It is said that after his death some of Franz Schubert’s music manuscripts were sold for scrap paper and used to wrap fish. .And in the time of Cromwell (according to John Aubrey) old illuminated scrolls from the monasteries were gathered and used for mundane purposes, such as to stuff the cracks around windows and doors..There will be a test on this next Monday.
Even worse uses for even older things:In the Middle Ages, based on a mistranslation from the Arabic term for bitumen, it was thought that mummies possessed healing properties. As a result, it became common practice to grind Egyptian mummies into a powder to be sold and used as medicine. When actual mummies became unavailable, the sun-desiccated corpses of criminals, slaves and suicidal people were substituted by mendacious merchants.66 The practice developed into a wide-scale business that flourished until the late 16th century. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties to stop bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form as in mellified man.67 Artists also made use of Egyptian mummies; a brownish pigment known as Mummy brown, based on Mummia (sometimes called alternatively Caput mortuum, Latin for death’s head), which was originally obtained by grounding human and animal Egyptian mummies. Many thousands of mummified cats were also sent from Egypt to England to be processed for use in fertilizer.69The use of mummies as fuel for locomotives was documented by Mark Twain,70 but the truth of the story remains debatable. [That is a hilarious chapter from “Innocents Abroad”, which is what I wanted to quote from in this post, but I found the above instead. Sorry about that!]
@Godfreydaniel:.Even older older things:.In a recent NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, there’s an article about the increasing trade in mammoth tusks. The old ivory is emerging from the permafrost ever more frequently due to warmer temperatures in Siberia and surrounding regions. It is not legal in most places to export contemporary elephant ivory, but mammoth ivory is allowed.
It is a shame that such a great newspaper has descended to be an extreme biased liberal soapbox. But, then again, almost any newspaper’s news and editorial policy tends to be shaded and/or warped to match the tastes of its owners. That might be a major part of why web-based news has become so important. People have become dissatisfied with the way that traditional news sources have ceased to report the news and have been giving their biases as factual news.
Linux0s almost 11 years ago
And they say print has become irrelevant.
alan.gurka almost 11 years ago
I prefer the WSJ. It has some drawings in it.
emptc12 almost 11 years ago
It is said that after his death some of Franz Schubert’s music manuscripts were sold for scrap paper and used to wrap fish. .And in the time of Cromwell (according to John Aubrey) old illuminated scrolls from the monasteries were gathered and used for mundane purposes, such as to stuff the cracks around windows and doors..There will be a test on this next Monday.
noahproblem almost 11 years ago
Green fish, stressed out much? You seem awfully nervous about what will become of you when you’re dead.
Godfreydaniel almost 11 years ago
Even worse uses for even older things:In the Middle Ages, based on a mistranslation from the Arabic term for bitumen, it was thought that mummies possessed healing properties. As a result, it became common practice to grind Egyptian mummies into a powder to be sold and used as medicine. When actual mummies became unavailable, the sun-desiccated corpses of criminals, slaves and suicidal people were substituted by mendacious merchants.66 The practice developed into a wide-scale business that flourished until the late 16th century. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties to stop bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form as in mellified man.67 Artists also made use of Egyptian mummies; a brownish pigment known as Mummy brown, based on Mummia (sometimes called alternatively Caput mortuum, Latin for death’s head), which was originally obtained by grounding human and animal Egyptian mummies. Many thousands of mummified cats were also sent from Egypt to England to be processed for use in fertilizer.69The use of mummies as fuel for locomotives was documented by Mark Twain,70 but the truth of the story remains debatable. [That is a hilarious chapter from “Innocents Abroad”, which is what I wanted to quote from in this post, but I found the above instead. Sorry about that!]
emptc12 almost 11 years ago
@Godfreydaniel:.Even older older things:.In a recent NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, there’s an article about the increasing trade in mammoth tusks. The old ivory is emerging from the permafrost ever more frequently due to warmer temperatures in Siberia and surrounding regions. It is not legal in most places to export contemporary elephant ivory, but mammoth ivory is allowed.
kaecispopX almost 11 years ago
It is a shame that such a great newspaper has descended to be an extreme biased liberal soapbox. But, then again, almost any newspaper’s news and editorial policy tends to be shaded and/or warped to match the tastes of its owners. That might be a major part of why web-based news has become so important. People have become dissatisfied with the way that traditional news sources have ceased to report the news and have been giving their biases as factual news.
jazzmoose almost 11 years ago
Of course you did; you all repeat the same things over and over.