Dave goes by many names including "Dave the
Potter," "Dave the Slave," Dave Drake, and simply Dave. There is considerable mystery surrounding
this Edgefield, South Carolina artist, but thanks to the former slave's unique
ability to read and write, we've been left with an amazing autobiography,
scrawled on the shoulders and sides of his remaining jugs and vessels. Dave was born around 1801, presumably to
South Carolina plantation-owner Harry Drake. Dave may have had as many as five
owners throughout his life as a slave.
Following the death of Harry Drake in 1832, Dave became the property of
Dr. Abner Landrum. Dr. Landrum owned a
small pottery yard inhabited by about 15 slave-families. Known in early years as Landrumsville, and in
later years as Pottersville, the stoneware produced there was of great quality
and beauty. For use in plantation homes,
it outshone its predecessor – earthenware pottery – as it was impervious to
water and much stronger overall. In
addition to signing his name, Dave often wrote short poems or rhyming couplets
on his pieces. His poetry reflected any
number of themes: the size or use of the
vessel, biblical teachings, or questions related to family members who had been
bought and sold. Pots were generally
signed on the "shoulder," just below the lip or rim. Occasionally, they would wind around the pot
like a coiled snake. See pictures and
find links to books about Dave at http://www.sciway.net/afam/dave-slave-potter.html On March 14 and 15, 2014, the University of
Delaware presented a suite of dances based on the life and times of Dave the
Potter.
The show also featured paintings of Drake’s pottery by Jonathan Green
and poetry by P. Gabriel Foreman and Glenis Redmond. http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2014/mar/dance-minor-031114.html
Michigan put cots in a library and is testing out a high-tech chair designed for
napping, while James Madison is adding more bean bags to a nap room in the
student center. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is the latest school to make headlines for piloting a napping station through fall 2014. In the walk-up to finals on April 23, 2014,
six vinyl cots and disposable pillowcases were placed on the first floor of the
University of Michigan's Shapiro Undergraduate Library, which is open
24/7. First-come, first-serve, with a
30-minute time limit on snoozing, the area was the brainchild of rising senior
Adrian Bazbaz, 23, an aerospace engineering major who came up with the idea as
a member of U-M Central Student Government after watching countless students
fall asleep in front of the library computers.
“They’ll just put their backpacks on the table and lie on them,” he
says. Olivia B. Waxman http://time.com/3211964/nap-rooms-at-universities/
How Vehicles Are Tested Fuel economy is measured under controlled conditions in a
laboratory using a standardized test procedure specified by federal law. Manufacturers test their own vehicles—usually
pre-production prototypes—and report the results to EPA. EPA reviews the results and confirms about
10-15 percent of them through their own tests at the National
Vehicles and Fuel Emissions Laboratory.
Fuel economy tests show that, in short-trip city driving, a conventional gasoline car's
gas mileage is about 12% lower at 20°F than it would be at 77°F. It can drop as much as 22% for very short
trips (3 to 4 miles). The effect on
hybrids is worse. Their fuel economy can
drop about 31% to 34% under these conditions.
Find out why
winter fuel economy is lower at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/coldweather.shtml
The Environmental Protection Agency wants auto makers to road test the mileage claims
they submit after a rash of recent inflated fuel-economy claims based on wind
tunnel and other laboratory measurements.
The proposal, which would require a public comment period, comes after
several high profile cases in which estimates provided by Ford Motor Co. , Hyundai
Motor Co.
and Kia Motors Corp. were
inflated and triggered complaints to regulators and auto makers. The EPA has adjusted the test over the
years—most recently in 2008—to better match new-car window stickers to actual
results Mike Ramsey http://online.wsj.com/articles/epa-wants-mpg-claims-road-tested-1405355624
September 5, 2014 Word
of Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s Future Library made the rounds this summer
when the artist launched her 100-year-long project to build a library literally
from the forest floor up. The
first author to contribute a new work to the library will be none other than
Man Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood.
In May the artist planted 1,000 new trees in a Norwegian forest gifted
to her by the city of Oslo. In 100
years’ time, these trees will generate the paper for an anthology of books
containing the works of 100 authors—many who aren't even born yet—whose words
won’t be released or read until their 2114 publication. Atwood is the first of the hundred
authors to sign on to the project—an additional author will be announced each
year until Future Library's completion—and it's hard to think of a
better inaugural contributor. The
genre-defying Canadian author’s works are often written as a glimpse from the
future looking back at the past and she sometimes conflates the novel itself
with an artifact or cultural document—as she notably did in A
Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Her
more recent MaddAddam trilogy, completed in 2013, presents a
pessimistic view of a near and possible future from the perspective of
survivors of a man made plague. Atwood will turn over her manuscript in
May 2015 and it will ultimately be entrusted to the new Deichmanske Public
Library in Bjørvika, Oslo, where it will remain tantalizingly unread in a
sealed box until publication in a century’s time. Andrea Alessi
http://www.artslant.com/la/articles/show/40728
The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo announced September 8, 2014 that what is believed
to be the oldest commercial schooner ever discovered in the Great Lakes has
been found in Lake Ontario off Oswego, New York. The Three Brothers -- which
sank in a gale in 1833 while en route from Pultneyville to Oswego with a cargo
of apples, cider and 700 bushels of wheat -- was located in July by a team
utilizing high-resolution, side-scan sonar equipment. The ship's captain, two crewmen and a
passenger were lost when the vessel, built in 1827, went down. Only the ship's tiller, a barrel of apples and
the captain's hat were found within a few days of the sinking. The 45-foot-long, 13-foot-wide vessel is also
the first fully working dagger-board schooner, which sailed the Great Lakes in
the early 1800s, ever found. The dagger board was a large wood panel that
could be extended down through the keel of a shallow-draft ship. It prevented a vessel from being pushed
sideways when sailing windward or with the wind coming from one side (abeam) of
the vessel. The dagger board could be raised when the ship entered
shallow harbors. Brian Albrecht See graphics at http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/oldest_commercial_schooner_eve.html
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1189
September 10, 2014 On this date
in 1846, Elias Howe was
granted a patent for the sewing machine. On this date in 1932, the New York City
Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally-owned IND,
was opened.
No comments:
Post a Comment