The crescent Moon, rising Sun and the planet Venus are all visible in this astonishing photograph taken by David Kaplan last Sunday in Eastern Switzerland.The lights from the Swiss village of Trübbach illuminate the clouds above the Mitterspitz.
You can view more of David Kaplan’s spectacular photos on his website.
All photographs © David Kaplan
While British and American libraries are up-against draconian budget cuts and outright closures, some forward thinking nations are actually investing in their intellectual futures with inspirational new libraries.
The Austrian National Library is planning a truly 21st century learning space with a fabulous new addition designed by architect Chris Precht. When it’s completed, the library’s rich collections will move from the 18th century Hofburg palace to a dramatic underground space.
Please note that today is Save Our Libraries day throughout the UK.
Images by prechteck
With various “bring your own chopsticks” movements making little headway against the 45 billion pairs of disposable wooden utensils used each year in China alone, a clever Chinese environmental group has brought a dramatic visible representation of the environmental impact to the streets of downtown Shanghai.
Though they can be made out of porcelain, plastic, lacquered bamboo, stainless steel, and even ivory or jade, chopsticks of the disposable wooden variety have long been the most-used utensil in China’s restaurants and other eateries. Some 25 million trees are required to feed the country’s annual chopstick demand, according to the China Environmental Protection Foundation, which notes that at this rate, “forest will disappear from China in 20 years.”
To raise awareness about the problem, the foundation went around Shanghai and gathered 30,000 pairs of used disposable chopsticks from the city’s restaurants. After washing and preparing them, they used the little wooden sticks to build a 15 foot-high tree in a busy district of the city — and then chopped it down. Volunteers were stationed by the fallen “tree” to hand out reusable chopsticks to curious passers-by, while a sign laid out the consumption statistics and warned: “Our trees are enough to feed us for only another 20 years.”
photo by Khalid Desouki
Literature has been caught up in the protests that have now entered their seventh day in Egypt. The annual Cairo book fair, due to have been held this week, has been abandoned, with many foreign exhibitors left stranded after failing to secure flights to take them out of the country.
The fair – the largest and oldest in the Arab world, usually attracting two million visitors and a host of authors – was due to be opened on Saturday 28 January by President Hosni Mubarak, who has hitherto raised the curtain each year. But with protesters demonstrating on the streets against his rule, and curfews imposed across the city, the event was summarily abandoned. The guest of honour, China, withdrew its delegation on the eve of the scheduled opening.
Salwa Gaspard, director of small independent publisher Saqi Books which has offices in both London and Beirut, said: “There was no official announcement by fair organisers that the event had been cancelled, but Mubarak did not come. Our representative from Beirut was lucky enough to find a plane home, but people are still there.”
Many other international visitors, including representatives from the UK’s Publishers Association and the Frankfurt book fair, cancelled their flights or left ahead of time last week.
While the political and humanitarian dimension is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, Gaspard noted in passing that some publishers would also take a major financial blow from the chaos. “Publishers send books ahead because, unlike at other fairs, at Cairo you sell directly to the public. It is a huge organisation and many people will have shipped big quantities … we are a bit pessimistic about getting the books back, and of course there is no insurance for this sort of situation.”
In the past, the Cairo book fair has been marred by accusations that books critical to the government or books with explicitly sexual themes have been banned. A number of titles presented by foreign publishers are said to have been seized by the Egyptian authorities, including works by Milan Kundera, Ibrahim Badi, Hanan al-Sheikh and Elias Khoury, with some booksellers arrested at the 2005 event.
If you’ve been put-off by ever rising museum entrance fees or have been unable to get to your favorite museum collections, our friends at Google have a fantastic new application just for you. The Google Art Project transcends budgets and geography allowing us to browse the collections of 17 world-class museums, including the Tate, the Uffizi, MOMA, the Metropolitan, the Hermitage ,Reina Sofia Madridand Versailles.
Utilizing Google Street View technology, you can view high resolution images, you can zoom-in on individual works of art or scan galleries. The image quality is amazing, at 7 billionpixels per image, allowing mindboggling close-ups. The project even allow the creation of a personalized virtual collection.
Google Art Project also incorporates valuable videos from museum curators, extensive information on the artists and artworks, and even easy to “wander” museum floor plans. Check out the Google tutorial.
This weekend the Bibliotheca Alexandrina director Ismail Seragelin wrote an open letter explaining that Egyptian young people were protecting the famous Alexandria library from looters.
“The world has witnessed an unprecedented popular action in the streets of Egypt. Led by Egypt’s youth, with their justified demands for more freedom, more democracy, lower prices for necessities and more employment opportunities. These youths demanded immediate and far-reaching changes. This was met by violent conflicts with the police, who were routed. The army was called in and was welcomed by the demonstrators, but initially their presence was more symbolic than active. Events deteriorated as lawless bands of thugs, and maybe agents provocateurs, appeared and looting began. The young people organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria. They are collaborating with the army. This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns.
The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters. I am there daily within the bounds of the curfew hours. However, the Library will be closed to the public for the next few days until the curfew is lifted and events unfold towards an end to the lawlessness and a move towards the resolution of the political issues that triggered the demonstrations.”
British artist Arthur Buxton is always searching for novel ways to explore art. His color-
study pie charts of well known Van Gogh works deconstruct the painter’s color use. Each one represents the color distribution in a famous Van Gogh painting. It’s up to you to determine which one.
“I know you lot are fans of new ways of visualizing data. As far as I know, I’ve come up with a novel way of looking at colour schemes. The pie charts are designed to be visually pleasing but also function as a colour trend visualization tool. They represent famous paintings, portraying the five most prominent colours in each as a percentage.”
Learn more about Arthur Buxton at his website.
Richard and Janet Monson purchased two boxes of old books at an auction last year. The boxes contained books of major historical relevance. The books are now part of Swedish collections in a university and the Swedish National Library in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Monsons
At the end of the sale in May last year a large collection of books came up for sale by Elizabeth Jaderborg of Lindsborg, Kansas.. Boxes of books were scattered under a shade tree in the yard and buyers could select a particular book, or they could choose an entire box of books. The Monsons, who were planning a trip to Sweden, bought a two-dollar box which they noticed happened to contain a Scandinavian travel book. Little did they know what other prizes were in that box.
After sorting through the box, the Monsons decided to bring some books which they did not want along to the Augustana Heritage Association “Gathering” that was being held in Rock Island, Illinois, the first weekend of June 2010. There they could make these books available to interested collectors, especially those that could read Swedish. And in fact some great connections were made between certain old books and those interested in those particular volumes.
Virginia P. Follstad, an author and professional librarian, saw on the “free” table Volume 7 of Blommer vid Vägen (Roadside Flowers), a series published in America for the Swedish emigrants that featured stories for children. Follstad checked to see which libraries held this series in their collections. She learned that the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm had earlier copies of the series in its collection, but not Volume 7. The Antiquarian Acquisition Librarian was pleased to accept this gift to add to the national collection.
In addition to the first book, another book caught the librarian’s eye, Nytt Bibliotek för Barn och Ungdom (The New Library for Children and Youth). This book is held by very few libraries, according to Follstad, and she found that this volume was missing from the Special Collections at the University of Minnesota. The curator was delighted to include it in the Dahllöf Collection of Swedish Americana housed at the University.
Isn’t it ironic that as mobs surround the Egyptian Museum in Cairo Dr. Zahi Hawass is again demanding that the Neues Museum in Berlin return the famous bust of Nefertiti. Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Council of Antiquities claims that Ludwig Borchardt, the German archeologist who pilfered the statute in 1912, stole the bust by disguising it with clay. Neues Museum officials claim that Nefertiti was “legally” imported and that it’s now too fragile to move.
Nefertiti is currently the centerpiece of the recently remodeled Neues Museum’s fantastic display of looted Egyptian artifacts even though Hawass’ predecessors have been trying to recover the piece since 1930.
Travel Between The Pages 