In the Heights

2008 Performance 62nd Tony Awards

Cute Little Frogs! (Do They Croak? WILL They Croak?)

One of the species of miniaturised frog found in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Photo: Luiz Fernando Ribeiro, CC BY SA

Seven new species of frogs have been discovered in the cloud forests of Brazil. Good for them for hiding there!

Here's part of the fascinating information about these frogs: The largest one is about 13mm long, even as an adult. They can be this small because they have evolved with fewer fingers and toes. This miniaturization also means they can emerge from their eggs as full adults, not going through the tadpole stage; and they can survive away from water (as long as they can soak water from damp ground through their skin).

How long will these little guys survive now?

“The really big concern is climate change because the cloud forest depends on the delicate balance between the water that comes form the ocean and the topography. If there’s some sort of warming it’s possible that that sort of really humid forest will disappear and with that all the endemic species, not only our frogs but other types of organisms,” said Marcio Pie, a professor at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, who led the group that discovered the frogs.

But they have a better chance of surviving a fungus that is killing off many frog species around the world. More than 200 frog species of frog have declined or gone extinct because of the fungus. Pie said the frogs may be protected from chytrid by their ability to survive away from the water sources where the fungus is often found.

John Adams Rap Cut from Final Version

Here are some of the "Hamilton" cast members performing a John Adams number that was eventually cut from the musical:

Climate Warming Slow-down?

Not on your life! A story has been making the rounds of the anti-science community, i.e., people who can't face the facts about global climate change, that the warming trend has plateaued, or slowed down, over the last 15 years.

I just found this article in The Australian, the first I've heard of this argument. I'll look into it some more and let you know what I figure out about it.

Meanwhile, it appears that a new study making the claim about the slowdown, appears to have been “a highly speculative and slight paper that produces a statistically marginal result by cherry-picking time intervals, resulting in a global temperature graph at odds with those produced by the UK Met Office and NASA”.

At least that's what David Whitehouse, of the a Global Warming Policy Foundation, said about it. I'll see what else I can learn.

Meanwhile, I'm reminded yet again of how important it is for science to remain pure, that is, for scientists to use data to test their theories and refine them as necessary, not to change the data to fit what they already think they know!

Fiction Friday: June 5, 2015: Tony Hillerman

I'm not beginning with a specific one of Tony Hillerman's many titles because I haven't found one yet that I didn't like.

I'm writing about Hillerman today because at my wonderful local public library the other day I picked up his fourth novel, "People of Darkness," thinking I would just scan a few pages and then put it back on the shelf.

But I kept reading until it was time to leave, checked it out, took it home, and kept reading until I was done. That's how good these books are.

In "People of Darkness," a rich woman asks Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police to investigate the theft of a memento from her husband's study. She tells a lot of lies, and then her husband tells a lot more lies, and then another cop tells Chee to back off.

Problem is, even if he wanted to, he can't. He's drawn into the mystery of the memento, a box full of mysterious black rocks and some World War II ribbons.

So he has to find out why a man who is already dying of cancer is assassinated and his body stolen from the hospital; who the assassin is and what his connection is with other crimes; what really happened years ago in an oil-drilling accident; and the true identity of the rich man with the box of black rocks.

Like all of Hillerman's novels, this book is not only brilliantly plotted with complex and believable characters, but it also delves into the history and customs of the Navajo and some of the Pueblo tribes.

This would be an ideal beach book, meaning you can read it fast and furiously, but with the added advantage of feeling you haven't wasted your time. (Get it used for as little as 30 cents at Amazon or maybe you'll be lucky like I was and find it at your local library.)

(You can read more about Hillerman and find lists of his many books here. And here is Amazon's list of his books.)

Witnesses of the Golden Plates

(I originally posted this on my Aunt Louise blog. I'm posting it here as well for my Madame L readers.) 

Thanks to Daniel C. Peterson for this column, published in the Deseret News on Thurs., May 21, 2015. The title is"Defending the Faith: Did Book of Mormon witnesses simply see the golden plates with their 'spiritual eyes'?" He provides a link to a column on the same topic, which he wrote a few years ago, which is also worth reading. 

He points out that if you're criticizing the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's story about how he received the Golden Plates, you have to "neutralize" the testimonies of the three witnesses and the eight witnesses.

Anti-Mormons have tried all kinds of ways to do this: Claim that the 11 men were unreliable, insane, irresponsible, and/or unworthy; claim that they later denied their original testimonies published in the Book of Mormon; claim that they were somehow deceived or hallucinated the experience; and even claim that what they witnessed was only "spiritual." 

The Eight Witnesses, by Dale Kilbourn

The first two arguments have been debunked by LDS historian Richard Lloyd Anderson. Peterson writes that, thanks to Anderson's work:

"... we know a great deal about them and about the six decades, both when they were dedicated followers of Joseph Smith and after they had been alienated from him and his church for many years, during which they testified to the Book of Mormon. For a very long time, those seeking to discredit their testimony accused them of insanity, or of having conspired to commit fraud. In the light of Anderson's work, however, neither accusation can be sustained. They were plainly sane, honest, reputable men."

The witnesses themselves strongly denounced that third claim (that they were deceived or were hallucinating) during their lifetimes. Again, the following quotes are from Peterson's article: 

"Several of the 11 official witnesses were obviously confronted during their lifetimes with accusations that they had merely hallucinated, and they repeatedly rejected such proposed explanations.

"In fact, David Whitmer, one of the initial Three Witnesses, could easily have been addressing today’s skeptics when he declared 'I was not under any hallucination, nor was I deceived! I saw with these eyes and I heard with these ears! I know whereof I speak!'”

Peterson tells of an 1878 interview with John Whitmer by Wilhelm Poulson. Here are the questions and answers:

“I — Did you handle the plates with your hands? He — I did so!
"I — Then they were a material substance? He — Yes, as material as anything can be.
"I — They were heavy to lift? He — Yes, and you know gold is a heavy metal, they were very heavy.
"I — How big were the leaves? He — So far as I can recollect, 8 by 6 or 7 inches.
"I — Were the leaves thick? He — Yes, just so thick, that characters could be engraven on both sides.
"I — How were the leaves joined together? He — In three rings, each one in the shape of a D with the straight line towards the centre. ...
"I — Did you see them covered with a cloth? He — No. He handed them uncovered into our hands, and we turned the leaves sufficient to satisfy us.”

William Smith, who knew the Eight Witnesses well — his father and two of his brothers were among them — explained “they not only saw with their eyes but handled with their hands the said record.” Daniel Tyler heard Samuel Smith testify that “He knew his brother Joseph had the plates, for the prophet had shown them to him, and he had handled them and seen the engravings thereon.”

Peterson concludes, "Those who seek to dismiss the testimony of the Eight Witnesses must, on the whole, flatly brush aside what they actually, and very forcefully, said."

Hip-Hop Commencement Address

Lin-Manuel Miranda gave this year's commencement address at Wesleyan. Remember my posts about his musical "Hamilton"? (If you've forgotten them, they are this interview with Chris Hayes about the musical and the process of writing a musical; and this montage of scenes from the musical from its off-Broadway production.)

Here is the commencement address, with a few more bits from the musical:

(And sorry about all that introductory stuff, though it's interesting in its own way.)