"The Fourth Part of the World"

"The earth... is divided into three parts, one of which is called Asia, the second Europe, the third Africa... Apart from these three parts of the world there exists a fourth part, beyond the ocean, which is unknown to us."

---Isidore of Seville, Etymologies (circa A.D. 600)

I actually bought this book.  I offer that observation as a form of high praise, because I read lot of books and long ago decided it was impractical to buy them; our family are therefore ardent advocates of our local public library system (and enthusiastic supporters in various ways).

I checked this one out from the library based on a review in Harper's or The Atlantic or somewhere, and before I was a quarter of the way through I was ordering the book ($30 new, ~$9 from Amazon).  The focus of the book is on the Waldseemüller map - the 1507 map that was the first to include the term "America" in identifying the recently-discovered western lands [note the word was placed on what is currently South America].  A thousand copies were printed - only one survived, and it is now owned by the Library of Congress.

The story of the map itself is most interesting, but the book ranges far beyond that story to encompass the whole history of cartography from antiquity through the 16th century.  It's not a quick read - 400+ pages, lots of details, fortunately lots of illustrations, lots of worldviews and concepts of the cosmos - but all of it quite lucidly expressed, and to my view at least, endlessly interesting.

Simon's cat - "TV dinner"

Simon's cat videos are widely enough seen not to be TYWK-type material, but this one was posted two years ago, and I apparently missed it at the time.  All of them are remarkably true-to-life re feline behavior.  This one via Ravings of a Semi-Sane Madwoman.

Simon's Cat's website.

Philadelphia wants bloggers to pay for a license

As reported by Yglesias:

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

Over the past almost-three years, TYWKIWDBI has generated an income of two t-shirts and one box of candy.  I don't think licensure will be required for me.

Update:  Philadelphia protests that it is not a "tax on bloggers" but rather a "tax on business."  But of course they are trying to apply it to bloggers.

How do Britons say "Thank you" ?

This poll of 3,000 persons performed by a gift company is presumably not claimed to be precise, but I find it interesting to note the variety of expressions people use in place of "thank you."

Forty per cent of those polled said they believe saying 'thank you' sounds too formal, and would rather heap praise using colloquial terms like 'fab', 'lovely' or 'wicked'.

Almost half of those polled said they now use 'cheers' more often than 'thank you', while other popular phrases include 'ta', 'cool', and 'great'.  A third said they would often just resort to a quick wave instead of saying 'thank you'...

Here are the top 20 expressions of gratitude:
1. Cheers
2. Ta
3. That's great
4. Cool
5. OK
6. Brilliant
7. Lovely
8. Nice one
9. Much appreciated
10. You star
11. All right
12. Fab
13. Awesome
14. Wicked
15. Merci
16. Danke
17. Gracias
18. Super
19. Ace
20. Thank you

The decline in standards manifests itself in the fact that four in ten people no longer send thank you letters if they receive gifts through the post, and the same percentage would not make their children send a thank you either, the study said.

In our extended family, if you don't send a thank-you note, you're at high risk of not receiving a subsequent present.

Free prostate screenings

Looks like a lot of fun.

"Blind Descent"

Did you read/enjoy John Krakauer's Into Thin Air about the catastrophic climb of Mt. Everest?  How about Endurance - the saga of Shackleton's voyage to the Antarctic?   If you like adventure-based literature, you would probably enjoy reading this book about the exploration of supercaves.  It details the "race" between two groups of cavers - one exploring a Mexican cave, the other a cave in the Caucasus - trying to establish a new record for reaching the bottom of the deepest cave on earth.

Instinctively, he lunged to grab the rope and dangling rappel rack. Had he been carrying no pack, or even a light daypack, it's possible that he might have saved himself by holding onto the rope, or to the anchor bolted to the wall, or perhaps even setting up something called a body rappel. But that would have required almost superhuman strength and would have been extremely difficult even without any load. His 55-pound pack made any such self-arrest impossible, and in another instant he was dropping through space. He fell so quickly that he did not even have time to scream.

A more thorough review of the book is posted at NPR's website.  The book is an easy read in a reasonably brief 250 pages which can be consumed in an evening.  If you're interested in the subject matter, but don't have even that much time, here is a TED talk by one of the subjects of the book, Bill Stone, who extrapolates from his caving experience to speculation about the exploration of other planets:

"I scrubs"

“I Scrubs” - Katie who Keeps House in West Forty-ninth Street, New York, 1892

“When Riis met nine-year-old Katie at the 52nd Street Industrial School, he asked what kind of work she did, and she answered, ‘I scrubs.’ Katie and her three older siblings took their own flat after their mother died and their father remarried. The older children worked in a hammock factory, and Katie kept house. When asked if she would pose for this picture, which appeared in Children of the Poor, Katie ‘got right up … without a question and without a smile.’”

A nine-year-old girl scrubbing floors to support herself.  As the U.S. struggles through this ever-lengthening and deepening recession, I think the above photo and attendant story are worth keeping in mind for anyone tempted to feel sorry for their own economic misfortunes. 

Photo and quotation found at (OVO), via The Fighting Temeraire, or Everything 19th Century.

How to avoid going to Hell

“No sight so sad as that of a naughty child,” he began, “especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?”

“They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer.

“And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”

“A pit full of fire.”

“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”

“No, sir.”

“What must you do to avoid it?”

I deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable:  “I must keep in good health and not die.”

— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Via (OVO)

The "eyeball" ad - clever political advertising

The video embedded above is a 45-second ad for Independence Party candidate Tom Horner, running for governor in the state of Minnesota.  I'm not endorsing him, but I am posting the ad because I think it is quite cleverly done. 

Embedded below is one of the billboard-like ads that will be posted in the men's bathrooms at the Minnesota State Fair.  He's hoping the ads will "make a splash."

Fasting Against God

Several weeks ago I discovered Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, which describes its content as "the outlandish, the anomalous, and the curious from the last five thousand years."  As expected, it has quite a bit of "TYWK"-type material, so some of you may want to bookmark it.  Here's are some sample excerpts from a post today:

The story recorded in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick claims that the saint went to Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. There he climbed to the top, sat down and told a passing angel that he would not leave the mountain ‘till I am dead or until all my requests are granted’...

Fasting  is typically a religious act; an individual deprives themselves of food to concentrate the mind better on God. However, in ancient Ireland, fasting was not only religious. It also had another purpose. The ancient Irish law books, of which several survive, explain that a person could fast against a man who had injured him in some way and who was of a higher social rank.

The wronged individual went to the wrong-doers house and sat outside from dawn to dusk refusing to eat. By so doing he brought bad luck or ‘pollution’ to his opponent. The one fasted against then had two options. He could either admit his wrong and redress it – the fasting would stop and social harmony would be restored. Or he could counter fast to ward off the curse.

It is an extraordinary custom. Not least because it can be paralleled in ancient, medieval and, indeed, modern India and probably dates back to early Indo-European beliefs, beliefs that have survived at the two ends of the Indo-European continuum...

God, we learn, has, faced with His servant’s fasting, given way and the angel offers Patrick concessions... that those who sing Patrick’s hymn will be saved from torture, and, the promise that has already been mentioned; namely that when the end of the world comes Patrick, not God, will judge the Irish. 

There's more at the link, and many other choice morsels at the blog.

How to draw an owl

Via Joanne Casey's I have seen the whole of the internet.

100 mph car crash

SUGARCREEK TWP., Montgomery Co. (WDTN) - Witnesses said moments before the crash, Brennan was passing other drivers at speeds of at least 100 mph. He crashed when he drove off the left side of the roadway while passing a Sugarcreek Twp. police car. The crash was caught on that officer's cruiser camera.

"He went down into the median, into the grass, hit the guardrail, went airborne and the [Pontiac Firebird] hit the center post of the bridge and literally exploded into three main pieces," said witness Mark Riley.

Police said Brennan was alert and conscious after the crash and was flown to Miami Valley Hospital by Careflight where he was last listed in critical condition.

From a followup television news report: "Officers are investigating what role, if any, speed played in the crash"  WTF??

A "witch window"

In American vernacular architecture, a witch window (also known as a Vermont window, a coffin window, or a sideways window) is a window (usually a double-hung sash window, occasionally a single-sided casement window) placed in the gable-end wall of a house and rotated approximately 1/8 of a turn (45 degrees) from the vertical, leaving it diagonal, with its long edge parallel to the roof slope. This technique allows a builder to fit a full-sized window into the long, narrow wall space between two adjacent roof lines. These windows are found almost exclusively in or near the U.S. state of Vermont, principally in farmhouses from the 19th century...

Photo and text from Wikipedia, where there is an explanation of the reasons for such windows, and the curious names applied to them.

Azurite

A gorgeous nummular-shaped specimen embedded in a matrix of kaolinized siltstone.  From the Malbunka Copper Mine, Areyonga, Alice Springs, Gardiner Range, Northern Territory, Australia.

Photo credit:  Eric C. Graff, posted at Mindat, via Minerals and Fossils.

"The Farm Woman's Dream"

This advertisement isn't all that old - it's within the memory of my mom and perhaps the parent of some of the readers of this blog.


Created by the University of Missouri, College of Agriculture in1920.  Source: Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.  Via Centuries of Advice and Advertisements.