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POPSBeijing's breath-taking new library (Pictures by yours truly) So "Phase II" of the National Library of China just opened down the block from my apartment, and it is absolutely amazing. Filled with open space and natural light, it is gigantic yet personal, with the feeling of a pavilion. Long lines of sight that stretch uninterrupted out into the city blur the division between indoor and outdoor. Their website is also pretty cool - in English, and with lots of digitized collections, making it worthwhile for anyone wanting to learn more about China.
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POPSA library of human imagination Jay Walker, curator of the Library of Human Imagination, conducts a surprising show-and-tell session highlighting a few of the intriguing artifacts that backdropped the 2008 TED stage.
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POPSThe 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts What are we to make of these finds? There are several possibilities: * Intelligent humans date back much, much further than we realize. * Other intelligent beings and civilizations existed on earth far beyond our recorded history. * Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate. In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt any curious and open-minded scientist to reexamine and rethink the true history of life on earth.
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POPSRubin: My Friend, the "Neo-Nazi" I could say, I know him, he has been a guest in my home in New York and in my rented house in Provence, he bears absolutely no resemblance to the image these despicable people are trying to project of him, and lot's more. I could point out that I am Jewish and have VISIBLE JEWISH ARTIFACTS IN MY HOME, which did not appear to alarm Rashid, if he even noticed them, but it is all just so ridiculous I don't know what to say.
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POPSInternet Archive, browsing through web history Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages. The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization. It is an important initiative. reminds me of Asimov book, the foundation...
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POPSThe rotating grid illusion A surprising optical illusion which is related to temporal aliasing, a visual phenomenon also known as the stroboscopic effect, which accounts for the fact that in video or motion pictures, wheels sometimes appear to be turning backwards.
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POPSIt's Time for Spime An ultra interesting concept of merging the physical and virtual aspects of our future existence. A Spime is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that flings off data about itself and its environment in great quantities. A universe of Spimes is an informational universe, and it is the use of this information that informs the most exciting part of Sterling's argument.
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POPSUnderwater Museum for Egypt Sunken Treasures A UN convention advises that submerged artifacts should remain on the seabed as a way to respect their historical context--a view endorsed by the planners of the proposed underwater museum in Alexandria, Egypt.
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POPSAnthropology Museum database to go online
article continues: Nearly 50 artifacts connected to the Cherokee culture including baskets, ceremonial pipes, jewelry, ceramics and a range of other objects can be found in the database. Thousands of American Indian projectile points, most of them found in North Carolina, have also been cataloged. The oldest artifact in the collection dates to 10,000 B.C. Archaeology and anthropology enthusiasts can search by country to find objects from a particular geographic area or by culture, such as the Hopi, to find all objects in the collection associated with that culture. People can also search for a type of artifact. For example, by entering “basket” as a search term, someone could find records for more than 150 baskets in the collection. Anyone can use the database, but the database will be particularly valuable for North Carolina teachers, said Stephen Whittington, director of the museum. Teachers can use images and the descriptions from the database to plan lessons
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POPS"Women Ran the Burnt City 5000 years ago" the place was spotless, the Camel trains ran on time but, mysteriously, all the men-folk ran to the mountains to hide once a month for about a week . . http://www.astigan.com/2008/09/08/women-ran-the-burnt-city-5000-years-ago/
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POPSflooded London 2090 - art imaginary scenario "The installations are optimistic and reveal that far from being a tragedy, the floods have brought about a much-improved way of life to the capital city." one of the comments on this story says: "Can’t wait for global warming to improve the London weather." :-)
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POPSAfghanistan’s Secret Treasure Afghanistan has probably one of the richest cultural and historical heritage, dating back to the third millennium BCE and the land had been a melting pot of Mesopotamian, Harappan, Greek and Chinese civilizations. Unfortunately, the wars and oppressive/dogmatic regimes tried their best to destroy the traces of this brilliant cultural background. Archaeology Magazine's latest issue tells the story of an amazing treasure of ancient artifacts, 95 percent of which was luckily recovered and brought to museums worldwide to be exhibited.
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