10 things that aren't at all useful (or maybe they are)

Arts & Letters Daily 16 July
At the end of her life, Pauline Kael said to a friend, "When we championed trash culture we had no idea it would become the only culture." But then who did?... more


A History and Philosophy of Jokes by William Grimes in the New York Times Book Review via 3quarksdaily by Abbas Raza on 20 July

In Stop Me if You've Heard This, his wispy inquiry into the history and philosophy of jokes, Jim Holt offers up a choice one from ancient times.
Talkative barber to customer: "How shall I cut your hair?"
Customer: "In silence."
Bada-bing.
This knee-slapper comes from "Philogelos," or "Laughter-Lover," a Greek joke book, probably compiled in the fourth or fifth century A.D. Its 264 entries amount to an index of classical humour, with can't-miss material on such figures of fun as the miser, the drunk, the sex-starved woman and the man with bad breath.
Let us not forget the "skolastikos," or egghead: "An egghead was on a sea voyage when a big storm blew up, causing his slaves to weep in terror. 'Don't cry,' he consoled them, 'I have freed you all in my will.'"
Bada-boom.

More here.


Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook
a review in the Sunday Times which I read via 3quarksdaily by Morgan Meis on 20 July

This is a spellbinding book, though it is not really about Vermeer. Timothy Brook is a professor of Chinese, and his subject is Dutch trade with China in the 17th century. Starting from details in five of Vermeer's paintings, he takes readers on a series of brilliantly circuitous mystery tours that reveal the savagery on which western civilisation was built. The hat of his title is the wide-brimmed, high-crowned fashion item worn by the officer in Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl. To make a hat like that you must have stiff felt, manufactured from beaver pelts. By the start of the 17th century, European and Scandinavian beavers had been driven to extinction by the demands of the hatting industry, so a new source was needed. Brook's first set piece is a battle in 1609 on the shore of one of the Great Lakes between a band of French explorers and an army of Mohawk warriors. Armed with arquebuses, the French rapidly gunned down the Mohawks, and this display of firepower persuaded the remaining tribesmen to provide a regular supply of North American beavers for European hats. It also marked the start of the destruction of North American native culture. The French, though, were not really looking for beavers. They were looking for China.

more from the Sunday Times here.

Oldest New Testament Bible heads into cyberspace
via ResourceShelf on 21 July
More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible. Sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide. High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/ as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.
Source: Reuters

contrasts
via Cognitive Edge on 5 July
Sitting in the departure lounge for Sydney, in the brand new Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. No lost luggage, no security queues, good signage and free wireless access throughout the terminal (not to mention the whole city of Singapore). Maybe BAA should outsource.
Maybe they should but you know they won't!

Arts & Letters Daily on 5 August
Like every force of nature, lightning gives and takes away. It exudes nitrogen for plants. It is also deadly: it chars, explodes, sears... more

The 100 Most Common Words In The English Language
via Guardian Unlimited: Technology on 7 August
Another interweb time-waster, but it does have some educational value!

Blog Review 684 via The Adam Smith Institute Blog on 9 August
One serious point:

• An example of foreign aid that really works: now, can we just get someone offering the same training in our own education system?

And one frivolous:

• And finally, coming soon to a field near you.

Paving stones designed to clear the air
via Guardian Unlimited: Technology on 10 August
The stones use sunlight to convert the nitrogen oxides in the air into harmless nitrates.