• • • aural noise • • •
• • • some of the things I read in antisocial isolation • • •
India’s Sati Stones Commemorate a Macabre Historical Practice
Their challenging legacy has complicated preservation and study.
An old sati stone visible in Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING, AROUND 8:30 a.m., Munaivar Muneeswaran, 37, head of the department of history at Saraswathy Narayanan College in Madurai in southern India, gathered his friends. They packed meals and essentials, and then set off on weekend-long archaeological expeditions.
These jaunts began in 2002, when he chanced upon an ancient signpost near his home in the village of Kavasakkotai. The sign mentioned a village called Velambur, but it didn’t appear on any map. Ever since, he says, he’s been obsessed with finding the spot where the mysterious village could have been. He decided to comb a radius of 12 miles around his home, reasoning that the village wasn’t likely to be far from the signpost. For many years, Muneeswaran and his friends came up empty.
In mid-July 2020, in a village called Chatrapatti, not far from his home, he stumbled on the remains of a defunct post office that carried the name Velambur on a dusty sign. Inside, he found old rubber stamps with the name, too. So he began to search for a statue, an edifice, anything that could possibly confirm that this was the village he had sought for nearly two decades. But in a seemingly abandoned part of the agricultural area, he made a completely unrelated discovery.
Munaivar Muneeswaran with two of the sati stones he found. The intricacy of the carvings suggest a royal lineage.
“People were worshipping in the vicinity, but we couldn’t see an idol or temple,” he says. “Why were they praying here? What significance did the spot have?” Thinking that it could be the key to finding the old village, he recruited locals to search through an area covered in brambles. They hacked away at the wild overgrowth, and in an hour they had uncovered three stones, estimated to be at least 400 years old. Roughly 3.5 by 2.5 feet each, with one slightly smaller than the others. Muneeswaran knew that he had found sati stones, memorials erected to honor the widows of men killed in battle—widows who, by way of both grief and tradition, had immolated themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyres. …
Sorry to Burst Your Quarantine Bubble
Pod means something different to everyone, and that’s a problem.
Americans’ social lifelines are beginning to fray. As the temperature drops and the gray twilight arrives earlier each day, comfortably mingling outside during the pandemic is getting more difficult across much of the country. For many people, it’s already impossible.
To combat the loneliness of winter, some of us might be tempted to turn to pods, otherwise known as bubbles. The basic idea is that people who don’t live together can still spend time together indoors, as long as their pod stays small and exclusive. And pods aren’t just for the winter: Since March, parents have formed child-care bubbles. Third graders have been assigned to learning pods. Some NBA teams were in a bubble for months. A July survey of 1,000 Americans found that 47 percent said they were in a bubble.
In theory, a bubble is meant to limit the spread of the coronavirus by trapping it in small groups of people and preventing it from jumping out. “The goal here with an infectious agent like SARS-CoV-2 is that you want to try and not give it hosts,” Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me. “That’s the name of the game.” Earlier this year, researchers modeled the best ways to flatten the curve by limiting social interactions and found that having people interact with only the same few contacts over and over again was the most effective approach.
But the details of how exactly to go about podding can be hard to pin down. The answers to some basic questions—how many people should be in a bubble? what’s okay for the members of a pod to do together?—are still unclear. For example, Beth McGraw, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State, suggests including 10 or fewer people who live in just a handful of households, but she and all of the experts I spoke with for this story emphasized that there’s no magic number that makes a group safe or unsafe.
Bubbles might sound great—you can have your friends and your safety too!—but they don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to. Some pods are enormous. Some are open to an untold number of people’s germs through contacts of contacts (of contacts of contacts of contacts). “I think there’s leakage in a lot of people’s pods,” Whitney Robinson, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, told me. Last week, a New York Times columnist examined the ties in his bubble and found that he was connected to more than 100 people—and that’s just whom he was able to trace. …
The mystery of the Gatwick drone
A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky?
A drone flying near an airport runway, perhaps not this one. Embiggenable.
Soon after 9pm on Wednesday 19 December 2018, an airport security officer who had just finished his shift at Gatwick airport was standing at a bus stop on site, waiting to go home, when he saw something strange. He immediately called the Gatwick control centre and reported what he had seen: two drones. One was hovering above a vehicle inside the airport complex, and the other was flying alongside the nearby perimeter fence. The message was relayed to senior management. Unauthorised drone activity is considered a danger to aircraft and passengers because of the risk of collision. Within minutes, Gatwick’s only runway had been closed and all flights were suspended.
Over the next half hour, 20 police and airport security vehicles drove around the airport, lights flashing and sirens blaring, with the intention of scaring whoever was operating the drones. It didn’t work. By 9.30pm, six more sightings had been logged by the Gatwick control centre, five of them from police officers. Inside the airport, thousands of passengers waited to set off on their Christmas holidays. In the sky above, planes circled, waiting to land. Some were at the end of long journeys, and more than a dozen aircraft were soon dangerously low on fuel.
About an hour after the first sighting, Eddie Mitchell, a news photographer, was on his way to the airport to cover the shutdown when he remembered that he had two drones in his car. Fearing that he might come under suspicion, he rang the police: “I said: ‘I’m heading to Gatwick, please don’t think it’s me!’” Mitchell is licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fly drones commercially, sometimes in his capacity as a cameraman, sometimes for official bodies such as the fire brigade. But he had good reason to be cautious. Four years earlier, in December 2014, he was trying to get aerial footage of a fire close to Gatwick when police arrested him. His drone was confiscated and he was held for five hours. (He later won compensation for wrongful arrest.)
By midnight, 58 flights had been diverted or cancelled. But there hadn’t been any drone sightings for an hour, and Gatwick tried to reopen the runway. And then, suddenly, the drones reappeared. “We had the feeling that it was going to last all night,” I was told by a former Gatwick employee who did not want to give her name. She was right: into the next day, every time staff prepared to reopen the runway, more sightings were reported. Staff and police speculated that the drone operator had gained access to the flight radar system, or was somehow listening into police or airport communications. …
The Time Killer Whales Teamed Up With Whale Killers
Disregarding a bunch of hairless monkeys with AK-47s, the title of most dangerous animal has to go to the killer whale, or orca. These quick and clever killers are perhaps the most naturally gifted hunters in the animal kingdom, able to flush out seals, flip the script on great whites sharks, and even to run the old bait-and-switch on their most cunning opponent, the seagull.
They’re so talented, killer whales have even achieved the advanced artistic level of being total sellouts. In a rare instance of mutualistic “game recognize game,” killer whales have been known to ally themselves with whalers, their unnatural enemies. This happened in the early 20th century in Eden, a coastal town in the south of Australia. There, for decades, the whaling Davidson family and the bay’s local orca pod did nothing but give each other the side-eye as they competed in hunting down the big prize: massive, tasty, oil-and-blubber-filled baleen whales.
That was until the station started to hire indigenous Australians — many of whom believe in a spiritual bond with killer whales. From that point on, the orcas entered into an unspoken arrangement with the humans: They would stab the baleen whales in the back by herding them to the shore where the whalers could then harpoon them in the front. This unusual contract was referred to (by the humans) as the Law of the Tongue: the whalers would get all the precious baleen bones and blubber while the lip-smacking orcas would get to feast on the meaty lips and tongues. It was an offer the Davidsons couldn’t refuse.
The main snitch of the orca outfit was a male named Old Tom. When his pod managed to drive a baleen nearby, Old Tom would swim to the whaling station where he’d flop and splash and make a SeaWorld spectacle of himself to signal the Davidsons to get the harpoons ready. And this wasn’t the only mercenary service the orcas provided. According to the whalers, these black and white turncoats would also escort their small whaling boats, driving off sharks to make sure their tiny human allies could put whale meat back on the menu. …
RELATED: Citizens Of Arizona Might Finally Get To Own Nunchucks
The Arizona Legislature has passed a bill which would remove nunchucks from the list of weapons banned in the state. That means a whole new generation of Arizonans who have grown up without the joys of nunchucks in their lives will finally get the chance to accidentally hit themselves in the groin and face at the same time. It seems pretty dumb that nunchucks have been on the same ban list as sawed-off shotguns and silencers, but it makes even less sense when you hear the reason for it.
Apparently, when martial arts movies, particularly Bruce Lee movies, ruled the box office in the 1970s, terrified legislators across the country assumed that Lee’s deadliness with nunchucks would translate to criminals beating their victims with them (as opposed to literally any other object that doesn’t have such a high learning curve). So a handful of states outright banned the ninja sticks, including Arizona and even New York for a while. This means that not only is the mere existence of Michelangelo the ninja turtle a slap in the face of the natural laws of man, but he was also flagrantly disregarding New York state law. Huh, weird to think there was once a time in this country when movies could get a weapon banned, but now multiple school shootings every year somehow don’t. …
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Governor Ducey signed the bill. It’s now legal to clobber yourself in the head with nunchucks in Arizona.
RELATED: It’s Now Legal To Own Nunchucks In New York
Surprisingly, nunchucks have been a banned weapon in the pizza-eating capital of the world for nearly half a century. But after a recent constitutional ruling, New York has finally come to its senses and once again allowed party dudes to wield their weapon of choice — a freedom that unfortunately was born from a worrisome change in state laws.
In 1974, at the height of the kung fu movie craze, New York decided to ban ownership of the lethal “nunchaku stick,” or nunchucks. Like the ban on knuckle dusters, this was to lessen the lethality of the many youth gangs of New York who had decided to come out and play. But even when New York cleaned up its act up after the ’70s, the state decided to keep the ban in effect, as it continuously failed the state’s basic test of not being a weapon dangerous to idiot owners and the people standing next to idiot owners.
But in 2003, ponytailed men across the state found a champion in James Maloney, lawyer by day, martial enthusiast by night (and also day). In 2000, Maloney was arrested for possession of nunchucks. This led him on a legal crusade across several courts to be allowed to keep nunchucks in the safety and privacy of his own home, so that he could teach his kids the nunchaku martial art of his own invention. Finally, in 2018, District Judge Pamela K. Chen handed Maloney his long-awaited victory. Then she went one step further, declaring the entire law unconstitutional, as it infringes on American nunchaku wielders’ right to bear arms. And feet. And whatever other parts of their body they tell Tinder dates are registered as dangerous weapons.
This should be cause of celebration. While nunchucks as a means of self-defense are considered unpredictably dangerous by many, a blanket ban of them in an entire state seems pointless, if not downright hypocritical. Maniacs can’t massacre an entire school with nunchucks, unless the entire school agrees to only fight back one person at a time. So with the almost simultaneous relaxing of laws regarding nunchaku and the federal ban on bump stocks, America seems to be heading to the more rational side of weapon control. Unfortunately, the only reason Malory was victorious now is that things have actually gotten worse. …
Reckoning with slavery: What a revolt’s archives tell us about who owns the past
Statue of the Berbice slave revolt leader Kofi in Georgetown, Guyana. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
The consequences of 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade are still felt today. Untangling the power structures and systemic racism that came with slavery is ongoing, with police brutality, memorials to slave owners and reparations forming part of the discussion.
But as the United Nations marks Dec. 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, a practice it notes “is not a merely a historic relic,” modern society also has to reckon with another question: Who has access to the records about slavery’s past?
I was struck by this question recently as I gave a Zoom talk in Guyana on my new book Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast about a slave rebellion in Berbice, now Guyana, that took place in 1763-1764.
During the revolt, former slaves organized a government and controlled most of the colony for almost a year. The Dutch either fled altogether or holed up on a well-fortified sugar plantation near the coast. A regiment of European soldiers sent from neighboring Suriname mutinied and joined the rebels they had come to defeat. But obligated by treaties, indigenous peoples such as Carib and Arawak fought on the side of the Dutch. The revolt ended when the rebels, out of food and arms, were overpowered by enemies who had received an infusion of men and supplies from the Dutch Republic.
1742 map of Berbice River with plantations. Embiggenable. Explore at home.
The uprising, unusual among Atlantic slave rebellions for its length, size and near success, is barely known outside Guyana. But even African-descended Guyanese, it turns out, know less than they would like. Almost 13,000 people, intrigued by new information about a foundational chapter in their history, had tuned in to watch my presentation on Facebook and Zoom. …
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
Trump creates a citizenship test that even he can’t pass, expands the ways the federal government can execute you, and possibly encourages Israel to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
Stephen Colbert’s sit-down interview with President Barack Obama was so epic, so action-packed, that it couldn’t fit into just one episode. Join Stephen as he introduces part two of his chat with the author of the best-selling book “A Promised Land” and stick around for this entire episode as President Obama touches on the challenges facing President-elect Biden, reflects on military actions taken during his tenure in office, and shares his secrets for staying grounded in trying times.
THANKS to CBS and A Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
You can view much of the conversation with President Barack Oboma on Youtube.
Now that Trump is in his late seventies, it’s time for him to find out that election fraud isn’t real. But don’t tell Rudy Giuliani! Watch the full segment on CBS All Access.
Inside The Hill breaks down Trump’s voter fraud conspiracy theories, Biden’s cabinet picks, and Senate candidate Kelly Loeffler’s campaign ad with guest Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA). Watch the full segment on CBS All Access.
だいぶ打ち解けたまるとみりですが、はなはまだ警戒中。Maru&Miri’s distance has shrunk. But Hana is still vigilant.
FINALLY . . .
Mystery metal monolith vanishes from Utah desert
Metal structure that prompted multiple theories about how it came to be was removed by ‘an unknown party’, officials say.
US officials said that the metal monolith, that was first spotted in the Utah desert on 18 November, has been removed.
The tall, shiny, metal structure, now famously known as a “monolith” was discovered in Utah last week, and had prompted multiple theories about how it had come to be there ranging from TV show set leftover, to artwork, to aliens.
But now, almost as mysteriously as it appeared, it has been removed by what local officials called “an unknown party”.
“[We] did not remove the structure which is considered private property,” a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson said in a statement. “The structure has received international and national attention and we received reports that a person or group removed it on the evening of 27 Nov”.
The bureau added it would “not investigate crimes involving private property” as they are “handled by the local sheriff’s office”.
The Utah department of public safety, whose helicopter crew first discovered the installation on 18 November during a count of bighorn sheep, initially declined to reveal the structure’s location.
A number of thrill-seeking visitors, however, had since found it located just east off Canyonlands national park. By the time adventurers Riccardo Marino and Sierra Van Meter went to the spot late Friday night to get some photos, it was no longer there. …
Has anyone seen My monolith?
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) November 30, 2020
FINALLY . . . FINALLY . . .
Another mysterious monolith has been discovered in Romania
It looks quite similar to the one found in Utah.
After this monolith was discovered (before disappearing) in Utah, another was apparently spotted in Romania.
In case you thought the story of the mysterious metallic monolith couldn’t get any weirder, just remember it’s 2020 and anything’s possible. After the surprising discovery and subsequent disappearance of a monolith in the middle of the Utah desert earlier this month, it seems a similar object has been found in Romania.
A structure that appears to be identical to the one in the Utah desert was found on Batca Doamnei Hill in Romania on Nov. 26, according to The Mirror. As was the case with the monolith found in Utah, it’s not clear where this one came from and who installed it.
There’s a lot of unknown around the discoveries of these strange objects. When Utah’s Department of Public Safety first found the 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque monolith, people wondered whether it had been the work of aliens, or perhaps artwork by sculptor John McCracken, who died in 2011. We still don’t know all the answers, or who ultimately removed the Utah structure, but some Reddit users speculate the monolith could have been a leftover Westworld prop or a McCracken piece.
In a statement last week, officials from the Bureau of Land Management in Utah said the monolith was gone, but they don’t know who took it.
“We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the ‘monolith’ has been removed from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands by an unknown party,” the statement said. “The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff’s office.” …
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Likely, if I find nothing more barely uninteresting at all to do.
ONE MORE THING:
Barack Obama said WHAT?!? pic.twitter.com/rw8Y7g6aiH
— ClickHole (@ClickHole) November 30, 2020
The Trump Presidential Library will be a deleted Twitter account.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) November 7, 2020
