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Sunday, December 14, 2003

Early Airline Travel with Imperial Airways
Airline travel in 1924 was quite a bit different than today. Check out some of the interiors, especially the interior of the Handley-Page HP42. It looks like the smoking room of a Victorian private English club. Or see the interior of the Armstrong Whitworth AW15 with it's white tablecloths and fine china. On the minus side, these bi-winged airliners only flew a bit over 100 mph.
Welcome to Imperial Airways
"In January 1927 a service was opened between Cairo and Basra, in the Persian Gulf. To solve the difficulty of navigating across the trackless desert between Palestine and Baghdad, a furrow, several hundred miles long, was ploughed in the sand. It was probably the longest furrow ever ploughed."
posted at 12/14/2003 10:13:28 PM

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

What is the Best English Dictionary ?
A good in depth review of several current dictionaries. What sets them apart ? Why buy one instead of another ? Thankfully, someone else has done all the drudge work for you.
Word Up - Which dictionary is the best? By YiLing Chen-Josephson
"...there are some hard questions you should ask yourself about what it is that you want from a dictionary. For starters, what type of usage advice do you favor? Would you prefer your dictionary to be prescriptive (espousing and promoting the idea of a 'correct' way to use language) or descriptive (reflecting in a neutral manner the way language actually gets used)?"
posted at 12/9/2003 11:30:43 PM

What are the Most Widely Spoken Languages ?
The most widely spoken language, Mandarin Chinese, is spoken by around a billion people, but mainly in only 5 countries. About twice as many people speak Portuguese as their first language than French or German. There are a lot of eye opening facts here.
Most Widely Spoken Languages:
"Lastly, it is important to consider not only the population (number) of language speakers, but also the geographic distribution of these languages. Some languages have relatively large populations of native speakers but are used almost exclusively in a few countries. On the other hand, other languages have relatively small populations of native speakers but are used in many different countries as an official or national language."
posted at 12/9/2003 11:06:18 PM

Saturday, December 06, 2003

Gluttonous Trees / Arbres gourmands!
This artist noticed that trees sometimes grow around and envelop objects. He has then applied these observations to creating his own tree sculptures by attaching objects to trees and havinig the trees grow around the objects.
Natural Growths:
Acrobatic Gluttonous Trees: photos by artist Primeau...
Sculpted Growths:
Actual art in the landscape by artist Primeau...
"Since 1982 I have gathered a nice photographic collection of naturally grown Gluttonous Trees. This way I could observe how they seem fluid, molding and wrapping themselves around obstacles, exaggerating the imprint, adopting unusual shapes."
via BoingBoing - A Directory of Wonderful Things
posted at 12/6/2003 12:53:49 PM

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Graffiti Archeology
This site has time lapse images of graffiti covered walls, taken at long intervals, up to years apart. From wild intricate art to nothing and back again over the years.
graffiti archaeology
"Graffiti Archaeology is the study of graffiti-covered walls as they change over time. The grafarc.org project is a timelapse collage, made of photos of San Francisco graffiti taken by many different photographers from 1998 to the present.
Using the grafarc explorer, you can visit some of San Francisco's classic spots, see what they looked like in the past, and explore how they have changed over the years. "
posted at 12/3/2003 12:59:03 PM

Monday, December 01, 2003

Make Your Own Armour
Everything from plate armour through chain maille to hardened leather. Make your own Great Helm. Out of real iron. There are even articles on making your own special tools. You can find techniques, tutorials, articles, essays, galleries and reviews on this comprensive site. The way the world is these days, this half forgotten knowledge may be becoming more useful.
The Arador Armour Library
"Welcome to The Arador Armour Library! Since 1995 Arador has been a hub for education, information and camaraderie to those in the Internet community with an interest in armour and armour-related subjects."
posted at 12/1/2003 11:41:15 PM