Two posts on The Nonist:

• On the Scales
• Histoire Naturelle des Indes

“ This website attempts to walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: the translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication”

The History of Visual Communication

“ From this place, and from this day forth begins a new era in the history of the world, and you can all say that you were present at its birth.”

Savage Wars of Peace

On Laputan Logic:

• the evolution of numbers
• the cult of the Golden Ratio

Historical notes for every decade since 1650:

history by decades

“ We believe that history matters. A society out of touch with its past cannot have confidence in its future. History defines, educates and inspires us. It lives on in our historic environment. As custodians of our past, we will be judged by generations to come. We must value it, nurture it and pass it on.”

History matters

A nice idea, I believe that history matters and it's absolutely necessary to know some of it to have a perspective on current events. Human lifespan is too short and we tend to consider “normal” things (like television, cars and mobile phones) that until 50 years ago didn't exist or were rare. The initiative is only for England, but it should be taken as an example by all Countries. In my opinion, it's also important to remember that history must be part of our future and not a burden on it. Change is especially good when salted with common sense coming from a knowledge of human history and, in these days of confusion, badly needed.

“ The Periodic Spiral is the most comprehensive periodic table in its coverage of the elements and their interplay, and most efficient in enabling the user to access myriad informational categories with the click of a mouse.”

Periodic Spiral

“ History Atlas is an open-source application for reading and writing history, has two components, Browser and Scribe. Users may toggle between the two components by single-clicking the words Browser or Scribe at the left side of the application window.”

History Atlas

“ IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world's only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome's port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.”

Pirates of the Mediterranean

An interesting article, except that, after more then two thousand years, I'd expect people to be more aware, to learn from history, to finally understand that what needs to be fixed are the causes and not the effects. Wrong..possibly people are less aware now then in Roman times, even if today it's much easier to find news and explanations of current political and economical affairs.

“ We have compiled a collection of thousands of the most important photographs of the last 150 years; pictures of our struggles, trials, and triumphs. We can only fully understand our history by gazing into the eyes of the people that made that history.”

Picture History

“ The institution of photography in Ceylon was first established in the mid 1840's and was practiced quite extensively towards the end of the 19th Century. During that period there were dozens of local and foreign artist who took up the challenge to record the daily events which took place in the beautiful and mysterious island of Ceylon in the form of a photographic image.”

Images of Ceylon

“ Every year, thousands of tourists from around the world take a long flight across the South Pacific to see the famous stone statues of Easter Island. Since 1722, when the first Europeans arrived, these megalithic figures, or moai, have intrigued visitors. Interest in how these artifacts were built and moved led to another puzzling question: what happened to the people who created them?”

Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island

The Bush Administration and Godwin's Law

An historical frame of reference is of great importance to keep perspective on current events. Nowadays very often words are used in the media to catch inattentive people attention and subtly steer public opinion. I say inattentive because it seems to me people don't really pay attention to what words mean, to the fact that one day something is said to be white and the next black. Facts are continuously turned around to fit momentary needs of political nature, regardless of accuracy. What makes me wonder is the incapacity (or maybe unwillingness) of people's memory to retain these manipulations and see the incongruence between them. I heard a journalist saying that we have developed a “TV memory”, short unrelated flashes, and I think that in many cases it's, regrettably, the truth.

“ Early in the 19th century, the need for speed, simplicity, and economy in book production led to the introduction of cloth as a binding material and casing as a binding process. This exhibit chronicles the growth of English and American publishers' binding from its infancy in the 1830s to its decline in the early 20th century.”

Publishers' Bindings 1830 - 1910
via India,Ink.

Beautiful pictures of Libraries:

Libraries are the keepers of human history, the shape of men efforts to understand and remember, they bring perspective to human history and enable anyone to learn and keep learning.

Library Smut

Scientists measure Earth's history

“ I do think a lot about how inconsequential humans are in the big scheme of things. We have not yet even proved we're a viable species compared to dinosaurs, for example. Dinosaurs were around from 230 million years ago to 66 million years ago. That's a long time. They were very successful. Humans have been around for maybe a million years. It doesn't look like we're going to have that long of a legacy but we'll see.”
Samuel A. Bowring
(professor of geology at MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences)

I have been thinking and saying that for years but this is the first time I see it written by somebody else, by a MIT's professor of Geology not some other opinionated dude like me. I also always use dinosaurs as a comparison..

“ EARTHTIME is an organized, community-based international scientific initiative aimed at sequencing Earth history through the integration of high-precision geochronology and quantitative chronostratigraphy. Our main goal is the development of the geochronological techniques necessary to produce temporal constraints with uncertainties approaching 0.1 percent of the radioisotopic ages.”

EARTHTIME

Rembrandt was born in 1606, four hundred years ago

This is the way a bullfight should be:

Valencia(Spain) Feria de Julio 2006

Crete(Greece) about 1650 BC

“ East Art Map Online is a tool that will lead you through the last 50 years of the history of visual arts in Eastern Europe. You will get to know 250 artists/events/projects that are considered of major importance by the 24 art critics, curators and artists from the different ex-socialist Central, Eastern and South-Eastern countries invited to make an initial selection for the EAM.”

East Art Map

The sudoku of the 17th century: Sangaku

“ Perhaps it's not surprising that sudoku - the number puzzles that everyone seems to be working on these days - first became popular in Japan before spreading across the ocean. The fad is reminiscent of a math craze that swept the islands centuries ago, when ardent enthusiasts went so far as to turn the most beautiful geometrical solutions into finely illustrated wooden tablets, called sangaku, that adorned the walls of local temples and shrines.”

first read on Collision Detection

On the New York Times: when Venice shook the world

The World Heritage List includes 812 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

On the Guardian: Brothers in arms.

From The British Library :

" Digitised Renaissance festival books (selected from over 2,000 in the British Library's collection) that describe the magnificent festivals and ceremonies that took place in Europe between 1475 and 1700 "

Renaissance festival books

When East Timor obtained its independence from Portugal in 1975, Australia had an agreement with Indonesia. Now, East Timor is independent, so: E Timor, Australia strike oil deal.

Also, the only route available for nuclear submarines is a deep-sea trench off the East Timorese coast.

Strategic position and oil, a deadly combination.