Science/Technology Archives – Page 18 of 39

April 18, 2023April 19, 2023

P is for Pepper

Black Gold. Texas Tea. The most valuable commodity in recent years has that nickname, and if you watched a certain TV show from the 1960s, you remember the words. But “black gold” before 1800 meant something else, something also very valuable. Futurists picked up on it, too.

The spice must flow.

Black Gold

Even today, pepper is the most traded spice in the world. It originated out of India, on the Malabar coast, although more than a third of it today comes from Vietnam. In the Silk Road days, it was so valuable that it was demanded by the Huns when they took Rome; they asked for 3000 pounds of pepper in addition to precious metals and furs. Rome lived on cinnamon and pepper, so it knew the value, too.

Accountant Luca Pacioli in his double-entry bookkeeping text explained to merchants how to list their inventory: gold coin in ducats, jewels, unpolished pointed diamonds, silverware, feather beds, and …

… cases of ginger bellidi … sacks of pepper, long pepper or round pepper … so many packages of cinnamon.
Continue reading “P is for Pepper”

April 14, 2023April 15, 2023

L is for Lotus

There is something mesmerizing about this animated graphic, as this woman dances in a circle in front of a circling flower. Is she Indian? Persian? Chinese? I can make an argument for each, and she seems like an amalgam of all three, which is perhaps the point.

You can watch her dance on Youtube here.

The title is “Silk Road Dream|Burning Lotus” and the creator is branded as “Life Makeover,” where other mini animated movies show off products. Is this dancer showing products, or the skill of the artist? Or both?

It’s ironic to be called burning lotus, since a lotus is a water lily. And the symbol of a spiritual adviser who suggested we should avoid craving material goods. And that the hypnotic music, swirling graphic, and picturesque dance are all like narcotic lotus that the Greeks told stories about.

April 8, 2023April 9, 2023

F is for Frankincense

Medieval portrait of the magi, from the Orthodox Life blog site.

We Three Kings of Orient Are
Tried to Smoke a Great, Big Cigar…
A 8-year-old’s parody of a famous Christmas carol…

What, you are dismayed? You don’t remember that one? Did you remember the one about Chinese and Egyptian astrologers taking African bark scrapings into the alleyway behind the Marriott, where the illegal aliens, who were on their way to the tax collectors, stopped to have a baby? Also known as “Adoration of the Magi.”

Let’s try to un-knot the facts here, which isn’t easy because everybody was fighting over the same territory, back in Year Zero of the Common Era (not AD anymore, in case you missed that memo). What is frankincense and where was it from? Who were the magi and where was this East that they were from? (I said it in yesterday’s post, east is a matter of perspective, depending on not just where the baby was born but who was writing about it and when.)

Frankincense sap collection process found on Youtube.

When Resins Ruled the World

First of all, frankincense is a perfume and an incense. It’s a scent, highly prized across the ages both because it was hard to get and because people didn’t bathe until just about a century ago, so anything that masked odor was prized.