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At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments, and continuing a massive scientific correspondence. Six months later the volume of his correspondence dropped markedly, reflecting a decline in his already weak health. Darwin then began punctuating letters with explanations that he was 'unwell & must write briefly' (letter to John Scott, 31 May [1863]), and in a letter of 23 [June 1863] he wrote to his close friend Joseph Dalton Hooker: 'I am languid & bedeviled … & hate everybody'. Although Darwin did continue his botanical pursuits over the summer, and persevered with his work on Variation until 20 July, his letter-writing dwindled considerably. The correspondence and Darwin's scientific work diminished even further when he and his family departed on 2 September for more than a month at a hydropathic establishment in Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, where he underwent a course of the water-cure. The treatment was not effective and Darwin remained ill for the rest of the year.
'Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history'
The first five months of 1863 contain the bulk of the correspondence from the year. These letters illustrate Darwin's preoccupation with the challenges presented by the publication in February of books by his friends Charles Lyell, the respected geologist, and Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist and anatomist. Lyell's Antiquity of man and Huxley's Evidence as to man's place in nature both had a direct bearing on Darwin's species theory and on the problem of human origins. Specifically, Darwin wondered how far the public had been led by his theory to accept the notion of human descent from 'some Quadrumanum animal', as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863]. When Huxley's book described the detailed anatomical similarities between humans and apes, Darwin was full of praise. He especially admired its discussion of the implications of ape ancestry for prevailing views of human dignity and intelligence, exclaiming to Huxley: 'I declare I never in my life read anything grander' (letter to T. H. Huxley, 26 [February 1863]). In the same letter, he gave his reaction to the Antiquity of man, complaining that he was 'fearfully disappointed at Lyells excessive caution in expressing any judgment on Species or origin of man'. Darwin's concern about the popular reception of his transmutation theory led him, after some consideration, to briefly play a public role in the controversies that embroiled Britain's scientific circles following the publication of Lyell's and Huxley's books.
Three years earlier Darwin had predicted that Lyell's forthcoming discussion of human antiquity would 'horrify the world' far more than Origin had (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Charles Lyell, 10 January [1860]). In the same letter he reminded Lyell of his belief that human beings were 'in the same predicament with other animals' and that he had made this suggestion in Origin with the famous line: 'Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history' (p. 488). Since the publication of Origin in 1859, new evidence that early humans had coexisted with animals now extinct had been rapidly accumulating. Lyell's argument for a greater human antiquity than was commonly accepted was based on recent discoveries in England and France of primitive stone tools in association with the bones of extinct mammals, as well as on evidence collected earlier in the century. Lyell's Antiquity of man and Huxley's Evidence as to man's place in nature directly confronted experts and non-experts alike with the possibility of human descent from an ape-like animal, while dating human origins to a time far earlier than that decreed by scripture. Victorian anxiety regarding human origins was further increased by the discovery in March 1863 of the Moulin-Quignon jaw, the first human fossil found in association with bones from animals like the woolly mammoth and cave bear (see letter from Jacques Boucher de Perthes, 23 June 1863). Although English experts subsequently decided the jaw was a forgery, publications in learned journals and the press during the first half of 1863 focused attention even more closely on Darwin's arguments for species change.
In this context, Lyell's discussion of the origin of species particularly dismayed Darwin. In the first and most detailed of several letters to Lyell discussing Antiquity, Darwin made a list of criticisms, including the objection that one statement led the reader to think that the author was 'far from believing that man was descended from any animal'. Another sentence suggesting that human intelligence appeared in a sudden leap from that of inferior animals made him 'groan' (letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863]). Darwin reiterated in a later letter that it would not have mattered if Lyell had thrown doubt on the significance of variation and natural selection, if only he could have permitted himself to say 'boldly & distinctly out that species were not separately created' (letter to Charles Lyell, 17 March [1863]). Public perceptions of creation, and the origin of species particularly, worried Darwin; he told Hooker that he had once thought Lyell 'could do more to convert the Public than all of us', but that after reading the book he wished his one-time mentor had not said a word (letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863]).
Darwin did not relish telling Lyell of his disappointment; when he did write, he tempered his criticisms by acknowledging: 'I know you will forgive me for writing with perfect freedom; for you must know how deeply I respect you, as my old honoured guide & master' (letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863]). Nevertheless, Darwin's regret was profound that the colleague and friend who had first advised him in 1856 to write his essay on species could not now support his theory more definitively.
Lyell, for his part, admitted that his feelings prevented him from discussing human descent from the 'brutes', but added that he would bring many towards Darwin who would have rebelled against stronger statements regarding species change (letter from Charles Lyell, 11 March 1863). The botanist Asa Gray, Darwin's friend in the United States, agreed that Lyell's approach would sway many towards a new way of thinking, while Huxley's book would scare them off (see letter from Asa Gray, 20 April 1863). In May, Darwin responded to Gray that Lyell's and Gray's indecision regarding change of species by descent put him 'into despair' (letter to Asa Gray, 11 May [1863]). In the same letter, he assured Gray that the essential question was not natural selection, but 'Creation or Modification,'.
Faction fighting
Darwin was not alone in feeling disaffected towards Lyell and his book. In a February letter to the Athenæum, a weekly review of science, literature, music, and the arts, the prominent anatomist Richard Owen denounced the account provided in Antiquity of man of the ongoing debate between Owen, Huxley, and others concerning the comparative anatomy of the human and simian brain. He charged Lyell with failing to put across Owen's position, a failure which he attributed to Lyell's lack of expertise in the subject. 'The worst of it is', Hooker wrote to Darwin, 'I suppose it is virtually Huxley's writing, & that L. will find great difficulty in answering Owen unaided' (letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863]). Hugh Falconer was also preparing a denunciation of Lyell's book on the grounds that it gave insufficient credit to his own research and that of Joseph Prestwich. Hooker wrote: 'I fear L. will get scant pity even from his own side, for F spoke to me the other night in the most strongly slighting terms of so much of Lyell's book being written by others' (letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863]). Falconer published his criticisms in a letter in the Athenæum, on 4 April, concluding with an invitation to Lyell to present a single fact or original observation that he had contributed to the proofs of human antiquity. Darwin and Hooker repeatedly exchanged regrets about Falconer's action towards Lyell, with Darwin commenting: 'It is wretched to see men fighting so for a little fame' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1863]).
Falconer and Owen were already engaged in a dispute over whose name for a recently discovered fossil elephant should have priority. When Falconer's account of the elephant appeared in the Natural History Review in January, Darwin, who was already ill-disposed towards Owen following his 1860 review of Origin, wrote to Falconer: 'You would laugh, if you could have seen how indignant all Owen's lies and mean conduct about E. Columbi made me… . The case is come to such a pass, that I think every man of science is bound to show his feelings by some overt act, and I shall watch for a fitting opportunity' (letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863]).
Falconer, Darwin, and others found an additional reason to be annoyed with Owen when it became clear that Owen's November 1862 description of the recently discovered Archaeopteryx had missed some essential elements of the Jurassic fossil. When informed by Falconer of Owen's 'slip-shod and hasty account' of the find, Darwin asked, 'Has God demented Owen, as a punishment for his crimes… ?' (letter from Hugh Falconer, 3 January [1863], and letter to Hugh Falconer, 20 [January 1863]). Aside from Owen's apparent oversights, Falconer enthusiastically observed that the fossil was 'a strange being à la Darwin', a transitional form between reptiles and birds (letter from Hugh Falconer, 3 January [1863]). Darwin was delighted by Falconer's description of the 'wondrous Bird', commenting that: 'no group is so isolated as Birds'; Darwin thought that now perhaps a significant gap had been filled in the fossil record (letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863]). Only until March did Darwin take much notice of the now famous fossil in his correspondence and publications; Owen's perceived failings, however, continued to capture his and others' attention (see letter to J. D. Dana, 20 February [1863], and letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863]).
In March, after hearing from Lyell that Owen in his paper on the aye-aye claimed the 'whole credit of making out the derivation or origin of species', Darwin considered writing a letter to the Athenæum in response (letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863]). He later expressed disappointment that the paper gave him no scope to attack Owen even though he 'had partly composed such a good letter(!)' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1863]). At the same time Darwin admitted his mixed feelings: 'I long to be in the same boat with all … my friends ie at open war; but at same time I rejoice not to be annoyed at public quarrel, & it would annoy me much.'
Darwin did find an opportunity to enter his own protest against Owen with the appearance of an anonymous review in the Athenæum of William Benjamin Carpenter's book on Foraminifera (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [29 March 1863], and Appendix VII). The reviewer, soon identified as Owen, accused Carpenter, a physician and naturalist, of slavishly following Darwin's ideas by concluding that the varied Foraminifera probably derived from a few ancestral types. Owen also censured Darwin for subscribing to an 'occult cause' when he wrote that all organic forms had probably 'descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed' (Origin, p. 484). Owen preferred Jean Baptiste de Lamarck's explanation of the origin of life: heterogeny, or the spontaneous generation of species from non-living matter; and he referred to the beginning of life in the 'vitally acting slime' settled at the bottom of seas, lakes, and rivers (Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix VII).
Quarrels at home
Darwin told Hooker of his regret that he had 'truckled to public opinion & used Pentateuchal term of creation, by which I really meant "appeared" by some wholly unknown process.— It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter.—' (letter to J. D. Hooker, [29 March 1863]). Owen's endorsement of Lamarck rankled all the more because Darwin was already disturbed by Lyell's presentation of his theory in Antiquity of man as a modification of Lamarck's. In complaining of this to Lyell, he described Lamarck's 1809 publication as a 'wretched book' from which he had 'gained nothing' (letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863]).
poor miserable devil of a scotched viper
When Carpenter's answer to Owen's review was judged too weak a response to the man whom Hooker referred to as a 'poor miserable devil of a scotched viper', Darwin wrote a letter to the Athenæum in opposition to Owen's review, in which he sought to advance his theory by making clear the difference between his view of transmutation and Lamarck's and by softening the effect of Lyell's failure to fully support him in the first edition of Antiquity of man (letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863], and letter to Athenæum, 18 April [1863]). He told Gray: 'Under the cloak of a fling at Heterogeny I have sent a letter to Athenæum in defence of myself, & I take sly advantage to quote Lyells amended verdict on the Origin' (letter to Asa Gray, 20 April [1863]). Darwin quoted a sentence from the second edition of Antiquity of man (C. Lyell 1863b, p. 469), published in April, in which Lyell had added that he fully expected it would become the 'generally received opinion of men of science' that organic change had 'been brought about by the subordinate agency of such causes as Variation and Natural Selection'. Darwin explained his use of the quote to Lyell: 'you see that I am determined, as far as I can, that the Public shall see how far you go' (letter to Charles Lyell, 18 April [1863]).
a scientific man had better be trampled in dirt than squabble
Hooker implored him not to write any more letters to the Athenæum, stressing how much he disliked bringing science before the public in this way (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [7 May 1863], and Appendix VII). He also suspected that Owen's reply had won favour with the public. Darwin agreed, and regretted that he had written to the Athenæum in response to Owen: 'I have been gnashing my teeth at my own folly' (letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863]). After his venture into the popular press, he admired a satiric rendition in Public Opinion of the recent quarrels that he thought showed that 'a scientific man had better be trampled in dirt than squabble' (see Appendix VIII).
While Darwin worried about the effect of the quarrels on public perceptions, his theory was gathering support in influential scientific circles. George Bentham devoted the first part of his presidential address at the Linnean Society of London to British and foreign evaluations of Darwin's theory. While preparing the lecture, Bentham had warned Darwin that though he appreciated the force of Darwin's arguments, he still could not satisfy himself on all points (see letter from George Bentham, 21 April 1863). However, when he read the address, Darwin was greatly pleased with its positive approach to both transmutation and natural selection: 'I verily believe that your address, written as it is, will do more to shake the unshaken & bring on those leaning to our side, than anything written directly in favour of transmutation. I can hardly tell why it is, but your address has pleased me as much as Lyell's book disappointed me,—that is the part on species, though so cleverly written' (letter to George Bentham, 19 June [1863]).
the best book of Natural History Travels ever published in England
Darwin was also pleased by the publication of The naturalist on the river Amazons, a book that he had encouraged Henry Walter Bates to write. When the book appeared in April 1863, Darwin gave it fulsome praise: 'My criticisms may be condensed into a single sentence, namely that it is the best book of Natural History Travels ever published in England.' He added that Bates had 'spoken out boldly on Species; & boldness on this subject seems to get rarer & rarer' (letter to H. W. Bates, 18 April [1863]), dismissing a reviewer in 'that d——d Athenæum' who accused Bates of bending his facts to support Darwin's theory (letter to J. D. Hooker, [17 April 1863]).
Darwin felt equally strongly about the quality of Bates's work on mimicry in butterflies, which had been published in 1862 (see Correspondence vol. 10). He sent a copy to Asa Gray to review in an American journal, and also wrote a long unsigned review of it himself ('Review of Bates on mimetic butterflies') for the Natural History Review (see letter to H. W. Bates, 12 January [1863]). Darwin added Bates's name to his list of the 'half-a-dozen real downright believers in modification of Species in all England … who dare speak out' (letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863]). The others listed were himself, Hooker, Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace, and John Lubbock.
Honours abroad
Darwin had also found a supporter in New Zealand. Julius von Haast, a German working as a provincial geologist in the British colony, paid tribute to Darwin's work when he spoke to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in September 1862 (see letter to Julius von Haast, 22 January 1863); he discussed the importance of applying Darwin's theory to geological and palaeontological discoveries made in New Zealand. Haast's arduous explorations and geological, zoological, and botanical observations greatly interested Darwin, who applauded him as a 'glorious species man', while Haast extolled Darwin as the 'noble champion of true philosophic enquiry' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 23 April [1863], and letter from Julius von Haast, 21 July [–7? August] 1863). Darwin was subsequently elected an Honorary Member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, of which Haast was a founding member (see letter from the secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, 14 September 1863).
Additional notices of honours arrived at Down House in 1863. From Shropshire, where Darwin first began observing nature, he was invited to become an honorary member of the Severn Valley Naturalists Field Club (see letter from George Maw, 19 February 1863). Other honours included his election as a corresponding member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin (see Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix III), and of the Société des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchâtel (see letter from La Société des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchâtel, 14 May 1863).
The foreign reception of Origin was reflected not only in awards, but in Darwin's correspondence. When Darwin felt that Lyell failed to uphold his views on transmutation in Antiquity of man, he did not hesitate to tell him of recent reports from other countries suggesting growing international interest in his theory (see letter to Charles Lyell, 17 March [1863]). In January 1863, the geologist Friedrich Rolle, who had recently published a popular exposition of Darwin's views, wrote with positive news of reactions to his theory in Germany (see letter from Friedrich Rolle, 26 January 1863). Darwin was not surprised to hear from Hooker that the French botanists Joseph Decaisne and Charles Naudin thought little of his theory (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 January [1863]), but he was happy that the respected Swiss botanist Alphonse de Candolle sent information on the 'progress of species-question', citing the French palaeontologist Gaston de Saporta's prediction that the role of natural selection would ultimately be accepted in France. Candolle had sent his monograph on oaks (A. de Candolle 1862b), which included a generally favourable discussion of Origin with what Darwin called 'prudent reservations' (letters to Alphonse de Candolle, 14 January [1863] and 31 January [1863], and letter to Asa Gray, 31 May [1863]). Asa Gray reviewed Candolle's memoir in the American Journal of Science and Arts (A. Gray 1863e), continuing his practice of making discussions of Darwin's views known to American readers.
The Copley medal
Less encouraging news arrived in November when Darwin heard that his nomination for the Royal Society's Copley Medal had been unsuccessful (see letter from E. A. Darwin to Emma Darwin, 11 November [1863]). The council of the Royal Society voted instead for the geologist Adam Sedgwick; Darwin suspected that Owen, a member of the council, had placed Sedgwick in opposition to him (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [22–3 November 1863]). However, it is certain that one influential figure in Darwin's failure to win the award was Edward Sabine, President of the Royal Society (see letter from Edward Sabine to John Phillips, 12 November 1863). Characteristically, Darwin claimed to care more about the resulting sympathy and praise from close friends than about honours like the Copley Medal (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863]).
Plants and more plants
Phyllotaxy: the 'wonderful problem'
Darwin continued to pay particularly close attention to specific criticisms from supporters or near-supporters of his theory. Hugh Falconer suggested that a 'law of Phyllotaxis' governed the arrangement of leaves around a stem in a series of fixed angles for every plant, and stated that there must then be 'in nature, a deeper seated and innate principle, to the operation of which "Natural Selection" is merely an adjunct' (Falconer 1863a, p. 80). Darwin, challenged by this statement, began puzzling over the angles of leaves, asking the professional botanists Gray, Hooker, and Daniel Oliver for references on phyllotaxy, and setting his son George, the mathematician in the family, to explaining the phenomenon (see letter from Daniel Oliver, 17 February 1863, letter to Asa Gray, 20 April [1863], letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863], and memorandum from G. H. Darwin, [before 11 May 1863]).
As he struggled with leaf angles, fractions, diagrams, and shoot dissections, his letters grew full of complaints that the problem was 'enough to drive the quietest man mad' (letter to Asa Gray, 11 May [1863]). Hooker and Gray agreed wholeheartedly, but Hooker sent another reference, acknowledging that Darwin was a 'hard headed man' (letter from J. D. Hooker, [24 May 1863]). Darwin finally decided that Falconer's remark was much exaggerated; he conceded to his critic that it was a 'wonderful problem' but he himself had 'made out … nothing' and wished someone could give a rational explanation of phyllotaxy (letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 May [1863], and letter to Hugh Falconer, [25–6 August 1863]).
Sterility and hybridity
Another criticism that continued to exercise Darwin was Huxley's assertion, first made in his 1860 review of Origin, that in order to prove the emergence of new species by natural selection, it was necessary to provide a case in which two forms of the same species of plant or animal, produced by selective breeding, were either unable to cross or else formed sterile hybrids. Huxley made this point again in his six lectures to working men, given at the Museum of Practical Geology at the end of 1862, and published as a book in early 1863 (T. H. Huxley 1863a). Though Darwin was otherwise extremely pleased with the book, he continued to disagree with Huxley about sterility as a fair test for species, pointing out that in his work on domesticated animals he had come to the conclusion that 'there are almost certainly several cases of 2 or 3 or more species blended together & now perfectly fertile together' which led him to believe 'that there must be something in domestication … which eliminates the natural sterility of species, when crossed' (letter to T. H. Huxley, 10 [January 1863]). He reminded Huxley again of the German botanist Karl Friedrich von Gärtner's experiments, which had produced infertile hybrids in Verbascum and Zea (see Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix VI). However, when Evidence as to man's place in nature was published in February 1863, Huxley again argued that natural selection required experimental proof that physiological species could be produced by selective breeding.
Huxley's criticism provided additional impetus for Darwin to continue the work on dimorphic plants, and on cross and hybrid sterility, that had already occupied much of his time in 1861 and 1862. With the publication in 1862 of his paper on Primula ('Dimorphic condition in Primula'), he had demonstrated that two different flower forms, one with a long style and short stamens, the other with a short style and long stamens, were only fully fertile when crossed with each other. In February 1863, his paper on Linum ('Two forms in species of Linum') was read before the Linnean Society. In the paper, Darwin presented experimental results that suggested a high degree of sterility when the same flower forms were crossed (see Appendix IV).
Darwin continued to investigate the true nature of sterility, a question he had been struggling with in 1861 and 1862; he wanted to determine experimentally whether it was selected for or whether, as he had argued in Origin (p. 245), it was 'incidental on other acquired differences' (see Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix VI). In addition to crossing varieties of Primula in 1863, he continued working with a plant in another genus, the purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria. This species provided the 'oddest case of reproduction ever noticed.—a triple marriage' between three hermaphrodite flower forms; during the summer of 1863, Darwin worked 'like a Trojan' to finish the large series of crosses between the three forms that he had started the previous year (letter to Asa Gray, 4 August [1863]). The results were published in his 1865 paper 'Three forms of Lythrum salicaria'.
Botanical correspondents
In the process of acquiring botanical specimens, as well as sharing observations and experimental results, Darwin continued corresponding with a wide range of gardeners, horticulturists, and hobbyists, in addition to professional botanists. Lydia Ernestine Becker, who was soon to be involved in the women's suffrage movement, began writing to him in 1863 with field observations and specimens of the dimorphic Lychnis. A correspondence also began with the Scottish hybridiser Isaac Anderson-Henry, and Darwin continued the exchange of letters that had started the previous year with the Hertfordshire nurseryman Thomas Rivers.
John Scott
Darwin had found a protégé and collaborator in the examination of hybridity and sterility at the end of the previous year. John Scott, a gardener at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, had initiated the correspondence in November 1862 with a letter correcting Darwin's description of reproduction in the orchid genus Acropera (see Correspondence vol. 10). Their 1863 letters reveal Darwin's excitement at finding another person in Britain who shared his interests in hybridity, and who was more than willing to carry out breeding experiments. Though the two men discussed a multitude of botanical subjects, the crossing experiments that Scott had begun on the primrose family after reading Darwin's paper, 'Dimorphic condition in Primula', as well as investigations of orchid pollination, occupied much of their detailed and lengthy botanical correspondence in 1863. Darwin eventually communicated Scott's Primula work to the Linnean Society in a paper that was read in February 1864. He had already promised Scott that he would delay publication of his own continuing work with Primula crosses, the results of which were published in 1868 (see letter to John Scott, 25 and 28 May [1863]). Scott's experiments confirmed the results of Darwin's earlier paper on Primula ; his additional crosses between differently coloured varieties of P. vulgaris, in which he found 'the very zero of fertility between varieties of a species', were the sort of result that both he and Darwin hoped would counteract Huxley's criticism (letter from John Scott, 23 July [1863]). Darwin reviewed the draft of Scott's paper with satisfaction (see letter to John Scott, 7 November [1863]).
Scott had referred directly to Huxley's reservations about natural selection in the introduction to his paper on orchids (Scott 1863a), completed earlier in 1863, which Darwin had also encouraged him to write (see letter to John Scott, 12 April [1863]). In this paper, Scott provided evidence of self-sterility in Maxillaria species that were fertile when crossed with another species in the same genus. Darwin's reaction was enthusiastic: 'The facts will be of highest use to me: I feel convinced that your paper will have permanent value' (letter to John Scott, 31 May [1863]). Scott received a different response in Scotland; he warned Darwin that at the Edinburgh Botanical Society, where he read his orchid paper, anything that 'savours of the "Origin" is not at all palatable!' (letter from John Scott, [3 June 1863]).
Darwin's early confidence in Scott rested not only on their common theoretical interests but on Scott's powers of experimental observation. When Scott expressed growing frustration with his position as gardener, hoping for a foreign appointment that would offer more independence and opportunity for his experimental work, Darwin was sympathetic. He consulted Hooker on the advisability of this 'truly remarkable man' taking a position offered in Darjeeling, India (see letter from John Scott, 22 May 1863, and letter to J. D. Hooker, 23 May [1863]). Hooker advised against the appointment; Darwin replied that if Scott 'had leisure he would make a wonderful observer; to my judgment I have come across no one like him' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 May [1863]).
The new hothouse: tropical plants
Darwin continued his own study of orchid pollination and was aided by the completion of his new hothouse in February; this enabled him to grow more tropical plants than before (see Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix VI). He was fascinated with the adaptations in orchids for cross-pollination by insects because of his conviction that natural selection had brought about modifications leading to an apparent perfection of structure and coadaptation. The cross-pollination of orchids, as well as dimorphism in other flowers, provided evidence for his assertion that nature 'abhors perpetual self-fertilisation' (Orchids, p. 359); he had discussed the indispensibility of intercrossing to natural selection in Origin, pp. 96–109, and he continued to observe individuals of the same species crossing with one another in a variety of plants. With additional study of Cypripedium, Acropera, and the bee orchid, Ophrys apifera, he gathered information that would ultimately be published in his paper 'Fertilization of orchids' and the second edition of Orchids.
Darwin also exchanged information on orchids, melastomas, and other tropical and sub-tropical plants with observers from warmer parts of the world. Correspondence was established in 1863 with Roland Trimen, a civil servant in Cape Town, whose work on Disa and Herschelea Darwin communicated to the Linnean Society (see letter to Roland Trimen, 23 May [1863]). Darwin began to exchange letters with Hermann Crüger, a German botanist in Trinidad, and continued writing to George Henry Kendrick Thwaites, the director of the Peradeniya botanic gardens in Ceylon. Closer to home, Darwin arranged for a paper on orchids written by a German correspondent, the botanist Friedrich Hildebrand, to be published in the English journal Annals and Magazine of Natural History. In addition to following Darwin's orchid work, Hildebrand told him he had repeated all Darwin's Linum experiments with the same results (see letter from Friedrich Hildebrand, 16 July 1863).
In England, Darwin asked Philip Henry Gosse, a writer and naturalist in Torquay, about reproduction in Ophrys apifera, his 'greatest puzzle', an orchid that seemed perfectly adapted for both self-pollination and cross-pollination (letter to P. H. Gosse, 2 June [1863]). The observation of insects entering and leaving flowers filled Darwin with pleasure. After describing a bee's movements in relation to the pollinia, movements that confirmed Gray's theory that Cypripedium was pollinated by insects crawling through the flower, Darwin concluded: 'It was beautiful' (letter to Asa Gray, 20 April [1863]).
Darwin was also investigating different mechanisms for cross-pollination by searching for and studying dichogamous flowers, those in which the stamens and pistils mature at different times (see letter to Asa Gray, 11 May [1863]). The fertility of unopening, self-pollinated flowers (later called cleistogamic flowers) relative to that of the opening, cross-pollinated flowers on the same plant, as in some Oxalis and Viola species, had interested Darwin since 1860; it continued to capture his attention (see letter to John Scott, 12 April [1863]). Additionally, Darwin investigated the fertility of peloric flowers to determine whether the change in flower structure from irregular to regular was associated with a change in fertility when crossed with other plants in the same species (see letter to Isaac Anderson-Henry, 20 January [1863]). These botanical observations contributed to his understanding of intercrossing, the subject of several papers published later, and of Forms of flowers and Cross and self fertilisation, both published in the 1870s.
Plants that move
Darwin regularly discussed a wide range of botanical topics with Hooker, Gray, and Oliver. These correspondents were the first to hear about Darwin's 'chief Hobby-horse' of the summer, one that he said he owed to Gray's 1858 paper on the coiling of tendrils in Echinocystis. Darwin had placed the gourd Echinocystis lobata in his study to watch the spontaneous gyratory movements of its tendrils (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 [June 1863]). Darwin observed: 'their irritability is beautiful, as beautiful in all its modifications as anything in orchids' (letter to Asa Gray, 4 August [1863]). He acquired tropical 'tendrilliferous' plants that could grow in his hothouse from Hooker, and set about studying the various types of movement of tendrils, stems, and leaves in different plants (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [31 July 1863]). When he tried to determine the originality of his observations, Hooker and Oliver responded that they knew little; Hooker suggested that Darwin's discoveries were 'most curious & novel' (letter from J. D. Hooker, [21 July 1863]). Gray had noticed more tendril movements and supplied additional references, expressing astonishment at his English colleagues' lack of knowledge about these types of plant movements: 'What are Hooker & Oliver (the latter a Professor too) about, and where have they lived not to know anything of them?' (letter from Asa Gray, 1 September 1863). Gray encouraged Darwin's work, assuring Darwin: 'it will be fruitful in your hands'.
Darwin was considering the movements as adaptations for climbing, and was beginning to puzzle over the various types of sensitivity in different plant parts. The detail of his note-taking, the diagrams, and the careful timing of the oscillations, suggest how important the observations would be to the later publications 'Climbing plants' and Movement in plants. At the same time, he explained to Hooker: 'it is just the sort of niggling work which suits me & takes up no time & rather rests me whilst writing' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 July [1863]).
Darwin's pleasure in watching these 'wonderfully crafty & sagacious' plants was cut short in September by his departure with his family for Malvern Wells, but even when ill at home in November, he watched them in his study as they twined past volumes on the bookcase and around the head of the sofa (letter to W. E. Darwin, [25 July 1863], and letter to J. D. Hooker, [22–3 November 1863]).
Writing Variation
Many of Darwin's botanical observations and experiments of 1863 naturally overlapped with his writing of Variation, particularly when he was working on the chapter he called 'Crossing & Sterility' (see Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix II). When Darwin finished, by 23 January 1863, a chapter on bud-variation, or sports, he had completed the first half of the book, which was to amass 'a large body of facts' on variation in domestic animals and plants (Variation 1: 1). He then turned to general discussions, completing three sections, on inheritance, crossing and sterility, and selection, by the end of July 1863. While it was not unusual for Darwin to complain to his correspondents about how slowly the writing was going, and how he feared he would never finish, he struck a more optimistic note in a letter to Julius von Haast of 18 July [1863], in which he said he was working very hard at Variation and hoped to begin printing in six months. However, the two-volume work was not published until 1868.
Roping in the family
Darwin relied on members of his family for help in his research throughout the year. His eldest son, William Erasmus Darwin, a banker in Southampton, had been pressed into service to make observations in the field on dimorphic plant species. William was a conscientious observer, as is indicated by his botanical notebook and sketchbook (Cambridge University Library DAR 117 and DAR 186: 43). Many of his observations were later cited in Forms of flowers, and his help with the examination of the trimorphic genus Lythrum was noted in 'Three forms of Lythrum salicaria'.
George contributed his mathematical expertise to his father's investigation of phyllotaxy, while Henrietta was often at her father's side in the hothouse and garden. Henrietta took an interest in science, reading and commenting on Huxley's books and Lyell's Antiquity of man (see letter from T. H. Huxley, 25 February 1863, and letter to Charles Lyell, 12–13 March [1863]).
Emma was a steady help to Darwin, writing many letters that her husband dictated when he was too ill to hold a pen. During the autumn of 1863, they collaborated in a new endeavour, producing an appeal against the use of steel vermin traps and the animal suffering caused by them (see Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix IX). Francis Darwin later wrote of his father's strong feelings regarding torment of both animals and humans: 'It was indeed one of the strongest feelings in his nature, and was exemplified in matters small and great, in his sympathy with the educational miseries of dancing dogs, or in his horror at the suffering of slaves' (LL 3: 199).
The American Civil War
Darwin's aversion to slavery had led him to side with the Union cause in the American Civil War, discussion of which figured prominently in his correspondence with Asa Gray in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the start of the year, Darwin displayed an interest in war-related issues, particularly after reading a tract written on relations between Britain and the United States by Gray's father-in-law, the lawyer Charles Greely Loring (see letter to Asa Gray, 23 February [1863], and Loring 1862). However, his tolerance of Gray's fervent approach to the war declined in 1863. In April, he complained that a note of Gray's sounded 'very savage against England' (see letter to Asa Gray, 20 April [1863]).
Darwin evidently refrained from discussing the subject again until he read Gray's statement that he wished he had a son so that he could send him to the war (see letter from Asa Gray, 7 July 1863). Darwin shared this letter with Hooker, who had long since ceased to discuss politics or the American Civil War in his correspondence with Gray: 'What pleasant letters Asa Gray writes. One might as well write to a madman as to him about the war. It is a holy war & everything shd. be sacrificed to it' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 [July 1863]). Darwin then confessed to Gray that he could not eagerly support the north owing to the boasting and the abuse of England, and added that 'the treatment of the free coloured population, and the not freeing Maryland slaves stops all my enthusiasm' (letter to Asa Gray, 4 August [1863]). He urged Gray not to hate England too much, claiming: 'she is the mother of fine children all over the world'.
Health worries
Despite his declining health, Darwin continued to be occupied with his various botanical subjects throughout the summer, until he told Hooker in a letter of 25 [August 1863] that after having had 'a deal of sickness of late; every morning for a fortnight', he had resolved to take his household to Malvern the following week. Three letters in August from John Goodsir, professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, indicate that Darwin had sent him a slide and a phial of vomit for analysis. Goodsir found no micro-organisms other than normal inhabitants of the mouth and stomach.
On the way to Malvern Wells, Darwin stopped in London overnight to consult George Busk, former Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, whom Goodsir had mentioned, and whom Hooker had recommended as having 'the most fertile brain of any man I know in regard of all such matters as your stomach' (see letter from John Goodsir, 21 August [1863]; letter from J. D. Hooker, [27 August 1863]). Unfortunately Darwin took a turn for the worse once he arrived in Worcestershire. Only by the end of September was he able to write a letter in his own hand and recount his condition over the summer and early autumn: 'I got worse & worse at home & was sick every day for two months; so came here, where I suddenly broke down & could do nothing; but I hope I am now very slowly recovering, but am very weak' (letter to A. R. Wallace, [29 September? 1863]).
Darwin wrote one other letter in his own hand before the end of October; this was a heart-felt note to Hooker, who had recently suffered the death of his six-year-old daughter (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [4 October 1863]). The Darwins' daughter, Annie, had died at Malvern in 1851, and Hooker's news was a powerful reminder of their loss (see Correspondence vol. 5). Unable to find Annie's gravestone in 1863, they wrote to Darwin's cousin, William Darwin Fox, who had visited the grave seven years earlier. Fox sent a helpful letter that guided them to where it was hidden by overgrown trees and shrubs (see letter from W. D. Fox, 7 September [1863]). Emma wrote back: 'This has been a great relief' (letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]).
When the Darwins returned home, Charles fared little better, and most letters were dictated to Emma. Darwin only managed one of his typically long letters to Hooker by writing while lying down (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [22–3 November 1863]). He told Roland Trimen in a letter of 25 November [1863] that he had been 'ordered to do nothing for 6 months' by his doctors, mentioning that even writing the letter was 'against rules'. George Busk had diagnosed Darwin as having 'Waterbrash', a 'diseased secretion of the stomach', which accompanied 'various kinds of general derangement'. Busk prescribed medication and also advised him to consult the physician Dr William Brinton, a stomach specialist at St Thomas's Hospital, London (letter from George Busk, [c.27 August 1863]). Brinton, who visited Down House in early November, evidently advised Darwin to curtail his activities.
Dr Brinton visited Down House again in early December, when Darwin had been 'vomiting every day for eleven days & some days many times after every meal' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863]). Nevertheless, Brinton, he said, had told him that there was no reason why he should not recover his previous state of health. Brinton's words must have encouraged Darwin; he wrote Hooker a somewhat more lively letter than usual: 'I shd. like to live to do a little more work & often I feel sure I shall & then again I feel that my tether is run out' (letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863]). He also triumphantly informed Hooker that an Italian edition of Origin was being prepared, which would be the fifth foreign edition. Recalling the controversies of the first five months of the year, Darwin added: 'Owen will not be right in telling Longmans that Book w d be utterly forgotten in ten years'.
However, Darwin would not return at once to gathering more support for Origin, or to the observations and experimental work that he hoped would further bolster his theory. The few remaining letters from him in December were short, and dictated to Emma. By the end of the year, Emma admitted to Hooker (letter from Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker, 26 December [1863]) that Darwin's health fluctuated and showed little improvement; he usually stayed in his bedroom, tolerating only short visits even from his sons. She was pessimistic about his prospects of health over the next few months: 'When not uncomfortable his spirits are wonderfully good, but I am afraid he may remain just as he is very long before there is a struggle in his constitution & that the sickness is conquered.'


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This 9-day, fly-in itinerary takes you on a journey through Tanzania's unrivalled wildlife destinations - Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater and the fabled Serengeti - to deliver a dramatic and diverse big game safari.
Begin with the beauty of Lake Manyara with its thousands of flamingos and famous tree-climbing lions before moving on to encounter the spectacle of the Ngorongoro Crater floor, home to Africa's Big 5. The sweeping plains of the Serengeti provide a backdrop for the tour's grand finale. Game viewing is superb all year round, but if you have timed your safari with the wildebeest migration, you can expect massed herds and plenty of predator action.
Accommodated in a series of elegant lodges, this journey is ideal for first-time travellers to Tanzania or for the return visitor whose heart has been captured by this incredible country. As part of a honeymoon itinerary, combine this tour with a getaway to the romantic spice island of Zanzibar for an ultimate beach and safari combination.

subset: commoncrawl


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Whom the gods would destroy, the old saying says, they first make mad. And there's no quicker way to become completely untethered than to read economic reports, including the latest one from the Congressional Budget Office, and then watch the political debate go on as if reality didn't even exist.
The short version of the CBO's report is: Spending's going down, but we desperately need jobs. So how did the president and Congress respond? They kept arguing about who's got the better plan for making spending go down some more.
If you want to be taken seriously in Washington, you're going to have to learn: There are some things you just don't talk about.
1. Don't Talk About Jobs
The CBO report predicts that the Federal deficit this year will be under $1 trillion, if the "sequester" or other cuts of similar magnitude go into effect, for the first time in five years.
But unemployment won't be reduced to an acceptable level until 2018, according to the CBO – and Washington's not talking about how to create jobs. Those spending cuts will make the unemployment situation worse. Apparently that's now Washington's official plan: Cut spending, and keep more people out of work.
If things happen according to our leaders' plans – which are the basis for the CBO's projection – it will have taken 10 years for the job market to recover from Wall Street's misdeeds.
Corporate profits recovered in 18 months, and today they're higher than ever.
2. Don't talk about growth.
The CBO doesn't expect the Gross Domestic Product to fully recover from the Wall Street recession for another four years, until 2017. The problem is the "output gap" between the goods and services we could and should be producing, and what we're actually producing. That, too, is the result of the 2008 crisis. This gap results in lost prosperity for the great majority of Americans, excluding only the wealthiest among us.
If our GDP were large, the Federal debt would be less of a problem, because it would be a smaller piece of our economic "pie." That's one reason why economists L. Josh Bivens and Andrew Fieldhouse recently warned that "nearly all demands for specific, ambitious 10-year deficit reduction targets are likely to be terribly counterproductive in the current debate."
And the problem's getting worse. As Neil Irwin points out, the CBO report now estimates our annual "output gap" at more than $1 trillion this year. That means it's going up, not down.
3. Don't talk about stimulus spending.
Washington's not talking about that. Instead the President has engaged in the debate on the Republicans' terms. In his recent remarks on the sequester he said he and the Republicans had gone "more than halfway towards the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists and elected officials from both parties believe is required to stabilize our debt."
The $4 trillion figure is not accepted by "most economists." Many, if not most, would argue for increased spending in the form of additional stimulus programs as Bivens and Fieldhouse proposed – and for the same reasons. As Bivens and Fieldhouse wrote, arbitrary targets "can easily lead policymakers to embrace measures that will surely hamper economic recovery (which) should be the primary focus." Ethan Pollock showed how debt stabilization can be achieved more effectively through short-term stimulus spending.
But Washington's not talking about that, either. Instead, the president's reinforcing a counterproductive and right-wing economic viewpoint by talking about deficit reduction targets in hard-dollar amounts.
4. Don't talk about inequality in wages.
It's very fashionable in Washington to talk about projections that show that Social Security is fully solvent for the next couple of decades – well, they don't like to talk about that part of it – but that afterwards a shortfall would allow it to pay only 75 percent of projected benefits.
Here's what's not fashionable to mention: Nearly half of that shortfall is caused by an unpredicted income grab by the wealthiest earners among us. (Dean Baker has the specifics.) It's gotten so severe that the United States has a more unequal distribution of income than Egypt.
Nobody saw that coming – not even Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, who chaired the commission that adjusted Social Security benefits and revenues in the 1980s. Since Social Security is funded by a payroll tax with a fixed ceiling – currently about $110,000 per year in income – too much of our national income is earned without contributing to Social Security.
Restoring our income levels to better balance would help eliminate any future concerns about Social Security. So would an aggressive jobs program, which would put millions of people back on the job and paying their payroll taxes again.
5. Don't talk about how much less expensive health care is in other countries – or how much more effective it is.
Federal health care spending is expected to grow from nearly 5 percent of GDP in 2013 to 6.2 percent of GDP in 2023. While there's debate about health care spending in Washington, it's generally limited to two set of ideas. The first involves arbitrary caps on health spending, which would either shift costs back onto the poor and elderly or force them to go without medical care. The second involves tinkering around the margins of our health care system in order to "bend the cost curve."
Every other industrialized nation on earth has a government-sponsored health system, and every other industrialized nation provides much more comprehensive care at much less cost.
We've had proposals to move our system closer to these more cost-effective models. One was the "public option," which would have allowed Americans to buy into a more efficient government system. Other proposals have offered to open the public system up to more of the population, or to everyone, under the "Medicare For All" label.
If our system was brought in line with those of other developed countries, our deficit problems would be largely addressed. Nobody mentions that.
6. In fact, don't talk about Europe at all.
Our entire deficit debate is going down the trail first blazed by Europe. Like Europe, we're insisting on hard and fast deficit reduction targets while we're in the middle of economic hard times.
How's that working out for Europe? Great Britain's entering a rare and brutal triple-dip recession. Unemployment is soaring across the continent. And the countries that have been held to the hardest spending cuts are seeing their deficits go up, not down, as unemployment soars and their national economies shrink.
So, if you want to be part of the "serious" Washington debate, you can talk about the "hard choices" that must be made – which means you'll make the choices and they'll be hard for others. You can talk about how you plan to achieve your $4 trillion deficit reduction targets in a more clever way than the other party will.
Just don't talk about jobs. Don't talk about growth. Don't talk about budgeting from percentages. Don't talk about health care. And whatever you do, don't talk about Europe. After all, we wouldn't want to learn from experience.


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In just one week, three Korean actors are dead from apparent suicides. According to a police investigator, the 39-year-old Choi Jin-sil, who was one Korea's most popular actors, hanged herself in her Seoul home on the morning of Oct 2. The next day, 26-year-old transgender entertainer Jang Chae-won was found dead under similar circumstances. And on Oct 7, police say that Kim Ji-hoo hanged himself in his bedroom. An apparent suicide note from the 23-year-old actor said, "I'm lonely and in a difficult situation. Please cremate my body."
According to the Seoul Shinmun, in 2004, Jang appeared on the SBS television program Truth Game as a cross-dressing man who was prettier than several women. While appearing on a major network show, Jang told the audience that she was previously a man. Since coming out, she developed a small following on the popular Korean Web community portal, Cyworld, which is similar to US-based social Web sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Kim was an actor and model who entered public life in 2007 after appearing in a fashion show. Labeled "one to watch", he was a guest on the MBC television drama, Before and After Plastic Surgery, and the family sitcom, The Unstoppable High Kick. Recently, Kim appeared on tvN's cable reality program, Coming Out, where he came out as a gay man.
The groundbreaking series, which premiered on April 14 featured dramatic profiles of LGBT men and women who have come out to family, friends and coworkers. One of the show's co-hosts is Hong Seok-cheon, who is also openly gay.
Kim's mother told police that he "underwent many professional and personal difficulties" after appearing on Coming Out. His personal Web page was inundated with messages denouncing his sexual orientation, and a Korea Times article says that several fashion shows and television programs cancelled his appearances following his public disclosure of his sexual orientation. Kim's management company also did not renew his contract. Police, who have confirmed that his death was a suicide, say that Kim's suicide reflects the public's negative attitudes about homosexuality.
Just days before taking his life, Kim wrote on his web site: "Life is like the wind. What's there to agonise over? Meetings are happy, partings are sad, everything is just a moment." Funeral services are planned for Oct 9.
Suicide is the leading cause of death among people in their 20s and 30s in Korea. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Korea's suicide rate is the highest of its 30 member nations.
Matt Kelley is a gay mixed-race Korean-American living in Seoul. He is currently writing a book about the intersections of race and sex in Korea. His website: www.mattkelley.info.


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After more then five years, it's time to say goodbye to this blog.
Sadly, I can no longer devote the time, energy and money it takes to keep CTT going and I am burnt out trying. I have made many great contacts and built some awesome friendships along the way, and I am very grateful for that. You can still find me on Twitter, Facebook and, as always, by email at CoptheTruth AT aol DOT com.
My goal initially was to devote this blog to the honor, courage and sacrifice of the heroes among us, namely our family members, friends and neighbors serving in the military, law enforcement and other first responders, most notably those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to out great nation and people.
I admittedly got a little off track when I saw the incredible injustice being done to our country by the liars, crooks and self-serving politicians in Washington, concerned only with gaining and keeping more power and money. The level of incompetence rose to new levels with the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Obama, McCain, et al, gaining ultimate power and wielding it only to benefit those who bought them their respective offices. Trying to stop these egomaniacs became a priority, but, sadly, CTT failed in that effort.
It is my belief that the most important moment in the history of our nation is nearly upon us. The 2012 election will decide what future - if any - we have, and what it will look like. If the inept, uncaring boobs in power now remain there, we are finished as a nation. The America you know, love and grew up in will be gone forever. We must defeat Obama and his Progressive, Communist-loving ilk, and we must replace them with Americans who believe in smaller government, spending within our means, securing our borders, strong family values, few entitlements and a balanced budget, whatever their party. Anything else will doom us all.
Wake up, get involved and cast an intelligent vote, people. Before it's too late.
You can still catch my opinion pieces at our new blog Left Coast Patriot. I hope that you'll stop by and say hello.
Best wishes to all, and let us never forget that, at any given moment, a soldier, sailor, Airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, Police Officer or Firefighter is sacrificing everything - including their very lives - to protect their country, their countrymen and our way of life. May God bless you all.


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One of the worst tragedies of post-Soviet Russia has been the increase in child abuse, particularly child prostitution. Besides the moral and ethical implications, the impact that sexual exploitation has on children's health and future development demands urgent attention. It is a problem that shows no signs of abating.
Sexual abuse of children takes several forms. They are used in pornographic publications and films and exploited as prostitutes. They are also trafficked to other countries, particularly in the Middle East.
Victims of child sexual abuse are often lured by the fake promise of being published in mainstream fashion magazines. Some victims believe that prostitution and contact with rich businessmen will allow them the kind of lifestyle that they could not have otherwise.
Russia is now one of the main producers of child pornography in the world, and it registers significant incidences of child prostitution and child trafficking for sexual purposes, according to the Russian National Consultation on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
St. Petersburg and northwestern Russia report a high incidence of sex tourism, which is widely advertised on the Internet and is aimed at people from neighboring Scandinavian countries. Child prostitution is the most common form of child exploitation in that region.
Those who recruit children for sexual exploitation frequently target street children or children from dysfunctional families. They initiate a vicious circle of entrapment and, as they become older, children end up in brothels. The recruiters prey on these children's needs and deceive them into a life of dependency.
In Russia, many of the young prostitutes are from the provinces or from the former Soviet republics. They come to Moscow or to St. Petersburg hoping to hide in the anonymity of huge cities. Sometimes pregnant or with children, and with scant education or skills, children turn to prostitution as an essential tool for survival.
Children engaged in prostitution frequently belong to families at risk — those in extreme poverty or with alcohol and drug addiction. In other cases, they are orphans who have made the street their homes.
Many adults who sexually abuse children believe that by engaging with children, they are protected against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Children are less prone to practice safe sex, however, either because they don't think they need it or because they are unable to oppose the pressure or intimidation from adults.
Because of the transnational character of transactions involving children, it is imperative to strengthen international collaboration to counter the sexual abuse of children. Although Russia has signed and ratified important international conventions, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has not yet developed a national plan of action against commercial sexual exploitation of children.
The Angel Coalition, one of the few Russian nongovernmental organization working solely to combat human trafficking, has produced a video called "Inhuman Traffic," with the participation of actress Angelina Jolie. The documentary gives a shocking view of the tragedy of trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation in Russia and all across Europe. Moreover, it gives an insight into the trafficking chain and how it can be broken. It should be required viewing for all government officials who are involved in combating this scourge.
On May 11, 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, called on lawmakers to consider "chemical castration" for pedophiles, following an unprecedented wave of sexual crimes against minors in the country, including the violent death of child victims. In October 2011, the Russian parliament approved a law on pedophilia, according to which those found guilty of sex crimes against children under 14 will face chemical castration, while repeated sex offenders will face a life sentence.
Child abuse in Russia is an issue that demands concerted and long-term actions to prevent it. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear in the need to respect the rights of children, and by following its directives Russia can take an important step in the battle against the abuse of society's most vulnerable members.
Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.


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Eyebeam Contagious Media Conference This Saturday
Eyebeam's Contagious Media Showdown conference is this Saturday. The conference will have keynotes by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and the Yes Men and workshops by the people who created the Rejection Line, Black People Love Us, The Nike Sweatshop Email, Blogdex, and Fundrace. CP+B will also be looking at books if conference participants want to interview. The full day of workshops costs $20 and people can RSVP here.


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Mary M. Gerkin of Bedford passed away yesterday at Stonebridge Health Campus at the age of 96.
Born in 1912 in Martin County to George and Elsie Harp, Mary was a homemaker, Pink Lady Volunteer at Dunn Memorial Hospital, and member of the Southland Church of Christ, Royal Neighbors and Brightwood Homemakers Club and was a volunteer with the Red Cross.
She is survived by her daughters Elsie and Barbara, 12 grandchildren, 33 great grandchildren, and 33 great great grandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her parents, husband Lester, sister Violet, and brothers Ward, Lloyd, Floyd, Marion, Rolland and Paul.
Services will be held Saturday morning at 10:00am at the Elmwood Chapel of Day & Carter Mortuary with burial to follow at Beech Grove Cemetery.
Visitation will be held tomorrow from 4:00 until 8:00pm at Day & Carter.


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a lot of folks sent this in, so we'll put it up here, so it's always here in our console section…the playstation 2 portable project. an amazing hack, taking a psone, and using a PS2's guts to make a portable version, nicely done.
a lot of folks sent this in, so we'll put it up here, so it's always here in our console section…the playstation 2 portable project. an amazing hack, taking a psone, and using a PS2's guts to make a portable version, nicely done.
So awesome!
hmm, way to read Slashdot…
From what I read, there is NO PSOne parts in this machine. There is a PSOne portable *screen*, but the case is completely made from scratch.
Anyone know of something similar, but perhaps with more of a step-by-step format?
this is a very good hack.
and also, i want to know how to get my hands on the hack that he shows
that is a "snes portable"
he states that he is using the snes portable only to use it's screen.
so if anyone knows about this hack or knows the guy tell him to post it here please!
well… this is a great concept but really, whats the point with the psp round the corner? it will probably be easier to just hack the psp roms (media cards i mean)… well of course it will be, they are media! :)
Step-by-step instructions @ : http://www.benheck.com/ and scroll down to the Portable Playstation 2.
OK thats cool but he should do another one using the new smaller PS2 cause it would be less clunky
to #4: someone else who made one made a step by step guide that you could find by searching the forums on benheck.com
to #8: it is the smaller one. of course it's gonna be chunky, it has to fit PS2 motherboard, screen with pcb, batteries(take lots of room), custom circut board for controls, original controller pcb, speakers, DVD drive, and a whole lot of wires
Can somebody please tell me how I can hack my P/S 2 to enable me to play P/S1 games???? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated…
i see
but when it come to the portable ps2
the thing is made from a ps1
well i dont know how that would work
i mean you would need some sort of a
adapter to keep it running.
the olny thing thats the right size for that
would be a tx-789 adapter
if anybody has any qustions
about this
or anything email me
at: email@example.com
the link is no longer working. can someone fix this so I can read it. I would like to try this one.
im wondering if theres a way WITHOUT recking my PS2 memory card, to make it put 2 files of a game that only alows 1 file… anyone know what im talking about?
there is an extra space in the adress…
I think that link should work, not sure, but you can also try kyle's way :)
I have been searching hard for info on this, so thanks for the post, any ideas where I can get more information?
{Ver|Extraordinaril|Terribl}y nice blog, I{ agree|'m in agreement| concur} with {lots|many|most} of what you are {say|assert|announc}ing here.
Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)


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Dolphin is located on the Yonkers side of the Hudson River overlooking the Palisades that stretch across New Jersey to the south and Rockland County to the north.
Dolphin is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, with brunch on Sundays. Dolphin offers many different menu options for the party events. We cater to business networking groups looking for simple passed Hors D'oeuvres all the way up to 6 course sit down dinners.
• Great Food • Great Times • Life is Good


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Stay connected in a disaster with survival radio communication system
You might be wondering why you need to have a survival radio in this age of technology? Almost every other person has their own cell phone and has an access to the internet. So, what's the point of having a survival radio communication system ? In this article, we have answers to all your questions. Why you need to have a Survival Radio Communication System? No doubt we live in a metropolitan world where everyone is connected to each other by technology. But what will happen if the technology we are relying in goes down? Then how will you communicate with your family or find any help? In history, there are a number of events when in the middle of a disaster, the cell phone service went out in the snap of the finger. Like in the 99/11 incident, the systems were extremely overloaded that the cell phone towers became unable to handle the traffic of millions of people all at once. And people were out of service for days. Or during some natural disaster – like hurricane or flood. In these


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A close friend's wife recently gave birth to their second child, a boy who is now 4 months old. This friend and I hadn't spoken in awhile so I called him to catch up on all the momentous events happening in our lives. During the course of the conversation, I asked him how his newborn son was doing. Without pause, my buddy replied, "you know what? That kid is a total pain in my fucking ass. Honestly, there's just no pleasing him. He's quickly driving me insane."
At first, I was shocked. As a first-time father who is absolutely head over heels in love with his daughter, I was practically indignant. What kind of father can speak about his newborn child this way? Clearly, he didn't love his child in the same way that I did. It was like I didn't even know him anymore. How was it possible that we were even friends? But then, a funny thing happened. I started laughing my ass off. I was practically in hysterics. Because you know what? My buddy's a good father. He works his ass off, does everything possible to spend time with his kids and is really a loving, caring guy who's involved in every aspect of his kids' lives. My shock and indignation were just a gut reaction to hearing something I'm not used to hearing. In retrospect, the fact that I could be so judgemental in the flash of a nanosecond seemed so absurd to me. I just had to laugh at my utter idiocy.
Let's face it, my friends. So many people take parenting and their kids too seriously. At times, I have to admit that I'm guilty of this also. In our love and well-meaning concern for our children, we forget to laugh. In this atmosphere of political correctness, we're programmed not to say that our kids are pains in the ass. But fuck it! It's ok to admit it sometimes, my friends. Kids are not conducive to a carefree lifestyle. Not only do they put a serious crimp in one's lifestyle but they can also often be detrimental to one's mental well-being. They require constant attention and are a significant drain on one's resources. So let's all admit it to the sacrifices that we make for our kids. Personally speaking, I can say that (1) I have less sex than I've ever had in my life, (2) all my disposable income no longer goes to vacations or other self-indulgent pleasures, (3) I'm a sleep-deprived zombie half the time and my work certainly suffers for it, (4) some close friendships have gone by the wayside due to my inability to maintain them, and (5) my previously modernist downtown apartment looks like it was hit by a tornado of strollers, exersaucers, playmats, rockers, pacifiers, bibs and bottles.
As much as I love the Peanut, I sometimes long for the freedom of those days long gone by. There are many times (especially at 5:00 am) when I wish the BossLady and I could return to our selfish and carefree child-free lifestyle. I often miss our old lifestyle. There...I said it.
Of course, nothing in the world makes me happier than being with my daughter. And I would sacrifice anything and everything for her well-being and happiness. But I think that being able to admit that parenthood can sometimes be a pain in the ass makes me a better parent. Removing the sugar-coated myths of parenting allow me to always maintain a sense of perspective in my life. And as much as I love being a father, I think I'm healthier for being honest with myself and admitting that parenting is not always a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. And that's not a bad thing.
So let's put ourselves on the couch, my friends. Let's strip away the shiny surface and get down to brass tacks. Because let's face it. Parenthood isn't all fun and games. So what about parenting drives you absolutely insane? What do you miss from your days of childlessness? And what do your kids do that makes you want to send them back?
Feel free to vent and rant.


text:
Elizabeth Brody '53 and Linda Cabot Black '51 biked around Cambridge during their Radcliffe years, but they never met until last November, while logging upwards of 20 miles a day on a cycling tour of the scenic East Coast Greenway (ECG) trail in northern Florida.
Both are longtime supporters of non-motorized transportation and have spent years helping the ambitious ECG project—a 3,000-mile series of linked pathways from Canada to Key West—become a reality. "I believe a horse, a boat, or a bike are the most satisfying ways to get from point A to point B," says Black, a director of the Boston Lyric Opera. "Cars are a very bad habit. Anything we can do to get people out of their cars is better for the environment and, of course, for exercise. It's so ironic that Americans spend all this money on spas and gyms and they don't even walk or bike or take the train to work."
Brody, a retired attorney living in New York City, sees walking and biking on trails as a way to promote community bonds and truly explore and experience the natural world. "It's a wonderful way to meet people," she says. "People are just happier when they are active." Such sentiments, say proponents of "active transportation," are growing and fueling support for projects like the ECG, which planners envision will ultimately offer commuters, travelers, and recreators safe, car-free, handicapped-accessible routes through 15 states and 25 cities along the Eastern seaboard.
Advocates and city planners both report seeing a rise in bike use across the country, especially in urban areas. Solid statistics for New England are hard to find, but in New York City, where the transportation department has collected data at entry points to Manhattan since 1980, the number of commuters who cycle in daily has more than doubled in the past seven years, to 28,300 people in 2009. The most popular route is the 13-mile Hudson River Greenway, the local section of the ECG, which is virtually car-free.
"The ECG is a more daily, urban sister to the Appalachian Trail, and one that will be more accessible to and navigable by many more people," says David Read, M.P.H. '94, of Topsfield, Massachusetts, vice chair of the East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA; www.greenway.org), which oversees the whole project. Read, Brody, and Black—along with Georgia board member Jim Langford, M.B.A. '84, Stephen A. Davis '59 (a Boxford, Massachusetts, selectman who chairs the group helping to build the 3.5-mile ECG trail through his town), and active members James M. Sharpe, M.B.A. '76, and Deborah Stein Sharpe, M.B.A. '81, of Canton, Massachusetts—are among a large number of Harvard alumni who have contributed or still provide significant volunteer time and money to the project. They believe, as Read says, that "the ECG has deep implications for cultural and economic changes in the United States. Public health, economic development, climate change, energy security—this project touches on all of those and promotes a new way of urban planning, around active transportation."
Nearly 20 years in the making, the ECG is now fully mapped out and its current proposed route has been field-tested by very experienced cyclists—but there is still a long way to go before the whole vision is realized. Only about a quarter of the 3,000-mile trail is already off-road. Of the 818 miles of routes mapped out in New England, 165 miles (20 percent) have been completed, all off-road. Connecticut leads the way with nearly 50 miles, followed by Rhode Island, with 24; New Hampshire is last, with none. The heavily populated corridor between New Haven and Portland will be more than 50 percent off-road within a few years, if funding levels continue.
Each local ECG subsection has its own name—which can be confusing, especially while gaps between trails are still being plugged. Thus, the 30-mile Border to Boston Trail (organized by the Border to Boston Trail Coalition, chaired by Read) joins eight communities in Essex County, Massachusetts, running from Danvers north to Salisbury, on the New Hampshire border, where it will eventually link to the New Hampshire Seacoast Greenway. The stretch offers stunningly diverse views, from woodlands, marshes, rivers, and distant coastal beauty to busy highways, town centers, and a range of residential neighborhoods. Read says the recently completed 1.1-mile Clipper City Trail in Newburyport, which connects the train station with downtown, is already a popular non-car option for commuters and families. Now he and the local and regional planning agencies must figure out how to connect that trail to Salisbury's Old Eastern Marsh Trail, across the Merrimack River. Read is also busy with negotiations to complete the New Hampshire Seacoast Greenway, which would run around the Seabrook nuclear power plant's property.
In his own town, Read is helping develop a four-mile trail. The mile-long Topsfield stretch already completed—its stone-dust surface also suitable for horseback riding, a popular local activity—now connects schools, churches, the post office, local stores, and the fairgrounds, home to the country's longest-running agricultural fair (dating to 1818), which draws long lines of traffic each fall. Read and other trail volunteers spent weekends last fall putting up safety railings and decking on an old railroad bridge over the Ipswich River that will become yet another section of the trail once environmental approvals are in place to ensure wetlands protection. "It was so good to get out and do something physical on the trail, instead of sitting in all these planning meetings," he says.
Given his training in epidemiology and his job as chief administrator of medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Read emphasizes the public-health benefits of non-motorized travel. In the United States, where one person in 12 now has diabetes, the associated healthcare cost, he reports, is $174 billion a year. Moreover, approximately nine million children (15 percent) in the country are obese—twice as many as in the 1960s. "It just makes so much sense for this country to promote active transportation," he says. He is himself a prime example of how bike trails can directly contribute to improving health. When he lived in Watertown, he commuted daily by bike to the Harvard School of Public Health. But when he moved to the North Shore, he stopped biking, "gained a lot of weight, and felt terrible." Now he takes the commuter rail to Boston's North Station and then cycles along the Charles River Bike Path to work. "I lost 10 pounds and, at 50, I feel much better than I used to," he says. "I love riding along the river and sometimes going faster than the cars inching along during rush hour—and I feel great when I get to work."
While many commuters will use the ECG to get to work, others will spend their vacations on it. The northernmost section of the ECG, in Maine, is a uniquely wild, 87-mile path, entirely off-road, that begins at Ayers Junction and runs to Ellsworth, near the entrance to Acadia National Park. Along this Downeast Sunrise Trail (www.hcpcme.org/transportation/sunrise), cyclists, hikers, walkers, cross-country skiers, and snowmobilers (this is one remote section that allows them) travel through or near remote forests, blueberry barrens, swamps, and ponds, as well as towns like Machias (on the coast) and Cherryfield (inland), where restaurants and lodgings are available. Forty miles of the trail are complete, surfaced with crushed stone (suitable for wider-tired bikes, although this will likely change to accommodate touring bikes); the balance is due to open this fall.
In Connecticut, the ECG achieved a major breakthrough recently with a proposed 37.5-mile route that will follow the scenic Merritt Parkway, one of the few highways on the National Register of Historic Places. The state department of transportation agreed—after a decade of advocacy for the ECG route—to move forward on a pilot mile of trail in Stamford that has been designed, but not built. With the Merritt route completed, people could pick up the trail at various points throughout Fairfield County and ride all the way to the New York border—and then link to another ECG section taking them into Manhattan.
But to understand the countless factors complicating every mile of ECG construction, says ECGA executive director Dennis Markatos-Soriano, consider that even though the Merritt Parkway has an unusually wide (300-foot) right-of-way, the Merritt Trail has to be far enough from the road to avoid noise, but not too close to homes; must avoid disturbing old trees or environmentally sensitive areas; work around tricky rock outcroppings; and navigate various bridge crossings. Not to mention the negotiations necessary with state and local planners, engineers, elected officials, business owners, and abutters in all the towns involved.
With its staff of six and an annual $500,000 budget, the ECGA oversees the entire project, supporting and working closely with smaller, local grassroots organizations trying to develop pieces of the trail in their own communities. (A Fairfield County Bike-Ped Alliance, which will take on the Merritt Parkway project locally, was being organized at press time.) "We have hundreds of stakeholders that we need to talk to and get approvals and cooperation from for the ECG to be successful in the long run," Markatos-Soriano asserts. "But that's the way it should be. People always fear change. It's up to us to communicate the positive attributes of greenways": improving local economies by drawing tourists and other visitors, boosting housing values, fostering community-building through outdoor activity on public land, decreasing the nation's dependence on oil, and promoting physical exercise and health.
Board member Jim Langford sees the ECG as the first of many bike/pedestrian trails that will become an interstate system linking many major cities and attractions, not to mention neighborhoods within towns and suburbs across America. "If, in 1910, you'd said to people, 'In the coming years, you're going to be able to drive from your paved driveway on paved roads all across the country and go anywhere you want in a car,' they would've said you were nuts," says Langford, head of the nonprofit MillionMile Greenway in Georgia (www.millionmilegreenway.org), which helps establish pilot local greenway initiatives. "Well, these greenways are the reverse of that. One day, you will be able to walk from your house or work to a greenway in your neighborhood and bike or walk or go in a wheelchair on trails that are not highways, and get to the store, your friends, the train—wherever you want to go." Markatos-Soriano calls this vision the "Eisenhower Interstate System 2.0," recalling that era of dramatic motorized highway expansion.
In the meantime, however, all involved in the ECG project acknowledge the complex work ahead. Continued monetary and political support is critical. The ECGA, based in New York City, had to lay off its communications coordinator last year, and depends on many volunteers like Read, Brody, and Langford to keep pushing the project forward.
Economic stimulus funds have been awarded to about 28 miles of new ECG trails; other trail-project applications are pending. Increasingly, Markatos-Soriano tries to shore up state and federal support (he met last fall with U.S. Department of Transportation deputy secretary John Porcari, who seems ready to promote non-motorized traveling options more actively). Yet he says, "Though many of us in the health, environment, and energy-security community see the ECG as one of the top infrastructure projects in our country—and we are making great progress with our federal, state, and local transportation leaders—we have a way to go to get that level of support and priority" for federal transportation funding.
Car-catering infrastructure is exorbitantly expensive, Markatos-Soriano notes: each mile of highway demands millions of dollars. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge spanning the Potomac River, for example, cost $2.4 billion (about $300 million per mile for the 7.5 miles of roadway over the bridge). Compare that to a mile of greenway, which costs, on average, between $100,000 and $250,000. (Costs can rise to $1 million if bridges are required.) "All weneed is another $2 billion—less than the cost of that one bridge—to complete many of the remaining ECG trailways," he points out.
For Langford, the time is right for the ECG. He believes Americans have reached a tipping point on two counts: understanding the impact of health problems and the need for daily recreation and fitness; and understanding the need to conserve green space. "Some communities get the concept more than others," he says, "but there is a general premise now that preserving green space for humans is critical." Many developers, he adds, now see that trails and greenways are useful amenities, while business leaders have seen that greenways are good for local economies. "This has led to a more symbiotic relationship between citizens and local governing boards," Langford maintains. "It's no longer two groups fighting each other, it's two groups finding that these greenways are really good things for communities, and working together to figure out how to find the money and make greenways happen."


text:
zoom (play interactive fiction games)
Zoom is a player for Z-Code, TADS and HUGO stories or games. These are
usually text adventures ('interactive fiction'), and were first created
by Infocom with the Zork series of games. Throughout the 80's, Infocom
released many interactive fiction stories before their ambitions to
enter the database market finally brought them low.
Maintained by: B. Watson
Keywords: infocom,zcode,z-code,zmachine,z-machine,zork,advent,interactive fiction
ChangeLog: zoom
Download SlackBuild:
zoom.tar.gz.asc (FAQ)
(the SlackBuild does not include the source)
Individual Files: |
config_xft.diff |
doinst.sh |
slack-desc |
zoom.1 |
zoom.SlackBuild |
zoom.desktop |
zoom.info |
zoom.png |
© 2006-2024 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds


text:
From DefenseNews
Much fanfare accompanied the Sept. 25, 2010, launch of the Air Force's Space Based Space Surveillance satellite.
The $833 million craft was finally going up to do its job: monitor orbiting items from space itself, free of the time constraints and atmospheric interference that hamper its earthbound counterpart, the Space Fence.
Its 30-centimeter telescope, mounted on a two-axis gimbal, would help keep tabs on satellites as far away as geosynchronous orbit as well as thousands of bits of space junk closer in.
The builders said SBSS would be on the job within 60 days, and forecast a working life of at least 5½ years.
Shortly after launch, the satellite passed over the South Atlantic, and things went awry.
The satellite was hit by radiation that sent the sensors reeling and knocked out an electronics board payload.
Suddenly, the expensive, specially-designed satellite could no longer do what it was built for.
The effects of radiation are part of the price of doing business in space.
There are solar flares, random magnetic distortions and what some NASA scientists call euphemistically the "killer electrons" of the Van Allen radiation belts.
The place where spacecraft are most vulnerable, though, is an area slightly larger than the United States, centered 300 kilometers off the coast of Brazil, where the trapped charged particles of the doughnut-shaped Van Allen radiation belts and cosmic rays from sun storms combine and bottom out at about 200 kilometers above the planet.
Its formal name is the South Atlantic Anomaly, but some call it the Bermuda Triangle of space.
These two nearly identical spacecraft launched in August 2012 and with only six months in operation, they may well be rewriting science textbooks. The probes study the Van Allen belts, gigantic radiation belts surrounding Earth, which can swell dramatically in response to incoming energy from the sun, engulfing satellites and spacecraft and creating potential threats to manned space flight.
James Van Allen discovered the radiation belts during the 1958 launch of the first successful U.S. satellite. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts, but what causes the dynamic variation in the region has remained something of a mystery.
James Van Allen discovered the radiation belts during the 1958 launch of the first successful U.S. satellite. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts, but what causes the dynamic variation in the region has remained something of a mystery.
It's directly in the path of satellites in low Earth orbit, which fly through it regularly — in some cases, multiple times a day.
"The South Atlantic Anomaly is the rocky road of radiation storms," said Vic Scuderi, manager of satellite electronics at BAE Systems in Manassas, Va.
NASA scientists believe that there is a cloud of protons, followed by a cloud of electrons, followed by a cloud of protons, etc., where the inner Van Allen radiation belt dips down in the anomaly.
"A lot of theoretical people have tried to justify it," said Old Dominion University professor Francis Badavi.
"The typical spacecraft engineer hasn't been able to come up with a reason" for it.
All they know is that radiation in the South Atlantic Anomaly is intense, that spacecraft have to be designed to deal with it and that, even then, there is potential for peril.
Killer electrons
Scientists have a working theory that the Earth's magnetic field is caused by its molten iron center.
Because that core rotates at a slightly different pace than the planet's surface, the field generates magnetic North and South poles slightly away from the geographic poles that form the Earth's rotational axis.
That's the explanation for something even every hiker knows: that the magnetic north shown on a compass is not true north.
That offset also is believed to be the reason that the Earth's magnetic field is weakest in the area off Brazil.
Less hindered, the inner Van Allen radiation belt dips closest to Earth there.
The anomaly was discovered in 1958 as part of a study of space radiation belts by University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen, whose suspicion was aroused by the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellites. Soviet scientists believed the primitive data-recording device on board Sputnik I was faulty because it told of radiation levels well beyond anything they believed possible.
But Van Allen postulated that the device was fine and that the inexplicable radiation did indeed exist. Four months after Sputnik went up, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer I, and Van Allen began to investigate the radiation belts that today bear his name.
In the 1960s and early '70s, the Air Force and NASA flew a covey of 22 satellites to map the Van Allen radiation belts between altitudes of 200 and 36,000 kilometers.
The flights generated databases that are still in use today.
On Aug. 30, NASA launched its Radiation Belt Storm Probes (later renamed Van Allen Probes), twin satellites on a two-year mission to do more mapping and to update those databases.
Shielded by quarter-inch aluminum, the sensors are flying into the radiation belts for long periods, trying to solve a puzzle.
Sometimes, when solar storms hit the belts, they fill with energetic particles, the so-called "killer electrons."
At other times, the belts lose particles.
And sometimes nothing at all happens.
"The problem is, there is no unified idea of what phenomena are most important inside the belts," said mission scientist David Sibeck.
"If there are 100 people at a [scientific] meeting, there will be 100 answers for every question: 'How are 'killer electrons' energized?' "
Quick and not-so-quick fixes
The Space Based Space Surveillance satellite that was bashed so badly in 2010 was eventually brought back to life.
A software patch was developed and tested over the course of more than a year, and the SBSS was declared operationally capable 23 months after launch.
SBSS builders Boeing and Ball Aerospace referred questions to the Air Force, which did not respond by press time.
The satellites' fate illustrates the problems the South Atlantic Anomaly can cause even to the most well-planned ISR missions.
Tom Logsdon, a former Rockwell Collins engineer, now retired, explained that the radiation can confound the very heart of the software on a satellite.
"One of the things that happens is, you can get logic upsets," Logsdon said.
"You get a charged particle coming through the satellite, and it can flip some of the binary ones to binary zeros, and vice versa.
"Someone would have to upload the memory again or command it to reset, and it would start all over."
Not every satellite damaged by the Anomaly takes so long to fix.
In October, the SpaceX Dragon, part of a $1 billion contract with NASA to supply the International Space Station, suffered a single-event upset en route to docking with the ISS.
A remote electronic unit became inoperable as the craft passed through the South Atlantic Anomaly.
A quick power cycle and re-synching remedied the issue.
Other programs work around the Anomaly.
To avoid exposing astronauts to intense radiation, spacewalks are not scheduled on the International Space Station when it's passing through the Anomaly — which happens two to five times a day.
As a precaution, NASA engineers simply shut down the Hubble Telescope as it is going through the SAA, to protect its equipment.
Smaller commercial and military satellites carry radiation detection devices — themselves vulnerable to radiation — that trigger shutdowns and power-ups of sensors and computers.
Satellites carry radiation-hardened electronics of varying degrees to deal with the energy that accumulates.
"Commercial and defense-contracted satellites are typically on a 15-year mission timeframe, and they have to withstand hammering the whole time," BAE's Scuderi said.
"The electronics that we put on board the satellites can accumulate up to 500,000 rads" or radiation absorbed doses.
"A human being can only absorb about 400 rads in a lifetime," he said, by way of comparison.
That accumulative effect is called a "total ionizing dose," and it's largely predictable, in part because orbital trips through the SAA are predictable.
As the ions pile up, the satellite can become impaired.
"Solar arrays become less efficient," Logsdon said. "Silicon solar cells get damaged, so they generate less electricity."
Space radiation affects satellites
No escape from radiation
On March 8, 2012, a flurry of eruptions on the sun began sending enough energy into the Earth's upper atmosphere to power every home in New York City for two years.
Over three days, 26 billion kilowatt-hours pounded the thermosphere, which begins about 53 miles up.
Infrared radiation from the thermosphere's carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide re-radiated about 95 percent of that energy back into space.
Some satellites orbiting Earth were hit going and coming by radiation that, NASA assessed, would cut their lives short.
And there are more storms ahead because, this year, the planet reaches the apex of an 11-year solar event cycle.
Around the world, a satellite is launched about every four days with varying radiation mitigation capability, generally dictated by its budget.
While the day-to-day radiation in the South Atlantic Anomaly and throughout the Van Allen radiation belts can be anticipated, the inability to predict solar storms makes the jobs of designers and operators more difficult.
With more notice, operators could do things like shut down equipment to lessen vulnerability.
But they understand the problem.
"We can't produce an accurate forecast for rain here on Earth more than three days ahead," Scuderi said.
"The number of variables in space is probably 10 to 100 times more than on Earth."
Still, NASA and NOAA try, albeit with diminishing funding and satellites that are wearing out.
The Radiation Belt Storm Probes twin-satellite mission is another in a long line of research efforts.
"We've spent a lot of resources trying to predict solar activity, but we're still not there," Badavi said.
A former DoD intelligence official said the South Atlantic Anomaly is just part of the ISR challenge.
"We're just lucky," he said, "there's not a lot of demand for satellite imagery over the South Atlantic."