Interesting things

Hidden canals #4: Covered Canal in Muhlouse

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Continuing the series, if you find yourself in the Middle Ages and are looking to find a nice place for your market, you’ll probably locate it on a river or a creek.  Easy way to bring in the goods and the people – and easy way to float away the trash and the refuse.

You would never guess it by this photo taken in Muhlouse, Alsace, but here I am standing on a market built over a canal:

Outside you’ll find the outdoor market, a vegetable market, as you can see here. And that yellow building in the distance is the indoor market, the Marché de Canal Couvert de Muhlouse. To provide that I’m really over a canal, here’s that same yellow market from the rear:

And here is a view looking down the canal, away from the market:

If you look closely you’ll see that it’s not just a natural creek but rather it’s lined with cut stones.  Muhlouse sits at the intersection of several shipping canals, so most of the small creeks in the area have been long since under active management.

Incredible Baroque Church

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Located deep in Southern German Schwabian landscape, it does not look impressive from the outside; in fact, it is one of the most boring, plain church facades I’ve ever seen:

But when you step inside, your brain explodes:

 

As you walk around the church and look deeper and deeper, you’ll find that even the gold and diamond encrusted details have gold and diamond encrusted details:

It might be so boring on the outside because in fact it is not a church, but a Benedictine Abbey.

If you want to visit, don’t worry about tourists. I don’t think anyone outside of the locals know that this place exists – and probably even they avoid it, to keep their brains from exploding.

Big Schwabian Bug

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I saw this fellow in the Southern German town of Zwiefalten.  At over an inch long, he looks somewhat like a cross between a Jerusalem cricket and an earwig – maybe a Jerusalem earwig?  It on my to-do list to one day learn what kind of a bug he is.

In case you didn’t catch it, the town is named Zwiefalten, not Zweifalten. I’ve never understood why, but vowel shifts from /e/ to /i/ (Gleichfalls –> Gliichfaus) are a common feature of the Alemannisch language, which is spoken in that area.

World’s highest tunnel ventilation shaft?

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I don’t know if it is or it isn’t.  But this photograph was taken at the Gotthard Pass in Switzerland, at an elevation of 2106 m high in the Swiss Aps:

And hundreds of feet below this open shaft is the Gotthard Tunnel, a two lane road that lets automobiles and trucks pass underneath the Swiss Alps. It was build in 1882 and until recently one of the world’s longest tunnels.  Even from the point at where I am standing you can hear the roar of the traffic deep underground.

An amazing bit of trivia that goes directly to the heart of Swiss innovation: dynamite was invented in 1867, and this tunnel project was the first large scale industrial use of dynamite in the world.

Fish, chips, and mushy peas

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Even though I am an American, I’ve long known about fish and chips. In fact, I can still sing the Arthur Treater’s (“the original fish and chips”) jingle – and what you might not know is that Arthur Treater’s is an Ohio establishment, from just a few miles from where I grew up!

So when a good friend of mine invited me to try some real fish and chips and mushy peas – in the part of Northern England where it’s most famous, no less! – I immediately thought: Peas? Mushy peas?  What do peas have to do with fish and chips? And are English cooks so bad they can’t cook up nice, firm peas – do they have to be mushy?

Well, here is what one of the best fish and chips restaurants in the seaside Yorkshire town of Whitby:

And those green things: that’s the mushy peas.  I would have never believed it until I tried it, but mushy peas do go well with the fish. And of course the fish itself – I can tell you, this batter fried fish is in a completely different category than anything I’ve ever tasted.

Oh, and that plastic bowl in the middle contains little pieces of batter that have dripped off into the oil. Not shown is the mash vinegar that the English love to pour over their fish.

(Correction:  Above I stated “one of the best fish and chips restaurants” but I have since learned that this was Hadley’s, which has been rated THE BEST fish and chips restaurant!)

Hidden canals #3: Vanishing near the Rivetoile

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The nineteenth century saw an explosion of canal building, and with good cause: railroads were a monopoly, and trucks and automobiles had yet to be invented.

But today, many of these canals are disappearing fast – but not overnight. So they present a wonderful opportunity to watch how and where they slowly slip from reality into archaeology.  I’ve provided some examples here and here.

Below you’ll see a new landmark site in the middle of downtown Strasbourg, the Rivetoile “complex.” It’s a shopping center / underground parking garage / apartments / movie theater all rolled into one.  The old historic cranes are a reminder of the industrial past, and the water looks wonderful, filled with seagulls, swans, and an exploding community of muskrats:

(By the way, a few years ago it was rare to see a single muskrat, but now there are so many – including some really big, fat ones – and they are not shy about approaching visitors and begging for food. This is probably why the population has exploded.)

But this is about all the visitors and tourists will see. If you don’t mind the smell of urine and the occasional homeless person, you can explore further down the canal and you’ll find the original railroad tracks that were used to pull the boats down the canal:

Back in the day, even this would have been quite modern.  The earliest canals relied on horses to pull the barges along.

Ash in Alsace

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Ash – POTASH, that is.  I first learned about this after driving around the Alsacian countryside and discovering this abandoned mine:

To make matters more interesting, it is located in a small town called Pulversheim,

After a bit of Internet research, it turns out the history is very interesting. Potash was discovered here in 1904 – and at the time, the only other source of potash was in Germany, leading to the Germans having a monopoly on the market. So naturally it was a huge benefit to have a second source.  One good source for more information is this site, Les Mines.

Rambo’s adversary

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This is an authentic Russian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter, of precisely the sort that chased Rambo.

I took this picture just outside the National History Museum, in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Imagine a national history museum that greets visitors with this – how cool is that?!

(Believe it or not, Sylvestor Stallone visited Sofia just a few weeks after I took this picture, planning to film a new movie here.)

Incomprehensible Elephants

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Recently I took a guided tour of the Zürich Zoo, and I had the chance to ask one of the zoo keepers why these elephants were sticking their trunks in strange places, as this one is here:

He told me that to keep the elephants happy, they hide individual peanuts in strange places, so the elephants will look for them.

WAIT!  STOP!  (This is exactly how I reacted when he told me this.)  How can it be that a five thousand pound animal will spend hours looking for a little peanut?  That’s like me spending hours looking for a single M&M.  Sadly, the zoo keeper could not answer my question; he said he did not know.

On that day, I don’t know if I lost respect for elephants (because they are more stupid than I thought) or gained respect for elephants (finding happiness in very simple pleasures).  Anyway, it reminds me of a blog that my mother recently wrote, entitled The Zen of Polished Chrome.

Where’s Mrs Hall?

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I think the most amazing room in the Herriot Musuem is the kitchen, which guests are free to enter and examine. It is a 100% accurate reproduction of how the kitchen would have looked in the 1930’s.

Some items are instantly recognizable: such as a bag of flour or a tin of salt.  Some items take on a new light when you see their intended purpose: such as a cabinet that today would hold decorative plates, but back in the day displayed mason jars of canned food. And some items were a real mystery (and still are): the clothes drying rack positioned above the wood oven is a wonderful idea – but was it only used for drying clothes, or also for adding a bit of humidity to the room?

A viral contribution to the development of human intelligence?

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For a long time I have had an idea about how viral pathogens may have contributed to the development of human intelligence.

This is a picture of the vericella zoster virus:

This is a picture of herpes simplex virus:

Once you are infected with either of these viruses, and after the initial infection subsides, the virus will retreat but continue to live dormant in your nerve cells.

Here’s the truly amazing part: these dormant viruses are sensitive your to emotional mood!  After infection, at times of emotional stress, both viruses can re-emerge and become infectious again: vericella zoster expresses itself as shingles, an intensely painful disease; and herpes can again erupt and cause severe skin eruptions and infections of the mucous membranes.

So . . . think about what affect these diseases might have had on our ancestors, tens of thousands of years ago?  If the early precursors of these diseases were more severe and had a higher mortality (as they usually do), then these viruses  might have had a significant impact on the development of human intelligence: those people who were more intelligent and could think more rationally would be better able to control their stress, so they could inhibit these diseases, live longer and produce more offspring; those people  who were less intelligent and could think less rationally would be less able to control their stress, so they would be more likely to be re-infected and therefore removed from the breeding population.

Succinctly put, my hypothesis is this: these viruses may have been a driving force that helped shape the development of human intelligence, or possibly favor one species (such as homo sapiens) over another (such as homo neanderthalensis).

Of course, I am a physicist by training, not an evolutionary biologist – so this idea is purely speculation on my part. I’ve tried discussing it with two professors of evolutionary biology, including a very famous professor at Stanford – and unfortunately, they seemed (much) less enthralled by the idea than I am.  Since the effects of these viruses are mainly in human flesh and not bones, it is doubtful the archaeological record could provide much elucidation.

The final resting place of three Apostles?

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These are the famous Apostles, Saint James, Saint Peter, and Saint Thomas:

Technically, I am referring to Saint James, son of Zebedee, since there is a second apostle also named James. The Spanish people call Saint James by a different name, Santiago, and he is buried in a cathedral I visited in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela:

Saint Peter is probably the most famous saint, having been killed not just by crucifixion, but by crucixion-upside-down, in this Roman square that I visited, now known as Saint Peter’s Basilica:

But I’m not sure if anyone really knows where Saint Thomas is buried.  According to the locals, Saint Thomas travelled to India and eventually reached Chennai, having died and been buried somewhere quite close.  There is a famous church I visited there, known Saint Thomas Mount:

Saint Thomas is known as the Patron Saint of India – but unfortunately there is some dispute as to whether these claims are true.  I hope they are true, because it would make the people who believe them very happy.

So by coincidence and not by plan, I’ve visited what may be the final resting place of 25% of the twelve Apostles.

Convergent evolution vs. design patterns

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In biology there is the concept of convergent evolution:

“In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.”

In software engineering there is the concept of a design pattern:

“In software engineering, a design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern isn’t a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations.”

During recent trips to both Spain and Texas, it made me first realize that both convergent evolution and design patterns are describing something very similar.  Have a look at this:

Spain is filled with Spaniards, and as everyone knows Spaniards are very tiny people. So until recently they drove very tiny cars. But recently Spaniards are getting bigger. I took this picture in Spain, which now seems to be representative of how Spaniards park their cars:

Texas is filled with Texans, and as everyone knows Texans are very big people indeed. But in recent times, Texans have been getting even bigger. I took this picture in Texas, which now seems to be representative of how Texans park their “dualies” (as they call pickup trucks with dual rear tires):

Convergent evolution (biology) or design pattern (software engineering) – you be the judge!

The tallest structure in the world

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This is the Burj Khalifa. At 2’788 feet, it is the tallest structure in the world.

I was on holiday here during the hot summer month of August –   which, by the way, is a great time to get good deals on airfare and five star hotels!

And this is the Tokyo Sky-Tree.  Coming in at 2’080 feet, it is the second tallest structure in the world. I took this picture during the peak of winter season in Tokyo – also a great way to save money on airfare and hotels.

So I guess I am quite fortunate to have seen the top two tallest structures in the world!

To quench one’s Thirsk

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The famous fictional books All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot and set in the Yorkshire village of Darroughby were actually written by Alfred Wight and were based on his veternary practice in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Thanks to a good friend I got a wonderful chance to see this town.

This is a historical picture of Thirsk, what James Herriot before WWII would have seen:

And this is Thirsk today:

So you can see, it hasn’t changed much.  Interestingly, Dr. Wight wasn’t intentionally trying to trick anyone. There were very strict laws in England at the time that prevented doctors and veterinarians from advertising, so it was necessary for him to change the names and places.

PS. What I find fascinating is the color variation you can see on the lower photograph, which approximately follows the original road shown in the top drawing.  Are we seeing visible signs of the archeology?  Only one way to find out: dig a test trench!

Did Jesus live in France?

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If you are ever in the southwest of France, do not hesistate to visit Rennes-le-Chateau.  Although the tourists flock to the nearby historical city of Carcasonne, Rennes-le-Chateau will impress you even more.

What is this place?  It is an unbelievably isolated hill station that has a 360-degree panoramic view of the Languedoc region in Southern France.  It’s a long, lonely one-hour drive up a very steep one lane road.

Historically, the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (and later, the book-turned-movie The Da Vinci Code) put Rennes-le-Chateau on the map.  According to this book, the local priest in the 19th century discovered a buried treasure that gave evidence that Jesus and his wife (Mary Magdalene) settled in southern France.

 

Is the story real?  Who knows?  But . . . if you travel to Rennes-le-Chateau you will realize how unbelievably hidden and remote this place is – so in my view, it would make a wonderful location for a buried treasure, if one ever existed.

Amazing Ants

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There is something quite frustrating about some local South Indian farmers I’ve met.

But first, this is the largest ant mound I’ve seen in India (or anywhere else for that matter):

amazing-ant

I spotted this one just outside of Tiruchappalli (or more commonly called Trichy, as the locals call it). If you don’t know it, Trichy is famous for its white rice – and the locals say the taste is so good because of the special properties of the soil.  So, I guess it would only be natural that the ants enjoy this great soil and build super-mounds like this one!

But what’s so frustrating about some local South Indian farmers?  I could never find any farmers (or locals for that matter) who referred to these as “ant mounds” or “termite mounds.”  If you ask the locals, they will always tell you they are “snake houses.”  OK, probably they make nice homes for snakes – I don’t dispute that.  But it always makes me wonder if they know who the builder was, not just some of the tenants!

You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here:

A German bunker in France?

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While driving through Lorraine, France, I discovered many, many bunkers that looked identical, like this:

luneville-bunker-small

But as you may know, Lorraine is quite far from the German border and the famous Maginot Line, which was a series of bunkers to defend France against the German army in World War II.

So what are these bunkers, and why were they built?

After a bit of Internet research, I discovered that this area in Lorraine was the previous boundary between France and Germany, dating back the FIRST world war, World War I.  In fact, France invaded Germany here, and the Germans built a series of fortifications to defend against the French.  The previous link shows a terrific map of the border:

battle-of-lorraine

On the one hand, it is too bad that historical artifacts like the ones I saw are not labelled, so visitors can learn why they are there.  But on the other hand, with the help of the Internet a little “amateur archeology” is fun . . . and I didn’t have to dig a test pit or extend the trench.

(PS. There are still some interesting mysteries. For example, why were all the bunkers identical?  Probably to make building them fast and easy – but did the German army have a “bunker kit” that distributed the materials to the various construction sites? Or, were the bunkers all built by the same team?)

 

Amazing Ants

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ken-ant-1

Well, technically termites, not ants – and despite having lived a few years in Southern India, I still never learned much about the various species – but you can generally recognize them by the shape of their mounds.  I discovered this one somewhere between Bangalore and Shravanabelagola.

I remember reading somewhere that these mounds grow on average as little as 1 cm per year – and if that’s true, these are very old mounds.

You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here: