Tangled Mind

I'm sure those of my readers with actual Employment will not be at all interested in the Ptak Science Books blog (syndicated on LJ as ptak_science). Others, especially those curious individuals who are unable to resist the urge to click an intriguing link, will be drawn into a fully-illustrated seething maelstrom of SHEER FASCINATION.

I know I was.

I think I happened upon the site about four hours ago. In those four hours I have read about WWII infographics; Beethoven's last and weirdest composition; the use of blank space in early woodcuts; manuals for how to be a well-behaved Girl; salvage rates for bullets in Europe, 1944; how rare it is to see a non-symbolic view beyond a window in Renaissance art; plaques designed to convey information to whoever's reading them 10,000 years from now; future hair trends as shown on classic pulp SF covers ...

The illustrations (mostly scanned, many of them available via the blog's shop) are truly inspirational. So are the commentaries.

Here's Mr Ptak's overview of W. Clarissa Christeen’s The Universal Color Keyboard for Body Building

...what Ms. Christeen absolutely does have going for her is her artwork, which is, in its own special way, quite sensational...Her philosophy is at the very least odd, though it may spring from a synestheisa. Or not.

Go! read!

Large Hadron Collider rap, performed by science writer Kate McAlpine and some CERN employees who prefer to remain anonymous.

The LHC is to be switched on next week -- Sept 10. The end of the world as we know it? On August 26, 2008, suit was filed against CERN in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg alleging the Large Hadron Collider poses grave risks for the safety of the 27 member states of the European Union and their citizens. The request for an injunction was summarily rejected on the 29th, leaving the case that it violates the right to life still pending.

I feel fine ...