25th July
Asteroid and
Comet Impact Hazards. (NASA)
'A
small NEA called 2002 NT7 currently under
observation has a remote possibility of hitting the
Earth in 2019. The possibility will most likely be
resolved within the next few days as new observations
come in. It is reported here as an example of the sort
of detective work associated with some of the newly
discovered NEAs. (Assuming that you see nothing more
posted here, you can assume that subsequent
observations showed this object not to be a problem).
'
Early Vegas. An attractive, illustrated history of early casinos
in Las Vegas.
P22 Mail
Art.
A mail art correspondence.
'Between 1990 and 1996, over 200 pieces were sent to/from P22. From
altered junk mail to minimally criptic addressing, Each piece has some
purpose to both test the post office and also keep an artistic discourse
going between its collaborators. The postal service almost always came
through. Recently, because of the desire to completely automate, even
the slightest variations from standard Postal Rules gets the peice
either returned or lost forever. This page is a testament to the golden
age of P22 postal art. Mail Art has no commercial value. To our
knowledge, none of our mail art has ever sold. '
Gallery.
Journey to Other Worlds. Siberian collections from the
Russian Museum of Ethnography - reindeer hunters, shamans,
objects
etc. Very beautiful.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Chinese classic
retold as a comic strip.
'The Romance of Three Kingdoms tells us a history of the late Han
dynasty.After the Huang Jin uprising, there were many warlords.Through
decades of chaos there were three countries--Wei Shu and Wu kingdom.Soon
Si Ma family got the power of Wei Kingdom and found Jin dynasty.Finally
Jin unified the country.'
'We present you an interesting part of the novel with beautiful Chinese
paintings.'
The Human Brain: Dissections of the Real Brain.
A virtual tour of the human brain.
Via the Virtual Hospital.
Sunspots and the Solar Cycle.
Daily Sun pictures, sunspot news, sunspots
in history, aurora images, space weather.
Museum of Fred.
An online museum of folk art, collected from thrift
stores.
'The paintings represented here were not created by well-known blue-chip
artists. They were created by ordinary people. For unknown reasons they
were donated to thrift stores where I purchased them. The previous
owners felt they were not worth keeping. History typically ignores what
happens in the average household. This is unfortunate because this is
where our values are best represented. Our true values are reflected in
what we buy how we spend our time and what we choose to create. As you
can see from my collection there is a lot of art being created that
never gets to be shown in public. The goal of this museum is to increase
the boundaries of the art world because making art is too important to
be left only to art professionals. '
London's Mediaeval Parish Churches.
A guide in several parts, with some illustrations.
'The Mediaeval London skyline was dominated by church spires. There were
126 parish churches crammed into the "Square Mile" in the 12th century.
By the 14th century the number had been reduced to 110. This major
series of articles will describe the histories of the Mediæval parish
churches whose names are known to us ... '
Toilets in London.
Historical anecdotes.
Via storyoflondon.com,
a great source of serious and silly articles about odd aspects
of London's life.
A Photo Stroll in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Dictionary of Imaginary Places.
'The Dictionary of Imaginary Places was originally published in 1980,
with substantial updates in 1987 and 2000. There are over 1200 entries
in the book, ranging from Middle-Earth to Narnia, Oz to Earthsea,
Hogwarts to Neverwhere. Despite the wondrous variety available, I was
disappointed to see so many locales left out, so much uncharted
territory. So I have taken it upon myself to fill in the gaps, and
invite you to do the same. '
Entries.
Descriptions of some imaginary places.
Mappa
Mundi Magazine - 'Imaginary
Places'. 'Good writing, as many a literature professor has observed,
conveys a strong sense of place. While characters and their actions may
drive the plot, the action works better if everything happens in a
recognizable, or at least easily imaginable, landscape. This landscape
may be a real one, or the writer may just make it up ... '
Thinking
about UK Environment.
UK Environment weblog.
The Airship
Association. Via UK Environment.
I'm now a guest blogger on
Morfablog, the world's only Welsh language weblog. Cor!
No
Apologies for Existing.
How
to preserve digital art. (Wired)
The
problem with profiling, from a scientific
viewpoint. Via Wrongwaygoback.
Online log
of an epileptic seizure. Via
Interconnected.
link
24th July
Odds and ends -
watching Big Brother for a living (via
LMG) -
record for visiting Tube stations in fastest time broken -
interview with Nicholas van Hoogstraten, 2000
Visible Human Project. (National Library of Medicine)
'The Visible Human Project is an outgrowth of the NLM's 1986 Long-Range
Plan. It is the creation of complete, anatomically detailed, three-
dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies.
Acquisition of transverse CT, MR and cryosection images of
representative male and female cadavers has been completed. The male was
sectioned at one millimeter intervals, the female at one-third of a
millimeter intervals. '
'The long-term goal of the Visible Human Project is to produce a system
of knowledge structures that will transparently link visual knowledge
forms to symbolic knowledge formats such as the names of body parts.'
Gallery.
Letters from London.
'In 1991, I joined 20 other students on a month-long intensive study of
theater in London, England. I was 21 years old and recently engaged to
be married. One week into the trip, the United States declared war on
Iraq, starting the highly publicized and wildly popular gulf war. As a
young American in a foreign country, I was offered a unique perspective
on what was to become a media spectacle back home. I spent that month
with a video camera, wandering around the city, going to theatrical
productions every night, and talking to anyone I could. These are my
letters home to my future wife, Leslie. '
This is really worth reading the whole way through.
Highly recommended.
The Chiiori Project.
Preserving thatch roof houses in Japan.
'Deep in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture, the breathtaking Iya
Valley is renowned as one of Japan's three 'hidden regions'. In the
early 1970's, American writer and art collector Alex Kerr stumbled upon
an uninhabited 'kayabuki-yane' thatched-roof farm house in the remote
East Iya hamlet of Tsurui, which he would later name 'Chiiori', and set
about restoring.'
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. (NASA)
'Apollo-Soyuz was the first international manned
spaceflight. It was designed to test the compatibility of
rendezvous and docking systems for American and Soviet
spacecraft, to open the way for international space rescue
as well as future joint manned flights.'
Press release images.
View of Los Angeles.
Sunglint in southwestern Pacific.
Historic Rugby,
Tennessee. A 19th century utopian community.
'Time stands still at Rugby, Tennessee - the restored Victorian village
founded in 1880 by British author and social reformer, Thomas Hughes. It
was to be a cooperative, class-free, agricultural community for younger
sons of English gentry and others wishing to start life anew in America.
At its peak, some 350 people lived in the colony. More than 70 buildings
of Victorian design graced the East Tennessee townscape.'
'This would-be Utopia survives today as both a living community and
a fascinating historic site, unspoiled by modern development. Twenty
original buildings still stand at the southern edge of the Big South
Fork National Park, surrounded by rugged river gorges.'
The Cottingley Fairies.
' In July 1917, 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her 10-year-old cousin
Frances Griffiths were tired of being chided by Elsie's father over
their claims of seeing fairies... so they took a photograph of some to
prove their existence. '
Photographing fairies.
'Geoffrey Crawley tells his personal story of the century's longest-
running photography hoax carried out by two Yorkshire schoolgirls.'
(British Journal of Photography)
Tasmanian
Aboriginal Historical Services. 'We are an independent Tasmanian
Aboriginal Organisation within the Lia Pootah Community. '
Our ancestors. Photographs.
'Very few people outside of Tasmania have any real idea what our
Ancestors looked like, or even know very little about them and their
culture. There are a few well known paintings, several of which have
been reprinted constantly, implying that there are few surviving
pictorial representations of our Ancestors. This is misleading. There
are literally hundreds of sketches, drawings, paintings and etchings of
the Ancestors which survive. '
Museum returns sacred samples. (Guardian, May 31 2002)
'She was the tragic sole survivor of the "Black War", the last full-
blooded Aborigine in Tasmania after British settlers systematically
rounded up the island's indigenous population. When she died, to the
despair of her mixed race relatives, Truganini's body was exhumed and
plundered by scientists and souvenir hunters. '
'Now pieces of Truganini's hair and skin can be returned to Australia
for a ceremonial burial after the Royal College of Surgeons of England
handed Aboriginal remains to a delegation from Tasmania. '
Truganini. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Legacy
of Chinggis Khan. Arts of Mongolia. From the
introduction
:-
'In the West, Mongolia evokes the name of Chinggis Khan (also known by
the Persianized spelling of his name, Genghis Khan) and his thirteenth
century conquest of the most of the known world. His empire extended
from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and the reputation of
Chinggis' ruthless hordes of soldiers has endured until today. This
exhibition presents a different picture of Mongolia. A nomadic people
who have for centuries managed to survive in an unforgiving environment,
the Mongols are also followers of Tibetan Buddhism who were first
converted in the late thirteenth century. In this exhibition, little-
known secular and religious works of art from Mongolia's museums will be
seen in America for the first time, an event made possible by Mongolia's
recent emergence Soviet control in 1990. '
The Evolution
Evidence Page.
'This site contains a series of articles written by myself or linked
from other sites that are designed to demonstrate the evidence for
evolution and common ancestry of all life on earth. '
Scopes Trial 75th anniversary. (July 21, 2000)
'Seventy-five years ago this week, two of the country's most acclaimed
orators faced off in a courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee. The case's
unofficial name: the 'monkey trial.' The lead players: Clarence Darrow
and William Jennings Bryan. The issue: the teaching of evolution and
creation in the classroom -- an issue still under debate today. On trial
were the actions of Tennessee high school football coach and teacher
John Scopes, who had agreed to deliberately run afoul of a state law
forbidding teaching "any theory that denies the story of divine creation
of man as taught in the Bible." '
Polls of US public about evolution. (religioustolerance.org)
Songbird shows how evolution works.
(BBC, 18th Jan, 2001).
'Scientists may be witnessing one of the fundamental forces of
evolution: the divergence of one species into two. '
The Ghosts of Ohio.
(Flash, probably best viewed on a fast connection)
101
Ways to Reduce Your Waste. From Wealden District
Council, East Sussex. Useful! Via
UK Environment.
UK
Habitats 'is an exciting website which will allow
you to discover and explore the wonderful world of
natural habitats. A habitat is the place occupied by
a whole community of plants and animals - it is where
they live.'
'This website will provide a wide range of information
with an emphasis on British habitats, particularly
those in East Devon.'
An interesting site about ecology and conservation,
with some nice pictures.
Britain's most notorious landlord jailed -
more... He was once described as an 'emissary
of Beelzebub'.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury
is a
hairy leftie.
link
23rd July
Katsura
Rikyu. (Gardens, Kyoto) 'The beauty of Katsura
Rikyu (Imperial Villa), which has been existing for
350 years in Kyoto, lies in the perfect synthesis
achieved through the weaving together of garden and
architecture. The buildings such as the Shoin and
tea-houses, and the elements of the garden - pond,
wash-basins and stepping stones - each possesses
incomparable beauty with a refined "individuality."
Nevertheless, the composition of Katsura Rikyu's
garden beauty is no more than one factor possessing an
inherent function.'
Plymouth's
World War II Underground Air Raid Shelters. 'This
is very much a pictorial site. All the images on
hyperlinks (unless otherwise stated) are less than 70k
gifs.for speed and ease of downloading,and there is no
repetition of any image anywhere on this site-they`re
all different. Most will improve if downloaded and
worked on in a graphics/photo programme. Please feel
free to download and use as many as you need..they are
on the Web. to be used but it would be nice to give me
as the source.'
Mussolini
graffiti.
Taoism
and the Arts of China. 'The exhibition Taoism and
the Arts of China is on view at The Art Institute of
Chicago from November 4, 2000, to January 7, 2001, and
at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco from February
21 to May 13, 2001. This is the first major exhibition
of Taoist art in the United States, showcasing 151
works of art illustrating many facets of the Taoist
religion. The exhibition includes paintings,
calligraphy, sculpture, porcelain, lacquer, and ritual
robes and implements from museums and private
collections in the United States, Europe, Japan,
China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. These items date from
the Warring States period to the Qing dynasty and
demonstrate the development of Taoism and Taoist art
from its earliest precedents to its "renaissance" in
the late imperial age.'
Native
Languages of the Americas. 'Welcome to Native
Languages of the Americas. This site is not beautiful.
Probably, it never will be. Neither of us is a web
designer. [ ... ] But
this site has inner beauty, for it is, or will be, a
compendium of the native languages and peoples of the
Western Hemisphere.'
University
of Virginia Gardens. Designed by Jefferson.
'Virginia has a rich garden history. Gardening was a
necessary activity providing food for the family and
pleasurable settings for study and relaxation. While
the smaller gardens of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries did not survive, the James River
Plantations, Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, and
Monticello provide a wealth of information on
gardening in the eighteenth century. The Garden Club
of Virginia has sponsored the restoration of many of
Virginia's historic gardens.'
'Early gardens were generally formally laid out.
Vegetable, herb, and flower gardens were often merged
and gardeners took great pride in the utilitarian and
aesthetic qualities of their gardens. Wide grass walks
symmetrically divided the gardens with identical beds
flanking the edges. The borders were often graced with
a large variety of flowers, as noted by one early
observer, including "pinks and a thousand other
flowers, the remaining part planted with beans, peas,
cabbage, and many other articles." Fruit trees grew
along the border of the garden and ornamental shrubs
graced one end.'
Pictures of the
Beautiful World. Photo travelogue, Africa and
Asia.
Abandoned Missile
Base VR Tour. 'This presentation will take you on
a full tour of a decommissioned, abandoned underground
missile complex. The site was opened many years ago by
explorers and vandals, and in fact the technology
therein was nearly obsolete by the time the bases were
completed in 1963, so there's little "secret" about it
beyond the location of these sites, which we will not
reveal here.'
The Poor
People's Guide to More Than Just Survival.
'Resources for poor people
and information about poverty.'
Virtual
House. (WWF) 'This virtual house is a lot like any
other residence you'll find--from Alaska to Ohio to
Florida. And inside are all kinds of things we use in
our everyday lives. So take a look around and see what
you can learn about how the way we live can affect our
planet's biodiversity ... '
The
Museum of Human Disease. 'The Donald Wilhelm
Museum of Human Disease is located on the fifth floor
of the Wallace Wurth School of Medicine. It was
established by Professor Donald Wilhelm, the
Foundation Professor of Pathology at this university.
Thanks to his foresight, and to the tireless efforts
of Dr S.G. Higgins (the Museum Curator of
longstanding), the Museum has been meticulously
maintained and updated over the years to reflect the
changing patterns of disease in our society. The
Museum contains over 2,700 specimens (or "pots"),
which display diseased human tissue at the macroscopic
level, preserved in formalin. Specimens are obtained
both from organs removed surgically and from tissue
obtained at autopsy, where the natural history of
disease is in full view. Please take note that some
specimens of diseases which have become rare, e.g.
diphtheria, are over 60 years old, and are
irreplaceable ... '
'Big
pox, smallpox and no pox' exhibition launched.
Zen Hospice
Project.
Did Robert
Johnson sell his soul at the crossroads? 'One of
the questions which is always on our minds here at the
Mudcat is: Is it possible to sell one's soul to the
devil? Shawn{one of the people who works with the
Mudcat} traveled to the crossroads with his guitar at
midnight. He played his entire repertoire twice, but
to no avail. No devil, no big black man, just the same
tuning which he began the night. Though, he did try
this in the North, and since we are optimists, and
maintain hope that maybe one needs to be at a southern
crossroads ... '
The
Elkus Indian Papers. 'The California Academy of
Sciences houses a collection of over 3,300 documents
related to Indian affairs over the period 1922-1963.
These papers came from the estate of Charles de Young
Elkus, a San Francisco attorney whose sense of
fairness manifested itself in his opinions and in the
positive influence he exerted through his interest in
the struggles of Native Americans of the Southwest.
This interest spanned a wide range, from politics to
social problems to art. '
Nada Farm
Museum of Archetypes. (California)
Museum
of Evolution. 'The Museum of Evolution was
established by the Institute of Paleobiology and is
now operated jointly with the Museum and Institute of
Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The
educational program of The Museum covers various
aspects of the natural world: the Earth and the
Universe, planetary dynamics and its influence upon
the global ecosystem, history of life, global
biogeochemical cycles and the biosphere, biodiversity
- ancient and modern, vertebrate paleontology, some
aspects of zoogeography, information on Polish
paleontological sites. ' (Warning - music).
The Urbana Atlas of Pathology.
'The images are taken mainly from images collected by Professor
Donald R. Thursh, deceased. Dr. Thursh collected these images during the
70's while he was Professor Pathology at New York Medical College,
Valhalla, New York ... '
Cheap tourist thrills. How to have fun
on almost nothing. My own humble suggestion :-
the Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford,
a fine collection of hard-to-categorise, eclectic
Stuff.
link
22nd July
Salem Witch Trials. Documentary archive and transciption
project.
A very large, important resource, which includes maps, documents,
biographical details and so forth.
Stained Glass Photography. Lovely.
'My name is Neil Ralley and this is my humble attempt to give people
greater access to some extraordinary examples of this fine art-form. My
photographic studies of stained glass have included
examples on both sides of the Atlantic. Here you will find work by
leading artists and glassmakers including William Morris, Louis Comfort
Tiffany and the Tiffany Studios, John La Farge, Henry Holiday, Edward
Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, Charles Kempe, Evie Hone, Charles J.
Connick, Helen Maitland Armstrong and others. '
Complete History of the Canadian Metis culture.
(1500-1899) Huge!
Evolution Happens.
'This Website is an attempt to counter antievolutionism, by helping to
educate people about the overwhelming evidence that evolution is an
inherent and universal characteristic of life.' There's also a
gallery,
and some interesting essays, such as
this one on the evolutionary origins of adolescent male
recklessness.
Faith & Reason Ministries.
'Reconciling Christianity with accepted science'.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Moon.
'A guide to telescopic observations of the moon.
by Akkana Peck, with help from many contributors.'
A detailed lunar observation project.
The Robert
Johnson Notebooks.
'On November23, 1936, Robert Johnson recorded his songs for the first
time in San Antonio,Texas. This first of two sessions was
unceremoniously squeezed betweenW. Lee O'Daniel & His Hillbilly Boys the
day before, and Hermanas Barazacon guitarras the day after. Yet out of
this modest recording session, after which Robert Johnson collected his
money and disappeared again into the Mississippi Delta, came a powerful
and unique sound which forever changed music in America. '
The World's
Largest Catsup Bottle.
'The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly next to Route 159,
just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique 170 ft. tall
water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S.
Suppiger catsup bottling plant - bottlers of Brooks old original rich &
tangy catsup. '
'In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group,
this landmark roadside attraction was saved from demolition and
beautifully restored to its original appearance. '
Israeli-Palestinian
Bereaved Families for Peace.
ZoneTour.
Database of urban exploration. 'Technical galleries,
attics, construction places, roofs, all those "No
Entry" places form a sort of parallel deserted town...
or nearly deserted, because the design this silent
world can attract many kind of inhabitant of the
"other town" (the one where people live, work and
consume) and swing them over to the backside of the
setting.'
Dot16. A very
small website.
Japan. A travelogue by Evelyn C. Leeper. Worth a read.
Chinese Holocaust
Memorial.
A survivor recounts the events of the Cultural Revolution.
Bergonia. A detailed description
of
an imaginary utopia, and an
attempt at describing how a society with
libertarian and egalitarian values might work.
link
21st July
Birds
in a Cheshire Garden. An appreciation of a small
English garden and 112 species of bird. (Not updated
since 2001 - but plenty to browse).
Faxian
Fa-Hsien:
A Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms (394-414 CE).
'A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms (394-414CE) is an
account of the journey Fa-hsien and his companions,
mostly in India. They visited as many of the Buddhist
sacred shrines as they could, especially those
associated with the presence of the Buddha. The
selections presented here show the reasons for the
estblishment of these shrines, the legends that
surrounded them, and the ways in which they were
maintained.'
Grandma
Prisbrey's Bottle Village. 'You have arrived at
the home page for Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village.
This folk art environment is the single handed work of
self taught senior citizen Tressa "Grandma "
Prisbrey.'
'Located in Simi Valley California, Bottle Village is
lauded by art scholars, The State of California, The
National Register of Historic Places and in
exhibitions, as a major artistic achievement ... '
Roadside
Peek. Roadside Americana.
'Roadside Peek will take you on a roadside journey in
time. As you travel, visit old motels, bowling alleys,
drive-in theatres, neon signs, petrol pumps, googie
sites, tiki villages, and much more.'
Vegas
eateries.
Neon
ten pin alleys in southern California.
Beauty
around Japan by Emiko Okayasu. 'This site contains
a collection of photos with essays
for all of you who are drawn to Japan
with its many faces ... ' Temples and shrines.
Matsushima
and Oshu-Hiraizumi.
'Matsushima literally means an island of pine trees and it indeed
consists of more than 200 small green islands covered with that trees. I know
that it is, since long time, said to be one of the tree beautiful sceneries in Japan,
and that was enough for me to keep away from this place for a long time.
Because I can easily imagine that there would be a mass amount of people
there. '
'And I was right about it, but this time, since it was on my way to
Mostuji-temple, I got a good reason to drop by, for visiting several places
besides just seeing pine tree islands.'
The Village Commune, vol. 1, 1881. A utopian village.
'SANTA ROSALIA in Selva is a village anywhere you will betwixt
the Adrian and the Tyrrhene seas, betwixt the Dolomites and the Abruzzi. It
is not necessary to indicate its geographical position more clearly; it is sufficient
to say that it is a little Italian borgo, like many another, lying under the sweet
blue skies of this beloved and lovely land that has been mother to Theocritus
and
Tasso. A village white as a seashore stone; lying along a river green as the
Adige; with low mountains in sight across a green table-land of vine and
chestnut, olive and corn; with some tall poplars by the water, and a church
with a red brick bell-tower, and the bell swinging behind its wooden cage.
Across the fields and along the side of the hills are scores of other villages;
narrow roads run between them all in a network hidden under vine leaves; and
some hundreds of house-roofs make up together what is called the Commune
of Vezzaja and Ghiralda. Of this commune the chief place, because the largest
village, is Santa Rosalia. '
Red Colony.
'The future of Mars today.' Discussion of colonising
Mars.
Papers of Edward Koiki Mabo (1936-1992). (National Library of
Australia) Includes images.
'Edward Koiki Mabo was born in 1936 on the island of Mer,
one of the Murray Islands, which are located at the eastern extremity of
Torres Strait. In June 1992, six months after his death, Mabo achieved
national prominence as the successful principal plaintiff in the landmark High
Court ruling on native land title. The High Court ruling, for the first time, gave
legal recognition to the fact that indigenous land ownership existed in Australia
before European settlement and that, in some cases, this land tenure was not
subsequently extinguished by the Crown. '
'Before the land rights case, which lasted over ten years, Mabo had
accumulated over 20 years of experience as an indigenous community leader
and human rights activist. Throughout this period, he and his wife, Bonita,
reared nine children while often experiencing lengthy periods of unemployment.
The Mabo Papers document many of his activities, including his involvement
in a number of family-based business and employment-creation ventures; his
establishment of the Black Community School in Townsville, the first institution
of its kind in Australia; his interest and involvement in indigenous arts; his
involvement in a number of indigenous health, housing and education related
boards, associations and committees; and his support for Torres Strait Islander
independence and self-determination. The Papers include material on the land
claim case, a number of personal documents, job applications, and some song
lyrics. In the later years of his life, Mabo kept diaries; some of these (1976,
1985-92) are preserved in the Mabo Papers. '
link
