| 'Archaeologist of erotica' revives world of brothels |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|04:13 pm] |
PARIS – The sign hung at 12, rue Chabanais, in the days when the building housed the most prestigious of Paris' infamous bordellos, read "Welcome to the Chabanais: The House of All Nations".
With the brothels closed down 60 years ago, nowadays the skinny eight-storey building on a tiny street near the Louvre houses an employment agency and a bunch of flats. But right across the road, at number 11, a gallery is keeping its memories alive.
Nicole Canet, who runs a gallery-cum-boutique of erotic pictures and historic sex toys, is holding an exhibition there on the heyday of France's legendary "maisons closes", or authorised brothels.
"I love going back in time, playing detective," Canet, a 50-something former dancer, told AFP.
Along with a selection of whips in rhino-horn and other suggestive bits and pieces, the show revisits the life of the brothels from 1860 to their forced closure in 1946 in some 400 old photographs, etchings and books.
The Chabanais, for one, was a routine stopover for foreign dignitaries, who would be sneaked in secretly by French government officials. One of its most distinguished visitors was Britain's "Bertie", then Prince of Wales and soon to become King Edward VII.
"Bertie" had his own room there, as well as a giant copper bath -- with a half-woman half-swan figurehead -- that he liked to fill with champagne before jumping in, and a so-called "love-seat", a weird contraption said to be for threesomes.
Worlds apart from sordid back-rooms in cheap hotels, the high society brothels evoked in the show were luxury palaces with sumptuous decors designed to cater to any fantasy.
Au Bonheur du Jour - Galerie d'Art
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| Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall (Explorator) |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|03:46 pm] |
Archaeologists examining the remains of the Nasca, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, have uncovered a sequence of human-induced events which led to their "catastrophic" collapse around 500 AD.
The Nasca are probably best known for the famous "Nazca Lines", giant geoglyphs which they left etched into the surface of the vast, empty desert plain that lies between the Peruvian towns of Nazca and Palpa.
The depictions have spawned various wild theories, including that they were created by aliens. Most scholars now believe that they were sacred pathways which Nasca people followed during the course of their ancient rituals.
Other aspects of Nasca history and culture remain less clearly understood, however. In particular, experts have struggled to explain why a society which clearly prospered during the first half of the first Millennium AD then collapsed into a bloody resource war and eventually vanished.
Some have argued that a mega-El Niño, which hit the region at around that time, may have been the cause. However, a team of researchers at Cambridge University, suggest that the Nasca inadvertently wrought their own demise.
Using plant remains gathered in the lower Ica Valley, the team found evidence that over the course of many generations, the Nasca cleared areas of forest to make way for their own agriculture. Studies of pollen samples taken by co-researcher Alex Chepstow-Lusty, of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, showed that the huarango tree, which once covered what is now a desert area, was gradually replaced by crops such as cotton and maize.
As the paper explains, however, the huarango was more than just a tree - it was a crucial part of the desert's fragile ecosystem, which enhanced soil fertility and moisture and helped to hold the Nasca's narrow, vulnerable irrigation channels in place.
Eventually, they cut down so many trees that they reached a tipping point at which the arid ecosystem was irreversibly damaged. The authors do not dispute that a major, El Niño-style event then occurred - finding hard evidence for this for the first time. But they also find that the impact of this flood would have been far less devastating had the forests which protected the delicate desert ecology still been there.
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|01:30 pm] |
Mark Sanford is still Governor of South Carolina
"I have apologized repeatedly for my moral failing and the measure of any of our lives is in how we get back up, as I believe God can use people far from perfect in all walks of life. I have also said repeatedly that the original moral failure was mine, but that doesn't make it right for some in politics, or media, to continue to spread inaccurate information out there because they think it will help them climb politically, or that it is payback time politically, or in the media world that it would help them sell papers."
He needs a good rectal smoking. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|12:11 pm] |
Horry County man accused of having sex with horse pleads guilty
Mr. Vereen was arrested for having sex with Sugar Thanksgiving Day in 2007. He was put on three years probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender. He was arrested again this past August with the same horse, this time caught in the act on surveillance camera. The Judge sentenced Vereen to 5 years in prison, suspended to 3 years in prison and 2 years probation.
Sugar |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|08:29 pm] |
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Jon Corzine has to beat that Fat Sack of Hot Air Chris Christie tomorrow, he just HAS TO! |
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| Explorator |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|01:08 pm] |
Modern man had sex with Neanderthals
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British holidaymaker discovers lost underwater 'city'
Michael Le Quesne, 16, was swimming off a popular beach in Montenegro with his parents and his ten-year-old sister Teodora when he spotted an odd looking 'stone' at a depth of around two metres. It turned out to be a large, submerged building which may have been the centrepiece of an important Greek or Roman trading post, swallowed up by the sea during a massive earthquake.
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Witches of Cornwall
Over the centuries, many in the British Isles have appealed to witches in times of need--to cure a toothache, concoct a love potion, or curse a neighbor. Witchcraft, the rituals of a number of pagan belief systems, was thought to offer control of the world through rites and incantations. Common as it has been over the past several centuries, the practice is secretive and there are few written records. It tends to be passed down through families and never revealed to outsiders. But archaeologist Jacqui Wood has unearthed evidence of more than 40 witchy rituals beneath her own front yard, bringing to light an unknown branch of witchcraft possibly still practiced today.
Wood's home is in the hamlet of Saveock Water in Cornwall, a county tucked in the far southwest corner of the country. For thousands of years people have raised crops and livestock in its fertile valleys, and its coastline of dramatic cliffs, secluded coves, and pounding surf was once a haunt for smugglers. Cornwall is a place time forgot; steeped in folklore, myth, and legend; and purported to be inhabited by pixies, fairies, and elves. So it should come as no surprise that it has also been home to the dark arts.
When I visit Saveock Water it is raining, which adds to its unearthly atmosphere. (more)
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The 10 scariest monsters and demons from Celtic myth
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The tyrant Mao, as told by his doctor |
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| a personal email |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|05:37 pm] |
Hi Alan!
I went to see Michael Moore's new movie and it is his best yet - I would call it magnificent. I cried the entire second half, seriously. I wish it were online so everyone could see it immediately. I think it will be transforming. Just like the way his healthcare movie transformed people only even more huge and on an international level. Now I have to go back and check the 15 things Michael Moore said we could do right now :) I love Michael Moore and I love Obama!
It's a gorgeous autumn day here. Ichi is at the window chattering at the chipmunks. I have to make some dinner. I have a stick of cheddar and a head of cauliflower - cauliflower au gratin!
see ya :) |
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| Explorator |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|12:12 pm] |
Neanderthal woman could whup Schwarzenegger - Modern man is big wuss, claims anthropologist
The prologue of McAllister's book warns blokes just how much of a humiliation they're in for, opening with: "If you're reading this then you - or the male you have bought it for - are the worst man in history. No ifs, no buts - the worst man, period.”
Chaps are then reminded that a Roman soldier was able to march one-and-a-half marathons in a single day, Rwandan Tutsi men could jump higher then the current world record of 2.45 metres, and Huichol Indian dads in Mexico tied strings to their 'nads so that their other half could give a quick tug during labour enabling them to share the childbirth experience.
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How to Cater a Roman Orgy
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The Secret Wife of Louis XIV |
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| High Tech Hunt for Lost Art |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
If you believe, as Maurizio Seracini does, that Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest painting is hidden inside a wall in Florence’s city hall, then there are two essential techniques for finding it. As usual, Leonardo anticipated both of them.
First, concentrate on scientific gadgetry. After spotting what seemed to be a clue to Leonardo’s painting left by another 16th-century artist, Dr. Seracini led an international team of scientists in mapping every millimeter of the wall and surrounding room with lasers, radar, ultraviolet light and infrared cameras. Once they identified the likely hiding place, they developed devices to detect the painting by firing neutrons into the wall.
They were looking for “The Battle of Anghiari,” the largest painting Leonardo ever undertook (three times the width of “The Last Supper”). Although it was never completed — Leonardo abandoned it in 1506 — he left a central scene of clashing soldiers and horses that was hailed as an unprecedented study of anatomy and motion. For decades, artists like Raphael went to the Hall of 500 to see it and make their own copies.
Then it vanished. During the remodeling of the hall in 1563, the architect and painter Giorgio Vasari covered the walls with frescoes of military victories by the Medicis, who had returned to power. Leonardo’s painting was largely forgotten.
But in 1975, when Dr. Seracini studied one of Vasari’s battle scenes, he noticed a tiny flag with two words, “Cerca Trova”: essentially, seek and ye shall find. Was this Vasari’s signal that something was hidden underneath?
full article |
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| The Fall of the Maya: "They Did it to Themselves" |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|03:29 pm] |
For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas the Maya numbered 200 to 400 people per square mile. But suddenly, all was quiet. And the profound silence testified to one of the greatest demographic disasters in human prehistory -- the demise of the once vibrant Maya society. What happened? Some NASA-funded researchers think they have a pretty good idea.
"They did it to themselves," says veteran archeologist Tom Sever. "The Maya are often depicted as people who lived in complete harmony with their environment,' says PhD student Robert Griffin. "But like many other cultures before and after them, they ended up deforesting and destroying their landscape in efforts to eke out a living in hard times."
A major drought occurred about the time the Maya began to disappear. And at the time of their collapse, the Maya had cut down most of the trees across large swaths of the land to clear fields for growing corn to feed their burgeoning population. They also cut trees for firewood and for making building materials.
"They had to burn 20 trees to heat the limestone for making just 1 square meter of the lime plaster they used to build their tremendous temples, reservoirs, and monuments," explains Sever.
He and his team used computer simulations to reconstruct how the deforestation could have played a role in worsening the drought. They isolated the effects of deforestation using a pair of proven computer climate models.
"We modeled the worst and best case scenarios: 100 percent deforestation in the Maya area and no deforestation," says Sever. "The results were eye opening. Loss of all the trees caused a 3-5 degree rise in temperature and a 20-30 percent decrease in rainfall."
article continues |
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