Sunday Morning Musings -- Probably Nothing About The Bakken

If you came here for the Bakken, scroll down. I updated the Oakdale oil field yesterday. That was a fun one.

Some years ago I stumbled across the etymology of "beyond the pale." I believe I was in northern England at the time, doing a lot of reading when I came across the origin of the phrase.

I was reminded of that when I came across the origin of the phrase, "Ivory Tower." I found it in Andrew Hodges' biography of Alan Turing. All these years I never thought of looking up "Ivory Tower" at wiki, and now I'm glad I didn't. It is so much more fun to stumble across some of these things in the old-fashioned way.

But there is some good stuff on the internet. I may have to add "Ice Age Now" to my "featured blogs" over at the sidebar at the right. A recent essay on "global warming" was about as good as it gets. I'm also impressed with the comments: they seem to be written by folks who have a measurable IQ, and can think for themselves.

The linked essay begins:

Recently, three researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, had a study published that claimed that a “substantial” correlation between violence and climate change could be made.

They cited sixty studies from around the world that, according to a BBC World Service article, demonstrated that “even small changes in temperature or rainfall correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes, and murders, as well as group conflicts and war.”

Apparently they missed the data on World War II’s Battle of the Bulge or the siege of Stalingrad, both of which were fought in freezing weather. Earlier, Napoleon ran into a similar problem when he wanted to conquer Russia.

And so it goes.