Tree Terrorism

I don't know what anyone's heard, but Auburn's trees still haven't recovered, and it might be awhile before anyone can tell what will happen to them.
Dan calls this 'tree terrorism,' and it is a good way of looking at it. It is really sad someone from an opposing fan got so mad that he poisoned a bunch of old oaks, which, really, is incredible petty and, considering trees don't actually root for football, stupid. If those trees die, it'll be sad because they were so old and well-taken care of, up until this incident.
There's been the suggestion that maybe they should just roll them until they fall down, though that strikes me as potentially dangerous, since people roll after a game, when they are (hopefully) jubilant and usually drunk.
Until we know for sure, good luck, Auburn trees.

In Honor of Jane Austen

Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, and in honor of that, Tony, who often comments on this blog, posted photos of things connected to her, like her home, the Jane Austen Center in Bath and the places that showed up in her writing. What a nice tribute. Some of the photos, like those of the coast, are absolutely stunning.

Devil's Islands

I love myths and legends. I really enjoyed this brief one, which is about the lesser known islands of New York City. I like that these islands were considered scary and were associated with Satan. How delightful is that?

Interracial Marriage

Being that I am a massive romantic, I'm really interested in interracial marriage. (Don't tell anyone! I cannot have guys figuring out that the best way to win me over is to write me letters and poems!)
And so I really liked this article on interracial marriage, because even though I knew it happened, I wasn't sure how often, and it's good to have an accurate picture, especially since it makes having arguments with people easier for me.
So, the takeaways:
Asians and Latino/as intermarry at higher rates than African Americans. This rate jumps if we limit it to U.S.-born Asian Americans, Latino/as, and African Americans and not immigrants. In about 3/4 of Asian American cases and about half of Latino/as cases, their partner is white.
(This leads me to wonder how/if they count LBGT, since some places in the U.S. allow for gay marriage, some allow for partnerships similar to marriage, others don't allow anything.)

Voldemort's Dance

So, I know, I have failed at blogging once again. But I did go see Harry Potter (which I will hopefully one day tell you about more in full.) I just really wanted to share this little image with you, because I remember thinking something similar when I saw the movie.

Porn Crazy

Reading this article called, and I kid you not, Is Pornography Driving Men Crazy?
What strikes me as bogus is that none of the studies cited compare men who watch porn versus men who don't. I can think of a lot of young men in my own circle of friends who would probably die of sheer embarrassment before watching something like that.
One of the things that I wonder if it is true is the claim that men are having more trouble with impotence and premature ejaculation because of porn. All those idealized images of men in porn would probably make any man feel less than, and I'm wondering if it's similar to the way models in fashion magazines encourage women to starve themselves in order to have the perfect body.
I also think it is really disturbing that hardcore porn is used to desensitize doctors and soldiers. There's something really awful about that, about the statement it makes on the kinds of people we're training.
Part of me really wants to poll my guy friends about this subject, though I think with friends like Jimmy and Nate, I'm not going to get very far.

Edgard Varèse's Ameriques

Mark is an expert on classical music. And I'm not, in the least, and my biggest hole of knowledge is on "modern" classical music. I've been looking around for stuff to educate myself.
Mark actually doesn't talk about music all too often to me, and I'm wondering if it's a reflection of my ignorance or because he doesn't want to talk about it. (He was once studying to be a musician, but quit about two years ago. I don't know the details as to why, but maybe it's a sore subject.)
In any case, all I really know about this piece is that it's from the twenties.

Malta

...So despite my love of European history, I really don't know anything about the country of Malta, other than it was once controlled by the British and is hardcore Catholic. To fix this oversight, I sat down and read a short article on traveling to the country.

History Things I Learned:

Carthage and Rome duked it out for Malta. Obviously, the Romans won in the end.

St. Paul brought the christian faith there, like he seemingly did everywhere else in the Mediterraean.

During the Middle Ages, the island was controlled by Muslims. Again, not a surprise as other parts of the Mediterraean was controlled by Muslims, most famously southern Spain, but also southern France and parts of coastal Italy.

Napoleon, a native of next door Corsica, conquered the island and stole pretty much anything he could, which is what he did elsewhere, like in Egypt.

Lord Byron traveled there. I wonder if that trip was related to his infamous Greek trip that ended so badly. Also, he complained about the streets, which totally sounds like him, because he's such a whiner.

I could probably conclude here that Malta is basically like its sister European countries in terms of history, but this might be simplistic.

Amazing Side Notes:

They have a Popeye theme park. I don't really know what to make of that, but if I ever go there, that might be a fun place to go, though I suspect I would go just to say that once I went to a Popeye theme park.

Maltese is a blend of Italian and Arabic. Sounds like my sort of language.

Blogger in Draft

To all my readers out there who are on blogger: how do you guys feel about the new version of blogger in draft?
Although it is very fancy, I really dislike the color choices of the program.  Everything is so small and the light orange of some of the text is hard to read.  It gives me a headache just looking at it. 
I'm also not a fan because I really don't have the time to learn another thing right now. 

6 Feet Under

Found this great article about how the term six feet under came about.  Shocker: it's related to the Great Plague.  (Does everything even the least bit related to death has to come back to this plague?) 
The short and short of it is this: to prevent the plague from coming back, six feet became the standard for burial.  (Which begs the question: what were they doing before the plague in terms of how deeply people were buried?) 

Dancing in September

I love this song.  Years ago, I went on a trip with my Mom, sister, and some family friends.  They left an Earth, Wind and Fire CD, which I totally "borrowed" and listened to. 
I love to dance to this song. 

Tumblr Crush

I've sort of fallen in love with tumblr as a format.  And then I came across this video of the founder, and I fell in love with him.  He seems like both a down to earth person and very poised and smart. 
Does anyone else think this guy looks like Christopher Gorham?

Found Poem

I'm not usually too impressed with found poems, but this little one is sort of perfect.