The value of gold
Gold seems to be enjoying a resurgence, and its fans are promoting the Randian fantasy of a return to a gold standard. But how would that work?
An Iceland in the South Atlantic ?
The Rio Grande Rise Massif and the Valdivia Bank have been interpreted as the two halves of an originally continuous hot-spot-related plateau formed on the Mid Atlantic Ridge. Is Iceland an example of what that plateau might have been like, geologically at least, at the time of its formation?
Rand and the weather
Ayn Rand hated altruism. How would she have responded to natural disaster?
The Aragonauts
Most of what has been written about Jacques Arago concentrates on the voyage of the Uranie, and only to a lesser extent on his literary career in the 1830s. Mentions of his second major journey, which began with a plan to join the California gold rush, are far less common.
Gravity and the Middle Amazon Basin
If it had not been for LinkedIn, I might never have been aware of the existence of the 2024 Bouguer gravity map of Brazil, and that would have been a pity. Some things jump out almost at first sight, and one of these is the narrow and almost linear gravity high that roughly coincides with the main course of the middle Amazon.
The execution connoisseur
The Livre des Cent-et-un was published in Paris from 1831 to 1834. Each of the fifteen volumes had between 400 and 500 pages, and among the contributors were Alexandre Dumas, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, and Victor Hugo. And also Jacques Arago, who wrote three pieces, including a strange tale of a man who loved executions.