I walked past this stark memorial when I visited the Collins Barracks museum in Dublin. No signs or notes explained what it was. I’m glad to have seen it, and find out after the fact, but it’s a surprising oversight given how plaqued-up the rest of Dublin is. Ireland is a country that knows and […]
Category Archives: history
Whipping boy
Fascinating. I’d heard the term but didn’t realise its significance. A whipping boy was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th centuries. […]
Video: Poppy memorial time-lapse at Tower of London from dawn to dusk – Telegraph
I got to see this in September, before the moat was totally full. A humbling and sobering sight. Video: Poppy memorial time-lapse at Tower of London from dawn to dusk – Telegraph.
Also posted in Arts, Uncategorized
Comments closed
The faceless men
Interesting piece on a censored war artist by a war correspondent. But it is an old man’s sentiment. The young are strangers to its undercurrent of regret and loss. In 1915, when the poet Rupert Brooke enlisted, he wrote to a friend that soldiering “is the only life for me now. The training is a […]
Also posted in Arts
Comments closed
Leafs vs. Habs
It’s the torch, le flambeau, that is tangibly passed from generation to generation of Habs greats, theirs to hold high. It works both literally and figuratively. While Leaf front office types have grumbled for years that the Habs hijacked In Flanders Fields to get their hands on that torch, the Leafs have tried various copy-cat […]
Timeline of Nuclear Tests
This video is nothing but computer noises and dots on a screen, but it’s gripping: A timeline and map of all nuclear detonations since 1945. ▶ nuclear testing.wmv – YouTube.
Posted in history
Tagged earth-shattering-kabooms, history, history-repeating, nucular
Comments closed
Bodies drawn on Normandy beach
This art tribute to International Peace Day is fantastic. A visual commemoration of the destruction of war, on a Beach that symbolizes that awful reality. Bodies drawn on Normandy beach to commemorate D-Day deaths on International Peace Day.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
This video makes the case for the Ultra Deep Field photograph, taken by the Hubble Telescope, as the most important image ever taken. After watching it, I concur. This is well worth 4 minutes of your time. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D – YouTube.
Posted in history
Tagged astronomy, boat-rockers, history, Photography, Science, Space Exploration
Comments closed
Producing Penicillin
A quick browse of the Penicillin entry on Wikipedia reveals this fascinating history of the ramp-up of drug production during World War II. From 1 patient’s worth in 1942 to 646 billion by mid-1945. The challenge of mass-producing this drug was daunting. On March 14, 1942, the first patient was treated for streptococcal septicemia with […]
Nuts to that, Winston, I Like My Sleep
“An extra yawn one morning in the springtime, an extra snooze one night in the autumn is all that we ask in return for dazzling gifts. We borrow an hour one night in April; we pay it back with golden interest five months later.” —Winston Churchill via Fall back: 2012 time change happens Sunday, November […]