THE RADIUM (GHOST) GIRLS

On the 20th of April, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolated a brand new element: radium, after years of hard work. At the time, it was believed that this new material might have all kinds of beneficial properties. So radium was swiftly incorporated into many products, ranging from makeup to ceramics to health tonics and jewelry. What wasn’t understood at this time was that radium was, in fact, quite deadly. A year before the publishing of her book “Radioactivity,” Marie died. Before her death, she had become aware of the great perils of radiation, which is also what took her life.

By the time Marie died, radium had taken the globe by storm. Radiation was something that wasn’t well understood at the time but had positive associations. It was branded under names such as “cure for the living dead” and “perpetual sushine. And perpetual is exactly what it turned out to be!

As the world descended into World War One, another use for radium came to the forefront: when infused into paint, it would make that paint glow in the dark. This made it an ideal material for coating watch faces, control panels, and instrument dials. Radium provided much-needed illumination for soldiers in the field without relying on other bulky equipment. From 1917 the demand for radium-coated dials skyrocketed, which was good news for the United States Radium Corporation. The company had been in the business of extracting and processing uranium for a few years. Now it expanded to mixing and applying radium-infused paint, a substance which they called“undark.”

Women using radium paint on alarm clock at a factory in 1932 | Picture Credits: Daily Herald Archive

It was no surprise that many local people were employed as dial painters. The dial painters would be supplied with radium paint and freshly stamped dials and had to use paintbrushes to strategically apply radium to the dial parts that needed to glow. Precision was required, so workers were instructed to lick the tips of their brushes in between each application to bring the bristles to a fine point.

For precision, the girls would soften the brush between their lips, thereby ingesting radium in the process | Photo Credits: Nontoxic Prints

The United States Radium Corporation workers had access to radium for free. They used it to paint their teeth and nails to give them a pleasant glow before heading out to dances in the evenings. Years passed. Hundreds of thousands of dials were painted and shipped out. The war eventually came to an end, much to the relief of the general population. But all was not well for the ex-workers of the United States Radium Corporation.

The original site of the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation in Orange, NJ Richard Harbus

Slowly, one by one, dial painters were falling ill. As the 1910s became the 1920s, hundreds of women who had worked as dial painters started noticing pain in their teeth and jaws. Many were having to visit their dentists regularly and were losing teeth with every visit. They were constantly exhausted, and in some cases, it was found that their jawbones were riddled with holes, reduced to a brittle hollow honeycomb. Despite this alarming wave of sickness, few were able to persuade anyone to take their ailments seriously. These female workers came to be known as the ‘Radium Girls.’

Radium Jaw, a certain sign of death in victims | Photo Credits: All That Is Interesting

When 22-year-old Molly Maggia passed away after experiencing years of pain in her jaw and teeth, her condition was described as syphilis. The complaints of many other women were glossed over with the same explanation, despite symptoms that pointed towards something more sinister. It was 1925 before any of the workers came to understand the devastating effect radium had on their bodies.

The 19-year-old woman started working at the Radium Luminous Materials Corp. in Orange, NJ, in 1917, and at first reveled in her job. It was lucrative — plus painting glow-in-the-dark radium on soldiers’ wristwatch faces meant she and her young female co-workers were helping in the war effort.

Grace Fryer had once been a dial painter. Now her body was quite literally falling apart. The bones of her spine crumbled and required a metal brace. Tumors and abscesses sprouted in her jaw, and she was in constant pain. The radium she had ingested while working had riddled her with cancer and weakened her bones. It would soon end her life.

Furious, Grace and four of her colleagues moved to sue their ex-employer. For two years, however, no lawyer would take them seriously, despite their steadily worsening conditions. In 1928, the suit was finally filed. By this time, the demand for radium was declining, as people woke up to the dangers of radiation. Sales of radium-infused products fell further when newspapers around the world printed details of Grace’s story.

Grace Fryer, the first victim to take the radium industry to court | Photo Credits: Buzzfeed

The Radium Girls weren’t just sick; they were literally radioactive. The body of Mollie Maggia was exhumed in 1927 in the hope that her bones would give the remaining victims the evidence they needed to win their cases. Reportedly, when her coffin was lifted off the ground, her body glowed because of radiation. It wasn’t entirely surprising, considering her bones were found to be highly radioactive.

By the end of 1928, the case had been settled in favor of the female workers. They were awarded some compensation, although it was only a fraction of what they had initially demanded. Their medical bills were covered, and they were able to live out their final days with some measure of dignity. Many more suits followed from workers not just at the United States Radium Corporation but at several companies that had handled radium in the years after its discovery. Workers came to testify on their death beds. While Grace Fryer and her colleagues are remembered for leading the fight against injustice, there were thousands of more workers whose fates varied enormously.

Bedside Hearings of radium girls were common since they were too ill to come to the court. | Photo Credits: RSNA

Though many of the radium girls suffered greatly and died before their time, their deaths were not in vain. Many of these victims volunteered for tests and medical examinations, allowing us to understand for the first time how radiation affects the human body. This persuaded scientists to take extraordinary precautions in later experiments with nuclear weapons, potentially saving thousands of lives.

In addition to this enormous service to later generations, the case pushed forward by the radium girls was the first incident in which an employer was forced to take responsibility for the health and safety of its employees. This was a revolutionary concept in 1928.

The sacrifice and courage of the Radium Girls deserve to be applauded. Their case led to the introduction of life-saving regulations for workers all over the world and the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the United States. The fearless champions continue to shine through history.

Few if any residents in Orange, NJ today know the history of the former plant site. Quietly tucked into a tree-lined residential neighborhood, it has been renamed High & Alden Street Park and features a playground — perhaps a fitting tribute to the young lives lost.

“I think it’s a good idea they [made it a park],’’ resident Robin Laurent, 40, recently told The Post after learning of its past. “It’s good for the people in the neighborhood and the people of Orange.’’

The playground that now stands on the site

References: https://nypost.com/2017/03/22/skin-glowing-from-radium-ghost-girls-died-for-a-greater-cause/

View at Medium.com

https://agnostic.com/post/620923/the-radium-girls-the-dark-story-of-americas-shining-women-in-the-1920s-a-group-of-factory-wor

The Great Wall of China

(Header pic from NASA, allegedly from Space)

Construction of The Great Wall of China doesn’t take a few days or months, “China Long Wall” has a very long and exciting history — more than 2,300 years. It has different sections that were built in various areas of China by different dynasties. The primary motive of its construction was to protect different territorial borders from Mongols and other invaders. Another reason was to make the Silk Road a safe and secure trade route to flourish the economy of the state.

Qin Dynasty and The Great Wall of China:

When we jump into the defense history of China when the land was divided into multiple kingdoms the northern borders were being protected by small walls even before the idea of a grand wall. During the period of Qin Shi Huang who was the first emperor of a unified China and his dynasty was known as the Qin dynasty the idea of a single and strong wall with multiple surveillance booths was presented. The idea got approved and previously built small walls were demolished to create The Great Wall of China. The idea was to construct a strong 10,000 li long wall (a li is about one-third of a mile) with bricks and after small distance lookout towers would be created for guards, these towers were also supposed to give strength to the wall.

General Meng Tian initially directed the project and gathered a labor force. The people who participated in construction were mostly soldiers, the rest of the force consisted of convicts and commoners and rebels. During the construction of the Great Wall of China, many of the workers died due to work overload, weather conditions and lack of food and other survival resources.

Great Wall of China After the Qin Dynasty:

The wall didn`t serve the purpose of its construction well and the internal affairs of the country didn’t allow its people to focus on it much. So after the death of Qin Shi Huang, the Qin Dynasty fell and much of the Great Wall parts too fell into disrepair.

The locals tried to maintain some part of the wall but they couldn’t be that effective and after the downfall of the Han Dynasty, frontier tribes took the control of northern parts of China. Among those tribes, Northern Wei Dynasty was powerful and the need for safety alarmed them once again. Under the supervision of the Wei Dynasty, the wall was repaired as well as extended to ensure the safety of other tribes as well.

Later the Bei Qi Kingdom commanded to repair some part of the Great Wall of China. Their repair activities were for 900 miles. In times of Sui Dynasty repair and extension of the wall took place again and again. It was the last dynasty that gives the Great Wall of China as a fortification value.

When the Tang Dynasty raised The Great Wall lost its importance because China defeated the Tujue tribe to the north and long-drawn-out past the original northern border protected by the wall. Later came the era of the Song Dynasty and once again state security had a threat from external forces. At that time Liao and Jin peoples from the north side were trying to take over both sides of the Great Wall of China and the nearby areas. So once again the wall played a role in controlling the safety concerns not perfectly but too high extent.

In the 1206 Yuan Dynasty which was established by Mongols, mainly Genghis Khan who conquered China and some parts of Asia and Europe. eventually controlled all of China, parts of Asia and sections of Europe. The Great Wall of China became a center to control security issues and once again the wall started to serve its military fortification purpose. This time Mongols used it for the safety of their dynasty.

Soldiers marched through the wall to guard the borders and the caravans traveling to and from Silk Road Trade Routes.

Wall Building During the Ming Dynasty:

Most of the walls that we see today were not originally constructed by the Qin Dynasty. The time, nature and multiple invasions damaged the original construction of the Great Wall of China. The Dynasties coming ruling the land one after another repaired and extended some parts from time to time.

In 1368, Ming Dynasty took control of China and reconstructed the great wall. It was the time when Chinese culture flourished and the trading system became strong. In the starting period of the Ming Dynasty, the border security and construction of the wall was not among the interests of rulers. In 1421, threats from external forces increased and due to trade reasons the capital of China was shifted to Beijing.

The importance of the Great Wall of China highlighted one more time and the Yongle who was the emperor of that order to rebuild the wall. He took great wall reconstruction as the major defensive stance. The new strategy was to not just construct the wall but also provide suitable facilities to on-duty soldiers and their families so that they can settle properly near the wall. So the current long, standing wall was basically constructed in the Ming Dynasty. Major construction activities started in 1474 and the new Great Wall of China also include temples, pagodas, and bridges. Later the wall was extended from the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to the eastern bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province. It was also winded its way from east to west through today’s Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu.

Now the west of Juyong Pass of the great wall is split into southern and northern lines respectively named Outer and Inner Walls. Strategic “pass-ways” (i.e., fortresses) and their gates were positioned along the wall. The Juyong, Darma, and Zijing passes are closest to Beijing, were called the Three Inner Passes, while the added side west was Yanmen, Ningwu, and Piantou, the Three Outer Passes.

All these six pass-ways were heavily garrisoned during the Ming Dynasty period and considered vivacious to the defense of the capital.

Mid-17th Century and Great Wall of China:

In the mid-17th century, the Manchus invaded China from central and southern Manchuria and broke through the Great Wall. They encroached on Beijing and the war evoked that eventually forced the fall of the Ming Dynasty. The Manchus established the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty didn’t consider the Great Wall of China as a fortification for the security of their borders. But between the 18th and 20th centuries, the site of the Great Wall appeared as an emblem of strength and modern defensive approach of the Chinese nation. It is not just a wall created by emperors; it is now known as a manifest to showcase the strong historical connection and struggle of the Chinese nation. On the other hand, it psychological represents a barrier to deter foreign cultural, physical and other kinds of influences and exert force over its citizens.

Great Wall China Today:

As now China is a socialist democratic state so the look-after and maintenance of the Great Wall of China is the responsibility of the ruling government. Now the wall is considered the most impressive architectural wonder of human history and is also one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world.

In 1987, UNESCO designated the Great Wall of China a World Heritage site. In the 20th century, the state claimed it to be considered as the only man-made structure that can be seen from the moon or space. UNESCO considered the pledge but now the scientists claim that it is not true that the China wall can be seen from the moon. However, in the world maps and satellite pictures people can easily trace the Great Wall of China because of its continuously running miles and miles long.

Over the ages, roadways and small bridges have been cut through the wall or to connect different ways to the wall in various points. Whereas after centuries of negligence many sections have also deteriorated. Approximately 30%+ sections have deteriorated till now.

On the other hand, some sections were reconstructed and some are maintained regularly. In 1950s last major rebuilt was observed at the best-known section of the Great Wall of China. This section is known as Badaling and is located 43 miles (70 km) northwest of Beijing. Every day hundreds of foreign tourists visit this section particularly.

History of Mount Rushmore

Carved into the southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest are four gigantic sculptures depicting the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

The 60-foot high faces were shaped from the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941, and represent one of the world’s largest pieces of sculpture, as well as one of America’s most popular tourist attractions. To many Native Americans, however, Mount Rushmore represents a desecration of lands considered sacred by the Lakota Sioux, the original residents of the Black Hills region who were displaced by white settlers and gold miners in the late 19th century.

The Loss of a Sacred Land

In the Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868 by Sioux tribes and General William T. Sherman, the U.S. government promised the Sioux “undisturbed use and occupation” of territory including the Black Hills, in what is now South Dakota. But the discovery of gold in the region soon led U.S. prospectors to flock there en masse, and the U.S. government began forcing the Sioux to relinquish their claims on the Black Hills.

Warriors like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led a concerted Sioux resistance (including the latter’s famous defeat of Gen. George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876), which federal troops eventually crushed in a brutal massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Ever since then, Sioux activists have protested the U.S. confiscation of their ancestral lands and demanded their return. The Black Hills (or Paha Sapa in Lakota) are particularly important to them, as the region is central to many Sioux religious traditions.

(Battle of Little Bighorn

The Birth of Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore, located just north of what is now Custer State Park in theBlack Hills National Forest, was named for the New York lawyer Charles E. Rushmore, who traveled to the Black Hills in 1885 to inspect mining claims in the region. When Rushmore asked a local man the name of a nearby mountain, he reportedly replied that it never had a name before, but from now on would be known as Rushmore Peak (later Rushmore Mountain or Mount Rushmore).

Seeking to attract tourism to the Black Hills in the early 1920s, South Dakota’s state historian Doane Robinson came up with the idea to sculpt “the Needles” (several giant natural granite pillars) into the shape of historic heroes of the West. He suggested Red Cloud, the Sioux chief who signed the Fort Laramie treaty, as a potential subject.

The Needles, South Dakota

In August 1924, after the original sculptor he contacted was unavailable, Robinson contacted Gutzon Borglum, an American sculptor of Danish descent who was then working on carving an image of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee into the face of Georgia’s Stone Mountain. Robinson had a history of disputes with those who commissioned the Lee project, and they fired Borglum, who left the sculpture unfinished. During his work at Stone Mountain, Borglum associated with members of the newly revived Ku Klux Klan, although it’s unclear whether he actually joined the white supremacist group.

Stone Mountain Carving

Borglum convinced Robinson that the sculpture in South Dakota should depict George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as that would give it national, and not just local, significance. He would later add Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt to the list, in recognition of their contributions to the birth of democracy and the growth of the United States.

Sculpting the Presidents at Mount Rushmore

During a second visit to the Black Hills in August 1925, Borglum identified Mount Rushmore as the desired site of the sculpture. Local Native Americans and environmentalists voiced their opposition to the project, deeming it a desecration of Sioux heritage as well as the natural landscape. But Robinson worked tirelessly to raise funding for the sculpture, aided by Rapid City Mayor John Boland and Senator Peter Norbeck, among others. After President Calvin Coolidge traveled to the Black Hills for his summer vacation, the sculptor convinced the president to deliver an official dedication speech at Mount Rushmore on August 10, 1927; carving began that October.

In 1929, during the last days of his presidency, Coolidge signed legislation appropriating $250,000 in federal funds for the Rushmore project and creating the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission to oversee its completion. Boland was made the president of the commission’s executive committee, though Robinson (to his immense disappointment) was excluded.

To carve the four presidential heads into the face of Mount Rushmore, Borglum utilized new methods involving dynamite and pneumatic hammers to blast through a large amount of rock quickly, in addition to the more traditional tools of drills and chisels. Some 400 workers removed around 450,000 tons of rock from Mount Rushmore, which still remains in a heap near the base of the mountain. Though it was arduous and dangerous work, no lives were lost during the completion of the carved heads.

Mount Rushmore Depictions

On July 4, 1930, a dedication ceremony was held for the head of Washington. After workers found the stone in the original site to be too weak, they moved Jefferson’s head from the right of Washington’s to the left; the head was dedicated in August 1936, in a ceremony attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In September 1937, Lincoln’s head was dedicated, while the fourth and final head–that of FDR’s fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt–was dedicated in July 1939. Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, and it was left to his son Lincoln to complete the final details of Mount Rushmore in time for its dedication ceremony on October 31 of that year.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, sometimes called the “Shrine of Democracy,” has become one of the most iconic images of America and an international tourist attraction. In 1959, it gained even more attention as the site of a climactic chase scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “North by Northwest.” (In fact, South Dakota did not allow filming on Mount Rushmore itself, and Hitchcock had a large-scale model of the mountain built in a Hollywood studio.)

In 1991, Mount Rushmore celebrated its 50th anniversary after undergoing a $40 million restoration project. The National Park Service, which maintains Mount Rushmore, records upwards of 2 million visitors every year. Meanwhile, many Sioux activists have called for the monument to be taken down, even as they continue to protest what they view as illegal U.S. possession of their ancestral lands.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Another sculpture was also carved in the Black Hills – that of Crazy Horse.

A Lakota Sioux warrior, a famed artist, his family and a canvas composed of granite are the elements that comprise the legendary past, present and future of the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began the world’s largest mountain carving in 1948. Members of his family and their supporters are continuing his artistic intent to create a massive statue that will be 641 feet long and 563 feet high. To give that some perspective, the heads at Mount Rushmore National Memorial are each 60 feet high. Workers completed the carved 87½-foot-tall Crazy Horse face in 1998, and have since focused on thinning the remaining mountain to form the 219-foot-high horse’s head.

Crazy Horse Memorial hosts between 1 and 1½ million visitors a year. The number of foreign travelers, particularly group tours from Asia, is increasing.

The Indian Museum of North America, and the adjoining Welcome Center and Native American Educational and Cultural Center, feature more than 12,000 contemporary and historic items, from pre-Colombian to contemporary times. The new Mountain Museum wing helps explain the work behind the scenes, augmenting the introductory “Dynamite & Dreams” movie at the Welcome Center.

Crazy Horse Memorial is open every day, from 8 a.m. to dark during the summer season. Memorial Day weekend through the end of September, the storytelling continues each night at dark with the “Legends in Light” laser-light show projected on the mountain carving.

The Northern Lights

The northern lights, or the aurora borealis, are beautiful dancing waves of light that have captivated people for millennia. But for all its beauty, this spectacular light show is a rather violent event.

Energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our planet’s magnetic field protects us from the onslaught.

As Earth’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles — there are southern lights, too — the dramatic process transforms into a cinematic atmospheric phenomenon that dazzles and fascinates scientists and skywatchers alike.

Though it was Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who coined the name “aurora borealis” in 1619 — after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas — the earliest suspected record of the northern lights is in a 30,000 year old cave painting in France.

Since that time, civilizations around the world have marveled at the celestial phenomenon, ascribing all sorts of origin myths to the dancing lights. One North American Inuit legend suggests that the northern lights are spirits playing ball with a walrus head, while the Vikings thought the phenomenon was light reflecting off the armor of the Valkyrie, the supernatural maidens who brought warriors into the afterlife.

The oldest known auroral citing was written in 2600 B.C. in China: “Fu-Pao, the mother of the Yellow Empire Shuan-Yuan, saw strong lightning moving around the star Su, which belongs to the constellation of Bei-Dou, and the light illuminated the whole area.” Thousands of years later, in 1570 A.D., a drawing of the aurora depicted candles burning above the clouds.

Across the north, where the phenomena is most widely seen, there are legends and beliefs about the Northern Lights that defy reason, but go back generations. In Canada’s Northwest Territory, a tribal elder explained that, as a youngster, he recalled stories told by his grandfather that, if you listen closely, you can hear the Northern Lights. They stepped outside and heard a swishing sound, almost crackling.

Stories were told that one could “whistle” in the Northern Lights and some said you could inhale the Northern Lights and they would kill you. Still others claimed they were the spirits of children who were stillborn. The crackling sound has been claimed to be the spirits trying to communicate with you; alternatively, other legends say it is the Inuits playing a game of kicking a walrus skull around, and the crackling sound is the crunching of the snow.

Inuit Tribe Members

Sharon Shorty, a Yukon story-teller and comedian, of Tlingit, Northern Tuchone and Norwegian background, remembers her childhood walking around Teslin, Yukon with her grandmother, Carrie Jackson.

Sharon Shorty

“I could see all the ribbons in the air and Grandma would tell me, “Shhhh! Don’t look, don’t look! Bad luck, no good!” I asked, “Why can’t I look?” and she said it’s bad luck, that they are spirits. So when we’re looking at them, they are spirits – people who have passed on in a bad or hard way. That could mean a suicide or a murder or something in a bad way. This is what Tlingit people believe, and I think other nations believe that as well.”

Over the Takhini Valley in Yukon

“To me, it looks like people holding hands and it is our ancestors. They died in a bad way, are lonely, and want company. They want to take somebody from earth to be with them and they could come down and take you if you look at them or get their attention. That’s why we say never whistle at them – you’re not supposed to draw their attention because they will find you.”

Early astronomers also mentioned the northern lights in their records. A royal astronomer under Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar II inscribed his report of the phenomenon on a tablet dated to 567 B.C., for example, while a Chinese report from 193 B.C. also notes the aurora, according to NASA.

The science behind the northern lights wasn’t theorized until the turn of the 20th century. Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland proposed that electrons emitted from sunspots produced the atmospheric lights after being guided toward the poles by Earth’s magnetic field. The theory would eventually prove correct, but not until long after Birkeland’s 1917 death.

A lime-green aurora glows above Earth’s city lights in this view from the International Space Station. At the time this photo was taken, the space station was orbiting about 258 miles (415 kilometers) above Russia and the Ukraine. A portion of the space station’s solar array is visible in the top left corner of the image. (Image credit: NASA)

The bright colors of the northern lights are dictated by the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

“Every type of atom or molecule, whether it’s atomic hydrogen or a molecule like carbon dioxide, absorbs and radiates its own unique set of colors, which is analogous to how every human being has a unique set of fingerprints,” Teets told Space.com. “Some of the dominant colors seen in aurorae are red, a hue produced by the nitrogen molecules, and green, which is produced by oxygen molecules.”

While solar wind is constant, the sun’s emissions go through a roughly 11-year cycle of activity. Sometimes there’s a lull, but other times, there are vast storms that bombard Earth with extreme amounts of energy. This is when the northern lights are at their brightest and most frequent. The last solar maximum, or period of peak activity, occurred in 2014, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), placing the next one in approximately 2025.

Despite plenty of advances in heliophysics and atmospheric science, much about the northern lights remains a mystery. For example, researchers weren’t entirely sure how the energized particles in the solar wind get accelerated to their extraordinary speeds (45 million mph) until June 2021, when a study published in the journal Nature Communications confirmed that a phenomenon called Alfvén waves gave the particles a boost. Alfvén waves are low-frequency yet powerful undulations that occur in plasma due to electromagnetic forces; the electrons that create the northern lights “surf” along these waves in Earth’s atmosphere, accelerating rapidly.

The auroras are best seen during the winter, when nights are long. Hours of patience by photographer Daniele Boffelli resulted in this image that captures both clouds and auroras in the night sky. (Image credit: Daniele Boffelli)

NASA is also on the hunt for clues about how the northern lights work. In 2018, the space agency launched the Parker Solar Probe, which is currently orbiting the sun and will eventually get close enough to “touch” the corona. While there, the spacecraft will collect information that could reveal more about the northern lights.

On Earth, the northern lights’ counterpart in the Southern Hemisphere is the southern lights — they are physically the same and differ only in their location. As such, scientists expect them to occur simultaneously during a solar storm, but sometimes the onset of one lags behind the other.

The Southern Lights over Australia (Auror Australis)

“One of the more challenging aspects of nightside aurorae involves the comparison of the aurora borealis with the aurora australis,” said Steven Petrinec, a physicist at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin who specializes in magnetospheric and heliospheric physics.

“While some auroral emissions occur in both hemispheres at the same magnetic local time, other emissions appear in opposing sectors in the two hemispheres at different times — for example, pre-midnight in the Northern Hemisphere and post-midnight in the Southern Hemisphere,” Petrinec told Space.com.

The hemispheric asymmetry of the aurora is due in part to the sun’s magnetic field interfering with Earth’s magnetic field, but research into the phenomenon is ongoing.

Another aurora-like occurrence on Earth is STEVE (“Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement”). Like the northern and southern lights, STEVE is a glowing atmospheric phenomenon, but it looks slightly different from its undulating auroral counterparts. “These emissions appear as a narrow and distinct arc, are typically purple in color and often include a green picket-fence structure that slowly moves westward,” Petrinec said.

STEVE is also visible from lower latitudes, closer to the equator, than the auroras.

A 2019 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters discovered that STEVE is the result of two mechanisms: The mauve streaks are caused by the heating of charged particles in the upper atmosphere, while the picket-fence structure results from electrons falling into the atmosphere. The latter process is the same driver of the aurora, making STEVE a special kind of aurora hybrid.

More info: https://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html

History of Sugar Beet Production in Nebraska

Nebraska’s Panhandle is in the far western portion of the state, and plays a major role in the state’s agricultural economy. One of the specialty crops with the greatest significance to the state economy is sugar beets, and it is unique to western Nebraska and concentrated in the Panhandle. Approximately 90% of the sugar beets grown in Nebraska are produced in the Panhandle. Most production occurs in Scotts Bluff, Morrill, and Box Butte counties, but acreage is increasing in Sheridan, Banner, Kimball, Cheyenne, Chase, Keith, and Perkins counties.

Harvest Begins in the Panhandle

Nebraska currently ranks 6th in the U.S. in production and generally ranges between 45,000-60,000 acres planted per year, with a high of 80,000 in 2000. Sugar beets contribute economically through both the production and processing industries and are estimated to contribute more than $130,000,000 to the local economy through payrolls, property taxes, and other impacts.

Geography and Climate

Sugar beets have been successfully produced in Nebraska for nearly 100 years. This is due, in part, to a number of environmental factors characteristic of the western part of the state. Sugar beets need long days (approximately 140 growing days) with sunshine and abundant moisture during the season.

This region typically produces an average of 135-160 clear days per year, which is ideal for sugar beets. The elevation ranges from 3,000-5,000 ft and the resulting hot days and cool nights provide excellent conditions for development and storage of sucrose in the tap roots. The Panhandle additionally has a high desert-type semi-arid climate receiving 14-16 inches rainfall per year. This provides an additional advantage for western Nebraska – an arid climate that helps reduce incidence and severity of several important foliar disease problems that traditionally plague the Minnesota-North Dakota, and Michigan producers, such as Cercospora leaf spot. Although levels of required moisture in Nebraska are generally deficient for proper plant growth, this problem is solved by supplementation with irrigation.

Irrigation

The Panhandle grows about 700,000 acres of irrigated crops, including all sugar beets produced in Nebraska. Irrigation in Nebraska began in the early 1890’s in Scotts Bluff County to augment alfalfa hay production for livestock for winter feeding. This led to development of irrigation in other introduced crops like sugar beets, and later dry beans. Early efforts were small, furnished by local capital. After the Reclamation Service was established, dams were built across the North Platte River in Wyoming, thus paving the way for a complex series of canals to be built across Scotts Bluff County in western Nebraska.

Furrow System Irrigation

These canals became the lifeblood of this region and enabled producers to irrigate beets through furrow systems, which still predominate in the North Platte Valley of Scotts Bluff and Morrill Counties. With the introduction of the center pivot irrigation systems and the vast quantities of water available from the Ogallala aquifer, the acreage has been able to spread beyond the Valley to the tablelands north and south of the North Platte River. Approximately two-thirds of the production is now irrigated by center pivots.

Center Pivot Irrigation

Sugar Beets Begin in Nebraska

Sugar production in Nebraska began in 1890, with the first factory being established in Grand Island. This was also the second factory to operate successfully in the United States (after the first in Albany, CA). Weather related problems yielded low crop levels and farmers became discouraged with continuation of sugar beet production. The state of Nebraska then offered a bounty of one cent per pound on sugar produced in Nebraska to encourage the industry to expand. Other factories were then built in Norfolk and Ames in 1891 and 1899, respectively.

The farmers in the Norfolk area eventually discovered that they received better returns raising corn and livestock than sugar beets, and the factory was closed in 1905. The factory in Ames was built by the Standard Beet Company, which soon recognized the potential for the sugar beet industry in the North Platte Valley.

By 1900, enough sugar beets had been raised in the Panhandle to convince farmers that their land was suitable for this crop. It was then determined that a more extensive means of irrigation was necessary than that used by early homesteaders if the crop was going to significantly expand. Thus, the Tri-State Land Company was founded and set out to develop irrigation throughout the Valley.

In 1909, land was acquired, a factory site was secured, and Great Western Sugar Company bought the factory previously located in Ames, Nebraska and moved it to Scottsbluff. For the 1910 season, twelve thousand acres were contracted at $5.00 a ton and the factory was completed in time for the fall crop, beginning the foundation for sugar beets becoming the great agricultural industry it is today.

Delivering Sugar Beets in Scottsbluff

Social and Economic Influences

By 1904-1905, contract acres from the Standard Beet Sugar Company for sugar beets approached 300. However, many of the farmers in Scotts Bluff County were unfamiliar with the process of sugar beet production. In order to fulfill high potential for this area, efforts were made to recruit help from more experienced growers.

It was at this time that the German-Russians (referred to as “beeters”) from Lincoln and Omaha were enticed to come to the North Platte Valley. These workers first came to the Panhandle seasonally in spring at planting, and returning in the fall after harvest. Their experience with sugar beets dated back to their time in Europe, and was also essential in the initial efforts to produce beets in eastern Nebraska.

By 1924, two-thirds of the sugar beet workers in Scotts Bluff County were German-Russians. As they became more Americanized, they began to find other jobs that would sustain them for the entire year, and their numbers decreased in sugar beet fields. Many also settled in the Scottsbluff area and became landowners after thriftily saving their money to buy land. Today much of the land in Scotts Bluff County is owned by second and third generation descendants of the original German-Russian “beeters.”

In 1905 the acreage planted was less than 300, with yields of seven tons per acre. By the late 1920’s – early 1930’s, farmers in the Valley were growing up to 80,000 acres with yields of 12 tons per acre. As the volume of sugar beet production increased over the years, it became apparent that greater processing capacity was needed. This led to the construction of more factories, including those at Gering (1916), Bayard (1917), Mitchell (1920), Minatare (1926), and Lyman (1927). There were additionally beet dumps established in McGrew and Melbeta near the railroads for easy transportation to Scottsbluff or Minatare for processing, similar to the process in place today. In fact, the name chosen for the town “Melbeta” translates as “sweet beet” in German.

Summary

Irrigation was the major factor in the establishment of the sugar beet industry in western Nebraska. Secondly, the railroads were likewise very influential as they provided transportation to move the beets from field to factory and then to market. They also allowed coal to be brought into the area to furnish fuel for operating the factories. In turn, sugar beets were directly responsible for the immigration and settling of descendants for many of the county’s current residents. Thus, sugar beets were not only responsible for the ethnic makeup of western Nebraska, but also for the economic development and improvement of the area.

Sugar Beet Field

The cultivation of sugar beets enabled the development of roads, expansion of railroads, improvement of schools, and growth and spatial arrangement of cities and farms in Scotts Bluff County. The number of farms increased from 421 in 1900 to 1391 in 1920. The number of people per square mile in the county increased from 2.6 in 1880 to 28.8 in 1920. The increase in population between 1910 and 1920 was more than 147%, one of the highest percentages of population gains in the United States.

Digging Sugar Beets

Therefore, the development of the sugar beet industry could arguably be the single most important and influential factor in the county, from the building of the sugar factory in 1910 to the present, and has defined Scotts Bluff County as it is known today.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE (EC)

(Compiled from the writings of Dr. Bob Livingston)

There is much interest by the left-wing in the elimination of the EC; indeed, three attempts have been made through the years, with the first serious challenge in 1969/70 by Birch Bahy, a young Democrat Senator from Indiana, who was also responsible for the introduction of the 25th Amendment after the assassination of JFK. He failed to overturn the EC, thankfully. Of course, the leftists claimed this was due to racism.

Bayh reintroduced an Electoral College amendment five more times over the next decade. The only time it came up for a full Senate vote was in 1979, when it got 51 votes, well shy of the 67-vote supermajority needed to pass a constitutional amendment.

https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-nearly-abolished-thurmond

There is also currently a pact among 13 states and DC called the “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC)” that bears watching.

“The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. States and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.[2][3] As of November 2020, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. These states have 196 electoral votes, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 73% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact

The Founding Fathers feared two things above all else: a democracy and an overly powerful executive. The Electoral College was designed to prevent both. For a good, very detailed history of the Electoral College and its evolution over the years, read “Origins of the Electoral College,” by Randall G. Holcombe.

Link: https://mises.org/library/origins-electoral-college

Without the Electoral College a presidential candidate would merely have to win a big majority of the population in the five or six of the most populace states to carry the election – say California, New York, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. As it is, Democrats hold a decisive advantage in the Electoral College math because they advocate for socialism. Minorities love socialism, and minorities tend to congregate in the urban areas. As a result, Democrats can win only about 20-30 percent of the counties of the America and still win the election, even with the Electoral College.

Look at the map below. It shows the counties won by Hillary Clinton (blue) and Donald Trump (red). Had Clinton been elected a vast swatch of Middle America – geographically speaking — would have been on the losing end of the election.

The globalist elites want to erase all borders in their move toward one world government, and the globalist elites love democracy as much as minorities love it. That’s because the principle of government is that political power is maximized by forcibly leveling every individual to the same status of conformity, collectivism, ecumenicalism and serfdom.

But it must be done in such a way that the people who are being reduced never see it coming. That’s why it’s done with gradualism and by “the vote.” If we aren’t careful, we will vote for our own slavery.

References:

b. https://personalliberty.com/anti-trump-crowd-clamors-slavery/a. https://personalliberty.com/need-electoral-college/

History of Playing Cards

When playing cards first arrived in Europe toward the end of the 14th century AD, they caused quite a furor. In 1377, the town council of Florence complained that the playing of “a certain game called naibbe has recently been introduced into these parts,” and by a vote of 98 to 25 decided to prohibit it. In the same year cards reached Paris, where new city regulations cracked down on working-class cardplayers but apparently left nobel devotees alone.

European Playing Cards

The following year, in the Bavarian city of Regensburg, the council tried to limit card games to small stakes. By 1387, cards had arrived in the Spanish kingdom of Castile, where the government tried to ban them.

The killjoys were fighting a losting battle, however, for even at this early stage, cards began to acquire royal patrons. In 1379, the prince of Brabant, in Belgium, bought a highly decorated pack of cards, while in 1392 the mad French king Charles VI received three packs of cards painted by artist Jacquemin Gringonneur “for his amusement during the intervals in his sad illness.”

Charles VI/Gringonneur Cards

Playing cards soon led to the emergence of cardsharps, and the mother of all card swindles is recorded in the Parisian court annals for 1408. Two dubious characters lured a traveling merchant into an inn with talk of a good currency deal. One of them then produced a pack of cards from his pocket and demonstrated an amusing game of guessing the identity of a card while seeing only its back. The astute merchant soon noticed that one of the cards had a slight but distinctive mark on the reverse, so he happily joined in when the betting started. When the marked card turned up, the trader put his shirt on it, only to find that the front of the card was not the same, as it had been switched for another.

The French also made one great contribution to the development of playing cards by inventing, around 1480 AD, the names and shapes of the four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs) we still use today. These simple geometric shapes did much to encourage card playing. By the end of the 15th century, playing card manufacture was a major industry, and even Johannes Gutenberg, often claimed to be the inventor of movable type, became involved.

Johannes Gutenberg Card

He developed some of the mechanical methods of production and, at a time when his finances were in desperate straits, he used drawings that his artists had prepared for his famous Bible to decorate the back of a deck of playing cards.

From this point the history of Western playing cards is clear. But who brought them to Europe in the first place? The subject is swathed in mystery, and it has at different times been claimed that they were introduced by Marco Polo (1254-1324), the Crusaders, or the Gypsies. The most exotic theories credit the Gypsies with the invention of cards (as a means of divination), and it has therefore been argued that their origins lie in India or even Egypt. The truth is that playing cards are a Chinese invention, but the problem has been that little is known of their transmission from China to the West.

Ancient Chinese Playing Cards

Playing cards had been invented in China by at least the 9th century AD when, according to tradition, a princess and her relatives played the “leaf game,” or cards. Women were certainly important in the development of card games, for one apparently wrote the world’s first book on the subject (now lost), later in that century.

By the 11th century, cards were printed with woodcut blocks, and in the early Ming dynasty (1369-1644 AD) famous artists were employed to design card backs with portraits of characters from favorite novels, such as The Water Margin. Chinese cards were much smaller than ours (about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide) and were printed on fairly thick paper, which made them hard-wearing but difficult to shuffle. Chinese “money cards” had four suits: cash, strings (of cash), myriads (of strings) and tens (of myriads), with the numbers 2 thru 9 in the first three and 1 thru 9 in the fourth.

Ancient Woodcut Playing Cards

The Chinese of yesteryear were enthusiastic cardplayers and gamblers, as they are today. Ming Dynasty books on cards praised them as superior to all other amusements, for they “were convenient to carry, could stimulate thinking and could be played by a group of four without annoying conversation, and without the difficulties which accompanied playing chess or meditation.” Also, “cards could be played in almost any circumstances without restrictions of time, place, weather, or qualification of partners.”

But this still leaves us without a link to Europe, for early Western cards don’t resemble Chinese ones and have different suits. The missing link appears to be the Islamic world, despite the fact that card playing was frowned on by Muslim clerics.

In 1938, Professor L.A. Mayer came across a pack of 52 cards while searching through the collections of the famous Topkapi Museum, in Istanbul, Turkey. They had been made in Egypt about 1400 AD, using designs that closely resemble those of early Italian cards.

Second card from left: The Seven of Swords (equivalent to Seven of Clubs)

Third card from left: the Malik of Cups (equivalent to the King of Hearts)

The Arabic inscriptions on the court cards make clear the origin of the word naibbe for cards (used by the Florence council); they are called the Malik (King), Na’ib Malik (Governor), and Na’ib Thani (Deputy Governor). They are in 4 suits – swords, polo sticks, cups, and coins (equivalent to modern clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds).

The only significant difference between these and early Italian cards is that the Egyptian ones are, like the Chinese, long and thin. Even this difficulty seems to have been overcome by the find of a single card with an Arabic inscription made around 1200 AD; its dimensions are like those of Italian cards, which are still slightly narrower than those made today in the rest of Europe.

There can now be little doubt that the Arabs were the intermediaries for the widespread transmission of one of ancient China’s most popular inventions.

Source: Ancient Inventions

THE FIRST SUEZ CANAL

In 1869, the Suez Canal was finished under Ferdinand de Lesseps’s leadership. The French had wanted a shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea for a long time. A shortcut from Marseilles to the Orient would give France a fine advantage over England. As early as 1800 Napoleon had surveyors looking at routes.

Napoleon was told that the Red Sea was 30 feet higher than the Mediterranean. Dig a canal, his surveyors said, and the Red Sea will hemorrhage into the Mediterranean. It’ll sweep away the Nile Delta. The survey was grossly in error, of course. French scientists tried to point out that sea level couldn’t possibly differ that much at two points only eighty miles apart.

But the damage was done; the moment had passed; only the idea wasn’t dead. It re-emerged in both England and France after Napoleon was gone. Lesseps finally dug his Suez Canal so it wandered northward from the Red Sea, following two lakes, to a mid-point. Then he dug in a straight line to the Mediterranean.

That southern leg of the Lesseps canal actually followed a vastly older canal. Napoleon had been a latecomer to the canal idea. In 500 BC, the Persian conqueror of Egypt, Darius, had begun a canal along that same route. He meant his canal to swing west at the mid-point and link with the Nile near Cairo. But Darius’s experts, like Napoleon’s, decided the Red Sea was higher than the Mediterranean. They too thought a canal would result in disaster.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

So Darius didn’t finish his canal. But the Ptolemies who followed Darius did finish it. By 250 BC, a substantial canal linked the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. It was fifty yards wide and it served ocean-going vessels. Cleopatra probably rode that canal in her royal barge, a few years before the birth of Christ.

Here the plot thickens even further: For Darius had built on the route of an earlier canal, begun in 600 BC. And that canal followed the route of an even older canal that served shipping around 1500 BC. Temple carvings show the Queen of Egypt setting out for Africa on that canal. And, as Egyptian history blends into myth, 4000 or so years in the past, it tells of still other canals.

Cleopatra’s Barge

But the Suez Canal we remember is the one built only 140 years ago by Lesseps. The crowning irony is that the French honored Lesseps so highly for his work that they gave him the job of digging a Panama Canal. But that was another matter entirely. The Panama Canal had to penetrate jungles, cross mountains, and span great fields of mud. Twenty thousand workers died, and Lesseps returned to France in failure.

Celebration of Opening of Suez Canal

GEORGIA GUIDESTONES

On one of the highest hilltops in Elbert County, Georgia stands a huge granite monument. Engraved in eight different languages on the four giant stones that support the common capstone are 10 Guides, or commandments. That monument is alternately referred to as The Georgia Guidestones, or the American Stonehenge. Though relatively unknown to most people, it is an important link to the Occult Hierarchy that dominates the world in which we live.

The origin of that strange monument is shrouded in mystery because no one knows the true identity of the man, or men, who commissioned its construction. All that is known for certain is that in June 1979, a well-dressed, articulate stranger visited the office of the Elberton Granite Finishing Company and announced that he wanted to build an edifice to transmit a message to mankind. He identified himself as R. C. Christian, but it soon became apparent that was not his real name.

He said that he represented a group of men who wanted to offer direction to humanity, but to date, almost two decades later, no one knows who R. C. Christian really was, or the names of those he represented. Several things are apparent. The messages engraved on the Georgia Guidestones deal with four major fields:

(1) Governance and the establishment of a world government,

(2) Population and reproduction control,

(3) The environment and man’s relationship to nature, and

(4) Spirituality.

A book written by the man who called himself R.C. Christian explained that the monument he commissioned had been erected in recognition of Thomas Paine and the occult philosophy he espoused. Indeed, the Georgia Guidestones are used for occult ceremonies and mystic celebrations to this very day.

THE MESSAGE OF THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

Limiting the population of the earth to 500 million will require the extermination of nine-tenths of the world’s people. The American Stonehenge’s reference to establishing a world court foreshadows the current move to create an International Criminal Court and a world government. The Guidestones’ emphasis on preserving nature anticipates the environmental movement of the 1990s, and the reference to “seeking harmony with the infinite” reflects the current effort to replace Judeo-Christian beliefs with a new spirituality.

The message of the American Stonehenge also foreshadowed the current drive for Sustainable Development. Any time you hear the phrase “Sustainable Development” used, you should substitute the term “socialism” to be able to understand what is intended. What is the true significance of the American Stonehenge, and why is its covert message important? Because it confirms the fact that there was a covert group intent on:

(1) Dramatically reducing the population of the world;
(2) Promoting environmentalism;
(3) Establishing a world government; and
(4) Promoting a new spirituality.

Certainly the group that commissioned the Georgia Guidestones is one of many similar groups working together toward a New World Order, a new world economic system, and a new world spirituality. Behind those groups, however, are dark spiritual forces. Without understanding the nature of those dark forces it is impossible to understand the unfolding of world events.

A recent addition to the monument – a block on which is inscribed 2014 – was placed inside an indent between the English and the Spanish slab. While apparently trivial, this block nevertheless proves that the Guidestones is still updated by its sponsors and that its message is, more than ever, relevant in 2014.

Why is 2014 inscribed on that block? Will an event lead to the fruition of one of the Guidestones’ commandments in 2014? Considering the fact that the first commandment is about maintaining the world population under 500 million, this is somewhat disturbing.

The fact that most Americans have never heard of the Georgia Guidestones or their message to humanity reflects the degree of control that exists today over what the American people think. We ignore that message at our peril.

The hole was drilled in the Center Stone so that the North Star could be visualized through it at any moment. This was one of several requirements stipulated by R.C.Christian for the building of the American Stonehenge and reflects his obsession with the alignment of the stars, the sun, and the moon. Occultists often worship the alignment and movement of heavenly bodies as part of their religious ceremonies.

THE MAN FROM THE ICE

Not every couple on vacation comes across a dead body, let alone a deep-frozen one. But this is precisely what happened on Thursday, September 19, 1991 in the Tyrolean Alps by Helmut and Erika Simon. They had just crossed the Hauslabjoch Pass, which would bring them down to Italy, when they noticed a body protruding from the ice. Reporting their find to the nearest mountain center, they proceeded on their trip, little knowing what would follow.

Tyrol Alps Stock Photo

The manager of the center notified both the Italian and Austrian police, as well as the mountain rescue chief for the area. The following day the Austrian police arrived at the Pass and began chiseling out the body, which lay in a natural hollow covered by the remains of a glacier. A suggestion that it was a man who had disappeared in 1941 was belied by the collection of ancient-looking objects found with the body, including skin clothing and an axe, apparently with an iron blade.

Stock Photo

Of course, wide speculation abounded from local mountaineers to experts in local folk-culture. Early estimates claimed the body’s age ranged from 500 to 3K years. The body was finally released from the ice on September 23 and sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria. The corpse turned out to be of a man over 40 who had apparently died of exposure. Konrad Spindler, Professor of Archaeology at Innsbruck, believed the axe had a bronze rather than an iron blade, and speculated that the body was at least 4K years old.

Initial radio carbon tests on grass samples found with the body suggested an even earlier date – somewhere between 2,600 BC and 2,900 BC. Excavations at the site revealed an amazing repertoire of equipment carried by a prehistoric man going about his business: a pair of grass-lined leather shoes; a fur hood; a patchwork jacket made of deer fur; fur leggings; a leather apron; a woven-grass cloak; a thong with a stone pendant; a goat-fur rucksack; a net; a beaker made of birch bark; a bow; a copper axe with wooden handle; a fur quiver stuffed with 12 wooden arrow shafts; two arrows complete with flint arrowheads and an arrow repair kit; flint and bone tools; and a calf’s-leather pouch containing a fire-making kit.

Artifacts found with Otzi

It soon became clear that the iceman, dubbed “Otzi” by the press, was one of the greatest archaeological finds of the century. This brought about an undignified row between Italy and Austria as to ownership of Otzi’s body. Once the archaeological importance of the find had been appreciated, the press on both sides of the Alps trumpeted a battle of words over the frozen corpse.

It is difficult to determine border lines through the snowy terrain of the Alps but it was agreed, after a new survey specially commissioned to solve the problem, that the body was found just within the Italian side of the border. Eventually the authorities of the North Tyrol (Austrian) and South Tyrol (Italian) came to an agreement that Otzi could remain in Innsbruck until the scientific studies were completed.

Wild theories abounded, including one woman who claimed it was her husband’s body, who went missing in the 1970’s; and then there was a Viennese gay magazine that started a rumor that Otzi was the world’s oldest known passive homosexual, while his skin clothing surely revealed him to be a “leather queen.” The claim was also made that Otzi’s penis was missing. When Otzi’s genitals were examined in April 1993, his penis proved to be there after all, shrunk to about 5 centimeters – quite a creditable length after 5K years of deep-freezing.

These stories are, no doubt, only the small beginnings of a popular publishing industry on the iceman that will come to rival that on Tutankhmanu. The speculations of academics themselves have sometimes lacked restraint, even turning at times to the bizarre. With this kind of speculation coming from the academic world, it may only be a matter of time before a book is published claiming that Otzi was an alien who landed on the Alps in a spaceship!!!!