Tuesday 20 January 2015

Trivia (should have been 2 November)

Working Moms: 1944
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
Working Moms: 1944
May 1944. New York
“Two working mothers calling for children at Greenwich House, a neighborhood center, where they have left them early in the morning for day care”
Photo by Risdon Tillery, Office of War Information
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Constables John, Paul, George, and Ringo Reporting For Duty
Beatles
Short description here

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
String theory is a remarkable and beautiful idea. But after 30 years, it’s still unproven. Can it really explain our universe?… more

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Learning poetry by heart ignites the imagination
via Telegraph by Sir Andrew Motion
Like most people born in the 1950s, my early school experience of learning poetry by heart was pretty grim.
Occasionally the gloom was brightened by a teacher making it fun (in the way we were asked to learn, as well as in the poems chosen), but generally it was a matter of boring poems being boringly presented, and surrounded by a sense of impending punishment if we failed to remember them.
Rote learning, in other words, has a lot to be said against it. Learning by heart, on the other hand, is a wonderful thing (as I only saw in gleams and glances as a child). And especially wonderful when it comes to remembering poems, which have the delightful advantage of being organised in ways (involving rhythm and rhyme) that make learning them easy.
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Black Humour Books: Catch 22 & Other Grim Jokes
via AbeBooks.co.uk
Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was published in June 1961 just as the American involvement in the Vietnam War was escalating. You have probably read Catch-22 (and if you haven’t then you are missing out). This book is one of the blackest examples of black Humour, also known as black comedy or dark humor, but there are many more novels written in the same vein.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The foreign spell
Cherish foreignness. Enjoying the convenience of modern travel, we underestimate the differences of other lands. That’s a mistake… more

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Researchers Develop Battery That Runs on Renewable Organics
via Big Think by Robert Montenegro
Despite their relative efficiency, modern lithium batteries come with a lot of environmental baggage. Scientists at Sweden’s Uppsala University, seeking to develop a more eco-friendly alternative, have created a new smart battery made from organic materials that they say produces just as much power as its lithium counterpart.
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Evolution of the desk (1980-2014)
via MakeUseOf by Jackson Chung
Whether you like it or not, the fact is, we depend on technology more than you know. How has your desk evolved over the last 35 years? Do you still have that Rolodex in front of you? Probably not. What about that clunky dictionary, or the answering machine? Technology (and the cloud) has replaced most of our desktop items.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Automation and us
Death by a thousand apps. Self-reliance has given way to learned helplessness. Automation makes our lives safer and easier. But the costs are dear… more

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“In The Mood” for three ukes
via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

Great fun (via Laughing Squid)

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