If you are only looking at recent history, this might be true, but there’s another that had more casualties than both of these together. In it, over 150 men, women, and children were killed. Unlike the two more recent shootings, it wasn’t the work of one shooter, it was done by the U.S. military and the victims were the Lakota people. It was the Wounded Knee Massacre.

In December of 1890, the 7th Cavalry Unit of the U.S. military went to Lakota reservation to take away the guns from the Lakota people. The Lakota had been bison hunters, but the numbers of those animals had been reduced by the U.S. military in an effort to starve out the people who were dependent upon them as a food source. The reservation land they had been granted had been reduced to a smaller and smaller area by white settlers and gold miners.

One story of the event says that a man named Black Coyote didn’t want to give up his rifle since he had paid a lot for it. His reluctance led to a scuffle, shots were fired, and then the massacre followed. Whether this is true or whether the Lakota just decided that they needed to make a stand, we can’t really know but it’s something to keep in mind when you hear someone say that we would be better off if only the government, and not the people, have guns.

Kohl would also be used to darken lashes and eyebrows. Later, probably influenced by the Greeks, if nature hadn’t blessed them with a unibrow, they would use kohl to fill in between their brows. (I’m glad that fad didn’t survive to be passed down to us.)

Even glitter eye shadow isn’t new. The Egyptians also had this, made from ground up shells of iridescent beetles.

Through most of history, eye shadow and other makeup was either homemade or made by specialists for the individual. In the early 1900s modern chemistry had made it possible to have a wider range of colors and to have makeup that was easily removed. Max Factor (who was a real person named Maksymilian Faktorowicz, not just a cosmetics brand) opened a store in Hollywood in 1909. It was meant to cater to actors but women also purchased his eye makeup for their personal use. Everyone wants to look like a movie star!

Jean Astruc noticed that some passages used the name Yahweh for God and others used Elohim. He believed that Moses used two different documents for his sources. Later, a man named Julius Wellhausen extended this theory by identifying four different sources that date from different periods and emphasize different concerns. Along with the two sources mentioned above are the Priestly source and the Deuteronomic source.

In the parts that use “Yahweh” for the name of God, His name is known to Adam but in the parts that use “Elohim” and the priestly source, His name isn’t known to man until He reveals it to Moses (in Exodus). He says, “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them by name, Yahweh.”

The Deuteronomic source is basically Deuteronomy. Instead of telling a story, it is a book of speeches. Although these speeches were supposed to be ones that Moses delivered to his people after they had been wandering as nomads for years, its laws are ones for an agricultural society. For example, Deuteronomy 19:14:

The Priestly source is mostly in Leviticus and parts of Numbers. The concerns expressed in this source are about worship: sacrifices, the Sabbath, holidays, circumcision, rituals, and what is pure and impure (food, behavior).

The Yahweh texts are thought to have been originally written about 1000 BC and the Elohim, about 900 BC. They were combined around 800 BC. The Deuteronomic texts were also written about that time and then combined with the first two after another hundred years. The Priestly texts were added in during the 6th Century BC.

The stories in the Bible are older than the dates they were written because they were part of an oral tradition and many of them have similarities to older Babylonian stories. Despite similarities, the Bible introduced some revolutionary religious ideas.

The most revolutionary was the idea of a single God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and exists everywhere. In polytheism gods lived in a special place where only they existed (although they would come to Earth to visit people…mostly to get up to no good.) The gods represented things in nature – the sky, fertility, crops, or the sea. In polytheism, religious stories (myths) told about the lives of the gods, in monotheism the Bible tells the stories of people and their relationship to God.

It looks more like something you would take a string trimmer to than it does an important food crop, doesn’t it?

Early Mesoamericans (people who lived in what is now Mexico and Central America, before Europeans came) bred the plants over thousands of years to get plants that were closer to what we think of as corn.

Modern corn needs people as much as people need it. If an apple falls off an apple tree, the fruit will rot and the seeds will have a chance of sprouting. If a corn cob full of corn falls off the plant the seeds are too tightly wrapped to be able to sprout. Even if it was shucked first, there are too many tightly spaced seeds. It would not have the room it needs to grow.

Corn growers realized they could breed together several varieties of corn and create hybrids that combined the most desirable qualities of the ancestor varieties. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “About 95 percent of our corn acreage now is planted to hybrid corn. We produce at least 20 percent more corn on 25 percent fewer acres than in 1930, when seed of hybrid corn became available in quantity to American farmers.”

Hybridization let us develop corn that was more vigorous, disease resistant, had shorter growing periods, and was sweeter. New seeds had to be bought each year since you cannot grow the same plant from the seeds of a hybrid. The plants from its seeds will revert back to the parent varieties.

Corn that had been genetically modified in a lab was first made commercially available in 1996 by Monsanto. There have been several genetically engineered modifications to corn:

• Herbicide tolerant – This lets farmers use an herbicide that kills weeds without harming the crop. This helps prevent soil erosion because the lands needs less tilling to destroy weeds.
• Bt toxin production – A toxin that is produced by a soil bacterium is inserted into the plant. It is harmful to insects that try to eat the plant but is not harmful to humans or animals. It reacts with the alkaline insides of the insect (our stomachs have acid). An extract of this toxin is used in organic farming. Using plants with this modification means the farmers can use less pesticides.
• Starch breakdown – This GM corn contains a transgene for an enzyme that breaks the starch in the corn down into maltose. This speeds the corn’s production into ethanol.

Corn and other plant hybridization helped feed the world for a while, but to keep growing we need to continue to develop genetically engineered plants that provide more food, use less resources, and are more environmentally friendly.

Learn more about teosinte from the University of Wisconsin and the history of maize (corn) from History.com
NYT article about the history of corn

Find out the myths and truth about GMO corn from NPR

Read a post at the Skeptical Raptor’s Blog with lots of links to learn about GMO science vs. anti-GMO fear mongers.

Section 1.

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2.

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

The temperance movement – people against the consumption of alcohol – had been growing in the U.S. since the 1820s pushed by a renewed interest in religion. It became a social justice cause for women, and as they acquired the vote, they were able to increase the political pressure to ban liquor.

The final straw may have been the anti-German sentiment brought about by World War I. Many of the United States’ breweries were owned by German-Americans and were viewed as unAmerican. Trying to deflect the temperance movement from shutting them down, the breweries attacked distilleries and hard liquor, and promoted beer as a healthful drink.

Even during Prohibition you could buy and consume alcohol, if you had a doctor’s prescription for it. (Not unlike medical marijuana in some states today.) A prescription would let you buy up to one pint every ten days. A Chicago drugstore (Walgreen’s) with 20 stores in 1920 grew with the help of prescribed alcohol and had over 525 locations by the end of Prohibition. This is why there are liquor sales in drugstores today, even in states that don’t allow hard liquor to be sold in stores other than liquor stores. (The laws vary from state to state on whether beer, wine, or liquor can be sold in grocery or convenience stores.)

It was repealed by the 21st Amendment which was passed on February 20, 1933 and ratified on December 5, 1933.

Section 1.

The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Weddings were followed by feasts which could last for several days. It was a point of pride in Middle Eastern cultures then, as it is now, for the host to be able to provide plentiful food and wine for their guests. Running out of wine while the party is still going strong would have brought dishonor on the family even if it wasn’t due to their poor planning or lack of funds. Maybe they had enough before, but then Jesus decided to invite his disciple bros. Not a problem, a few more are always welcome.

Mary decides to state what is obviously obvious.* “They have no wine.” He might tease her a bit, but he’ll still provide the wine to make his mom happy. She’s confident that he can do something about the lack of wine. Does this mean she knows he can perform miracles? The Koran (3:49) says:

And (make him) a messenger to the Children of Israel (saying): I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I determine for you out of dust the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with Allah’s permission, and I heal the blind and the leprous, and bring the dead to life with Allah’s permission; and I inform you of what you should eat and what you should store in your houses. Surely there is a sign in this for you, if you are believers.

But this story is originally from the Gospel of Thomas, written about 140 AD. It is not a part of the official Christian canon and earlier miracles would conflict with the statement that the miracle of the wine was “the first of his signs”.

*Dads tell dad jokes, moms state the obvious. Parents act like parents no matter the place or time. What would be a dad joke in Jesus’s case? The platypus?