The Big Spill: 1922
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive ’ Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
“Railroad wreck at Laurel, Maryland”
Aftermath of the July 31, 1922, head-on collision of two B&O freight trains seen here yesterday.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Gone is the rigour of Montaigne. Today’s essayists are yarn-spinners, tall-tale tellers, humourists parading as autobiographers... more
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A Defence of Comic Sans via How-To Geek by Asian Angel on 2/15/13 Comic Sans is a font that many people love to hate, but do you know the history behind this font or that its popularity as a favourite is coming full-circle once again? Learn about the history of Comic Sans along with some fun historical facts about typefaces and fonts in this terrific video from Vsauce!
A Defense of Comic Sans [Vsauce - YouTube]
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Can you feel the chemistry?
via The Royal Society – The Repository by Joanna Hopkins
Here at numbers 6-9 Carlton House Terrace there is one man who sets girls’ hearts fluttering, one man who makes the ladies swoon … step aside Colin Firth, for Mr Davy is the Royal Society’s very own Mr Darcy.
During tours of the Royal Society it’s the portrait of Humphry Davy (1778-1829) by Thomas Lawrence that grabs our female visitors’ attention, often greeted with sighs of “oh, isn’t he handsome” and “what a dashing young man”. He is also a favourite amongst staff – one colleague, who will remain nameless to save her blushes, has a print of his portrait permanently on display on her desk. When I asked her what it was about Davy’s portrait that she found so appealing, she enthused, “he looks very dashing, elegant and well-dressed”. He is depicted with a faint smile which, she says, “makes him look approachable and like he wouldn't mind having a bit of fun”.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Hissing, clanking, buzzing. Human history can be studied aurally – assuming, of course, that we don’t lose our hearing in the effort... more
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Retro Geek: A Look at the Original Text Adventure Game
via How-To Geek by Philip Chien
“You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.”
Those three sentences promised hours of fun for 1970s geeks. The original “Adventure” game is still popular today because it’s a classic that stands up, even though its interface is ancient by modern standards. What made Adventure special, even without graphics, was the wonderful descriptions. Each room you entered filled your imagination with what it must look like. There was plenty of humour in the descriptions, some really bad puns (paying a troll bridge for example), and even a Monty Python reference.
To make the game more challenging there are some red herrings and two mazes you have to figure out how to map and navigate through.
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The Kooky Private Hat Collection of Dr. Seuss
via Flavorwire
Perhaps the most famous of all children’s book authors, the venerable Dr. Seuss is known for his crazy characters and exuberant style – qualities that were just as present in his personal life as in his picture books. Among other things, Dr. Seuss was an avid hat collector, and for the first time this year, his hat closet has been opened, and 26 of his favorite toppers are travelling the country [the USA not the UK] as part of the Hats off to Dr Seuss! exhibition.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando – all sex changes, cross-dressing, transgressive desire – is the most joyful of her books. It also liberated her prose style... more
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Who’s Afraid of Beethoven? A Conversation With Joshua Bell
via Big Think by Jason Gots
If you run into violinist Joshua Bell at a cocktail party, don’t tell him you find classical music ‘relaxing’.
“Beethoven’s symphonies are not relaxing,” says Bell, who at 45 is director, conductor, and lead violinist of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, where he first performed at the age of 18: “They are the most exciting things that have ever been created by a human being.”
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What we can learn about volcanic eruptions from the vehicles trapped in their path
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
The car in this photo was 13 kilometres north-east of Mount St. Helens when that volcano erupted on May 18, 1980. This photo was taken about a month later by researchers from the United States Geological Survey. At the Rosetta Stones blog, Dana Hunter has a really fascinating story – with more eerie photos – about why geologists would want to study totalled vehicles and what we can learn from machines that we can’t learn from people.
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