my imaginings live here— like a hotel conference full of liars, cheaters, stealers, and wine. ready to be fully realized; but always standing at the end of the line..
Moses Harris’s 1766 chart, one of 100 diagrams that changed the world, was the first full-color circle. The 18 colors of his wheel were derived from what he then called the three ‘primitive’ colors: red, yellow and blue. At the center of the wheel, Harris showed that black is formed by the superimposition of these colors.
The Rosetta Disk
Long Now Foundation’s Rosetta Project have created a miniature archive featuring all of the world languages laser etched onto a small disc that can fit in your hand:
The Rosetta Disk is intended to be a durable archive of human languages, as well as an aesthetic object that suggests a journey of the imagination across culture and history. We have attempted to create a unique physical artifact which evokes the great diversity of human experience as well as the incredible variety of symbolic systems we have constructed to understand and communicate that experience.
The Disk surface shown here, meant to be a guide to the contents, is etched with a central image of the earth and a message written in eight major world languages: “Languages of the World: This is an archive of over 1,500 human languages assembled in the year 02008 C.E. Magnify 1,000 times to find over 13,000 pages of language documentation.” The text begins at eye-readable scale and spirals down to nano-scale. This tapered ring of languages is intended to maximize the number of people that will be able to read something immediately upon picking up the Disk, as well as implying the directions for using it—‘get a magnifier and there is more.’
… The pages are microscopically etched and then electroformed in solid nickel, a process that raises the text very slightly - about 100 nanometers - off of the surface of the disk. Each page is only 400 microns across - about the width of 5 human hairs - and can be read through a microscope at 650X as clearly as you would from print in a book. Individual pages are visible at a much lower magnification of 100X. The outer ring of text reads “Languages of the World” in eight major world languages.
Here is a video by Scott Oller about the Rosetta Project:
Rosetta from Scott Oller on Vimeo.
You can find out more about the project here
Islamic architecture and art is so beautiful. I mean this is just…
Islamic art and architecture is unprecedented in its use of color, design, and function. It is efficient and powerful.
The Golden Rock
The Golden Rock at Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar, is a holy and important site which Buddhists frequent in large numbers. A gold leaf covered boulder precariously balances on the edge of a cliff, and pilgrims come to worship this astonishing defiance of gravity. It is said that a single Buddha hair exists under the rock.
(by dvlazar)
Legend draws us. Once it becomes legend it doesn’t matter anymore whether it’s true, because it becomes true once it becomes legend.
This painting is of Jesus washing the apostles feet. I’m not sure who that lad in the background is, but he is mighty easy on the eyes. My friends should know better than to show me paintings, because I’m more than likely going to first scope out the attractive men.. Tsk tsk.
Her Imperial Highness Princess Sara Gizaw, Duchess of Harrar
Princess Sara Gizaw Duchess of Harrar is the widow of Prince Makonnen,Duke of Harrar and second son of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. She is the mother of five sons. In her day, Princess Sara was renowned as one of the most beautiful women at the Court of the Emperor of Ethiopia. She was widowed in 1957 when her husband, the Duke of Harrar, was killed in a car accident. She often accompanied the Emperor on foreign visits, and acted as one of his official hostesses along with Princess Tenagnework after the death of Empress Menen.
Princess Sara was imprisoned with the other women of the Imperial Family of Ethiopia in 1974, and was released from prison in 1988. She currently resides in Addis Abeba.
The Patriot.
What a film, it reminds me of the victory that was ours in the Revolutionary War.
against unbelievable odds the Patriots won.
Number of Americans who remained loyal to Britain during the Revolution: as many as 500,000 (20% of white Americans)
Number of military engagements in the Revolutionary War: 1,546
Age of some of the youngest members of the Continental Army: 10 (e.g. Israel Trask, son of a Lieutenant who volunteered and served as a cook’s helper and messenger)
Age of some of the oldest members of the Continental Army: 57 (e.g. the very popular General Israel Putnam)
Total Americans wounded in the Revolutionary War: 8,445
Total American deaths from disease in the Revolutionary War: 10,000 (approximation)
Total Americans who died in British prisons in the Revolutionary War: 8,500
Total Americans captured in the Revolutionary War: 18,152
Total British casualties from battle and disease in the Revolutionary War: around 24,000
Militia vs. Organized army, incredible.
It’s unbelievable how much honor and glory was invested in the American Revolutionary War
for what?
Jazz dancing, fast cars, conversation about Freud and sex all mashing together, lubricated with gin… and, of course, the shortest dresses in history.
In the upper echelons of American society, they became virtual works of art.
This is the finest example I’ve ever seen.
Slim. Minimal. Couldn’t be simpler. Except that when you put it on, the zigzag rows of silver and translucent beaded fringe are set into glittering motion that seems to flow directly out of you.
The light varies depending on your tempo (Charleston for fireworks, slow waltz for chandelier effect), but is always mesmerizing.
1927 Party Dress (No. 2924). Sleeveless, scoop-neck cream silk georgette, surprisingly substantial, with over 100,000 hand-strung baguette beads in seven tiers, plus an eighth tier across scooped back.
The hemline falls just above your provocative knees; in Utah or Ohio, you could have been arrested (really) for wearing this breathtaking thing. Imported.
I love thomas jefferson. I could list off the reasons why- his politics, his hypocrisy, his understanding…
really just the image of him as a 20 something writing the most influential document there has been in america. he probably shat his pants… but he succeeded… could you imagine?
Recent hyperspectral imaging of Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence has clearly confirmed past speculation that Jefferson made an interesting word correction during his writing of the document, according to scientists in the Library of Congress’ Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD). Jefferson originally had written the phrase “our fellow-subjects.” But he apparently changed his mind. Over the word “subjects” he inked an alternative, the word “citizens.”
![Thomas Jefferson. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Information: Reproduction No.: LC-USZ62-88053 (b&w film copy neg.); Call No.: PRES FILE - JEFFERSON, THOMAS [item] [P&P]](http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/aug10/images/Subject_B.jpg)
The correction seems to illuminate an important moment for Jefferson and for a nation on the eve of breaking from monarchical rule: a moment when he reconsidered his choice of words and articulated the recognition that the people of the fledgling United States of America were no longer subjects of any nation, but citizens of an emerging democracy.
The correction occurs in the portion of the declaration that deals with grievances against King George III, in particular, the king’s incitement of “treasonable insurrections.” While that specific sentence didn’t make it into the final draft, a similar phrase was retained, and the word “citizens” is used elsewhere in the final document. The sentence didn’t carry over, but the idea did.
Fenella France, a scientist in PRTD, conducted the hyperspectral imaging in the fall of 2009 and discovered a blurred word under “citizens.” France said, “It had been a spine-tingling moment when I was processing data late at night and realized there was a word underneath citizens. Then I began the tough process of extracting the differences between spectrally similar materials to elucidate the lost text.”
Hyperspectral imaging is the process of taking digital photos of an object using distinct portions of the visible and non-visible light spectrum, revealing what previously could not be seen by the human eye. Fascinating details of our historical heritage have been coming to light with the use of hyperspectral imaging. For instance, recent imaging of the heavily varnished and visually obscured 1791 Pierre L’Enfant Plan of Washington, D.C., has clearly revealed invisible streets and special locations, including the “President’s House” and “Congress’ House.”
The Thomas Jefferson word correction had been suspected for some time by scholars. In “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1: 1760-1776” (Princeton University Press, 1950), Julian P. Boyd wrote “TJ originally wrote ‘fellow-subjects,’ copying the term from the corresponding passage in the first page of the First Draft of the Virginia Constitution; then, while the ink was still wet on the ‘Rough draught’ he expunged or erased ‘subjects’ and wrote ‘citizens’ over it.”
The Library is home to the papers of Thomas Jefferson, in addition to his reconstructed library, the foundation that the Library of Congress was built on.
Imagination and vision played critical roles in the creative act of forming a self-governing United States of America. The collections of the Library are unquestionably the world’s best source for documenting that process. In addition to the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the institution holds documents relating to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all of which can be found in the online exhibition “Creating the United States.”
it’s just a generational thing.
I can’t stop thinking about how i am a generation. i will become these women in the mirror… will i be a part of the greatest of generations, or the most vile? … can i change that, do i have a say?
i guess time will tell.
a clam seller in new york city
i have always admired that generation that we call the greatest. i want to be there, 1941. in my sweet dresses and nice hats working as women together for a common purpose. god, how i want a common purpose.
