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on ships since the dawn of seafaring. They had names such as Tom the Terror, wakele Beunce, Dirty Face, and Bilge Water. They traveled thousands of miles on the most storied warships with some of history's saltiest sailors. They were valued members of the crew, often even issued custom miniature uniforms for photographs and their own tiny hammocks for cat napping. They were the cats that served in the world's navies.

Shipcats are not a recent phenomenon. They have been so serving on ships for almost as long as humans have been going to see Ancient Egyptian tune paintings depict them hunting from boats sailing down the Nile, and cats made their way across the Mediterranean aboard Phoenician and Greek trading vessels. Cats hunting prowess on land made them valuable companions at sea.

Rodent infestations caused major problems on ships, as rats and mice contaminated and consumed food stores, chewed through equipment, and spread disease. Cats were a cheap and effective solution to the vermin, and they were also good company on long voyages. They could provide a vessel's crew with a morale boost in the form of much needed affection and a bit of softness in the spartan environment of a ship. Since cats were considered mascots to be shared by all the sailors,

they also helped create bonds among the crew. Perhaps not surprisingly, sailors developed plenty of superstitions around feline behavior. Seamen preparing to sail considered at good luck when cats chose to board their vessels, but it was a dreadful sign indeed when a cat decided to jump ship, and even worse omen the sight of two cats fighting out a pier, which could be forewarning that those setting sail would perish. Some early mariners believed that cats could control the weather

with their tails. Twitching them in a certain manner meant that the cats were angry and preparing to unleash a violent storm. Sailors later realized that cats twitched their tails when they were agitated by a sudden drop in air pressure, indicating that the ship could soon face unfavorable weather. Crews began to monitor all the mannerisms of their ship's cats and viewed any unusual behavior as a storm warning. The

felines were, in a sense, little furry barometers. Though cats are known for their aversion to water, their biology makes them surprisingly suited to life at sea. Unlike sailors such as the Limeys of the Royal Navy, who famously drank sick t used to prevent scurvy, cats can make their own vitamin sea and can therefore survive on a diet that lacks fruits and vegetables. Cats are also able to obtain most of the water they need from their prey, so they do not require a lot of poudable water,

as human sailors do. In addition, cats have an excellent internal filtration system that allows them to drink a bit of sea water if necessary. Throughout the so called Age of Discovery, cats were a mainstay on European vessels and even played a role in the insurance protocols of the day. Legal codes published in Valencia and Spain in fourteen ninety four held the patron of a vessel responsible for any damage done to merchandise by rats if he had neglected

to provide for on board feline protection. If cats were on board, then the patron was in the clear. Into the twentieth century, cats remained fixtures on ships in the United Kingdom. One of the earliest and largest cat rescue programs occurred during the First World War, when thousands of strays were rounded up in cities and given to the military. The cats supplied to the Royal Navy even received a weekly victually allowance of one shilling and sixpence to pay

for treats from the ship's canteen. The large U. S Navy vessel could be home to as many as two dozen cats, some that prowled the galley and grew fat, while others preferred the bowels of the ship, where they could find refuge from the loud sounds of a ship's guns.

Cats have a reputation for being notoriously difficult to train, but some sailors claimed they learned to speak cat and were able to get their mascots to perform feats such as standing at attention, saluting, walking tight ropes, and ringing bells. This especially contributed to the U. S. Navy's good wild efforts in foreign ports. When locals were invited for ship tours that included a brief show featuring performing cats, the friendliest felines were happy to stay in the birthing area,

where they received plenty of attention from sailors. They could also sleep in hammocks that reduced the sensation of swaying felt aboard a ship. After all, ship cats would get just as seasick as humans. Following the end of the Second World War, the special position that cats held on Navy ships began to decline. In the United States, improvements in fumigation and pest control made them somewhat redundant as chief mousers. Some commanding officers even viewed them as distractions.

But the bigger problem for cats in the U. S. Navy lay in public relations. In the immediate post World War two era, members of Congress were looking to enact deep defense cuts, including to the Navy's budget. To make a point about inefficiency, legislators revealed that one ship had staffed a three man committee to plan a funeral for

their mascot cat. The example was misleading. The true costs of keeping cats to maintain morale were nominal and often paid by the crew themselves, but the charge of frivolous spending none the less embarrassed navy brass more than anything. The long run of the ship cat was ended by

stricter international quarantine laws imposed after the war. Prior to the nineteen fifties, many nations gave ship cats special status that made them exempt from quarantine laws, allowing them to roam free in foreign ports, where perhaps the worst consequence was a scrap with a local tom the news. The new laws enacted by many countries mandated a lengthy quarantine period for disembarking cats. If local officials caught one sneaking off ship, the captain could be heavily fined or even

placed under arrest. Recognizing the cats our natural escape artists, the U. S. Navy wanted to avoid having its captains involved in legal and diplomatic dust ups due to a curious feline trying to circumvent quarantine. Current U. S. Navy policy does not explicitly ban cats on ships, but the special permission that sailors now need to bring a feline friend on board is almost ever granted. Most davies of the world have adopted a similar policy, except for Russia.

Next The New Stars of Polar Science by Lois Harshly. As climate research becomes more critical, a small Arctic research station in Dorway has emerged as a scientific boomtown. It's a haven for an increasingly female lead contingent of experts doing some of the planet's most important studies, and for the workers who make life in this demanding place more hospitable.

Nay Alisund, a small international research outpost nestled among the snowy mountains and icy fiords of Swalbard, a Norwegian archipelago and the Arctic Ocean, is one of the northernmost settlements on Earth. During the winter months, it's a frigid, inhospitable place where the sun never rises, leaving the community's low song buildings bathed in the inky blue darkness of an

unbroken polar night. Despite the harsh weather, Spalbard is unmistakably warming and at an alarming rate, more than four times faster than the global average. This has caused unsettling changes to its environment. Take the arrival of helmet jellyfish, thought to have entered these far north Arctic waters about a decade ago. They feed on krill and small fish that native marine life such as cod and herring depend on. Or the continually warming permafrost, which is threatening to release

previously locked in place carbon into the atmosphere. In Spalbard, the averaged air temperature has increased by about seven degrees fahrenheit since the early nineteen seventies. In nay Ellisund, it's now just a few degrees below freezing. This summer and extreme heat wave led to extensive melting across the archipelago's ice caps, but other ships are happening in the region too.

Dozens of scientists from over ten countries continue to deepen or under standing about climate change when it's needed more than ever, and many are women. That's a striking shift for the outpost, where men have historically predominated and haven't always been particularly inviting. Originally found founded as a coal mining settlement, naig Ellisund began its conversion into a research hub in the nineteen sixties after a fatal accident precipitated

the end of mining operations. Climate scientist Ingar Hanssenbauer spent the winter of nineteen eighty three eighty four in Nile assunt working for the Norwegian Polar Institute. She remembers the isolation she felt as the only woman at the station. I gradually understood that there was communication between the men in which I was not a part, and there was no parallel female female Gravine change, Hassenbauer says, has come incrementally alongside the long overdue rise of more women in

science and in areas involving the MRSA fieldwork. Julia Boiki, a research with Berlin's Humboldt University and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany, was still among the minority when she began collecting data on permafrost in nineteen ninety eight. Last year, however, she looked around and realized that for

the first time her three persentine was entirely women. The work atmosphere has improved, she says, noting better fur, food and general hygiene, but at the same time their jobs have gotten harder as a result of the climate change. They are documenting. Rainfall has increased, Boike says, and the snow cover period has shrunk. Diminishing sea ice means small bards polar bears spend more time on land, making Boykes Field work more difficult. She won't go to her long

standing research site when the predators are near by. In twenty twenty one, photographer Esther Horbough, who specializes in covering scientific expeditions in polar regions, arrived to chronicle the lives of these researchers, hoping to humanize their increasingly urgent work. She begran photographing the kind of role models she wished she'd had as a child growing up in Hungary. I always imagined that I would love to feel this fighting cold on my face, Corvoth says. But I was a girl.

I only saw men doing that. I didn't even dare to dream that one day I would experience it. In these photographs, Krvoth highlights researchers and staff who make life in the community possible. He just pictured with something that sustains her or represents her work. Bodol Houvic, community shop manager King's Bay s unexpected items make life at the station easier. How Vic works for the Norwegian state owned company's stores, supplying residents with toiletries and some essential goods,

including warm socks and chocolate. She's holding a baritone horn and instruments she learned to play as a child and picked up again recently. Instruments, how VIC purchased have made it possible for amateur musicians at the station to play together. Xena Garcia Espada, station manager and engineer, Norwegian Mapping Authority. Observing changes on Earth involves looking up at the stars. Espada stands in the authority's Geodetic Observation Office, where scientists

track changes in Earth's shape, gravity, field, and rotation. These measures help them more precisely monitor sea level rise and ice melt. Charlotte Habermann's marine zoologist, University of Bremen, Germany. As the Arctic warms, its ecosystems are changing dramatically, scientists began documenting the presence of helmet jellyfish, a species generally found in more temperate waters near Spalbard about a decade ago.

Havermant stands with a net for sampling jellyfish. She uses environmental DNA to detect the animals in the waters off nigh Ellisund and models their predictive expansion farther into the Arctic. Ingrid shares God coordinator Norwegian Polar Institute Kiersgard visits Gessbo, a hot two miles outside of Nila sund with her dog Yukon. The half malamut half husky, is one of Kiersgod's two dogs. He regularly accompanies her on trips away from the station, though she notes he is more interested

in small birds than polar bears. Even if he's not the best guard dog, she says, Yukon is still the best buddy. Marie Kotch Marine biology doctoral student Alfred Wegener Institute Hatch, shown with the sampling net containing sea urturns, is researching how warming waters affect the physiology and feeding behavior of the spiny palm size omnivores, a key link

in the Arctic food chain. The threat of climate change is ever present, she says, which makes it even more important to understand all the tiny parts of this system. The next article from the National Geographic History Magazine, November December twenty twenty two. Soaring Buddhist temples of Bagan brought to greatness by a unifying ruler. The Kingdom of Bagan was home to thousands of towering Buddhist temples the seat of an empire. This sacred sky line would enthrall pilgrims

for centuries. For centuries, visitors to a bend of the Ayari Wadi River in central Mayanmar Burma have been greeted with a breadth taking spectacle, hundreds of rose colored from godhas and temples rising above red soil and emerald green vegetation. This vast sacred landscape is one of the largest concentrations

of Buddhist temples anywhere in the world. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage seve in twenty nineteen, Bagan is the legacy of a complex relationship between religion and culture, whose role in the forging of Burmese identity would be explored by scholars in the early nineteen hundreds rapid rise. The name of the modern state of Mayanmar and its previous name of Burma both derive from a people known either as the Maramma or the Burman. Historians believed the Burman originated

in the lands bordering western China and Tibet. In the mid nineteenth century, a d As the Burman swept south to occupy the lands of the Pew culture. Then in military decline, establishing Bagan as their capital in eighty eight four nine. It was not a total conquest, however, The Pew had been shaped by cultural and economic ties with India. They practiced Buddhism, which the newcomers adopted accustomed to the

train and climate of much higher altitudes. The Burman also learned from the Pew wet and rice algriculture that is still practiced in the Ayayaruada Delta. Bagan was a modest kingdom until ten forty four, when its greatest ruler, King Onowahta, ascended the throne. As accession heralded a major shift in the fortunes of Baga in the region. The new king improved his kingdom's irrigation systems to make Bagan a major

rice producer. He also laid ambitious military plans. In ten fifty seven, he captured the city of Thatan, capital of the rich and cultured Man kingdom to the south, encouraging other Man rulers to submit to Burman authority. Onoratha rapidly united the whole Arawadi region under Bagan rule, creating the first Burmese Empire. Anawatra's achievement was as much about cultural

exchange as military conquest. He fell under the influence of the mad variety of Theravada Buddhism, and seeing this practice as a useful means of unification, the king promoted it across the Bagan realm, building Bagan Honoratha also recognized the enormous value of Man culture, which was steeped in Indian influences. Thanks to the wealthy gained from conquering the manport, Anawahra could pay mon artists, engineers, goldsmiths, and woodworkers to beautify Bagan.

He commissioned countless stupas, pagodas, and temples, each one seemingly grander than the next. Following Anaratha's death, Bagan's golden age rolled on, with buoyant trade paying for the fast expanding temple legacy. Sharing the fate of so many other states, Pagan power was eventually crushed under the onslaught of Mongol invasions. At first void by victories, King Narathapati shunned diplomacy with

Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongols. Bagan's luck changed, and a major defeat in twelve seventy seven at the Battle of Nyanga, Sagan was the beginning of the end. A decade later, Bagan fell, Although many of the temples and pagodas fell into disuse in the following centuries, Pagan resumed importance as a place of Buddhist pilgrimage in the fifteenth century.

The thousands of surviving monuments include temples, monasteries, and stupas, structures which house Buddhist relics that are shaped like bounds, bell like domes or clones. These sacred buildings are nearly all constructed of brick based with stucco. Among the thousands of structures, from tiny one room monasteries to sprawling temples, several landmarks stand out. The Lakwanada Pagoda, built by Anaratha, astonished as visitors with its gleaming dome topped with an

umbrella shaped finial known as a padhi. This pagoda contains a relic believed to be one of the Buddha's teeth. It was obtained by Anaratha in Sri Lanka. Finding the story Bagan could not be discovered as it had been treasured by the Burmese for centuries. However, its history was based on royal chronicles. The eighteenth century Maha Yazauen and the nineteenth century Kaman Yawazi. These accounts placed the origins of Bagan in the very distant pass and mixed legends

with veritable history. In the early nineteen hundreds, Burmese scholars sought new data to provide more solid historical information on Bagan. Among these were Burmese scholar u Pei muang Tin and the British academic Gordon Luz. After graduating in classics at Cambridge University, LuSE taught literature in Rangoon today Yangon, the capital of Burma today Mayanmar when it was part of

the British Empire. There at Luis befriendreed u Pei muang Tin, a specialist in Pali, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism. The friendship kindled Lusa's passion for Burmese history. He spent much time at U Peng wang Tin's home, where he fell in love with his sister, nay t T. The two married in nineteen fifteen. In nineteen eighteen, Loose published

his first article on Bagan. Two years later, when he applied for a professorship at Rangoon University, he was told by the British Chancellor that he had been excluded because of his marriage to a Burmese woman. Disappointed, Luis returned to Europe, where he continued his studies of Burmese history, language, and culture in Paris and London, where he studied Chinese. In nineteen twenty three, he and u peim Wang King

collaborated on the first English translation of the Manan Yahwazin. Later, having returned to Rangoon, LUs concentrated on researching the Bagan Empire by compiling references to Bagan in medieval texts in Chinese. Combining this knowledge with his and u Peimwang King's study of inscriptions at Bagan, both men set out to charge the history of Burma and of Bagan that is accepted today that the Burmese originated in the ninth century AD with the Burman conquest of the Pew, and not centuries

earlier as the chronicles claimed. Bogan has faced challenges in the twentieth century. Restoration of the site by Mayanmar's Mille military government has been criticized by archaeologists. Two earthquakes in nineteen seventy five and twenty sixteen destroyed many structures. Specialists of Bagan history hope that the World Heritage designation will foster a cooperation between specialists and the Mayanbar government to

preserve Bagan's sacred structures for years to come. This article written by Julius Purcell, Down to Earth Thought bay Yinu is the tallest temple in Bagan, consisting of five stories standing some two hundred feet tall. It was built by King a Langshidu also known as Sithu I, at the end of his reign in the eleven sixties. Photographed in nineteen thirty one for National Geographic the main Buddha statue inside the pagoda sits in a posture called Uma Parshana Mudrap,

the ground touching gesture. His right hand touches the ground to request the Earth goddess to assist his victory over Marak, the demon King Thought Benini shows signs of two of the greatest threats to Bagan structures, significant earthquake damage and spaces where reliefs once hung and which were probably looted.

Spiritual Center of Bagan Timeline eighty eight forty nine. A Western Chinese people, the Burman founded Bagan in the Aya Yarwadi Delta ten forty four to ten seventy seven, on Oratha founds an empire centered on Bagan and begins building temples. Eleven seventy four to twelve eleven. The Bagan Empire reaches its architectural and political zenith in the reign of Sichu the Second twelve eighty seven, the Pagan Empire falls to the Mongols, its temples become a pilgrimage site. Next tomb

of Pared the Great, once standing eighty feet tall. The masoleam reflects Heron's allegiance with Greco Roman culture, with a nod to the Navitans, the Arab culture to which his mother had belonged. Its large square stones ashlars are carved from the limestone known as Meleke or royal stone, as it was used for royal constructions. Although historians are convinced this is indeed Herod's tomb, no inscription has yet been

found to definitely confirm it as such. Foundation the podium, the base of the funerary building, was a square block more than thirty feet across and containing two rooms. The lower of these was some eleven feet high, and the upper one nearly twenty feet high. The outer walls were decorated with pilasters and around the top with rosettes funerary urns. The roof would have been adorned with decorative funerary urns.

This decoration is typical of Navitaean culture, and it is notable in such sites as Petra, the ancient Navitaan capital to day in Jordan, sarcophagus chamber. Above the podium stood a circular structure known as a polos. Archaeologists believed that inside it was the chamber with the king's sarcophagus, surrounded by ionic style columns supporting a cornice decorated with rosettes.

The main sarcophagus was covered with a triangular lid decorated with rosettes, a common motif in Jewish austuaries and in some sarcophagi of the time. The tomb of Mauzolis, the mausoleum at Helicarnassus, stood inside a teminos, or sacred enclosure. It was accessed through a monumental door that abutted the city's agorath. The mausoleum itself was made up of three parts, one on top of the other. At the bottom was

a square structure that tapered slightly toward the top. The middle section, called the pteron, was a peristyle formed of thirty six ionic columns with sculptures placed between them. A solid rock base supported a pyramid of twenty four steps, also adorned with statues. The pyramid was topped by the marble sculpture of a quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, driven by Mazolus and Artemisia a would be conquered fate. The Assyrian king sena Cherab moved his capital

to Nineveh, which he expanded and beautified. Despite Assyria's formidable military power, revolts arose in various parts of the empire, including Judah, which was ruled by King Hezekiah. The conflict with Senacherab is chronicled in several books of the Old Testament. In seven o one BC, in response to a revolt in Judah, Senecherab besieged Jerusalem, only spearing the city after Hazikiah paid a large ransom. The Bible recounts how God then sent an angel to strike down the Assyrians in

their camp, causing Senecherab to abandon the siege. The Book of Kings recounts the monarch's unhappy end foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisrak, that his sons Adra, Melakh and Shirezar struck him down with the sword. Then Eserhad and his son reigned in his liad place two

kings nineteen thirty seven next the Persian shortcut. Faint traces of the Xerxes Canal are still discernible today in the farmland on the narrowest part of the Mount Athos peninsula. The canal once ran between the modern day towns of Nearoda and Tripeiti. Research carried out between nineteen ninety one and two thousand and one revealed that at its widest point at the surface, the canal spanned some one hundred feet,

tapering to about fifty feet above its base. The canal bed would have been around ten feet below sea level, deep enough for the try reams but not for heavy cargo ships. The Xerxes Canal is remarkable, but not unique in the ancient world. Darius, the first Xerxes father, had re excavated an ancient Ferwonic canal in Egypt that linked the Red Sea with the Nile Delta that canal had a maximum of almost one hundred and fifty feet of

the surface and was over sixteen feet deep. In the Bronze Age fifteen fifty to fifteen hundred b C, Mysinaid artists create the gold Mask of Agamemnon, which will be discovered by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. In a d. Eighteen seventy six fourteen fifty b C. The Mycenaeans invade the island of Crete and adopt writing and artistic techniques from the Minoan civilization there. Twelve hundred to eleven ninety b C. The Hittites and Mycenaeans clash, and their battles are believed

to inspire tales of the Trojan War. Circa eleven hundred b C. The Late Bronze Age collapse brings Mysenean dominance to an end and disrupts many cultures around the Mediterranean. Circa eighth century b C. Homer's epic poems The Illind and the Odyssey are written down, most likely based on older tales passed on through oral tradition. This concludes readings from National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic History Magazine for today Your reader has been marshaff I have enjoyed hearing

this content. Please give us a call at eight five nine four two two six three nine zero. Thank you for listening and have a great day.