Chateauneuf du Pape can be literally translated into English as "the Pope's new house (or castle)". The town is named for a castle built here in 1316 by Pope John XXII. The castle was used as a summer house by the popes during the period when the papacy retreated to nearby Avignon from the chaos in Rome. After the popes returned to Rome, the castle was sacked by the Protestants during the Wars of Religion. The final blow came, however, in World War II when the retreating Germans blew up the castle in 1944. http://harryrowe.com/chateauneuf.htm Today, there are 320 Chateauneuf du Pape vineyards.

Quote from The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
A hero without a flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which, after all, is based on conflict and opposition . . .

The word photography derives from the Greek words phōs (genitive: phōtós) light, and gráphein, to write. The word was coined by Sir John Herschel in 1839. Photography is the result of combining several different technical discoveries. Long before the first photographs were made, Chinese philosopher Mo Ti and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. In the 6th century CE, Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1040) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera, Albertus Magnus (1193/1206-1280) discovered silver nitrate, and Georges Fabricius (1516–1571) discovered silver chloride. Daniel Barbaro described a diaphragm in 1568. Wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals (photochemical effect) in 1694. The novel Giphantie (by the French Tiphaigne de la Roche, 1729–1774) described what can be interpreted as photography. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography

Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) was born at Chalon-sur-Saône near Lyon and retired to the country after the French Revolution due to ill health. He spent his life in research, and from 1813 to 1817 occupied himself in trying to find stones that could be utilized in the lithographic process. In a letter in 1816 to his brother Claude, he reported that he had succeeded in producing a negative image by using silver chloride on paper, but had been unable to "fix" it. The result was more successful in 1822 when he used asphaltum. The Encyclopaedia Britannica dates true photography from that date, when it declares, "the first permanent photograph was made that year by Niépce." (The process, however, was called "heliography.") By 1826, the method was perfected and bituminous tin plate was sent to Parisian engraver Frédéric Lemaître (1797-1870) to be engraved and printed on paper. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1789-1851) was born at Cormeilles-en-Parisis near Paris, and became an artist and scene painter. (His illusionistic Diorama, a popular spectacle hall where optical illusion and lighting effects combined to cast huge pictures with an illusion of depth, was a Paris landmark long before his name was connected with photography.) In 1826, hearing of Niépce's work through their common supplier of optical equipment, Charles Chevalier (1804-1859), an important innovator of the period, Daguerre approached the researcher through letters and asked to work with him toward an eventual partnership. Niépce, due to financial embarrassment and discouragement at the lack of interest in his innovations in scientific circles, agreed in 1829 to sign a contract of association. After Niépce's death, Daguerre in 1835 discovered accidentally that if an iodized silver plate were exposed in a dark room and then fumed with mercury vapor, a clear, direct, positive image would result. This "daguerreotype" process was the first successful photographic method to be made public. http://www.marillier.nom.fr/collodions/PGH/photography_was_born.html

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It was built from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle Île, Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV. The château was in many ways the most influential work built in Europe in the mid-17th century and the most elaborate and grand house built in France after the Château de Maisons. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of a new order: the magnificent manner that is associated with the "Louis XIV style" involving a system of collective work, which could be applied to the structure, its interiors and works of art and the creation of an entire landscape. The garden's use of a baroque axis that extends to infinity is an example of this style. Once a small château located between the royal residences of Vincennes and Fontainebleau, the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased by Nicolas Fouquet in 1641. At that time he was an ambitious twenty-six year-old member of the Parlement of Paris. Fouquet was an avid patron of the arts and attracted many artists with the gifts and encouragements he poured on them. Le Nôtre employed an optical illusion called anamorphosis abscondita (which might be roughly translated as 'hidden distortion') in his garden design in order to establish decelerated perspective. The most apparent change in this manner is of the reflecting pools. They are narrower at the closest point to the viewer (standing at the rear of the château) than at their farthest point; this makes them appear closer to the viewer. From a certain designed viewing point, the distortion designed into the landscape elements produces a particular forced perspective and the eye perceives the elements to be closer than they actually are. This point for Vaux-le-Vicomte is at the top of the stairs at the rear of the château. Standing atop the grand staircase one begins to experience the garden with a magnificent perspectival view. The anamorphosis abscondita creates visual effects which are not encountered in nature, making the spectacle of gardens designed in this way extremely unusual to the viewer (who experiences a tension between the natural perspective cues in his peripheral vision and the forced perspective of the formal garden). The perspective effects are not readily apparent in photographs, either, making viewing the gardens in person the only way of truly experiencing them. From the top of the grand staircase, this gives the impression that the entire garden is revealed in one single glance. Initially, the view consists of symmetrical rows of shrubbery, avenues, fountains, statues, flowers and other pieces developed to imitate nature – these elements exemplify the Baroque desire to mold nature to fit its wishes, thus using nature to imitate nature. The centerpiece is a large reflecting pool flanked by grottos holding statues in their many niches. The grand sloping lawn is not visible until one begins to explore the garden, when the viewer is made aware of the optical elements involved and discovers that the garden is much larger than it looks. Next, a circular pool, previously seen as ovular due to foreshortening, is passed and a canal that bisects the site is revealed, as well as a lower level path. As the viewer continues on, the second pool shows itself to be square and the grottos and their niched statues become clearer. But, when one walks towards the grottos, the relationship between the pool and the grottos appears awry. The grottos are actually on a much lower level than the rest of the garden and separated by a wide canal that is over half a mile (almost 1 km) long. According to Allen Weiss, in Mirrors of Infinity, this optical effect is a result of the use of the tenth theorem of Euclid’s Optics which asserts that “the most distant parts of planes situated below the eye appear to be the most elevated.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaux-le-Vicomte

Remember the vitality of the VCR? The jolting jingle of a wind-up alarm clock? The importance of wonderful handwriting, or when chalkboards were essential teaching tools? Defunct Magazine remembers these things, taking readers back to the contemporary times of objects, ideas, TV shows, and belief systems of the past. Founded by a team of University of Iowa writers, the new online magazine is published at www.defunctmag.com. Robin Hemley, director of the UI Nonfiction Writing Program and a professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, along with 15 graduate students, established the biannual publication. It features essays by students on the magazine’s staff, along with work by established authors and contributions from the public. “Anything that has had its day in society is fair game to write about,” Hemley says. “Defunct religions, cultures, technologies, games, fads, trends, and people are all subjects of focus in this publication.” The concept developed last fall, after Hemley assigned graduate students to review defunct literary publications. Reading the reviews proved entertaining for the group. One evening after class, they tossed around the idea of starting their own literary magazine. They intended to focus on defunct products, but the idea evolved to include all things defunct—trends, fads, cultures. See an online issue at: http://www.defunctmag.com/Defunct/Issue3Defunct.html

The University of Iowa Library has added a massive volume of poetry to its collection: a 100-volume work of 10,000 pages of poetry, measuring two-feet thick. The book, Poetry City Marathon, was written by Iowa City poet Dave Morice (aka Dr. Alphabet) during a 100-day poetry marathon in summer 2010—part of the celebration of Iowa City being named a UNESCO City of Literature. The final text of 10,119 8½- by-11-inch pages was printed out by Bu Wilson and bound by Bill Voss of the UI Libraries Preservation Department. It took 24 hours to bind the book, spread over four days with a half day devoted to making a special press to put all the pages together. Now that the work is complete, preservation staff and Morice are considering submitting Poetry City Marathon to the Guinness. Book of World Records as the world’s thickest book. http://spectator.uiowa.edu/archives/spectator-spring-2011.pdf

Paraphrase from The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
People subscribe to empty rants because they believe a passionate report is more valuable than a dispassionate one.

Group terms
Pigeons A KIT of pigeons (flying together) A FLOCK or FLIGHT of pigeons.
Michael Haberl
Squirrels A DRAY or SCURRY of squirrels. Melissa Bee
Swans A GAME, BANK, TEAM, HERD or BEVY of swans. A WEDGE of swans in the air. Melissa Bee A LAMENTATION of swans. Michael Haberl A BALLET of swans.
See more at: http://www.hintsandthings.com/kennel/collectives.htm