history – R. Harrison, Creative Enterprises

Linux is 25.

Missed the anniversary by a few days, (august 20 or so), but Linux is 25!

We’ve used it since 1995. It forms the backbone of the internet – even Microsoft’s cloud computing and web services run on Linux.

We tend to view regency fashion and manners through the prism of the later Victorian period. This tends to put things in a more, ahem, prudish light than is quite appropriate. Undoubtedly, while young females had companions and manners made strolling alone with a pleasant male companion difficult, there were aspects of fashion and manners that were more fluid than we’d expect.

Gilray’s cartoon satirizes the fashion of 1807, with its sheer muslins. Bombazine is a heavy black cloth, usually worn in first mourning and widowhood. Bum-be-seen, is something else. I’m sure the woman on the right is fully aware of what she’s displaying, and why.

Avebury

One of our favorite stops when visiting the UK is Avebury. It’s a world heritage sight and well worth the visit.

The inner ring. We take a picture of our family at one of the inner stones every year. The stone doesn’t age. We do.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — This interior, from a reconstruction at the Museum of Wales (not Avebury) shows how the builders lived.

The Kennet Long Barrow is a worthwhile walk from the centre of the village. This picture shows the kinds of people you run into. Serious and … not so serious.

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA — Blue Skipper from the meadow near Kennet Long Barrow

A view from Kennet Long Barrow showing Silbury hill.

Upon Shark #poem

Robert Herrick, 1591 – 1674

Shark, when he goes to any publick feast,
Eates to ones thinking, of all there, the least.
What saves the master of the House thereby?
When if the servants search, they may descry
In his wide Codpeece, (dinner being done)
Two Napkins cram’d up, and a silver Spoone.

Robert Herrick is better known for the line “Gather thee rosebuds while ye may.” He wrote many more poems and some, like this one, are biting. (pun intended) I wonder who “Shark” is, but could imagine were they English any of the three musketeers doing this to raise the money for drink.