Ancient Astronomical Calculator
“What is extraordinary about the thing is that they were able to make such a sophisticated technological device and to be able to put that into metal,” he added.
Lamps
Scroll down to the bottom and check out the horse lamp.
Gormenghast again
“No sooner had [Steerpike] peered over the banisters than he started back, for the Countess of Groan was passing through the lamplit room below. She seemed to be wading in white froth, and the hollow rooms behind Steerpike reverberated with a dull throbbing, a multitudinous sound, the echo of the genuine ululation which he could not hear, the droning of the cats. They passed from the hall below like the ebbing of a white tide through the mouth of a cave, at its centre, a rock that moved with them crowned with red seaweed.”
Bigger in Texas, You Say?
In February 1979 Lady Liberty poked her head above the icy waters of Lake Mendota. Astonished local Wisconsin residents flocked to the lake to witness the bizarre spectacle. Unfortunately, she was only there for three weeks before she disappeared in a blaze of fire, the victim of arsonists. But the next year she returned (fireproofed this time) though again she didn’t stick around for long. This time she fell victim to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which determined that she resembled a fishing shanty and demanded that she be removed from the ice to satisfy their regulations. She was duly relocated to a shed.
The presence of Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota was the handiwork of Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian, the two leaders of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s notorious Pail and Shovel (P&S) party. That year the P&S party had assumed control of the student government (much to the dismay of their rivals), thanks to compelling campaign promises such as the pledge to dump the entire penny value of the student budget onto the ground and allow students to scoop up whatever they could get with a pail and shovel (hence the name of their party). Mallon and Varjian had also promised to buy the Statue of Liberty and bring it to Wisconsin. Being men of their word, they actually made good on their campaign vow, much to everyone’s surprise.
Albert Hofmann Collectible
Ergot Ampoule for the 100th Birthday of Albert Hofmann
These are small glass ampoules containing ergot-infected grains, originally offered as souvenirs at Hofmann’s 100th birthday celebration in Basel, Switzerland in January 2006.
One ampoule $45 (2 oz) limited
available from the ethnobotanical supplier Botanical Preservation Corps
3 - Inch Snowman in Dallas
A technology-genome project
Conrad Roth wonders what a winnowing-fan looks like, much less one that might be mistaken for an oar, finds a trace of it in a surprising contemporary place, and concludes this way:
With our objects we preserve some fragile sense that such a past was, after all, much the same as our familiar present, only rearranged a little, like our words, and like the atoms of our own bodies. We retain, at the same time, the hope that we will not be lost to the future: that whatever progress the world might make, the forms of our objects and ourselves will always prevail.
Link (which also contains a link to Part I)
Borat
Okay, I’ve waited long enough, what did everyone think of Borat?
Go.
Memes
What is the speed of meme? People write in general (typically truimphant) terms about how swiftly a single voice can travel from one side of the internet to the other and back again, but how often does that actually happen? Of those instances, how often is it organic?
The Little Black Dress
This is the beauty of the little black dress: it is utterly timeless. Its contemporary appeal, however, grows and grows. You can now exercise to the Little Black Dress workout or whittle down your waist with the Little Black Dress diet – which will be crucial if you want to squeeze into one of Chanel’s severely corseted satin ribbon mini-dresses this winter.
The Rock that Whispers
“You could see the mouth and eyes of the snake. It looked like a real python,” said Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo. “The play of sunlight over the indentations gave them the appearance of snake skin. At night, the firelight gave one the feeling that the snake was actually moving.”
RSS
Blastfeed is the latest in RSS filter products to cross my virtual desk. Back in April I looked at this space and at the time noted that filtering would be a hot topic in 2006. Why? Because it’s the next step up from RSS aggregation, as many of us now have too much information coming at us.
Librarian
To keep the gag rolling:
Eisenbraun and the Geiger Counter - The Librarian Song
My good friend wrote the song but it is about him not me.
Mysterious “Spider Boat” Appears Out of the Fog
New concept of ocean-going catamaran is being tested.
link
Well
My psychiatrists all say I’m neither crazy nor hypochondriacal.
Vivi
“I really think somebody has her and that person can’t keep the dog under wraps forever,” she said.
Killer Whale
“She has not done this particular unwanted behavior to this extent,” Scarpuzzi said.
Instructions
Take a piece of toilet paper and blow your nose. Where the holes are left will be the eyes of your mask.
The Unabomber and you
As [Alston] Chase notes, . . . what makes Kaczynski truly frightening [is that he] was led by his beliefs — many of which were reasonable and are shared by you, me, and millions of Americans — to kill and maim. That’s why we’re so ready to accept a diagnosis of mental illness. We need to accept it. Because, if he isn’t mentally [ill] — what does that make us?
(link)
i’m blogging
(kottke)
Count Albrecht Graf Goertz
Good News / Bad News
Well, it looks like The World Come of Age won’t be at this year’s Sundance, but I was able to pull together a finished copy the week before Thanksgiving (I sent Sundance a rough copy in September) and will now take matters more into my own hands.
My intention is still to submit the film to festivals with the hope of finding distribution but will also have an initial run of 1,000 dvds burned for distribution on the web.
I’m at the beginning of figuring this process out, but my hope is to make the film available sometime in January. I will be creating a site for the film at deronbauman.com and using clusterflock and other friendly sites to help get the word out.
Returning to the Spires and Gargoyles
It’s official. I am taking a year to study what I please and write full-time (yea!). Naturally, this will involve working part-time (boo!) and moving back home (double-boo!).
Still I think it is worth it–for once in my life I am going to do what I want to do rather than what I ’should.’
Confidence
The Librarian is hot…but not too hot.
Somebody has been putting Princeton’s informational videos on youtube and I can only wonder why. That said, I thought the one below was amusingly bad/good enough to post here. Working in the mail room of Firestone Library has made me aware of the vastly complicated system Princeton has in place. There are nooks around campus that most students would never even begin to conceive to imagine.
Bonus: I forgot to mention Cornel West is in the video