September 16, 2010
Rococo [ruh-koh-koh] also referred to as ‘Late Baroque’ is an 18th century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly more ornate, florid, and playful. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. It was largely supplanted by the Neoclassic style.
In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo ‘usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XV’s reign.’ The word Rococo is seen as a combination of the French rocaille, meaning stone, and coquilles, meaning shell, due to reliance on these objects as motifs of decoration. It may also be related to the Portuguese barroco (which refers to an irregularly shaped pearl), or Baroque style.
Posted in Art |
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September 16, 2010
Malchik was a black mongrel stray dog living in Moscow, Russia. For about three years, Malchik lived at the Mendeleyevskaya station on the Moscow Metro. Malchick became a popular station ‘resident’ among rail employees and commuters, and territorially protected the station from drunks and other dogs.
Malchik was killed when a 21-year-old woman Yulia Romanova stabbed him with a kitchen knife. Later it was revealed that Romanova has a long history of cruelty to animals and psychiatric treatment. The incident sparked a wave of public outrage regarding the treatment of animals, and, in 2007, a monument was erected in Malchik’s honor at Mendeleyevskaya station.
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September 16, 2010
The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book that contains instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications hacking devices, and other quasi-legal and contraband items.
It was written by William Powell to protest United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Since writing the book, Powell has converted to Anglican Christianity and attempted to have the book removed from circulation.
Posted in Language, Politics, War |
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September 16, 2010
Esperanto [es-puh-rahn-toh] is the most widely spoken constructed language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means ‘one who hopes’ in the language itself. Zamenhof’s goal was to create an easy to learn and politically neutral language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding.
Esperanto has approximately one thousand native speakers, i.e. people who learned Esperanto as one of their native languages from their parents. There is controversy over the number of people who are fluent in Esperanto. Estimates range from 10,000 to as high as two million. The users are spread in about 115 countries. Although no country has adopted the language officially, Esperanto was officially recognized by UNESCO in 1954, and is also the language of instruction in one university, the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj in San Marino.
Posted in Language, World |
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September 16, 2010
Pass the Pigs is a commercial version of the dice game, Pig, which is a folk game commonly used to teach probability concepts. Each turn involves one player throwing two model pigs, each of which has a dot on one side only. The player will have points either given or taken away, based on the way the pigs land.
For example, a ‘double trotter’ (both pigs standing upright) is worth 40 points. A ‘pig out’ (both pigs lying on their sides, one spot showing) resets the score for that turn to 0 and ends a turn. If both pigs are ‘makin’ bacon’ (touching) the player’s total score is rest. Each turn lasts until the player throwing either rolls the pigs in a way that wipes out their current turn score or decides to stop their turn, add their turn score to their total score and pass the pigs to the next player. The winner is the first player to score a total of 100.
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