This might be a little off topic but I was reading the other day that word “kamikaze” in Japanese literally means “divine wind”. Supposedly in the 13th century ( I might of gotten the century wrong) when the mongols we’re trying to invade Japan it was a extremely windy day creating powerful tides that keep back the mongols ships from reaching the shores of Japan.
Does the decline in childhood mortality explain why "Humans today are choosing not to procreate with anything like the frequency of their forebears"? Our forebears had many children hoping some of them would survive to adulthood. That appears to no longer be a consideration in family planning decisions.
It seems like academic job markets are at mercy to the ebbs and flows of the economy just like the other jobs. I'm curious, Dr. Brands, when you were going through your graduate training, were there folks who tried to warn you about a career in academia and if so were there words of warning similar to today or vastly different?
Jobs were tight in the 1980s but not as scarce as now. The boom years of the 1960s still cast a positive glow over academic professions, and there was a feeling that the jobs would be there if people were patient. This turned out not to be true. A large portion of my graduate cohort didn't end up in the academic jobs they hoped for. I was one of the fortunate ones who did.
This might be a little off topic but I was reading the other day that word “kamikaze” in Japanese literally means “divine wind”. Supposedly in the 13th century ( I might of gotten the century wrong) when the mongols we’re trying to invade Japan it was a extremely windy day creating powerful tides that keep back the mongols ships from reaching the shores of Japan.
That's correct. It also destroyed many of the ships and drowned thousands of Mongol soldiers.
I got that tidbit from Simon Winchester’s new book “the breathe of the gods: the history and future of the winds”
Does the decline in childhood mortality explain why "Humans today are choosing not to procreate with anything like the frequency of their forebears"? Our forebears had many children hoping some of them would survive to adulthood. That appears to no longer be a consideration in family planning decisions.
It seems like academic job markets are at mercy to the ebbs and flows of the economy just like the other jobs. I'm curious, Dr. Brands, when you were going through your graduate training, were there folks who tried to warn you about a career in academia and if so were there words of warning similar to today or vastly different?
Jobs were tight in the 1980s but not as scarce as now. The boom years of the 1960s still cast a positive glow over academic professions, and there was a feeling that the jobs would be there if people were patient. This turned out not to be true. A large portion of my graduate cohort didn't end up in the academic jobs they hoped for. I was one of the fortunate ones who did.