And yet another ten "things" that really are not trivial

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The destruction of an Assyrian palace
via OUP Blog by David Kertai

In March 2015, ISIS released a video depicting the demolition of one of the most important surviving monuments from the Assyrian empire, the palace of Ashurnasirpal in the ancient city of Nimrud.
As archaeologists, we are all too familiar with destruction. In fact, it is one of the key features of our work. One can only unearth ancient remains, buried long ago under their own debris and those of later times, once. It brings with it an obligation to properly record and make public what is being excavated. The documentation from Ashurnasirpal’s palace is generally disappointing. This is due to the palace mostly having been excavated in the early days of archaeology. Still, the resulting information is invaluable and will continue to allow us to answer new questions about the past.
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Quantum Life Spreads Entanglement Across Generations
via MIT Technology Review
Computer scientists have long known that evolution is an algorithmic process that has little to do with the nature of the beasts it creates. Instead, evolution is set of simple steps that, when repeated many times, can solve problems of immense complexity; the problem of creating the human brain, for example, or of building an eye.
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Home-brewed heroin? Scientists create yeast that can make sugar into opiates
via The Guardian by Hannah Devlin
Researchers have managed to reproduce the way poppies create morphine in the wild, but warn that the technology needs urgent regulation

Home-brewed heroin could become a reality, scientists have warned, following the creation of yeast strains designed to convert sugar into opiates.
The advance marks the first time that scientists have artificially reproduced the entire chemical pathway that takes place in poppy plants to produce morphine in the wild.
Scientists warned that the findings could pave the way for opium poppy farms being replaced by local morphine “breweries” and called for urgent regulation of the technology. In theory, opium brewing would be no more difficult to master than DIY beer kits, raising the possibility of people setting up Breaking Bad-style drug laboratories in their own homes.
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‘Cyber-archaeology’ salvages lost Iraqi art
via BBC News: Science & Environment by Jonathan Webb
Priceless historical artefacts have been lost recently, to violence in Iraq and earthquakes in Nepal. But ‘cyber-archaeologists’ are working with volunteers to put you just a few clicks away from seeing these treasures – in colourful, three-dimensional detail.
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Adult bookstore’s tasteful mural still gets complaints
via Boing Boing by Jason Weisberger

"The vibrant, cartoonish work depicts a female feeding a purple beaver an apple. But some fear the colorful creation may attract children." Some are just assholes. (via WTVR.com)

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The surprising links between faith and evolution and climate denial – charted
via 3 Quarks Daily: Chris Mooney in the Washington Post

For a long time, we’ve been having a pretty confused discussion about the relationship between religious beliefs and the rejection of science – and especially its two most prominent U.S. incarnations, evolution denial and climate change denial.
Continue reading (and access a much larger version of the chart)

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Young Mozart reviewed in 1769
via Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

“While in London, an 8 year old Mozart proved a huge sensation. But with his child prodigy status came questions from a skeptical few. Was he really so young? Was he really that talented? One person eager to test the truth of these doubts was Daines Barrington, a lawyer, antiquary, naturalist and Friend of the Royal Society.”
Continue reading at The Public Domain Review

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‘Romantic Outlaws’, About the Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley
via Arts & Letters Daily: Christina Nehring at The New York Times

A literary legacy: Mary Shelley, left, and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft.CreditLeft: Richard Rothwell/National Portrait Gallery, London; right: John Opie/National Portrait Gallery, London
They had it all.
When they eloped, 16-year-old Mary Godwin and 21-year-old Percy Shelley had everything artists could desire: genius, beauty, literary pedigree, aristocratic inheritance, Mediterranean villas, famous friends, fearless admirers, freedom and – above all – faith in free love.
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Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World
via 3 Quarks Daily: Felipe Fernández-Armesto at Literary Review

On the &lsquo'Golfing for Cats’ principle, Noel Malcolm’s publishers thought, presumably, that knights, corsairs, Jesuits and spies were saleable, whereas the real subject of Malcolm’s new book, which might be expressed as ’A Reconstruction of the Political Activities of Members of Two Related Albanian Families in the Late Sixteenth-Century Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans’, would be poor window-dressing. But good stories, well told, made bestsellers of The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. We can be honest about Agents of Empire without fear of impeding sales.
Continue reading from The Guardian’s review of the book. The original link is no longer viable but I am fascinated to discover a period and place in history about which I know nothing. I am about the check the public library and see if I can find the book.