This is part of a wonderful set of photographs by Eugène Atget who photographed in and around Paris at the turn of 1900. The composition of this one is particularly interesting with intersecting vertical and diagonal elements.
Directors of 12 U.S. Presidential Libraries got together at the Truman Library in mid-June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that library.
As part of the celebrations each of the directors give a brief talk about a couple of their personal favourites in their home library's collection.
In my former life I oversaw the cleaning and care of around 400 hotel bathrooms daily. And countless more lavatories around the complex.
[ Photo by VancityAllie on Flickr here ]
One of the things you find out when you are running a hotel is that there are problems inserted into hotels at the design and building stage for which you spend many years apologising. Because there are some things which cannot be fixed without knocking the building down and starting again.
My friend David McMillan has done a great job of dissecting the problem that is the hotel bathroom here.
The bathroom pictured above is from the Hôtel Place D’Armes, and may well have avoided the design faults David McMillan has enumerated . Allie gives it and the rest of the hotel a pretty good review here.
So said the Chief Justice Darley about this woman, Louisa Collins:
Image from the State Records of New South Wales:
Name: Lousia Collins
Born: 1849
Native Place: Scone, New South Wales
Gaol: Darlinghurst
Photo: No. 4335 Page 84; Jul 1888
Series: NRS2138 [3/6050]
Microfilm: 5103
Search the index to the gaol photographs here, see the image on Flickr here.
Dubbed "The Lucretia Borgia of Botany", she poisoned both of her husbands for the insurance money. She was hanged by the neck until dead.
It took four trials to convict her, though.
1957 was a big year.
The Cold War was nearing its height and on October 4 fear of the Soviet Bear was pushed along when the first artificial satellite Sputnik-1 was launched.
One night in October 1957 Denis Cox and Brian Ball were on their way to their local band hall in Mordialloc, Victoria. They gazed up trying to spot Earth's only artifical satellite, imagining what it meant for them and their nation. Then Denis and Brian got on with what they set out to do that night, and joined the Mordialloc Brass Band.
Sputnik, and the threat the Soviet space program imposed on Australia was not lost on the Denis Cox, then a student at Mordialloc High School. He put his ideas for a rocket ship design down on paper and forwarded it to Australia's premier space weapons research facility, the Woomera Weapons Research Establishment, directed to the attention of the top scientist.
Denis' letter was carefully filed, and was brought to light recently by the National Archives of Australia in their Find Of The Month feature.
[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]
Denis supplied an elaborate design finely sketched in blue ball point ink, including important featrues such as four Rolls-Royce jet engines and guided missile armament. An obvious patriot, and in accordance with the rules of war, his design included Australian markings on the rocket ship. Realising that at such a tender age he did not yet have a definitive design, he invited the Top Scientist at Woomera to " ... put in other details.".
[ NAA: D 250, 56/486 Part 1 ]
[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]
Denis requested a letter in return, but he tells me he is still waiting. The wait for a response has not embittered him, and here is a photograph of Denis at last year's office Christmas party. He's the one not wearing a red suit:
Although the images of the Denis's letter have been downloaded from the National Archives of Australia website, the NAA has not asserted copyright over use of the images, and instead advised me that copyright of the letter from Denis Cox to Woomera's Top Scientist rests with Mr. Cox.
Denis Cox has generously granted me permission to reprint his letter here, and kindly supplied the recent photograph of him.
As a boy, I too was fascinated by space, rockets and astronauts. I'll write more on that when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing nears.
What if email were invented today, instead of 40 years ago? How would it work? This is Google's attempt to answer that question.
This will be the next big thing. Google are going to make it open source, and want to enlist the help of developers.
This far, it has been develped in Sydney, Australia.
I hope to build this list up to 100 clips. Some of the early stuff is simply piano rolls or recordings fronted by a still image. But still ...
Aphabetical surname order.
Louis Armstrong - when The Saints Go Marching In Distracting video but great improv..
Count Basie - One O'Clock Jump sample.
George Benson - Here Comes The Sun. And displaying serious guitar chops playing Take Five. And giving On Broadway a deep funk.
Eubie Blake plays Black Keys on Parade and Lovie Joe. Newport 1960.
Charlie Christian - Stompin' at the Savoy.
Duke Ellington at The Cotton Club.- Jungle nights in Harlem, Saratoga Swing, Haunted Nights. -
Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong - Umbrella Man.
Benny Goodman Orchestra - Sing, Sing, Sing. A big band classic with Gene on drums and harry on trumpet. And an even better arrangement and audio vesion here.
Lionel Hampton - Tom Tom solo. He's playing a show off party piece here. His better known vibe work here - Flying Home.
Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra - The Stampede. 78 r.p.m. This is also notable for featuring the Victrola disc player.
James P. Johnson plays Bleeding Hearted Blues. Piano roll.
Etta Jones - Crazy he Calls Me.
Scott Joplin plays Maple Leaf Rag. Piano roll cut by Joplin, perhaps the playback tempo is a bit too andante.
Jelly Roll Morton plays and sings Mamie's Blues. 78 r.p.m.
Mark Murphy - On Green Doolphin Street. Way out there. But he still has the instrument @ 76. His Eleanor Rigby from the 1970s is the best jazz version I ever heard.
Original Dixieland Jass Band - Livery Stable Blues.
Django Reinhardt - Sweet Geogia Brown.
Joe Williams with Count Basie - Well Alright, Okay, You Win. Cookin! Not jazz, but Here's To Life. And What a wonderful World.
Teddy Wilson - Love
Under consideration for inclusion:
Paul Whiteman
.
They would sing Three Little Maids From School.
I actually stumbed across that curiosity when I was searching for this: a fine blues medley duet by Ella and Dinah.
And then there is one of the most unlikely pairings in the history of music to be preserved for posterity. Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown do It's A Man's World.
Due to exposure to long-ago active strains for influenza throughout the 20th century, it looks like people born before 1957 have some immunity to the swine flu virus.
"The image above of the newly identified H1N1 influenza virus were taken in the CDC Influenza Laboratory"
The images below of the newly identified H1N1 influenza virus were taken in the CDC Influenza Laboratory
Here is the World Health Organization's swine flu page (in English).
"26 May 2009 -- As of 06:00 GMT, 26 May 2009, 46 countries have officially reported 12 954 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 92 deaths."
Here is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) H1N1 page.
Here is the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing's page on swine flu.
Davy Crockett when I was a kid:
Davy Crockett now, remixed by They Might Be Giants:
Best looking post office I've ever seen.
Edward is doing very well in the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge. To make progress we rely on his ability to borrrow some of the required books during his single weekly library period on Thursdays.
Me:
"So, Edward, were you able to borrow a book from the library today?"
Him:
"No Dad. I couldn't because every single computer in the school was down."
No computer. No book. Stymied progress.
Go figure.
A bit over 5 minutes, but worth it.
I'm taking some French lessons.
Here's couple of useful resources.
Or,
Voici quelques ressources de langue françaises.
Un traducteur anglais français.
Texte à l'artifice de discours. Spoken here.
Then (between 1942 and 1983):
Last week I saw a piece of history.
In the midst of the Nazi steamroller, and himself a Nazi, Oskar Schindler showed that true heroes do exist.
Schindler sheltered more than 1000 Jews via the cover of his factory in Poland between 1939 and 1945; using bribery and contacts in the Nazi regieme - he saved their lives. To be on his list of enamel factory workers was to be given a chance at life when the alternative was likely death in a camp.
Light first shone on the story of Oskar Schindler and the list of his factory workers when Thomas Keneally wrote his book Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List in the USA market) which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and gained a much broader audience via the 1993 film Schindler's List.
In early 1945, as the Soviet Army began to edge across Poland, the Nazis permitted Schindler to move his factory workers to Brněnec (then Brünnlitz) in what is now the Czech Republic. He compiled a list of his workers who were required to transfer to the new location for submission to the government in 1945.
The original lists were submitted to the government as required, and no originals have been discovered since. A few carbon copies of the list are believed to exist in the world, and one was recently rediscovered by Dr. Olwen Pryke amongst Tom Keneally's literary papers at the State Librry of New South Wales. It was found by Dr. Pryke whilst she was examining six boxes of papers relating to Keneally's book. The papers were acquired by the library in 1996, but nobody had recognised the significance of the flimsy pices of yellowing paper.
Tom Keneally was reunited once again with his manuscript and papers relating to his book at the State Libraryof New South Wales, and is shown here with the rediscoverer, Dr. Olwen Pryke.
(above) Dr. Olwen Pryke and Thomas Keneally discuss the copy of Schindler's List arrayed on the table in front of them. ML MSS 6154/6
(photograph courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales)
The List is on display at the Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection in the State Library of New South Wales. It is accompanied in the display by the original manuscript of Keneally's book. Until November 2009.
You can also see it online here.
Then, in 1926 by the commercial photograph Milton Kent, from the Warden Archive of the Powerhouse Museum, via the Photo of the Day blog entry by Jessica McLean:
Lest we forget.
Innovation on the slate at Microsoft. How much will turn from vaporware to hardware? Who knows.
enjoy
I saw this on Facebook, from a Twitter plugin by Joe Wikert, about a blog post by Michael Hyatt.
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