Russian Sledges

Kat Chow, "Make It So: Sir Patrick Stewart Moos In Udder Accents", NPR Code Switch ("Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity") 12/30/2013:

Cow-d it really be? Have our ears herd this correctly? (Sorry, I can't help myself.)

Patrick Stewart — ahem, Sir Patrick Stewart — mooed up a storm on the podcast, How To Do Everything, impersonating cows from various regions. You might even say Stewart was code-switching.

A listener who says she moos with "kind of an American, Nevadan accent" posed the question: Just how would a person moo in a British accent? (And, by the way, it's true: cows do moo in regional accents.)

The cited BBC story ("Cows also 'have regional accents': Cows have regional accents like humans, language specialists have suggested", 8/23/2006) was a great public-relations triumph for the cheese industry, and a lovely example of the dangers of talking to journalists. For details, see "Oh, the moos you can moo", 8/23/2006; "Where are moo from?", 8/24/2006; "It's always silly season in the (BBC) science section", 8/26/2006.

But this time around, the How to Do Everything podcast ("Cow to Moo Everything", 12/27/2013) treats us to the bovine vocalizations of Sir Patrick Stewart. It all starts with this question from a listener:

I was wondering if you could find out how do cows moo- well how was- how would a person moo in a British accent? 

This leads immediately to the following exchange:

Q: I think the place to start would be, how do you moo?
A: I moo with an American, kind of Nevadan accent, going "moo".

After some further inquiries, the HTDE team contacts Sir Patrick Stewart  by telephone, and he gives a suitably judicious response:

It's not a straightforward simple answer.
Unlike probably many other countries, where a cow's moo is a cow's moo,
in England, you understand, we are dominated by class,
by social status, and by location.

Sir Patrick continues in this mock-sociolinguistic vein, imitating the "very conservative" moo of an Oxfordshire cow, from David Cameron's constituency:

And the socio-culturally contrastive moo of a cow from Yorkshire:

He also tells us that because his wife is also from Nevada, he has "some experience of Nevada cattle", and so he gives his impression of a Nevada cow:

Sir Patrick's wife and the original caller are apparently from different Nevadan bovilinguistic strata.

Anyhow, the rest of the podcast will treat you to a Cockney cow, and the "very refined, very sophisticated" sort of moo produced by a cow who went to "the cow equivalent of Eton or Harrow".

One of the comments on the podcast is from Suze, a real expert, who reminds us that individual identity  and physiological state are also important variables:

That was superb!!! I'm a relief milker (and a musician) so I've always been interested in sound. I always moo along with "my girls" and it's truly fascinating to hear their individuality. Too bad they didn't ask him to imitate the moo of a cow ready for the bull! hahahahaha THAT'S a great one! Loved this show!!!

Karl Marx told us that

Hegel bemerkte irgendwo, daß alle großen weltgeschichtlichen Tatsachen und Personen sich sozusagen zweimal ereignen. Er hat vergessen, hinzuzufügen: das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce.

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages occur twice, so to speak. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

In this case, we're talking about great cheese-industry PR stunts rather than great world-historic facts. And so the first time was farce, while the second time was Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard pretending to imitate class and regional variation in the vocalizations of cattle.

---

Update — in partial response to Sili's appeal below, here's the spectrogram of an actual cow, in the form of a sample moo from SoundBible.com — "Sound of a large cow mooing in a pasture", recorded by Mike Koenig:

The sound:

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Sili asked:

Aren't there linguists of dairy stock who know how to do formant analysis?

My sister's in dairy, but I have no clue how to collect or analyse vocalisations.

Here's a narrow-band spectrogram, which gives a better picture of the laryngeal source:

And here's a spectral section, from 2.315 to 2.416 of the file above, with an order-20 LPC spectrum superimposed on the FFT spectrum.

As this suggests, a formant analysis is probably not mainly what is needed. The breed, individual, attitudinal, and physiological differences of interest are likely to show up to some extent in spectral resonances and anti-resonances, but perhaps even more in pitch and amplitude contours,  in the bovine equivalent of voice quality, and so on.

Could there be regional or herd-specific variations as well? Sure. Is there any evidence about this? No. But I'm open to inquiries from the dairy industry — I've always wanted an opportunity to use in real life one of my favorite punch lines: "Consider a perfectly spherical cow, radiating milk isotropically…"

Update #2 — I should note that there is some literature on cattle vocalizations, though not (as far as I have determined) on geographical or cultural variation. For example, Jon M. Watts and Joseph M. Stookey, "Effects of restraint and branding on rates and acoustic parameters of vocalization in beef cattle", Applied Animal Behaviour Science 1999, showed that branding makes calves vocalize more, louder, and with a higher pitch:

More branded than non-branded animals vocalized (58/95 compared with 7/94, P<0.0001). Branded animals showed a greater frequency range in the fundamental, or lowest harmonic, of the audiospectrogram, (68.04 Hz±5.33 compared with 28 Hz±8.74, P<0.05), a higher maximum frequency (186.66 Hz±5.19 compared with 141.6 Hz±6.6, P<0.01). and a higher peak sound level (P<0.05). 

And P.C. Schön et al., "Altered Vocalization Rate During the Estrous Cycle in Dairy Cattle", Journal of Dairy Science 2007, shows that cows moo in a breathier way near their "estrous climax":

It is known that the calls of female mammals can contain information about reproductive status. It is also suspected that the vocalizations of cattle contain information about age, sex, dominance status, and stage in the estrous cycle. In the present study, a methodology for the continuous automatic recording of vocalization of heifers during the periestrous period is presented. It was shown in 10 tethered heifers that the estrous climax results in an increase in vocalization rate.  [...]  We also found 2 different structures in the vocalization of heifers. The harmonic structure showed regular frequency bands, whereas the nonharmonic structure was noisy. The hypothesis that the disharmonic structure increases near the estrous climax was confirmed.

 

 

delilahsdawson:

madamecuratrix:

seraphica:

Rohit Bal’s collection for India Bridal Fashion Week - absolutely stunning, and (in my opinion) way more interesting and personal than current western trends.

Glorious. Just exquisite design and craftsmanship. It feels like the opulence of Imperial Russia combined with traditional Indian cuts and motifs.

Last skirt on the left. I could take over the world, wearing that.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report today entitled How Americans Value Public Libraries in Their Communities (PDF), that shows a very large majority of Americans value libraries, viewing them as critical to their communities and vital to providing services that ensure equality of opportunity for people who would otherwise be at a terrible disadvantage in life.

This is in contrast to a few privileged blowhards who've opined that the library is an obsolete institution in the age of the Internet -- and worse, an unaffordable luxury in a time of austerity and recession. The mission of libraries is to help the public navigate information and become informed -- a mission that is more important than ever. As Eleanor Crumblehulme said, "Cutting libraries in a recession is like cutting hospitals in a plague."

Read on for the study's key findings.

95% of Americans ages 16 and older agree that the materials and resources available at public libraries play an important role in giving everyone a chance to succeed;

95% say that public libraries are important because they promote literacy and a love of reading;

94% say that having a public library improves the quality of life in a community;

81% say that public libraries provide many services people would have a hard time finding elsewhere.

How Americans Value Public Libraries in Their Communities

(Image: CuttingLibraries, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from daniel_solis's photostream)

This Bernina 730 Record sewing machine migrated to the United States from England, and as such has a 220VAC input. FEAR NOT, ye of little faith who have 120VAC on most of their household outlets (it had me worried, too!). Amazon sells neat little con [...]

Red Kitchen Aid Food Processor - used, but still works great. I got a new one for Christmas, so this one needs a new home.

As I've started again with the food (drink?) writing, it would be remiss of me not to talk about how much I love Eastern Standard. I mean, I've always loved them (as I may have mentioned here once or twice), but on this occasion they went above and beyond.

First off, bad news, boys: Lovely Co-worker Sarah is getting married. (Actually, she's no longer a co-worker, though she is still lovely.) True to form, she decided to have her wedding shower at Eastern Standard; she's even closer to becoming a resident there than I am.

I was so excited to get the invitation, but then immediately started to worry. This was my first public outing, since the trismus kicked in, at which food would be served. What was I supposed to do? Leave early, before lunch? Arrive late, having had? Sit and make small talk at an empty setting while everyone else ate salad?

I asked Sarah, who passed me along to Trish, her best friend and shower organizer. Trish said she'd talk to Eastern Standard.

"Seriously, I don't need anything special," I said. "Tell them to take whatever they're giving everyone else and throw it in the blender."

Well, of course, that's not what they did. Not even close.

Turns out they had separate meetings to decide on a special menu just for me.

I get quite misty-eyed just thinking about it.

So while everyone else had flatbread pizza and salads, I had an amazing chilled corn chowder that tasted as though they'd extracted essence of corn, fresh from the field, and poured it into a glass. Vibrant, light, refreshing. How often can you say that about a soup?



And when the other guests moved on to steak frites (which oh lordy looked so good), I was well compensated with a healthy blueberry-spinach-Marcona almond-Greek yogurt smoothie. The almonds were a great touch; the flavor came through very nicely.



Dessert was perfectly pretty and preppy: macarons in Lily Pulitzer colors (which I could admire, if not consume):



And then everyone got strawberry milkshakes, so I felt more like one of the girls.



Dining out when you can't eat is enough of a challenge. Dining out when someone else is in charge of the menu — and has been kind enough to invite you along — brings a special set of concerns: How much are you allowed to intervene? What responsibility does the host have for your needs, especially when they're also dealing with other guests?

This event went well, partly because the organizer was happy to work on my behalf (for which, thanks a million, Trish!) and partly because Eastern Standard does such a fantastic job with customer service. I'd say when in doubt, talk to the people who know you and know your challenges, and see what can be done.

And happy upcoming wedding, Sarah! No, I'm not taking this picture down - we look too divine!

publicdomainthing:

Victorian Card

Nova Soctia Archives

Resolutions

A poll out Monday shows that less than half – 43 percent – of those who identify with the Republican Party say they believe humans have evolved over time, plunging from 54 percent four years ago. Forty-eight percent say they believe “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” up from 39 percent in 2009. At 67 percent and 65 percent, respectively, the numbers of Democrats and independents who believe in evolution have remained more or less the same since 2009. They’re also in step with the population nationally: Six-in-10 Americans say they believe humans have evolved. The gaping partisan disparity remains, the analysis states, even when accounting for “differences in the racial and ethnic composition of Democrats and Republicans or differences in their levels of religious commitment.” But the dip from 2009 is a telling indicator of the growing influence in the GOP of the oft-yoked tea party-type ideologues and the “religious right.”

Over at The Daily Beast, Christopher Dickey interviews Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The piece, called “Vatican science on Christmas and creationism,” is of interest mainly because it shows the muddle that the Church gets itself into by simultaneously embracing Catholicism and modern science.  I’m in a rush preparing for my trip, so I’ll comment on just a few bits.

I was surprised to learn that the academy has 80 current members, including some non-Catholics, and over the years has harbored at least four Nobel Laureates.

Dickey sets the stage by claiming that Catholicism was once at war with science, which of course is true, though accommodationist historians have claimed that such disputes were not religious but political. Dickey:

Atheists and fundamentalists, both, will be tempted to say the whole notion of a pontifical academy of science is a contradiction in terms. Back in the fiery heyday of the Inquisition, after all, pontiffs and scientists were in deadly opposition, just as Bible-waving Evangelicals and cold-blooded evolutionists are squared off today in the creationist wars that plague American education.

Well, the Inquisition started well before science was a going concern: the term “scientist” was invented only in 1834, though people were practicing what we’d consider science in the 17th century. But Dickey is generally right: Galileo and Bruno were certainly persecuted, at least in part, because of their scientific views were contrary to Church doctrine. This was of course “political” in the sense that the Church was also the state. But one can say without reservation that the church was implacably opposed to those who used reason and doubt to figure out truths about the universe: what I call “science in the broad sense.”

But I digress; look what Sánchez says about reason:

But over the centuries the views of the Catholic Church have evolved, in fact, and conservatives are going to be shocked once again by the way this papacy broadens its message of reconciliation to include an ever-wider spectrum of humanity, including skeptical scientific researchers and intellectuals.

“If we don’t accept science, we don’t accept reason,” says Sánchez, “and reason was created by God.”

Reason was created by God? Really? Sánchez, like the Church itself, accepts evolution, and it’s clear that many animals can reason.  We aren’t the only reasoning species.  Primates can reason, some birds can reason (perhaps many, but we haven’t tested them all), and cetaceans can reason.  If everything evolved naturally, then reason evolved too. The church claims to deviate from straight naturalistic evolution only by positing that a soul was inserted in the hominin lineage.  So what Sánchez is doing here is adding yet another intrusion of God into the evolutionary process, but one that is wrong since, while we can’t prove that animals don’t have souls (or even that we do!), we can show that we’re not the unique reasoning species. Finally, he’s saying this kind of stuff because he wants to argue that science arose from religion.

And of course it’s just fatuous to claim that reason must have been created by God.  Reason could naturally arise by natural selection once a brain was big enough to process complex information.  Such an argument is also contrary to Sánchez’s claim, later in the piece, that science and religion are non-overlapping areas.  The assertion that reason didn’t evolve is certainly a violation of this Gouldian view, expressed as follows:

“The notion of creation is completely different from the notion of evolution,” said Sánchez. “Creation is a philosophical notion that comes from The Bible. It says that God, from nothing, created being.” That is the central concept, he said, and science has no real explanation for how that might happen. But evolution is different. There is a great deal of evidence, he said, that there is evolution in nature and that species evolve.

The great confusion comes, according to Sánchez, when people try to use science to prove or disprove the existence of God. “This is like saying you can prove the existence of the soul,” said Sánchez, and about that he has no doubt.

Over the years the progress of science has caused many in the Catholic Church to rethink what they thought they knew, like the location of Heaven and of Hell. “In the past, we said they are [physical] places,” Sánchez explained, as if they could be pinpointed on a map of the cosmos. But that was back in the Middle Ages when people believed the universe was organized in spheres with Earth at their center, then the sun and the moon and the stars, and beyond them, Heaven. Hell was under the ground in the center of this planet. Now Paradise and the Inferno are understood philosophically as states of being, not places on a chart.

“All these questions of physics and metaphysics have changed because physics have changed,” says Sánchez.

This is so completely muddled that I can’t figure out what the good bishop is trying to say.  If he’s saying that God created being from nothing, that is not a philosophical claim but an empirical one: it argues that God produced the first life, and this invalidates the whole field of abiogenesis. And if he’s trying to claim that it’s wrong to use science to prove or disprove the existence of God, then why does the Church demand validated evidence of two miracles before someone is made a saint? Clearly the Church relies on empirical evidence all the time as evidence for God. And it is still part of Church doctrine that Adam and Eve were the literal ancestors of humans. Science disproved that one about a hundred years ago, so why don’t they remove that from their doctrine?

I am always amused by Hell, which of course is referred to as a literal place in the Bible. Here are a few references:

Matthew 13:42: And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 25:41: Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Mark 9:43-48: And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.

Luke 16:24: And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

So how does Sánchez know that these are all metaphors? It’s not science that casts doubt on hell, but secular morality: people realized that the idea of eternal torment for, say, one unconfessed episode of masturbation, was not seemly for a loving God.  I suppose Sanchez follows this flowchart:

Sánchez also agrees with some other stuff that’s scientifically insupportable:

There is still plenty of room for miracles in Sánchez’s universe.

He tends to agree with scientists who think the Star of Bethlehem that guided the three kings of Asia to the infant Jesus was really Halley’s Comet. Other theories hold that it was a supernova or an alignment of two or three planets. “Of course, it might have been a complete miracle,” said Sánchez. “God can suspend natural laws.” But the bishop prefers to associate those sorts of miracles mainly with the story of Jesus. The raising of Lazarus from the dead is particularly important. “To return the soul to the body, this is a very special miracle,” said Sánchez.

“The bishop prefers”. . .   I am stupefied.

Finally, according to the bishop, science has told us that all fetuses are human:

At the same time, advances in biology have expanded the definition of life. In the past, says Sánchez, the church considered that an embryo did not have human life until it began to take on something resembling human form, about 40 days into a pregnancy. “Now we say if the first cells [after fertilization and conception] have DNA, the genetic coding for human beings, then they have life.”

No, biology has not expanded the definition of life; it’s religious revelation and dogma that has made the Church decree not only that a fertilized egg is a person, but that every sperm is sacred. Let us not forget that an egg cell and a sperm have DNA as well. Those are living cells, but they’re not people. Sánchez’s problem is that he equates “life” with “person.” A liver cell cannot survive on its own except in the body (or a Petri dish), and a fetus cannot survive on its own until well into pregnancy. So if other cells are parasitic on the organism, and have DNA, and that DNA could potentially produce an entire person, why aren’t all of our cells “persons”? Is it not murder to pluck out a hair?

This is the kind of trouble you get into when trying to embrace medieval, supernatural dogma and modern science at the same time. Sánchez’s lucubrations about science sound superficially sane, but fall apart when you think about them for just a minute.

h/t: Joyce

The Vatican felt compelled on Tuesday to deny that Pope Francis had "abolished sin", after a well-known Italian intellectual wrote that he had effectively done so through his words and gestures.

What an All-Inclusive Evening of a Lifetime looks like. (There's also an open bar.)

Women in shimmery dresses summoned from the depths of vast stock-photo databases, old yellow checker cabs, and unlimited confetti are apparently just a few of the things that are included in the chain's $375 per-head party, going down tomorrow night between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. at its two Times Square-area locations. "Non-stop fun!" is also part of the package, naturally, along with several thousand pounds of food cooked by "some fairly sophisticated culinary people." [NYP via Daily Intelligencer]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: festive riblets, applebee's, new year's eve, non-stop fun, open bar, riblets, the chain gang

Nachos, not bullets.

Management at the recently opened Woodbridge, Virginia, location of country superstar Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill tacked a piece of paper reading "NO GUNS PERMITTED" on its front door, which has — perhaps predictably — blown up into a big news story, deeply polarizing all kinds of people who will never ever eat at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill: For every Facebook post lauding the bar's "family friendly" decision, there's a somberly worded protest note invoking the Constitution. "Since you folks dislike the right to bear arms," one reads, "I will DEFINITELY not be going to your restaurant."

Like many other places, it's legal in Virginia to carry registered and permitted firearms, but ingesting alcohol and carrying guns at the same time is not. In Woodbridge, local laws allow business owners to set house policies.

Management says the ban is only in place for the purposes of insurance, not as any affront to personal freedom or as a political message, and the restaurant seemingly wants to get back to serving jumbo portions of nachos topped with three kinds of meat and all the fixins'. "While we understand and respect every person's right to own and bear arms," it explains, "we at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, with guidance from the State of Virginia and based on insurance regulations, have adopted a no weapons policy. It is our desire to provided a safe, enjoyable and entertaining experience for our patrons and staff." Woodbridge residents opposed to the policy, in the meantime, may do better to travel an hour north to Leesburg, where jambalaya is 10 percent off on Wednesdays for anyone who brandishes their Saturday Night Special.

Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill [Facebook]
No firearms policy at Toby Keith restaurant draws ire of gun rights advocates [Fox News]
Earlier: 10 More Discounts the Cajun Experience Can Give Its Gun-Toting Customers

Read more posts by Belle Cushing

Filed Under: leave virginia alone, guns, i love this bar and grill, open carry, toby keith, virginia

This one caught my eye as quite a bit unusual. It is spirits with added mushrooms, sea lettuce, parsnips and other root vegetables. It is Durt-brand spirits, produced by Melkon Khosrovian, and is not to be confused with Root-brand spirits. I don’t see much on the label or on the web to suggest what it tastes like, or how it is to be used, except where the label says “packed full of the umami flavor.” Wikipedia explains that umami is one of the five basic tastes along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, and “can be described as a pleasant ‘brothy’ or ‘meaty’ taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue.”

Not to be left out of the umami-fest, here is a beer with plenty of umami, and a wine/sake “bursting with umami goodness.”

Related Posts:

• Beer with Garlic (0)
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Bitches get stuff done. 

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We previously posted a cool Super Mario Cat Complex Etsy user CatastrophiCreations put together. It was a subdued piece that worked a little nerdy fun into your home decor. Redditor collinferal took inspiration from that creation and decided to go a more traditional route when building one for his friends’ cats. Take a look at how it was done.

(via Kotaku)

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My disdain for champagne-based cocktails was turning me into the Ebenezer Scrooge of New Year's Eve. Luckily, that's around the time I discovered the Old Cuban, a drink created at the famed Pegu Club in New York City by owner-bartender Audrey Saunders. Conceived of as an upscale variation on the Mojito, the Old Cuban (a mix of rum, bitters, simple syrup and lime juice topped with champagne) is a versatile drink—i.e., the rum and champagne combination works as well in the summer as it does on December 31. Even more impressive: The dash of Angostura bitters brings a lot of Christmas spice to the party, allowing the Old Cuban to not only ably straddle two seasons but also two major holidays.

The Buddhist rule re Worrying is simple: don’t.

stupidfuckingquestions:

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year discussing the fact that Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ is the biggest selling song of 2013 in the UK

You may not know the world’s distinctive breezes by their names, like the Oe or the Witch of November, but chances are, if they blew your way, you’d remember them.

excusemybrain:

Best response to the “are you on your period?” question goes to Leonardo DiCaprio

Classic video games from the 1970s and 1980s have been put online by the Internet Archive and can be played within a web browser.

UK owners of 115,000 works don't pay inheritance or capital gains tax if they allow public access, but viewing proves difficult

A little-known art and heritage tax exemption scheme designed to allow the British public access to a treasure trove of privately owned works has been described as a racket in urgent need of reform.

More than 115,000 works, from Roman busts to Titians and important Pre-Raphaelites, are listed on a rarely publicised database operated by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Their owners are exempted from paying inheritance tax or capital gains tax on them as long as they allow public access.

But a Guardian survey of the scheme reveals that it is patchy at best. While no owner refused access to the works, it was far from easy to make arrangements: out of 30 cases that were contacted, only five appointments to view were made.

Labour's shadow culture minister Helen Goodman said she was not surprised by the results and had been discussing the scheme with museum leaders. "There is a consensus that we do need to do more to extend access to these objects. It's a bit of a racket, really. We need to strengthen the obligations on people."

Under the scheme, inheritance tax can be deferred if an owner commits to keeping significant works in the country and makes them available for the public to view.

Goodman said the last condition "is an incredibly small obligation", with owners having to make an item available for no more than 28 days a year.

"You could open your house and make it genuinely available for 28 days, but people don't do that," said Goodman. "It is not done on a systematic basis, so that's why I think – and I know – that what people do is they either respond to one-off requests or they say: 'Oh yes, you can come and look at it on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from November to February'.

"They make the times really awkward to keep people out. The scheme is not working, the obligations are not strong enough and we need to strengthen the obligations."

The scheme has cost the public purse more than £1bn in lost revenue in the last few decades. In a series of parliamentary questions, Goodman has discovered the scheme is costing £30m a year in lost inheritance tax, or around £900m over the 30 years it has been running. Prior to 1975, nearly 45,000 items were exempted from what was then estate duty; the Treasury estimates that cost at £250m. The total figure is £1.15bn.

"We have all paid for it because it's tax foregone," said Goodman. "We're talking abut 115,000 items, worth £1bn, which are not being seen by the public. That's a hell of a lot. I was completely taken aback by it."

The database can be found on the HMRC website in the tax-exempt heritage assets section. The search facility allows interested would-be viewers to type in, for example, Van Dyck, and see 203 items – mostly "school of" and "after Van Dyck", but also nearly 50 works by or attributed to him.

Type in Rossetti and eight works come up, although the listings contain inaccuracies. They list an 1867 work A Christmas Carol as being: "On loan to the Lady Leverhulme [sic] Gallery, Port Sunlight, Merseyside for 150 days once every 5 years. Currently on loan there."

In fact the painting was on long-term loan at Lady Lever – its correct name – gallery from 2001 until September this year. It was sold at Sotheby's for £4.5m earlier this month.

The accessibility survey reveals more holes in the scheme. On 21 occasions reporters from the Guardian left details for owners or their representatives to respond, but they did not.

Others who did respond made it difficult for the works of art to be viewed. "You will need to send me a written request to the address below and provide me with a certified copy of either your passport's photo page or your photographic driving licence," said the representative of one owner.

Many items were in storage at addresses other than those listed on the HMRC website, and some had even been misplaced altogether.

One man listed as a contact on the HMRC website for a painting said he did not know which of his clients owned it and told the Guardian reporters to look for the owner themselves.

Another was completely unfamiliar with the piece of furniture being enquired about and said the business listed as the owner on the HMRC website had been taken over.

Another agent acting for a family that owns an engraving by Benjamin Smith had not realised he was listed on the website as a contact.

No one contacted by the Guardian refused access, although there were awkward obstacles. The owner of a 19th-century harvest scene suggested the request to view the work could be "fronting up a burglary parade", although he did give an email address and said a viewing might be possible in the new year.

It was not all negative. The owner of three 18th-century aristocratic portraits, including one of Lady Newport and one of Anne Catherine Ward, was very helpful, although she asked to remain anonymous.

"I get several calls a year, but it's variable," she said. "It depends on who's doing what kind of research. I hear mostly from graduate researchers and museums; people who are doing their own family histories, as well.

"There isn't museum space in the UK for all these things. They're cared for. I give all the information I've got and they give me information back. For me, it's a joy – a great voyage through a particular period of history."

Goodman said she would like the scheme to function better and is proposing that the number of days on which owners are obliged to allow access should be doubled to 56. She also believes there should be a requirement to lend works to public museums and galleries, should they be wanted. Photographs of all the works ought to be put online through the British Library's digital space project, she added.

"The scope and the possibilities, when I talk to the professionals, seems to grow, really. This is hidden art and we're trying to open it up to the public."

A Chinese icebreaker is expected a reach a Russian ship trapped in thick Antarctic ice with 74 people on board by Saturday, Russia said.

skeletyson:

professor-whom:

family-of-poops:

lifeofadisneykid:

thewritingfortress:

fuckyeahassortedstuff:

FOR KIDS

OMG I GET THE REFERENCE

I DON’T SO PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME.

Oedipus killed his own father then married and had children with his mother

and after he found out it was his mom he stabbed his own eyes

The ancient Greeks would think Breaking Bad was a bedtime story for babies.

Jewish Currents has a great piece, The Origins and Meanings of Ashkenazic Last Names. From 1787 until 1844, Eastern European Jews were forced to abandon an age old tradition of naming people after their father or mother, ala 'Jason ben (son of) Calvin' and adopt a more easily tracked and taxed last name. The construction and meaning of those names has always fascinated me.

From Jewish Currents:

In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted and educated (in that order of importance). For centuries, Jewish communal leaders were responsible for collecting taxes from the Jewish population on behalf of the government, and in some cases were responsible for filling draft quotas. Education was traditionally an internal Jewish affair.

Until this period, Jewish names generally changed with every generation. For example, if Moses son of Mendel (Moyshe ben Mendel) married Sarah daughter of Rebecca (Sora bas Rifke), had a boy and named it Samuel (Shmuel), the child would be called Shmuel ben Moyshe. If they had a girl and named her Feygele, she would be called Feygele bas Sora.

Jews distrusted the authorities and resisted the new requirement. Although they were forced to take last names, at first they were used only for official purposes. Among themselves, they kept their traditional names. Over time, Jews accepted the new last names, which were essential as Jews sought to advance within the broader society and as the shtetles were transformed or Jews left them for big cities.

djempirical

#creationmuseum

Original Source