Let's talk about Barbara Jordan, Texas lawyer, politician & civil rights leader.
Born Feb 21st, 1936 in Houston's 5th Ward, daughter of a Baptist minister.
Barred from attending Univ of TX by segregation, she graduated Texas Southern University magna cum laude.
During her time at TSU (historically black university in Houston), majoring in political science & history, she led their debate team to national championship.
She graduated Boston University School of Law in 1959 with JD, taught Political Science at Tuskegee Institute in AL.
After 2 unsuccessful bids for state rep, she won a seat in Texas Senate in 1966, the 1st Black Senator since 1883, and the 1st Black woman.
Re-elected, she served until 1972, was the 1st Black Senate pro tempore, and on June 10, 1972 sworn as Governor of Texas for a single day.
1972, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the 1st woman from TX to serve that post.
1974, she makes a famous speech before Nixon impeachment as member of Judiciary Committee.
She had an amazing life & made many contributions. Many firsts as a woman of color who was also LGBTQ.
In her personal life, she spent 20 years with her partner, Nancy Early, an educational psychologist.
She received numerous honors, hon. degrees, and left a lasting legacy.
You can view statues to Barbara Jordan at the Austin Airport or another on the campus of the University of Texas... which she was unable to attend due to segregation.
"What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise"
- Barbara Jordan.
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Famed population geneticist RA Fisher published this paper in 1936 taking Mendel to task for either concealing, cherry-picking, or omitting parts of his study of pea genetics.
1. The segregation ratios (as in 'Mendelian ratios') are too perfect. Actual observations are modified by noise and distortion, only land on the 3:1, 1:2:1 ratios in extremely large samples sizes of ideal, perfect genetic models.
I want to talk about the Map-Territory Relation in #science & why it matters to many topics in public perception of science.
It's what I think of when people insist that 'science says there are only two genders'.
Maybe you've seen this work by René Magritte, called "The Treachery of Images". The text translates: "this is not a pipe".
It's not. It's an IMAGE of a pipe. It only resembles an actual pipe in one very specific way, from a particular angle, in 2-D.
Like this PICTURE of a pipe, a scientific model or system of classification is by nature a SIMPLIFICATION.
British statistician George Box: "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. However, the approximate nature of the model must always be borne in mind."
But the most interesting story about Benjamin Franklin I've run across is the giant pit filled with human bones that was recently (1997) found in his basement.
Really.
A giant pit of human bones. The remains of at least 28 bodies. In his basement. Cut up with a saw.
Ben Franklin lived at 36 Craven Street in London (now the 'Benjamin Franklin House & Museum').
Workers doing renovations found the bones in a buried pit in the basement, remains including those of infants.
He had a special arrangement with a friend of a friend, William Hewson, now called the "Father of Hematology" for his discovery of blood composition and fibrin.
Hewson operated an "anatomy school" in Ben Franklin's garden (back yard) where students dissected cadavers.
He had an acknowledged illegitimate son, William, who was the last British governor of New Jersey & chief Loyalist, running pro-British military operations from his base in New York.
He died in exile. But HE had an illegitimate son...
William Temple Franklin was William's illegitimate son, born while William was in law school, London.
"Temple" accompanied his GRANDFATHER Benjamin & acted as his secretary, worked on Treaty of Paris where France recognized USA.
Brief return to US, then rest of life in France.
Temple had an illegitimate son, Théodore, but he died before the age of 5, and an illegitimate daughter, Ellen Franklin Hanbury, who was raised by HER grandfather William.
Ellen married but had no children, so this particular chain of Franklin Bastards reaches its end.
My hypothesis:
Humans invented hats because we were envious of the marvelous headgear in the animal world.
Let's talk about antlers, horns, ossicones & pronghorns.
#Antlers are shed & regrown every year, composed of bone that begins at a pedicle, base structure that remains after shedding. Antlers are extensions of the the skull.
Mechanism of growth similar to bone HEALING: cartilaginous tissue gives rise to bone coated in skin "velvet".
Antlers usually only form on males, with one exception: female reindeer grow shortened antlers, which may be functional for snow clearing, or challenge between females over scarce food resources.