The Subdivide

Image source: Wikimedia   Here is a beautifully written article at publicbooks.org by Carolyn Dever on the soul of the British Library in the wake of the Halloween cyberattack. "...if I wanted to request to see a specific book, I could look it up electronically, and then ask the librarians to find the physical copy. Until Halloween, 2023, that is. How ironic that the most quaintly analog form of research possible, using physical books in a physical library, has been devastated by the hijacking of a  digital  system. I am experiencing this irony as especially bitter this morning, having arrived at desk 1086 with my list of tasks, hoping against hope that the crisis had resolved. It hadn’t."

From Bibliotheque Nationale de France : Catlin's notes of eight years travels and residence in Europe, with his North American Indian collection   : George Catlin (1796-1872). London: the author, 1848 - BnF - Philosophy, history, human sciences, 8-P-426 (2)

From CTV News , Liudmyla Pass, Ukranian watchmaker has repaired the post office clock tower in Carbonear, Newfoundland, that has been sitting rusty and dormant for decades. One day she grabbed a tool box, climbed the stairs, and started scrubbing all the rust that had accumulated from the coastal town's salty air. She then set about resetting the machinery. In four hours, she had the clock tower running again.

Image source: Library of Congress Image here: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017777937/ Title: Shadows on tent. Quarter Circle 'U' Ranch, Montana Creator(s):  Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985 , photographer Date Created/Published: 1939 June. Medium: 1 negative : safety ; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches or smaller. Reproduction Number: LC-USF34-027679-D (b&w film neg.) Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/071_fsab.html) Call Number: LC-USF34- 027679-D [P&P] LOT 164 (corresponding photographic print) Other Number: G 5445 Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

  Image source: Wikimedia Commons     France's parliament has passed a bill that will allows for human remains currently stored in their museums to be returned to their countries of origin for "funeral purposes, " according to Radio France Internationale . The bill comes after years of debate over the ethics of keeping body parts in French cultural inventories.      According to RFI's article:  The bill is to facilitate France returning the human remains of Aboriginals to Australia, as well as the skeleton of an indigenous Tehuelche chief to his descendants in Argentina. Madagascar has asked for three skulls of its Sakalava people to be brought home, including one it says is that of a king decapitated in 1897 during an attack by French colonial forces to quash a rebellion. Several hundred French institutions, including museums and universities, are thought to have human remains in their collections.  

Image source: Wikimedia Commons     Via CTVNews , when archaeological curator Sara Rivers Cofield bought a Victorian dress in 2013 for $100 she discovered a secret pocket with two handwritten codes inside. For example, one line read, “Smith, nostrum, linnet, get, none, event.”          Rivers Cofield published the codes on her blog , and codes got picked up by crypto-historian Klaus Schmeh who posted them on his blog as one of the top 50 unsolved codes and ciphers . The codes remained unsolved for those ten years. Until now.     Wayne Chan, a research computer analyst at the University of Manitoba and lifelong cryptology enthusiast, cracked the code in 2022. The story has been published after his breakthrough was finished peer review.      Chan recognized it to be a telegraphic code due the word usage and the era of the dress. At first he assumed it was Slater's Code , a common telegraphic code of the time. But he wasn't g...

Image source: wikicommons   Whether you're into teen athletes, serial killers, kittens, or cyborgs, they say there's a manga for everyone. And the Japanese government wants to help you find your brand of manga at your local library. The Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government is producing lists of manga for the benefit of overseas library collections,  according to crunchyroll . The goal is to increase awareness of Japanese manga.  From next year onward, lists summarizing the synopsis and characteristics of expression of each work will be prepared for the libraries in U.S., France, and Spain, where interest in Japanese manga is high (more countries are planned to be added). The lists will be marketed to library professionals and introduced on a special website.

Image source: Michigan Radio I'm having a brewski on a Friday evening and browsing the Library of Congress website. There's so many eye-opening old recordings that are fascinating.  And of course I'm clicking on random Alan Lomax collections . Alan Lomax is definitely a hero of mine. I live in Alberta where there's a lot of mixed feelings around the oil industry. So this track stood out to me: Don't judge a man by the clothes that he wears; Boring for Oil . It's worth listening to all the way through. There's tape glitches for an extra electronic element, and the oil song is obviously a dirty song that gets cut short for whatever reason.

Image: Sketch of Tangled Garden (not 1916) not by J.E.H. MacDonald Image source: Vancouver Art Gallery Even when the 10 works were donated in 2015 there was doubt as to whether they were actually by Group of Seven founder J.E.H. MacDonald . Now testing has been completed and the Vancouver Art Gallery has admitted they are fakes .  Kudos to them though.  Me, an idiot, upon realizing the paintings are fakes: We should get them off the wall immediately! Vancouver Art Gallery upon realizing the paintings are fakes: This is a whole new exhibit!

Image source: Video Game History Foundation Some time circa 1989, a 17 year old Dylan Cuthbert was hired as a programmer at Argonaut Software in Edgware, North London. Having some experience in programming 8-bit machines, he was given the daunting goal of developing a 3D engine for the 8-bit, monochrome Game Boy. The result was a demo called Eclipse, that would go on to be a game called X - one of the "most important games in videogame history." The full story is at Video Game History Foundation : "When Michelle emailed the Video Game History Foundation with images of pre-release game cartridges, tapes, and extensive documentation, Frank Cifaldi and Kelsey Lewin wasted no time in getting on a plane. When they arrived at Mark’s home, they found a treasure trove. They set to work scanning physical documents, digitizing tapes, and dumping the contents of the various cartridges. They spent days sorting through the collection, when suddenly a random unmarked Game ...