The Riddle of Baghdad's Battery 1808
Jodrell writes "The BBC has an interesting article about a 2,200 year old battery discovered in Iraq in 1938. It is basically a clay pot containing a copper/iron core immersed in an electrolye solution (probably acidic vinegar). The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war."
Re:Priorities (Score:0, Informative)
Re:Our lack of history preservation is apalling (Score:2, Informative)
It wasn't Al Queada - it was the Tailban.
The Taliban supported/allowed (seperate discussion) Al Queada activity in Afganistan, but they're not the same thing.
Re:Priorities (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Our lack of history preservation is apalling (Score:1, Informative)
To quote one article:
"The Indian Government and the international community have expressed concern over Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban regime's decision to destroy all Buddhist statues, describing it as an absolute outrage."
Perhaps you weren't watching/reading any good news channels/articles at the time?
Re:Not the "same civilization" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not the "same civilization" (Score:5, Informative)
The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war.
They say specifically that the artifacts are in danger from the war, not the civilization. Nowhere do they imply that the civilization that created them is the same culture that inhabits Iraq now.
Re:Religion kills Science (Score:2, Informative)
there is christians and muslims living together in Iraq! hell even Iraqi's prime minister (Tarek Aziz) is christian..
Iraq is not Saudi Arabia!
Re:Our lack of history preservation is apalling (Score:4, Informative)
You mean when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhist monuments? Where was the outrage? Actually I think you'll find it here [guardian.co.uk], here [bbc.co.uk] and here [sawaal.com] or are many other hundreds of places.
Re:Religious Ideology of the Time? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, in a roundabout way, you are on the right track. One of the tenets of Orientalism is that Oriental cultures by definition are degenerate and in decline. Occidental cultures are, in contrast, always progressive, especially after the 14th Century CE. Occidental cultures are all European countries and their descendant cultures that are ruled by people who have European origins -- a notable exception being Slavs. So, the point is because this supposed technology rose from an Oriental culture it is either the product of interaction with ascendant Occidental culture or an anamoly. In either case, it must be erased. See Richard Perle and Wolfowitz for the contemporary personification of academics who think this way. It's called "the colonizer's model of the world."
Re:battery??? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Riddle Of My Plumbing Battery (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Informative)
Are you talking about the chemical weapons given to saddam by the US from 1985 to 1989 and which included among other things Antrax and Botulinum ?
Some would say that they hate being targets of weapons funded by Iraq... you would hear this from the Israelis.
You mean weapons funded by the US government. [bowlingforcolumbine.com]
Re:9 volt battery on the tongue (Score:3, Informative)
Just because you aren't powering a Walkman with it, doesn't make the device not a battery. It doesn't have to have x amount of charge to be a battery. If it allows chemical energy to be converted to electrical energy, there's your battery.
Re:Priorities (Score:2, Informative)
Er, you mean these weapons [nukewatch.org] used in this way [yale.edu] or this way [rmiembassyus.org] and these wars [informationwar.org]? Or maybe you mean these new WMD [guardian.co.uk]?
Oh wait, that's alot more dead than a million and WAY more wars started than 11. I guess you mean Iraq. No, the FUD about them doesn't worry me nearly as much as gigatons of nuclear power in the hands of respectable sociopaths.
By the way, landmines and small arms are the real genocidal weapons at this point. Who makes them? And didn't S.Hussein purchase chemical agents made in Rochester NY?
Later: more on depleted uranium, deaths from sanctions, unexploded cluster bombs, and the emplacement of military bases as part of the new world order. Not to mention the way that creating committed terrorist enemies by invading other countries --> fear at home --> greater governmental control.
Things get broken. It's either toddlers or politics.
Re:Bad Priorities (Score:5, Informative)
Will they happen by selling Harpoon missiles and anthrax bacteria to Saddam Hussein, like Rumsfeld did when he was Reagan's special envoy to the middle east?
Re:It's all about oil... TO FRANCE!!!! (Score:2, Informative)
Great, but what about the others? (Score:4, Informative)
And while you're at it, tell me why Sadam needs to be off the country, if not for US control of oil. US don't need oil from Iraq, they get most of theirs from Venezuela and Kuwait (you didn't believe the USA helped kuwait out of good will back in '91, do you?). It's not about getting oil, it's about CONTROLLING oil.
Re:The Riddle Of My Plumbing Battery (Score:4, Informative)
The pillar you are referring to is in Delhi and its mystery has apparently been solved [expressindia.com]
Apparently the metal had a high hydrogen content and formed a coating of "misawite" .
Besides, The Garden of Eden was in Iran. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No! (Score:4, Informative)
OK, please correct me if I'm mistaken, because I was fairly young when the Kosovo thing occurred, but it seems to me that atrocities were being commited at the very time we entered Kosovo. Our motives were fairly pure in that we as a country weren't "getting" anything out of liberating the people there--we were honestly just trying to help.
As I understand it, Sadamm has committed endless atrocities, but the very worst ones were committed in the past. Why are we only going in now? So that we can get cheap oil? Because Bush holds a grudge against this guy ("he tried to kill my dad")? Because we can't find Osama and so need an easy scapegoat to bring down in his stead?
If I honestly believed that the only (or even primary) reason we were going to Iraq was to make life better for the Iraqi people, then I think I wouldn't be as hard on Bush as I have been.
And look at Afghanistan. All these months after our liberation there and have we really done that much good? Warlords are still running amock; the only place they don't have any real power is Kabul. Are we really interested in helping the oppressed of the world or are we just so blindingly scared of terrorism that we're willing to lash out at the first country the President looks at funny?
Re:Priorities (Score:2, Informative)
After Arabs captured Jerusalem from the romans in 638, they restored the wailing wall to the Jews of Jerusalem.
And incidentally, until the past century, the Arab lands were the safest place in the world for the jewish people, who were terribly mistreated by other societies.
Re:Not the "same civilization" (Score:2, Informative)
"Native" means born in a place.
"Indigenous" or "Aboriginal" means from a culture that originated in that place.
I (German-Ukranian) am "native" to America, since I was born there. I am not, however, aboriginal, which means I can't run casinos in many places, and that I sound particularly dorky talking about spirit guides, dream quests, and the like.
Resume flaming.
-SablKnight
Re:Not the "same civilization" (Score:2, Informative)
Sumerians are attributed with inventing many of these firsts (writing, wheel etc). They pretty much came from nowehere and disappeared, Babylon arose after the era of Sumer.
Re:No! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:This really is troll food, but whatever... (Score:3, Informative)