The world's first seismometer was Chinese

Who was the inventor of the first siesmometer?
 Zhang Heng. He was  (AD 78–139) a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman. He lived under the Han Dynasty (AD 25–220) of China. He was a  Chief Astronomer, Prefect of the Majors for Official Carriages, and then Palace Attendant at the imperial court.  He invented the world's first water-powered armillary sphere,  improved the inflow water clock by adding another tank and invented the world's first seismometer, which discerned the cardinal direction of an earthquake 500 km away. He improved previous Chinese calculations of the formula for pi. In addition to documenting about 2,500 stars in his extensive star catalogue. Some modern scholars have also compared his work in astronomy to that of Ptolemy (AD 86–161). (Adapted from Wiki)

 A replica of an ancient Chinese Siesmograph  (25-220 CE). Picture taken in July 2004  at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland California.

"In 132 CE, after several serious earthquakes in China, astronomer Zhang Heng invented this instrument to warn people of the next one. When the ground shook, it moved a pendulum inside the jug. The pendulum pushed a lever that opened one dragon's mouth. A ball rolled out and into the toad's mouth below, sounding an alarm. The open dragon mouth pointed in the direction of the earthquake, notifying the Emperor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EastHanSeismograph.JPG

Alan Turing

Google celebrates the 100th birthday of a computer genius, Alan Mathison Turing (23 June 1912 - 7 June 1954) with a doodle. He is the founder of computer science. He broke the german Enigma-ciphered code.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Alan-Mathison-Turings-100th-birthday-Google-pays-tribute-with-a-doodle/articleshow/14353203.cms

Isaac Newton and the Philosopher's Stone

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton's_occult_studies
"Of the material sold during the 1936 Sotheby's auction, several documents indicate an interest by Newton in the procurement or development of The Philosopher's Stone. Most notably are documents entitled, "Artephius his secret Book", ...  "The Epistle of Iohn Pontanus"..... , these are themselves a collection of excerpts from another work entitled, "Nicholas Flammel, His Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures which he caused to be painted upon an Arch in St Innocents Church-yard in Paris. Together with The secret Booke of Artephius, And the Epistle of Iohn Pontanus: Containing both the Theoricke and the Practicke of the Philosophers Stone". ...  Nicolas Flamel, (one subject of the aforementioned work) was a notable, though mysterious figure, often associated with the discovery of The Philosopher's Stone, Hieroglyphical Figures, early forms of tarot, and occultism. Artephius, and his "secret book", were also subjects of interest to 17th century alchemists."

As told in the previous post, Isaac Newton became the Master of the Mint. In the case that he had actually discovered the Philosopher's Stone.

Mela, Pomponius

"Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (Algeciras) and died c 45 CE. His short work (De situ orbis libri III.) occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print. It is laconic in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures. Excepting the geographical parts of Pliny's Historia naturalis (where Mela is cited as an important authority) the De situ orbis is the only formal treatise on the subject in Classical Latin."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomponius_Mela

Munich Digitization Center

Digitised works/ Author: Mela, Pomponius

http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=en&ab=Mela%2C+Pomponius

Women on the Nile

"The writings of 19th century travellers in Egypt gave momentum to many European adventurers to excavate more, not only of its antiquities, but also of its social, cultural and religious life. Joan Rees' Women on the Nile (published by the American University in Cairo Press) is an excellent survey with illustrations by David Robert, Giovanni Belzoni, W. H. Bartlett, Owen Jones, Edward Lear and many other Western travellers from different walks of life, but all inspired to visit the heart of the Arab world and describe Egypt, its monuments and people."

http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=956&title=Western%20women%20in%2019th%20century%20Egypt

Farewell Lieutenant Columbo

"Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles and was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film The Brink's Job said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh.""

More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Falk

Image created with labyrinthine tiling (see http://staff.polito.it/amelia.sparavigna/rendering/index.html, http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0609084). 

El Inca

"El Inca, Garcilaso de la Vega (April 12, 1539–1616), born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, was a historian and writer from the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. The son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman, he is recognized primarily for his contributions to Inca history, culture, and society. Although not all scholars agree, many consider Garcilaso's accounts the most complete and accurate available. Because there was also a Spanish author named Garcilaso de la Vega, he is more commonly known as "El Inca" Garcilaso de la Vega, or simply "El Inca Garcilaso"."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garcilaso_de_la_Vega_(El_Inca)

Guaman Poma

Da Wikipedia.
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, conosciuto anche come Guaman Poma (San Cristóbal de Suntuntu, località della provincia di Lucanas nella regione di Ayacucho, 1550 ca. – dopo il 1615), è stato un cronista indigeno del Perù durante la conquista dell'America.
 « Questo è il nostro paese, perché Dio ce lo ha dato »
Era il figlio di Guaman Mallqui e Juana Cori Ocllo Coya (ultima figlia del sovrano Túpac Yupanqui)...
Nel 1908, nella Biblioteca Reale di Copenaghen (Danimarca), fu riscoperto un antico manoscritto di 1179 pagine: la Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno di Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, di cui non si avevano più notizie da circa 300 anni. ...
Questa opera, di altissimo valore storico, aveva in origine un obiettivo concreto: ritrarre la realtà andina e sollecitare la corona spagnola ad effettuare una riforma del governo coloniale per salvare le popolazioni andine dallo sfruttamento e dai maltrattamenti. La relazione, infatti, era dedicata al re Filippo III di Spagna, ma andò smarrita durante il viaggio verso la penisola iberica. Oggi si conserva nella Biblioteca Reale di Copenaghen e si può consultare on-line.
http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/poma/info/en/frontpage.htm

Fernando Sanford and the "Kirlian effect"

My paper on Fernando Sanford and the Kirlian effect has been selected by
Look 'n' Watch
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week

http://technologyreview.es/blog/arxiv/26758/

Emmy Noether

Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician.

To the Editor of The New York Times:
The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
Within the past few days a distinguished mathematician, Professor Emmy Noether, formerly connected with the University of Göttingen and for the past two years at Bryn Mawr College, died in her fifty-third year. In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians, Fräulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began. In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered methods which have proved of enormous importance in the development of the present-day younger generation of mathematicians. Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. One seeks the most general ideas of operation which will bring together in simple, logical and unified form the largest possible circle of formal relationships. In this effort toward logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.
Born in a Jewish family distinguished for the love of learning, Emmy Noether, who, in spite of the efforts of the great Göttingen mathematician, Hilbert, never reached the academic standing due her in her own country, none the less surrounded herself with a group of students and investigators at Göttingen, who have already become distinguished as teachers and investigators. Her unselfish, significant work over a period of many years was rewarded by the new rulers of Germany with a dismissal, which cost her the means of maintaining her simple life and the opportunity to carry on her mathematical studies. Farsighted friends of science in this country were fortunately able to make such arrangements at Bryn Mawr College and at Princeton that she found in America up to the day of her death not only colleagues who esteemed her friendship but grateful pupils whose enthusiasm made her last years the happiest and perhaps the most fruitful of her entire career.

Albert  Einstein.
Princeton University, May 1, 1935.
[The New York Times May 5, 1935]

Hiram Bingham

Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham III, (1875–1956) was an academic, explorer, treasure hunter and politician from the United States. He made public the existence of the Quechua citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911 with the guidance of local Indigenous farmers. Later, Bingham served as a member of the United States Senate.

More Wiki
Bingham used the Raimondi's maps of Peru for exploring the country. In the book "Inca Land, Explorations in the Highlands of Peru", Bingham is telling "Raimondi's marvelous energy led him to penetrate to more out-of-the-way Peruvian villages than any one had ever done before or is likely to do again. He stopped at nothing in the way of natural obstacles."

Antonio Raimondi

"Antonio Raimondi (1826 – 1890) was a prominent Italian-born Peruvian geographer and scientist. Born in Milan, Raimondi emigrated to Peru, arriving on July 28, 1850 at the port of Callao. In 1851 he became a professor of natural history. ...Throughout his career, Raimondi displayed a passion for all things Peruvian. He undertook no less than 18 extensive journeys to all regions of the country, studying the nation's geography, geology, botany, zoology, ethnography, and archaeology. In 1875, he collected his findings in the massive tome El Perú, ...".

More Wiki

Simon van der Meer

Simon van der Meer: 1925–2011 - physicsworld.com

Profiles - Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph (1840 – 1904) was the chief of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.

From Wiki

Joseph the Younger succeeded his father as chief in 1871. Before his death, the latter counseled his son:

"My son, my body is returning to my mother earth, and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother." Chief Joseph commented "I clasped my father's hand and promised to do as he asked. A man who would not defend his father's grave is worse than a wild beast."

...

Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of the Montana Territory, less than 40 miles south of Canada in a place close to the present-day Chinook in Blaine County. The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Chief Joseph at the formal surrender:
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

The image shows Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Chief Joseph at the Nez Percé Lapwai Reservation in Idaho, where Fletcher arrived in 1889. The image is adapted from the original photograph by Jane Gay. This image is in the public domain due to its age.

Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838 - 1923) was an American ethnologist who studied and documented American Indian culture. More  Wiki and also http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/fletcher/ (this web page has an image archive with original stereoscopic pictures).

Profiles - Hero of Alexandria

The idea using the power of steam is quite old. A Greek mathematician and engineer who resided in the Ptolemaic Egypt, named Hero, wrote a manuscript describing various devices and ideas of the time. Although it is not sure that Hero was the inventor of  these devices, he is credited for the earliest mention of steam power. Hero describes a method to open the doors of a temple with the action of a fire on an altar at the front of the temple. A series of pipes runs between altar and the temple doors: it is the steam created by the fire on the altar and the suitable syste of pipes to open the temple doors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Alexandria

Figure from http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/hero/section37.html
This is a page of  "THE PNEUMATICS" of HERO OF ALEXANDRIA, from the original greek.
See also http://library.thinkquest.org/C006011/english/sites/steam_first_experiments.php3?v=2

Profiles - Ibn al-Haytham

"The Scholar and the Caliph" by Jennifer Ouellette is a work of fiction, a imagining of a 10-year period in the life of the medieval Muslim polymath Ibn al-Haytham (AD 965–1040) considered by many historians to be the father of modern optics. He lived during the golden age of Arabic science, creating an early version of the scientific method, two hundred years before scholars in Western Europe. He is most celebrated for his Book of Optics.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/44677

Profiles - Duchess of Medina Sidonia

"Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo was not only a novelist but also a historian, and lived in her palace in Sanlúcar with the most important private archive in Europe, said to be more than one million historical documents. She spent the latter years of her life cataloguing this legacy, in the residence where he ancestors have lived since 1297. The Duchess said in an interview in 2004 that the oldest document in the archive dates from 1128, and published a book ‘Africa versus America’ at the beginning of this decade, the result of years of exhaustive research of her own archive and others in Spain. In it, she challenged the official history that the Americas were discovered by Christopher Columbus, claiming that trade had been taking place across the Atlantic for centuries before the official ‘Discovery.’"
Read more:
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15508.shtml#ixzz19sDv9POH
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_1683000/1683276.stm