24th August
Longsight
Memories. 'This web site tells the history of the
Longsight district of Manchester, England. Situated a
short distance from the centre of the city, Longsight
has undergone enormous changes over the last 150
years.'
'Longsight Memories attempts to tell the story of
Longsight through the words and pictures of those
people who lived there and some who still do.'
Local
pubs.
White
City. 'A pleasure garden of the highest
class.'
'It is likely that few of the people driving along
Chester Road, in Manchester, who see the incongruous
white gateways near the junction with Trafford Road
will even suspect that this isn't some sort of 21st
Century folly built to adorn a retail park. It would
probably come as a surprise, even to residents of the
area, that the piece of land behind those gates, that
now houses the White City Retail Park, was once home
to attractions that drew tens of thousands of
people.'
'Today the gates stand guard over a shopping centre
where once a Royal Botanical Garden stood. Then, at
the turn of the last century the gardens were swept
away and replaced by an amusement park that featured
some of the most advanced and innovative attractions
of its time. Later, it became the home of a stadium
that hosted athletic events as well as greyhound and
stock car races.'
Horimono: The Japanese
Tattoo. 'Welcome to the homepage of Horimono: The
Japanese Tattoo. Whether you are a fan of traditional
Japanese tattoos, have an interest in ukiyoe art, or
are just here out of curiousity, I hope you enjoy this
site.'
'This site is the only English language website
devoted entirely to the academic research of
tradtional Japanese tattoo culture. If you are
shopping around for the latest trendy kanji, you are
wasting your time at this site.'
'I created this website to generate interest in and
increase understanding of traditional Japanese
tattoos, known as horimono. In Japanese hori or horu
means 'to carve,' and mono means literally 'thing.'
Horu is the verb used to describe the insertion of ink
into the skin when tattooing; in the 18th century this
was done with sharp needles tied to a long handle of
bamboo dipped in ink, thus 'carving' was a most
appropriate way of describing it ...'
From
Ashes: The Fate of the National and University Library
of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
'The National and University Library of Bosnia and
Herzegovina(NUB BiH) in Sarajevo was destroyed in the
night of August 25/26, 1992. The precious collections
of books, archival material, and periodicals
representing the memory of many generations perished
during the bombardment. The Library Catalog together
with an irreplaceable collection of journals,
published since the middle of the 19th century in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only a small portion of the
Library holdings were saved and is now housed in five
different locations within the city ... '
Chocolate.
An online exhibition of the culture and history of
chocolate; via the
Field Museum, Chicago.
The
Geometry of War 1500-1750. 'The mathematicians of
the Renaissance applied their geometry to all manner
of practical disciplines - from navigation and
surveying to cartography and perspective. They aimed
to demonstrate the usefulness of geometry as well as
its ingenuity and certainty, and to associate it with
action, achievement and progress. Many new instruments
were designed in this context, as the collections of
this museum amply demonstrate.'
[ ... ]
'The ingenuity and precision of many instruments, and
in some cases their elegance, poise and delicacy,
contrasts with the harsh conditions of the
battlefield. How usable would they really have been in
practice? They were supposed to be employed in battle
but it is clear that their purported military value
also had other functions, in justifying textbook
geometrical problems, for example, or in attracting
patronage ... '
Troop
formations and the telescope.
Via the Museum of
the History of Science, Oxford.
The Garden,
the Ark, the Tower, the Temple. An exhibition of
Biblical metaphors of knowledge in early modern
Europe. Nice illustrations.
'The stories of the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, the
Tower of Babel, and the Temple of Solomon are among
the best known in the Old Testament. They were alluded
to frequently during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and were often used at that time to frame
accounts of the progress of knowledge. The narrative
history which could be found in the Bible presented a
coherent story of the growth and decline of knowledge,
in which moral and spiritual factors helped to
determine natural and practical outcomes ... '
Hindu Temple of
Greater Chicago.
Route
40.
Diners
and roadside
attractions.
John
Kennedy Lacock's Braddock Road.
Summer of Love
30th Anniversary Celebration, 1967-1997. 'No
amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the
moment of choice each of us brings to our situation
here on this planet. The lesson of the 60's is that
people who cared enough to do right could change
history. ' - Abbie Hoffman.
Art Theft / Most
Wanted Art / Recovery Project. 'Search for the
World's Most Wanted Art.'
Major art
thefts.
Irezumi
Exhibition at the Tattoo Museum. 'Japanese
tattooing is known under different names. Irezumi is
one of them. 'Ire' means 'to put ' and 'zumi' means
'ink'. In the early days tattoos in Japan were done as
punishment. A convict would become recognizable with a
tattoo. Although this form of punishment was abolished
around 1870, the Japanese still associate tattoos with
criminality ... '
The Adler
Planetarium, Chicago, has a very nice and very
large website.
Adler
picture of the week.
Rebuilding
Manchester. 'Manchester was bombed on the 15th
June 1996. Noone was killed. In the six years that
have followed, the City Centre has been rebuilt and
enhanced.' (I was due to be in Manchester that
day).
Buildings.
BBC
articles 5 years on from the attack.
Gotham
Gazette's Rebuilding NYC.
The
Ground Zero Planner 'allows you to design the
World Trade Center site the way you think it should
look. You can drag icons representing different ideas
for the site, like housing, parks, and a memorial,
onto a map of Ground Zero. '
New York New
Visions 'is a coalition of 20 architecture,
planning, and design organizations that came together
immediately following the September 11 terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center. This group,
representing over 30,000 individuals, has pooled the
collective resources and technical expertise of over
350 professionals and civic group leaders in a
pro-bono effort to address the issues surrounding the
rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. '
Essential reading :-
the BBC's religion and ethics news weblog.
Some articles found here :-
Does Islam promote violence?
'The evangelist Franklin Graham and the conservative Christian
commentator, Pat Robertson's assertion that Islam exhorts its followers to be
violent against non-Muslims, are only two of the most prominent voices that
are part of a rising cacophony of vicious criticism of the Qur'an. One can
read and hear a whole range of negative opinions about this issue in the media.
Few have taken an in depth look at the issue ... '
[ ... ]
'Muslim scholars suggest that those who read the Qur'an should
keep at a minimum the following principles in mind. First, the reader should
have an awareness of the inner coherence in the Qur'an. As the verses are
connected to each other, the reader should study at the least, the preceding
and following verses for a sense of the immediate context. Also the reader
should look at all of the verses that deal with the same subject in the book.
These are frequently scattered all over the scripture ... '
The bonds of friendship in a bitter war.
'In a year of unspeakable horror, Israeli and Palestinian teens
join in a Maine refuge to seek a path toward peace.' (Christian Science
Monitor)
Through fire and water.
'Dresden's old synangogue was torched on Kristallnacht; the new one
built on its site now has to deal with the raging floodwaters.' (Ha'aretz)
The horror will never leave me.
'The explosion sounded like it was far off. Twenty-two-year-old
Meli Katzav, who was sitting in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem with a
friend from work, thought to herself: "There has been a terrorist attack."
She didn't have an inkling that she had been involved. ' (Ha'aretz)
Fuad divides Jerusalem and gives squatters their rights.
'What would happen if one morning the residents of Ramat
Eshkol, a neighborhood in united Jerusalem, were to find a document
signed by Amos Yaron, director general of the Defense Ministry on the
bulletin boards outside their homes that was headlined "Order for Land
Expropriation"? '
[ ... ]
'Obviously, no such order came anywhere near to any Jewish
neighborhood. But the residents of Akav, an Arab neighborhood cum
village in the northern reaches of the city, or as the order says - "an area
in the Jerusalem municipal jurisdiction, near Atarot airport" - were the
ones who found out last Thursday that they had 14 days to appeal the
decision to expropriate their lands to build a fence that will move their
homes to the Palestinian side of the map (though it will leave their land inside
Israel) ... ' (Ha'aretz)
The ultimate sacrifice.
'When an Indian widow climbed to the top of her husband's
funeral pyre and burned to death, the country was shocked. The
practice of suttee was banned years ago. Why did she do it? ... '
(Guardian)
link
23rd August
Letchworth Garden
City,
Hertfordshire.
'The first garden city in the world.'
'Letchworth Garden City played an important role in the development of
modern urban planning theory and practice throughout the 20th century.
'
'It continues to do so at the beginning of the 21st century, as the town
prepares to celebrate its centenary in 2003.'
'The principles applied when planning Letchworth were an experiment to
try and overcome the problems of overcrowded , unhealthy cities,
depressed rural areas and the poor building standards prevailing in some
areas by the end of the Victorian era. Those principles have had an
influence on British and International planners for almost 100
years.'
Postcards from
the first fifty years of Letchworth.
The British Home Children.
'100,000 British Home Children were sent to Canada by over fifty British
Child Care organizations between 1870-1948. These 4-15 year old children
were emigrated (deported) to work as indentured farm labourers until
they were 18 years old. 7,500 of the 30,000 Barnardo children were sent
to Canada without parental knowledge or consent. As many as 50,000 of
the British Home Children were mistreated and suffered child abuse and
neglect. The British Child Emigration Scheme persisted until the mid
1960's when 15-20,000 children were emigrated (deported) to Australia
and New Zealand where many suffered horrific abuse and neglect.'
[ ... ]
'This website is devoted to helping some of the determined millions of
Canadian/American descendants and their 20 million British relatives
restore their family ties that were so cruelly severed by the British
Child Emigration Scheme to Canada. The publishing of my book "Neither
Waif Nor Stray: The Search for a Stolen Identity" led first to the
creation of the British Home Child Email List and then the British Home
Children Website. I hope these three efforts will help you in your
search for your roots.'
Tour: Shaker Crafts from the Index of American Design.
'The Shaker church in American was founded by Ann Lee and seven
followers who came from Manchester, England, in 1774. After an early
settlement near Albany, the Shakers founded in 1786 what was to be their
central colony at New Lebanon, New York. There, they were able to form
an independent, communal society where they could live, work, and
worship without persecution. The Shaker sect was distinguished from
other communal groups by the strict religious tenets that guided every
aspect of life. Shaker life was modeled on the vision of a heavenly
kingdom in which "true gospel simplicity" was the cardinal principle ...
'
Small-Town America:
Stereoscopic Views from the Robert Dennis Collection.
'A few big cities -- and many more small towns -- long ago made the Mid-
Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut one of the most
densely populated regions in North America. This website presents 12,000
photographs of those three states as they were captured in stereoscopic
views from the 1850s to the 1910s. In addition to showing buildings and
street scenes in cities, towns, and villages the photographs show
farming, industry, transportation, homes, businesses, local
celebrations, natural disasters, people, and costumes. '
Berenice Abbott: Changing New York 1935-1938.
Photography.
'American photographer Berenice Abbott was born in Springfield Ohio in
1898 and died in retirement in Monson, Maine in 1991. Except for a
formative and influential decade in Paris in the 1920s, she spent most
of her productive life in photography in New York City. Her five decades
of accomplishments behind the camera range from portraiture and
modernist experimentation to documentation and scientific
interpretation.'
The Martin Luther King, Jr
Papers Project.
(Stanford University) Huge.
Madame Campan:
Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette, 1818.
'In order to describe the queen's private service intelligibly, it must
be recollected that service of every kind was honor, and had not any
other denomination. To do the honors of the service, was to present the
service to an officer of superior rank, who happened to arrive at the
moment it was about to be performed: thus, supposing the queen asked for
a glass of water, the servant of the chamber handed to the first woman a
silver gilt waiter, upon which were placed a covered goblet and a small
decanter; but should the lady of honor come in, the first woman was
obliged to present the waiter to her, and if Madame or the Countess
d'Artois came in at the moment, the waiter went again from the lady of
honor into the hands of the princess, before it reached the queen ...
'
Marie Antoinette:
Letter to Her Mother, 1773.
Olympe de Gouge:
Declaration of the Rights of Women, 1791.
Forced Labour Camps.
(Open Society Archive) Exhibition of the gulag.
'The system of forced labor camps was established in the first years of
the Communist regime in the Soviet Union. It became essential part of
the Soviet repressive system. The Communist takeovers in the Eastern and
Central Europe during the World War II led to mass arrests of non-
Communist politicians and people identified as class-enemies. Many of
them were sentenced to forced labor camps. In 1952 the International
League for the Rights of Man was able to document the existence of more
than 400 forced labor camps in Central and Eastern Europe. Here you can
find highlihts of the Open Society Archives hodings related to the Gulag
and other forced labor camps. '
A Virtual Tour of the
Monastery on Solovki.
'Very briefly: Solovki was first famous as a monastery, founded by
hermit monks but eventually a well-off establishment that owned quite a
bit of land along the shores of the White Sea. Even before the
Revolution, it often served as a place of involuntary confinement for
political enemies of the Tsars. (If you have heard the Yale Russian
Chorus, you may recall that the saintly Pitirim, formerly the bandit
Kudejar, tells his story in Solovki.) After the Revolution the monastery
was taken from its residents and the complex became a prison camp. Until
very recently it was impossible for foreigners to visit except on large
package-tour ships; now that the monastery is being renewed, it is
merely difficult and time-consuming to reach the islands.'
East to West.
'This is the story of Japanese settlement in Southern Alberta. It will
be told through the personal memories of the children of the settlers
themselves. You are invited to turn the pages of their history, to hear
them tell their own stories, and view the photographs that remind them,
and us, of their journey East to West!'
Photo album.
T'ang Haywen - Paths of Ink.
' "Contrary to the generally held belief, Chinese painting has never
ceased to evolve. At the various stages of its growth, individuality and
respect for tradition acted together or in opposition to produce
countless treasures and innovations. The example of T'ang Haywen, in the
second half of the 20th century, illustrates this phenomenon
particularly well. T'ang never received any formal education in art
apart from learning calligraphy from his grandfather, T'ang Yien. In
Paris, he acquainted himself with the work of western artists and chose
to become a painter. Art was a way of life for him, not a career
choice..." From the Introduction by Philippe Koutouzis. '
Nuns of
Khachoe Ghakyil.
Space Colony Art from the 1970s.
'A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in
the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number
of artistic renderings of the concepts were made. These have been
converted to jpegs and are available as thumbnails, quarter page, full
screen and publication quality images. '
Centre for Democracy and
Technology.
A monitoring site.
Father John Dear.
The
Apocalypse.
Images of medieval manuscripts of the Apocalypse.
The Sea Map of
Andrea Benincasa.
'This Portolan chart (that is, a coastal map intended for mariners)
gives a good representation of the Mediterranean region, but would be of
limited use for navigating around the British Isles. Note the
unrealistic coloring of the Red Sea -- traditional in medieval
maps.'
Via Access to the
Middle Ages: Medieval Manuscripts in Facsimile.
Tina Mammoser.
Contemporary marine artist.
AIBO-Life.
Gai
Jatra. 'The festival of "Gai Jatra", the procession of cows, is
generally celebrated in the Nepalese month of Bhadra (August-September). The
festival of cows is one of the most popular festivals of Nepal. The whole
complex of Gai Jatra festival has its roots in the ancient age when people
feared and worshipped Yamaraj,"the god of death". However, the ironical
sessions synonymous with the Gai Jatra festival came into tradition in the
medieval period of Nepal during the reign of Malla Kings. Hence, the present
form of Gai Jatra is a happy blending of antiquity and
medievalism.'
(I believe it takes place today).
Today's Front Pages
from newspapers in 23 countries. Via
Metafilter.
Bleak House Museum, Kent.
Home of Charles Dickens.
'This is for real, not the sequel to a sci-fi thriller. The World Bank
paints a picture of a catastrophic global future if we do not change the way
we live.'
Nippongraphica, via
Real Japan, via
consumptive.
link
22nd August
The
Works of
John Trithemius. A sixteenth century monastic
scribe.
'Abbot John of Tritheim, more often known as Johannes
Trithemius, was a wonder of the monastic
world. Born into poverty, he developed a love of
letters at a young age and ran away from
home to pursue his studies in Trier. In 1482, at the
age of twenty, he spent a night at the
Benedictine monastery of Saint Martin at Sponheim.
Continuing on his way the next morning, he
encountered a sudden snowstorm that forced him to
return for shelter. He took it as a sign that
he should remain as a monk. His new brothers must have
thought the same, for the following year
they elected him as their abbot when he was barely out
of the novitiate. Trithemius was a
reformer, eager to recover the lost glory of the
golden centuries of medieval Benedictine
life. His monastery belonged to the new Congregation
of Bursfeld, a movement of monastic reform,
and Trithemius became the congregations leading
theologian ... '
Via Hill Monastic
Manuscript Library.
Belle
Vue
Revisited.
'This web site tells the history of the Belle Vue
Zoological Gardens in Manchester, England.
Opened in 1836 by John Jennison, the gardens operated
for over 150 years finally closing in
early 1982. In its day Belle Vue was one of the
premier tourist attractions in the North-West
of England. So, step inside and learn more about Belle
Vue.'
Motel
Americana.
'This page is designed to celebrate an American
phenomenon which reflects an important part of
US history and culture: the motel. The word showed up
in dictionaries as postwar optimism and
cold war pessimism led to the creation of an highway
system. Before long, families began to
discover bright neon arrows pointing the way to
temporary homes dotting those long stretches
of tar. Motels offered an inexpensive way to travel
the country and expand our horizons. '
Motel
stories.
Lincoln
Highway.
'The Lincoln Highway was America's first
transcontinental highway, conceived in 1913
specifically with the car in mind. The highway and the
Lincoln Highway Association played an
important role in the Good Roads movement in the
United States, paving the way for the
development of a nationwide highway network that is
now unsurpassed.'
Historic
newspaper
articles.
Hokusai
Museum.
'The Hokusai Museum opened in 1976 in Obuse, a town in
central Japan. The Third International
Hokusai Conference in Obuse to be held from April 19
through 22 in 1998 shall be the perfect
opportunity to begin on-line transmission of
information related to Katsushika Hokusai.'
Selected
works.
Life
and work of Hokusai.
The
Taipei Confucius Temple.
The Picasso
Conspiracy. Page about a 1934 drawing
which the author attributes to the artist.
Picasso's Black
Painting.
Handbook
of
WA Aboriginal Languages, South of the Kimberley.
'An annotated bibliography and guide to the indigenous
languages of part of Western Australia.
Information on individual languages can be found via a
geographic, alphabetic, or language
family index.'
Strange
Science.
The rocky road to modern paleontology and biology.
The
Goof Gallery.
Art
Historians' Guide to
the Movies. Useful.
Aboriginal
Star Knowledge.
Bramah Museum of Tea and
Coffee, London.
'The Bramah Museum is the world's first museum devoted entirely to the
history of tea and coffee. It tells the modern commercial and social 350
year old history of two of the world's most important commodities since
their arrival in Europe from the Far East and Africa.'
History of
tea.
History of
coffee.
Moobile
Library.
link
21st August
Sneaking
up on America. Travel-blog of Rick's three month bike ride from
Miami to Seattle.
Wherever You Are - the consequences blog.
London
Bridge.
'The first London Bridge was built by Romans sometime
after AD43 and some of its wooden remains have been
uncovered on the north side of the river. During its
life the wooden structure was renewed several times,
and it was probably to this earliest bridge that the
nursery rhyme London Bridge is falling down refers.
Indeed, at one time, one of these structures was
washed away by a flood, and another was torn down by
invading Vikings, led by Olaf the Norseman in 1014 ...
'
'... In 1970, this bridge was sold to Lake Havasu
City, Arizona, as an even larger bridge was needed,
and the bridge that we see today was finally opened in
1973.'
History
of Southwark, Dickens,
Shakespeare
and the
Mayflower.
Faith,
Flowers and Fiestas. The Yaqui Indian Year
A Narrative of Ceremonial Events
By Muriel Thayer Painter, Research Associate
E. B. Sayles, Curator Emeritus, Arizona State Museum
In Consultation with Edward H. Spicer,
Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona
(A Complete Online Version of the Original Printed
Book).
Buddhist Temple
of Chicago. 'This sitemap is organized along the
lines of the Three Treasures. '
The Khoisan.
'The hunters of today have no collective name for
themselves. They use their own group names, such as
Ju/'hoansi (people who live on the border between
northern Namibia and Botswana) or Hai//om (people who
live around Etosha National Park).
San = Sanqua = Soaqua was a name given to hunters by
the Khoekhoen of the Cape. The word means 'people
different from ourselves' and became associated with
those without livestock, or people who stole livestock
... '
Who
views who?
Lucille's on Route
66 in Oklahoma.
Coral Court
Motel on Route 66.
Love
Hotels. 'You'll find "Love Hotels" all over Japan,
places designed for folks to shack up and get it on.
The rooms offer a fantasy of luxury and escape from
crowded tiny apartments where families or neighbors
might spy on licit or illicit physical pleasures ...
'
Love
hotels for soccer fans.
Wandjina Art
Project. 'Wandjina art from the Kimberley region
of northern Western Australia contains some of the
most striking images in Aboriginal art. This site is
the online home for the Wandjina Art Project - a
cooperative activity by Ngarinyin artists from the
Kimberley. The Project was started in October 1997 by
the Ngarinyin Aboriginal Corporation and the Kamali
Land Council as a means of bringing the Wandjina
creation stories and imagery to a wider audience. '
History
of Love and Marriage. Some good links here.
Feminae,
the medieval feminist index.
View
from Satellite. 'To view the Earth as currently
seen from a satellite in Earth orbit, choose the
satellite from the list below and press the "View
Earth from Satellite" button. The satellite database
is updated regularly but may not reflect the current
position of satellites, such as the U.S. Space
Shuttle, which maneuver frequently after reaching
orbit. '
State Darwin
Museum of Natural History, Moscow.
The
stages of nature cognition. 'This gallery is
devoted to the history of biology from the ancient
time up to the present. '
Cabinet
of curiosities.
Nature
of art and art of nature.
The River Fleet.
'The longest and most important of London's
subterranean rivers is the river Fleet. It rises from
springs a mile apart on Hampstead Heath, which
feed a line of ponds on either side of Parliament Hill.
One spring fills Highgate Ponds on the north side of
Parliament Hill, and the other fills Hampstead Ponds
to the south. These ponds were dug in the early
1700's as water reservoirs for London. '
Paris Sewer Museum.
Sulabh International Museum of Toilets.
A Thematic Collection of ASCII-Art Signatures.
Via
Virulent Memezilla.
Ericzilla.
link
