#John Pickrell
Text
@lifblogs asked me a few days ago if I was gonna share the list of books I read this year. So, I'm gonna do that.
Due to character limits, I had to separate the numbered lists, so first list goes up to 100 and then the second list is the rest.
Couple of notes, my list includes the date I finished reading and a couple of marks.
Their meanings:
Started in 2022: *
This book is a reread: **
Did not write down the date but probably the date: *? (Basically I decided after I had started to include the date finished.)
Special notation for Dracula and Dracula Daily: **!
Bold denotes favorites.
Eight Kinky Nights: An f/f Chanukah romance by Xan West* – Jan 1*?
Through the Moon: A Graphic Novel (The Dragon Prince Graphic Novel #1) by Peter Wartman – Jan 4
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings – Jan 7
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte – Jan 12
A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer** - Jan 13
Gossie and Gertie by Olivier Dunrea – Jan 17
A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew H. Knoll – Jan 18
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – Jan 22
Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds by John Pickrell – Jan 25
Promised Land: a Revolutionary Romance by Rose Lerner – Jan 26
Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu – Jan 27
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr – Feb 2
Artemis by Andy Weir – Feb 4
Hunting Game by Helene Tursten – Feb 7
How the Earth Turned Green: A Brief 3.8-Billion-Year History of Plants by Joseph E. Armstrong – Feb 14
Fortuna by Kristyn Merbeth – Feb 16
After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez – Feb 22
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – Feb 22
Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond by Robin George Andrews – Feb 28
Memoria by Kristyn Merbeth – Feb 28
American Revolution: A History From Beginning to End by Hourly History – Mar 5
Discordia by Kristyn Merbeth – Mar 6
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley – Mar 17
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester – Mar 18
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen – Mar 18
Big Chicas Don't Cry by Annette Chavez Macias – Mar 19
Innumerable Insects: The Story of the Most Diverse and Myriad Animals on Earth by Michael S. Engel – Mar 21
The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 by Joseph J. Ellis – Mar 24
Eragon by Christopher Paolini – Mar 25
Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer – Mar 25
Locked in Time by Lois Duncan** – Mar 26
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur – Mar 28
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict – April 4
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham – April 7
Bisexually Stuffed By Our Living Christmas Stocking by Chuck Tingle – April 8
Bloodmoon Huntress: A Graphic Novel (The Dragon Prince Graphic Novel #2) by Nicole Andelfinger – April 9
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell – April 11
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – April 13
The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis – April 17
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez – April 19
Cinder by Marissa Meyer – April 20
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson – April 20
Eldest by Christopher Paolini – April 22
The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – April 23
The Sentient Lesbian Em Dash — My Favorite Punctuation Mark — Gets Me Off by Chuck Tingle – April 24
The Pleistocene Era: The History of the Ice Age and the Dawn of Modern Humans by Charles River Editors – April 26
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie – April 27
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach – April 29
Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne – May 3
Matrix by Lauren Groff – May 6
The Color Purple by Alice Walker – May 7
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie – May 9
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume – May 11
The Dragon Prince Book One: Moon by Aaron Ehasz and Melanie McGanney Ehasz – May 13
Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – May 15
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez – May 15
Atlas of Unusual Borders: Discover Intriguing Boundaries, Territories and Geographical Curiosities by Zoran Nikolic – May 20
How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak – May 20
The Guncle by Steven Rowley – May 21
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini – May 24
Reflection: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim – May 26
Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner – May 26
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black – May 28
Humans are Weird: I Have the Data by Betty Adams – June 3
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – June 4
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer – June 8
Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut – June 9
A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein – June 11
Cress by Marissa Meyer – June 20
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – June 22
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us by Steve Brusatte – June 24
After the Hurricane by Leah Franqui – June 24
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini – June 25
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez – June 26
Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe – June 30
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack – July 4
Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire – July 5
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin – July 7
Cosmos by Carl Sagan – July 10
1984 by George Orwell** -- July 11
What Once Was Mine: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell – July 17
Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (Or Don't) by Alex Bezzerides – July 20
The Planet Factory: Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth Hardcover by Elizabeth Tasker – July 21
Witches by Brenda Lozano – July 24
Son of a Sailor: A Cozy Pirate Tale by Marshall J. Moore – July 29
Winter by Marissa Meyer – July 29
As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell – July 30
Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by B. Dylan Hollis – August 4
Half Bad by Sally Green – August 7
The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly – August 14
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley – August 18
Gory Details: Adventures From the Dark Side of Science by Erika Engelhaupt – August 22
The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza – August 25
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore – Sept 5
Oceans of Kansas, Second Edition: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea by Michael J. Everhart – Sept 7
Corpus Christi: The History of a Texas Seaport by Bill Walraven – Sept 9
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury** – Sept 12
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Sept 18
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera – Sept 20
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett – Sept 22
The Mammals of Texas by William B. Davis and David J. Schmidly – Sept 29
The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett – Oct 4
The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac edited by Janice Stillman – Oct 7
Half Wild by Sally Green – Oct 7
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James – Oct 7
Verity by Colleen Hoover – Oct 10
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence – Oct 15
Archaeology: Unearthing the Mysteries of the Past by Kate Santon – Oct 16
100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings – Oct 22
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie – Oct 22
Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe García McCall – Oct 22
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – Oct 27
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler – Oct 28
The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard – Oct 29
Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman – Oct 31
The Great Texas Dragon Race by Kacy Ritter – Nov 6
Dracula by Bram Stoker**! – Nov 7/8
The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser – Nov 9
Cascadia's Fault: The Coming Earthquake and Tsunami that Could Devastate North America by Jerry Thompson – Nov 10
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison – Nov 11
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney – Nov 13
Untamed by Glennon Doyle – Nov 14
Nimona by ND Stevenson – Nov 18
Dracula Daily by Matt Kirkland**! – Nov 20
A Mother Would Know by Amber Garza – Nov 24
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie – Nov 25
How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell** – Nov 27
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie – Dec 1
Murtagh by Christopher Paolini – Dec 8
The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie – Dec 8
Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson – Dec 9
These Holiday Movies With Bizarrely Similar Smiling Heterosexual Couples Dressed In Green And Red On Their Cover Get Me Off Bisexually by Chuck Tingle – Dec 9
The Domesday Book: England's Heritage, Then & Now edited by Thomas Hindle – Dec 10
You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce – Dec 13
Himawari House by Harmony Becker – Dec 13
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck** – Dec 18
Born Into It: A Fan’s Life by Jay Baruchel – Dec 18
The Dragon Prince Book Two: Sky by Aaron Ehasz and Melanie McGanney Ehasz – Dec 23
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – Dec 24
Half Lost by Sally Green – Dec 24
Understudies by Priya Sridhar – Dec 28
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Dec 28
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking – Dec 31
#ashleybenlove posts#and yes I am aware that Zhao and Walker are problematic bigoted people#books#long post#i should really count how many nonfiction books I read...
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
In-person sessions conclude on N.B. French education overhaul
The New Brunswick government has heard loud criticism directly from parents and teachers about its planned changes to French education in English schools.
Education Minister Bill Hogan's final in-person public session on the topic was held Wednesday evening in Fredericton, following previous meetings in Saint John, Moncton, and Bathurst, N.B.
Initially organized as a “world café” format of discussions table-to-table, an open mic session was hastily added when parents in Moncton began shouting over Hogan's introductions.
Hotel conference rooms in Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton each had more than 300 people in attendance.
"We're having consultations because nothing at this point is written in stone," said Hogan Tuesday night in Saint John. "If it was written in stone it would be silly to have consultations."
Under the plan, kindergarten to Grade 1 students would spend half their school day taught in French and the other half in English.
The change, planned for September 2023, would end the French immersion program in Grade 1 where students currently spend 90 per cent of their day taught in French.
Parent Rudy Walters attended the Moncton meeting and spoke about one of their children currently in French immersion and another entering kindergarten this fall.
“It’s really hard to imagine knowing that one child will have those advantages,” said Walters, upset about the proposed changes.
Erin Schryer, an educator and literacy specialist, said the province's plan would hurt several English students who need more time developing skills in class.
"I really keep wondering if anyone who has worked on any of these proposals has reviewed the daily schedule of (kindergarten to Grade 2)," said Schryer, at the Saint John meeting. "How much time do you really have with K-2 children in a day, for focused, explicit, on-task instruction? Two hours? On a good day?"
Heather Hollett said the government's proposed plan would further hinder opportunities for teachers to instruct students at varying stages.
"If a one-size-fits-all approach is not acceptable within our individual classrooms, I do not see how a one-size-fits-all approach can be acceptable for all the people of our province," said Hollett, at the Fredericton meeting.
The provincial government says virtual consultation sessions on the plan are scheduled for Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.
An online provincial government survey on the subject will close on Feb. 3.
Hogan said the final plan for French education in English schools would be made public by the spring.
With files from CTV’s Alyson Samson and Alana Pickrell
from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/EnKDiz0
0 notes
Link
Excerpt from this review of the book, “Flames of Extinction” by John Pickrell, by The Revelator:
As the disaster intensified, the fire closed in on the secret location of a tiny population of critically endangered trees; prehistoric plants so precious that just a handful of people are privy to their exact whereabouts.
The Wollemi pine, a conifer that grows to 40 meters [131 feet] and has unusually arranged, dark green foliage and bubbly bark, once flourished across the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, providing shade and sustenance for the dinosaurs.
But over the eons, the range of this “living fossil” has contracted until just 100 or so mature trees remain, spread over four small groves in Wollemi National Park. The majority are wedged into one sheltered gully, deep in the wilderness. Here, the oldest and largest of the pines, dubbed King Billy, is thought to be around 1,000 years old.
In early to mid-December, about two weeks out from when the fire finally roared up to the lip of the canyon, it became clear Crust and his team needed to throw into action a previously-thought-out-but- never-implemented plan to save the trees, should the worst ever occur.
This extraordinary operation involved dropping fire retardant from air tankers and helicoptering in specialist firefighters each day, who were winched down into the canyon. From there, they pumped water into an irrigation system to increase the level of moisture in the environment. This daring plan was like nothing ever attempted before in the name of conservation.
But would it be enough to save trees? The Wollemi pine had survived the demise of the dinosaurs, the break-up of the supercontinents and a constantly shifting climate, but now its fate was in the hands of one small crew of dedicated NPWS remote area firefighters.
12 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Book 38 of 2018: Weird Dinosaurs by John Pickrell
A herd of small, fuzzy dinosaurs is moving through the foliage on the swampy edge of a lake. They chirp at one another, some occasionally shaking and puffing up their plumage. Several remain alert--peering this way and that through horsetail and seed ferns, ready to hoot in alarm if danger is spotted--while enfluffed juveniles dart back and forth between the adults’ legs.
It is the late Jurassic, about 160 million years before this region will be known as Siberia and renowned for its icy environment.
3 notes
·
View notes
Quote
Go to your fridge or your chook house and get an egg. Have a good look at it, run your fingers across its surface, and think about the fact that something very similar was first laid by a little chicken-like dinosaur more than 150 million years ago. You could probably have cracked a few of them into a bowl and whisked them up to make an omelette every bit as delicious as one made from hens' eggs. I wouldn't recommend pinching your breakfast from a T. rex nest though...
from Flying Dinosaurs by John Pickrell
3 notes
·
View notes
Link
So what was that Agent Cheet-0 was saying about the veracity of John Bolton’s book?
#RussianBounties#russian bounty#business insider#treason#trumprussia#russian collusion#putin’s little bitch#ryan pickrell#sonam sheth#john bolton#intelligence community#Afghanistan
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Changyuraptor yangi
By Scott Reid
Etymology: Long Feathered Robber
First Described By: Han et al., 2014
Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Dromaeosauridae, Microraptoria
Status: Extinct
Time and Place: About 124.4 million years ago, in the Aptian of the Early Cretaceous
Changyuraptor is known from the Dawangzhangzi Bed of the Yixian Formation
Physical Description: Changyuraptor was a medium sized dinosaur, about 1.2 meters long - something like a modern turkey in terms of weight. It was covered from head to toe in feathers, including full wings on its arms, a large tail fan, and wings on its legs. It had a small, pointy head and long tail, while its body was fairly stocky. It also had sharp claws on its hands and sickle claws on its feet, like other raptor-dinosaurs. It’s tail was so long and feathered - with feathers reaching up to 30 centimeters in length and being the largest feathers known in a non-avian dinosaur - it would have allowed for softer landings for Changyuraptor. In short, it was probably the largest and fluffiest four-winged dinosaur known.
Diet: Changyuraptor would have primarily fed upon small animals like mammals, lizards, and amphibians.
By Emily Willoughby, CC BY-SA 4.0
Behavior: Like Microraptor, Changyuraptor was probably capable of flight, making it one of the largest flying dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era - with very few birds ever growing larger than it. It wouldn’t have been a particularly good flier though, only about as well as a chicken, taking off clumsily from the ground to go from area to area. It didn’t have enough strength in the chest and wing muscles to do much more than this, though it’s possible the hindlimb feathers would have allowed for some maneuvering in the air. It then could pounce on its prey, using its sickle claw to hold onto struggling animals before eating them.
More importantly; the wings, tail fan, and leg wings would have all been good display structures for Changyuraptor, which would have used them to communicate with other members of the species. These feathers would have signaled anger, a desire to mate, or danger, as feathers today are used by birds. It’s probable, then, that at least some fancy coloration may have been present on Changyuraptor to aid in the communication. Changyuraptor would have been a very active animal and most likely would have taken care of its young. In fact, it may have used its variety of wings and fans to help brood the nest.
Ecosystem: Changyuraptor lived in the Yixian Formation, a highly diverse ecosystem showcasing the evolution of birdie dinosaurs - like Changyuraptor - at the beginning of the Cretaceous period. A temperate, seasonal, and humid climate, it was much like the modern day northwestern Pacific Coast, though it would have seen snow on a regular basis, as well as notable dry seasons. It was a diverse coniferous forest, with a variety of flowering plants, ferns, horsetails, ginkgoes, cycads, seed ferns, and many others. Changyuraptor would have probably spent most of its time in the trees as well as on the ground, given its flight ability. There were a lot of freshwater lakes, and abundant volcanic eruptions.
By Ripley Cook
Changyuraptor lived along so many other kinds of dinosaurs, it’s almost impossible to list them all. There were ankylosaurs like Liaoningosaurus and ornithopods like Bolong and Jinzhousaurus. There was the larger Compsognathid Sinosauropteryx, as well as many raptors in addition to Changyuraptor like the large Zhenyuanlong, Sinornithosaurus, and Tianyuraptor. There was also the Troodontid Jianianhualong, the seed eating protobird Jeholornis, smaller protobirds like Confuciusornis and Zhongornis, and the Anchiornithid Yixianosaurus. Opposite birds were there too like Dalingheornis and Shanweiniao, as well as near-birds like Archaeorhynchus, Eogranivora, Yanornis, Hongshanornis, and Longicrusavis. Non-dinosaurs like fish, amphibians, and lizards were also there; they along with mammals like Akidolestes, Sinobaatar, Sinodelphys, Chaoyangodens, and Eomaia would have been the primary prey of Changyuraptor. There were also Choristoderes like Hyphalosaurus and Monjurosuchus, as well as pterosaurs like Cathayopterus and Ningchengopterus. In short, a fascinating snapshot of Early Cretaceous life.
Other: Changyuraptor was closely related to - and preceded - Microraptor, one of the best known feathered dinosaurs; though we don’t know if it would have been colored like Microraptor, it’s possible it may have also had iridescent feathers like its later relative.
~ By Meig Dickson
Sources under the Cut
Amiot, R., X. Wang, Z. Zhou, X. X. Wang, E. Buffetaut, C. Lécuyer, Z. Ding, F. Fluteau, T. Hibino, N. Kusuhashi, J. Mo, V. Suteethorn, Y. Y. Wang, X. Xu, F. Zhang. 2011. Oxygen isotopes of East Asian dinosaurs reveal exceptionally cold Early Cretaceous climates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (13): 5179 - 5183.
Benson, R.B.J. & Brussatte, S. (2012). Prehistoric Life. London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 332.
Choi, Charles (15 July 2014). "Bizarre Dinosaur Had 4 'Wings,' Long Tail Feathers". LiveScience.com. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
Gang Han; Luis M. Chiappe; Shu-An Ji; Michael Habib; Alan H. Turner; Anusuya Chinsamy; Xueling Liu & Lizhuo Han (15 July 2014). "A new raptorial dinosaur with exceptionally long feathering provides insights into dromaeosaurid flight performance". Nature Communications. 5: 4382.
Iacurci, Jenna (15 July 2014). "New Four-Winged Dinosaur Built for Flight". Nature World News. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
Larsson, Hans, Hone, David, Dececchi, T. Alexander, Sullivan, Corwin, Xu, Xing. "THE WINGED NON-AVIAN DINOSAUR MICRORAPTOR FED ON MAMMALS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE JEHOL BIOTA ECOSYSTEM" "Program and Abstracts. 70th Anniversary Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology October 2010" 114A.
Meng, F.X.; Gao, S.; Liu, X.M. (2008). “U-Pb zircon geochronology and geochemistry of volcanic rocks of the Yixian Formation in the Lingyuan area, western Liaoning, China”. Geological Bulletin of China. 27: 364–373.
Morgan, James (16 July 2014). "Four-winged dinosaur is 'biggest ever'". BBC News. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
Naish, Darren (2012). Planet Dinosaur: The Next Generation of Killer Dinosaurs. Firefly Books. p. 186.
Nicholas R. Longrich; David M. Martill; Brian Andres (2018). "Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary". PLOS Biology. 16 (3): e2001663.
Pickrell, John (16 July 2014). "Four-winged dinosaur had record-breaking tail feathers". Australian Geographic Society. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
Wang, Y., S. Zheng, X. Yang, W. Zhang, Q. Ni. 2006. The biodiversity and palaeoclimate of confier floras from the Early Cretaceous deposits in western Liaoning, northeast China. International Symposium on Cretaceous Major Geological Events and Earth System: 56A.
Zhou, Z. 2006. Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives. Geological Journal 41: 377-393.
#Changyuraptor#Changyuraptor yangi#Dromaeosaur#Raptor#Dinosaur#Bird#Birds#Dinosaurs#Feathered Dinosaurs#Paleontology#Prehistoric Life#Prehistory#Birblr#Palaeoblr#Factfile#Carnivore#Eurasia#Theropod Thursday#Cretaceous
262 notes
·
View notes
Text
Rare 'Light-Footed' Dinosaur Discovered in Australia for the First Time
https://sciencespies.com/news/rare-light-footed-dinosaur-discovered-in-australia-for-the-first-time/
Rare 'Light-Footed' Dinosaur Discovered in Australia for the First Time
A previously mysterious fossil found in Victoria, Australia, has been identified as a rare, beaked dinosaur called an elaphrosaur, according to new research. Paleontologists have dated the specimen, first uncovered by a volunteer digger, to the Early Cretaceous, roughly 110 million years ago.
The name elaphrosaur means light-footed lizard, reports Sian Johnson for ABC News. Members of this small group of dinosaurs have long, slender necks, short arms and slight builds overall, explains Stephen Poropat, a paleontologist at Swinburne University of Technology and the lead researcher on the new paper in a statement.
“As dinosaurs go, they were rather bizarre. The few known skulls of elaphrosaurs show that the youngsters had teeth, but that the adults lost their teeth and replaced them with a horny beak. We don’t know if this is true for the Victorian elaphrosaur yet—but we might find out if we ever discover a skull,” Poropat adds.
Their toothsome youth suggests they may have gone through some kind of dietary shift with age, Poropat tells John Pickrell of the Guardian. But as their lack of fearsome chompers in adulthood suggests, elaphrosaurs were probably omnivores despite being theropods, which are cousins to Tyrannosaurus rex and other famous bygone carnivores, Steve Bursatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the research, tells the Guardian. This particular elaphrosaur was probably just shy of seven feet long from nose to tail, according to the statement.
Elaphrosaurs are “really rare,” Poropat tells the Guardian. The elaphrosuars are a sparse lineage with just three named species that have been discovered in Tanzania, China and Argentina. “This is the first record of the group in Australia, and only the second Cretaceous record worldwide,” Poropat says.
Bursatte says the discovery of this specimen in Australia “greatly expands the range of these animals… They were probably a widespread, and perhaps even global, group of dinosaurs, which we haven’t yet appreciated because of the scanty clues they left behind.”
A fossilized vertebra, discovered by a volunteer digger in 2015 near Victoria, Australia, and subsequently identified as a type of dinosaur called an elaphrosaur.
(Stephen Poropat )
The fossil at the center of the new research, published earlier this month in the journal Gondwana Research, was first unearthed by dig volunteer Jessica Parker in 2015, per the statement. Parker spotted a “strange, delicate bone” roughly two inches long at a Cretaceous fossil bed known as Eric the Red West, near Cape Otway in Victoria.
Researchers initially pegged the fossil as a vertebra belonging to a pterosaur, a type of flying reptile, but closer examination revealed its surprising identity.
The slender, swift-footed elaphrosaur is also unique among its brethren for when it lived. Its relatives Elaphrosaurus from Tanzania and Limusaurus from Chin date from the late Jurassic (160-145 million years ago), but the Australian elaphrosaur lived around 40 million years later during the Early Cretaceous.
At that time, around 110 million years ago, Australia was located inside the Antarctic Circle and the fossil bed at Eric the Red West was home to a swiftly flowing river bordered by lush plant life, Poropat tells ABC News.
“There were conifer trees, things like modern-day monkey puzzles. There were ferns and lots of flowering plants,” he continues. The ancient riverbed has also preserved a jumble of bones from meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating dinosaurs, turtles and fish alongside the elaphrosaur, suggesting it was part of a diverse ecosystem.
The researchers are anxious to return to the Eric the Red West fossil bed soon, according to the statement, but their plans are on hold due to COVID-19 and had already been delayed once due to fire season.
Poropat praised the contribution of Parker, the volunteer who found the fossil. “As this story tells, one bone can change our understanding completely,” he tells ABC News. “If it belongs to a group of animals that we didn’t know was represented in Victoria, let alone Australia before, it can shape our understanding of the fauna.”
#News
#05-2020 Science News#2020 Science News#Earth Environment#earth science#Environment and Nature#Nature Science#News Science Spies#Our Nature#outrageous acts of science#planetary science#Science#Science Channel#science documentary#Science News#Science Spies#Science Spies News#Space Physics & Nature#Space Science#News
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Life of Virginia Building
AKA, General Assembly Building
911-915 East Broad Street
Original
Built, before 1877
Demolished, probably 1923
2nd Building
Built, 1912
Expanded, 1923, 1955, 1964
Demolished, 2018
Architects, Clinton & Russell (1912, 1923), Marcellus Wright Associates (1964)
[RVCJ03] — original building on Broad Street, circa 1903 — note Old City Hall visible at left
So if you've been wondering about that hole in the ground with the propped-up wall at Ninth and Broad, here's the juice.
Richmond has four local insurance companies—three fire and one life. The three fire companies are the Mutual Assurance Society, the Virginia Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and the Virginia State Insurance Company. The life company is the Life Insurance Company of Virginia.
[RVCJ03] — general office interior view, circa 1903
The total capital, surplus and reserve of the two joint stock fire companies January 1, 1892, was $996,000. The Mutual, being what its name implies, makes no showing of capital. The total assets of the three fire companies then was $1,932,078. Their total receipts in 1891 were $580,000.
The Life Insurance Company of Virginia had over $400,000 in receipts in 1891. Its capital stock is $100,000.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 7 — showing the original location prior to the 2nd building
There are some thirty agencies for insurance, local and State, at Richmond. Nearly every home and foreign company of any note doing business is represented here. The Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company has one of its five American branches here, and from the nature of its organization, with directors resident here, may be considered practically a local company.
July 2019 — 911-915 East Broad Street today
The grand total of insurance business here is, by recent reports, $1,318,812 annually: $545,666 fire, $701,813 life, and $71,333 accident. The total insurance upon the property endangered by fire here in 1891 was $809,647; the insurance loss was $196,190. The insurance men of the city are organized as a Board of Underwriters, George D. Pleasants, president; Ro. E. Richardson, secretary.
The Life Insurance Company of Virginia is an old company and a solid one. On December 31st, 1892, its annual statement was rendered. That statement shows it to have $100,000 capital stock, and a surplus as to policy-holders of $156,962.52.
(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards) — 2nd building, constructed in 1906
At the same time its assets were $819,029.86, and the total amount of its insurance in force, $9,832,327.00, an increase in assets, over the year preceding, of $140,286.27 and in the matter of insurance in force of something over $1,552,398.00. It has paid to its policy-holders, since its organization, $1,226,320.39 and during the last six years its premium income has increased nearly five-fold. Its total income, last year was $507,752.35. It is a company that pays its death claims immediately upon presentation and approval of the proofs of death.
[RVCJ03] — John G. Walker, President & T. William Pemberton, 1st Vice President, circa 1903
Its policy-holders now number over 70,000, scattered through many States of the Union. The results already attained by this company show that it has had intelligent and conservative management.
G. A. Walker, its president, has been in the insurance business for the past eleven years, and has displayed great executive ability in his management of the Company. James W. Pegram, its secretary, has spent twenty- two years in this company’s service ever since it started, in fact—and twenty-six years in the life insurance business, and has ably seconded the efforts of the president in making this the most successful Southern Life Insurance Company.
[RVCJ03] — James W. Pegram, 2nd Vice President & W. L. T. Rogerson, Secretary, circa 1903
The directors are these officials and John G. Walker; T. William Pemberton, a capitalist of this city, who has been connected with the company for nearly twenty years as a director, and one of its vice-presidents; Everett Waddey, of the Everett Waddey Printing Company; General F. JI. Cameron; Major George Johnston; W. J. Walker; F. P. Cooke, of T. F. Minor & Co., who succeeded his father, the late General John R. Cooke, in the board of directors, and John F. Slaughter, Jr., cashier of the Fidelity Bank of Durham, N. C.
Messrs. Coke & Pickrell, attorneys, are the counsel of the company. The large and increasing business of the company requires the employment of over fifty persons in the Richmond office.
[RVCJ93] — original offices in the Hanewinkel Building at Ninth & Main Streets
Among the stockholders of the company are James B. Pace, president of the Planter’s National Bank; G. A. Walker, James Pleasants, W. J. Walker, T. William Pemberton, James W. Pegram, John G. Walker, of Richmond, Va.; Fred. Taylor, of Norfolk, Va.; Colonel Frank Reed, of Washington, D. C.; Major George Johnston, of Alexandria, Va., and many others.
The Home Offices of this company are situated at the corner of Ninth and Main streets, in the building shown in the engraving accompanying this matter. [RVCJ93]
July 2019 — looking towards the former location of the Hanewinkel Building, Ninth & Main Streets
That was true in 1893. Sometime between the publication of the 1893 and 1903 editions of Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James, the company moved from the Hanewinkel Building to the Broad Street location, made possible by the construction of Old City Hall in 1886. Until that year, the future offices of the Life Insurance Company of Virginia had been the city’s main municipal building following the demolition of Original City Hall in 1874, a depressing coda to the Municipal War and the Virginia Capitol Disaster of 1870.
(Richmond Magazine) — 2nd building under construction, center left, circa 1910— Cook Collection, The Valentine
The new space must have been too small for their needs because by 1910 the company had embarked on constructing their own building on the same block, designed by the King of Neoclassicism, Alfred Charles Bossom of Clinton & Russell.
The initial building, known as the Life of Virginia Building, is considered one of the finest early 20th century Beaux-Arts-style buildings in Virginia. The main structure was built in several parts. The first building, facing Capitol Square, is five stories high and was completed in 1912.
(Historic Richmond) — detail of Corinthian pilasters with American eagles, cherubs, and winged horses, 2015
The 1912 building features three-story-tall Corinthian pilasters with American eagles, cherubs, and winged horses. This is the only example of Pegasus in classical columns in all of Richmond. Bossom’s likely source for the Pegasus capitals was Andrea Palladio’s drawing of a Pegasus capital from the Temple of Mars Ultor in Rome. The original entrance to the building is on the southwest corner of the façade, facing Capitol Street. This entrance has “handsome bronze gates and an elaborately carved stone frontispiece with a semicircular arched pediment supported by scroll brackets.” The original entrance was glazed to make a window, but the exterior appearance has remained unaltered.
[ADR] — 1st addition, circa 1982
As evidence of the company’s rapid growth, the company built an addition in 1923 on the north side of the initial building, with a façade along Broad Street. The eleven-story tower, also designed by Clinton and Russell, reflects a “restrained classical style.” The 1923 addition features a cornice with modillions and dentils, doric order pilasters with a decorated band of anthemia and a balustrade along the roof edge. The building was designed as a Beaux-Arts high rise, which was a popular design for official buildings during the early part of the 20th century. The 1923 addition was further connected to the Life of Virginia portion of the building in 1955 with a six-story structure.
[ADR] — showing the 1st addition (left) and the modernist 2nd addition (right), circa 1982
In 1965, Life of Virginia commissioned a second addition designed by the local architectural firm, Marcellus Wright and Partners. The steel framed structure of this addition artfully and purposefully uses concrete paneled faces to mimic the architectural divisions and bays of the earlier structures. Soon after its completion, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts included the Marcellus Wright and Partners addition it in its publication celebrating the Commonwealth’s finest architecture. William B. O’Neal, author, notes the differing floor heights rarely seen in most modern high-rises add “vivacity of proportion that is expressed with firmly modeled corners, rhythmic window divisions, and strong structural elements.” Robert Winthrop called the tower “the most sensitively designed highrise in the city.” (Historic Richmond)
July 2019 — showing the remaining facade of the 1912 building
The Commonwealth of Virginia also had a need for additional space, purchased the entire complex in 1975, and renamed it the General Assembly Building. Unfortunately, the state was not a good steward and allowed the building to decay to the point that the only choice was to demolish and start over.
It was not a popular decision and sparked much debate about how to preserve at least some portion. In the end, it was determined that the 1912 building held the greatest architectural significance. When the rest of the structure came down, its facade remained, and it will be incorporated into the new assembly building currently under construction.
(Life of Virginia Building is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
[ADR] Architecture in Downtown Richmond. Robert Winthrop. 1982.
[RVCJ03] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1903.
[RVCJ93] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1893.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Historical reading list
Hello, world. A while ago I made a list of history books to read that would take me chronologically from the Big Bang up to the present. I did it on a Word document and haven’t had time to compile the list on Goodreads, but I wanted to post it here as a stopgap for anyone interested. There’s a penchant towards my own heritage, which comes through the United States and Mormonism, with, for instance, at least one biography on every American President (through Obama). But I tried to be broad because as I read these I want to gain a broad understanding not just of history but of different global cultures today; hence so many titles dealing with religion or mythology in general. There’s a smattering of fiction thrown in there where it fits historically, like The Iliad, Divine Comedy, or Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and I have other reading lists dealing with topics like art, music, religion (outside of history, like books about Buddhism or Joseph Campbell essays), and contemporary work in natural sciences/conservation/mass extinction, so by and large books relating to those things don’t appear here, but I still hope it’s useful.
1. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
2. The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
3. Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System, Richard Corfield
4. From Dust to Life: The Origin and Evolution of Our Solar System, John Chambers & Jacqueline Mitton
5. Plate Tectonics, Stephen M. Tomecek
6. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (1859)
7. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
8. Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth, Dorling-Kindersley
9. Prehistoric Life: Evolution and the Fossil Record, Lieberman and Kaesler
10. Life: An Unauthorized Biography (newest edition), Richard Fortey
11. The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions, Peter Brannen
12. When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time, Michael Benton
13. Trilobite!, Richard Fortey
14. Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, Danna Staaf
15. Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy, Mark Witton
16. Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History, David E. Fastovsky & David B. Weishampel
17. The Complete Dinosaur (second edition), M.K. Brett-Surman
18. Tyrannosaurus Rex: The Tyrant King, ed. Peter Larson and Kenneth Carpenter
19. Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea, Michael J. Everhart
20. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Steve Brusatte
21. All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, John Conway
22. Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, John Pickrell
23. Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds, John Long and Peter Schouten
24. The Origin and Evolution of Mammals, T.S. Kemp
25. Beasts of Eden: Walking Whales, Dawn Horses, and Other Enigmas of Mammal Evolution, David Rains Wallace
26. After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals, Donald R. Prothero
27. Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari, Tim Haines
28. Cenozoic Mammals of Africa, Lars Werdelin and William Joseph Sanders
29. The Ice Age: A Very Short Introduction, Jamie Woodward
30. Prehistoric America: A Journey through the Ice Age and Beyond, Miles Barton
31. Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, Paul S. Martin and Harry W. Greene
32. The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin (1871)
33. Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins, Ian Tattersall
34. Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth, Chris Stringer
35. How to Think Like a Neanderthal, Thomas Wynn & Frederick Coolidge
36. The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain, Terrence W. Deacon
37. The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, Richard Rudgley
38. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
39. The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang, Marcelo Gleiser
40. Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World, Barbara Sproul
41. A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis, Marcel Mazoyer
42. Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture, Dennis Stanford & Bruce Bradley
43. Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction, Amanda H. Podany
44. The Epic of Gilgamesh (2100 BC)
45. Abraham: The First Historical Biography, David Rosenberg
46. A History of Ancient Egypt, Marc Van De Mieroop
47. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, Erik Hornung
48. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, Jan Assmann
49. The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, tr. Raymond Faulkner
50. The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs, Jan Assmann
51. The Family Haggadah
52. The Iliad, Homer (ca. 1180 BC)
53. The Odyssey, Homer (Fagle translation)
54. 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric Cline
55. Transformations of Myth through Time, Joseph Campbell
56. The Spirit of Zoroastrianism, Prods Oktor Skjaervo
57. In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World’s First Prophet, Paul Kriwaczek
58. Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet, Victor Ludlow (700 BC)
59. Rereading Job, Michael Austin (600 BC)
60. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, James L. Kugel
61. The Cambridge Companion to the Bible
62. Illuminating Humor of the Bible, Steve Walker
63. The Mother of the Lord, vol. 1: The Lady in the Temple, Margaret Barker
64. The Holy Bible, New International Version
65. The Art of War, Sun Tzu (500 BC)
66. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome, Susan Wise Bauer
67. The Maya, Michael Coe & Stephen Houston (newest edition)
68. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain, Ronald Hutton
69. Celtic Myths and Legends, Peter Berresford Ellis
70. Celtic Gods and Heroes, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt
71. Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, William Dever
72. The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World, John Boardman
73. D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths
74. Mythology, Edith Hamilton
75. Bulfinch’s Mythology
76. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Roberto Calasso
77. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions, H.R. Ellis Davidson
78. Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Jeffrey Gantz
79. From Sphinx to Christ: An Occult History, Edouard Schure
80. Buddha (Penguin Lives Biographies), Karen Armstrong
81. Buddhacarita, Asvaghosa (ca. 500 BC)
82. Buddhist Scriptures (ca. 500 BC)
83. Ramayana (ca. 500 BC)
84. Mahabharata (ca 400 BC)
85. Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India, Roberto Calasso
86. Tao Te Ching (ca 400 BC)
87. The Zhuangzi (446-221 BC)
88. Old Myths and New Approaches: Interpreting Ancient Religious Sites in Southeast Asia, Alexandra Haendel
89. The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World’s Greatest Civilization, Anthony Everitt
90. Democracy: A Life, Paul Cartledge (ca. 450 BC)
91. Histories, Herodotus (440 BC)
92. History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (410 BC)
93. Meno, Plato (380 BC)94. The Republic, Plato (380 BC)
95. The Symposium, Plato (370 BC)
96. The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (350 BC)
97. On the Soul (De Anima), Aristotle (350 BC)
98. Poetics, Aristotle (335 BC)
99. Alexander the Great, Philip Freeman (ca 330 BC)
100. Letters (to Herodotus, Pythocles, & Menoeceus), Epicurus (ca. 200 BC)
101. Analects of Confucius (ca 200 BC)
102. Dhammapada (a Buddhist text) (200 BC)
103. The Lotus Sutra (ca 100 BC)
104. Why Buddhism is True, Robert Wright
105. Cicero: Selected Works (Penguin Classics), Marcus Tullius Cicero (ca 63 BC)
106. Caesar: Life of a Colossus, Adrian Goldsworthy
107. The Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar (ca 50 BC)
108. The Aeneid, Virgil (19 BC)
109. Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels, Julie M. Smith
110. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan
111. How Jesus Became God, Bart Ehrman
112. A History of the Devil, Gerald Messadie
113. Metamorphoses, Ovid (8 AD)
114. The New Complete Works of Josephus, Josephus
115. A New History of Early Christianity, Charles Freeman
116. The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels
117. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume, ed. Marvin Meyer
118. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Karen Armstrong
119. Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible, William Goetzmann
120. The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius (Penguin Classics tr. James Rives) (ca 140 AD)
121. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (180 AD)
122. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, Peter Heather
123. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, Peter Brown
124. The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, Bart Ehrman
125. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, Catherine Nixey
126. A History of Christianity, Diarmaid MacCulloch
127. Everyman’s Talmud (ca. 200)
128. Confessions, St. Augustine (397)
129. The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Saints
130. The Silk Road in World History, Xinru Liu
131. Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome, John Man (400s)
132. The Consolation of Philosophy, Ancius Boethius (524)
133. One Thousand and One Nights (ca 600)
134. The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, Norman F. Cantor
135. Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth, Joseph Campbell ed. Evans Lansing Smith
136. Le Morte d’Arthur, Thomas Malory (1485)
137. The Making of the Middle Ages, R.W. Southern
138. Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages, Jack Hartnell
139. The Age of the Vikings, Anders Winroth
140. The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings, Lars Brownworth
141. The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion, Daniel McCoy
142. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, H.R. Elllis Davidson
143. Norwegian Folklore, Zinken Hopp
144. Holy Misogyny: Why Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early Church Still Matter, April DeConick
145. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, Tamim Ansary (610…)
146. Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong
147. The Holy Qur’an
148. Mohammed and Charlemagne, Henri Pirenne (700s)
149. Beowulf (Heaney translation) (by 900s)
150. A History of the English Speaking Peoples, vol. 1: The Birth of Britain, Winston Churchill
151. The Tale of Genji, Lady Murasaki Shikibu (1000s)
152. The Sagas of Icelanders (1000)
153. Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England, Alison Weir (1100s)
154. Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales, ed. Stephen Knight & Thomas Ohlgren
155. Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography, Stephen Thomas Knight
156. Book of Divine Works, Hildegard von Bingen (1163)
157. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition, C.S. Lewis
158. Money: The Unauthorized Biography: From Coinage to Cryptocurrencies, Felix Martin
159.Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection, John Man (ca. 1200)
160. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford
161. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, Jack Weatherford
162. Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade China, John Man
163. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi, ed. G.K. Chesterton (1200s)
164. St. Francis of Assisi, Omer Englebert
165. The Poetic Edda (1200s)
166. The Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson (1200s)
167. The Saga of the Volsungs, Jesse L. Byock (late 1200s)
168. The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo (1200s)
169. Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich (1300s)
170. Outlaws of the Marsh, Shi Nai’an (1300s)
171. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong (1300s)
172. Robert the Bruce: King of Scots, Ronald McNair Scott (early 1300s)
173. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1320)
174. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara Tuchman
175. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared M. Diamond
176. Marriage: A History, Stephanie Coontz
177. The Future of Marriage, David Blankenhorn
178. The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (1400)
179. The Civilizing Process, Norbert Elias
180. The Samurai: A Military History, Stephen Turnbull
181. 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies
182. The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453, Desmond Seward
183. Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words (early 1400s)
184. History of Creativity in the Arts, Science, and Technology: Pre-1500, Brent Strong
185. The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, Khushwant Singh (late 1400s)
186. The Aztec, Man and Tribe (1400s-1521)
187. The Aztecs, Michael E. Smith
188. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles Mann
189. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Charles Mann
190. Conquistador Voices, Volume 1, Kevin H. Siepel
191. Conquistador Voices, Volume 2, Kevin H. Siepel
192. In the Hands of the Great Spirit, John Page
193. Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, Lisa Jardine
194. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt
195. The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, Christopher Hibbert
196. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)
197. Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson
198. Utopia, Thomas More (1516)
199. She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Helen Castor
200. The Reformation: A History, Diarmaid MacCulloch
201. Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World, Eric Metaxas
202. The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself, Daniel J. Boorstin
203. Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays (Penguin Classics), ed. M.A. Screech
204. Spice: The History of a Temptation, Jack Turner
205. The Age of Exploration: From Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand Magellan, Kenneth Pletcher
206. Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en (1500s)
207. How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City, Joan DeJean
208. A History of the English Speaking Peoples, vol. 2: The New World, Winston Churchill
209. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870, Hugh Thomas
210. The Life of Elizabeth I, Alison Weir
211. The Faerie Queen, Edmund Spenser (1590)
212. The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street, Charles Nicholl
213. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, James Shapiro
214. London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd
215. Galileo: Watcher of the Skies, David Wootton
216. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War, Nathaniel Philbrick (1620)
217. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, David Hackett Fischer
218. Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age, Michael North
219. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace
220. The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy, Peter H. Wilson
221. Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris
222. The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (1651)
223. Ethics, Benedict de Spinoza (1665)
224. The Scourge of Demons: Possession, Lust, and Witchcraft in a 17th-century Italian Convent, Jeffrey Watt
225. The Great Fire of London, Neil Hanson (1666)
226. Paradise Lost (1667)
227. The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)
228. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Modern Library Classics), Samuel Pepys ed. Richard Le Gallienne (late 1600s)
229. The Scientific Revolution, Stephen Shapin
230. The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution, David Wootton
231. Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton, Richard Westfall (1642-1726)
232. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
233. Ways of Knowing: A New History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, John Pickstone
234. Two Treatises on Government, John Locke (1689)
235. The Penguin Book of Witches (1692)
236. In the Devil’s Snare, Mary Beth Norton (1692)
237. Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon, 1691-1709: Presented to the King, Duc de Saint-Simon
238. Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift (1726) (and A Modest Proposal)
239. The Major Works (Oxford World’s Classics), Alexander Pope (early 1700s)
240. China: A History, John Keay
241. The Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin (1700s)
242. Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio vol. 1 (1740)
243. Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio vol. 2
244. Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio vol. 3
245. The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles, Howard Goodall
246. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff (early 1700s)
247. A History of the English Speaking Peoples, vol. 3: The Age of Revolution, Winston Churchill
248. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James
249. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith (1759)
250. Candide, Voltaire (1759)
251. Treasury of North American Folk Tales, Catherine Peck
252. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, Fred Anderson
253. Benjamin Franklin, Edmund S. Morgan
254. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
255. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Robert Massie
256. A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
257. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (1776)
258. Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius, Sylvia Nasar
259. Common Sense, Thomas Paine (1776)
260. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn
261. The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Gordon S. Wood
262. 1776, David McCullough
263. The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson
264. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, Mercy Otis Warren
265. Washington’s Crossing, David Hackett Fischer
266. George Washington, A Life, Willard Sterne Randall
267. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, Gordon S. Wood
268. Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow
269. The Grand Idea: George Washington’s Potomac and the Race to the West, Joel Achenbach
270. His Excellency: George Washington, Joseph J. Ellis
271. James Wilson: Founding Father, 1742-1798, Charles Page Smith
272. The Constitution and Bill of Rights, James Madison
273. The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1788)
274. The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, Fergus Bordewich
275. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, Jack Rakove
276. Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies, Erwin Chemerinsky
277. That’s Not What They Meant, Michael Austin
278. The Second Amendment: A Biography, Michael Waldman
279. That’s Not What They Meant About Guns, Michael Austin
280. Taming the Electoral College, Robert Bennett
281. Why the Electoral College is Bad for America, George C. Edwards
282. Faust, Goethe (1790)
283. The Ancien Regime and the Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville
284. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama
285. The Rights of Man, Thomas Paine (1791)
286. A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
287. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
288. A History of Japan: Revised Edition, R.H.P. Mason
289. John Adams, David McCullough
290. Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, Joseph J. Ellis
291. The Scramble for Africa, Thomas Pakenham
292. Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow
293. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, Michael Newton
294. Alexander Hamilton: Writings (plus Farmer Refuted, Washington’s farewell address, & the Reynolds Pamphlet)
295. The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine (1804)
296. Jefferson and His Time, Dumas Malone
297. Thomas Jefferson, Willard Sterne Randall
298. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham
299. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph J. Ellis
300. Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf
301. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, Paul Finkelman
302. The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine, Dave DeWitt
303. The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Lewis and Clark (1806)
304. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf
305. A History of the English Speaking Peoples, vol. 4: The Great Democracies, Winston Churchill
306. The Cambridge Illustrated History of France, Colin Jones
307. France, a History: From Gaul to De Gaulle, John Julius Norwich
308. Napoleon: A Life, Andrew Roberts
309. The Brothers Grimm (1812)
310. James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, Jack Rakove
311. James Madison: A Biography, Ralph Ketchem
312. The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, Alan Taylor
313. The Naval War of 1812, Theodore Roosevelt
314. Bolivar: American Liberator, Marie Arana (ca. 1810s)
315. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, Harlow Giles Unger
316. The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America, Jay Sexton
317. The English and their History, Robert Tombs
318. An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer
319. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, D. Michael Quinn
320. Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy, Miranda Wilcox & John Young
321. Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic, Charles Edel
322. John Quincy Adams: American Visionary, Fred Kaplan
323. John Quincy Adams, Robert V. Remini
324. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman
325. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery
326. By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion, Terryl Givens
327. Understanding the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy
328. The Book of Mormon: Revised Authorized Version
329. The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, D. Michael Quinn
330. Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo, Michael G. Reed
331. This Is My Doctrine: The Development of Mormon Theology, Charles Harrell
332. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, John L. Brooke
333. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 1, B.H. Roberts
334. Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero, Lucy Riall (1834 revolt)
335. Road to the Sea, Florence Dorsey
336. Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, H.W. Brands
337. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Jon Meacham
338. Jacksonland, Steve Inskeep
339. Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
340. Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics, John Niven
341. The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin (1839)
342. Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives, Sunil Khilnani
343. Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Times, Freeman Cleaves
344. John Tyler: Champion of the Old South, Oliver P. Chitwood
345. Self-Reliance and Other Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841)
346. Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard (1843)
347. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
348. Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller (1845)
349. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, Daniel Walker Howe
350. Nightfall at Nauvoo, Samuel W. Taylor
351. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 2, B.H. Roberts
352. Journey to Zion: Voices from the Mormon Trail, Carol Cornwall Madsen
353. 111 Days to Zion, Hal Knight
354. The Gathering of Zion, Wallace Stegner
355. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 3, B.H. Roberts
356. The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants on the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60, John D. Unruh
357. So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848, John S. D. Eisenhower
358. The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman (1849)
359. The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream, H.W. Brands
360. Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau (1849)
361. The American Transcendentalists
362. The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America (James Polk), Walter Borneman
363. Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico, T.R. Fehrenbach
364. Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest, K. Jack Bauer
365. The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War, Andrew Delbanco
366. Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President, Robert J. Rayback
367. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
368. Walden, Henry David Thoreau (1854)
369. Franklin Pierce, Michael Holt
370. President James Buchanan: A Biography, Philip S. Klein
371. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism, Terryl Givens
372. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 4, B.H. Roberts
373. American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857, Sally Denton
374. America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink, Kenneth Stampp
375. The West Indies and the Spanish Main, Anthony Trollope (1860)
376. Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, Janet Browne
377. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, James McPherson
378. Centennial History of the Civil War, vol. 1: The Coming Fury, Bruce Catton
379. Centennial History of the Civil War, vol. 2: Terrible Swift Sword, Bruce Catton
380. Centennial History of the Civil War, vol. 3: Never Call Retreat, Bruce Catton
381. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Fred Kaplan
382. The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln through his Words, Ronald White
383. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
384. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin
385. Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, Stephanie McCurry
386. The South vs. the South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War, William Freehling
387. Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
388. Matthew Brady’s Illustrated History of the Civil War
389. With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Oates
390. A Short History of Canada (6th ed), Desmond Morton
391. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years, Carl Sandburg
392. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust
393. Abraham Lincoln, Lord Charnwood
394. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, Jung Chang
395. Andrew Johnson, Annette Gordon-Reed
396. Biographical Supplement and Index, Harriet Sigerman
397. Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah, Claudia Bushman
398. Development of LDS Temple Worship, Devery Anderson
399. The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz
400. Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, John C. Turner
401. Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900, Leonard Arrington
402. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 5, B.H. Roberts
403. Grant, Ron Chernow
404. Grant: A Biography, William S. McFeeley
405. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant, Ronald C. White
406. Complete Personal Memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant
407. Capital (Das Kapital), Karl Marx (first edition 1867, third 1894)
408. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, Louis Menand
409. Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois
410. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, updated edition, Eric Foner
411. A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration, Steven Hahn
412. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
413. Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, T.J. Stiles
414. Rutherford B. Hayes, Hans Trefousse
415. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
416. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, Friedrich Nietzsche
417. Assassination Vacation (James Garfield), Sarah Vowell
418. Destiny of the Republic (James Garfield), Candice Millard
419. Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur, Thomas C. Reeves
420. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Adam Hochschild
421. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney
422. More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910, Kathryn M. Daynes
423. The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy, Carol Lynn Pearson
424. Selected Writings, José Martí (Penguin Classics)
425. Dawn of the Belle Epoque, Mary McAuliffe
426. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character, Henry F. Graff
427. Manning Clark’s History of Australia: Abridged from the Six-Volume Classic, Manning Clark
428. The Making of Modern Ireland, 1603-1923, J.C. Beckett
429. Benjamin Harrison, Charles W. Calhoun
430. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, Jacob Riis (1890)
431. Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, Mike Wallace
432. The History of Spain, Peter Pierson
433. Presidency of William McKinley, Lewis L. Gould
434. The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois
435. Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
436. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris
437. Mornings on Horseback (Theodore Roosevelt), David McCullough
438. Marie Curie: A Life, Susan Quinn
439. The Shame of the Cities, Lincoln Steffens (1904)
440. Albert Einstein: A Biography, Albrecht Folsing
441. Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Albert Einstein (1905)
442. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1906)
443. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, Doris Kearns Goodwin
444. The Life & Times of William Howard Taft, Harry F. Pringle
445. The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Peter Conti-Brown
446. Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism, Bhu Srinivasan
447. The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, Margaret MacMillan
448. July 1914: Countdown to War, Sean McMeekin
449. The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
450. A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918, G.J. Meyer
451. Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History, Catharine Arnold
452. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, John Milton Cooper
453. Women and the Vote: A World History, Jad Adams
454. Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes, Diane Atkinson
455. The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times, Francis Russell
456. A History of Russia (new edition w Mark Steinberg), Nicholas V. Riasanovsky
457. The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga, John Curtis Perry and Constantine V. Pleshakov
458. Ten Days that Shook the World, John Reed
459. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” Zora Neale Hurston
460. Coolidge: An American Enigma, Robert Sobel
461. Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties, Lucy Moore
462. Herbert Hoover, William Leuchtenburg
463. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vol. 6, B.H. Roberts
464. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, Liaquat Ahamed
465. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, David Kennedy
466. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Walker Evans and James Agee
467. Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk
468. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, Conrad Black
469. FDR, Jean Edward Smith
470. The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, Kirstin Downey
471. Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, Jonathan Alte
472. Eleanor Roosevelt: Vol. 1, The Early Years, 1884-1933, Blanche Wiesen Cook
473. Eleanor Roosevelt: Vol. 2, The Defining Years, 1933-1938, Blanche Wiesen Cook
474. Eleanor Roosevelt: Vol. 3, The War Years and After, 1939-1962, Blanche Wiesen Cook
475. No Ordinary Time (FDR), Doris Kearns Goodwin
476. Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges
477. The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, Andrew Roberts
478. Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder
479. Leningrad, Anna Reid
480. A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
481. Churchill: Walking with Destiny, Andrew Roberts
482. Memoirs of the Second World War, Winston Churchill
483. The Destruction of the European Jews, Raul Hilberg
484. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
485. Night, Elie Wiesel
486. Hiroshima, John Hersey
487. Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis and Their Crimes Against Humanity, Paul Roland
488. Truman, David McCullough
489. Gandhi: An Autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi
490. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fischer
491. The Arabs: A History, Eugene Rogan
492. Mao: The Unknown Story, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
493. Inside Red China, Helen Foster Snow
494. Red Star Over China, Edgar Snow
495. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, David Halberstam
496. An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
497. Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith
498. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, James D. Watson (1953)
499. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Brenda Maddox
500. Mississippi Trial, 1955, Chris Crowe
501. Sake & Satori: Asian Journals, Joseph Campbell
502. A Concise History of Germany, Mary Fulbrook
503. The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power, D. Michael Quinn
504. Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch, Irene Bates
505. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan (1963)
506. A Thousand Days (JFK), Arthur M. Schlesinger
507. An Unfinished Life (JFK), Robert Dallek
508. A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present, 2nd ed., Richard J. Reid
509. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 1: The Path to Power, Robert Caro
510. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 2: Means of Ascent, Robert Caro
511. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 3: Master of the Senate, Robert Caro
512. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 4: The Passage of Power, Robert Caro
513. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 5: untitled/unreleased, Robert Caro
514. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, Taylor Branch
515. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, Taylor Branch
516. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68, Taylor Branch
517. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X & Alex Haley
518. The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
519. Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog
520. The Bomb: A New History, Stephen Younger
521. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, William Burrows
522. A History of the Modern Middle East, 5th ed., William Cleveland
523. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, Katherine Frank
524. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, Fredrik Logevall
525. The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam
526. Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam, Gordon Goldstein
527. To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family, JoAn D. Criddle
528. All the President’s Men, Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
529. Nixonland, Richard Perlstein
530. The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics, Bruce Schulman
531. Gerald R. Ford, Douglas Brinkley
532. Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority, and Equal Rights, Martha Bradley
533. Petals of Blood, Nugi wa Thiong’o (1977 Kenyan novel)
534. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
535. Spear of the Nation: South Africa’s Liberation Army, Janet Cherry
536. Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa, Antjie Krog
537. Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter, Randall Balmer
538. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert A. Caro
539. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, Lou Cannon
540. 1983: The World at the Brink, Taylor Downing
541. A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, Peter Kenez
542. Lost Lives (the Troubles), David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeley, and Chris Thornton
543. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, Juan Gonzalez
544. As Texas Goes: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda, Gail Collins
545. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham
546. First in His Class (Bill Clinton), David Maraniss
547. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Gore Vidal (2002)
548. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 11, 2001, Steve Coll
549. Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Peter Baker
550. Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape, Kirk Savage
551. The Formations of Modernity, Stuart Hall & Bram Gieben
552. Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It, Lawrence Lessig (he wrote a sequel, same title with “2.0” in 2015)
553. All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, Bethany McLean
554. Back to Work, Bill Clinton
555. Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with our Economy and our Democracy and How to Fix It, Robert Reich
556. A Governor’s Story, Jennifer Granholm
557. Life, Inc.: How Corporatism Conquered the World and How We Can Take It Back, Douglas Rushkoff
558. Dreams from my Father, Barack Obama
559. Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss
560. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, David Remnick
561. Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President (Obama), Ron Suskind
562. Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward
563. Hard Choices: A Memoir, Hillary Clinton
564. The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
565. The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, Chris Whipple
566. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
567. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, David Treuer
568. DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution, James D. Watson
569. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, Evan Osnos
570. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Larry Bartels
571. The Post-American World: Release 2.0, Fareed Zakaria
572. What Happened, Hillary Clinton
573. THE NOT YET WRITTEN DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S SCANDALS
574. How Democracies Die, Steve Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
575. The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Jon Meacham
576. America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges
577. A Call to Action, Jimmy Carter
578. I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai
579. A Path Appears, Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
580. The History of Creativity in the Arts, Science, and Technology: 1500-Present, Brent Strong
581. Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking
4 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Scoperto nell'ambra il più antico fossile di raganella
Il ricco deposito di ambra del Myanmar ha resituito i resti di quattro piccole rane, un rinvenimento eccezionale per questo tipo di anfibi che potrebbe svelare i segreti della loro evoluzione
di John Pickrell - Fotografia di Chen Hai-Ying
1 note
·
View note
Text
The smuggled Mongolian dinosaur fossil that seemed too good to be true
When a bizarre fossil appeared for sale in Europe, it looked so odd it had to be fake. But a high-tech investigation introduced us to Halzkaraptor escullei – part velociraptor, part penguin
Life
12 February 2020
By John Pickrell
Halszkaraptor escuilliei may have been a bird-like predator of fish, using its Wings” as paddles
Lukas Panzarin
DESOLATE and beautiful, southern Mongolia’s Gobi desert is a vast, treeless expanse, with few permanent settlements and even fewer paved roads. It was here, amid the crumbling outcrops of a fossil site known as Ukhaa Tolgod, that the poachers struck.
The thieves would have worked methodically, digging out a half-metre-long block of soft red sandstone containing the whitish bones of a small dinosaur. They probably doused the skeleton with superglue, a crude substitute for the substances that palaeontologists use to harden and protect fossilised bone. Then they probably wrapped the block in hessian and plaster, loaded it into a four-wheel-drive truck, and drove away, leaving smashed pieces of bone and bottles of superglue strewn across the desert.
They had something valuable, that much the poachers knew. What they couldn’t have guessed was that it would turn out to such be a sensational dinosaur discovery. Nor could they have known the epic journey this fossil would take around the world, passing through the hands of criminals, dealers, and scientists – only to end up right back where it began, in Mongolia, a decade later.
Advertisement
One reason the country is such a hotbed for fossil poaching is that unlike most places, it has great tracts of exposed Cretaceous rock in areas devoid of vegetation. Dinosaur bones are abundant here, and relatively easy to find. It is impossible to say exactly how many have been smuggled out of the country since the trade began in the 1990s, …
Read More
The post The smuggled Mongolian dinosaur fossil that seemed too good to be true appeared first on Gadgets To Make Life Easier.
from WordPress https://ift.tt/37XdSlx
via IFTTT
0 notes
Link
Smith spotted the elusive creature while searching for rare flowers in the Wondiwoi mountain range (South West News Service/Michael Smith).
Excerpt:
The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo may summon up the image of a bouncing, long-tailed creature clumsily swinging through the forests with a bright-eyed, pouch-nestled baby in tow. But when biologist Ernst Mayr first spotted the marsupial in the mountains of West Papua, New Guinea, in 1928, he described it as more of a hybrid monkey-bear.
The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo proceeded to elude researchers for the next 90 years, prompting fears of its extinction. Then, this July, amateur botanist Michael Smith chanced upon a member of the species while exploring the dense thickets of the Wondiwoi mountain range. As John Pickrell writes for National Geographic, Smith’s snapshots of the enigmatic kangaroo offer the first photographic evidence of the animal in its natural habitat and represent only the second recorded sighting of the species.
In an interview with the Huffington Post’s Sara C. Nelson, Flannery further explains that the species likely remained unseen for so long because its habitat is restricted to a small stretch of the Wondiwoi mountains. Pickrell adds, however, that the widespread presence of scratch marks and dung suggests the kangaroo “is amazingly common in a very small area.”
3 notes
·
View notes
Photo
【激増する森林火災、火災に適応した森も再生できない恐れ オーストラリア森林火災は世界的な変化の象徴、研究者らが危惧】 - ナショナルジオグラフィック日本版 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/20/020300074/
2020.02.04
{{ 図版 1 : オーストラリアの森林火災で焼けてしまった木々。1月9日にバカン近郊で撮影。一部の森は元には戻らないだろうと専門家は言う。（PHOTOGRAPH BY CARLA GOTTGENS, BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES） }}
オーストラリア南東部に広がる高く湿った森、いわゆる湿性高木林には、世界で最も背が高い顕花植物がある。セイタカユーカリだ。その学名Eucalyptus regnansは、ラテン語で「ユーカリの支配者」という意味。この巨木が高さ90メートル以上にも達することを考えると、ぴったりの名前だろう。（参考記事： {{ 「タスマニアの巨木林を守れ」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/nng/article/news/14/7769/ }} ）
オーストラリアに生えるユーカリの多く、とりわけ比較的乾燥した森は、森林火災に耐性があり、炎に包まれてから数週間以内に新芽や新たな枝を出す。だが、こうした火に強い種にも限界はある。
さらに、セイタカユーカリやその近縁種アルパインアッシュ（Eucalyptus delegatensis）の原生林は、火災に対する耐性がより低い。ビクトリア州では、これらの木は伐採や開拓により、すでに著しく減少していた。今季オーストラリア東部を襲った森林火災は、数カ月で10万5000平方キロ以上（本州の面積の半分弱）を焼き、現在、森はさらに大きな危機にさらされている。（参考記事： {{ 「森林火災で火災積乱雲が発生、まるで地獄絵図、豪」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/20/010800012/ }} ）
今回、壊滅的な被害を受けた場所のなかには、過去25年間で4度も火災に見舞われたところがある。そんな目にあえば森は回復できないと、オーストラリア国立大学の生態学者デビッド・リンデンマイヤー氏は言う。
「これまで森林火災は、75?125年に1度のペースでしか発生してきませんでした。今起きているのは、まさに異常事態です」と同氏は話す。「セイタカユーカリは、樹齢15?30年にならないと、森林火災から再生するだけの十分な数の種子を作れません」
森を特徴づけるこうした優占種の喪失は、重大な問題だ。ススイロメンフクロウ（Tyto tenebricosa）、ジャイアントバロウィングフロッグ（Heleioporus australiacus）、もふもふの樹上性有袋類フクロムササビ（Petauroides volans）など、絶滅が危ぶまれる種の重要な生息地となっているからだ。
「元の生態系は、事実上、崩壊してしまいました。何か別のもの、どこにでも生えてくる雑草のような植物の群生地に変わってしまう可能性が高いです」と、チャールズ・ダーウィン大学の保全生物学者ジョン・ウォナースキー氏は話す。「面白みも特徴も少ない植生に収束し、絶滅が危惧される動植物をわずかしか支えられなくなるでしょう」
{{ 図版 2 : ギャラリー：オーストラリア森林火災で深刻な被害を被る動物たち 13点
オオフクロモモンガは、オーストラリア原産の滑空する有袋類の1つで、国際自然保護連合（IUCN）のレッドリストで「近危急種（near-threatened）」に指定されている。森林火災の発生地帯にあるユーカリの森に暮らし、大きな古木に巣を作る。過去3世代で、個体数は30%も減少した。生息地の喪失により、この危機的状況がさらに悪化するかもしれない。（PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK） : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/gallery/020300815/index.html?P=7 }}
≫――――――≪
オーストラリアの状況は、カリフォルニア、カナダ、ブラジル、ボルネオなど、世界中の森林で起きていることを象徴している。森林火災から繰り返し再生して生き残ってきた森でさえ、気候変動による地球温暖化に伴い、ますます増えて激しくなる森林火災に直面し、回復力を失いつつある。（参考記事： {{ 「森林火災が地球におよぼすこれだけの影響」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/16/a/062700039/ }} ）
先月発表された論文によると、気候変動のせいで、高温と乾燥が進み、異常気象が増え、森林火災の危険性が著しく高まっているという。世界中の植物が生える地域の4分の1超において、森林火災の発生シーズンは過去40年間で20%延びた。
例えば、米カリフォルニア州は、2018年に史上最悪の森林火災に見舞われた。乾燥した地中海性生態系を持つ他の場所、ギリシャやポルトガルなどでも、記録的な森林火災が相次いだ。（参考記事： {{ 「カリフォルニアの山火事はなぜ激しくなっている？」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/19/102800621/ }} ）
熱帯雨林もダメージを受けている。最近の衛星データを見ると、アマゾンの森林破壊がここ11年で最悪のペースで進んでいる。破壊された森の多くでは、土地を開拓するために意図的に火が放たれている。（参考記事： {{ 「アマゾン森林火災、実態は「伐採規制前への逆行」」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/19/090200509/ }} ）
北方林やツンドラでさえ、森林火災は発生している。2019年には、アラスカとシベリアの広大な地域が炎に包まれた。（参考記事： {{ 「北極は数十年で4℃上昇、温暖化は加速モードに」 : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/19/120900713/ }} ）
「森林火災が発生するとは考えられていなかった場所が、今燃えています」と米ニューメキシコ州ロスアラモスにある米地質調査所フォートコリンズ科学センターで、気候変動が森林に及ぼす影響を研究する生態学者クレイグ・アレン氏は話す。
■《気温の上昇がもたらす悪循環》
世界的な変化の1つが、気温の上昇だとアレン氏は言う。気温が高くなるほど、空気中の水分はより増える。そして、環境から水分を吸収し、土壌が乾燥して、木にストレスがかかる。そのせいで生態系全体がより燃えやすくなるだけでなく、木が昆��に攻撃される可能性が高まり、枯れ木が増え、森林火災のリスクがますます高まる。
「温暖化により、燃えやすいものが増え、森林火災のシーズンが延びています」と同氏は話す。「北米西部の森林火災シーズンが、30年前より2?3カ月も長くなっているのです」
「深刻な森林火災の発生頻度も増加しています」と、生態系がかく乱にどう反応するかを研究する米コロラド州立大学のカミーユ・スティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は言う。「そうした森林火災が発生する頻度は、以前は10年に1度、あるいはもっと少ないくらいでした。ところが今では、少なくとも1年おきに大規模で深刻な森林火災が発生しています」
2019年は、オーストラリアにおける120年の観測史上、最も暑く乾燥した年になった。かつてないほどの干ばつにより、森は乾燥し、火がつきやすくなっていた。森林火災は9月に始まり、12月下旬にピークを迎え、クイーンズランド州、ニューサウスウェールズ州、ビクトリア州の広大な地域が炎に包まれた。
「焼けたところでは、今年の痕跡が何百年も残るでしょう」と西オーストラリア州パースにあるマードック大学の森林火災生態学者ジョー・フォンテーヌ氏は話す。「多くの場所で、湿った森はより乾燥した燃えやすい森になるでしょう」
≫――――――≪
同様に、北米でも森林火災の頻度と激しさが、ますます増大している。そのせいで、今優勢な植生がゆっくりと姿を消しつつあると、アレン氏は言う。
北米では、ポンデローサマツ（Pinus Ponderosa）の森で発生する火災の大部分を100年以上にわたり抑えるように管理してきた結果��樹木の密度が大幅に増加した。だが、異常気象により、森林火災を抑えることが難しくなっている。一度火がつけば非常に激しく燃え広がり、森林火災の後に次世代の種をまくのに不可欠な「マザーツリー（母なる木）」をも枯らしてしまう。
「ポンデローサマツの森は、低層にある松の葉や草を焼くような、よく起きる小さな森林火災に完全に適応しています」と同氏は話す。「しかし、炎が激しさを増し、樹冠にまで達する場合には耐えられません。成熟しきった個体として死を迎え、再生しないのです」
{{ 図版 3 : 2009年にカリフォルニア州のエンジェルス国有林バーリーフラッツで起きた大規模な森林火災「ステーションファイア」の焼け跡のうち、ポンデローサマツの苗木を植えたエリアを調べる米森林局「ステーションファイア森林再生プロジェクト」のリーダー、スティーブ・ベア氏。（PHOTOGRAPH BY ALLEN J. SCHABEN, LOS ANGELES TIMES/GETTY IMAGES） }}
ポンデローサマツの種子が、約150メートルを超えて飛ぶことはめったにない。このため、木が枯れると、大きな隙間が残る。北米西部の山岳林の一部では、「トウヒ、モミ、マツなどの針葉樹林から、草や低木が大部分を占める地帯へと、大きく姿を変えつつあります」とアレン氏は話す。
■《積み重なるかく乱》
森林が火災から完全に回復できていないところでは、その生態系に依存する動物種が、ますます多くの試練に直面することになる。問題の1つは、森林火災に苦しんでいる種が、干ばつ、熱波、害虫のまん延など、他の気候関連の影響によるストレスをすでに受けている場合が多いことだ。こうしたかく乱の積み重ねが回復をさらに悪化させるかどうかは、「決定的かつ極めて重要な質問」だと、フォンテーヌ氏は言う。
同氏のチームは、西オーストラリア州に生息する火に耐性のある低木、Banksia hookerianaを研究している。その種子は松ぼっくり状のものに入っており、なんと森林火災の後にのみ開くという。だが、気候変動により、1980年代に比べて種子の数が50%も減少したことがわかった。
「このような数字を見ると、頬を叩かれたような気になります。気候変動が机上の空論ではなく、現実のものだと実感します」とフォンテーヌ氏は話す。
この傾向は、ニシアメリカフクロウ（Strix occidentalis）やカナダオオヤマネコ（Lynx canadensis）など、北米の原生林を好む多くの動物にとって悪いニュースだと、スティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は言う。オーストラリアの現在の森林火災により、約50種の絶滅危惧種の生息地が、80%以上もこれまでに焼けてしまった。カンガルー島に固有の肉食有袋類Sminthopsis aitkeniや、火に弱いハーブTrachymene scapigeraなど、一部の種はすべての生息域で壊滅的な被害を受けた。
こうした個々の動植物が地域から消えると、様々な種の間で起こる重要な相互作用も失われる可能性がある。生態系全体の機能や森林火災からの回復に、予期せぬ影響が出るかもしれない。
≫――――――≪
ポルトガルでは、森林火災の後、野花が大量に咲き、元に戻ったかのように見えた。だが、2019年に発表された論文によると、授粉に不可欠なガが、森林火災が起きていない地域に比べ、わずか5分の1の花粉しか運んでおらず、再生は前途多難であることがわかった。
しかしながら、森林火災が増えると、すべての種が減るわけではない。北米では、100年以上森林火災を抑え続けた結果、セグロミユビゲラ（Picoides arcticus）が減少してしまった。彼らは、焼けた木に紛れるような保護色をしているのだ。ところが、森林火災が増えた現在、個体数は回復しつつあると、スティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は言う。
オーストラリアでは、オオトカゲ、一部の猛禽類、外来のネコやキツネなど、多くの捕食者が、獲物を求めて森林火災の跡を積極的に探している。遮るもののない地で露わになった生存者を狩るためだ。
森林火災に見舞われた地で繁栄する他の動物には、ナガヒラタタマムシ属の甲虫が含まれる。焼けたばかりの木に卵を産み、幼虫はその木で育つ。もっと一般的な種のなかにも、森林火災の後で利益を得るものがいると、スティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は付け加える。
「森が開け、低木や草が豊富にあるとなれば、シカは回復するはずです」
■《「これは大きな挑戦です」》
森林火災は規模と激しさを増し、ますます頻発するようになりつつある。だが、状況にまったく希望がないわけではないと、専門家は口をそろえる。自然災害がより頻発する世界では、より野心的かつクリエイティブに、冒険心を持って保全に取り組む必要があると、ウォナースキー氏は言う。
「これは大きな挑戦です。すべてのことに短期的な解決策があるわけではないのです」
例えば、森林火災後の種まきは、北米ではよく行われるが、オーストラリアではめったに行われない。ヘリコプターからセイタカユーカリの種をまくことが、将来検討されるかもしれないと、リンデンマイヤー氏は言う。より急進的なアイデアとしては、火に耐性のある外来種の植林が挙げられる。また、土地を管理することも、解決策の1つだ。
「フィンランドには、素晴らしいことわざがあります。『火は良き僕だが、悪しき主にもなる』です」とスティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は語る。つまり、人が火を道具として有効に利用できるのは、火を制御下に置いている時だけだ。
オーストラリアの先住民アボリジニは、何万年もの間、頻繁に小規模な野焼きを行うことで、枯れ草や落ち葉などの燃えやすいものを減らし、大規模な森林火災を効果的に防いできた。現在、こうした伝統的な野焼きへの回帰を呼びかける声が高まりつつある。
「米国で発生した森林火災の98%は抑え込まれます。つまり、大規模な森林火災に発展し、ニュースになるのは、たったの2%だけなのです」とスティーブンス＝ルーマン氏は話す。「しかし、この98%を有効に利用して、燃えやすいものをあらかじめ焼いてしまい、森をモザイク状にすれば、大規模かつ猛烈な森林火災を阻止できる可能性があります」
それでも、気候変動は待ったなしで進行中であり、干ばつや熱波、その他の森林火災の原因の増加は避けられそうにない。今から数十年後、2019年は普通の年だった、あるいは比較的涼しく雨の多い年だったとさえ言われるようになるかもしれないと、アレン氏は語る。
「あっという間に忍び寄ってきた、本当に不吉な未来です」と、ウォナースキー氏は付け加える。「私たちの愛すべき生態系の多くが変貌し始めているのを、目の当たりにしています。我々にとっては悲劇ですが、我々の子孫にとっては悲劇では済まされません」
{{ 図版 4 : ギャラリー：オーストラリア森林火災で深刻な被害を被る動物たち 13点
IUCNのレッドリストで「近絶滅種（critically endangered）」に指定されているブーラミスは、わずか2000~3000匹しか野生に残されていない。ビクトリア州北部やニューサウスウェールズ州南部のいくつかの山にのみ生息する。完全に高山の生息地で生活するオーストラリアで唯一の哺乳類だが、その生息地の多くは森林火災で燃えてしまった。森林火災を生き延びたものは、食糧不足に直面し、木々が焼け落ちた地で効率よく狩りをする野生化したネコやキツネの餌食となっている。（参考記事：「絶滅寸前の有袋類、化石の地への移住で保護へ、豪」）（PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK） : https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/gallery/020300815/index.html?P=11 }}
文＝JOHN PICKRELL／訳＝牧野建志
0 notes
Quote
Although Yutyrannus was still just a fifth the weight of T. rex, its discovery certainly increased the chance that T. rex might also have feathers, as Tom Holtz, a University of Maryland palaeontologist, told National Geographic. And even with a fluffy covering of down it would have been just as scary, he added: 'Underneath the fluff, it's still the same gigantic crushing teeth and powerful jaws and softball-sized eyes staring at you ... [feathers] might make it a little more amusing, but only until the point right before it tears you to shreds.'
from Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, by John Pickrell
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
