all, an early rise may lead to an early fall.”

So I thought I couldn’t be more amazed when Madonna decided to be a Kabbalist. (not amazed that Britney is, apparently, following suit. that’s just pathetic)

No, now she’s decided to be God an Academic.

Give me strength.

So I’m driving down to visit Notre Dame tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow seems to be the worst weather of the week - should be interesting.

In other news, this is the coolest wall decor ever! Too bad we live in an old house with plaster walls with a slight texture!

And for everyone else who thinks Jack Chick is the funniest man in America, this parody is da bomb. Seriously.

D&D, Latin, and thou: Roman gaming dice (and my Shadowrun days are LONG, long past!)

It’s something that sould go with the Latin for Gamers site, eh?

I go on regular (Metamucil for the soul!) rants about our OIT here at WMU.

This is even better. Even [names removed to protext the incompetent innocent] couldn’t manage something this stupid! Ha!

Been a while. Been busy, stressed … freaking out, actually.

Three fat packets sent off (due Dec. 1), did as much online as I could and then put writing sample, SoP, CV, transcripts, etc..in the mail to U of M, U VA, and Notre Dame. I hadn’t slept a good night in the two weeks before, I edited and fretted over my SoP til the very last minute, didn’t settle on what chapters I sent from my thesis til the last minute (more fretting, of course), and since I was waiting to hear back from a couple of my committee members on confirmation on that decision waiting til I heard from them (last minute) was nerve-wracking. Two more for the end of Dec. (Northwestern and Indiana), two more in Jan. (SLU and U KY) but it’s all downhill, financially, since I ordered all 10 transcripts I’d need and all GRE scores at once. So I’m so very, very broke…very, very, very. *sigh* There aren’t enough Tums in the world to manage this process.

And finally, I can’t be more amazed, disgusted, and glad I usually don’t go anywhere *near* Wal-mart. I was crazy enough to hit Kohl’s at 5 to 6 Friday (so I could shop whilst the kidlets were sleeping and my Dad was still bustling about getting ready for work) and that was a nightmare - I spent well over twice as long standing in line to check out was I did picking up the few things I had money was there for. The women there were largely NUTS - one stole the buggy out from another woman, and there was a report of someone actually grabbing a toy out from under a woman’s arm and making off with it. Insane. I’m glad I got a couple of good deals since money’s tight this year, but I’m still not sure that anything is worth *that* sort of behavior. Anyway, see story below:

Woman knocked unconscious by trampling shoppers Saturday, November 29, 2003 Posted: 10:45 AM EST (1545 GMT) ORANGE CITY, Florida (AP) —

A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Patricia VanLester had her eye on a $29 DVD player, but when the siren blared at 6 a.m. Friday announcing the start to the post-Thanksgiving sale, the 41-year-old was knocked to the ground by the frenzy of shoppers behind her. “She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants,” said VanLester’s sister, Linda Ellzey. “I told them, ‘Stop stepping on my sister! She’s on the ground!”‘

Ellzey said some shoppers tried to help VanLester, and one employee helped Ellzey reach her sister, but most people just continued their rush for deals. “All they cared about was a stupid DVD player,” she said Saturday.

Paramedics called to the store found VanLester unconscious on top of a DVD player, surrounded by shoppers seemingly oblivious to her, said Mark O’Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC Ambulance. She was flown to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where doctors told the family VanLester had a seizure after she was knocked down and would likely remain hospitalized through the weekend, Ellzey said.

Hospital officials said Saturday they did not have any information on her condition. “She’s all black and blue,” Ellzey said. “Patty doesn’t remember anything. She still can’t believe it all happened.”

Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called later Friday to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her.

Wal-Mart Stores spokeswoman Karen Burk said she had never heard of a such a melee during a sale. “We are very disappointed this happened,” Burk said. “We want her to come back as a shopper.”