tingilinde

pirate stew

coming from Neil Gaiman in Oct

30 years since the publication

it's always with us

In varying degrees, but this bit by Baldesar Castiglione in The Book of the Courtier 

Duke Federico was [one day] discussing what should be done with a great load of earth that had been excavated for the foundations of this palace, which he was then building, and he remarked: “My lord, I have the perfect answer for where it should go. Order a great pit to be dug, and then it can be put there without any further ado.” And to this the Duke Federico replied, not without laughing, “And where will we put the earth that comes out of the pit?” Responded the abbot: “Have it dug so large that it will take both loads.” And even though the Duke kept insisting that the larger the pit was made, the more earth there would be to dispose of, the man could never get into his head that it could not be made big enough to take the two loads…

 

quote for the day

 

 

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

George Orwell, 1984

 

 

a celebration of 42

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy first appeared 42 years ago today.

 

 

 

 

explaining reproduction rights to teens

KERA's THINK podcast featured an interview with Keren Blumenthal on her new book Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights. It's aimed at kids 12 and up and meant to fascinate discussion.  Based on the interview it's probably excellent.  (47m audio interview)

 

 

 

 

 

flin flon

Last night a misdialed or junk call came in with a strange area code - it turned out to be from Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada. Flin Flon - a name like the needs checking out.  It doesn't disappoint. 

snip

...

Flin Flon, Man., is named after a science fiction character, Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, from the 1905 book The Sunless City. The mining prospectors who discovered large mineral deposits near the future site of the town found a copy of the book nearby.

...

Sukie checked out the book's wikipedia page. It doesn't disappoint and would probably make a great B movie. 

snip

...

The story centres on the lead character, a prospector named Professor Josiah Flintabbaty Flonatin.[1] Flonatin travels by submarine through a bottomless lake in the Rocky Mountains. While exploring the bottom of the (bottomless) lake he discovers a strange city.[2] Within the city the local currency is tin, the streets are paved with gold, and the city is ruled by women. Flonatin, who is a bachelor, decides to escape the city, and does so by climbing out of a crater, which is actually an extinct volcano

...

The town even has a statue of the hero design by Al Capp.  The Film Board of Canada has a short piece on the name.  It has an outsized tendency to produce NHL hockey players and an underground farm that supplies Health Canada’s medical-marijuana needs.

a curious place indeed ..  about 400 miles North of the American border on the boundary of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

 

 

 

picturing science and engineering

Last year Felice Frankel's Picturing Science and Engineering came out.  It's beautiful and spendy.  She gave a great talk at Harvard last year on the interdisciplinary nature of science/engineering and art.

brewster does it again

Brewster Kahle announces the linking references in books noted in Wikipedia to books digitized by the Internet Archive.  Potentially a good thing.

 

a most curious book thief

The book thefts were unusual, but that's not the most unusual bit. 

snip

...

Tourists are a most common sight at the abbey of Mont Sainte-Odile in the summer. So, when a somewhat hefty, tall man walked down the marble stairs leading to the first floor of the guesthouse, hardly anyone noticed. His backpack contained a Bible, which is normal in a place where people come for religious pilgrimages, but this Bible was more than 500 years old. Along with it, the man carried a 15th-century incunabulum, works by Cicero and the eighth-century theologian Alcuin, and three more dusty, priceless books.

He’d gotten them from the abbey library. The door had been open, and he’d slipped right in. He picked six books from one of the oak bookcases standing against the walls, and walked right out through the Saint-Pierre chapel, briefly glancing at the marble tomb of Saint Odile — the revered saint who founded this mountaintop abbey in the seventh century — on his way out.

...

a tip of the hat to Jim