M.J. Rose

The long, elaborate history of our besties, the witches…

Where do witches come from?

by Alastair Sooke (BBC Culture)

“Images of alluring young witches and hideous hags have been around for centuries – but what do they mean?

Ask any Western child to draw a witch, and the chances are that he or she will come up with something familiar: most likely a hook-nosed hag wearing a pointy hat, riding a broomstick or stirring a cauldron. But where did this image come from? The answer is more arresting and complex than you might think, as I discovered last week when I visited Witches and Wicked Bodies, a new exhibition at the British Museum in London that explores the iconography of witchcraft.

Witches have a long and elaborate history. Their forerunners appear in the Bible, in the story of King Saul consulting the so-called Witch of Endor. They also crop up in the classical era in the form of winged harpies and screech-owl-like “strixes” – frightening flying creatures that fed on the flesh of babies.

Circe, the enchantress from Greek mythology, was a sort of witch, able to transform her enemies into swine. So was her niece Medea. The ancient world, then, was responsible for establishing a number of tropes that later centuries would come to associate with witches…”

For the rest, click here.

Meditate for a while on this real-time map of births and deaths and you will get an enlightening sense of how our human life cycle is expressed in time over the globe…

(You may also be surprised at how small this map will make you feel.)

A Real-Time Map of Births and Deaths

This simulation gives an eerily omniscient vantage on the world as it fills.

by James Hamblin

“In 1950, there were 2.5 billion humans. Today there are just over 7 billion. In another 30 years, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections, there will be more than 9 billion.

Brad Lyon has a doctoral degree in mathematics and does software development. He wanted to make those numbers visual. Last year he and designer Bill Snebold made a hugely popular interactive simulation map of births and deaths in the U.S. alone—the population of which is on pace to increase 44 percent by 2050. Now, Lyon takes on the world…”

To view the map, click here.

Issues of royal paternity. It was once the stuff of beheadings and intrigue. Now it lives in the realm of DNA testing in a lab…

Richard III DNA shows British Royal family may not have royal bloodline

The University of Leicester has studied the DNA of Richard III and found that there could be a break in the royal bloodline

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor The Telegraph UK

“When the body of Richard III was discovered in a car park in Leicester in 2012 archaeologists knew it was a momentous find.

But little did they realise that it might expose the skeletons in the cupboard of the British aristocracy, and even call into question the bloodline of the Royal family.

In order to prove that the skeleton really was Richard III, scientists needed to take a DNA sample and match it to his descendants.

Genetic testing through his maternal DNA proved conclusively that the body was the King. However, when they checked the male line they discovered something odd. The DNA did not match showing that at some point in history an adulterous affair had broken the paternal chain.

Although it is impossible to say when the affair happened, if it occurred around the time of Edward III (1312- 1377) it could call into question whether kings like Henry VI, Henry VII and Henry VIII had royal blood, and therefore the right to rule…”

For the rest, and a very interesting video segment, click here.