The Real Amazons: Ancient Scythian Warrior Women

Ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron, c. 470 BC, British Museum, London.

National Geographic interviews Adrienne Mayor, author of the new book The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World.

Mayor claims that the Greek legends of the Amazons are based on their contact with Scythian warrior women, whose existence has been confirmed by modern archaeology. The Scythians had both male and female warriors, unlike the legendary Amazons, who were a tribe in which only the women fought.

In the above ancient Greek alabastron, an Amazon is depicted wearing the trousers and patterned cloth characteristic of the ancient Scythian people.

Chomsky on Kennedy

Noam Chomsky offers an unflattering portrait of John F. Kennedy, highlighting the aggressive military actions and lack of commitment to civil rights which characterized Kennedy's presidency, and discussing the cult of his memory which has grown up since his assassination.

Links

1. Amazing Bowling Green artist Dennis Wojtkiewicz.

2. Alchemy Goods: "upcycing" bags etc. from used bicycle tires.

3. Kenyan Reality TV: advice for farmers, served up with politeness.

4. Drinking coffee lowers suicide risk. And here is a summary of recent research on the health benefits of coffee.

5. David Sloan Wilson on how evolution can reform economics. And here is a page with articles from a special issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization on this topic.

6. Who's who in the history of Western mysticism.

7. 16-year old pitching sensation Tomohiro Anraku, and the culture of Japanese baseball: "Only more throwing will allow Anraku to perfect his mechanics, and only perfect mechanics will prevent injury."

8.  Why singular "they" is grammatically correct.

9. Two book reviews for the price of one: on occultism during the Enlightenment. 

10. A summary of the evidence on supplemental vitamins and health: vitamins do not improve health, and seem to increase the risk of some cancers. This article also contains a profile of the role of Nobel-prize winner Linus Pauling's shameful role in spreading misinformation about the alleged benefits of vitamin supplements.

11. On German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's reimagining of the Nietzschean Uebermensch: the Superman as supreme self-trainer, with Jesus and Socrates (Nietzsche's blood enemies) as prime exemplars.

12. Elizabeth Anderson on the relevance of 17th century Levellers and 19th century abolitionists to contemporary debates about equality; e.g., “An Arrow against all Tyrants, shot from the prison of Newgate into the prerogative bowels of the arbitrary House of Lords and all other usurpers and tyrants whatsoever” (1646).

13. Discovery of a 3,000 year old palace reignites debate about the historical nature of the kingdom of Israel.

14. David Lynch was so traumatized by the song "It's a Small World" that he insists on referring to it as "Flappy" rather than its true name.

Links

1. Interview with Clive James on his ill health, estranged marriage, and recent translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (conceived in part as an amatory missive to his estranged wife, a Dante scholar).

2. Copyright makes books and music disappear.

3. Understanding evil: interviewing Japanese war criminals.

Neoliberal Links

1. Financial Times "Lunch with the FT" interview with philosopher Michael Sandel. 

2. Bruce Bartlett's critical assessment of Margaret Thatcher (she didn't significantly lower taxes and spending).

3. "Cognitive Biases and the Trouble with Moral Local Shopping." 

Links

1. Times Literary Supplement review of David Foster Wallace's posthumously published The Pale King.

2. Onion AV Club interview with writer Neal Pollack. (What it means to be a writer today.)

3. Five Books interview with atheist Susan Jacoby.

4. Decline of the German bookseller business.

5. Tyler Cowen on the egalitarian, cosmopolitan, and civil libertarian core of economics.

As usual, hat tips to The Browser, Marginal Revolution, and Arts & Letters Daily.

Ruth J. Simmons on Leadership

An interview in The New York Times with Ruth J. Simmons, president of Brown University, is full of insights about leadership and working with others:

I worked for someone who did not support me. And it was a very painful experience, and in many ways a defining experience for me. So having a bad supervisor really probably started me thinking about what I would want to be as a supervisor. That led me to think about the psychology of the people I worked with. And, in some ways, because I had exhibited behavior that was not the most positive in the workplace myself, it gave me a mirror to what I might do that might be similarly undermining of others. So I think at that juncture that’s really when I started being much more successful.

Recommended.

Links

1. The recession hits Irish gangs.

2. Google to re-brand Blogger and Picasa.

3. Interview with Gary Klein on the role of intuition in expert decision-making.