F. Anstey (1856-1934) was born Thomas Anstey Guthrie in 1856 to a prosperous military tailor.  Although he benefitted from a good private education, Anstey managed to scrape only a third-class degree from Cambridge.  He embarked upon a career in law and was called to the bar in 1881, but soon abandoned the legal profession in favour of writing, his pseudonym inspired by a printing error.  Anstey scored an overnight success with Vice Versâ (1882), its comic genius reportedly responsible for the fatal stroke suffered by Anthony Trollope.  He revised the novel in the following year and republished it with additions in 1894.  Meanwhile, Anstey was a regular contributor to Punch, producing parodic gems such as ‘Mr Punch’s Pocket Ibsen’.  The fortunes of his second novel, The Giant’s Robe (1883), were marred by accusations of plagiarism; ironically, given it actually tells the story of a plagiarist.  He continued to write fantastical fiction into the twentieth century, but his popularity was by then on the wane.   http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/authors/f-anstey/  See more, including bibliography, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Anstey_Guthrie

When Michael Bierut was tapped to design a logo for public school libraries, he had no idea that he was embarking on a years-long passion project.  In his often hilarious TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk in March 2017, he recalls his obsessive quest to bring energy, learning, art and graphics into these magical spaces where school librarians can inspire new generations of readers and thinkers.  Michael Bierut is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram, a founder of Design Observer and a teacher at Yale School of Art and Yale School of Management.  Link to Bierut's TED talk and other TED talks on libraries at https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_bierut_how_to_design_a_library_that_makes_kids_want_to_read

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties   The period of the Five Dynasties and Ten States, which succeeded the Tang Dynasty, was one of almost continual warfare.  In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, a general of the State of Later Zhou, established the Song Dynasty (960-1279), historically known as the Northern Song Dynasty.  When the Song Dynasty moved its capital to the south, historically called the Southern Song Dynasty, it brought advanced economy and culture to the south, giving a great impetus to economic development there China in the Song Dynasty was in the front rank of the world in astronomy, science and technology and printing technology as evidenced, for example, by Bi Sheng’s inventing movable type printing, a great revolution in printing history.  In 1271, Kublai, a grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered the Central Plain, founded the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and made Dadu (today’s Beijing) the capital.  During the Song-Yuan period, the “four great inventions” in science and technology of the Chinese people in ancient times—papermaking, printing, the compass and gunpowder—were further developed, and introduced to foreign countries, making great contributions to world civilization.  In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Nanjing, reigning as Emperor Taizu. When his son and successor Zhu Di (r. 1360-1424) ascended the throne, in 1360, he built and expanded the palaces, temples, city walls and moat in Beijing on a large scale.  In 1421, he officially moved the capital to Beijing.  During his reign, he dispatched a eunuch named Zheng He to lead a fleet of many ships to make seven far-ranging voyages.  Passing the Southeast Asian countries, the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Maldives Islands, Zheng He explored as far as Somalia and Kenya on the eastern coast of Africa.  These were the largest-scale and longest voyages in the world before the age of Columbus.  The Manchus of northeast China established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1644, under the leadership of Nurhachi. Kangxi  (r. 1661-1722) was the most famous emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He brought Taiwan under Qing rule, and resisted invasions by tsarist Russia.  To reinforce the administration of Tibet, he also formulated the rules and regulations on the confirmation of the Tibetan local leaders by the Central Government.  He effectively administered over 11 million sq km of Chinese territory.  http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/38069.htm

The Great Wall of China’s history began in the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC), was first completed in the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), and was last rebuilt as a defense in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).  It protected China’s north from invasion for all but two dynasties that were invader-led:  Yuan (1279–1368) and Qing (1644–1912).  http://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/history/

The Great Wall is traditionally known as the “Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li” to the Chinese.  It was built by soldiers, prisoners and local laborers using locally sourced materials including stones, wood, earth and, later, brick.  The history of the wall dates back to the Chunqiu era (722 to 481 BC), when construction of walls began during feudal conflicts.  Three separate sections of the wall were linked under Qin Shi Huang around 220 BC, forming a cohesive fortification.  This wall was expanded under the emperor Wudi between 140 and 87 BC to reach the Bohai Sea in the east.  It was intended at that time to prevent invasion by Mongols and Turks.  Work on the wall started and stopped periodically until the Ming period of 1368 to 1644 when 5,650 km was added, along with 25,000 towers and 15,000 outposts.  Most of the wall remaining today was built during this period.  The purpose of the wall was not only to protect China from invasion but also to eliminate foreign influences on Chinese culture.  The Great Wall passes east-to-west through 17 provinces of the northern and central regions of China.  It is approximately 5,500 miles long, reaching from the Hushan Wall in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west.  This makes it the longest manmade monument in the world.  It is 11 yards wide on average.  The Ming Dynasty Wall has 723 beacon towers, 3,357 wall platforms and 7,062 lookout towers.  The highest part of the wall is at an elevation of 6,562 feet in Huapiling.  The Great Wall of China was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987, serving to protect it as a historic, strategic and architectural monument of great importance.  The wall is constantly shrinking due to erosion and human activity, such as people taking bricks from the wall as souvenirs.  The entire wall is not officially open to tourists, and the Chinese government periodically enforces this with closures and fines.  Other areas are specifically managed for tourism, presenting a balance between positive and negative human influences.  While the footsteps of crowds of visitors and inevitable vandalism speed up erosion, concurrently the wall is preserved to keep it attractive and accessible to tourists, who boost the businesses that serve such areas of the wall.  http://traveltips.usatoday.com/great-wall-china-15267.html

George III’s extensive ‘K.Top’ collection of around 30–40,000 maps and views reflects changing impressions of place and space across the 16th–19th centuries through manuscript and printed atlases; architectural drawings and garden plans; maps and records of military campaigns, fortifications, barracks, bridges and canals; records of town and country houses, civic and collegiate buildings; drawn and printed records of antiquities including stained glass, sculpture, tombs, mosaic pavements and brasses; and thousands of drawn and printed views.  The collection includes the work of familiar names from Hollar to Hawksmoor, alongside the works of a host of lesser-known artists and amateurs and much anonymous or unidentified material.  The core aim of the ongoing King’s Topographical Collection Cataloguing and Digitisation Project is to provide free online access to George III’s maps and views.  The main outputs are the ongoing creation of detailed and searchable catalogue records on our Explore catalogue and high quality digital images, which will be available there in 2018.  Subscribe to the Maps and Views and Untold Lives blogs for information on recent discoveries and developments on the King’s Topographical Collection Cataloguing and Digitisation Project and other activities in the Western Heritage Collections.  Also, you  may subscribe to the British Library Newsletter at https://www.bl.uk/projects/kings-topographical-collection-cataloguing-and-digitisation

The mono-pine cell tower, also called a frankenpine, disguises cell towers.  See 25 Cell Phone Towers Disguised to Look Like Something Else at

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/08/examples-of-cell-phone-tower-disguises/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1741  July 21, 2017  On this date in 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, which pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, Tenn., ended with John Thomas Scopes convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of state law.  On this date in 1970, after 11 years of construction, the massive Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt was completed, ending the cycle of flood and drought in the Nile River region but triggering an environmental controversy.  On this date in 2007, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment in the best-selling series, sold more than 8.3 million copies on its first day in bookstores.  https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2017/07/21/On-This-Day-Final-Harry-Potter-book-released/3971500233881/  Thought For Today  All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time. - Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (21 Jul 1899-1961)