Appalachian Figures Roger Dale Bowling came out of the Kentucky mountains and wrote songs that circled the world. In a short span he helped give Kenny Rogers two career-defining hits, moved Billie Jo Spears to the top of the country charts, and even cracked the trade listings with his own single. His story ties Nashville to Leslie County, Kentucky, and finally to a quiet hillside cemetery in Rabun County, Georgia.

Appalachian Figures The signature that traveled from Frankfort to Washington On the first day of the 91st Congress, the U.S. Senate read the formal credentials for Kentucky’s newly chosen U.S. Senator, a routine ceremony that depends on states sending sealed, attested certificates. Kentucky’s attestation carried a familiar block: “ELMER BEGLEY, Secretary of State.

Twenty five years ago the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK) was founded. The Chemistry and Internet (ChemInt2000) had just ended (it ran from 23 to 26 September) and my friend and I had taken the Amtrak night train from Washington to South Bend. At that time there were two leading Java applets for chemistry, JChemPaint and Jmol.

Appalachian History A coal obelisk in a river triangle On a small wedge of ground in Baxter, just north of Harlan, a black obelisk rises beside the road. Locals call it the Coal Monument. It stands at the junction where neighborhood streets and state routes braid together near the meeting of the Cumberland River’s forks.

Appalachian History Series What it is On the east side of Main Street in Wheelwright, Kentucky, the Wheelwright Masonic Lodge building rises in brick with a pedimented doorway, a semicircular window above the entrance, and brick quoins at the corners. The structure was designed by architect Leland Becker and dates to 1942.

Forgotten Appalachia Series A coal town takes shape Wheelwright sits at the head of the Right Fork of Otter Creek in southern Floyd County. Before the mines, this was an isolated corner of the Big Sandy valley. In 1916 the Elk Horn Coal Company established a camp at the confluence of Hall and Branham branches. Early housing was makeshift, then frame dwellings rose as supplies came in over the mountain from Pike County.

Abandoned Appalachia Series A school in the bend of Beaver Creek Wayland sits in the hills of Floyd County, Kentucky, a coal town whose footprint shows up neatly on the U.S. Geological Survey’s 7.5-minute Wayland quadrangle. The quadrangle places the school site and gym in the narrow valley bottom, with the town hemmed in by steep ridges that channeled community life toward the schoolhouse and its court.

Today I learned you can create and customize ggplot2 visualizations using your voice alone.

Just a quick update on the crowd-funding effort to publish the new diplodocoid volume as open-access papers at Palaeontologia Electronica.

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Appalachian Figures Few figures connect Kentucky’s small-town gyms to the college game quite like Robert G. “Bob” Wright. He captained Marshall as a player, molded Ashland’s Tomcats into a state champion, then steered Morehead State to the top of the OVC before finishing his public-school career as a principal in Pike County.