Miscellanea #6
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Thu, 2004-04-22 00:00.
(Miscellanea: A collection of miscellaneous matters; matters of various kinds (Webster’s 1913). Noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over, sans commentary.)
Local culture serves as more than just color for tourists
When you strip people’s homes of their distinctiveness — either by homogenizing them or by destroying them environmentally — you undermine not only their culture but also social cohesion. Culture, at its best, can be one of the most powerful forms of voluntary restraint in human behavior. It gives life structure and meaning. It sanctions a whole set of habits, behavioral constraints, expectations and traditions that pattern life and hold societies together at their core…. (Vagablogging.net - Rolf Potts)
Difference
He says he can’t heal because he can’t feel time…. (Oblivio)
Turkmen diggers find ancient temple of water
Archaeologists have made a sensational discovery in Turkmenistan: a temple of water dating back to the third millennium BCE…. (Stone Pages Archaeo News)
Internet Archives Feature Films Free
Internet Archives Feature Films is a collection of a hundred features (mostly from the Classic epoch 1932-1949) which can be downoaded, free-of-charge…. (Cinema Minima)
Neil Gaiman and SimCity
Incidentally, the essay I wrote in the SIMCITY 2000 game is now up in the exclusives section of NeilGaiman.com. I’m not sure any longer whether it was written just before or just after Sandman 51, which talks about the dreams of cities. (Neil Gaiman’s Journal)
Our Man In Black
A recent Slate article covers the onerous responsibilites of the Planetary Protection Officer. He is tasked with preventing contamination of earth by alien organisms, and ‘forward contamination’ (contamination of other planets with earth germs). (Slashdot)
Ancient document causes trouble in Iran
Artefact 90920 is wending its way from the British Museum to Tehran, where it has fired debate between those who see it as a national icon and others who say it represents all that is worst about Iran’s pre-Islamic past. (ɔɅɓɃÉ√É«ÉÀ)