Sunday 8 July 2012

10 stories and links I found educative, interesting or just weird!

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The Lost Colony: Roanoke
via Britannica Blog by Michael Ray

A postcard depicting the baptism of Virginia Dare. Which is pretty much the end of the historical record as far as the people in this image are concerned. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Sometime between the founding of the so-called Lost Colony in 1587 and the return of colonial governor John White in 1590, the inhabitants of the English settlement on Roanoke Island disappeared. Approximately 100 men and women – among them, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas – vanished, almost without a trace. Almost being the key word, because the only remaining evidence of the settlers was the word CROATOAN carved on one tree and the letters CRO on another. These enigmatic clues have puzzled historians for centuries. Was the colony wiped out by hostile natives or disease? Did the English assimilate with the Croatan, a local Southeast Indian tribe? Tribal tradition favors the latter explanation, but it is impossible to settle the question with any certainty. “Croatoan” has since become something of a code word for fiction authors, a way to indicate a secret that might be better left unknown. Notable examples include a short story by Harlan Ellison and the 100 Bullets series by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (without spoiling the details, the Lost Colony figures prominently in that story as well).

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Stanley Hauerwas fancies himself a realist. But his theology of nonwar is a morally perverse creed of eschatological madness... more

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Ophthalmophantome, c. 1900
via Retronaut by Chris

“Device used by ophthalmology students to hone surgical skills. Two spring mounted brass eyeholders with pincers would hold pig eyes for future ophthalmologists to practice their craft before operating on human patients.”
Myers Fine Art
More pictures here

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“Views of London”, c.1905
via Retronaut by Chris

“I found this book in the basement of an old house in Italy.”<
Fulvio Borro
And of the 50 photographs in the book I chose this one of the Crystal Palace

This building is, as you are probably aware, no longer with us having burned down in 1936. And no, I am not old enough to remember it, but my mother watched it from the top of Shooter’s Hill (as did a lot of people).
You can see the other photographs here and be surprised not at how much has changed but at how little is really different despite two world wars.
This capsule was curated by Fulvio Borro

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Is Chomsky’s half-century reign over linguistics at an end? The wily octogenarian has a knack for outmaneuvering adversaries... more

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The Baroness
via Prospero by The Economist online
When Hannah Rothschild began to write her great-aunt Nica’s biography, she thought she’d discovered the family’s black sheep. But Nica’s life on the New York jazz scene raises questions about whether we ever escape our past.
Video and podcast of Prospero’s interview with Ms Rothschild.

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New Nanoparticle Coating Eats Air Pollutants
via Big Think by Orion Jones
A research project sponsored by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness has yielded a coating of nanoparticles which, once applied to concrete surfaces, could eliminate substantial amounts of air pollutants in the atmosphere.
Read More

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The debate about promoting democracy should be a practical one, so here’s the practical reality: Policy makers and scholars don’t know what they’re doing... more

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the philadelphia story
via 3quarksdaily by Morgan Meis
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The fascinating story of Albert Barnes who left his art collection to the Barnes Foundation with very stringent conditions as to who could see the pictures and how and where the collection should be hung.
Full story by Jerry Saltz and Justin Davidson in NY Magazine here.

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Super Moon was, in fact, pretty super (big photo gallery)
via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih A full moon is seen behind the minaret of Mohamed Ali mosque, in Islamic Cairo.
And there’s eight more pictures here


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