May 16, 2016 at 01:42AM

Today I learned: 1) ...about MOVE, a radical black liberation, anti-technology, anti-government, animal-rights-activist organization in Philadelphia in the 70s and 80s. MOVE consisted of one or two dozen members and their children, living as a commune in an urban, middle-class part of Phillie. From what I gather, they were somewhat extreme even as radical movements go -- they were well known for shouting obscenity-laced speeches at random hours on an amplified bullhorn, and their house was definitely armed and fortified. MOVE clashed with police in 1978, when the court issued an order to evict them from their house (I don't know under what charge). After a tense year, police officers tried to force their way into the house. An exchange of fire erupted and an officer was shot in the neck and killed. MOVE claimed that the officer was facing the wrong direction to have been shot by them, but the real point is that live fire was exchanged and multiple people were injured on both sides. The group moved after that, but the government didn't like them being in their new house any better (and the bullhorn-amplified speeches continued). They were eventually charged with contempt of court, violation of parole (presumably related to the earlier shootings), illegal posession of firearms, and making terrorist threats. In 1985, the Phillie police attempted to evict MOVE, bringing deluge hoses (courtesy of the fire department), tear gas, machine guns, and at least one anti-tank weapon. MOVE resisted coming out, so the police fired a few thousand rounds into the building. That didn't work, so they fire-bombed the house. With military-grade bombs. I'm not making this up. Most of MOVE (including most of the children in the house) died in the fire. Here's the extra-controversial bit -- remember those firefighters? The ones that brought deluge hoses? They were right there, and they were told by police not to put out the fire. As a result, 65 surrounding houses were also burned down. The official story is that the police didn't want to put firefighters at risk of getting shot, as there was still gunfire coming out of the house. The unofficial story was that they wanted to make sure everyone inside died, or something like that. The one surviving MOVE member was jailed on riot and conspiracy charges, though a federal jury later forced the city to pay her and her relatives $1.5 million in damages. The mayor later made an official apology for the incident. No officials were criminally charged. 2) Sumo wrestling has a fair number of spiritual rituals associated with it, most notably throwing salt into the ring and stamping feet to scare off demons. 3) T4 DNA ligase is super expensive!!! It's something like $5/reaction, which is way more than I expected from such a commonly-used enzyme.