Trivia (which was destined to be published on 10 August)

Bridge Out: 1865
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

April 1865
“Richmond, Va. Ruins of Richmond & Petersburg Railroad bridge”
Span over the James River, burned by Confederate troops before the advancing Federal Army
Wet plate negative by Alexander Gardner
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Open Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come
James Cuno in the online magazine of the Getty (thanks to Research Buzz)
A New Commitment to Sharing the Getty’s Digital Resources Freely with All

Today [12 August 2013] the Getty becomes an even more engaged digital citizen, one that shares its collections, research, and knowledge more openly than ever before. We’ve launched the Open Content Program to share, freely and without restriction, as many of the Getty’s digital resources as possible.
Continue reading

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Quick, name a religious-minded novelist. Easy, right? Now name one who’s living. “If any patch of our culture can be said to be post-Christian, it is literature”… more

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“Wilkie Collins, as they say, could have fornicated for England”
via AbeBooks.co.uk by Richard Davies
A new biography of Wilkie Collins is painting an intriguing portrait of The Moonstone author. Wilkie Collins: A Life Of Sensation by Andrew Lycett reveals that “Collins, as they say, could have fornicated for England,” according to the Daily Telegraph’s review.

On one of the family trips to Italy, he lost his virginity, aged 13, and he would be a voracious lover of women for the rest of his life. He had a fetish for what he called “haunches”, evident in the portrayal of such well-fleshed beauties as Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White.

The Daily Mail also relishes the idea of a Victorian novelist with a taste for the ladies from the lower classes.

Collins, who lost his virginity at 12 (err… Telegraph says 13) and travelled around Europe picking up girls with (Charles) Dickens, embarked upon long-standing and overlapping relationships with Caroline Graves, then a 25-year-old near-destitute single mother, and Martha Rudd, a 19-year-old semi-educated Norfolk barmaid.

Those Victorians! For good measure, Collins was also addicted to opium.

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Animal Super Powers
via How-To Geek
Our favorite super heroes have awesome and unique powers to help them fight villains, but you might be surprised to know that many animals have natural and amazing super powers of their own! PBS Digital Studios looks at some of Nature’s most fascinating super-powered animals in this terrific video.



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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Why writers drink. Is it a overly keen awareness of their own mortality that leads the hyperarticulate to the bottle?… more

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What if ice did not float?
via How-To Geek
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if ice did not float? Perhaps you have never really thought about it, but you might be surprised at the impact such a change would have on our world’s climate.
The Periodic Table of Videos channel discusses how ice’s ability to float has a positive effect on our climate in this terrific video.


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50 Places Every Music Lover Should Visit
via Flavorwire by Tom Hawking
A couple of weeks back, our esteemed literary editor Jason Diamond put together a pretty epic roundup of 50 places every literary fan should visit. The post got great feedback and responses from our readers, so much so that we thought we’d extend the concept to some of our other areas of expertise before the end of the summer vacation season. First up: music! From the backblocks of Brooklyn to the exotic locales of Kingston and Addis Ababa, here are 50 places that we reckon should be on every music fan’s fantasy itinerary.
Check it out for yourself
I can only notch up two of the fifty --- the obvious ones for a Brit. Waterloo Bridge and Abbey Road.
Incidentally there was an outcry when the local authority proposed replacing the iconic crossing!


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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The language of celluloid. Film has a unique power, a mystical pull that brings us into closer dialogue with life, says Martin Scorsese… more

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Vermeer: Master of Light Narrated by Meryl Streep
Stunning. But not all commentators on YouTube thought so.
Just make sure you allow time as it is the full documentary.