James May Has Written a Book
It’s called How to Land an A330 Airbus; And Other Vital Skills For the Modern Man, and it’s being excerpted:
Telegraph – James May: how to woo with music Women will swoon at your feet if you play them Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata – and, says James May, it’s surprisingly easy to learn
There is a very [...]
Categories: Art and Literature
I’ll Never Remember All That In An Argument
A very good 10 minute video on the history of the commerce clause and how it’s the source of all our present federal governmental joy:
Curtsy: RC2.
Categories: History
Die, Boomer Laity, Die!
Oh man, curtsies to RC2’s Google Reader for this one (I’m a couple days behind):
The myth, cherished by Generation Narcissus, that Jesus made precious, precious Us—the Baby Boomers, source and summit of all goodness, and final peak toward which all human history has been straining—-into the rightful teachers of the Church and that [...]
Categories: History
I Wish Mr Rurik All the Luck In the World
Telegraph – Ivan the Terrible descendants launch court case to get Kremlin back
The Russian state has been given a month by a court to prove it owns the Kremlin after descendants of Ivan the Terrible filed a lawsuit to stake their claim to the Moscow landmark.
So good.
The problem for the state [...]
Categories: History
It Makes Augustus Look Like a Doofus
io9 – Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked
(That’s a Roman statue there, says the girl who took two years of art history classes.)
Curtsy: RC2.
Categories: Art and Literature
Trains! Across the WORLD! Edition
The Times (£) – From Beijing to London in 48hrs? Now that’s a great rail journey
High-speed technology and investment is about to make railways competitive again. Bargain airlines may have made previously forgotten cities accessible but security and congested skies have added hours to the journey. Trains can offer [...]
Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs
What About the R in Ass
This is interesting. Because I’m a nerd. I’m a nerd okay? A nerd! Jeez!
Nick Patrick – Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?
While most American accents are rhotic, the standard British accent is non-rhotic. (Rhotic speakers pronounce the ‘R’ sound in the word “hard”; non-rhotic speakers do not.) So, [...]
Categories: History
The Hipsters Shall Save Us All
Hats are enjoying a revival:
WSJ – Discovering Hats, a New Generation Brims With Anxiety Over Etiquette<br/> Old Rules Flummox Young Hipsters; ‘I’m Wearing an $80 Fedora!’
Many companies are no longer around to see the current revival. The number of manufacturers of fur-felt hats, wool-felt hats and hat forms in the U.S. totaled 185 in [...]
Categories: History
A Week of No Good News
I’m not in a particularly good mood today and the weather (hot, muggy, stagnant) isn’t helping. Neither is this:
[Charles Krauthammer] On Robert Gibbs refusing to comment on the planned mosque at Ground Zero because it’s a “local” issue: It’s no more a local issue than 9/11 [...]
Categories: People and Current Events
Have I Mentioned Already How Much I Love Tom Jones?
And not in an ironic way? Anyway, this is just the most BOOTEEFUL story:
By day, he worked on the sites, by night he’d gig at the working men’s clubs. Within six years he was managing himself out of the phone box at the end of his road, gigging around the clubs of South [...]
Categories: Entertainment
The Aborigines Might Have a Point About All That Being-Robbed-of-Their-Culture Stuff
Indigenous Australians in traditional costume:
Modern white lady hoping to win a beauty pagent in “traditional costume”:
Curtsy: Rueful Red.
Categories: Entertainment
That Was England
This is England is a very good movie. I’d like to point out, though, that none of those people were voting for Maggie before the NF man came along. Ahem.
Has anyone done any research why in the 60s – 80s, the British went so spectacularly batsh.t? I mean, you have your Mediterranean countries which protested [...]
Categories: History
Absolutely the Funniest Item of the Day CCXLIV
Wheat & Weeds – Mad Men, Season 11
Categories: Entertainment
Optimistic German Futurists?
Curtsy to Brett McS for this one: Magic of mobile phones and Wi-Fi foreseen 100 years ago
A runaway success in 1910, the book has been reprinted 100 years later – again to huge acclaim. By commissioning experts in their respective fields, editor Arthur Brehmer ensured his book’s incorrect predictions were [...]
Categories: History
On North Korea and Relative Harms
The Times – Sometimes peace does more damage than war
The other point is this. At the end of the Korean War, we agreed that the division of Korea should persist. Despite North Korea’s aggression — including blatant acts of war, including the possession of nuclear weapons — the West does not plan military [...]
Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs
