Emperor Norton

It would seem from today's unusual wikipedia article that the british don't have a monopoly on whimsy... Joshua Abraham Norton (c. 1819 – January 8, 1880), the self-proclaimed Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States" ... Read More...

The Devil In The Detail

Frank goes looking for trouble... They say the devil is in the detail, but is that a fact? I decided to find out. First of all, though, I wanted to have a better idea of “the detail”. I was pretty sure I would know the devil when I saw him, but ... Read More...

Under the Soviet Yoke

The Stalinist era's climate of fear shaped the work of dozens of composers. This week, Mahlerman examines Soviet music... A few months ago in Degenerate Music  we looked at Adolf Hitler's totalitarian response to anything in 'the arts' that failed to meet the exacting Nationalistic standards he had set out, after ... Read More...

Gruinard Island

Anthrax is one of those very 20th century, cold war-related scares that doesn't seem to hold the same terror that it once did. Today's weird Wikipedia article reminds us of what happened to a scottish island that was poisoned in the name of science... Gruinard Island is a small Scottish island ... Read More...

Dealey Plaza Craft Project

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, here's a craft project... Hello readers! I am going to show you how to make a lovely scale model of Dealey Plaza, the site in Dallas, Texas, of the Kennedy assassination fifty years ago today on 22 November 1963. First, get some plasticine. ... Read More...

Compelling Machinery IX: The Most Beautiful Rocket

We reach for the stars in the latest instalment of our Compelling Machinery series (previous posts can be found here). Scott Locklin on an increasingly antique achievement. Rocketry is a field which peaked in the 1960s, probably never to improve appreciably. The space shuttle? A flying brick. The attempted replacement for the ... Read More...