The afternoon before we left London for Amsterdam we realized that it was going to be the last chance for us to conveniently purchase any English literature for the next four months, so we swung by a bookstore and picked up a few books to tide us over (thinking specifically of the 6 internet-less days we’ll be spending on the Trans-Siberian train). One of the books was Guy Deutscher’s The Unfolding of Language, a fantastic (and very accessible) study of the evolution of language. I could write dozens of posts about the amazing things I found in the book, but I thought this one was especially interesting:
[read the full post…]
As we travelled East along Highway 50, we passed several historic small towns which listed Pony Express stations as part of their claim to fame.
The Pony Express was established in April 1860 and shortened the travel time of mail from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast to 10 days – a shockingly short period of time considering that the Pony Express covered roughly 2000 miles of the cross-country route from the Mid-West to the West Coast.
About 190 Pony Express stations were set up every 10 miles along the route (the rough distance a horse could travel at a full gallop) and the riders had a strict limit on what they could carry. Riders could weigh no more than 125 pounds, and in addition to the 20 pound sack of mail, they would carry a water sack, a Bible, a horn for alerting the relay station master to prepare the next horse, a revolver, and a choice of a rifle or a second revolver. Eventually the baggage was cut down to simply the mail pouch, water sack and a single revolver.
What I found most interesting was the fact that for as large a part as the Pony Express seems to play in our national history, it exited for less than 18 months; from April 1860 to October 1861.
The service was closed down 3 days after the first trans-continental telegraph line was completed.
I recently finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
” by Jack Weatherford, a fantastic book on the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. As with all empires, the Mongol dynasty had its high point and its eventual collapse – and just like Rome (and other empires) the Mongol dynasty had been so large and solid, that its disappearance was unthinkable.
From Weatherford’s book:
“With so many empires striving to maintain the illusion of the Mongol Empire in everything from politics to art, public opinion seemed obstinately unwilling to believe that it no longer existed. Nowhere was the belief in the empire longer lasting or more important than in Europe, where, in 1492, more than a century after the last khan ruled over China, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand that he could reestablish sea contact and revive the lost commerce with the Mongol court of the Great Khan. With the breakup of the Mongol communication system, the Europeans had not heard about the fall of the empire and the overthrow of the Great Khan. Columbus, therefore, insisted that although the Muslims barred the land route from Europe to the Mongol court, he could sail west from Europe across the World Ocean and arrive in the land described by Marco Polo.”
[read the full post…]
We recently watched the film Lawrence of Arabia as part of our ongoing movie research. The film starts with the death of Lawrence as he’s zooming through the English country side on his motorcycle. According to Wikipedia: “A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control and was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle. He died six days later.”
The article goes on to reference an interesting neurosurgery article by Nicholas Maartens (and others):
[read the full post…]
In preparation for our time in Mongolia, we’ve listened to the audio book of “Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men
” by Harold Lamb and have almost finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford. Both are great books, though I would recommend Weatherford’s over Lamb’s. That may be due in part to the fact that Lamb’s was the audio book and the narrator was not the greatest in my opinion. Also, Mongol names often sound very foreign and at times it became difficult to remember who was who without seeing the names written down – but that may just be me.
That said, one of the brief, but amazing topics in Weatherford’s book was this: [read the full post…]
