Chapter 6: Odds and ends

6.1 Hominan evolution

The figure on the right is copied from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_Homo_sapiens, where its origin is referenced as: From: Genetic Analysis of Lice Supports Direct Contact between Modern and Archaic Humans Reed DL, Smith VS, Hammond SL, Rogers AR, Clayton DH PLoS Biology Vol. 2, No. 11, e340 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020340

It shows "One current view of the temporal and geographical distribution of hominan populations. Other interpretations differ mainly in the taxonomy and geographical distribution of hominan populations."

It is shown here as further background for the discussion of time versus sequence in #3.11.More on class 4: Chronology

6.2 Peer Gynt, act V

The following is a passage from the play Peer Gynt, act V. Peer Gynt was written as a rhyming poem by the Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). It is one of the major works of Ibsen, who possessed a rare combination of insight and power of expression. Peer Gynt can probably never be translated to English without losing some of the beauty of the combination of ideas and Norwegian language that Ibsen put into it. The translation below doesn't rhyme, and is not very good English, but it is fairly close to Ibsen's way of phrasing and the rhythm in the Norwegian text.

In San Francisco, I dug for gold.
The city was teeming with traveling performers.
One could stroke the violin with his toes;
another could dance a Spanish folk dance on his knees;
and a third could, I heard, make rhymes
while in his skull a hole was drilled sideways through.
To the performers fair came also the Devil; -
to seek good fortune, like many other.
His trade was this: in a convincing manner,
to be able to squeal like a real live pig.
His personality attracted, though he was unknown.
The house was full and anticipation agog.
He stepped forth in a cloak of whirling cloth.
"man muss sich drapieren" as the German says.
But underneath the cloak, - what no-one knew, -
he had contrived how a pig to steal in.
And so the performance commenced.
The Devil pinched, and the pig intoned.
On the whole it was held as a fantasy
of swine existence, imprisoned and free; -
in closing a shriek, by the slaughterers stab, -
then the artist bowed humbly, and withdrew. -
The performance by experts was debated and judged;
the ambiance reprehended as well as acclaimed, -
some found the timber of the voice too weak;
others found the squeal of death too precocious;-
but everyone agreed: qua squeal
the performance was exceedingly overstated. -
You see, that was the Devil's reward for being dense
and not estimating his audience.

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6.3 Resources

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a great resource for getting started on many subjects, like information architecture, taxonomies, ontologies, odontology, entomology, the universe and nearly everything (at least closer to everything than any other single resource).

Wiktionary (http://www.wiktionary.org/) is a dictionary that is indispensable when looking for good labels, especially for checking out synonyms and antonyms of label candidates.

6.4 Acknowledgements

Thanks to Øystein Gran-Larsen for reference to the nasty widow example of Belle Gunness.

6.5 Author

This document was written by Kjell Øystein Arisland, "http://www.arisland.com/". The AINTscience concept, ideas and principles are the original work of the author.