The barbican at Mickelgate was pulled down in the 1800s but I made a rough approximation from other sources. #medievalyork #blender3d
The posthuman liberal arts
As those familiar with the liberal arts know, in antiquity there were seven such arts. Three formed the trivium of the humanities: rhetoric, grammar, and logic. And four formed the quadrivium of the sciences: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The assertion was this was the knowledge one required to participate as a citizen, as a…
I’ve roughed out earthen embankments for the city walls. I know there was at some point a moat but this is more than enough accuracy for now. #blender3d #medievalyork #mysteryplay
I’ve roughed out earthen embankments for the city walls. I know there was at some point a moat but this is more than enough accuracy for now. #blender3d #medievalyork #mysteryplay
Your first test layout of medieval city streets will be your worst. #blender3d #medievalyork Background details for a #mysteryplay project.
Your first test layout of medieval city streets will be your worst. #blender3d #medievalyork Background details for a #mysteryplay project.
Your second attempt at modeling #medievalyork fortifications in #blender3d will be better than your first from just two weeks ago.
Your second attempt at modeling #medievalyork fortifications in #blender3d will be better than your first from just two weeks ago.
Today’s #blender3d modeling, inspired by a satellite photo courtesy of Google Maps. (I’m not aiming for architectural perfection, but with each try I’m definitely leveling up.) #medievalyork #mysteryplay
Today’s #blender3d modeling, inspired by a satellite photo courtesy of Google Maps. (I’m not aiming for architectural perfection, but with each try I’m definitely leveling up.) #medievalyork #mysteryplay
At the Johnstown Flood Museum. (May 31 1889 the neglected dam at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club broke, unleashing devastation on the valley below.)
At the Johnstown Flood Museum. (May 31 1889 the neglected dam at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club broke, unleashing devastation on the valley below.)
Modular low-poly medieval buildings. Ground-level storefronts have more detail than the upper storey windows and interiors. #blender3d #medievalyork #mysteryplay #gettingthere
Modular low-poly medieval buildings. Ground-level storefronts have more detail than the upper storey windows and interiors. #blender3d #medievalyork #mysteryplay #gettingthere My second try is definitely better than my first from a few weeks ago. I’ve told myself at this stage, no props! No barrels or crates or hay bales, wall sconces, procedurally-generated random street…
I’m still teaching journalism and my usual courses, but after 21 years I’ve stepped aside as faculty adviser to the Setonian. The student voice of the hill (founded in 1919) will continue to evolve.
I’m still teaching journalism and my usual courses, but after 21 years I’ve stepped aside as faculty adviser to the Setonian. The student voice of the hill (founded in 1919) will continue to evolve. First published in 1919, The Setonian not only predates SHU’s journalism major, it also predates the majestic London planetrees that the…
Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Rescued From the River Thames
A little over a century ago, the printer T.J. Cobden-Sanderson took it upon himself to surreptitiously dump every piece of this carefully honed metal letterpress type into the river. It was an act of retribution against his business partner, Emery Walker, whom he believed was attempting to swindle him. With its extra-wide capital letters, diamond shaped punctuation and…
A quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier with my history-loving son.
A quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier with my history-loving son.
Shakespeare-themed Math Puzzles
I didn’t know I had a Shakespeare-themed-match itch to scratch. 1. Hours and hours How many hours are there in a week? And when you’ve worked it out, can you now figure out how Shakespeare expressed that number in words? He did it using only 15 letters, true to his line “Brevity is the soul…
A surprising detail in bank records helped a historian bust a longstanding myth about Irish immigrants
A scholar uses bank records to track the surge of Murphys and Sullivans and Kellys who emigrated to New York after the ~1850 Irish potato Famine, and learns that about 40% who started out as day laborers ended as business owners and professionals, and many who lived in the poor Irish neighborhoods had enough money…
Simulated iceberg, preserved artifacts and re-creations at the Titanic installation.
How the printing press changed “you”: when reading changed, so did writing
This was before the printing press, so books were copied by hand on parchment, which made them expensive and rare. Most people didn’t read much, especially for pleasure. Instead, they listened to books at group readings for entertainment. Pero López de Ayala wrote at the end of the 14th century, “It also pleased me to…
Traces of Scribes
Book historian Irene O’Daly notes that the passage crossed out in a medieval manuscript matches where the scribe accidentally turned two pages while copying out a printed book, showing that manuscript culture continued to exist even after the printing press was introduced. (It’s the third of three examples she uses.)
Jack Rollins-Frosty the Snowman
I voiced Jack Rollins, writer of the popular holiday songs “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Peter Cottontail,” in another “Whispers of the Past” documentary focused on Scottdale, Pa.
After decades lost, Star Trek’s original Enterprise model may have been found
Long before sci-fi shows created their visuals with computer-generated images, sfx crews filmed detailed models against a plain. Wide-angle close-up lenses, softly glowing internal lights, and slow camera motion give the impression of great size. The large 11-foot model of the original Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise is on display in the gift shop at the …
Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
Translating the markings from base 60 – the counting system used by ancient Babylonians – showed that these ancient mathematicians were aware of the Pythagorean theorem (not called that, of course) as well as other advanced mathematical concepts. “The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and…