Nature wins. You can’t dream up effects like this.
From Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), a photo of Iceland’s latest fuming, smoking European nightmare. Wow. Just wow.
Ash and Lightning Above Eyjafjallajökull, an Icelandic Volcano - Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle (Stromboli Online)
How did Marco Fulle of the Stromboli team of volcano observers get that photograph? More of his great photos, here.
More:
Tip of the old scrub brush to Gormogons.
2 Comments | 
Disasters, Geography - Physical, geology, Science, Volcanoes | Tagged: APOD, Art, Eruption, Eyjafjallajökull, geography, geology, Great Photo, Iceland, Marco Fulle, Science, Stromboli Observatory, Volcano | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Friday Fox will not be a regular feature — but, Wow! isn’t that a great photo?
Unless you’re the mouse.
Ron Charest photo of a red fox in the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (Delaware) - Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife called for entries for the 2010 wildlife and wilderness photography contest. They got more than 10,000 entries, and they’ve got the top 10. They want you to vote for the best one. The photo above is just one of the spectacular nominees.
I predict one of the photos featuring animals will win, but the wild lands photos are great, too.
You may vote for three. Voting ends Sunday, April 4, 2010.
1 Comment | Art, Environmental protection, National Wildlife Refuge, Natural history, Natural resources, photography, Wildlife, Zoology | Tagged: Art, Bombay Hook NWR, Defenders of Wildlife, Delaware, Environmental protection, Natural history, Nature, Photo Contest, photography, Red Fox, Ron Charest, Wildlife, Zoology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Totally safe for work (in that way), but you may want to turn down your sound, unless you work with a lot of Hendrix fans.
Hey, I’ve used weird things for picks, too.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Humor, Music, Video and film | Tagged: Art, Guitars, Humor, Music, video, Zebra Finches | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Oh, sure, it’s on the web more as advertising for Konica/Minolta. But it’s still cool.
So-called “Venus de Milo” (Aphrodite from Melos), detail of the upper block: join surface of the right upper arm, with mortise; attachment holes, which probably bore a metal armlet; strut hole above the navel, now covered with plaster. Parian marble, ca. 130-100 BC? Found in Melos in 1820. Wikimedia image
Konica/Minolta scanned the Venus de Milo in great detail, and they have put up a Flash multimedia piece exploring the creation of the piece, techniques of sculptors of the time, and, most interesting to most of us, just what the piece was supposed to look like with her arms.
If your school district is nipple intolerant, don’t send your kids there. If you have AP World History, your kids might benefit from seeing Konica/Minolta’s comments and study — you can check it all out in less than ten minutes.
1 Comment | Ancient history, Art, History, History and art, Museums, Technology | Tagged: Art, History, Konica/Minolta, Sculpture, Technology, Venus de Milo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy is moving his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends. Guy’s club announced the move last September.
Buddy Guy's Legends, image from Today's Chicago Blues
We visited the club four years ago during the giant Midwest Clinic, where Duncanville’s Wind Ensemble debuted a tribute to Rosa Parks just a few days after her death (Samuel R. Hazo’s “Today Is the Gift”) and *spent a memorable evening going slightly deaf to the Kinsey Report.
Following federal law on how blues club should be, the walls tell stories of blues past, blues well-remembered, good blues players who visited, and stories of blues in general. A neophyte can get a good education just looking at the walls in a good club. One wall wore a painting of what could have been Mount Rushmore, which piqued my history radar — but in place of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln, it had Chicago blues legends: Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf.
Who knows the history of the image? Did Buddy Guy hire it done? Did someone do it as a serious tribute? Was it an image done for a show in the distant past, just pasted onto the wall?
When I heard the club was moving, I feared for the thing, especially since I was not digital at the time and didn’t get a photo of it. To my shock, I couldn’t find any images on the internet.
Then a couple of days ago I ran across a version of the the image, at Today’s Chicago Blues. It’s appropriately called “Mount Bluesmore.”
But the same question remains: Will it be saved with the new venue?
Mount Bluesmore, at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago - image from Today's Chicago Blues
Tip of the old scrub brush to Today’s Chicago Blues — go buy the book.
The Kinsey Report:
* This isn’t blues, below, but it’s worth a listen; I believe it may even be Duncanville’s premiere of Hazo’s tribute to Rosa Parks — alas, without video of the band, and lacking a little on the bass end but otherwise showing off the Wind Ensemble’s performance flair:
4 Comments | Art, History, History and art, History museums, Music | Tagged: Art, Blues, Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago, Duncanville Wind Ensemble, Mount Bluesmore, Music, Rosa Parks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Did I remember to tell you Scouting celebrates 100 years in the U.S. this year?
Stained glass Scout fleur de lis, Grand Canyon Council, B.S.A., offices, Phoenix (Decor to Adore photo)
More photos of Grand Canyon Council, B.S.A., offices, at Decor to Adore.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Boy Scouts of America | Tagged: Art, Boy Scouts of America, Grand Canyon Council B.S.A., Phoenix, Stained Glass | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Vimeo, that wonderful Space Shuttle launch video that Phil Plait raved about, just over a month ago. Just for fun.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Bob Park is probably right (he usually is). The International Space Station doesn’t have enough science value to justify the expense of it. A lot of the work we do in space exploration could better be done by robots. But you know, I grew up in that era when a manned space launch was a school-stopping experience. I was still in high school when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. So I will be saddened when the shuttle launches come to an end.
Let’s hope the next chapter of space exploration will be at least as cool.
1 Comment | Astronomy, NASA, Science, Space exploration | Tagged: Art, Cool Video, NASA, Science, Space exploration, Space Shuttle, STS-129 | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Thomas Nast invented Santa Claus? Clement C. Moore didn’t write the famous poem that starts out, “‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house . . . ?”
The murky waters of history from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub soak even our most cherished ideas and traditions.
But isn’t that part of the fun of history?
Yes, Virginia (and California, too)! Thomas Nast created the image of Santa Claus most of us in the U.S. know today. Perhaps even more significant than his campaign against the graft of Boss Tweed, Nast’s popularization of a fat, jolly elf who delivers good things to people for Christmas makes one of the great stories in commercial illustration. Nast’s cartoons, mostly for the popular news publication Harper’s Weekly, created many of the conventions of modern political cartooning and modeled the way in which an illustrator could campaign for good, with his campaign against the graft of Tammany Hall and Tweed. But Nast’s popular vision of Santa Claus can be said to be the foundation for the modern mercantile flurry around Christmas.
Nast is probably ensconced in a cartoonists’ hall of fame. Perhaps he should be in a business or sales hall of fame, too. [See also Bill Casselman’s page, “The Man Who Designed Santa Claus.]
Nast’s drawings probably drew some inspiration from the poem, “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” traditionally attributed to Clement C. Moore, a New York City lawyer, published in 1822. The poem is among the earliest to describe the elf dressed in fur, and magically coming down a chimney to leave toys for children; the poem invented the reindeer-pulled sleigh.
Modern analysis suggests the poem was not the work of Moore, and many critics and historians now attribute it to Major Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828) following sleuthing by Vassar College Prof. Don Foster in 2000. Fortunately for us, we do not need to be partisans in such a query to enjoy the poem (a complete copy of which is below the fold).
The Library of Congress still gives Moore the credit. When disputes arise over who wrote about the night before Christmas, is it any wonder more controversial topics produce bigger and louder disputes among historians?
Moore was not known for being a poet. The popular story is that he wrote it on the spur of the moment:
Moore is thought to have composed the tale, now popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” on December 24, 1822, while traveling home from Greenwich Village, where he had bought a turkey for his family’s Christmas dinner.
Inspired by the plump, bearded Dutchman who took him by sleigh on his errand through the snow-covered streets of New York City, Moore penned A Visit from St. Nicholas for the amusement of his six children, with whom he shared the poem that evening. His vision of St. Nicholas draws upon Dutch-American and Norwegian traditions of a magical, gift-giving figure who appears at Christmas time, as well as the German legend of a visitor who enters homes through chimneys.
Again from the Library of Congress, we get information that suggests that Moore was a minor celebrity from a well-known family with historical ties that would make a good “connections” exercise in a high school history class, perhaps (”the link from Aaron Burr’s treason to Santa Claus?”): (read more, below the fold)
Clement Moore was born in 1779 into a prominent New York family. His father, Benjamin Moore, president of Columbia University, in his role as Episcopal Bishop of New York participated in the inauguration of George Washington as the nation’s first president. The elder Moore also administered last rites to Alexander Hamilton after he was mortally wounded in a tragic duel with Aaron Burr.
A graduate of Columbia, Clement Moore was a scholar of Hebrew and a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan. [See comment from Pam Bumsted below for more on Moore.] He is said to have been embarrassed by the light-hearted verse, which was made public without his knowledge in December 1823. Moore did not publish it under his name until 1844.
Tonight, American children will be tucked in under their blankets and quilts and read this beloved poem as a last “sugarplum” before slipping into dreamland. Before they drift off, treat them to a message from Santa, recorded by the Thomas Edison Company in 1922.
“Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph“
By Arthur A. Penn, Performed by Harry E. Humphrey.
Edison, 1922.
Coupling date: 6/20/1922. Cutout date: 10/31/1929.
Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies
Listen to this recording (RealAudio Format)
Listen to this recording (wav Format, 8,471 Kb)
But Henry Livingston was no less noble or historic. He hailed from the Livingtons of the Hudson Valley (one of whose farms is now occupied by Camp Rising Sun of the Louis August Jonas Foundation, a place where I spent four amazing summers teaching swimming and lifesaving). Livingston’s biography at the University of Toronto site offers another path for a connections exercise (”What connects the Declaration of Independence, the American invasion of Canada, the famous poem about a visit from St. Nick, and George W. Bush?”):
Henry Livingston Jr. was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Oct. 13, 1748. The Livingston family was one of the important colonial and revolutionary families of New York. The Poughkeepsie branch, descended from Gilbert, the youngest son of Robert Livingston, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor, was not as well off as the more well-known branches, descended from sons Robert and Philip. Two other descendants of Gilbert Livingston, President George Walker Herbert Bush and his son, President-Elect George W. Bush, though, have done their share to bring attention to this line. Henry’s brother, Rev. John Henry Livingston, entered Yale at the age of 12, and was able to unite the Dutch and American branches of the Dutch Reformed Church. At the time of his death, Rev. Livingston was president of Rutgers University. Henry’s father and brother Gilbert were involved in New York politics, and Henry’s granduncle was New York’s first Lt. Governor. But the law was the natural home for many of Henry’s family. His brother-in-law, Judge Jonas Platt, was an unsuccessful candidate for governor, as was his daughter Elizabeth’s husband, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson. Henry’s grandson, Sidney Breese, was Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.
Known for his encyclopedic knowledge and his love of literature, Henry Livingston was a farmer, surveyor and Justice of the Peace, a judicial position dealing with financially limited criminal and civil cases. One of the first New Yorkers to enlist in the Revolutionary Army in 1775, Major Henry Livingston accompanied his cousin’s husband, General Montgomery, in his campaign up the Hudson River to invade Canada, leaving behind his new wife, Sarah Welles, and their week-old baby, on his Poughkeepsie property, Locust Grove. Baby Catherine was the subject of the first poem currently known by Major Livingston. Following this campaign, Livingston was involved in the War as a Commissioner of Sequestration, appropriating lands owned by British loyalists and selling them for the revolutionary cause. It was in the period following Sarah’s early death in 1783, that Major Livingston published most of his poems and prose, anonymously or under the pseudonym of R. Ten years after the death of Sarah, Henry married Jane Patterson, the daughter of a Dutchess County politician and sister of his next-door neighbor. Between both wives, Henry fathered twelve children. He published his good-natured, often occasional verse from 1787 in many journals, including Political Barometer, Poughkeepsie Journal, and New-York Magazine. His most famous poem, “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” was until 2000 thought to have been the work of Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), who published it with his collected poems in 1844. Livingston died Feb. 29, 1828.
More on Henry Livingston and his authorship of the Christmas poem here.
Our views of Santa Claus owe a great deal also to the Coca-Cola advertising campaign. Coca-Cola first noted Santa’s use of the drink in a 1922 campaign to suggest Coke was a year-round drink (100 years after the publication of Livingston’s poem). The company’s on-line archives gives details:
In 1930, artist Fred Mizen painted a department store Santa in a crowd drinking a bottle of Coke. The ad featured the world’s largest soda fountain, which was located in the department store of Famous Barr Co. in St. Louis, Mo. Mizen’s painting was used in print ads that Christmas season, appearing in The Saturday Evening Post in December 1930.
- 1936 Coca-Cola Santa cardboard store display
Archie Lee, the D’Arcy Advertising Agency executive working with The Coca-Cola Company, wanted the next campaign to show a wholesome Santa as both realistic and symbolic. In 1931, The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus — showing Santa himself, not a man dressed as Santa, as Mizen’s work had portrayed him.
- 1942 original oil painting – ‘They Remembered Me’
For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Moore’s description of St. Nick led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly, pleasantly plump and human. For the next 33 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa — an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of people of all ages, all over the world.
Santa Claus is a controversial figure. Debates still rage among parents about the wisdom of allowing the elf into the family’s home, and under what conditions. Theologians worry that the celebration of Christmas is diluted by the imagery. Other faiths worry that the secular, cultural impact of Santa Claus damages their own faiths (few other faiths have such a popular figure, and even atheists generally give gifts and participate in Christmas rituals such as putting up a decorated tree).
For over 100 years, Santa Claus has been a popular part of commercial, cultural and religious life in America. Has any other icon endured so long, or so well?
________________________
Below:
From the University of Toronto Library’s Representative Poetry Online
Major Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828)
Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas
1 ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,2 Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;3 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,4 In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;5 The children were nestled all snug in their beds,6 While visions of sugar plums danc’d in their heads,7 And Mama in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,8 Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap –9 When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,10 I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.11 Away to the window I flew like a flash,12 Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.13 The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,14 Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;15 When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,16 But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,17 With a little old driver, so lively and quick,18 I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.19 More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,20 And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name:21 “Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,22 “On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;23 “To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!24 “Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”25 As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,26 When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;27 So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,28 With the sleigh full of Toys — and St. Nicholas too:29 And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof30 The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.31 As I drew in my head, and was turning around,32 Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:33 He was dress’d all in fur, from his head to his foot,34 And his clothes were all tarnish’d with ashes and soot;35 A bundle of toys was flung on his back,36 And he look’d like a peddler just opening his pack:37 His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,38 His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;39 His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.40 And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;41 The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,42 And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.43 He had a broad face, and a little round belly44 That shook when he laugh’d, like a bowl full of jelly:45 He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,46 And I laugh’d when I saw him in spite of myself;47 A wink of his eye and a twist of his head48 Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.49 He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,50 And fill’d all the stockings; then turn’d with a jerk,51 And laying his finger aside of his nose52 And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.53 He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,54 And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:55 But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight –56 Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
12 Comments | A Good Story, Art, Cartoons, Civil War, DBQ sources, Family, Historic documents, History, History and art, History images, Holidays, Newspapers, Poetry, Religion, Thomas Nast, Tradition | Tagged: Art, Cartoons, Civil War, DBQ sources, Family, Good Story, History, History and art, Holidays, Newspapers, Night Before Christmas, Poetry, Religion, Santa Claus, Thomas Nast, Tradition | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You can view, and read, the winners of the 2009 Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest at the website of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Bee on a passion vine flower – 2nd place photo, Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest, 2009 – by Patricia, age 70, Peggy, age 47, Maggi, age 16
Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder 2009 contest winners
EPA’s Aging Initiative, Generations United, the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. and the Dance Exchange, Inc. are pleased to present the winners for the
Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder project logo, EPA
third annual intergenerational photo, dance, essay and poetry Sense of Wonder contest. All entries were created by an intergenerational team.
The categories are Photography, Essay, Poetry, Mixed (Photo, Essay and Poetry) and Dance.
Drop over to EPA’s site and look, and read.
2010 contest rules are already up. You can get the entry form there, too. Links to the 2008 and 2007 winners and finalists also reside there.
This photo caught me a bit off guard, bringing back wonderful memories.
Bill and Christian explore outdoors, photographed by Gina – Gina, age 36, Bill, age 64, Christian, age 1 – 3rd place photo, 2009 Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder art contest – EPA
Gina, the photographer, described the photo:
My father has been a good role model to me as I grew up with plenty of time outdoors. The red plaid shirt became a sort of symbol, and it was an honor to get a matching shirt myself when I was in college. Now, at just one year old, my son is continuing the tradition of wearing the red and black shirt outdoors. It was fun to photograph the two together in our rural wooded backyard, and helped illustrate that my father can continue to pass along his sense of wonder and love of the outdoors to my son, his first grandchild.
My father, Paul Darrell, wore an old jacket for my entire life — a once-fuzzy buffalo plaid red-and-black woolen jacket. No one in the family can remember a time he didn’t have it. The jacket was probably at least 30 years old when I was born. He wore it when it was bitter cold — one story was that when it was well below zero one wintry morning in Burley, Idaho, it was the only coat he wore to walk to his furniture and appliance store to make sure the pipes hadn’t frozen, a walk of about a mile each way. It was too cold to start the car.
After he moved to Utah it was his usual gardening and yard-work coat on cold mornings. I know he took it on a few campouts with my Scout troop, and I’ll wager it went along on camping trips with my older brothers and sister 20 years before that. I remember my father sitting warm in that jacket on cold mornings around the campfire.
We had a peach tree in the back yard in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Frosts would come on those mountain slopes when the peaches were just ripened. I have memories of my father picking peaches in the jacket. He’d slice the peaches for our breakfast. No peach has ever been sweeter or more flavorful (but I keep searching). I remember my father in his buffalo plaid jacket, his arms full of ripe, cold peaches, coming through the kitchen door, and the smile on his face.
The red buffalo plaid coat was so much a symbol of my father that, at his death in 1988, it was one of those objects we nearly fought over. My niece Tamara ended up with it.
I have one, now. It’s a good L. L. Bean version, with the wool much thicker than my father’s well-worn version. After 20 years it still looks new, compared to his. I suspect it always will. It could never be warmer than his.
Special tip of the old scrub brush to Dr. Pamela Bumsted.
10 Comments | Art, Family, Life, Natural history, Personal, photography, Rachel Carson | Tagged: Art, EPA, Family, Life, Natural history, Nature, Personal, photography, Rachel Carson, Sense of Wonder Contest | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
World Treasures of the Library of Congress looks like a good source of images and information for world history classes and student projects.
Magna charta cum statutis angliae, (Great Charter with English Statutes). Library of Congress
These links are to exhibits that are closed, but whose images are still maintained on line. The Library promises to update exhibits, and on line collections will grow, too.
There really is some remarkable stuff, most of it obscure enough to be really cool, still.
A 16th century miniature pictures Rustam, the hero of the Persian national epic, The Shah Namah, tossed into the sea by the demon Akwan. (Library of Congress, Near East Section).
Leave a Comment » | Art, Historic documents, History, History images, History museums, Images, World history | Tagged: Art, Classroom Resources, History images, Library of Congress, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stars on Alabama, a rainbow fell on Brooklyn — somebody ought to write a song about it.
Rainbow over Brooklyn, June 29, 2009 - photo by JOKelly
Photo by JimmyOKelly. Go see the stuff Kelly has posted at FLICKR, before he gets famous. Poetry in photography. Nice collection of others’ shots, too.
1 Comment | Art, History, Natural history, Travel | Tagged: Art, Brooklyn, Nature, photography, Rainbow, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Bill Mauldin rose to fame drawing cartoons from the fronts during World War II, first as a soldier, and then as the cartoonist for Stars and Stripes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1945. After the war he continued to be a major force in American culture, eventually cartooning for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and quickly winning a second Pulitzer, and then with the Chicago Sun-Times, with drawings syndicated to other newspapers around the world.
In 1962 Mauldin turned his pen to DDT and the controversy created in part by Rachel Carson’s best-selling book Silent Spring.
CREDIT: Mauldin, Bill, artist. “Another such victory and I am undone” Copyright 1962, Field Enterprises, Inc. Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
3 Comments | Cartoons, DDT, Environmental protection, History, History and art, History images, Political cartoons, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: Art, Bill Mauldin, Cartoons, DDT, Environmental protection, History, Political cartoons, Rachel Carson, Science, Silent Spring | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We’re talking about the sinking of the Lusitania, and the role that incident played in getting the U.S. into World War I.
Coincidence: Look at the date today.
Enlistment poster, after the sinking of the Lusitania
94 years ago today. U-20 sank the Lusitania, champion of the Cunard Line, on May 7, 1915.
World War I appears to have been a heyday for propaganda posters. Google up “Lusitania +poster” and you can find a wealth of recruiting posters and just plain propaganda posters. If only we had the time, there are a couple of lesson plans waiting in that search.
Note: Details on the poster: Artist, Fred Spear, 1915; “Enlist,” published by Sackett & Wilhelms Corp.
Other resources:
5 Comments | Art, History, History and art, History images, Propaganda, War, World War I | Tagged: Art, Lusitania, Propaganda, World War I | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Tattoo of Alison, a high-school physics teacher - from Carl Zimmer's Collection, at the Loom
Can’t tell which equation is the Mandelbrot Set, which the hydrostatic equation, which the description of entropy? Can’t figure out why the delta, and otherwise confused? Alison explains it all, at Carl Zimmer’s blog, The Loom.
It’s relatively clear that she didn’t get the tats to use them to cheat on any exams.
2 Comments | Art, Mathematics, Physics | Tagged: Art, Carl Zimmer, Mathematics, Science, Tattoos | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Helsingen Sanomat reports that a poster by Jukka Veistola which mobilized Finland to ban DDT back in the 1970s, has been included in a new book marking the most effective posters of the 20th century.
Jukka Veistola, Finland, 1969
Jukka Veistola, Finland, 1969
It’s great news, really.
A book has been published in Mexico that portrays the world’s most important posters from the 20th and the early 21st century. The book contains 120 posters, the artists of which include Andy Warhol, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso among others.
Included among this worthy company is also Finnish illustrator Jukka Veistola’s ideological DDT poster from 1969.
Veistola’s startling red and blue work was a prizewinner at the Warsaw International Poster Biennale in 1970, and was subsequently acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) into its collections.In part, Veistola’s poster contributed to Finland’s becoming one of the first countries in the world to ban the use of the synthetic pesticide DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane).
I do have a couple of questions, though: First, what’s the name of the book? Second, who is the editor? Third, who published the book?
It’s great to know that the poster is in a book somewhere; it would help those who would want to find or buy the book to know the name of the book, the editor or author, and the publisher.
(We should note, too, that a gas mask wouldn’t have protected songbirds. They got the DDT by eating insects with the stuff in ’em. A dozen worms would carry a dose high enough to kill a robin; robins might eat a dozen worms in an hour.)
Leave a Comment » | Art, DDT, History, Posters | Tagged: Art, DDT, History, Jukka Veistola, Posters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 