Actors read historical letters from notable people. This one by Richard Feynman to his wife, who had been dead two years when he wrote it, made me cry. Lovely.
Category: bookmarks
GeoVisual Search
“Wind turbines, pivot irrigation, baseball fields, airports — click any object and find matching instances around the world.”
–GeoVisual Search by Descartes Labs
Old Book Illustrations
[Old Book Illustrations focuses on] Victorian and French Romantic illustrations—we understand French Romanticism in its broadest sense and draw its final line, at least in the realm of book illustration, at the death of Gustave Doré.
—Old Book Illustrations
Haeckel’s Radiolaria
“Haeckel was evidently just as fascinated with the protozoa, enough to write and illustrate a substantial monograph. Die Radiolarien (Rhizopoda radiaria): Eine Monographie (1862) is available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Internet Archive in a mammoth four-volume set, a large portion of which is explanatory text. There’s also a separate volume with a selection of the plates alone which is easier to browse. These drawings show much more variety than the Kunstformen plates which represent the examples that Haeckel considered most visually appealing; they also show us how much Haeckel tailored his renderings for Kunstformen, favouring symmetry and harmony over natural imperfections. Oscar Wilde would have approved of Haeckel’s adjustments, as he writes in The Decay of Lying: “My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature’s lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out.”
-John Coulthart, “Haeckel’s Radiolaria.” { feuilleton }. February 14, 2020.
I found many of these plates striking.
Online Mexican Cookbooks
“…UTSA’s Mexican cookbook collection [is] the largest-known trove of Mexican and Mexican-American cookbooks in North America. It started with a donation of nearly 550 books from San Antonio resident Laurie Gruenbeck in 2001, amassed during her decades of travel throughout Mexico. It now has more than 2,000 books, including some of renowned chef and scholar Diana Kennedy’s rarest books, as well as her personal papers. It has the oldest cookbooks published in Mexico (from 1831), elaborate vegetarian cookbooks from 1915 and 1920, corporate and community cookbooks, and much more.”
-Nils Bernstein, “Generations of Handwritten Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Online.” AtlasObscura.com. February 10, 2020.
Michael Lipsey, aka stoicmike
Michael Lipsey writes aphorisms illustrated with artistic pictures. Recommended. See also: The El Arroyo signs.
The Comic Book Script Archive
“The Comic Book Script Archive was founded by Tim Simmons because he couldn’t find an online resource for comic book scripts. Eventually, he decided to make one. Comics Experience is pleased to present Tim’s archive as an educational resource for those interested in comic book scripting.”
–The Comic Book Script Archive
The Space Resource Report: 2020
“China dominates. Asteroid mining dies but attends its own funeral. Reusable rockets lower the cost and increase access to space. The Moon, Mars, and asteroids all get new survey maps for water resources. Water-based thrusters perform well in orbit. Asteroids are blasted and samples collected. Space mining gets more legal scaffolding. The Moon gets one new rover and two new craters.
The aim of this document is to highlight the major developments surrounding space resources in 2019, with an eye towards following these developments through 2020 and beyond. Let’s get down to the science, business, policy, and real technology developments that will invigorate humanity’s expansion into space.“
-David Rich, Joshua Schertz and Adam Hugo, “The Space Resource Report: 2020.” spaceresource.com. Janurary 24, 2020.
Fairly comprehensive overview. Worth checking out if you have any interest in this topic.
Obscure or Underseen Films
“…[a list of] obscure [or] underseen films you adore and think more people should know about…”
OKIDO Magazine
“OKIDO’s philosophy is a simple one: every child is a creative scientist.
The OKIDO world immerses young children in a spectrum of playful activities and media, all intelligently designed by science and education experts.
Whether watching the TV show ‘Messy goes to OKIDO’, engaging in family events and school workshops, or reading high quality publications and products, OKIDO children learn through play.
At the heart of it all lies STEAM learning (that’s science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics). Everything in the OKIDO world is designed by science and education experts to encourage collaboration, curiosity, exploration, discovery, creativity and critical thinking.
WHERE DID IT ALL START?
Messy grew up on the pages of OKIDO Magazine. An independent publication started by parents from a kitchen table in Brixton in 2007, it was designed to fire up young imaginations and spark a life-long love of art and science. Today its founders, scientist Dr Sophie Dauvois (PhD BSc PG Dip.) and artist Rachel Ortas, are still every bit as passionate about engaging young kids in the scientific world around them using play, art and fun.
FOR WHO? EVERYONE, OF COURSE!
OKIDO’s fun and games are for all genders. The OKIDO world is a stereotype-free zone, because we believe in promoting equality for all children.
–OKIDO
