The Library of Utopia

Libraries are places... as much or even more so than books, their inhabitants. Places inhabited by books and their guardians, visited by readers and other seekers. Special places, real or imagined ~  Borges' Library of Babel, Eco's in the Name of the Rose, the lost Library of Alexandria (which lives in legend and on its own Facebook page, perhaps refound beneath the sea), the new one... others...

Google's ambitious book-scanning program is foundering in the courts. Now a Harvard-led group is launching its own sweeping effort to put our literary heritage online. Will the Ivy League succeed where Silicon Valley failed?

In his 1938 book World Brain, H.G. Wells imagined a time—not very distant, he believed—when every person on the planet would have easy access to "all that is thought or known." 

A Nation of Homesteaders

#Mountainair's "foundation narratives"  (the Anglo ones) and the 2003 Centennial subtext center on homesteading. Old ranching families date back to homesteading in territorial days. For an outstanding collection of historical pictures, 

Solomon Butcher Collection: Nebraska State Historical Society Here's a picture of homesteader Solomon Butcher's first house in Nebraska on land he received under the 1862 Homestead Act. His home was build in 1880 out of "Neb. Brick." The Homestead Act will be 150 years old this Sunday.

Chris Clayton reminds us that this is the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act, signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862.  Here's a little of a longer article that you should read:

The law was a culmination of decades of government initiatives for westward expansion to continue to fuel economic growth and agricultural production. The federal government had created land offices as far back as 1812 to sell or give away land, as well as assure rightful claims. 

Homesteaders were given a claim for 160 acres, which conformed to Thomas Jefferson's vision of a nation of small farmers. The country's third president had argued that 160 acres, a quarter section, was the ideal acreage for a small farmer....

A bill in 1860 that would have given away federal lands made it to President James Buchanan's desk. He vetoed it, fearing it would upset Southerners who were already on their way to leaving the Union.
Lincoln would sign the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The official bill was four pages long.

150th anniversary of the Homestead Act this Sunday & more in Weekend Roundup: A Nation of Homesteaders: catch the rest of the stories • Walmart profits are up • Postal Service moves ahead with plans to close processing centers

Shakespeare's 'co-author'

All's Well That Ends Well has another author as well as William Shakespeare, according to research from Oxford University academics.


Thomas Middleton has been revealed as the most likely co-author, according to in-depth analysis of the play's vocabulary, rhyming, style and grammar. Professor Laurie Maguire says the latest literary research shows groups of writers working together on plays.

BBC News - Shakespeare's 'co-author' named by Oxford scholars

Chinese move to their eco-city of the future

There will be ~ already is ~ a strip mall, almost suburb but scaled up (way up) sameness to the cities of the future. Science fiction as fact: will be utopia or dystopia, a cloud city with a dark, infernal underbelly populated by mole proles sorting trash. Some things change only in degree and that more cosmetic than qualitative. 


I am strangely reminded of David Wingrove's science fiction series, Kung Chuo or Middle Kingdom, and wonder more about what and how many levels lie beneath this city.

Tainjin, China (credit: Tianjin Municipal Government)

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City — the world’s largest eco-city — is an experimental model for how Chinese cities could develop and solve some of the enormous problems facing them: permanent gridlock, a lack of water, and ruinous electricity bills.

General Motors is using Tianjin to work out if electric driverless cars can function in a normal traffic system, and road-test the next generation of vehicles: small urban cars that drive themselves but are safe in an environment full of unpredictable drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Other projects on trial include a low energy lighting system from Philips and rubbish bins that can empty themselves, sucking litter into an underground network, by a Swedish company called Envac.

The government-owned buildings in the city collect their own rain water for reuse, are powered by geothermal energy, have window shutters that move with the light, in order to keep buildings cool, and heating systems that use solar energy.

Chinese move to their eco-city of the future

Beautiful bookshelves - in pictures

Books are just as much places along the way as any physical geographical location. Most patw posts are either literary (cities in literature, citylit related) or real places of my life ~ sometimes both. Why not the physical places the books live?

From Guardian:

Most of us can only aspire to Ikea, but Alex Johnson's Bookshelf takes a beguiling look at the possibilities available if your budget, your rooms and your library are big enough. Here he takes us on a browse through some of the most beautiful.

Equilibrium
Colombia-born Alejandro Gomez Stubbs, the designer of Equilibrium, says 'The concept was to design a piece that contrasted stylish modern design with playfulness and animation'

More here.

Beautiful bookshelves - in pictures