Friday 26 December 2014

Trivia (should have been 26 April)

They Say It’s Spring: 1924
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
They Say It's Spring: 1924
April 1924
“Washington snow scenes”
Funny, this doesn’t feel much like April
Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative
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Remembering England’s Medieval Jews
via National Archives by Dr Sean Cunningham
Events on 27 January to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau urged us to remember what happened to Europe’s Jews during the Second World War; both as communities and as individuals. If we look further back, however, we also discover similar stories that should make us reflect for a little longer on the experiences of minorities in the history of our own nation.
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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
From parent to parenting
Fashions in parenthood. You can no longer be merely a parent; you must be parenting. The former is a role, the latter a job – and evidence of a problem… more

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Ancient cities and power: the archaeology of urbanism in the Iron Age capitals of northern Mesopotamia
an article by James F Osborne published in International Journal of Urban Sciences Volume 19 Issue 1 (2015)
This paper explores the expression of power in the built environment of ancient cities, using two case studies from the middle Iron Age (early first millennium BCE) ancient Near East: the capital cities of the Syro-Anatolian city-states in southern Turkey and northern Syria, and those of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in northern Iraq. A functional approach to urbanism, which defines cities based on their influence in the surrounding region, leads to the conclusion that although the expression of power in these two cultures’ major cities is superficially similar (though different in scale), incorporating the surrounding landscape into the discussion reveals how empires are more comprehensive than city-states in creating entire landscapes that communicate power in their built environment.
Being an academic journal there are, of course, no pictures; nor, unfortunately, is there access to the full article.

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Super Funny Science Experiments Everyone Can Try At Home
via Lifehack by Amy Johnson
Have you ever changed the color of a flower?
Sorry, you will have to click through, the embedding did not work!
This awesome video on science experiments was released by BuzzFeedYellow, and they are great fun for both adults and children. From making an egg bounce to actually making bouncy balls, this video covers six of the most entertaining science experiments we’ve ever seen.
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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Julian Barnes on art
Oh, the glory of being a budding modernist in 1964. Picasso, Eliot, Pound, and Stravinsky were still alive. For Julian Barnes, their examples would inform a lifetime of looking…more

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AbeBooks Explains Why Shakespeare’s First Folio is so Important
via AbeBooks.co.uk by Richard Davies
Our latest video explains why William Shakespeare’s First Folio is so significant. It’s full title is Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies and it was published in 1623. The First Folio is arguably the most important book in the English language.
Find out why here

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Inside Jim Henson’s Creature Shop of pioneering puppetry
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Our friends at Tested visit the magical menagerie that is Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
Click through for video fascinating!!

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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Violence and religion
Piety and politics. Karen Armstrong’s attempt to exonerate religion as a cause of violence is as wrongheaded as blaming religion for the world’s ills. .. more

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Blaise Pascal’s Wondertorium
via 3 Quarks Daily by Jonathan Kujawa
Pascal-trinagle
Everyone learns about Pascal’s Triangle when they are young. But I, at least, didn’t learn all the wonders contained in the Triangle. Indeed, we’re still discovering new things!
To construct the Triangle is easy enough: you start with 1s down the outside edges and each interior number is gotten by adding together the two numbers just above it. So the third number on the sixth line is a 10 because that’s the sum of 4 and 6.
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