Friday 24 August 2012

10 weird and wonderful items to start the weekend

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Scientists Still Seeking Answers to Questions About Meditation
via Big Think by Orion Jones
Article written by guest writer Rin Mitchell
Meditation works to relax the mind, body and soul, but scientists have been racking their brains as to why it works for people.
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I don’t really care why it works, I just know it does and that’s enough for me!

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
What do Japanese tea ceremonies and Ponzi schemes have in common? Although social phenomena, they behave like biological cells... more

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How Much Cleaner Does Soap Make Your Hands?
via Big Think by Orion Jones
Article written by guest writer Rin Mitchell
According to health professionals, washing hands with soap and washing hands with water does pretty much the same thing – cleans and rids hands of most bacteria.
Read More

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The Mystery That Is Phantom Cell Phone Vibration
via Big Think by David Berreby
OK, so I thought I was alone in this, and that it was due to incipient neural disorders or too many drugs back in the 80s, but no: It turns out many other people, like me, feel the sensation of their cell phone vibrating when it has not. Matt Soniak looks at what’s known about this curious phenomenon.
Read More

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Just as vexing as the question of why Rome failed is how it managed to survive for so long. We still don't have a convincing answer... more

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How the Great Artists Imagined Paradise Lost, and Regained
via Big Think by Bob Duggan
“We are stardust. We are golden. We are billion year old carbon. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden,” sang Joni Mitchell in her song Woodstock.
Every generation before and since has longed to return to the garden – the Edenic paradise found in every human culture and religion on earth.
View entire story

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Cosway-Style Bindings
via Reading Copy Book Blog by Beth Carswell
If you aren’t familiar with Cosway Bindings, now is your chance to have your mind blown.
You’re welcome.
If you are a lover of books, and beautiful bindings, and the craftsmanship, creativity and detail that artisans used to put into the creation of bindings, this will be right up your alley.
The Cosway style features traditional leather with miniature paintings built into the cover and the format is named after Richard Cosway, the famous English miniature portrait painter. Generally there is just one portrait, varying in size and shape, with oval being the most common.
But in some spectacular cases, a book will have multiple miniatures inset, and the effects are just remarkable.
Anyone intrigued by fine bindings will relish this selection of rare books with Cosway Bindings - be sure to click through and see them all. [Scroll down for lots of examples and a short video.]
My favourite – but I have not got the necessary $6,500!
Madame de Sévigné, Her Correspondents and Contemporaries
Madame de Sévigné, Her Correspondents and Contemporaries

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Northrop Frye knew scholars more intelligent or better trained than he was. But he had something else. “I had genius. No one else had that”... more

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I Saw A Peacock With a Fiery Tail
via Reading Copy Book Blog by Beth Carswell
Have you ever heard of a trick poem?
What about this one, from the 17th century, called I Saw A Peacock With a Fiery Tail?
Depending on the way the poem is read, with what line breaks, it takes on two very different meanings for the reader.
This edition, breathtakingly illustrated by award-winning, central Indian artist Ramsingh Urveti, is also beautifully die cut to create new and intricate designs. Aside from the cleverness and beauty of the poem, this book is also a feast for the eyes
See inside it in my colleague Julie’s video. 

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Bananas to Baltimore: 1905
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive - Vintage Fine Art Prints
Bananas to Baltimore: 1905
Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1905
“Unloading banana steamer”
A teeming scene that calls to mind the paintings of Brueghel, if Brueghel ever did bananas. Note the damage from the Great Fire of 1904.
8x10 glass negative
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