Dog-kneed Monster
Of all the peculiar creatures in Gaspar Schott's Physica Curiosa (found via Rashomon), I think this might be the strangest.
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August 26, 2007
August 20, 2007
Stern Mottoes
August 14, 2007
Mannequin Facial Expressions
This site on the history of the mannequin has some interesting articles about the important if neglected subject of mannequin facial expressions through the decades. In the Twenties, popular styles were 'a "bemused Matron," a younger model with head tilted and lips pursed as if to say, "Kiss me you fool", a moonstruck maiden and a woman with a slightly judgmental inhibited expression'. Men were even more striking: 'Like Rudolph Valentino, their eyes were brought out with kohl, brows were emphasized and lips had a semi-bee-stung look. This held true for most male figures, even the faces of the more elderly.'
August 13, 2007
Shackleton Foundation
Those interested in Antarctic exploration or just excitement in general should have a look at the Shackleton Centenary Expedition website. The descendants of the original Nimrod expedition team - including the IT department of this very blog - are going back to retrace and complete their ancestors' journey to the South Pole. And they are setting up a foundation to help you do something equally bold.
August 12, 2007
Estonian Schoolbooks
In Tallinn a while ago, I bought a couple of Sixties textbooks for the appealing if baffling (to the non-Estonian speaker) illustrations:
August 11, 2007
Inside the Large Hadron Collider
It's always interesting to have a snoop round someone else's workplace, particularly when that place is the CERN Large Hadron Collider or the European Space Agency. The ambient sound adds to the realism of Peter McCready's 360-degree photographs, and you can zoom in on the details - at the ESA, where they seem to be watching Saturn's rings on a monitor, you can look up to read a sort of departure board of launches, but also discover that they have nasty carpet tiles and that someone seems to have been violently kicking one of the bins. At CERN, you are confronted by the mind-boggling machinery of the world's largest particle accelerator, but if you twirl round it's all stepladders, discarded cups of coffee and someone's bike. (The staff have to use to bikes to get around it, because the collider is 16 miles long.)
