Events & Resources - Kansas Department Of Health & Environment: Fill & Download for Free

The invention of soup.At some point, human beings invented something that so profoundly altered the trajectory of our species that it is hard to overestimate its impact on us.Before soup, calories galore were almost entirely inaccessible to us. Roots too tough to digest, bones, really gristly meat - we used to have to leave that stuff to the vultures or squirrels.Then, we invented soup. Suddenly, yams, bones, and the tail of a wildebeest are…delicious?Yes, yes they are.Now, you might think cooking food was more important. And perhaps it was. But cooking the food in water (which we presumably did very shortly after we cooked food without water) allowed us to leach significantly more nutrients out of effectively inedible substances.It’s also warm (nice on cold nights), communal (nice for the development of language and culture), it preserves really well (you’ve probably heated it enough to kill off bacteria), and it encourages you to make containers to carry it (which sparks innovation).To this day, soup features prominently in cultures all over the world, as do ingredients in the soup that you wouldn’t think people could eat. Only something universally useful is universally found - and you find soup everywhere you go.Soup - it’s the stuff of civilization.

I will be biased towards events that personally matter more.1500 BCE: The Fall of the Indus Valley Civilization: What happened during the last stages of this great civilization that even 4000 years ago had great plumbing, city planning and drainage? Who were they? Where did they go? What was happening to the creation of Rig Veda? How were they connected? My head figuratively explodes not knowing this huge mystery.326 BCE: Battle of the Hydaspes. I want to see how great Alexander was and want to get a glimpse of Puru. I also want to understand how a local professor named Chanakya would help an ordinary soldier Chandragupta win the throne of India within a couple of years.Circa 450 CE: Founding of the Nalanda University. I want to travel to the Gupta kingdom and find out what was happening there and among the world's earliest universities. How did things like the zero, decimal system, chess and modern Indian drama all originate there?1010 CE. Completion of the Brihadeeswarar Temple. I want to understand the epic achievement of the great Cholas. I want to see who Rajaraja Chola was and how magnificent he looks, fights and rules.1931. Dandi March. I want to see Mahatma Gandhi in action walking the salt march and creating history. This is the most iconic episode of civil disobedience.

Look at the picture below (courtesy of Google):On the left, the guy with glasses on is Dennis Ritchie, the computer scientist that, among many other things, created the C programming language.On the right, you probably recognize Steve Jobs. No introduction necessary.Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011. Dennis Ritchie died a few days later (October 12). Jobs’ death was all over the news for several days (at least in the U.S.). Not a mention of Ritchie’s death in the mainstream media news feeds.Dennis Ritchie contributed to inventing the software machinery behind Macs that Jobs was so keen to reuse (Unix, C, etc.).Dennis Ritchie’s death was overshadowed by Jobs’ and that’s unfortunate.