Things I’ve learned on this trip

·      Charles Darwin’s grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood.  Yeah, the Wedgwood china guy.

·      Charles Darwin’s wife’s grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood.

·      Darwin was not the Naturalist on board the Beagle.  Someone else was.  He was actually on board to be a gentleman companion to Captain Robert FitzRoy, so he would have someone of his same social class to converse with during the voyage.  FitzRoy was concerned because “melancholy” ran in his family.  His father slit his own throat.  So, he thought having a companion on board would be good for his disposition.  While that may have worked during the voyage, in later years FitzRoy slit his own throat.

·      When South Africa was unified after apartheid, it was looking for new symbols and a new flag.  One of the ideas was a flag with words saying something like “strength though diversity” in a native language.  Instead the flag said “don’t urinate here”.  They didn’t use that design.

·      After the Moors were driven out of the Spain and was followed by the Inquisition, most Muslims and Jews were not tolerated and expelled.  To help root out any Jews and Muslims who might be trying to conceal their true identities, many meals often began with small plates of ham and wine begin served to guests.  A Jew wouldn’t eat the ham.  A Muslim wouldn’t drink the wine (or eat the ham).  So, by refusing the offering they could open themselves up to being discovered.  This was the beginning of tapas.

·      It was Magellan’s navigator who first named the Patagonians.  It’s meaning is huge monsters with big feet. The more sensational the account, the more it “sold” upon returning to the Old World.  And who was going to dispute the account?

·      The largest Welsh settlement outside of Wales is in Argentina.

·      There is a huge amount of plastic floating in the ocean.  Most of it is tiny.  There is no such thing as huge islands of plastic and trash floating in the Pacific.  It’s true that due to currents and wind patterns, there are higher concentrations in certain parts of the oceans.  But no massive islands that you can almost walk across.  Total Oprah Winfrey sensationalism.

·      “Foreign aid is often a smokescreen to hide the systematic looting of a country” – Roddy Bray.

·      I don’t miss news and politics.  Especially politics.

·      The Southern Cross is great to see, but not nearly as large or as spectacular as I imagined.

·      The big Discovery Channel documentary saying that Yellowstone is due to erupt and take out most of the Western U.S. doesn’t appear to be valid.  It does not sit above a deep-seated hotspot.  This is based on data just analyzed in September.

·      Today’s population of people of African descent in the Americas equals ¼ of the total population of Africa.

·      On Columbus’ first crossing the crew slept on deck.  When they got to the New World, they found that the indigenous people had invented the hammock.  They thought that was a pretty good invention, and the use of hammocks quickly spread aboard ships.

·      The map that Columbus used was given to him by Paolo Toscanelli.  The map shows Western Europe, India, Japan and Cathay.  Right in between was an island labeled “St Brendan’s Island” about where the Americas are located.  Shows that it is possible that Brendan arrived there first from Ireland.  Whether or not that’s true, it is conclusive that the Vikings were there about 500 years before Columbus.

·      A psalter found in a bog in Western Ireland was found to be made from Egyptian papyrus, demonstrating a connection to the Eastern Mediterranean and between the monks of Ireland and the Coptic traditions of Egypt.  The Irish monks followed a lot of Coptic traditions.

·      The Vikings settled in northern France, among other places.  Norse-Man’s-Land became Normandy.  So, when the Normans invaded England in 1066, it was a successful Viking invasion.

·      Some of the most recent research on ocean level rise indicates that nearly half of the increase may be due to over-drafting of groundwater.  The assumption is that more water is being taken from underground aquifers and that the excess is flowing to the oceans. We’re building fewer dams than we did in the 20th century and before.  Total demand for ground water has increased, but the pumping of groundwater has increased even more.  So, increasing groundwater pumping is leading to sea level rise.

Half of Israel's fresh water comes from de-salinization.  The next closest country gets about 2% from de-salinization.