You should read this for 10/5/2019:
Art and Film
Leonardo da Vinci, Notebook (”The Codex Arundel”) The British Library has placed high quality digital images of the entire Da Vinci notebook (a compilation) online.
Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci (”The Codex Arundel”). A collection of papers written in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, d. 1519), in his characteristic left-handed mirror-writing (reading from right to left), including diagrams, drawings and brief texts, covering a broad range of topics in science and art, as well as personal notes. The core of the notebook is a collection of materials that Leonardo describes as ”a collection without order, drawn from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place according to the subjects of which they treat” (f. 1r), a collection he began in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli in Florence, in 1508. To this notebook has subsequently been added a number of other loose papers containing writing and diagrams produced by Leonardo throughout his career. Decoration: Numerous diagrams.
Books, Writing, and Language
This young Maryland chemist brews up artisanal fountain pen ink in his shed
Thompson founded his side business, Organics Studio, in a college dorm. Today his inks are bought by customers around the country who prize the bright, jewel-like colors he concocts.
The surpising Origins of the Phrase ‘You Guys Interesting discussion of the origins and derivation of “guys”, though it’s slightly inaccurate about the history of pronouns in English. Old English or Anglo-Saxon has a dual pronoun, used to refer to two people as a linked unit.
Education
College Students Just Want Normal Libraries
Survey data and experts suggest that students generally appreciate libraries most for their simple, traditional offerings: a quiet place to study or collaborate on a group project, the ability to print research papers, and access to books. Notably, many students say they like relying on librarians to help them track down hard-to-find texts or navigate scholarly journal databases. “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers,” as the writer Neil Gaiman once said. “A librarian can bring you back the right one.”
Food and Drink
Via Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes: Pot Roast
History and Archaeology
Elizabeth I’s lost dress to go on display at Hampton Court Palace “Tudor queen’s ‘cloth of silver’ had been used as an altar cloth in a church in Bacton, Herefordshire”
Roman fort discovered under Exeter bus station
“This discovery of yet another new Roman fort within the city does demonstrate, along with that of the fortress and baths back in the 1970s and of several other new major military sites in the last decade, just how pivotal a role the Exeter area played in the first decades of the Roman conquest and subjugation of Britain.”
The Burnt City And Its Mysterious Prehistoric Inhabitants “Once the Burnt City, (original name: Shahr-e-Sookhteh) was the largest prehistoric city of Iran. Its inhabitants were of unknown origin.” 5000 years ago women were in control in Burnt City
Science and Nature
Via Benedict Evans’ Newsletter: @benedictevans:
Dreaming octopus changes colors as it sleeps
Society
‘Eventually I knew she was no longer safe alone’: how do we care for family with dementia?
Don’t let patient care interfere with documentation
Now, however, the record is also the principal way physicians document what they did so they can get paid for it. Patient care is not at all part of that consideration. The record is also the main source for defending what you did, say in court, if you are challenged or sued. The result is that documentation, doctors entering things in the record, has eaten more and more of our time. Patients and families know this well, and the chorus of complaints about it is rising. Doctors may only rarely make eye contact these days as they stare at a computer screen and type or click boxes. But we don’t have much choice if we are to get the crucial documentation done. That’s how we (and our hospitals) are paid, and payers are demanding more and more complex and arcane documentation. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do think we are approaching a breaking point. We are supposed to see as many patients as we can. But the rate-limiting step is documentation.
Technology
The troubling world of WiFi toxicity truthers on Instagram
What’s more, the definitive long-term study of the effects of electromagnetic radiation show no correlation between exposure to this type of radiation and cancer rates; a 2015 study from the EU’s Scientific Committees came to the same conclusion. That hasn’t stopped the public from conflating dangerous (ionizing) and benign (non-ionizing) radiation.
Women’s Work
Human All Too Human: A Roman Woman Visits the Great Pyramid in 120 AD, and Carves a Poem in Memory of Her Deceased Brother
Rabbits may hold key to solving mystery of human female orgasm
Periods: Can women sharing stories break down taboos? hashtag #FreePeriodStories
💩🔥💰 Trumpery 💩🔥💰
Robert Reich: Trump can do more damage than Nixon. His impeachment is imperative
Barr is not working for the United States. He’s working for Trump, just like Rudy Giuliani and all the other lapdogs, toadies and sycophants.
Two linguists explain why calling the Ukraine memo a “transcript” is so wrong
Calling it a transcript influences the way the public, at the end of this chain of recontextualizations, interprets the memo—even if the fine print specifies that it isn’t actually verbatim, the way it’s recontextualized matters. Keeping this in mind, readers of the memo shouldn’t imagine themselves as a fly on the wall in the Situation Room. Even a true transcript is only a partial representation of a conversation, and calling this document a transcript leads readers to interpret it as a complete record of what occurred, when it cannot be.
Trump impeachment inquiry: Ukraine ex-minister rejects Biden claim
Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has categorically rejected claims by Donald Trump concerning Mr Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Mr Trump has alleged, without evidence, that Mr Biden pressed for the sacking of a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect a business that employed his son.
Mr Klimkin told the BBC that the prosecutor was sacked for corruption.
300 former US national security officials signed a letter supporting the impeachment. They described Mr Trump’s actions as a “national security concern”, and said he appeared to have committed “an unconscionable abuse of power”.
Top Defense Democrat Says Lawmakers Forced Trump’s Hand on Ukraine Aid
“We approved the money. The president signed it and we just assumed it was going out,” the Washington state Democrat tells All Things Considered’s Mary Louise Kelly. “Then we started to hear from a variety of people that it was not going out.”
That money had been blocked by the White House, but Smith says neither the Pentagon nor the executive branch made Congress aware of that decision. “It is very unusual that we would not be notified,” he adds. “They certainly move money around a lot and make decisions that are not completely in keeping with what we’ve passed, but they always tell us and they also have a legal justification for doing it. Neither was true in this case.”
The Scandal Has Spiraled Out of Trump’s Control
It’s clear now that the president, his vice president, and several of his top, Senate-confirmed aides—as well as his personal lawyer cum private foreign minister, Rudy Giuliani— have spent significant time over the past year trying to pressure foreign governments into producing stories that can aid in Trump’s reelection.
Pay It Forward and Make It Better
I don’t really knit, though I keep trying to be a better knitter. But this post from stationary blogger and knitter Laura Cameron features a free pattern for a shawl, and a second free pattern for a lovely hat to knit.
