Monday, July 31, 2006

 

This Day in History

On this day in 1919; Primo Levi a Jewish-Italian writer and poet is born. Primo Levi was also a chemist most of his professional life. His memoirs are noted for his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps. In his book, The Periodic Table, he wrote: "...conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves." Lewis Thomas and Stephen Jay Gould were talented science writers who owe a debt to Levi for his ability to turn science writing into contemplative high art. Chemistry, in turn, saved Primo's life. Imprisoned in Auschwitz, the young Italian chemist was granted a tenuous reprieve as a technician in the laboratory of an I. G. Farben rubber factory built by slave laborers on the camp's grounds. He died by suicide in 1987, after a long illness.

(h/t Today in Science History).

Comments:
Actually, this is response to your Sunday posting w/ the photographs. For a cogent view on the issue of civilian deaths during wartime, read Charles Krauthammer's syndicated article that was published today.

Meanwhile, on a more light hearted note,
last Thursday, fish rained on the Indian village on Manna. Locals said the fish looked parals, a common freshwater fish found in lakes and rivers. No doubt they were sucked aloft by a waterspout and then fell to earth when the wind speed could no longer support them.

It is ironic that the fish fell on a village w/ the same name as the miraculous substance that God provided the Hebrews during their forty years in the desert. Manna descended at night like hoarfrost, although the Biblical manna was definitely unpiscine. See Exodus 16:31
 
Actually, this is response to your Sunday posting w/ the photographs. For a cogent view on the issue of civilian deaths during wartime, read Charles Krauthammer's syndicated article that was published today.

Meanwhile, on a more light hearted note,
last Thursday, fish rained on the Indian village on Manna. Locals said the fish looked parals, a common freshwater fish found in lakes and rivers. No doubt they were sucked aloft by a waterspout and then fell to earth when the wind speed could no longer support them.

It is ironic that the fish fell on a village w/ the same name as the miraculous substance that God provided the Hebrews during their forty years in the desert. Manna descended at night like hoarfrost, although the Biblical manna was definitely unpiscine. See Exodus 16:31
 
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