Dr Zeuss' 'Who-ville'

The Economist magazine ran a story this week on a group of islands called Socotra off the coast of Yemen. Dr. Zeuss might have been inspired by this place.

The Sucotran archipelago is on the right side of the above map

The beaches and sea around these islands are filled with giant lobsters, turtles, and dolphins. Because these islands are whipped throughout the year by gale force winds, the beaches have dunes of white sand that rise hundreds of metres high.   

White dunes surround this very odd place

Beyond the beaches and cliffs, the islands comprise limestone plateaus cut by gorges of rushing streams, and spiked by granite towers rising to 1500 metres.   About 50,000 natives live here, subsisting off mostly fish and goat.  They speak four dialects of a 'sing-song' language intelligible only to the people of these islands, and they live in caves often cut into the granite towers.  They follow an ancient Socotran calendar based on 13 months.

'Dragon's Blood' tree

The people live among 700 species of flora and fauna found only on these islands.  A species of tree called 'dragon's blood' can grow up to 15m in height and can live up to 500 years.  It oozes red sap and looks like a 'cross between a steroidal mushroom and a monster broccoli'. A breed of wild cat wanders about the limestone terraces, and a species of cows stand only a couple of feet high.  

'Bottle' tree

 One day I'd like to visit this place.  Perhaps while there I'll meet 'Yertle the Turtle', or 'Bartholemew Cubbins'.  

Women in power

Two years ago at our college, all but one person on 'President's Council', the group that wields the most power, were male.  Due to retirement, just about every one of these positions has changed hands, and presently, only one of the males remain.  This might represent a growing trend across our society.


I see it.  I look out at my classes of thirty students, and all but three or four of them are male.  While anthropology is rarely the choice of these students for a profession later on in life, it is through anthropology and other social sciences and humanities that students will become lawyers, architects, politicians, judges, psychologists, professors, and a host of other professions that carry influence and nurture our cultural heritage.  While I don't have empirical data in front of me, it seems at any rate that just about all of this cultural heritage and responsibility seems to be changing hands from males to females in this generation.


How important is the passing from one gender to the other the reins of power and influence?  In 1989, Chairman Mao was asked to assess the influence of the French Revolution at its bicentenary: he replied that it was too early to tell.  It could be the same for the issue of females in our culture gaining positions of power and influence: we simply cannot properly assess its importance at this point.


However, there is a very good chance that it could be as critical as some of the most important developments in western civilization spanning roughly three millennia.  Because I am feeling rather rash and irresponsible, as well as deliriously happy at finishing the marking for this term, I am going to throw a Mao-like discretion to the wind.


I think that the move away from patriarchy in our society is as important as any of the following things:  the setting aside of pagan gods and the embracing of Christianity in about the 4th C AD; the embarkation of European hoodlums and fanatics eastwards into the Middle East in the Crusades, and later westwards towards a 'discovery' of a New World; the re-discovery of the ancient texts during what we now refer to as the Renaissance; the breaking away from Scholasticism in the 18th C into a new world of unfettered enlightenment; a new method in science that has allowed us to answer efficiently age old questions at a dizzying pace; the setting aside of Newton in favour of a relative approach to physical things; the science of the mind and all those other cool ideas developed first by Freud and Jung;  the exploration and analysis of space, and the realization that we are simply on an insignificant rock in a vast universe. 


It is fun and exciting to think of our culture on the brink of a Brave New World, this time run by females.  Perhaps my daughter will be Empress.

Revisiting Sport's Leap Year

Earlier this year I posted a piece on Sport's Leap Year. 

So far, so good.  I was really happy that the Saints won the Super Bowl, even though I appreciate the genius of Peyton Manning. 

Canada Men's Hockey, Gold Medal Triumph

Now in an Olympic's aftermath, the only thing for me that really went beyond stamp collecting of medals for many sports that I have never tried nor ever seen in real life, was hockey.  The Canadian men and women's teams won gold in hockey, and because of this, the Olympics were a stupendous success.

As expected, the Sedins have been brilliant in these play-offs

The Canucks have found success early in the play-offs, defeating the red-hot LA Kings in 6 games to advance to the second round of the play-offs.  They will now meet Chicago Black Hawks, their nemesis of last season.  Last year, the Canucks came within a couple of minutes from going up 3-1 in the series against Chicago, but the young, speedy, and skilfull Hawks prevailed and won the series 4-2.  This year, the Canucks seem to relish playing the Hawks again, perhaps for the sweet taste of redemption, or perhaps because revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Arsenal still has a wonderfully talented core group of players

Arsenal - brilliant, meteoric, beautiful - crashed out of the FA Cup, Champions League, and are now mathematically eliminated from winning the League Cup.  Oi vay.  The good thing is that they have locked up third place, and so have guaranteed entry into Europe next year for Champion's League play.

Lionel Messi: the best player of our time

Tomorrow I will sit back and watch Barcelona's smooth-as-silk style of play triumph over Bayern Munich and then the winner of Lyon/Inter for the Champions League title. For those of you who do not know, this Barcelona team might be the best soccer team ever assembled.  Even if you do not particularly like the sport, try to catch a glimpse: it is simply a joyous celebration of the beauty of sport.  Lionel Messi might be a god.

Hotel room in the Crystal Hotel, Aqaba, Jordan

The World Cup of soccer is still coming up.  I and Kira will be in the Middle East, and apart from the odd game on weekends, will suffer an almost total eclipse of this most important sporting tournament.  My hope is that on those precious weekends, my daughter, some of my friends, and I will gather around a hotel tv for a game: we will watch beautiful soccer, eat nuts, and drink more Amstel than we really ought to.   And then we will watch another game.

Mark, Mark, Mark... life as a hair-lipped dog

I have just marked the last final exam, and this term is finally over. 

I have been marking constantly for the past 2 months.  First were rough drafts of the first essays in Liberal Studies, then final drafts.  Next came midterms in first and second year anthropology.  Then came the essay outlines and then essays for first and second year Anthro.  This was followed by rough and final drafts of Liberal Studies essays, and then final exams for the Anthro classes.  Not a day has gone by in the last two months that I have not sat down and marked something, be it an exam or an essay.  Today, I marked my last final exam, posted the marks, and now look forward to Spring session beginning next Monday as we prepare to go on a dig to Jordan for a month.

All of this marking takes its toll.  I find that after a session of analyzing, interpreting, judging, and then finally giving a grade, I tend to think differently.  Aidan's job of cleaning the kitchen after dinner is about a C+, Kira fed the fish at an A level, Denise's desk sits at a C- and only with hard work and diligence can she bring it up to a B level.  American Idol is on tonight, and Simon is a wonderful salve to Ellen's happy ignorance and Randy's eternal optimism.  I like House because he too tends to grade everything in his world.  Because Arsenal blew their last 3 games, rendering them out of contention for the Premiership title, they have gone from an A to a B- on the year. 

After so much grading fatigue, at this time of the year I usually seek out tasks that limit the amount or scope for assessment.  I need to start running again, meditating, taking long, luxurious baths, reading fun and exciting novels, riding my bicycle.  After a few weeks I will stop grading life so much.

I give this post a 'B'.

The Canucks will break my heart

Sigh

I know it.  It happens every year.  Everyone I know who enjoys hockey and supports the Vancouver Canucks in the play-offs, inevitably spends time in mourning this time of year. 

And this is odd, because they tend to do so well in the regular season.  They have won their division two of the last three years, and over the last decade have had an impressive win-loss record. Every play-off season, we all hope that this year is going to be different, and the Canucks will figure out how to win when they are behind.  Last year they bowed out to a brilliant Chicago Black Hawks in the second round. That they lost three out of the four games having had a three goal cushion was like a kick in the gut.

This year they are playing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.  The Kings' line-up is comprised of young, fast, strong, committed players that had a wonderful regular season.  The Kings are now up 2-1 in a best of seven series that might just go seven games.  The two teams are very close.

There are many variables in hockey.  The play-offs are long and gruelling, and the eventual Stanley Cup winners will have played at least 16 games, and possibly 28 games to win it.  It is a contact sport that is played at a dizzyingly fast pace.  Inevitably there will be injuries to key players, and the good teams are those with enough depth at every position to see them through.

However, since their entrance into the NHL in 1971, the Canucks have made it to the finals only twice, in 1982 and 1994, and lost both times.  A Stanley Cup is a good idea, nothing more.  Given their 39 year track record of mediocrity, there is one thing we can count on: the Canucks will break peoples' hearts.

The Treme

I began watching 'The Treme' on HBO because my friend Mike, a New Orleanian, wondered whether it would make him cry (see his post).

I can't decide whether I like this mini-series. The plot line follows several characters and how they are dealing with a post-Katrina New Orleans.  Some of these characters are compelling: the Big Chief of the Black Indian Mardi Gras is willing to commit murder to preserve what he has.  Janette runs a restaurant that is doing very well but nevertheless is in dire danger of going bust. 

However, some of the characters are simply annoying.  Creighton Burnette (John Goodman) is loud and abrasive and perfectly predictable.  He lashes out at the world constantly, and by his third scene in the second episode, I was searching for the remote to skip to the next scene: this character is altogether too wooden, too predictably angry, too stock.  Davis McLary is a DJ and hotel concierge (I think), and is fired from both jobs because, among other things, he cannot control his earnest and burning desire to reveal the 'true' New Orleans to everyone.  I find his character more and more tedious. 

At the same time, I find it interesting that there is so little link between the characters and their very separate plot lines.  It could be that they will all be woven together later on in the series.  However, for now, it is as if they are all individual tesserae in a large mosaic with many pieces missing.  In a way, I suppose, this is fitting, because it stands as metaphor for a city that had suffered such a huge natural (I hear Creighton yelling 'Man Made!') disaster. 

So far, and in terms of character and plot line, The Treme does not come even close to other HBO miniseries like 'Deadwood', 'Six Feet Under', 'Rome', or 'Carnivale'.  However, I'll hang in there for a few more episodes and allow the series to gestate.  If for nothing else, I'll continue watching for the wonderful music, be it in a strip club, a recording session with Elvis Costello, a funeral, or a street parade (Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump!).

'Selling the play' in sport

Skill-testing question: Which one is most likely a legitimate injury? (Answer: boot to face.)

During the Olympics, one of the aerial competition commentators, a former olympic competitor herself, answered the question as to why every competitor jumps for joy after a jump. She said that there is always a chance that the judges might be swayed by the reaction of an athlete to his or her own performance. In effect, the competitor is compelled to 'sell' the jump to the judges.

Lydia Lassila celebrates convincingly after a jump

We also see this tendency creeping more and more into other sports. The World Cup of soccer is marred every tournament by players rolling around on the pitch holding their knees or ankles, and then miraculously jumping up and running perfectly if the referee is not buying. 

It is even happening at the youth level. This last weekend, Aidan's soccer team played a tournament in the competitive pool for his age group in Victoria. His team played two games on Saturday, and two games on Sunday. We saw the 'selling of the play' a few times in the tournament, and on three occasions our team got burned.

In the third game in particular, Jason, one of our midfielders, had a wide open net off a deflection at very close range. He hit the ball, and the opponent's keeper dove backwards and caught the ball that was clearly over the goal line. However, his players praised him loudly for his save, and he immediately stood up and threw the ball to an open player. He and his team had 'sold' the save very well. At the same time, our players did not celebrate the goal at all, and instead waited for the ref's call. The call never came, and play proceeded.

Later on in the game, the opponent's right back, a bruiser of a 13-year-old, cracked a 40m shot at our goal-keeper. It was a very good shot that threatened to duck just under the cross-bar. However, our keeper got enough of it to bounce it off the underside of the cross-bar, so that the ball came down directly onto the goal line and then into the keeper's hands. After the game, several spectators watching along the goal line told us that all of the ball did not go in. (The rule is that the ball must be completely over the line for it to be counted a goal.).  Nevertheless, the other team went nuts, high-fiving, shouting, jumping for joy, and ran back immediately to their half for the kick-off. Our team again waited for the ref's decision, and even though he was 50m from the goal and could not possibly have seen the ball go over the line, acquiesced to the screaming and celebrating opponents. We lost the game 2-1. Perhaps if we had tried to 'sell' our goals, or defense against goals, we may have won 2-1.

In the second half of the fourth game, the ref blew her whistle to stop play because she thought that one of our boys had committed a hand-ball foul in our 18 yard box. Fully a second after the whistle had blown, one of the opponents' players struck the ball into our goal. Again, the opponents screamed and shouted and ran back to centre for the kick-off. The referee counted the goal.

This was the most egregious act of 'selling' the play all weekend. Once a whistle is blown, play must stop. If a player strikes a ball after the whistle, particularly when very close to an opponent's keeper, the player sometimes receives a yellow card for dangerous play and unsportsmanship. At the very least, the ref, having blown her whistle, should have disallowed the goal, and allowed the other team to kick a penalty shot at our keeper, who had saved an earlier penalty kick in the tournament. Instead, unbelievably, she decided to allow the goal.

While typing this post, I have been jumping up and down maniacally to convince you of my position.  I hope I have sold it well, and that you are buying.