Ummagumma

Is this a person? Earlier this week, a New York judge agreed to hear arguments regarding the possibility of granting Chimpanzees subjected to medical experiments status as 'legal persons'  for purposes of defending them against such experiments.  This comes a few months after an Argentina court granted an Orangutan 'basic rights' resulting in freeing the animal from a zoo. These small steps are perhaps symbolic of slowly changing global attitudes toward animals with higher capacity for behavior and expression.  Certainly such rulings would seem absurd a century ago.  Apes are genetically our biological cousins and are increasingly viewed as possessing greater (human-like) intelligence and emotional range compared with other animals.  They seem to possess the qualities of what humans typically define as a 'person.' It has been observed for years that certain apes use tools to accomplish tasks.  They can improvise very well, as was seen a few days ago whe

The app provides this map of the general situation around Petersburg, Virginia at the time of the Battle of Five Forks. The aftermath of the Battle of Five Forks can be seen here.  After almost a year, the Union troops breached the Confederate lines and pinned the surviving force against the city of Petersburg itself.  Isolated from what was left of the Confederacy, the Army of Northern Virginia retreated that night, also triggering the abandonment of the Confederate capital at Richmond.  The Army of the Potomac remained in hot pursuit resulting in Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House a few days later.  Note: This is the conclusion of my series of posts on how The Civil War Today app covered the final months of the War Between the States, which ended 150 years ago.   General Ulysses S. Grant reinforced General Philip Sheridan's cavalry, which had maundered through Virginia over the past several weeks.  Grant's additional infantry placed under Sheridan's

With the fifth season of HBO's Game of Thrones upon us, I decided last year to finish reading the rest of the books so far published in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.  As it turns out that was more tedious than I imagined and apparently not the best use of my time.  The TV series is likely to swerve away from the published story line to forge new ground while George R. R. Martin finishes the sixth novel at a painfully glacial pace.  I read the first three novels in the series before HBO launched its TV adaptation. I stopped reading for several years and enjoyed the Game of Thrones' visual depiction through season four as it became available on DVD.  I kept up with what was happening as each television season aired through the plethora of online content available in news sources, fan websites, and its own wikipedia-type reference site .  Later, as I watched the DVD sets, I went back to the novels from time to time to pick up on subtleties I missed in my initial readin

In the 1950's The People's Republic of China implemented a policy of military and cultural aggression toward traditional Tibetan culture.  This resulted in the  exile of the Dalai Lama , the accepted leader of the Tibetan people, in 1959.  Since then China has expressed nothing but antagonism for the Dalai Lama .  China's intent is to commit "cultural genocide" against the Tibetan people - essentially to erase established cultural norms and to integrate Tibet into greater communist Chinese culture. The 14th Dalai Lama has always spoken carefully but firmly about these facts and pleaded for international attention to his country's and his culture's plight .   Of course, China is a global leader with the world's fastest growing economy and a big military player .  Compared to the traditionally peaceful people of Tibet, China has immense power and control.  The so-called "free Tibet" movement may be "right" but it does not h