History and the Presidents quiz twofer

Mental Floss has a presidential lunchtime quiz today, "Who was president when? Part 2." So I went back and found quiz 1. These are hard since they give you the event and you need to guess who was president. I did alright on quiz one, but the questions grew more obscure on quiz two. I will probably tank quiz three when it comes out.

Part 1

My Results:

Part 2

My results:

Alright history buffs, tell me how you do.

Those who study history ...

In the "The Political Prisoner" by Charles Coleman Finlay in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection edit by Gardner Dozois (first appeared in F&SF, August 2008), Finlay adds a corollary to a paraphrase of the familiar aphorism about history:

"Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it"

Finlay's extension is placed in the words of Max, the story title's political prisoner:

"Those who do study history are doomed to see the repetition coming"

The day after moon day when the world read the headlines

July 21, 1969 was the day when the world woke up to the headlines of man landing on the moon, though millions watched it live as it happened.

NASA has many great photographs in their history write up of the Apollo 11 mission.



Above is the iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin with Neil Armstrong and LM in reflection in Aldrin's visor. I have linked to Wikipedia's photo with black sky behind Aldrin made by extending this picture vertically, but the original shown here shows that the photo was cut off at the top. Still not a bad photo for being shot by Neil Armstrong in a space suit on the moon without a viewfinder to look through.

Because Neil Armstrong took so many of the pictures during the mission there are only a few photos of him on the moon. The one above is one that Buzz Aldrin took.

Here is another one of Neil Armstrong that has been taken from a high definition restoration of 16mm film taken by a camera on top of the lunar module. You can even see Armstrong's face through his visor. This picture is featured in a new book about the moon landing.

Finally the big blue marble with the Lunar module below.


Let's go back!

Happy Moon Day - First photograph of man on the moon published in color

This first photo of man on the moon published in color was a supplement to the Philadelphia Inquirer 40 years ago.

My parents saved this photo with the other newspapers from the moon landing forty years ago. It is too large to scan in, so I photographed it. Click on it for larger to read the text and see more detai, though the photo was not that detailed originally.

Now NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Observer has photos of the landing sites 40 years later.

Apollo 11

Apollo 14

Wish I was planning my moon vacation right now. Maybe in another 40 years. Tom Wolfe thinks he knows why we those first steps heralded the end of the program. Charles Stross asks what has the space program done for us? (lots of good stuff).

Let's go back.

40 years ago, Man on the Moon headlines from the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Norristown Times Herald

I was told today that 40 years ago when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong was about to take his historic first step I was crawling around on the floor with my twin sister and my father during the broadcast. I suppose at six months old I was too young to remember the moon landing but my dad tells me I was there watching.

My parents saved the newspapers from the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Norristown Times Herald for July 21, 1969 with the morning headlines proclaiming the landing and first steps of the night before. He are photos of those pages. If you click on them to make them larger you should be able to read some of the articles.

Philadelphia Inquirer July 21, 1969 page 1.

Philadelphia Inquirer July 21, 1969 page 3.

Philadelphia Inquirer July 21, 1969 page 3.
Closeup of conversation as Neil Armstrong takes his first step on the moon.

Philadelphia Inquirer July 21, 1969 page 4.

Philadelphia Inquirer July 21, 1969 page 5.

Norristown Times Herald July 21, 1969 page 1.

Dr. Pepper Recipe from 1880 found

I am a big fan of Dr. Pepper so news that an early notebook containing what might be an original recipe piqued my interest. I expected that it would contain things that you are not allowed to put in sodas anymore like cocaine or embalming fluid. The auction website has some of the pages in great detail, but I can't understand the handwriting of the recipe for "Dr. Pepper Pepsin Bitters" (click on the picture for bigger). The stain on the page might be Dr. Pepper.



The notebook is expected to sell for more than $50,000. I am content with a few high-res pages.

Guess the backs of US bills - a quiz

Mental Floss has a quiz in which you must guess the denomination of the U.S. bill from the back without any additional information. I know most of us know the fronts, but how often do you examine the back of a bill, and then memorize it in case there is a quiz.

I got them all!

Bill Backs
Score: 100% (5 out of 5)

Go try the quiz and then come back here and I will tell you how I did it and why I think the quiz is easier than it appears at first glance.

I will put the spoilers below in a similar color to the background so as not to tempt you before you take the quiz, highlight to read.

You see, I tried to think of what would be an appropriate back to a bill, given the president on the front. The key is to remember who is on the bill, and recognize the building.

Easy to remember is Lincoln on the $5, Franklin on the $100 (it's all about the Benjamins, baby), and Hamilton on the $10 (You can call us Aaron Burr / From the way we're droppin' HAM-IL-TONS). Thus Lincoln and the $5 should have the Lincoln Memorial, Franklin and the $100 should have Philadelphia's Independence Hall, and Hamilton should have the Treasury building. Which one is that? It's the one you don't recognize. Then I guessed the other two. The White House should be for a president, but everyone left is a president. Lastly is the United States Capitol building. Thus the $20 and the $50 are the toughest to guess. Looks like I guess right.

It is like any other puzzle, if you don't remember it straight on, what are some other clues that you can use.

What's on History Channel tonight?

Lately it seems that all shows on the history channel could have the title, "Nazi UFO's of the Bible". This infographic seems to agree.


see more Funny Graphs

How true.

(via GraphJam)

Current Reading List and Just Read List- Science Fiction, Fantasy, History and Words

I tend to let my list of favorite authors pile up books for a while and then get them all in mass clump and then read them voraciously. At this rate I will fill up the new library far too soon. I have a plan to show how there are some similar themes in the science fiction I am reading lately. Multiple/Parallel worlds being the most important. For now just the lists:

Retiring...

• Shuttle Down by Lee Correy
• Rude Mechanicals by Kage Baker
• Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud

...off of the just read and reading list to the side.

And adding:

• Nation by Terry Pratchett
• Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams
• Incandescence by Greg Egan
• The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• Brasyl by Iam McDonald

Reading to come will be:

• Shakespeare The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
• Interface by Neal Stephenson
• How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Perhaps I will get around to reviews as I read them. Apersual of the lists shows the science fiction you would expect, some fantasy though some of both of these are young adult novels. History and words from Sarah Vowell and Bill Bryson.

If the East Coast Is American enough For Al-Qaeda, It should be American enough for ...

Jezebel excerpted the exact quote I wanted from Sarah Vowell's interview on the Jon Stewart show on Tuesday October 7th. Sarah complained that Palin and the Republicans pay lip service to New York's bravery in 9/11 and then call New Yorkers "elite" and unpatriotic behind their backs. Sarah said, "They wrap themselves in our attack and then they leave and talk about what snobs we are."



My favorite comment from Vowell was this one: "If the East Coast Is American enough For Al-Qaeda, It should be American enough for them." Them being the aforementioned Republicans.

I like Sarah Vowell's books and their quirky take on history. I even forced us to visit the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio because I was reading Assassination Vacation at the time. Her new book is The Wordy Shipmates.

Piano played by Liszt, Schumann and Brahms at the Las Vegas Liberace Museum

When we were in Las Vegas we went to the Liberace Museum. Besides all of the costumes and Liberacinalia there is also a collection of pianos that he had owned. Some of them were famous before Liberace ever owned them. This one was reportedly played by Liszt, Schumann and Brahms which combined with its Serbian connection below makes it a very historically interesting piece.


From the description plate:

Bosendorfer Style Grand Piano c. 1830 Serial No. 222
Viennese piano maker Anton Pokorny made this "Bosendorfer Style" grand piano in 1830. From 1842 to 1858, it resided with exiled Serbian Prince Michael Orbenovic III in Vienna, Austria. This piano was reportedly played by such composers as Liszt, Schumann and Brahms. In 1860, Prince Obrenovic assumed the throne in Serbia (Yugosolavia) and brought this piano to the royal palace where it remained for many years. Just prior to his assassination in 1868, he gave the piano to his fiancee, whose family later gave it to their relatives, the Dragisic family.

The Serbs and Serbia seem to have a lot of trouble with assassinations and turbulent rulers. To hear some of the pieces that might have been played by famous composers on the piano I recommend the Piano Society where you can find free recordings by talented amateurs and professionals of works by Liszt, Schumann or Brahms.

Are you a Nerd? Of course you are, you're reading this.

You always knew you were a nerd, but just what kind are you? As always the Internet comes to the rescue with a fun quiz.

My results may not be typical, use with caution.




(via Marc A. Murison)

Sputnik and 50 years of satellites

Unless you live under a rock you know that 50 years ago today the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union. That one is not orbiting around anymore, but you can review my analysis of the list of satellites that are currently up there (and Kepler's second law, and geosynchronous orbits), as well as worry about orbiting debris. All of that may make you want to move under a rock for safety.

Filpot, Kilpot or Shellpot - The history of Shellpot Creek on maps.

The creek that flows through my backyard that is currently called Shellpot Creek, wasn't always called that, it didn't even always empty into the Delaware river. Early maps (late 1600's) show the creek with various names and have it emptying into the Brandywine. It is famously know as the boundary of Valentine Hollingsworth's plantation "New Worke" or "New Ark". He arrived to settle in Pennsylvania in 1682, only months after William Penn.

The USGS has a name server where you can search for geographical features in the United States. The Shellpot Creek entry lists some older names for the creek and conveniently provides some citations, which spurred this study.

Names of Shellpot Creek:

• Kitthantemessink
• Schillpades Creek
• Schilpatts Creek
• Secellpot Creek
• Shell Creek
• Shelpot Creek
• Shilpot Creek
• Shilpts Creek
• Skilpot Creek
• Filpot River
• Philpot River
• Shillpot Creek

Not all of the maps below came from the USGS citations as my searches turned up more references to early maps of northern Delaware. (click on any of the maps below for a larger picture).




The earliest map in English that I have found shows Shellpot creek as the Filpot river. And this is not a "f" for "s" mistake as often happens with early typography since elsewhere in the map capitol "S" is rendered as "S" not as "F". This map dates from 1687, only a few years after Hollingsworth's arrival in Delaware.

Reference: The City of Philadelphia two Miles in Length and one in Breadth.
Inset to: A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pennsylvania in America, Divided into Countyes, Townships and Lotts. Surveyed by Thomas Holme. Sold by George Willdey at the Great Toy, Spectacle, and Print Shop, at the corner of Ludgate Street, near St. Paul's, London. 1687. (source)


My favorite alternate name for the Shellpot creek name is from a 1688 map showing the creek as Kilpot creek, shown above. This time it appears to empty into the Delaware. It is possible that the mapmaker has mistaken Naamans Creek for Shellpot (Kilpot) creek, but there is an unnamed creek (in the middle of Chichester) between Kilpot and Chester creek that could be Naamans Creek.

Reference: A NEW MAP OF NEW JARSEY AND PENSILVANIA BY ROBT. MORDEN , page 567 from Geography Rectified: Or A Description of the World, .....The Second Edition Enlarged by Robert Morden London, Printed for Robert Morden and Thomas Cockerill MDCLXXXVIII (Burden #650), 1688. (source, see 1688.1, full map)


This map from 1775 names the creek Shilpot Creek and once again shows that it empties into the Brandywine. Farther north up the Delaware River is Naamans Creek. The atlas that this map comes from is one that George Washington and the founding fathers might have used to understand the war situation during the American revolution.

Reference: A Map Of Pennsylvania Exhibiting not only The Improved Parts of that Province, but also Its Extensive Frontiers: Laid down From Actual Surveys, and Chiefly From The Late Map of W. Scull Published in 1770; And Humbly Inscribed To The Honourable Thomas Penn And Richard Penn Esquires True And Absolute Proprietaries & Governors Of The Province Of Pennsylvania and the Territories thereunto belonging. London Printed for Robt. Sayer & J. Bennett ... June 1775. (source, uses Java applet to view maps)



Here is map clipped from a larger map showing Shellpot creek as Fillpot creek. Could they have perhaps used the Thomas Holme map as a reference? The numbers in the river are depths for ship navigation. I fear this map would have been useful to British ships prosecuting the Americans in the Revolutionary War.

Reference: A chart of Delawar River from Bombay Hook to Ridley Creek, with soundings &c taken by Lt. Knight of the Navy. The Atlantic Neptune. London: Des Barres, 1779. (source, map)



This 1778 map shows the creek as Shilpot creek.

Reference: This map of the peninsula between Delaware & Chesopeak Bays, with the said bays and shores adjacent drawn from the most accurate surveys. Churchman, John. Philadelphia? 1778? (source, map in zoomable view from LOC)


There have been travel guides throughout all of history. If you wanted to get from Philadelphia to Washington or to new York in 1804 you could have used Moore's and Jones' excellent guide. North is down in the map above because it is showing the route of travel to Washington from Philadelphia in the southerly direction. This closeup of Map 4 shows that between mile 25 and 26 a traveller would cross over Shillpot creek just after they came back down Shillpot hill.

Reference: Road from Philadelphia to Washington. (Maps) 1, 2, 3 and 4. from The Traveller's Directory, Or A Pocket Companion: Shewing The Course Of The Main Road Philadelphia To New York, And From Philadelphia To Washington. ... From Actual Survey. By S.S. Moore & T.W. Jones. Philadelphia: Printed For, And Published By, Mathew Carey. 1802. (source)



When we jump forward to 1868, Shellpot Creek becomes Shell Pott Creek, but at least that looks more like its modern name. I have shown another portion of this map before in reference to the Newark Union Cemetery where Valentine Hollingsworth is buried.
Atlas of the State of Delaware, Pomeroy and Beers, 1868 (source click on the hundreds for map in .pdf, map in .pdf)



Shellpot creek takes its modern name if not its modern location on this image, joined from two sections of the 1904 USGS survey maps. (It is a combination of sections from the Northeast Wilmington quad and the Southeast West chester quad, source maps for Delaware in 1904)

The story of when Shellpot Creek was redirected to empty into the Delaware river (sometime after 1937) instead of the Brandywine will be in an upcoming investigation.

Lincoln letter found whose instructions would have ended the civil war sooner if followed.

Yahoo reports that an original letter written by President Lincoln to Major General Henry Halleck written on July 7th ,1863 was found at the national archives. In the letter President Lincoln exhorts his generals to press their advantage at Gettysburg. The Union generals in the Civil War were notorious for failing to take advantage of situations which could have ended the war much sooner. It is one of the great tragedies of history that their overly cautious approach actually caused more deaths than it saved.



The letter reads:

"We have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if General Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litteral or substantial destruction of Lee's army, the rebellion will be over.

Yours truly, A Lincoln,"

Unfortunately there were two more years of war after this letter was written.

I will never be president!

I failed miserably at this presidential quiz. I have a knack for picking the wrong answers it seems.

THE PRESIDENTIAL QUIZ: Just how presidential are you?

Ouch! Sorry to shatter your dreams, kid. Maybe you should spend more time working on your jump shot.

Score: 15% (3 out of 20)

(take the quiz here)

Test your own mettle against the vagaries of presidential politics and behavior. I liked the explanations at the end. As I was taking the quiz I realized the questions were from real situations and I couldn't decide if I should answer my own opinion about what was appropriate or what I recalled happened to the president involved. I answered honestly, since it was a quiz to determine if I had the skills to be president. The answer? No.

I don't feel to bad, the average score after over 6000 takers is 25%.

(from Mental Floss via Neatorama)

Madmen from history

Is there ever a time in history when we aren't generating more lunatics and madmen? In case you want to place yourself in context with some of these illustrious crazies Rum and Monkey have provided a helpful quiz.

You are William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, the Fifth Duke of Portland!

Sometime Marquis of Tichfield, Earl of Portland, Viscount Woodstock, Baron of Cirencester, co-heir to the Barony of Ogle and renowned as the finest judge of horseflesh in England, you took the tradition of aristocratic eccentricity to unprecedented heights. Having inherited the stately home of Welbeck Abbey, you proceeded to construct miles of underground tunnels and a ballroom, in pink, beneath it. The ballroom was complete except for one small detail. It had no floor. Despite this vast home, you lived exclusively in a suite of five rooms, each one also pink.

Having been turned down by your opera singer objet d'amour, Adelaide Kemble, in your youth, you suffered a broken heart and never married. This did not stop you from caring deeply about the wellbeing of your servants. Occasionally you would even help them muck out the stables. However, you did not neglect discipline, forcing disobedient underlings to skate themselves to exhaustion on your subterranean skating rink. Servants were given strict instructions regarding conduct: if they met you in a corridor, they were to ignore your existence while you froze to the spot until they were out of sight; and a chicken was to be kept roasting at all times in case you felt like sneaking into the kitchen for a snack.

You became ever more eccentric with age. You built another tunnel, this time to the railway station, through which you would ride your carriage. When you reached the station your carriage, with you inside, would be hoisted up onto the train in its entirety.

Upon your death, your multitude of titles passed to your cousin, who was obliged to delve into your curious domain to find your body once the servants had reported your absence. Entering your private rooms, he found that, aside from a commode in the centre of your bedroom, the only objects in the whole suite were hundreds of hatboxes, each containing a single brown wig.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

I never heard of this guy, but I feel like I know him.

Your house location in historical context

I have always been fascinated with what was where my house is before my house was there. The last house I lived in was built on land that belonged to a cemetery. They didn't have to move the bodies, because as far as I could tell they had never buried any on the land.

My current house is a lot younger than that one, but is quite close to another cemetery that has some historical significance for Delaware. In 1687 Valentine Hollingsworth, a contemporary of William Penn, and a early settler of Delaware (then part of Pennsylvania!) donated one-half acre for a burying place, “being some already buryed in ye spot.” The plot was near the Newark Union Meeting of Friends (Quakers).

Valentine Hollingsworth himself is supposedly buried in the cemetery, and there is a monument, erected in 1935, to commemorate him.








The earliest readable gravestones I could find were in the 1800's. I did find a stone in the wall surrounding the cemetery which reads 1787.







The Delaware Geological Survey, headquartered at the University of Delaware has links upon links of Delaware information and also has maps of the Delaware Hundreds. Hundreds are an old way of dividing the state. I found the Newark Union Cemetery on the Brandywine hundred map from the Pomeroy and Beers Atlas of 1868 (.pdf link). Here is an excerpt (the square labelled Cem Union Ch at right).

Having a historical marker as far back as 1687, which is almost as far back as you can go in Delaware, plus the geographical marker of Shellpot Creek right out back makes it convenient when locating the house location through history. I can just imagine Hollingsworth crossing the Shellpot Creek right where my house is now, all those hundreds of years ago.