voluntaryXchange

Unearthed: An Intact Battlefield Mass Grave

The mass grave shows the results of the Battle of Towton in 1461.

Fascinating, but gruesome, the eventual conclusion is that people in the grave were run down while in retreat and battered senselessly with poleaxes (a smaller version of the halberd) until dead.

Via Kottke.

Technorati Tags: battle,towton,war,roses,mass,grave

On Character Actors and the Ones We’ve Lost

I love Stephen Tobolowsky. Do you remember “Do you use hot water in the shower? ” Then you also know if you answer yes, he tells you to “Stop using it”.

Tobolowski has played a lot of characters, but that’s the one that sticks in my mind: Tor Eckman, a holistic healer recommended to George by Kramer. Many of you probably know him from Glee.

In “They Had Great Character” he eulogized 5 character actors we lost this past year.

The whole point of a character actor is that they’re not stars, yet we often know who their faces. Here’s Tobolowsky’s five:

I bet you know at least some of those faces, and not one of the names. I went 5 for 5 on faces, and 0 for 5 on names (although 2 of the names were familiar to me when I saw them … but then again, I stay and read the credits in the movies).

Every single one of those guys is familiar to me, but as I’ve looked through those end-of-year lists of people who died in 2010 I’ve yet to see the face of one of them. R.I.P.

FYI: that’s Kevin McCarthy – the mad scientist from Piranha, Carl Gordon – the grandfather from Roc, James Gammon – the team manager from Major League, Harold Gould – the dad on Rhoda, and Maury Chaykin – the crazy officer who shoots himself in the first 20 minutes of Dances with Wolves.

Technorati Tags: character,actor,tobolowsky,mccarthy,gordon,gammon,gould,chaykin

Horton Hears a Radioactive Who

From The Wall Street Journal:

… In 1998, after workers with Geiger counters detected hot spots in a dumpster full of old cantaloupe rinds, Mr. Johnson sent a technician out to investigate.

She homed in on a radioactive speck. "Her meter was going up, and all of a sudden the speck flew away," Mr. Johnson says. "She called and told me about it, and I said 'Yeah, right.'"

This is from a story about the problems with fauna picking up radioactivity at the former nuclear weapons site in Hanford, Washington. In this case:

Mr. Johnson soon learned the specks were radioactive fruit flies.

But there are also radioactive rabbits, mice, gophers, badgers and pigeons. All of them need to be tracked down.

Technorati Tags: hanford,radioactive,rabbit,fruit fly,mouse

SAG Drops Mental Health and Substance Abuse Coverage

The Screen Actors Guild health insurance plan is dropping coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatment in the new year.

I’m not being flippant: isn’t mental illness and substance abuse part of what makes an actor?

Not in every case, certainly …

But it seems to me that part of what makes actors who they are is mental health processes that would be debilitating in many other fields.

And frankly, the proportion of actors I’ve known who’d I’d classify as self-medicating approaches 1.

Is it just me, or is this a bizarre business choice?

Via Econlog.

Technorati Tags: screen,actors,guild,sag,mental,health,coverage

Let’s Play Spot the Partisans

Votes in favor of major social legislation:

Yet people will continue to claim that the Democrats aren’t part of the problem.

Via Carpe Diem.

Technorati Tags: partisan,healthcare,reform,obamacare

A Problem with LED Holiday Lights: Easier Vandalism

They are much easier for vandals to remove than other lights.

MJ bought many strands of LED lights this year to retire some of our incandescent lights: she likes the new lights, and doesn’t like me fixing the old ones. Fair enough.

Last night she noticed that a bunch of them were out.

Today I went to fix them, and found that someone had taken a single bulb out of 10 different strands, from one bush, close to the sidewalk – turning them off.

I suppose this could have happened with the older bulbs … but they were tough enough to get out that they didn’t require a little tab to hold them in place.

Technorati Tags: led,holiday,light,pitfall,vandal

Darwin’s Waiting Room

Dumbest criminals of 2010 … I’ve never even thought about someone being dumb enough to tattoo a word on their face which makes them easily identifiable … but there’s 2 cases of that this year.

Technorati Tags: 2010,dumbest,criminals

David P. Sparks Political Maps

David P. Sparks amazing blog showed me the difference between isarithmic and chloropleth map:

Republicans and Democrats Since 1920

One uses real political boundaries, and the other doesn’t!

Then there is this Marimekko plot of the 2008 election:

It’s harder to interpret, but really cool when you get it. It shows states in columns, with bigger ones going to the right. It then shows counties by size going up. So, in the top right corner is the most populous county in the most populous state – Los Angeles County, California. At the lower left is … well … in the big picture … who cares, right?

The shading shows that Obama’s mandate is really a function of doing well in the large counties. There’s a Picasa web album of a whole bunch of these.

Via Kids Prefer Cheese.

Technorati Tags: chloropleth,red,blue,political,parties

Progressivism Quote

George Will:

Progressivism is a faith-based program. The progressives' agenda for improving everyone else varies but invariably involves the cult of expertise …

Via Cafe Hayek.

Technorati Tags: quotes,george,will,progressive

Doodling and Math

Just watch and listen …

Doodling and math

Via Kottke.