Einstein's Brain

Einstein's brain


I'd heard many times in the past that Albert Einstein's brain was discovered in a beer cooler in Wichita sometime in the 70's... was thinking about it earlier today and decided to google it.

The story is partially true, though not quite as I had pictured it, as I'd imagined a shocked bartender plucking a brain filled gallon sized jar out of the bottom of a beer cooler! In fact, the true story is even more bizzare.

From the website of Stephen Levy, the journalist who is responsible for the re-discovery of the whereabouts of the brain:

I came to the conclusion that the brain, in sectioned form, was still in the possession of the pathologist who removed it from the Einstein head, Dr. Thomas Harvey. I tracked him down in Wichita, Kansas. At first he didn’t want to tell me anything, but after a while he finally admitted that he had the brain. After a longer while, he sheepishly told me it was IN THE VERY OFFICE WE WERE SITTING IN. He walked to a box labeled “Costa Cider” and pulled out two big Mason jars. In those were the remains of the brain that changed the world.



Dr. Thomas Harvey


Dr. Harvey assumed the brain would be studied, so after removing it from Einstein's body he preserved it and took it home with him. He sliced it into 240 sections and gave a few pieces to fellow scientists, but kept most of it for himself. It then remained in a cardboard box in his office for 22 years.

Even after the discovery in 1978, Dr Harvey maintained possession of the organ, keeping it in a tupperware container and stashing it on the car seat beside him when he moved or went on long trips. In 1998 he finally decided to give the brain to the man who held his former job as pathologist at Princeton Hospital.

You can read more details of this fascinating story here beginning on page 545:

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Retro Kansas: The Andover Tornado 20th Anniversary

It was Friday, April 26th and I'd just gotten home from work and flipped on the tv when I saw the weather radar and was horrified. Just to the west of me a monstrous storm was wreaking havoc on the small town of Andover Kansas. I grabbed my camera and my dog and jumped in the car in order to take a few pictures, though I had no idea where the tornado might actually be. I headed north and snapped a couple of shots as I was heading out of town.

I continued north and got much closer to the storm, and noticed most of the cattle in the fields were milling around and bawling. My normally calm dog began behaving strangely, becoming agitated and whining incessantly so I finally came to my senses, turned around and went back towards Kellogg. A few miles from Andover the police had the road blocked due to huge powerlines that had fallen across the highway, so I reluctantly decided to return home and watch the storm coverage on television. Over the next few hours I remained glued to the tube, watching footage of the incredible damage and horrible images of injured people and bodies lined up on the curb near Andover road.

I was scheduled to work the next day, so I had to travel nearly 30 miles in a round about fashion to get there. Most of the people I worked with weren't there, and I heard several disturbing rumors about some friends who lived in Andover. Several of us talked to our boss and managed to convince him to let us all go home.


I called my brother and sister and met up with them to survey the storm damage. Andover was still blocked from ordinary traffic, so we went northeast near Towanda and very soon discovered amazing damage produced by the devastating F5 tornado. These are some of the vehicles that people were driving when the tornado crossed I35. Incredibly, all the people were able to abandon their vehicles and were not injured.

This was once a semi cab.





This small truck was completely destroyed, yet amazingly there were several objects which remained in the bed, including a tire iron, several empty oil bottles, jumper cables, as well as the blanket seen in the photo.



Other devastated vehicles.









This was the most amazing thing I saw that day. This car had been hurled from I35 and struck this small tree, almost completely wrapping the car around it, leaving less than a 1 foot gap between the front and rear bumpers. Even more incredible, the tree was broken off at ground level and had been moved nearly a foot from where it had grown, and somehow it still managed to remain upright!






Thankfully, I learned in the next few days that my friends in Andover were safe, although they lost everything they had. They had managed to seek shelter seconds before the tornado hit, surviving unscathed with only the clothes on their backs.

Trout on the Ark

MORELS!

Morchella Esculenta

Well, this is the year I finally get around to looking for morels. I've planned on doing it forever and simply never got around to it, or started way too late. It's still a week or so until they start coming up, and after reading multitudes of mushroom sites and viewing a plethora of youtube videos, I think I'm finally ready!

My mother grew up near Coffeyville, and has often talked about finding them near a creek on her Aunt's land. I remember going there and looking for them with my family as a child, and then being distracted by an old bottle dump and chasing after skinks scampering through the leaves. I don't recall ever seeing one there, though I've seen them a few times since. Unfortunately, I had no idea exactly what they were so I didn't bother to pick them!

Unlike many other edible mushrooms, no one has yet figured out a way to raise them, so all the morels available are wild picked. I've always heard it's difficult to find them for sale, as well as knowing that even if you do find them, they can be ridiculously expensive. Out of curiosity, I looked on Craigslist a few days ago and there were three people taking orders for them, at a mere $30-$40 per pound! (I'll find my own, thank you!)

For all the information on hunting or cooking morels you might possibly need, check out this excellent site:

Morel Mushroom info

I'll post pictures of our finds when they're available. To anyone else out there looking for morels, good luck!

Rock City

Man, Rock City rocks! Haha. Anneke and I were returning home from a weekend trip in Nebraska when we stopped by Rock City for a break. It is located just southwest of Minneapolis, KS. The park features rolling prairie and about 200 massive Dakota sandstone boulders! It is a National Natural Landmark where you can see more of these boulders than anywhere else in the world! I have always wanted to go there but had never made it until now. We were the only ones there which made it very peaceful. It was really cold out so we only hiked around for about 20 minutes. Then I snapped a couple of photos and we took off...