The Cowboy Cartographer Who Loved California - Atlas Obscura

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/jo-mora-california-maps

The Poetry of Victorian Science; Cosmic diagrams; Bon-mots; Camo fish; Laughter, and more...

Vol.8 #14
 

New Essay

The Poetry of Victorian Science

In 1848, the mineralogist, pioneer of photography, and amateur poet Robert Hunt published The Poetry of Science, a hugely ambitious work that aimed to offer a survey of scientific knowledge while also communicating the metaphysical, moral, and aesthetic aspects of science to the general reader. Gregory Tate explores what the book can teach us about Victorian desires to reconcile the languages of poetry and science.

Read More »
 

   

New Collection Items

 

Cosmography Manuscript (12th Century)

Wonderful series of medieval cosmographic diagrams and schemas sourced from a late 12th-century English manuscript.

Read More »
  
 

Bon-Mots of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century (1897)

Compilation of some of the best conversational witticisms of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, Oscar Wilde, and Lord Byron, and many lesser known wits.

Read More »
 
 

The Laughing Song (1904)

In this novelty recording by the Norwegian actor Henry Klauser, a mournful refrain gradually gives way to laughter.

Read More »
 
 

Flatfish Camouflage Experiments (1911)

Photographs from a series of experiments in which various types of flounder through their paces as regards camouflage ability.

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From our Friends at JSTOR Daily...

 

How to Create a Human Being

The Book of Stones, a central alchemical text, contained formulae with the power to create living tissue from ordinary matter, supposedly.

Read More »


 

Beautiful prints to buy in our online shop!

Get the PDR on your walls

We've teamed up with a host of excellent print partners to offer for sale on the site hundreds of museum quality prints of an ever-expanding selection of favourites from the PDR archives. All custom made to the highest standards. All profits going back into the project.

Begin exploring »


 

Our collection of recommended books

A hand-picked selection of recently published books (within the last 15 years or so), all of which in someway tap into the tastes and concerns of The Public Domain Review. There are many beautiful facsimiles and reproductions of works we've featured on the site, as well as fascinating books on a wide range of historical periods and themes, including many penned by our very own essay contributors.

Start exploring here »

 

The Newsletter will be taking a little break over August, but we'll be back with bells on come September!

 
 

Join us at our other homes

And now also on...

 

A Human Response To "A Watershed Moment In Computing" Being Shoved Down Our Throats...

In reality, I find mobile super useful for light-duty computing, which amounts to about 80% of my computing needs. For reading, or watching informational video, or listening to audio, or voice communication. Mobile excels in SMS text, which is the only relatively brief and un-cluttered means of networked communicatons left thanks to capitalism driving advertising everywhere else online. However, as soon as information becomes complex, or writing requires length and eloquence, there is no substitute for a full keyboard and large screen. Certainly mobile apps can't compete with full desktop programs in terms of flexibility and deep functionality. Mobile excels at the brief, portable, and shallow. Desktop excels at intricate, detailed, rich, and comfortable. They are different things. Maybe, if you could get a PC to recognize cursive handwriting, you might take a stab at replacing keyboards. Better speech recognition might do some, but written communication comes from a different part of the brain. Vocal people do not understand textual people and our need for reading and writing. Forcing an end to textuality would silence many brilliant voices. Handwriting recognition, however, could also be a security feature. Handwriting is unique to an individual. It's like a literary fingerprint. In the end, I find a forced merger of desktop and mobile to be ignorant of the variety of purpose humans have in the computing they do. Having the same data accessible across device platforms, however, is entirely useful.


https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/computing-watershed-moment-coming/

Visualized Audio - MWGIC-EP-00045: Bifrost - The Rainbow Bridge To The Heavens - We Can Build It!

So how do we make access to space rapid, abundant, high-volume, and low-cost? Long-term stable investment in a method we can develop with technologies we currently have. No miracle drives or materials required. Just willpower and cooperation.

Show notes:



Scientists crack mystery of ancient Roman concrete's 2,000-year life span - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/04/ancient-romans-made-worlds-most-durable-concrete-we-might-use-it-to-stop-rising-seas/



Ask Tom Why: What is the highest recorded height for a cumulonimbus cloud? - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-16/news/ct-wea-0617-asktom-20100616_1_thunderstorms-tops-cumulonimbus-cloud



Jet stream - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

32k - 52k ft

Flight altitude record - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record

Video & Audio - MWGIC-EP-00040: Art Bell The Original Voice Of The American Night

Show Notes:



Art Bell was an original. He opened up the night for me, brought subjects I'd only dreamt of being discussed on the US Airwaves to life. He's the reason I've read many of the things I've read, and why I chose this podcast/videocast topic structure. Art Bell passed away on Friday the 13th of April at the age of 72. This is my tribute to an American original. Show notes include links to multiple archives of Art's broadcasts.



Visuals created using Plane9. (www.plane9.com)



Audio podcast version of this episode:



https://archive.org/download/MWGICEP00040ArtBellOriginalVoiceOfTheAmericanNight/MWGIC-EP-00040_Art-Bell-Original-Voice-Of-The-American-Night.mp3



Washington Post obituary for Art Bell:



Art Bell, mysterious narrator of the American nightscape, is dead at 72

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/obituaries/art-bell-mysterious-narrator-of-the-american-nightscape-is-dead-at-72/2018/04/14/b6f2b278-4015-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html





Art Bell radio archive links:



Watch "Art Bell Coast to Coast Paranormal Radio Archives" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3F4AFA713253C7BA



Watch "Art Bell Classic Show Archive" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD80gKrNSwFLjlLmA5bCqUk4GBWf7g-wJ



Archives Archives - Midnight in the Desert

http://midnightinthedesert.com/category/show/archives/



Somewhere in Time Archive -- Art Bell shows 1993-2002 | ArtBell

https://voat.co/v/ArtBell/976204



The Ultimate Art Bell on TuneIn Radio

https://tunein.com/radio/The-Ultimate-Art-Bell-s235205/





Good night and goodbye, Art Bell...



\\//_

Old-School Telecomm Cable Jacket Stripper

This is a classic telecommunications cable jacket stripper. It works perfectly on quad cable, Cat3-6 cable, and 16-pair. I've oened it since 1993. The 312 area code of the manufacturer tells me they were based in Chicago. #OldSchoolTools

Myt Coffee Life - The Percolator Story

Percolators were the norm prior to drip coffee makers being introduced in the early 70's. I was a pre-teen when that happened.

When I first started drinking coffee it was from drip pots with paper filters becsuse that's what everyone did.

Then we spent a weekend at my wife's cousin's beach house. There was an antique stove-top percolator exactly like my grandmother had when I was a little kid.

Antique Percolator

It had a clear knob on the lid, and the water would bubble up in there so you could see the color. When it got a nice deep brown, you took it off the stove. I used to watch it all the time.

I had time on my hands that day at the beach house. I made coffee the old-school way. The whole house smelled wonderfully of coffee. My wife came down the stairs saying how good it smelled. The coffee was strong snd flavorful.

I threw out my drip coffee pot as soon as we got home and went to the antique store online.




Then we saw a 12-cup Farberware Millennium coffee pot for sale in the kitchen department at Carson's. Electric, automatic, dropped from brewing to warming temp all by itself when the coffee was done. Won't burn the coffee unless it sits at least ten hours. All stainless steel. (The antique stove-top is aluminum)

Farberware Millenium Electric Percolator

 

I've never looked back.

They sold people on drips in the 70's because the paper filters would "filter out all the coffee impurities." It filtered out most of the flavor, too, and made the paper companies money. What did I know at the time? I was 10 and didn't drink coffee.

Well, I learned back in 1999 when I tried that percolator.

Dan