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Miscellany
Sep. 15th, 2010 09:40 pmOne of the things that's always caught my imagination about the Zulus during their glory days are the remarkable names they gave to their regiments: uThulwana, "The Dustcloud Makers"; uDloko, "The Maniacs"; and the remarkably warlike (both in name and deed) inGobamakosi, "The Humblers of Kings". Then there's the abaQulusi - "Those Who Display their Buttocks". I have to suppose it means showing your butt to the enemy as a taunt. Still, it amuses my inner 9 year old. For all that they had a risible name, they nonetheless enjoyed a fearsome reputation on the battlefield.
*****
A remarkable collection of period photographs of St. Pierre on Martinique. Many are of the ruins after the eruption, but there are also a fair number from beforehand, showing scenes of daily life. This is a disaster that's fascinated me since I was a child, one I have a reasonable amount of shelf space dedicated to, and most of these I've never seen before.
Lots of stereo views here too. It oughtn't to be that hard to make a stereopticon, print them out, and view them properly.
And you can still buy stereopticons, apparently. You can even still get a proper Holmes Stereoscope as was used during the Civil War.
*****
Sometimes there's a very small boundary between stupid and ingenious. I suspect there's a reason putting a saxophone mouthpiece on a length of coil spring never caught on, but it looks absolutely 1940s Big Band. They tended to invent instruments if they wanted a particular sound back then. I can easily see Spike Jones using one of these.
*****
A remarkable collection of period photographs of St. Pierre on Martinique. Many are of the ruins after the eruption, but there are also a fair number from beforehand, showing scenes of daily life. This is a disaster that's fascinated me since I was a child, one I have a reasonable amount of shelf space dedicated to, and most of these I've never seen before.
Lots of stereo views here too. It oughtn't to be that hard to make a stereopticon, print them out, and view them properly.
And you can still buy stereopticons, apparently. You can even still get a proper Holmes Stereoscope as was used during the Civil War.
*****
Sometimes there's a very small boundary between stupid and ingenious. I suspect there's a reason putting a saxophone mouthpiece on a length of coil spring never caught on, but it looks absolutely 1940s Big Band. They tended to invent instruments if they wanted a particular sound back then. I can easily see Spike Jones using one of these.
