Friday Notes

At AHA Today, Elisabeth Grant has a terrific roundup of journalists' articles and history bloggers' posts about the AHA convention. See, additionally: Another Damned Medievalist at Blogenspiel, Belle at Scattered and Random, Jeremy Young at ProgressiveHistorians, Kelly in Kansas, and Pilgrim/Heretic.

Strange Maps notices that Papua New Guinea has both the world's greatest biodiversity and the world's largest concentration of linguistic diversity; and wonders if there is any relationship between those two things.

Google map's"Roadside Attractions, American Car Culture, Eccentric Museums and More" is worth a look. How else would you find out about the 1/3 scale leaning tower of Pisa in Niles, Illinois, or the Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace, Idaho? Hat tip.

Alternative New Yorks: if seized by"Germano-fascists" in World War II; and if seized by"Islamo-fascists" in the 21st century. Hat tip.

Finally, word comes from Dave Davisson that plans to launch a doctoral program in history at the University of South Florida have come to naught. While I've argued that North America already has too many doctoral programs in history, there was a substantial demographical and geographical rationale for a doctoral program at South Florida. One of the downsides of this decision is that Dave is abandoning his plans to pursue a doctorate in history. It's our loss. We'll miss both Patahistory and Dave's participation in Revise & Dissent.