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Have a Happy Thought:   Clay is… amazing. Humans have been making things out of clay for at least 30,000 years . And it’s super useful – it lets us boil water and other substances , carry and store drinks and food .   And also lets us make art.   Sometimes, the art is painted on the pottery, like classic red-figure pottery of ancient Greece: The wedding of Thetis , pyxis by the Wedding Painter, circa 470/460 BCE. Paris: Louvre. Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen     Sometimes whole peoples and historic migrations are named after the type of pottery, because that is the most consistent, or hard-wearing and long-lasting, evidence of their culture. Remnants of Lapita pottery, dated 1000 BCE. Image: University of Auckland , Department of Anthropology, Anthropology Photographic Archive     Sometimes the way the pottery is made in itself is the art, like this example of the coil and scrape method: Mogollon (US Southwest) Brownware, Corruga...

Have a Happy Thought:   Apparently, a lot of you really like maps! (I knew you were my people 😃 )   So here are some map-adjacent things that I’ve been waiting to share with you all.  1.  How many planets outside of our solar system have we discovered? When I was in high school, the answer to that was: Zero. Now, the answer to that is: literally thousands . You can read all about how we found these and when, and what is so exciting about them… or you can look at these amazing artworks that help us to see them all. If you visit the artist’s website, you can buy prints, wall posters, and I think I saw a jigsaw puzzle in there, too…. Oh, and he also makes fun maps . Image: The Exoplanet Zoo by Martin Vargic   Image: Icy and Rocky Worlds by Martin Vargic   2. Have you ever thought about just how many cows there must be on this planet? What about the fish in the sea? What about viruses? This artist has put together a visu...

Have a Happy Thought: Maps are a perfect example of the phrase “All models are wrong but some are useful", said by the statistician George Box . A good (useful) map might help get you where you want to go – this includes dynamic and electronic maps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Open Street Maps . Some maps can give you a new perspective on the world.   And then there are the maps that are printed on meant to be useful in more than one way. Take this Map-kin for example (I just really liked the word ‘map-kin’ and basically found a whole bunch of other maps to make up an entire email just to share this one word with you all). Image: A Map-kin of best stops. Map of western Nevada with best stops and points of interest for tourists, dated sometime between 1930 and 1960. From the Library of Congress   Some maps, though, seem to be less about getting you physically to a place, and more about making a point. Take this political-cartoon-turned-map from 1870: Image:...

Have a Happy Thought: Last week we talked about the country uniforms for this year’s Summer Olympics. As the competitions draw to a close, this week let’s look at the medals that the athletes are being given. You may have noticed that the medals look a little bit different from previous years, with a big grey hexagon in the middle. This is actually iron, a metal that normally does not feature amongst the gold, silver and bronze. This iron comes from a special source – it is scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower! It is a mixture of bits left over during the original construction, as well as pieces that have been removed (and replaced, don’t worry) from the tower during various maintenance and renovations. The Monnaie de Paris, which is the national Mint (i.e. the place that literally makes physical money) crafted the iron scraps along with the gold, silver and bronze, into these beautiful medals. Image: https://www.compoundchem.com/2024/07/30/paris2024medals/   This isn’t th...

Have a Happy Thought:     Hopefully you’ve been able to catch some of this year’s Summer Olympics, and marvel over the awesomeness that these athletes are showcasing for us.   One thing that can often go overlooked though is the time and effort that goes into designing the country uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies. Often, these are somewhat utilitarian outfits, but every once in a while, a country really takes this opportunity to shine. For me, this year, Mongolia really brought their A-game. Just LOOK at these works of art! Image: https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/mongolian-olympic-uniforms-2024-paris-photos-1236493019/     These were designed and made by a Mongolian label, Michel & Amazonka, and each uniform took up to 20 hours to make. The DETAIL Image: Michel & Amazonka https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/mongolian-olympic-uniforms-2024-paris-photos-1236493019/     A...