The Newark Earthworks in Newark and Heath, Ohio, consist of three sections of preserved earthworks:  the Great Circle Earthworks, the Octagon Earthworks, and the Wright Earthworks.  This complex, built by the Hopewell culture between 100 CE and 500 CE, contains the largest earthen enclosures in the world, and was about 3,000 acres in total extent.  Less than 10 percent of the total site has been preserved since European-American settlement; this area contains a total of 206 acres (83 ha).  It is operated as a state park by the Ohio History Connection.  A designated National Historic Landmark, in 2006 the Newark Earthworks was also designated as the "official prehistoric monument of the State of Ohio."  Read much more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Earthworks



5 Ways to Eat Chard Stems by Emily Han  Young and tender chard stems require little extra thought, but when the stalks turn thick, and perhaps stringy, it’s usually best to trim them from the leaves.  That doesn’t mean you should toss them in the compost or garbage bin, though.  Treat them as another vegetable and you have an ingredient for pickles, gratins, and more.  https://www.thekitchn.com/5-ways-to-eat-chard-stems-177885



Swiss chard actually goes by the name "spinach" in South Africa.  It's relatively easy to grow in most parts of the United States, and it's easy to wind up with more than you can easily eat.  Fortunately, it's easy to blanch and freeze both stems and leaves to enjoy later in the year.  Blanch (boil) Swiss chard stalks for two minutes and the leaves for one minute.  Place them in the ice water immediately after blanching to stop the cooking process.  Colleen Vanderlinden  https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-preserve-swiss-chard-3972330



The Actual Size of Greenland by Rob Lammle   In 1973, Arno Peters, a German filmmaker and journalist, called a press conference to denounce the widely accepted map of the world known as the "Mercator Map".  Peters' position was that the Mercator Projection—a cylindrical projection first developed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator—was not only inaccurate, but downright racist.  Peters pointed out that the Mercator map has a distortion in the northern hemisphere, making North American and Eurasian countries appear much larger than they actually are.  For example, Greenland and Africa are shown as roughly the same size, although in reality Africa is about fourteen times larger.  In contrast, the regions along the equator—Africa, India, and South America, to name a few—appear smaller, especially when seen next to the distorted northern half of the map.  Of course Peters had a suggestion on how to fix this problem—his own map.  Cartographers agreed that the Mercator map was outdated, inaccurate, and wasn't the best way to represent the world's landmasses.  They'd been calling for the use of a new projection since the 1940s.  One of the reasons experts wanted to move away from the Mercator was because of the distortion.  However, they also understood that it was distorted for good reason.  The Mercator map was intended as a navigational tool for European mariners, who could draw a straight line from Point A to Point B and find their bearings with little trouble.  Because it was made for European navigators, it was actually helpful to show Europe larger than it really was.  It wasn't a political statement, but a decision made purely for ease-of-use.  However, the biggest insult to cartographers was the Peters projection itself.  It was essentially the same map devised in 1855 by a cartographer named James Gall.  Many have recognized this similarity and now you'll often see Peters' map called "The Gall-Peters Projection."  https://mentalfloss.com/article/57050/actual-size-greenland



When J. P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation, in 1901, it marked not only his signature deal but the apogee of banker power in America.  The negotiations would feature Morgan in his most famously histrionic mode:  knocking heads together, barking out prices for properties, and forcing titans to truckle to his will.  In the end he fused together a trust that controlled 60 percent of the steel industry and employed 168,000 workers.  This colossus encompassed everything from Andrew Carnegie’s massive steelworks to John D. Rockefeller’s iron ore and shipping interests in Minnesota.  As the deal’s impresario, Morgan forever altered the balance of power between American industrialists and New York’s financiers.  Relations between the two camps had been cool ever since the industrial boom that followed the Civil War.  Many manufacturers were plain. self-made men who had no use for Wall Street pashas and inherited wealth.  Fierce individualists, they were determined to shield their firms from intrusive bankers who knew little about the grimy realities of smokestack America.  Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan detested nothing more than competition.  He berated Carnegie as someone who would “demoralize” the industry with price cuts rather than do the smart, gentlemanly thing:  join a cartel.  While instructing his corporate wards to prepare for war with Carnegie in crude steel and finished products, he preferred an alliance that would eliminate competition altogether.  So he was hypnotized by a speech he heard on December 12, 1900, when Charles Schwab, Carnegie’s right-hand man, addressed eighty financiers at the University Club in Manhattan.  In sonorous phrases Schwab conjured up a vision of a supertrust that would make everything from raw steel to finished products.  Morgan sat there so bewitched that he forgot to light his trademark cigar.  The linchpin of the new trust was to be Carnegie Steel.  After consulting with Morgan in the storied “black library” of his Madison Avenue home, Schwab sounded out Carnegie, who was golfing at the St. Andrews Golf Club in Westchester County.  Carnegie pondered the matter overnight, then handed Schwab a slip of paper the next morning with an asking price of $480 million scrawled across it.  The instant Morgan set eyes on it, he exclaimed, “I accept this price.”  The corporate ideal is now transparency, not opacity.  Companies publish glossy annual reports, issue reams of information, and deluge stock analysts with reports on company developments.  Chief executives monitor the share prices of their companies as prophecies of their future tenure and ignore the stock market at their peril.  This state of affairs was unwittingly set in motion by J. P. Morgan, who never imagined when he formed U.S. Steel in 1901 that he and his fellow bankers would someday cede control of their foremost clients to tens of millions of small, obscure investors.  Ron Chernow  Read more at https://www.americanheritage.com/deal-century



Thorny Problems in Tennessee by Eric Seeger  The pile of invasive rosebush cuttings sits about waist-high and 5 feet long.  This morning, I’ve learned the trick is to hold the branches tight as I haul them away; otherwise, the mass pulls apart as thorns snag on the ground and other trees.  So I lean over what will be my 10th pile of the day and give it a bear hug, knowing that my work jacket and leather gloves will stop most of the thorns.  I keep my face clear of loose branches and curse—long, hyphenated strings of curse words—under my breath as I carry nature’s barbed wire to the side of the road.  I volunteered for this assignment.  The workday at The Nature Conservancy’s bog preserve near the small community of Shady Valley, in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, was arranged by Gabby Lynch, TNC’s director of land protection in Tennessee.  About 15 volunteers from state and federal land-management agencies, local conservation groups and even the Zoo Knoxville are here, helping remove invasive multiflora rose. From the road, the bog looks like a mile-wide overgrown pasture.  But between us and that wild expanse stands a barricade of 8-foot-tall tangles of this stupid, merciless, vile rosebush.  For fun, Lynch leads us single file into the bog to find wild cranberries.  They are reddish white, floating on the surface of the shallow water.  “Can we eat them?” someone asks.  Lynch says yes.  They crunch like tart little apples.  https://www.nature.org/en-us/explore/magazine/magazine-articles/restoring-tennessee-bogs/



Life imitated art October 8, 2019 when “The Big Bang Theory”—the American TV sitcom, not the scientific explanation for how the universe began—entered the annals of Nobel Prize history.  The announcement of the winners of this year’s Nobel in physics began with a nod to an unlikely cultural reference:  the opening lyrics to the show’s theme song.  “The Big Bang Theory” had its finale in May 2019.  In the episode, two of the main characters, Sheldon and Amy, win the physics prize.  “Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state, then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started,” academy member Ulf Danielsson said, quoting “The Big Bang” theme at the presentation in Stockholm.  A Canadian-American scientist and two Swiss scientists won the physics prize for their work in understanding how the universe has evolved from the Big Bang and the blockbuster discovery of a planet outside our solar system.  Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said the TV show was a “fantastic achievement” that brought the “world of science to laptops and living rooms around the world.”  Referencing its theme song therefore seemed fitting, he said.

https://www.apnews.com/c14bf683c2294c4083e1eea09dcc0313



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2166  October 9, 2019