Comments | presentiment: I can't get away from academia, can I?

presentiment

I can't get away from academia, can I?

May 10, 2008 13:56

Last night, I went to the local Planetarium to see "Hubble Vision." It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but still very interesting. Perhaps it would have been more awesome if it was less than ten years old? It was copywrited in 1997 ( Read more... )

Comments 114

darth_cabal May 10 2008, 19:49:31 UTC

That's really interesting about the lead-poisoned Romans. Did it say how they were consuming it? Eating acidic foods off of lead plates? A lot of seafood is high in metals and such, but I'm not sure how much of that is a result of modern pollution. Interesting.

presentiment May 10 2008, 20:32:33 UTC

I can't remember all of the ways it was making it into their systems (there were a lot), but I think the most prevalent were that their wine had a freakishly high lead content (Caligula was a raging alcoholic, so this would probably have made up the majority of his poisoning), most of the foods were cooked in lead pots and that Roman women used makeup that used lead as a base.

Lead poisoning, of course, causes such fun things as reproductive issues, aggression and irritability, hyperactivity or lethargy and (according to a study published in 2000 and revisited in 2007) "a strong association between preschool blood lead and subsequent violent crime rate trends." Fantastic.

(The comment has been removed)

presentiment May 11 2008, 01:31:16 UTC

*grin*

Thread 5

bond_323 May 11 2008, 01:34:47 UTC

I've got yet another bad-ass book called "Rome on Five Denarii a Day" that talks about lots of stuff like that. It is written as if you were a traveler in 50 AD, and were headed to Rome on a vacation.

Most of drinking water in Rome was carried through lead pipes... ech! And something like ten to fifteen percent of an upperclass Roman's bread was pure chalk. They thought the whiter the bread, the healthier. Oops!

presentiment May 11 2008, 01:37:09 UTC

How do you find these books? I am jealous of your book finding skills!

Rome certainly wasn't the healthiest place to live, that's for sure.

bond_323 May 11 2008, 04:12:23 UTC

Hahahaha... Huge history geek! Don't worry, I'll pass them on to you!

It sure wasn't, what with the disease, murders, robberies, lack of good food, crazy emperors... Still might have been fun to visit!

presentiment May 11 2008, 18:07:42 UTC

Heee. I don't have so many awesome books... or if I do, they are scattered among my various relatives' houses.

Thread 118