Thursday Reads
Posted: September 14, 2017 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: archaeology, Chuck Schumer, DACA, Department of Justice, Devin Nunes, Donald Trump, Dreamers, ESPN, James Comey, Louise Linton, Michael Flynn, Michael Flynn Jr., Nancy Pelosi, Russia investigation, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Steven Mnuchin, Susan Rice, the wall, unmasking, Vikings 41 CommentsGood Afternoon!!
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer had dinner with Trump last night and some kind of “deal” was worked out, but no one can figure out what it was. Trump has been sending conflicting tweets about it and saying confusing things about it in Florida this morning.
The Washington Post: Trump, top A Democrats agree to work on deal to save ‘dreamers’ from deportation.
Democratic leaders announced late Wednesday that they agreed with President Trump to pursue a legislative deal that would protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation and enact border security measures that don’t include building a physical wall.
The president discussed options during a dinner at the White House with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that also included talks on tax reform, infrastructure and trade. Trump has showed signs of shifting strategy to cross the aisle and work with Democrats in the wake of the high-profile failures by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
We’re working on a plan for DACA,” Trump said as he left the White House on Thursday for a trip to survey hurricane damage in Florida.
Trump said that he and Congress are “fairly close” to a deal and that Republican leaders Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are “very much on board” with a deal that would address DACA. The agreement must include “massive border security,” Trump said in response to shouted questions about whether he had reached a deal on the terms Schumer and Pelosi had described.
“The wall will come later” [link to Axios added] he said, apparently confirming a central element of the Democrats’ account.
There was instant backlash from Trump’s Cro-Magnon supporters, and the White House quickly tried to walk back whatever Trump agreed to when his handlers weren’t around.
Earlier Thursday, amid backlash from conservative supporters, Trump had sought Thursday to reach out to his GOP base with messages claiming his agenda would remain intact on signature issues such as the border wall.
In a series of tweets, Trump wrote that “no deal” was made on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era program that has allowed 690,000 dreamers to work and go to school without fear of deportation. He further wrote that agreements on “massive border security” would have to accompany any new DACA provisions, and insisted that “the WALL will continue to be built.”
I guess we’ll find out what’s going on eventually. It would certainly be a good thing if Congress can get its act together and do something to keep the Dreamers in the U.S.
Manu Raju of CNN had a great scoop last night that makes Devin Nunes look like even more of an idiot than ever before: Exclusive: Rice told House investigators why she unmasked senior Trump officials.
Former national security adviser Susan Rice privately told House investigators that she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year, multiple sources told CNN.
The New York meeting preceded a separate effort by the UAE to facilitate a back-channel communication between Russia and the incoming Trump White House.
The crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, arrived in New York last December in the transition period before Trump was sworn into office for a meeting with several top Trump officials, including Michael Flynn, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his top strategist Steve Bannon, sources said.
The Obama administration felt misled by the United Arab Emirates, which had failed to mention that Zayed was coming to the United States even though it’s customary for foreign dignitaries to notify the US government about their travels, according to several sources familiar with the matter. Rice, who served as then-President Obama’s national security adviser in his second term, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that she requested the names of the Americans mentioned in the classified report be revealed internally, a practice officials in both parties say is common.
Rice’s previously undisclosed revelation in a classified setting shines new light on a practice that had come under sharp criticism from the committee chairman, California Rep. Devin Nunes, and President Donald Trump, who previously accused Rice of committing a crime.Ja
Once again, Trump people were caught trying to communicate secretly with Putin, because of course foreign visitors are routinely monitored by the intelligence community.
In other Russia news, Michael Flynn’s son is now a subject in the investigation. NBC News reports:
Michael G. Flynn, the son of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, is a subject of the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, according to four current and former government officials.
The inquiry into Flynn is focused at least in part on his work with his father’s lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, three of the officials said. It’s unclear when the focus on Flynn began.
Barry Coburn, who said he is serving as the younger Flynn’s legal counsel, said he couldn’t comment on the matter.
Flynn’s status as a subject of the Russia investigation widens the publicly known scope of the probe. NBC News has reported that those under investigation have included the elder Flynn and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Others under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller include Carter Page, a Trump campaign ally; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser; and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/908041751134425091
Yesterday White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that James Comey committed a crime when he leaked his personal memos about interactions with Trump to The New York Times, and called on the Justice Department to investigate him. She also called on ESPN to fire a reporter who tweeted that Trump is a white supremacist. In any other White House, Sanders herself would be fired by now. The White House is not supposed to get involved in decisions by the DOJ and the White House calling for the firing of a journalist for dissing POTUS is wildly inappropriate.
From Politico, a response to the recent attacks on Comey by the Trump crowd: The Hapless Smear Campaign Against Jim Comey.
From the moment Steve Bannon stated in his 60 Minutes interview that President Donald Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey was the biggest political mistake in modern presidential history, there simply was no chance that this week would proceed without a fair amount of political insanity. The fact that the president’s former chief strategist would publicly and brazenly disparage that decision was bound to result in a fierce White House pushback. And so it has. But over the past three days, the White House has repeatedly advanced flawed and in some instances preposterous legal arguments that don’t stand up to informed scrutiny.
The hijinks began on Monday, when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that information divulged after Comey was fired served as retroactive justification for the president’s decision. She alleged, among other things, that Comey had given “false testimony” and leaked “privileged information to journalists.” On Tuesday, Sanders did not repeat the “false testimony” claim, but she did reiterate the assertion that Comey had “leaked privileged government information” and speculated that his actions “could have been illegal.”
In Wednesday’s news briefing, reading from what appeared to be prepared notes, Sanders explained what she meant by “illegal”:
“The memos that Comey leaked were created on an FBI computer while he was the director,” she said. “He claims they were private property, but they clearly followed the protocol of an official FBI document, leaking FBI memos on a sensitive case regardless of classification violates federal laws including the Privacy Act, standard FBI employment agreement and nondisclosure agreement all personnel must sign.”
These talking points were presumably provided to Sanders by the White House Counsel’s Office, but as a litigator with considerable experience representing government officials and contractors (including whistleblowers) of all ideological persuasions, trust me: They are nonsense.
Click on the link to read the explanation.
Have you heard the latest outrage from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his trophy wife Louise Linton? The Washington Post reports: ‘The moochin’ Mnuchins’: Treasury secretary again is fodder for rich humor.
Just based on a quick Google search, the August exchange between Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and a critic of Linton’s fashion-bragging, mean-girl Instagram post seemed to be fading, along with memories of the eclipse, which the couple was lucky enough to have observed at Fort Knox.
But it all came rushing back when ABC News reported Wednesday evening that the Treasury Department had in fact requested a government jet for Mnuchin’s European honeymoon in Scotland, France and Italy. If the request had been granted, the plane would have cost the taxpayers roughly $25,000 per hour to operate.
A Treasury Department spokesman said in a statement that the request was made so that Mnuchin, who is a member of the National Security Council, would have access to secure communications as he traveled abroad.
Remember Linton’s attack on the woman who criticized her Instagram post after the Mnuchins used a government plane to fly to Fort Knox so they could watch the solar eclipse from the rooftop?
As the news rushed across social media, so did the memory of the Instagram episode, with one line in particular standing out among the now-regretted post by Linton:
“Adorable! Do you think the U.S. govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol.”
Now for a change of pace, I thought you might like this archaeology story. The AP via The Toronto Sun: Well-preserved Viking sword found in Norwegian mountains.
COPENHAGEN — A Norwegian archaeologist says a well-preserved, if rusty, iron sword dating to the Viking erahas been found in southern Norway.
Lars Holger Piloe says the nearly one-metre-long sword was found slid down between rocks with the blade sticking out, and may have been left by a person who got lost in a blizzard and died on the mountain from exposure.
Piloe said Thursday the sword, dating from about 850-950 A.D., was found in Lesja, some 275 kilometres north of Oslo.
Piloe said the sword’s preservation was likely due to the quality of the iron, as well as the cold, dry conditions. It was found in late August by two men who were on a reindeer hunt some 1,640 metres above sea level.
What else is happening? What stories are you following today?
Wednesday Reads: Blame it on the moon…
Posted: March 7, 2012 Filed under: 2012 primaries, abortion rights, birth control, China, Great Britain, Iran, morning reads, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, Rush Limbaugh, Russia, science, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: moon, Norse Astronomy, Titanic, Vikings 51 Comments
Good Morning
After taking a few days break from everything, including blogging, I am happy to say that things are getting back to normal. Fortunately the hospital my OB/GYN is affiliated with is not a Catholic run hospital, otherwise my total hysterectomy would need to be scheduled some place else. Pourquoi? Well, those Catholic hospitals would not perform a hysterectomy on a 41-year-old woman…cause she still has some breeding years left in her. Damn, it sounds like I’m some sort of farm animal, but it is the truth.
So as I count down my days to achieving the ultimate joy and happiness, lets review a few news items that I found interesting and wanted to share with you.
I do wonder about one thing, if taking birth control pills to help with my god awful periods and ovarian cyst makes me a slut, than what will I be without those “womanly” organs?
Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, since the slime that is Rush Limbaugh has already disrespected me and so many other women by asking what the hell is wrong with white over-educated women…Rush Limbaugh Seriously Loses His Shit, Randomly Attacks Another Young Woman
It seems that after several days of mounting public pressure, Rush Limbaugh has finally cracked. How else could you explain his attempt to move beyond this whole “hating on young women” debacle by continuing to attack young women? Today’s victim? Author Tracie McMillan, who represents another one of those awful “overeducated” young unmarried women Rush so emphatically resents.
McMillan’s crime, apparently, was being a young unmarried woman who went to college and wrote a book about the way people in America eat. She took a year to work at places like Wal-Mart and Applebees in order to get a better understanding about the American food industry. Of McMillan’s attempt to educate people when clearly men like Rush Limbaugh know best, the giant pair of flapping gums said,
What is it with all of these young single white women, overeducated – doesn’t mean intelligent. For example, Tracie McMillan, the author of this book, seems to be just out of college and already she has been showered with awards, including the 2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Social justice journalism. This woman who wrote the book on food inequality, food justice, got an award for social justice journalism.
McMillan doesn’t have a degree beyond her BA. She told Forbes that she wasn’t informed in advance that her book would be discussed on Limbaugh’s radio program. “My grandmother would be thrilled, because she’s a fan of his,” she said.
Oh, good for her! Let’s see what granny thinks of Rush after he berates her little grand-daughter.
So far the number is 35 advertisers had dropped Rush, and two radio stations will no longer air his show. Progress Reports – ThinkProgress That link will take you to the latest news on the boycott. Also check out StopRush.org.
The latest big company to head for the hills was Capital One.
In all my excitement about my surgery and Rush loosing all those sponsors, I forgot all about Super Tuesday. Boston Boomer had a live blog going: Live Blog: Super Tuesday Results « Sky Dancing If you missed the show, give that post a read through.
Here are the headlines this morning:
No Super Tuesday Knockout Punch – NYTimes.com
Romney Bags Ohio Prize, Wins More Than Half Of Super Tuesday Contests | Fox News
On Super Tuesday, Romney Ekes Past Santorum in Ohio – WSJ.com
After Ohio Primary, Kucinich Loses Seat in Congress – NYTimes.com
Since I was away from the blog for a couple of days, I just wanted to post a few links to stories that bothered me…maybe they bothered you too.
Romney to 11-year-old: Iran will get nuke if Obama re-elected | The Raw Story
Say what? Why the hell does the man have to go around scaring kids about nuclear war. Hey, I grew up in the age of the nukes with fears of the US and Russia going at it. It is not an easy thing to deal with.
Santorum: Single Moms Are “Breeding More Criminals” | Mother Jones
Geez, WTF about this statement…talk about livestock, does anything come out of this asshole’s mouth that isn’t about women, gays, sex and procreation?
It Doesn’t Matter if “Both Sides Do It” A good response to the Kristen Powers piece I wrote about on Sunday.
Winning the Battle, Losing the War Scott Lemieux looks at Virginia’s abortion legislation:
Although the new abortion legislation being signed in Virginia lets women opt-out of a transvaginal ultrasound, it’s still nowhere near a victory.
Tru Dat!
When Is Abortion Merciful? this is one of a series of post about late term abortion…Posts Of The Year: It’s So Personal: A Round-Up, June 5, 2009 – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast
Many readers have asked us to compile the various late term abortion testimonials we published this week (which are only a fraction of the ones we’ve received). Here they are, in chronological order:
It’s So Personal
It’s So Personal, Ctd
The Catholic Mother
The Trauma
A Doctor’s View (reader reaction)
A Target Of Terror
The Regret
Not Knowing For Sure
When Principle Meets Reality
Serial Abortions (reader reaction)
Preparing For The Worst
An Unforgiving Family (reader reaction)
The Guilt
Holding On
The Gay Fathers
What Guilt?
Ectopic “Miscarriage”Still more to come. (And maybe a bound collection? We’re actively thinking of it, prompted by many reader requests. But this should be a useful link for now.)
If you have time take a look at some of these stories.
All this makes me ask one question: Why don’t men in favor of birth control speak up?
By the end of last week, congressional Democrats and a few moderate Republicans succeeded in requiring most employers to include contraception as part of health insurance coverage, in spite of deep opposition from the GOP majority. Across the Potomac in Virginia, Democrats and, again, a few Republican moderates were able to soften or kill GOP bills that would have put into place humiliating obstacles to abortion. These are good things.
Thousands of ordinary women across the country have been writing letters, sending e-mails, leaving phone messages, and buttonholing state and national lawmakers in support of cheaper contraceptive methods and greater access to abortion.
Though they didn’t get everything they want, many are, I suspect, thankful for the partial victories so far.
But I have to ask — where in these recent debates are the voices of ordinary men? Why aren’t we hearing publicly even now from husbands who are not ready to have children they would have to support? Or from boyfriends who do not have the means to support a child?
Why don’t we hear more from fathers who are working two jobs so that their daughters can attend college and, if they wish, start on a career unencumbered by child-raising responsibilities?
We are fortunate to have some readers with balls who are vocal about women’s rights and speak out against the war on women. Kudos to you, we appreciate it. Maybe you can let us know what is keeping other dudes from speaking out.
This next link is dealing with the countries of China, Great Britain and Russia: Rights Erode Before Women’s Eyes – NYTimes.com
Han QiOn Valentine’s Day in Beijing, women dressed in white bridal gowns smeared with red paint to protest domestic violence. The women’s posters read, left to right: “Love is no excuse for violence”; “Only Equality is Harmonious”; “Violence is not a Special Zone”; “When Violence is around you, are you still silent?”
Check out this science news link: Futurity.org – Spider silk conducts heat better than silicon
In the search for organic heat conductors, researchers have discovered spider silks transfer heat better than silicon, aluminum, and pure iron.
Hot damn! As someone who spins thread from raw fiber, this kind of stuff just blows my mind. It is just very cool to think of what amazing things nature and animals/insects can produce…
And lastly, lets all just blame the moon.
Two articles for you on that heavenly orb…Ancient Skies of Northern Europe: Stars, Constellations, and the Moon in Nordic Mythology
Our understanding of ancient astronomy in Northern Europe has been limited because no record exists of the native constellations among the Germanic tribes in ancient times. They certainly did not know of the constellations of the south have become our standard ones today. However, it would be unusual to suppose they never had any, only that the knowledge of them has not come down to us.
Fortunately, the surviving mythology of Scandinavia has left us enough clues to allow us to piece together this forgotten knowledge of the past. At the time these myths were recorded in 13th century Iceland the people no longer believed in the old religion. However, even back during the Viking Age, before the year 1000 AD, when the religion was still strong, many of the beliefs held then seem already to have been understood only in abstract terms, while the naturalistic explanations they embodied went back even further.
It is now clear that the mythology of Scandinavia as we know it arose from a fusion of traditional local gods with several other more widespread traditions. While the myths attained their present form within the Iron Age, some elements and aspects of it go back even into the Stone Age, when humans were first trying to make sense of their universe.
Click here to read this article from Timothy Stephany’s website
And…in connection with those Norse travelers exploring the northern seas in their viking ships, another ship hundreds of years later crossing the same Northern Atlantic meets with disaster.
Titanic Sunk by “Supermoon” and Celestial Alignment?
Just weeks before the Titanic shipwreck’s hundredth anniversary, scientists have a brand-new theory as to what might have helped spur modern history’s most famous maritime disaster. (See pictures of Titanic’s rediscovery in 1985.)
An ultrarare alignment of the sun, the full moon, and Earth, they say, may have set the April 14, 1912, tragedy in motion, according to a new report.
R.M.S. Titanic went down on a moonless night, but the iceberg that sank the luxury liner may have been launched in part by a full moon that occurred three and a half months earlier, scientists say.
That full moon, on January 4, 1912, may have created unusually strong tides that sent a flotilla of icebergs southward—just in time for Titanic’s maiden voyage, said astronomer Donald Olson of Texas State University-San Marcos.
Blame It on the Moon?
Even at the time, spring 1912 was considered an unusually bad season for icebergs. But figuring out why this happened has been a mystery.
Olson believes the iceberg boom was the result of a rare combination of celestial phenomena, including a “supermoon”: when the moon is full during its closest monthly approach to the Earth. (See supermoon pictures.)
During new and full moons, the sun, Earth, and the moon are arranged in a straight line, with the sun and moon intensifying each other’s gravitational pull on the planet. The result: Low tides are lower than usual, and high tides are higher—a phenomenon called a spring tide.
What’s more, on the January 4, 1912, the full moon—and therefore the spring-tide alignment—ended just six minutes before the moon made an unusually close swing by Earth.
It was the closest lunar approach, in fact, since A.D. 796, and Earth won’t see its like again until 2257. That combination of a very close moon and the celestial alignment added up to an especially strong gravitational pull on the Earth and therefore very high tides.
Give that link a click to read more on this fascinating theory. And for those who would appreciate another Sting link…here is one with the moon. Sister Moon.
It really makes you think…Santorum can just start blaming everything on the moon. I mean, if Gingrich wants to start a colony, it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Sunday Reads: Babushkas, Ruptured Pipes and Cookie Cutter Sharks
Posted: July 3, 2011 Filed under: Environment, Great Britain, just because, morning reads, Russia | Tags: Greenland, Vikings, Yellowstone 10 CommentsGood Sunday Morning, with Fourth of July coming up I wanted to post some songs that make me think of America…and just a note…they all aren’t meant to be patriotic.
First, I gotta give you the Godfather of Soul! James Brown…Living in America
This next one from John Cougar Mellencamp, Pink Houses for you and me…
One more…Billy Joel’s Allentown.
Okay, now for your morning reads.
This is something I thought only happened in the Gulf of Mexico or an Alaskan waters, but to see the black slime coating the banks of the Yellowstone river, that is just so sad. Ruptured Pipeline Spills Oil Into Yellowstone River – NYTimes.com
Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette, via Associated PressOil swirled in a flooded gravel pit in Lockwood, Mont. after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured.
An ExxonMobil pipeline running under the Yellowstone River in south central Montana ruptured late Friday, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations.
Matthew Brown/Associated Press
The banks of the Yellowstone River near Laurel were blackened by oil from the pipeline.
The pipeline burst about 10 miles west of Billings, coating parts of the Yellowstone River that run past Laurel — a town of about 6,500 people downstream from the rupture — with shiny patches of oil. Precisely how much oil leaked into the river was still unclear. But throughout the day Saturday, cleanup crews in Laurel worked to lessen the impact of the spill, laying down absorbent sheets along the banks of the river to mop up some of the escaped oil, and measuring fumes to determine the health threat.
The leaking pipe has been shut down, and only leaked for about a half an hour according to the article. What a mess…
Boston Boomer sent me this link yesterday, and it gives some insight into a new group in London that is working on getting more women in the boardroom. 30% Club aims to end male domination of business culture | Business | The Observer
Securing a seat at the top table in British business used to involve belonging to the right gentleman’s club and working on your golf handicap with the company chairman. However, at Cass Business School in London on Monday, a new organisation – the “30% Club” – will pledge to throw open the doors of the boardroom to the many talented women who have been locked out for decades.
This reminds me of the recent SCOTUS case about discrimination at Walmart.
She says that can sometimes be because women choose to opt out to pursue caring responsibilities once they have children – but, just as often, it is a rejection of the workplace culture. “It’s to do with organisational cultures that are abrasive for women: they may be very aggressive, they may be macho, there may be micro-inequities,” she says.
Women who have already made it to the top also stress the importance of mentoring promising female staff from the beginning of their careers. Debbie Klein, chief executive of communications group Engine, says: “It’s about how to develop the talent pool so you don’t lose people at the level just below the board.
“It’s about recognising their talent in the first place and saying, ‘we’re really going to nurture that’.”
Amen to that…
This next link was just plain interesting, and very strange…Attack of the Cookie Cutter Shark! | Mother Jones
Ouch. All bite and no bark.
The first ever recorded instance of a human bitten by a cookie cutter shark is described in a paper now online in early view in Pacific Science. An unfortunate human swimmer on a 47.5 kilometer/29.5 mile haul across the Alenuihaha Channel between the Hawaiian islands of Hawai‘i and Maui got nailed twice by this fearsomely ninjalike denizen of the deep, Isistiussp.If you’ve spent any time at sea outside polar waters, chances are you’ve seen the toothwork of this gnarly little predator. It leaves deep round scars on whales, dolphins, tuna, billfishes, squids, and other larger marine life.
(Two cookie cutter shark bites in a pomfret. Credit: PIRO-NOAA Observer Program via Wikimedia Commons.)As Kramer used to say: Nature, she is a mad scientist… and never more so than with the hunting technique devised by the cookie cutter shark.
Give the article a look-see, very cool.
From Minx’s Missing Link File: Babushkas Are Awesome! | Care2 Causes Anything with Babushkas in the title gets my attention.
A group of elderly women, or “babushkas,” from the village of Buranovo, 600 miles east of Moscow, is totally changing the image of the elderly woman in Russia.
This group of women, mostly in their 70s and 80s, are a musical sensation, reports NPR, charming audiences across Russia. They sing Beatles tunes and songs by iconic Russian rocker Viktor Tsoi. They fly around the country for concerts. They made it to the Russian finals of the Eurovision music contest.
You can watch the Babushkas get their groove on thanks to YouTube!
Easy Like Sunday Morning Link of the Week: Greenland Norse Knowledge of the North Atlantic Environment – Medievalists.net
Introduction: The arcing Norse expansion across the subpolar North Atlantic ocean traces an inspiring tale of a stoic struggle against the elements. The sequence of accidental discovery, then deliberate exploration and settlement, repeated in turn as Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland were colonised between 825 and 985AD. With each step further west, the difficulty of leading a contemporary Norwegian lifestyle increased. In part, the increasing hardship is linked to the increasing distance from European power, and the dwindling access to essential commodities. Contact with alien native communities is another factor, and it was decisive in obstructing long-term Norse settlements in North America. But at almost every stage, the much colder, more polar, climate in Iceland, Greenland, and eastern Canada dominated the Atlantic Norse decision-making.
Despite the rigours of the climate, the Norse constructed a society in Greenland that endured for nearly 500 years. In total, perhaps 70,000 people lived in the eastern and western settlements in southwest Greenland. Eventually, the farms were abandoned, however, sometime in the mid-to-late 1300s for the western settlement, and sometime in the mid-to-late 1400s for the eastern settlement. The reasons for the disappearance of the Norse settlers has long been debated, and uncontroversial evidence that resolves this issue has not yet been found. What is clear instead is that the Greenland Norse maintained an intimate daily relationship with the North Atlantic environment. Although they did not adopt the native Inuit strategies to survive, the Norse farmed, fished, hunted, and sailed in Greenland with confidence and skill for many generations. Their attitude is presumably reflected in the modern northern Norwegian saying “Vi står han av” (meaning “we stand tall, regardless of stormy weather”; Grete Hovelsrud, pers. comm., 2009).
There is a real cool image of a medieval map of Greenland at the link above, if you find this article interesting, give this other link a peek: Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change, Trade, and The Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands – Medievalists.net
I hope everyone has a safe day tomorrow. Be sure to post some links below, or just tell us what you are doing this long weekend…
Recent Comments