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Stumpage Reports
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Friday, January 31, 2003 :::
Giggle, Giggle, You Got A Funny Name
In my preservation of archival materials class we have started a section on photographs. Thank god. Its interesting and we have a different instructor for this section. I've had him for two other classes and he's a good guy and energetic teacher. Last night he told us about the inventor of photography, a guy named Nicéphore Niepce. That is pronounced Neecy Four Nee Eps. In his first successful experiment he coated the photographic plate with a substance called Bitumen of Judea. Say that out loud a few times: Nicéphore Niepce and Bitumen of Judea, Nicéphore Niepce and Bitumen of Judea. The giggle of girls in the class couldn't stop giggling whenever the teacher said the name, it got infectious and even he couldn't help cracking a smile whenever the name came up. Even though Niepce invented photograpy, Louis Daguerre made it popular and his name is more often associated with it. Another pioneer we get to learn about is Hippolyte Bayard. More giggles.
I don't know if most of my six readers just blow on by any links I put in here, but the Niepce and Daguerre sites above are really nice. If you like old pictures, take a look.
Quote of the Day:
I seem to have been quoting some classic horror stories lately. Couldn't let that little phase pass without quoting the best opening paragraph for a ghost story ever written. Its been quoted a lot, but always worth reading again:
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
--- Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
::: posted by tom at 10:25 PM
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