Tag Archives: history

Fluvial Geomorphology

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Went to a lecture at the Stroud Water Research Center given by Melinda Daniels, their new fluvial geomorphologist. There was wine, cheese and coffee (but I opted for a couple Guinnesses at dinner instead).

Fluvial geomorphology is a term coined by Luna Leopold to describe science concerned specifically with the influence of flowing surface water on the physical shape of the earth, primarily through the mechanisms of erosion and deposition. It differs from hydrology and limnology in that it focuses on the landscape, although it also involves the study of precipitation and the flow of water as dynamic primary processes shaping the land.

The talk was pretty good; Dr. Daniels spoke directly to the needs and concerns of local landholders trying to improve the quality of streams and rivers on their properties, as well as providing an interesting and informative talk for the room at large. We enjoyed it.

Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. –John Jeavons

October 14th, 947 A.H.

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On October 14th, 1066, William the Bastard of Normandy got to change his name to William the Conqueror of England.

Jan 6th – Harald Godwinsson crowned the last Saxon King of England, despite a mildly controversial succession from gormless celibate King Edward the Confessor.
Apr 24th – Halley’s Comet shines over England, four times the size of Venus and brighter than the quarter moon. Flying monk Elmer of Malmesbury writes “You’ve come, you source of tears to many mothers, you evil. I hate you! It is long since I saw you; but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country.”
Sep 20th – Harald Hardraada, King of Norway, invades Yorkshire with the aid of Tostig Godwinsson, the (brutal, extremely unpopular, exiled) former Earl of Northumbria. Northern Saxon Earls Edwin and Morcar are crushingly defeated at the Battle of Fulford.
Sep 25th – King Harold Godwinson force-marches his huscarls the length of England in four days, catching the invading Norwegians by surprise at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Harold offers his rebel brother Tostig restoration of his Earldom, but for Hardraada he promises only “seven feet of English ground, or as much more as he may be taller than other men”. Tostig refuses and he and Harald are both killed, along with nearly all the Viking force.
Sep 27th – William the Bastard sets sail for England with Church approval and 700 vessels stuffed full of men and horses.
Sep 28th – William arrives at Pevensey Bay, Sussex, after a rough crossing and the loss of several ships.
Oct 14th – Godwinsson arrives at Senlac Hill near the town of Hastings, having once again force-marched his men over 240 miles. William’s relatively fresh Norman-French army attacks the English force, and Harold and his brothers are killed. Harold’s mother offers to buy his body for its weight in gold; William refuses and orders it hurled into the sea.
Dec 25th – After burning down much of the south and west, William the Conqueror is crowned the first Norman King of England.

Tom Paine was a dirty commie!

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Thomas Paine, one of America’s Founding Fathers and much quoted by “patriots”, was in favor of -gasp- socialism!

Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came.

In Agrarian Justice Paine systematically lays out financial means of caring for “three classes of wretchedness. The blind, the lame, and the aged poor;” in terms that would make any modern Democratic or Republican politician’s head explode. The numbers aren’t relevant today, but the sentiment – that the Earth is the shared treasury of all who live upon it, and those who enjoy private ownership of any part of it should be taxed to support those who do not – comes through loud and clear. Reminds me of Dick Gaughan’s “World Turned Upside Down” and the readable parts of Marx.

It’s weird to see today’s politicians, nearly mummified in the flags they’ve wrapped about themselves, spouting nonsense that the likes of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Thomas Paine might have lynched them for. Their claims that Social Security and taxation of assets (as opposed to taxation of income) are unamerican are such barefaced lies that you have to wonder about the sanity of these people. And if you look up what the first Americans thought about corporations, you’ll have to assume that one hundred percent of today’s congress would have fought for the British (well, for the East India Company, really) in the American Revolution.

Thanks to Kent for his gift of Common Sense, which I enjoyed, and got me started on reading Paine.

Oooh, they have vortices on the radio now!

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Everybody says Viktor Schauberger was mentally ill. Probably because he almost certainly was, just like Nickie Tesla. A lot of the stuff he wrote, especially after spending time in German concentrations camps and mental hospitals, looks pretty insane.

But Schauberger (1885-1958) not only went off on some wild tangents that make modern dilution homeopaths look relatively cogent, he also seems to have performed some engineering wonders; devising self-cleaning pipes, log flumes for heavier-than-water wood, and hydro turbines with previously unheard of efficiency. He consulted with Messerschmidt and Henkel on engine and prop designs even while he was confined in an asylum and under constant SS supervision (Schauberger was apparently a little too open about his disapproval of Hitler, but like Porsche simply too valuable to execute). If you google him, you will find he is a darling of Internet perpetual-motion nuts and free energy heretics.

Vortices of radio frequency energy for communications sounds like something straight out of the Schauberger playbook, though, doesn’t it?

Every time I read about Francis turbine design, vortex tubes or the Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion cycle I remember Viktor Schauberger. Vortices are fascinating & beautiful.

(Apologies to Matt Groening for post title.)

the 70s called

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The seventies called and left a message, something about a temple on fire but it was hard to hear over all the screaming and I’m not good with Hebrew anyway.

the 1970s called…

and 2009 called…

Make sure you read the mouseover texts on Randall’s comix!