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Antonio
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Dec 20, 2019 12:47PM
I was there for the umpteenth time last summer ... fantastic place ...
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I've seen it too many times, but it's always breathtaking
January 3, 1892 J. R. R. Tolkien is born. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, WWI veteran (a First Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army), philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the high fantasy classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings .
Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, and Samwise Gamgee, we all know J.R.R. Tolkien created these beloved hobbits for his Hobbit (1937) and Lord of the Rings (1954–55) books. Hobbits are an imaginary race similar to humans, but they are short and have hairy feet. But, while Tolkien conjured up these memorable creatures, did he also the invent word hobbit?
Where did hobbit come from? As you may have guessed, hobbits are a fictional race born in Tolkien’s imagination. He even created an etymology for the word, making hobbit derive from holbylta, based on Old English roots meaning “hole-dweller.” Tolkien invented three groups of hobbits. The Harfoots were the smallest of all the hobbits and also the first to enter Eriador, a large region of Middle-earth. The Fallohides are the least populous of the hobbits, and tall and fair. The stocky Stoors were the last to enter Eriador. They stand out as being the only hobbits that are willing to swim; the slimy creature Gollum was a Stoor.
Other creatures in the world in Middle Earth call the hobbits halflings, as hobbits are considered half the size of humans.Did Tolkien make up the word? Tolkien is often credited with coining the word hobbit for his 1937 Hobbit, which opens with famous line: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” That hobbit, of course, is Bilbo Baggins. In fact, Tolkien himself said the word came to him in a flash of inspiration. But there are some earlier instances of the word. In 1895, the folklorist Michael Aislabie Denham published a long list of supernatural creatures, based on a 1584 book, the Discovery of Witchcraft. Here’s an excerpt: “… nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits …”
While Tolkien was a masterful adapter of mythology and folklore, there isn’t the slightest suggestion that he was aware of Denham’s list. Tolkein’s apparently independent invention of hobbit may well have been a coincidence. It may have also been influenced, in some part, by other English words, such as hobgoblin (“a mischievous goblin”) and hobbledehoy (“an awkward, ungainly youth”).
Fun fact: Tolkien’s interest in language predates his career as a professional writer. After World War I, the Oxford English Dictionary was Tolkien’s first employer. His job at the dictionary involved working on the history and etymology of Germanic words that begin with W.
Source:https://www.dictionary.com/e/hobbit-t...
The Discovery of the Hobbit: The Scientific Breakthrough That Changed the Face of Human History
On 7 January 1649 John Aubrey wit, raconteur and sometime antiquary was out hunting with friends when he chanced upon a north Wiltshire village. What he stumbled upon there – and more importantly recognised – were the remains of an ancient earthwork containing a series of stone circles and settings. Today travellers from across the planet have little difficulty in recognising Avebury henge and stone circles as ancient. But it was far from easy in Aubrey’s day. A thriving village had grown up around and between the stones.
Fields, houses, gardens and even inns had been laid out within the bank and ditch and many stones that we see upright today lay buried (it would be another three hundred years before Alexander Keiller revealed and re-erected them).
If truth be told John Aubrey wasn’t actually the first person to recognise the antiquity of Avebury. John Leland in his, ‘Itineraries,’ based on journeys he made through England and Wales between 1535 and 1543 made a passing reference to both Avebury and Silbury Hill.
And of course there had been a settlement at Avebury since Saxon times – and some at least of the generations of its residents must have pondered the origins of the gigantic stones and earthworks that framed their daily lives.
But Aubrey went further than Leland, he not only recognised Avebury’s significance he was captivated by it, famously declaring that Avebury, ‘does as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a cathedral doeth a parish church.’
In fact he was so smitten that in 1663 he produced the first plan of the henge and stone circles in his Monumenta Britannica . The plan was created using a simple surveying device known as a plane table and its an astonishingly accurate record of the monument as it then was.
It’s a lasting and fitting tribute to the painstaking work of the man who, ‘discovered,’ Avebury that three and a half centuries after Aubrey drew his plan (now housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford) researchers endeavouring to unravel Avebury’s secrets continue to consult it.
Source:
Parallel Lives
LauraT wrote: "Didn't know of it. Intereseting"I believe you do know that a visit to Stonehenge is paired with a visit to Avebury. Both places are worth a visit if you love pre-history Britain.
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I believe you do know that a visit to Stonehenge is paired with a visit to Avebury. Both places are worth a visit if you love pre-history Britain."
NO really. I've seen Stonehenge a couple of times at least, but did'nt know this second site; it'll be good for my next visit to UK!
January 8 - It’s Earth’s Rotation Day, an opportunity to finish off Umberto Eco’s Foucault's PendulumThe earth rotates on its axis and one full rotation takes 24 hours to complete. We’d be very surprised if you didn’t already know that, but what you may not know is that the speed of the earth’s rotation can change from day to day and year to year. So a true solar day is not exactly 24 hours, but the variations are a matter of seconds. A mean solar day is based on the yearlong average, but the basic concept of a solar day itself is the length of time for the earth to complete one full rotation on its axis.
In 1851, the French physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated how the earth rotates by suspending a lead-filled brass ball from the top of the Panthéon in Paris. This device, now known as the Foucault Pendulum, showed that the plane of the swing of the pendulum rotated relative to the Earth’s own rotation.
Foucault Pendulums can now be found in science museums across the globe. Isaac Newton discovered gravity but he did not actually explain the cause behind it, merely that it exists as a force. The earth’s rotation is the cause for gravity and Foucault’s pendulums demonstrated this.
Earth’s Rotation Day honors Foucault’s first public demonstration and from what we could find it has historically been celebrated on the anniversary of that occasion. That being said, we’re less clear on who first marked the occasion of Earth’s Rotation Day or when they decided to do it. It probably didn’t happen in Foucault’s lifetime, but we can’t be completely certain either way.
How to celebrate Earth’s Rotation Day. The earth rotates every day, but not every day is Earth’s Rotation Day, so you should celebrate it. If you want to see a Foucault Pendulum in real life, try visiting the nearest space and science museum as many of them have one. They’re actually quite interesting to look at in action.
You could also visit your local space and science museum, so you can learn more about the earth’s rotation. You could do some research on the history of how the way we view the earth’s relation to the universe has changed. At one time, it was a widely held belief that the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it – the planets, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Then the theory arose that the sun was actually the center of the universe before scientists realized that neither was actually the case. In other words, no, the earth is not actually a fixed sphere at the center of the universe, simply pulling everything towards it. It rotates on its axis and Earth’s Rotation Day is in honor of that.
I’ll celebrate this day trying to read till last page Umberto Eco’s book he dedicated to Léon Foucault’s pendulum …
Source: daysoftheyear.com
Foucault's Pendulum
Literary Birthday – 12 January - Haruki Murakami. Happy Birthday, Haruki Murakami, born 12 January 1949. On Writing: Haruki MurakamiQuotes
The good thing about writing books is that you can dream while you are awake.
Writing novels is much the same. You gather up bones and make your gate, but no matter how wonderful the gate might be, that alone doesn’t make it a living breathing novel. A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.
I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
I think that my job is to observe people and the world, and not to judge them. I always hope to position myself away from so-called conclusions. I would like to leave everything wide open to all the possibilities in the world.
No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have won critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His novels include Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Murakami is considered an important figure in post-modern literature. The Guardian praised Murakami as ‘among the world’s greatest living novelists’ for his works and achievements.
Source: www.writerswrite.co.za
The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami
January 13, 1941James Joyce, in full James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, (born February 2, 1882, Dublin, Ireland—died January 13, 1941, Zürich, Switzerland), Irish novelist noted for his experimental use of language and exploration of new literary methods in such large works of fiction as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). From Finnegans Wake, his linguistic masterpiece, the incipit:
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humpty hillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy.
---
Finnegans Wake comprises 17 chapters divided into four books. Chapter 1 begins midsentence with the words "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's," in the middle of a dream by a Dublin publican. It is nighttime and the tavern keeper, Mr. Porter, and his family are asleep above his pub in the suburb of Chapelizod, near Phoenix Park.
In the dream a crack of thunder and the voice of God announce the Fall. The Fall represents the fall of giants from religion and mythology. One is Adam, the biblical first man, who falls from grace and is expelled from the Garden of Eden by God. Another is Tim Finnegan, the hero of a folk ballad, who falls from his ladder. In the dream world he has become the sleeping city of Dublin. His head lies at the Hill of Howth and his toes in Phoenix Park.
Kate, the tavern's scrubwoman, conducts a tour of the Willingdone Museum in the park and points out mementos and exhibits of a great man's life. However, during the tour, reference is made to an incident in Phoenix Park. Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker apparently exposed himself to two young women, and the incident was witnessed by three soldiers. The god, Finn MacCool or Tim Finnegan, stirs, but is told by the guests to lie back down. "Now, be aisy, good Mr Finnimore, sir. And take your laysure like a god ... and don't be walking abroad." The gods are dead. A common man, Earwicker (known by many names with the same initials, HCE), has arrived on the scene.
This chapter also includes a dialogue between two characters called Jute (Shaun) and Mutt (Shem), composed of a mixture of regular English, misspelled English, and nonsense words: "flick as flowflakes, litters from aloft, like a waast wizzard all of whirlworlds.”
Source: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Finneg...
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (Illustrated) (Delphi Parts Edition
Today in Literary History – January 15, 1962 – The Derveni Papyrus, the oldest book in Europe is discovered.The Derveni Papyrus, “The Most Ancient Book in Europe” according to UNESCO, was discovered on January 15, 1962 in Derveni, Greece. The partially burned papyrus was found in a burial tomb during excavations for a new highway from Thessalonika to Kavala.
The papyrus was found in the tomb’s funeral pyre and the bottom part of the papyrus was badly charred. When the papyrus was unrolled it broke into about 200 fragments. The fragments were reassembled, but the lines on the bottom of the columns of text were burned away. The papyrus has been dated from between 350 to 320 BCE, although the text may have been copied from an earlier work by an unknown author. After some delays the text of the papyrus was translated and published. Its themes are philosophical and religious. Harvard University’s Center for Hellenistic Studies says:
“The content is divided between religious instructions on sacrifices to gods and souls, and allegorical commentary on a theogonical poem ascribed to Orpheus. The author’s outlook is philosophical, displaying, in particular, a physical system close to those of Anaxagoras, the Atomists, and Diogenes of Apollonia. His allegorical method of interpretation is especially interesting, frequently reminiscent of Socrates’ playful mental and etymological acrobatics as seen in Plato’s Cratylus.”
Richard Janko, a classics professor and leading researcher on the Derveni papyrus believes that the text shows that “Ancient Athens was in the grips of a culture war between science and religion.” He believes that the author is warning readers against the illogic of the Cult of Orpheus.
Janko argues that the writer criticizes the cult’s followers for blindly trusting that mere ritual will bring knowledge and mocks their failure to evaluate the cult’s claims rationally. The author, Janko explains, says that the acolytes are “gullible and waste their money…because they accept the priest’s explanation and do not enquire further into what they have heard.”
Janko also wonders who was buried in the tomb with this seemingly blasphemous book. We may never know.
Source: www.booknormblog.com
The Derveni Papyrus
On January 16, 1605Miguel de Cervantes' El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, better known as Don Quixote, is published. The book is considered by many to be the first modern novel as well as one of the greatest novels of all time.
The protagonist is a minor noble, Alonso Quixano, whose obsessive reading of chivalric romances drives him mad. He adopts the name Don Quixote and, along with his squire Sancho Panza, roams around La Mancha, a central region of Spain, taking on a number of challenges which exist entirely in his mind. Quixote attacks a group of monks, a flock of sheep, and, most famously, some windmills which he believes to be giants. The episodic story is intentionally comedic, and its intentionally archaic language contributes to its satirization of older stories of knights and their deeds.
The novel was an immediate success, although Cervantes made only a modest profit off of its publication rights. It was re-published across Spain and Portugal within the year. Over the next decade, it was translated and re-published across Europe and widely read in Spain's American colonies. Over the subsequent centuries, critics have continued to praise, analyze, and re-interpret Don Quixote. Many analyses focus on the theme of imagination and the more subversive elements of the text, which has been taken as a satire of orthodoxy, chivalry, patriotism and even the concept of objective reality. The novel gave rise to a number of now-common idioms in Spanish and other languages, including the English phrase "tilting at windmills" and the word "quixotic." Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, another novel frequently called one of the greatest of all time, was heavily influenced by Don Quixote, as was Mark Twain's enormously influential The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which explicitly references Cervantes' work. Cerebral, comedic and groundbreaking, Don Quixote has endured in a way that only a select few novels could.
Source: history.com
Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe
National Thesaurus Day – January 18, 2020When you’re looking for that perfect word to convey your thought, or don’t want to repeat the same word over and over again, where do you go? The thesaurus, of course!
You’ve got Peter Mark Roget to thank for that wonderful book, and we celebrate his creation on National Thesaurus Day on January 18! Roget started the book in 1848, and finished in 1952 with 15,000 words.
The book’s full original title was “Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.” Thanks to the thesaurus, we can do more than just tell friends we are happy, but merry, delighted, and overjoyed!
We can do more than have a conversation, but a discussion, a talk, or an exchange! Writers and non-writers alike can be thankful for all the word options available in a thesaurus, and celebrate the work of Peter Mark Roget on National Thesaurus Day!
National Thesaurus Day Activities
Play a game of "synonym password"
Pair up with a friend to see if you can stump each other on this game show variation. Make a stack of cards with words on them, and on each turn, give your partner up to three synonyms for the word on the card. Try to get them to figure out the original word. For instance, for a card with “party” on it, you could say “celebration,” “shindig,” or “festivity.”
Rewrite a famous poem or story
Have a little fun switching out the words of famous works and see if you can make them better! Take Edgar Allen Poe’s "The Raven," for instance. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,” could turn into “Once upon a boring night, while I thought, frail and fatigued.”
Flip through a thesaurus, for old time's sake
These days, we mostly use the an online thesaurus, but paging through a book can lead you to many new words! Spend some time looking up favorites, you know, your darlings, number ones, idols, beloveds, dears, and faves.
Why We Love National Thesaurus Day
It helps us expand our vocabulary
A bigger vocabulary is better (or exceptional, superior, and of higher quality)! It helps us communicate with different groups of people, which in turn bolsters self-confidence. It even aids in important events, like preparing for a job interview or writing a speech for a class. It helps you speak more effectively and write with greater breadth and clarity.
Bigger vocabularies help kids learn
More word choices are just good for adults, but kids, too! If a child has enough words in his or her stash, they can fully describe what they are thinking, how they are feeling, and what they want. And, if they know more words, they are better at reading comprehension. This will lead to better grades and an easier time in school!
It helps us tell a better story
What would the Three Little Pigs have been without a thesaurus? The nursery rhyme favorite turns to synonyms to create a rhythm and urgency. Instead of just simply saying he would take down the house with a big gust of air, he added some excitement: “I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!” Different words make stories more stimulating and fun.
Source: www.nationaltoday.com
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/
Roget's International Thesaurus
Antonio wrote: "January 3, 1892 J. R. R. Tolkien is born. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, WWI veteran (a First Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army), philologist, and ..."
Kind of sad his son just died recently at age 95.
Thanks Kirsten!Christopher Tolkien, the son of Lord Of The Rings author JRR Tolkien, has died aged 95, the Tolkien Society has announced. The society, which promotes the life and works of the celebrated writer, released a short statement on Twitter to confirm the news.
The statement said: “Christopher Tolkien has died at the age of 95. The Tolkien Society sends its deepest condolences to Baillie, Simon, Adam, Rachel and the whole Tolkien family.”
Tolkien, who was born in Leeds in 1924, was the third and youngest son of the revered fantasy author and his wife Edith. He grew up listening to his father’s tales of Bilbo Baggins, which later became the children’s fantasy novel, The Hobbit.
He drew many of the original maps detailing the world of Middle-earth for his father’s The Lord of the Rings when the series was first published between 1954 and 55. He also edited much of his father’s posthumously published work following his death in 1973. Since 1975 he had lived in France with Baillie.
Tolkien Society chairman Shaun Gunner praised Christopher’s commitment to his father’s work and said: “Millions of people around the world will be forever grateful to him … We have lost a titan and he will be sorely missed.”
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of HarperCollins UK, which publishes much of JRR Tolkien’s work, said: “Christopher was a devoted curator of his father’s work and the timeless and ongoing popularity of the world that JRR Tolkien created is a fitting testimony to the decades he spent bringing Middle-Earth to generations of readers.
“[He was] the most charming of men, and a true gentleman. It was an honour and privilege to know and work with him and our thoughts are with his family at this time.”
Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi hailed Christopher for enriching his father’s work. She said: “He gave us a window into Tolkien’s creative process, and he provided scholarly commentary that enriched our understanding of Middle-earth. He was Middle-earth’s cartographer and first scholar.”
In an interview with the Guardian in 2012, Christopher’s son Simon described the enormity of the task after his grandfather died with so much material still unpublished.
Simon said: “He had produced this huge output that covered everything from the history of the gods to the history of the people he called the Silmarils – that was his great work, but it had never seen the light of day despite his best efforts to get it published.”
His son was left to sift through the files and notebooks, and over the two decades after his father’s death, he published The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Beren And Lúthien and The History of Middle-earth, which fleshed out the complex world of elves and dwarves created by his father.
“It’s enormously to my father’s credit that he took on that huge task. I remember the crateloads of papers arriving at his home, and no one could be in any doubt at the scale of the work he had taken on,” Simon said.
Although he worked tirelessly to protect his father’s legacy, he was not impressed by what he saw as the commercialisation of his work. He was famously critical of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In a 2012 interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he said: “They gutted the book, making an action film for 15-to-25-year-olds.”
He also said: “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time,” and that “the commercialisation has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing”.
The Guardian - January 16, 2020
Antonio wrote: "He drew many of the original maps detailing the world of Middle-earth for his father’s The Lord of the Rings when the series was first published between 1954 and 55...."My parents had copies of the 1st American editions of both The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings which included fold-out maps (about 12-15 inches square when unfolded). As a girl I loved those maps! In fact, I still do. I hadn't realized that they had been drawn by Christopher Tolkien.
January 22 1561It’s the birthday of the philosopher, essayist and statesman Francis Bacon. He is best known as a pioneer of the scientific method, but he was also a prolific and thoughtful philosopher, writer, and scholar of the arts and humanities. His Complete Essays explore everything from love (“Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth it.”) to envy (“A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others.”) to delays (“There is surely no greater wisdom, than well to time the beginnings, and onsets, of things.”) to death (“Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other.”), and just about everything in between. But among Bacon’s most timeless and prescient reflections is the essay “Of Studies”, which touches on a number of familiar and urgent contemporary issues — the brokenness of the education system, the osmosis of reading and non-reading, and the importance of finding your element.
“Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. [Studies permeate and shape manners.] Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study 197 the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.”
Source:
Complete Works of Francis Bacon
January 23 Handwriting DayPracticing your handwriting is important now more than ever, especially in a world where it is so rarely used as a form of communication. This day encourages you to put pen to paper, and show off your skills.
There is no official reason to celebrate Handwriting Day, but it is there so that people can appreciate the art of handwriting. Getting the chance to be your own individual, and having a day where you can sit back and appreciate the art of handwriting is what this day is all about. In a generation of computers and electronics, it is important not to forget the importance of handwriting and how much we would be relying on this form of communication should technology cease to work!
Whether you are an adult or a child, this day gives you the chance to practice your handwriting skills, and you could even have a competition among the people you know about who has the best handwriting. It might sound a bit crazy, but you never know how fun it could be until you give it a go!
History Of Handwriting Day
Handwriting Day was invented in 1977 when educators began to feel that the art of handwriting was getting lost as a skill. The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) decided to do something about this, and that is how Handwriting Day came about. While not everyone celebrates this day, it is taking more prominence now, and more people than ever are taking part.
How To Celebrate Handwriting Day
There are a number of things that you can do in order to celebrate Handwriting Day. One of the first things that you can do is think about all of the important documents in the world that have been handwritten. For example, you could think of the Declaration of Independence, poems, the Bill of Rights, wedding vows, and so many more.
You can also look at other people’s handwriting on this day. If you think about it, handwriting is as unique to a person as a fingerprint, so you could look at some samples of the handwriting of the people you know, and try to figure out which writing belongs to who.
Something else that you can do is take a look at your own handwriting. Some people think that theirs is too sloppy or too messy, so you could take time to work on improving your handwriting. Or, you could even go a little further and help teach someone to write. Not everyone has access to the same education that you might have had or a parent to teach them to write, so you could fill this gap in their life.
You could even learn about all the different fonts than you can learn to write in. Take a break from your computer, and try your hand at trying different styles of writing. For example, you can try writing bubble letters, draw 3D letters, or try drawing ancient letters.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you know more about Handwriting Day, how it originated, and ways that you can celebrate.
Source: www.daysoftheyear.com
The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting
Mod
Practicing your handwriting is important now more than ever, especially in a world where it is so rarely used as a form of communication. This day encourages you to put ..."
I write on my diary every day. Not personal feelings, but what I've done, things I did at work, my training schedule, book I've read or are reading, things like that. So anybody interestd (?) in my life can give it a look - and I like my handwriting not to get disused ...
I've got all my diaries since the 80s!!!!!!!
January 25, 1882: Virginia Woolf’s birthdayToday, we celebrate Virginia Woolf, beloved novelist, essayist, and a feminist! In "A Room of One's Own", Virginia Woolf explores both literal and figurative space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by men. Who writes is a man and I can heartily attest to Virginia Woolf’s assertion that in order to write successfully, one needs a room of one’s own. Not just for ladies but also for men though ...
Woolf’s 1928 essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’ was surely the inspiration behind “A Room Of One’s Own Day”. I don’t know who started this celebration day but we do know that the essay itself was focused on the subject of women’s access to education. In these more enlightened and civilized times of ours, we can probably relax the rules a little and make it a day purely for ourselves, both ladies and gentlemen!
Planning is essential. We’ll need some good books, possibly not just by Virginia Woolf, some good music, and probably cake. In fact, cake is almost certainly a necessity. A drop or two of your favourite wine, perhaps. Then, batten down the hatches and take some time out to celebrate yourself, in a room of your own.
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(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
A Room of One's Own: and Other Essays
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "January 23 Handwriting DayPracticing your handwriting is important now more than ever, especially in a world where it is so rarely used as a form of communication. This day encour..."
I have never been good at keeping a diary. But such a good aide de memoir would be nice to have now - I envy you!
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "January 23 Handwriting DayPracticing your handwriting is important now more than ever, especially in a world where it is so rarely used as a form of communication. This day encour..."
How clever you are, LauraT! You can easily go " à la recherche du temps perdu" ...
On this day January 27 in 1302, the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence for his political sympathies. Dante was a leading supporter of the white Guelph party, which was opposed to extreme papal power. When the Black Guelph party seized power in Florence in 1302, they immediately expelled Dante from the city. He spent the next two decades wandering from place to place in northern and central Italy, estranged from his wife and kids and often living in poverty. His only solace during his exile was writing. He wrote his greatest work, The Divine Comedy, an epic poem about a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Just before his death, his children visited him in Ravenna; it was the first time he had seen them since he left Florence almost 20 years before.
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Dante was summoned to appear before the new government in Florence on 27 January 1302. Aware of the danger, he did not attend, and so entered a voluntary exile. He was condemned in absentia for a range of crimes he had not committed, and fined 5,000 Florins. Two months later, he failed to attend another hearing on 10 March, and was accordingly condemned to be burnt to death if ever he returned.
Now exiled, he rallied other White Guelfs in the hope of forcing the Black Guelfs out of Florence by force, but it came to nothing. Instead he decided to write, hoping that he would be deemed worthy of an invitation to return. He threw himself into the work, starting with the Convivio and then the De Monarchia, alongside a raft of political letters.
Sometime between 1308 and 1321 he turned to his great vernacular epic poem, the Comedy (La Commedia). In it he explored earthly and heavenly destiny, but it was also an allegory for his traumatic exile from Florence. At times he made his sadness explicit, like his comments on the bitter taste of another man’s bread, and the burden of walking up and down another man’s stairs. The overarching allegory was also of the country’s loss of direction, and ultimately of mankind’s fall. The Comedy was quickly recognised as truly exceptional, earning him the title the divina poeta. In time, the poem therefore became known colloquially as La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy).
Dante died in Ravenna, still in exile, in 1321. Although he always loved Florence, and the city came to honour him as one if its greatest children. it was only in June 2008 that the city council finally revoked his criminal convictions.
Source: telegraph.co.uk (http://bit.ly/2RQxd1J)
The Divine Comedy
Mod
Dante was a leading supporter of the white Guelph party, which was op..."
Tu proverai sì come sa di sale lo pane altrui ...
His Tomb is still in Ravenna to be visited, and being next year the VII Centenary from his death we are already all over Italy preparing a lot of events on his writings...
Dante loved Umbria, the Region I live in, mainly because of the presence of very important saints, as San Francesco, the Patron of Italy, or San Benedetto, the starter of the Benedectine rule, or Santa Chiara, somehow the first nun ...
He talked about Umbria several time in his divine comedy, and going around Perugia you can see some remembering of this ...
Do all of you come and have a look: I'll drive you around, I promise! And if we have time, we can go to Dante's shrine in Ravenna!!!
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "On this day January 27 in 1302, the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence for his political sympathies. Dante was a leading supporter of the white Guelph par..."
Thank you LauraT, we all appreciate your thoughts and invitation!
January 29, 2020 is “Freethinkers Day”It’s Freethinkers Day (also known as Thomas Paine Day)! Freethinkers Day celebrates the life and work of Thomas Paine, who was born on this day in 1737. Paine came to America in 1774 at the request of Benjamin Franklin.
Throughout his life, he wrote many influential books and pamphlets including The Age of Reason, The Rights of Man, and Common Sense. Each of these works brought public attention to key issues and helped establish the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution.
Paine's writing inspired many people to strive for political, economic, and social advancement. He was also one of the first people to call for universal human rights and an end to slavery.
Freethinkers Day has been celebrated since the 1990s. Its purpose is to educate people about Paine's work and the importance of freethinking and freedom. To celebrate the occasion, pick up a copy of Common Sense and take a moment to appreciate your civil liberties!
Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word
Antonio wrote: "January 29, 2020 is “Freethinkers Day”It’s Freethinkers Day (also known as Thomas Paine Day)! Freethinkers Day celebrates the life and work of Thomas Paine, who was born on this day in 1737. Pain..."
I didn't know that this was 'a thing'! Paine has always been a man I have admired (along with Thoreau & Martin Luther King Jr.). I fear that his ideas have been ignored or denied by the majority of American political figures today - a thought that makes me unhappy about my country's future...
Leslie wrote: "Antonio wrote: "January 29, 2020 is “Freethinkers Day”It’s Freethinkers Day (also known as Thomas Paine Day)! Freethinkers Day celebrates the life and work of Thomas Paine, who was born on this d..."
There are many ideas and people that are forgotten and ignored in this World of ours. That's why we are here with our books on goodreads to remember ... Thank you Leslie!
Antonio wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Antonio wrote: "January 29, 2020 is “Freethinkers Day”It’s Freethinkers Day (also known as Thomas Paine Day)! Freethinkers Day celebrates the life and work of Thomas Paine, who was..."
I first met with Thomas Paine and his "dangerous word" (Common sense) through another forgotten 18th century Englishman during my university days: Arthur Young ... people who were too much ahead their time ... a sad destiny for who is in that unpleasant condition ...
Arthur Young's Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, 1789
January 30, 1649We commemorate the execution of King Charles I of England, executed on the orders of Oliver Cromwell after a trial by the Rump Parliament found the king guilty of being ‘a tyrant, traitor and murderer.’ It is an opportunity to make note that the so-called ‘English Civil War’ of 1649-60 was more truthfully ‘The English Revolution’, as Christopher Hill has long maintained, being the direct precursor to both the French and Russian Revolutions.
That the English killed their king well over one hundred years before the French Revolutionaries did the same is a fact often overlooked because the Commonwealth failed after only twelve years and the English monarchy returned in 1660. The regicide of Charles I having taken place so much earlier than other European regicides, however, scared future English parliaments into passing just enough reforms to appease subsequent generations, thus averting any real justification for total revolution.
As a King, Charles I was disastrous; as a man, he faced his death with courage and dignity. His trial and execution were the first of their kind. Charles I only became heir when his brother Henry died in 1612. Charles had many admirable personal qualities, but he was painfully shy and insecure. He also lacked the charisma and vision essential for leadership. His stubborn refusal to compromise over power-sharing finally ignited civil war.
Seven years of fighting between Charles’ supporters and Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians claimed the lives of thousands, and ultimately, of the King himself. Charles was convicted of treason and executed on 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall.
Source: History and Stories (http://bit.ly/2vs2Zus)
"The Execution of Charles I, 1649," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2003).
A Coffin for King Charles: The Trial and Execution of Charles I
January 31 is the birthday of Thomas Merton born in Prades, France (1915). His mother was an American, and his father was from New Zealand.Thomas Merton was one of the most influential Catholic authors of the 20th century. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, in the American state of Kentucky, Merton was an acclaimed Catholic spiritual writer, poet, author and social activist.
Merton wrote over 60 books, scores of essays and reviews, and is the ongoing subject of many biographies. Merton was also a proponent of inter-religious dialogue, engaging in spiritual dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D. T. Suzuki. His life and career were suddenly cut short at age 53, when he was electrocuted stepping out of his bath.
Seldom can one predict that a book will have an effect on history, but this is such a work. Merton's many biographers and the American press now say unanimously that he died from accidental electrocution.
From a careful examination of the official record, including crime scene photographs that the authors have found that the investigating police in Thailand never saw, and from reading the letters of witnesses, they have discovered that the accidental electrocution conclusion is totally false.
The widely repeated story that Merton had taken a shower and was therefore wet when he touched a lethal faulty fan was made up several years after the event and is completely contradicted by the evidence.
Hugh Turley and David Martin identify four individuals as the primary promoters of the false accidental electrocution narrative. Another person, they show, should have been treated as a murder suspect. The most likely suspect in plotting Merton's murder, a man who was a much stronger force for peace than most people realize, they identify as the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States government.
Thomas Merton was the most important Roman Catholic spiritual and anti-warfare-state writer of the 20th century. To date, he has been the subject of 28 biographies and numerous other books. Remarkably, up to now no one has looked critically at the mysterious circumstances surrounding his sudden death in Thailand. From its publication date in the 50th anniversary of his death, into the foreseeable future, this carefully researched work will be the definitive, authoritative book on how Thomas Merton died.
Source:
The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation
February 3, 1468 Johannes Gutenberg diedI learned to read and write using mobile letters in the little traditional family printing shop last century and millennium. This is why I'm going to remember this important man in History of Communication.
He was a German blacksmith, goldsmith and printer who is best remembered today for his development of the first printing press in the mid-1400s. His invention of the printing press is considered to be one of the most transformative inventions in history and had a profound impact on historical movements such as the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment.
Gutenberg was born in Mainz, Germany around the year 1400. His exact date of birth is not known but historians estimate that he born within a range around the year 1400. It is believed that he grew up learning to be a goldsmith because his father worked as a merchant and Goldsmith at the time. Little is known about his early life but it is believed that he and his family moved from Mainz to Strasbourg for political reasons. As well, there is some evidence that he may have attended the University of Erfut in the year 1418. In the years that follow there is little record of his life, but historians have suggested that he was likely working as a goldsmith.
Historians have not identified an exact date for the invention of the printing press, as little records have survived from the time period. As such, it is generally accepted the first printing press was developed in the mid-1400s. Prior to the printing press, books and other literature were created through a varied assortment of methods (woodblock press, etc.) which were all labor intensive and slow. Gutenberg’s invention was the development of a hand mold that allowed for precise movable type. This meant that he perfected the process of making movable type pieces for easily and quickly constructing type-font documents. This sped up the printing process and made it extremely affordable, which allowed for an explosion in the publishing and printing of books. For example, the Gutenberg Bible was the first book to be mass produced on the Gutenberg printing press. At the time, Gutenberg used a series of loans to establish his own workshop with his printing press. He used this workshop as a business in which he developed printed works for customers as well as for the church.
The invention and use of the printing press in Europe was important for the Renaissance because it allowed new ideas and worldviews to spread across the continent more easily. At its core, the Renaissance was about new ideas (such as humanism) overthrowing old views and customs (such as religious beliefs and practices and feudal traditions). Therefore, the invention of the printing press allowed these new ideas to spread and further enhance the overall Renaissance.
Gutenberg continued to travel and move around Germany until he died on February 3rd, 1468. He was buried on the grounds of a church in Mainz. The church was later destroyed and Gutenberg’s grave has been lost to history. When he died, his contributions to the printing press were largely unknown. It was not until decades after that he was credited by historians with the invention. Today, his invention is credited with transforming life for people at the time.
Source: Historycrunch.com
The Renaissance: A History From Beginning to End
Wednesday 5, it’s Nutella day! Mind you: I hate it!They say that happiness is a warm taste of hazelnut spread on a warm flaky pastry! That hazelnut spread is known across the world as Nutella. It can be spread on toast or put into the center of pastries or other baked goods.
I don’t know about you but I don’t like it! I have known people who consume it in all possible ways starting simply with a spoon or finger! I’ve seen people who use pretzel sticks to get their taste of it or put it even on potato chips on top of a pizza!
I’m sure if you are a fan, you have your favorite way to get your Nutella fix! World Nutella Day is the day to share all your ideas with the world! Shame on you!
World Nutella Day was first celebrated in 2007. The idea for the day came from Sara Rosso who was an American blogger who was living in Italy at the time. What made her think to start World Nutella Day? Why her love of the product of course! Shame on them!
The fans of Nutella embraced the day with gusto and took the joy of the day to social media around the world! I discovered there are many books on Nutella. Shame on these writers!
Source: You can read full story here: http://tiny.cc/2avkjz
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I discovered many writers on GoodReads who have written books on Nutella in all languages. Shame on them! Here it follows one of them ...
The story behind everyone’s favorite snack—Nutella. Nutella has its roots in a simple hazelnut and chocolate paste sold as Pasta Gianduja by Pietro Ferrero at his bakery in Alba, the center of Italy’s hazelnut-producing region in the Piedmont.
While originally sold as a solid block, Ferrero started offering a creamy version called Supercrema in 1951. In 1964, Ferrero’s son Michele reformulated Supercrema and launched it throughout Europe as Nutella—a name easy to understand and remember in the greatest number of languages.
Nutella was an instant hit and is one of the first Italian products to have spread across the world.On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, Gigi Padovani, a Nutella expert and enthusiast, traces the history and evolution of Nutella, including the rise of an almost cult following and its celebration in pop culture, ranging from movies to literature.
He then analyzes the key moments of the industry’s strategies—innovation, internationalization, a good relationship with the consumers—which have made Nutella a legend to this day. This is a lesson that excellence lasts.
Source:
Mondo Nutella: 50 Years of Innovation
Mod
They say that happiness is a warm taste of hazelnut spread on a warm flaky pastry! That hazelnut spread is known across the world as Nutella. It..."
Ahhh, you can't possibly live without Nutella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "Wednesday 5, it’s Nutella day! Mind you: I hate it!They say that happiness is a warm taste of hazelnut spread on a warm flaky pastry! That hazelnut spread is known across the worl..."
Shame on you!!!
LauraT wrote: "Why???? It's gorgeous!!!!!!"I call it "addiction" ...
February is World Library Month-long celebration of school, public, and private libraries of all types. This is a time for everyone, everywhere to recognize the value of libraries and to work to assure that libraries will continue to serve."How One Reader Rediscovered Her Love for Libraries"
"The magic of these book-lined buildings—palaces, really—filled my childhood with delight. Parenthood helped me experience that bliss again. I grew up in libraries, or at least it feels that way. I was raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, just a few blocks from the brick-faced Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library system. I went there several times a week with my mother. She and I would walk in together, but as soon as we passed through the door, we each headed to our favorite section. The library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy.
Even when I was maybe four or five years old, I was allowed to head off on my own. Then, after a while, my mother and I would reunite at the checkout counter with our finds. Together we’d wait as the librarian pulled out the date card and stamped it with the checkout machine—that giant fist thumping the card with a loud chunk-chunk, printing a crooked due date underneath a score of previous crooked due dates that belonged to other people, other times.
Those visits were dreamy, frictionless interludes that promised I would leave richer than I’d arrived. It wasn’t like going to a store with my mom, which guaranteed a tug-of-war between what I wanted and what my mother was willing to buy me; in the library, I could have anything I wanted.
After we checked out, I loved being in the car and having all the books we’d gotten stacked on my lap, pressing me under their solid, warm weight, their Mylar covers sticking a bit to my thighs. It was such a thrill leaving a place with things you hadn’t paid for; such a thrill anticipating the new books we would read. On the ride home, my mom and I talked about the order in which we were going to read our books, a solemn conversation in which we planned how to pace ourselves through this charmed, evanescent period of grace until the books were due.
When I was older, I usually walked to the library by myself, lugging back as many books as I could carry. Occasionally, I did go with my mother, and the trip would be as enchanted as it had been when I was small. Even when I was in my last year of high school and could drive myself to the library, my mother and I still went together now and then, and the trip unfolded exactly as it had when I was a child, with all the same beats and pauses and comments and reveries, the same perfect, pensive rhythm we’d followed so many times before. When I miss my mother these days, since she died two years ago, I like to picture us in the car together, going for one more magnificent trip to Bertram Woods.
My parents valued books, but they grew up in the Depression, aware of the quicksilver nature of money, and they had learned the hard way that you shouldn’t buy what you could borrow. Because of that frugality, or perhaps independent of it, they also believed that you read a book for the experience of reading it. You didn’t read it in order to have an object that had to be housed and looked after forever, a memento of the purpose for which it was obtained. The reading of the book was a journey. There was no need for souvenirs.
Our uncrowded bookshelves at home had several sets of encyclopedias (an example of something not convenient to borrow from the library, since you reached for it regularly and urgently) and an assortment of other books that, for one reason or another, my parents had ended up with. There were some travel guides, some coffee-table books, a few of my father’s law books, and a dozen or so novels that were either gifts or somehow managed to justify being owned outright.
When I left for college, one of the many ways I differentiated myself from my parents was that I went wild for owning books. I think buying textbooks was what got me going. All I know is that I lost my appreciation for the slow pace of making your way through a library and for having books on borrowed time. As soon as I got my own apartment, I lined it with bookcases and loaded them with hardcovers. I turned into a ravenous buyer of books. I loved the alkaline tang of new ink and paper, a smell that never emanated from a broken-in library book. I loved the crack of a newly flexed spine and the way the brand-new pages felt almost damp, as if they were wet with creation. Sometimes I fantasized about starting a bookstore. If my mother ever mentioned to me that she was on the waiting list for some book at the library, I got annoyed and asked why she didn’t just go buy it.
I might have spent the rest of my life thinking about libraries only wistfully, the way I thought about, say, the amusement park I went to as a kid. Libraries might have become just a bookmark of memory more than an actual place, a way to call up an emotion of a moment that occurred long ago, something that was fused with “mother” and “the past” in my mind.
But in 2011, my husband accepted a job in Los Angeles, so we left New York and headed west. My son was in first grade when we moved. One of his first school assignments was to interview someone who worked for the city. I suggested talking to a garbage collector or a police officer, but he said he wanted to interview a librarian.
We were so new to town that we had to look up the address of the closest library, which was the Los Angeles Public Library’s Studio City branch. It was about a mile away from our house, about the same distance that the Bertram Woods branch had been from my childhood home.
As my son and I drove to meet the librarian, I was flooded by a sense of absolute familiarity, a gut-level recollection of this journey, of parent and child on their way to the library. I had taken this trip so many times before, but now it was turned on its head, and I was the parent bringing my child on that special trip.
We parked, and my son and I walked toward the library, taking it in for the first time. The building was white and modish, with a mint-green mushroom cap of a roof. From the outside, it didn’t look anything like the stout, brick Bertram Woods branch, but when we stepped in, the thunderbolt of recognition struck me so hard that it made me gasp. Decades had passed, and I was 2,000 miles away, but I felt as if I had been whisked back to that precise time and place, walking into the library with my mother.
Nothing had changed—there was the same soft tsk-tsk-tsk of pencil on paper, and the muffled murmuring from patrons at the tables in the center of the room, and the creak and groan of book carts, and the occasional papery clunk of a book dropped on a desk. The scarred wooden checkout counters, and the librarians’ desks, as big as boats, and the bulletin board, with its fluttering, raggedy notices, were all the same. The sense of gentle, steady busyness, like a pot of water on a rolling boil, was just the same. The books on the shelves, with some subtractions and additions, were certainly the same.
It wasn’t that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured here, collected here, and in all libraries—and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well. In the library, time is dammed up—not just stopped but saved. The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.
So the spell that libraries had once cast on me was renewed. Maybe it had never really been broken, although I had been away long enough that it was like visiting a country I’d loved but had forgotten as my life went galloping by. I knew that part of what hooked me had been the shock of familiarity I felt when I took my son to our local library—the way it telegraphed my childhood, my relationship to my parents, my love of books. It brought me close, in my musings, to my mother, and to our sojourns to the library.
It was wonderful and it was bittersweet, because just as I was rediscovering those memories, my mother was losing all of hers. When I first told her that I was writing a book about libraries, she was delighted and said that she was proud that she’d had a part in making me find them wondrous. But soon the dark fingers of dementia got her in their grip, and they pried loose bits of her memory every day. The next time I reminded her about the project and told her how much I had been thinking about our trips to Bertram Woods, she smiled with encouragement but with no apparent recognition of what I meant. Each time I visited, she receded a little more—she became vague, absent, isolated in her thoughts, or maybe in some pillowy blankness that filled in where the memories had been chipped away—and I knew that I was carrying the remembrance for both of us.
The writer Amadou Hampate Ba once said that in Africa, when an old person dies, it is like a library has burned. When I first heard the phrase, I didn’t understand it, but over time I came to realize it was perfect. Our minds and souls contain volumes inscribed by our experiences and emotions; each individual’s consciousness is a collection of memories we’ve cataloged and stored inside us, a private library of a life lived. It is something that no one else can entirely share; it burns down and disappears when we die. But if you can take something from your internal collection and share it—with one person or with the larger world, on the page or in a story told—it takes on a life of its own."
Source:
The Library BookWe are reading this book in the Non-Fiction > February & March 2020 Non Fiction Group Read - The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Mod
I call it "addiction" ..."
I can handle it!!!! I can stay even months without tasting it, but if you need a cheer up, that's the way!!!!
Mod
About to start it in a couple of weeks for our Group Read, as you said!!
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "February is World Library Month-long celebration of school, public, and private libraries of all types. This is a time for everyone, everywhere to recognize the value of libraries a..."Great writing, you'll like the book!
LauraT wrote: "Antonio wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Why???? It's gorgeous!!!!!!"I call it "addiction" ..."
I can handle it!!!! I can stay even months without tasting it, but if you need a cheer up, that's the way!!!!"
That's called wisdom!
Mod
Great writing, you'll like the book!"
I'm sure I will!
On February 8, 1855The Devil's Footprints, hoof-like marks mysteriously appear for over 60km after a snowfall in southern Devon, England.
A century and a half has passed and the inexplicable events of 8th February 1855 are still without answer: was Devon really visited by the Prince of Darkness?
Residents either side of the River Exe woke up to an almost unblemished snowfall, unblemished that is but for a collection of what were described as cloven footprints.
This was no horse or deer though, the footprints appeared to go through haystacks and walls, across the River and even, most unexplainable of all, across roofs and seemingly travelling up drainpipes, stopping at the base and starting again at the gutter.
In the Times the footprints were described as "more like that of a biped than a quadruped, and the steps were generally eight inches in advance of each other. The impressions of the feet closely resembled that of a donkey's shoe, and measured from an inch and a half to two and a half inches across."
From the description of the prints it was probably inevitable that many of the locals became positive the footprints were Satan's own tracks as he stalked around the area looking for sinners and many became terrified to leave their homes, a worry compounded by the tracks actually going up to people's doorways before backtracking.
The fact the heavy snow was almost totally cleared through to the ground in the prints, giving the impression they were almost branded, gave the more religious of the locals even more cause to imagine it was Infernal One's red hot hooves causing the prints.
Many answers have been put forward for the phenomenon, one of the most agreed upon is that Devonport Dockyard had released an experimental balloon by mistake and it had travelled across the area trailing its mooring shackles.
This would explain the shape of the prints but people who disagree with this argue whether the balloon would have travelled such a random course and also suggested that it would have been a near miracle for the hanging chains not to have become fouled up in a tree or other obstruction.
Most of the other explanations given revolve around animals. The most bizarre being that a kangaroo had escaped from the private zoo near Sidmouth owned by a Mr Fische.
Many biologists and naturalists have belittled this however and one, Sir Richard Owen, suggested they were badger tracks as a badger places its back feet in the same tracks left by its front, therefore explaining the fact the tracks were bipedal.
The biggest problem with many of these explanations is that the prints had not been photographed and were roundly ascribed to an animal without the naturalist having seen them, simply working from a description.
One un-named animal expert told the newspapers that no beast or bird could have made such prints in that straight a line for such a distance.
The scientific explanation has also been put forward that the way the rain fell and frozen may have created the effect, unfortunatly though this effect has never been recreated.
This mystery will probably never be properly solved unless the phenomenon that created it happens again and can be recorded, although maybe if it was the footprints of the Devil we may not want that to happen...
Sources: http://tiny.cc/flbqjz - http://tiny.cc/ombqjz
The God of This World: The Footprints of Satan: Or, the Devil in History
February 9, Today in History “Nothing happened today”Turn on the TV
Turn on the radio.
Turn down that sound
Turn down that sound
Open the curtains
Open the windows.
What's happening around
What's happening around
I'll do some washing
I might go shopping
I'm going downtown
I'm going downtown
Someone told me, "nothing happened today."
I woke up late
I had a headache
I went back to sleep
Go back to sleep
I stood there waiting
Waiting for something
There wasn't a thing
Not even one thing
Someone told me, "nothing happened today."
Harry Hooper living in No. 10
Bought a toupee and glued it to his head
"It looks very natural, " everybody said.
But then his wife said "Toupee, isn't that a French word?"
And Harry said, "Ole." She said, "That's a Spanish word."
And he said "O.K., can't tell the difference these days."
I watched TV
'cause I wanted to see
The late news at 10
It came on and then
She shuffled her papers
She swivelled in her chair
She looked up and said
The weather was fair
And then it turned cold
It started to rain
Pouring with rain.
Some people died
Some people were born
And some stayed the same
And some went insane
Tomorrow's Wednesday
Today was Tuesday
And this is the date
March 28th
It was the morning
Then afternoon
And then the night came
And then the night came
Oh...and someone told me, "Nothing happened today."
Yes, someone told me, "Nothing happened today."
It happened today.
_________________________________________
*taken from the album entitled "The Fine Art Of Surfacing"
*Written by Bob Geldof
Fonte: LyricFind
Source: http://tiny.cc/ombqjz
Carl Linnaeus 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).----
The Bible, Genesis 2:20, states: “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field”. But actually it wasn’t Adam. It was a Swedish botanist: Carl Linnaeus.
My dad was also a botanist, so since I was knee high to an orthoptera, I was aware that everything had a difficult-to-pronounce Latin name as well as its common or local name. I knew all about the splendid bulk of Sequoiadendron giganteum and the dangers of Toxicodendron radicans. But what I really wanted to do was to go to the ocean and watch the Zalophus californianus basking on the rocks.
At school, young Carl Linnaeus learned Latin, Greek, theology and maths, but he wasn’t interested in that stuffy nonsense (although it would come in very useful later in his life). All he wanted to do was go outside and look for plants. Fortunately his teachers recognised his gift for science and his studies re-focused on medicine and botany at the universities of Lund and Uppsala. In 1729, aged just 22, he published a thesis on plant sexuality and began lecturing to other students. It was going to be a brilliant career.
In 1732 he made a six-month-long expedition to Lappland to study the biodiversity of the region. It would be there when stuggling to name the 100 new species of plants, mosses and lichens he identified, that the idea first came to him of simplifying the existing cumbersome system of classifying and naming living things. In Flora Lapponica, he applied his taxonomic system for the first time and realised it was so flexible and yet so specific, it could be extended to other living organisms.
There are two parts to his system, classification and naming.
Consider the zebra. We say zebra, but to Swahili-speakers all stripey horses are punda milia. But do we mean the mountain zebra, the plains zebra or Grevy’s? The Linnaean system makes classification very clear.
Kingdom: Animalia – an animal
Phylum: Chordata– an animal with a backbone
Class: Mammalia – an animal with a backbone that feeds its young on milk
Order: Perissodactyla – an animal with a backbone that feeds its young on milk that has a hoof with an odd number of toes; this branch in the tree of life includes horses, rhinos, and tapirs
Family: Equidae – the horse family
Genus: Equus quagga – this is the plains zebra
Its name, Equus quagga, is specific to that species alone. As with all science, things are fluid; a species’ classification is debated and revised as new data is revealed.
Which brings me to names. Consider the springtime roadside herb with crowns of white lacy flowers I know as keck. But you might call it cow parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace or wild chervil. And if you’re French you might know it as anthrisque sauvage or cerfeuil des bois. Confusing, isn’t it? As he travelled, studied and met other botanists, Linnaeus realised each species needed a universal name. He adopted a system of nomenclature only partially developed by 16th century Swiss botanist, Caspar Bauhin, which he refined and popularised into a name consisting of two Latin words. Keck became Anthriscus sylvestris.
A glorious by-product of Latin names is that they often have an innate poetic beauty and history of their own. The humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae translates as ‘New England big wing’. While the giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis comes from the Arabic ziraafa combined with a description: tall like a camel and spotty like a leopard.
Linnaeus’ first published his system, Systema Naturae, in 11 pages in 1735. Such was its popularity that by 1768 it was in its twelfth edition and ran to 2,400 pages. The system was soon adopted by the new breed of naturalists including Captain James Cook’s expedition naturalist Joseph Banks.
So why was a system of putting species into groups and giving them universal names so important?
Species can look very different from each other and live far apart and yet still be related (the kiwi and the ostrich). Or they may have evolved similar features because of the way they feed (the thylacine and the wolf). A classification system gives scientists a logical framework based on anatomy and physiology on which they can work to reveal the truth. And without universal names how could scientists all over the world study species unambiguously and meaningfully?
Linnaeus’ classification system enabled him to think about food-chains and the interdependence of life. It wasn’t until Darwin that the complex and beautiful tree of life would begin to be explored in more detail. It would even help shed light on our own origins.
[Written by Jane Tomlinson]
Source: www.onthisdaity.com
Carl Linnaeus: Genius of Classification
11th February will be “Safer Internet Day”Get set for Safer Internet Day 2020, taking place on Tuesday, 11 February 2020, when - once again - we'll join forces across the globe to work "Together for a better internet".
We're busy preparing for the next campaign, and this website is being regularly updated. You can already find some assets to use in your actvities in the About section of this website, including the key messages for the campaign and a social media plan with example posts and visuals to help you countdown to the big day!
Also check out the country and supporter sections to find out what's happening near you or in your areas of interest - profiles are being updated daily, so please check back regularly for the latest news.
In the meantime, if you are curious as to what happened on SID 2019, check out the SID archive, and find other news from the day on this website, as well as the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal. Please also visit our Facebook and Twitter profiles to keep up to date on the latest campaign news and actions.
And don't forget to visit the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal regularly to keep up to date on online safety issues all year around, find awareness-raising resources in our resource galleries, and subscribe to the quarterly BIK bulletin for updates direct to your inbox.
* Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by the joint Insafe-INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, with funding provided by the Connecting Europe Facility programme (CEF). Find out more about the EC's ‘European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children' on the Digital Agenda website.
Source: https://www.saferinternetday.org/
Cyber Security: An Introduction for Non-Technical Managers
13th February will be Radio DayThe world used to be a much bigger place, at least when you consider the difficulty involved with transmitting information from place to place. In the beginning we simply had to walk and talk to one another, and then we were able to write and exchange letters. Ideas and music travelled the world at a snail’s pace as compared to today. But then the radio was invented, and suddenly transmitting ideas hundreds of miles became a relatively trivial matter! The world became connected, and it would never be the same.
Radio waves were originally discovered by one Heinrich Hertz, following on the heels of his discovery of electromagnetic radiation. While experiments were performed in using this energy to transmit information, it wasn’t until 1890 that the word radio was first applied, when the radio-conducteur was invented by French Physicist Édouard Branly. Previous to this all forms of communication using this discovery was known as wireless communication, but eventually radio spread across the world and became the go-to term.
Radio quickly spread to find applications in every conceivable venue, from transmitting information, to broadcasting music, and even serving as a way of transmitting stories. Long before there was TV, there was Radio Theater, (incidentally, this also brought along the creation of Foley artists, but that’s another story entirely).
Radio had been recognized as having such a profound impact on the world today that the Spanish Radio Academy put in a formal request to have Feb 13 be established as ‘World Radio Day’ on September 20th 2010. On September 29 2011 the UNESCO officially proclaimed that it be established the following February. So it was that the first World Radio Day was celebrated on February 13 2012.
Radio Day is a great opportunity to remember all those years we spent travelling with Walkman, and enjoying the best and newest music broadcast from your local radio station. Set aside your CD’s and MP3 players, and remember when you discovered new music by what they played on the radio. Dig out that old boom box and drag it down to your local beach or park to reconnect to your local radio community, and remember what the world was like before whatever music we wanted was at our fingertips.
Maybe you’ll find we’re better for it, or maybe you’ll realize that the news broadcasts kept you in touch with your community, the voice of local celebrities accompanying you and bringing a hometown feel to your morning commute, your lunchtime break, or even your road trip.
Source:
The History Of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology For The Masses
All About Books
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William Shakespeare (other topics)
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