The local and mythic roots of Irvingโ€™s timeless tale

Rip Van Winkle: The local and mythic roots of Irvingโ€™s timeless tale

"When I moved to Saugerties, one of the first places I explored was the old library. At the far end of the room, hidden behind the shelves, there was a reading alcove with some wooden chairs gathered around a fireplace with a tiled mantle. The tiles, with their sculpted relief in the historic arts and crafts style, illustrate what is probably the most famous fable to come out of the Hudson Valley, Washington Irvingโ€™s Rip Van Winkle. Here in a series of images, we find the familiar tale of a henpecked husband, who, looking for peace of mind, hiked with his dog, Wolf, and his fowling-piece to the mountain source of Kaaterskill Creek. Once there, he met the short, stout ghosts of Henry Hudson and his men and accepted an evening drink that took 20 years to sleep off. "

If we werenโ€™t the first industrial civilization on Earth, would we ever know?

If we werenโ€™t the first industrial civilization on Earth, would we ever know?

"In any case, say Schmidt and Frank, the fraction of life that gets fossilized is tiny. Dinosaurs roamed Earth for some 180 million years, and yet only a few thousand near-complete specimens exist. Modern humans have existed for just a few tens of thousands of years. โ€œSpecies as short-lived as homo sapiens (so far) might not be represented in the existing fossil record at all,โ€ say Schmidt and Frank. What of human artifactsโ€”roads, buildings, baked-bean tins, and silicon chips? These, too, are unlikely to survive long, or to be found even if they do. โ€œThe current area of urbanization is less than 1% of the Earthโ€™s surface,โ€ point out the researchers. โ€œWe conclude that for potential civilizations older than about 4 million years, the chances of finding direct evidence of their existence via objects or fossilized examples of their population is small,โ€ they say."

Lump-Sum Investing Is the Best Strategy, Except in This Market

Lump-Sum Investing Is the Best Strategy, Except in This Market

"The second choice always sounds the most appealing to investors, but as the old saying goes, โ€œThe market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.โ€ Holding too much cash can become an addiction for investors who donโ€™t have a plan for deploying capital because bear markets donโ€™t operate on a set schedule. Although the lump-sum option has the highest probability of success, the third option offers the biggest payoff from both a psychological and a market perspective in the current environment."