Clipmarks | kidora's 'antiques' clips

Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:45:58 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

The secrets of the worlds oldest calculating machine are revealed today, showing that it had dials to mark the timing of eclipses and the Olympic games.

The dictionary sized crumbly lump containing corroded fragments of what is now known to be a marvellous hand cranked machine is known as the 'Antikythera Mechanism' because it was discovered near the tiny island of Antikythera, between Crete and mainland Greece.

"We knew that this 2,100 year-old ancient Greek mechanism calculated complex cycles of mathematical astronomy. It really surprised us to discover that it also showed the four-year cycle of ancient Greek games," reports Dr Tony Freeth of Images First, a TV company, and three academic colleagues today in the journal Nature.

Earlier work on the mechanism, which dates to around 150 to 100 BC, showed it displays the date, positions of the Sun and Moon (including its variable motion), the phase of the Moon, a complex 19-year calendar and sophisticated eclipse prediction dials.

Tags: archeology, antiques, antikythera

Blooming enormous: Queen Victoria's knickers

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:38:48 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

They are knickers fit for a queen or - given their size - maybe two.

Able to accommodate a 50in -plus waist, they belonged to Queen Victoria.

Doubtless she would not be amused to have her undergarments - or her vital statistics - discussed in public.

Quite apart from the primness of the age in which she lived, Britain's longest- reigning monarch could be a little sensitive about her appearance.

At less than 5ft tall, the tendency towards plumpness she inherited from her German forebears was pronounced.

The knickers appear very plain, save for a tiny embroidered crown and the initials 'VR'.

The items being sold by Mr Hanson, a regular on BBC1's Bargain Hunt antiques show, once belonged to the family of one of Victoria's servants and also include a chemise and a nightdress.

The knickers are expected to fetch £500 and the chemise and nightdress £300 each at a sale in Mackworth, Derby, on July 30.

Tags: uk, england, royalty, underwear, auction

Eat here and get gas

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:25:15 GMT

clipped by: amgumen
clipper's remarks: Read more and enjoy

Clip Source: www.spapo.com

On a Septic Tank Truck sign:
"We're #1 in the #2 business."

Sign over a Gynaecologist's Office:
"Dr. Jones, at your cervix."

At a Proctologist's door:
"To expedite your visit please back in."

On a Plumber's truck:
"We repair what your husband fixed."

On a New York convalescent home:
"For the sick and tired of the Episcopal Church."

On a Plumber's truck:
"Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."

Pizza Shop Slogan:
"7 days without pizza makes one weak."

At a truck stop:
"Eat here and get gas"

In a Florida maternity ward:
"No Children Allowed"

On the wall of a Baltimore estate:
"Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Sisters of Mercy"

n a funeral parlor:
"Ask about our layaway plan"

On a Tennessee highway:
"When this sign is under water, this road is impassable."

In the window of a Kentucky appliance store:
"Don't kill your wife. Let our washing machine do the dirty work."

Outside a country shop:
"We buy junk and sell antiques."

Sign at the psychic’s Hotline:
"Don't call

Tags: fun, humor

Statue of 'Elvis' chiselled 1800 years before his birth

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:16:05 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

this carving of Elvis Presley was created around 1800 years before the King of Rock and Roll first warbled his first note.

The amazing likeness has come to light as part of a sale of ancient antiques by the auction house Bonhams.

The Roman Elvis is in fact a genuine marble acroterion - a kind of architectural ornament often found for decoration on the corners of a sarcophagus, a stone tomb or burial chamber.

The 'Elvis’ sculpture is 2nd Century AD and is estimated to make £25,000 to £30,000.

The real thing: Elvis in concert in 1968

Jesus Box Faked

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:14:48 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

'Jesus box' exposed as fake

A stone box touted as the oldest archaeological evidence of Jesus is, in fact, a well-crafted fake, Israeli archaeological experts say

Carved on one side is an inscription in the ancient language of Aramaic bearing the legend: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

Officials with Israel's Antiques Authority announced Wednesday that while the box may date from the correct era, the inscription is a forgery added at a much later date.

"The inscription appears new, written in modernity by someone attempting to reproduce ancient written characters," the officials said in the statement.

They said that a panel of archeological experts had agreed unanimously with the findings.

"The ossuary is real. But the inscription is fake," the director of Israel's Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman, told Reuters.

Tags: fake, jesus, box

Roman statue of Elvis - chiselled 1800 years before his birth!

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:59:47 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: The King lives...longer than you can imagine?!

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Are you Roman tonight? Statue of 'Elvis' chiselled 1800 years before his birth goes under the hammer

Classic Elvis: The statue bears an unmistakeable resemblance to the real King

With his dashing chiselled features, swept back hair and perky bouffant the resemblance is unmistakable.

But incredibly this carving of Elvis Presley was created around 1800 years before the King of Rock and Roll first warbled his first note.

The amazing likeness has come to light as part of a sale of ancient antiques by the auction house Bonhams.

The real thing: Elvis in concert in 1968

It forms part of a collection owned by Melbourne-based Graham Geddes - one of the world's most foremost collectors - which is estimated to sell for more than £1m when it goes on sale in October.

A spokesman for Bonhams said: "It is perhaps the strangest item in the sale, certainly to modern eyes.

The 'Elvis’ sculpture is 2nd Century AD and is estimated to make £25,000 to £30,000.

Tags: elvis presley, rock-n-roll, music, roman, statue, bonhams, auction

The Traveler's Dilemma

Wed, 23 May 2007 12:17:39 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: fascinating, needs reading

Clip Source: sciam.com

When playing this simple game, people consistently reject the rational choice. In fact, by acting illogically, they end up reaping a larger reward--an outcome that demands a new kind of formal reasoning

Lucy and Pete, returning from a remote Pacific island, find that the airline has damaged the identical antiques that each had purchased. An airline manager says that he is happy to compensate them but is handicapped by being clueless about the value of these strange objects. Simply asking the travelers for the price is hopeless, he figures, for they will inflate it.

He asks each of them to write down the price of the antique as any dollar integer between 2 and 100 without conferring together. If both write the same number, he will take that to be the true price, and he will pay each of them that amount. But if they write different numbers, he will assume that the lower one is the actual price and that the person writing the higher number is cheating

Tags: science, research, economics, psychology, rationality, game theory

Man finds 19th-century periodicals

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:28:07 GMT

clipped by: dorine
clipper's remarks: Wants to use them in the classroom. That'd be an education for the students.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

PHILADELPHIA - An antiques collector stumbled upon a Civil War-era rarity that was about to suffer the same fate as yesterday's trash.

Antiques collector Stephen Burns discovered that a pile of periodicals intended for the garbage heap turned out to be dozens of issues of "Little Pilgrim," a children's reader published in Philadelphia in the 1850s and '60s. The periodical featured fiction, poetry, riddles and other items for young readers.

Burns was at an auction when a bidder bought a box of books, then offered him the primers in the bottom of the box. They would have just been thrown away, Burns said.

He read and researched the periodicals over time, and discovered he had 64 issues of Little Pilgrim. The children's publication was written and edited by Grace Greenwood, an author, pioneering newspaperwoman, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate.

hopes to make the periodicals part of the curriculum in schools.

Tags: civil war, periodicals, antiques, collector, books, education

Scary robocop of the past-future

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:09:56 GMT

clipped by: Beholder
clipper's remarks: click source for a full scale image

Clip Source: www.acceleratingfuture.com

Tags: robotics, antiques

Enigma Machine for Sale on eBay

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:02:44 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: I would love to have it

Clip Source: it.slashdot.org

Enigma Machine for Sale on eBay

"An Italian antiques dealer has recently put to auction a mint condition, fully operational Enigma machine on eBay. The machine, dated circa 1938, will be sold to the highest bidder in just over a week, but after 30 hours of bidding the price has already surpassed $12,000 US. For those of you who can't afford the real thing, why not make your own?"

Tags: ebay, enigma, wwii, technology

Obscura Antiques and Oddities, NYC

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:26:24 GMT

clipped by: CarnivalBorn
clipper's remarks: I'd love to check this place out!

Clip Source: morbidanatomy.blogspot.com

Stock varies, but on a given day, here are some things you're likely to come across: anatomical models, memorial photographs, medical art prints, taxedermied pets, shadow boxes, fraternal organization memorabilia, prosthetic limbs, victorian mourning jewelry, magic lantern slides, collections of pinned insects, funeraral ephemera, stereoscopopic cards, carnival castoffs, two headed fetal pigs, a jar of worms, corsets, top hats, glass fronted cabinets, victorian vitrines ... the list goes on. Don't be intimidated by their celebrity clientele (they feed the habits of The Sedarises and Chloë Sevigny, among others) or the uber-hip east-village customers you might see within; the proprietors are very friendly and extremely knowledgable, and you'll probably leave knowing something you didn't know before. See above photos for details of merchandise over the past few years.

Tags: weird, odd, curiosity, collectable

Scientists fly into raptures over flightless dodo

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:54:00 GMT

clipped by: dorine
clipper's remarks: Quote: "Then you can work out how it actually got to Mauritius, because it must have originally flown here before evolving into flightlessness and the big, fat bird that we know," he said.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Reuters Photo: File picture shows a Dodo bird specimen at the Sydney Antiques and Fine Arts Fair...

BOIS CHERI, Mauritius (Reuters) - The remains of a dodo found in a cave beneath bamboo and tea plantations in Mauritius offer the best chance yet to learn about the extinct flightless bird, a scientist said on Friday.

The discovery was made earlier this month in the Mauritian highlands but the location was kept secret until the recovery of the skeleton, nicknamed "Fred," was completed on Friday. Four men guarded the site overnight.

Julian Hume, a paleontologist at Britain's Natural History Museum, told Reuters the remains were likely to yield excellent DNA and other vital clues, because they were found intact, in isolation, and in a cave.

"The geneticists who want to get their hands on this will be skipping down the street," he said, after bringing the last of the remains to the surface.

the remains should provide the first decent specimens of dodo DNA, he said.

Tags: dodo, extinction, animals, dna

Pictures Of Computers From Yesterday

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:05:05 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Enjoy these great pictures of computers from yesteryear!!

One day this will be your computer. Ohhh memories!

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

The Silicon Valley Guy Handbook, a tongue-in-cheek manual to understanding the prototypical computer nerd.

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

A comptometer, a 1914 mechanical adding machine made by the millions. A similar machine was later used at Los Alamos to calculate differential equations for the Manhattan Project.

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

An Apple II computer signed by Steve Wozniak.

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

A screen displaying a working version of Microsoft Windows version 1.0.

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

One of the oddest items in the DigiBarn collection is this device, created in 1979 by early Apple employee Daniel Kottke, which was a portable digital music player. Damer called it "the ancestor of the iPod."

Clip Source: content.zdnet.com

One of the earliest artifacts linking Microsoft to Apple, this cassette contains a copy of Microsoft's Applesoft BASIC.

Tags: computers, pictures, antiques, apple, microsoft

Painting Found in Trash Sells for $1M

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:25:32 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.newsvine.com

An abstract masterpiece by a Mexican artist that was found in the trash by a woman who knew little about modern art has been sold for more than $1 million.

This image originally provided by Sotheby's auction house in New York shows the 1970 painting, "Tres Personajes" (Three People), by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. The abstract painting was found, lying in trash on the street on Manhattan's Upper West Side. (AP Photo/Sotheby's, file)

The painting "Tres Personajes" by Rufino Tamayo was discovered in 2003 by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted it on her morning walk on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She said she took it home because "even though I didn't understand it, I knew it had power."

Gibson spent four years trying to find out about the painting, finally discovering on the "Antiques Roadshow" Web site that it had been featured on the popular PBS program and described as a missing masterpiece stolen in 1989.

Tags: painting, one million, masterpiece, "tres personajes", rufino tamayo, elizabeth gibson

Conservatives Angry with Rupert Murdoch

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:01:09 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

But the little people would have none of it. It was the contamination of traditional media by politically hostile elements that bothered them. Why was Al Jazeera shown on BSkyB? And why did BSkyB broadcast Channel 4's Death of a President, which mocks-up the assassination of George W Bush?

Clip Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

Murdoch may have a Chinese wife, but what on earth, conservative shareholder Cliff Kincaid wanted to know, was he doing having so many dealings with Communist China?

The obvious answer - making money - was clearly not acceptable to the moral majority.

And why, perhaps even worse in their eyes, was he breakfasting with Hillary Clinton, having held a fundraiser for the Democratic senator?

'She is a very intelligent, smart and charming politician,' Murdoch purred. He ignored the Communist China reference while emphatically answering 'No' to questions about whether he was currently doing business with North Korea.

Meanwhile, Leon Weil wanted to know why Murdoch's channels broadcast programmes such as Nip/Tuck which, he spluttered, featured misogyny, bestiality, necrophilia and was going to screen a 'rear entry' sex scene in the next three months? They are all on after kids' bedtime, Murdoch assured.He tried to distract them with news of the company's fast-growing internet division, which has recently bought MySpace. 'To some in the traditional media business, these are the most stressful of times. For us it's a great time,' he said.

But the little people would have none of it. It was the contamination of traditional media by politically hostile elements that bothered them. Why was Al Jazeera shown on BSkyB? And why did BSkyB broadcast Channel 4's Death of a President, which mocks-up the assassination of George W Bush?

Of course, broadcasting rules dictate that Murdoch operate 'open platforms', allowing everything from Al Jazeera to Antiques Roadshow down his tubes.

But finally he could sympathise with his critics. 'Unfortunately I cannot censor the BBC or Channel 4,' he grumbled.And that's not a poison pill, just a bitter one.

Tags: murdoch, rupert murdoch, media, fox news, bskyb, tv, television, hilary, al-jazeera, china, communists, smut, conservatives, business