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Category Archives: Art
Young Talent
Mozart’s sister as quoted in Wikipedia…..
He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was always striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. […] In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier. […] He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. […] At the age of five he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.
The kid in the clip below does not quite top that. Still, it is a little unnerving to watch him play (they make him do to much talking at the start of the show to demonstrate how cute he is or something. But if you endure it, you will get to see him play.)
Poem of the week: 3/1/09-3/7/09
This week’s poem of the week is the Springhill Mine Disaster as played by the The Dubliners.
A Scale Model of Herod's Temple
Alec Garrard, 78, has dedicated a massive 33,000 hours to constructing the ancient Herod’s Temple, which measures a whopping 20ft by 12ft.
The pensioner has hand-baked and painted every clay brick and tile and even sculpted 4,000 tiny human figures to populate the courtyards.
Historical experts believe the model is the best representation in the world of what the Jewish temple actually looked like and it has attracted thousands of visitors from all over the globe.
You can see a slide show that shows what the model looks like here. It is worth a look.
This explains Russia's demographic problems
So that was a cheap shot. But for those who have already seen this clip before (like me), The Common Room has a rough translation of the lyrics.
Sick, depressing, scary music for a sick, depressing, scary week.
Poem of the week: 2/22/08-2/28/08
This week’s poem of the week is Hymne to GOD my GOD, in my Sicknesse from John Donne
Poem of the Week: 2/15/09-2/21/09
This week’s poem of the week is Phyllis McGinley’s “Intimations of Mortality: On being told by the dentist that this will be over soon”.
It was rather hard to find a half way decent presentation of the poem on the internet. In spite of being a modern female poet (a trendy thing in this day and age) who hit the big time in her day and age, almost nothing Phyllis McGinley wrote can be found online. We can’t but help think that this is because she came down on the wrong side of the cultural wars that her generation fought.
Granted, she will never rank among the greatest poets of all time. But there are a lot worse poets than her who are more widely known simply because they had the right beliefs.
Project Overkill Win
Someone spent way too much time making a different kind of clock. I say this admiringly, as one who tends to get carried away with projects. A better quality video is available on Wired. Below is an embedded clip.
The World Turned Upside Down
The CIA has already spent 18 months developing a network of agents in Britain to combat al-Qaeda, unprecedented in size within the borders of such a close ally, according to intelligence sources in both London and Washington.
And why are they doing this? From later on in the article….
Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, admitted in January that the Security Service alone does not have the resources to maintain surveillance on all its targets. “We don’t have anything approaching comprehensive coverage,” he said.
In other words, America is sending spooks to its historical ally because they can’t handle their own internal threats.
But America is getting crazy enough on its own. From the Common Room….
I just came back from my local thrift store with tears in my eyes! I watched as boxes and boxes of childrens books were thrown into the garbage! Today was the deadline and I just cant believe it! Every book they had on the shelves peior to 1985 was destroyed!
The reason the books are being destroyed is that they can no longer be sold without being tested for lead first because of a law called CPSIA. We already covered this insane law earlier so hopefully you all are familiar with it. If not just go over to the Common Room and you will learn more then you ever wanted to about the law.
And speaking of insane, there is also this from Bloomberg….
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies seized by regulators, may need more than the $200 billion in funding pledged by the U.S. government if the housing market continues to deteriorate, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said.
The companies’ needs will depend largely on the direction of home prices, Lockhart said in an interview in Las Vegas yesterday. His comments followed statements from Fannie Mae in November and Freddie Mac Chairman John Koskinen last week that the government’s funding commitment through 2009 may fall short of what the companies need to make good on their obligations.
This is hardly surprising and that is what is so insane. Not to long ago, the idea that 200 billion dollars might not be enough would have been front page news. Now it is hardly news worthy.
Poem of the Week: 2/8/09-2/14/09
The Wild Swans At Coole by William Butler Yeats is this week’s poem of the week.