Read-Think-b4-u-Write

The Star Map from Jordan shows the sky at the center of the Universe. I just love maps. They bring back cherished memories or they remind me of trips I'd like to take. Some are abstract concepts depicting places of which I can only dream others are concrete places I can't imagine. There is a new project spearheaded at the University of Chicago  that purports to include maps from all corners of the earth and beyond--even to the spirit world. According to Open Culture , "The project includes non-Western and pre-medieval maps, presenting itself as 'the first serious global attempt' to describe the cartography of African, American, Arctic, Asian, Australian, and Pacific societies as well as European. In so doing, it illuminates many of those 'obscure origins.'" The heart of the world Old maps show us how people used to view their surroundings, which some may find funny or disturbing, while modern maps represent what is real or true. The ancient...

I know there has been a lot of news about the pitfalls of the internet and social media lately, but digital art collections is one thing that the internet is good for . The Boston Public library has digitized dozens of M.C. Escher prints and put them online for everyone to see. If you don't know the works of M.C. Escher he definitely inspired the grand staircase in the Harry Potter films. Escher was born in the Netherlands in 1898 and he produced many prints featured on album covers and films. His works encourages viewers to get lost in his art's myriad three dimensional spaces where the gravity connection doesn't seem to work they way science says it should. Escher was interested in the sciences, but his " fame spread outside of the sciences in part through the interests of the counterculture. He may have shrugged off mystical and psychedelic readings of his prints, but he had an innate penchant for the marvelously weird." So Escher started as a pop ar...

It seems advertising has been around as long as people. I can imagine ads scrawled into the walls of Pompeii for the "Best Sandals" or "Fish Sauce." Commercials are all over television, and with its decline, they are all over YouTube and even in movie theaters, but what did they look like in your grandparents day? Let's take a look at a few. Got a headache? How about the latest cure, Opium (with 46 percent alcohol). That will knock it out for good, and if you take too much, it will knock you out permanently. " Opium was widely available in the 19th century, sold by barbers, tobacconists and stationers. Writers including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Charles Dickens all used the drug, for pleasure or as medicine." There are many Victorian novels that feature the evils of the opium den. Sherlock Holmes, that inveterate purveyor of cocaine, often had to rescue recalcitrant clients from the opium dens found in the China...

How many people are there in China? What's the GDP of China? How does Chinese education compare to other nations? What are the crime statistics in China? These are just some of the questions that James Palmer at Foreign Policy examined in a recent article. Take GDP (gross domestic product) for example. Officials in the Chinese government inflate these numbers because their status, or success rate, is measured by this number. Complicating this further is the fact that the people who report the numbers are the people who benefit career-wise from these numbers. Even harder to judge are Chinese economic recovery numbers because bad economic figures are often glossed over before a recovery occurs. What about population? China doesn't even know what their population is because "rural counties are incentivized to overreport population to receive more benefits from higher levels of government, while city districts report lower figures to hit population control targets....

The first time you write a rhetorical analysis, it may seem almost impossible, but there are some basic steps to help make it a bit easier. Take a moment and watch the video. It has lots of good tips and strategies for writing a rhetorical analysis. When you start your essay, you need to introduce the writer, subject, audience purpose, and occasion just like you would any time you introduce one person to another. For example, if you were at a BBQ you might say something like, "This is Professor David Whalen, Provost of Hillsdale College, a Liberal Arts school, and we were just talking about an online essay he wrote in response to G.W. Thielman. Thielman published an article stating that colleges and universities should favor STEM education over the Liberal Arts. If you are someone who believes in the Liberal Arts, or in STEM, or anyone who ever has an argument, you would probably be interested in what he has to say." That statement introduces the writer, subject, audi...

Have you ever thought about where the ancients went on vacation? Jude Knight over at English Historical Fiction has and its surprising where the first tourists with the time and money went for fun and adventure. People began touring as soon as there was some place to go. From Egypt to Mesopotamia people began to travel just to see new things like the latest pyramid or temple. Romans set up beach resorts, the rich headed up to the cooler northern climes to escape the summer heat and everyone traveled to the big city to see the sights. In Medieval Europe, pilgrimages became all the rage and these took on a religious fervor and devotion. Everyone wanted to see the holy land - and these trips could last for months, if not years. Accommodations could be found at local inns or abbeys and, rumor has it, that the Knights Templar acted as a security force for devout travellers. Once in Jerusalem you could purchase a holy relic or even something more permanent, like a tattoo. Rozzou...

Google's photo editing software 'Nik' is now free to download . "Previously priced at $149, the now-free software gives users access to 'seven desktop plug-ins that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities -- from filter applications that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects,'" says Open Culture . I'm sure you're wondering what photo editing has to do with this blog, well, maybe not, because you should know how much I like visuals, and since we often write about visuals I wanted to offer you the Nik program if/when you need to do a comparative analysis. When looking at these two separate photos, what are the subjects of these iconic scenes? Sex, adventure, science fiction, body image? If you had to choose a second photo in order to do a comparison, what subject would you choose? Who or what would you compare with Marilyn Monroe? What kind of a photo would you look for to compare with ET against a ...