1947 film about how a book is made. It starts with the writer -- "This man in an author. He writes stories. He's just finished writing a story. He thinks many people will like to read it. So, he must have the story made into a book." -- and ends with a finished, bound book.
Along the way, we are taken on a tour through the printing and bindery process. In a factory full of machinery that would give an OSHA inspector a heart attack, we see a typesetter making lines of type from molten metal, a composer laying out the lines of type, a workman fitting the lines into metal frames, an operator converting the soft metal plates into wax plates, another worker dipping the wax plates into a tank filled with copper to form a solid plate, another worker cutting the plates into individual page plates with a sharp saw, another workman (he's called the "ready man") preparing the plates for printing by placing 64 pages at a time in the printing press bed, a workman examining the printed sheets, another worker inserting the sheets into a folding machine, another man to check the folder to make sure the pages are folded in the right order, a room filled with "girls" in the gathering room stacking the folders in piles and sorting them in bins, another group of girls taking the assembled folders to a machine that sews them together with thread, other workers trimming the sewed folders with sharp knives, An operator over seeing a machine making covers from paperboard, a machine that gluing cloth to the paperboard, a machine stamping the title of the book on the cover, and a machine gluing covers to the book. Whew!
These
days, the vast majority of men and women consider a quick squirt of
their favourite perfume or aftershave an intrinsic part of their
morning ritual. You could argue that the criteria for the scent you
wear each day should purely be based around the smell that you,
yourself, find most pleasing; but the marketing of fragrances means
that they are considered a key tool in alluring a partner and therefore
at either a conscious or sub-conscious level we are all buying
fragrances that we hope will please others too.
So,
from this can we deduce that fragrances were developed to assist in our
mating rituals? Actually no - the history of perfume actually has more
spiritual roots, originally created for religious purposes to honour
the gods. It is recorded that ancient civilisations dating as far back
as 7000 years ago were using fragrance as part of their offerings to
their countless deities. Fires were created, to which were added a
fragrant 'pot pourri' of aromatic wood, incense, gum resins, herbs and
spices and people walked through the smoke to wear the perfume. In
fact, the word perfume stems from the Latin term per fumum, meaning
"through smoke".
It was from these origins that the
concept of perfume arose, with techniques for extracting and preserving
fragrances through boiling, pressing, drying, distillation and even
blending with fats practised throughout the ancient world. However it
was not until Roman monks discovered the distillation of alcohol that
perfume production, in the true sense of the word, became possible.
The
multi-million pound industry that we know today perhaps began its
journey in earnest in the 18th century, with the establishment of a
number of perfume houses. Techniques were improved and the "juices" as
perfumers called their products became more sophisticated, and
throughout the ages women have loved perfume including many famous women of our times.
At
one time fragrance was a luxury for royalty; in 800BC, The Queen of
Sheba used perfume to seduce King Solomon. Catherine de Medici - future
wife of Henry II - brought her own perfumer with her as part of her
entourage when she came to Britain, and she even established a perfume
laboratory in Provence! Queen Elizabeth I was famous for her love of
perfume; her clothes, gloves and shoes were steeped in the fragrance
from damask roses and even the rooms of her palaces were sprinkled with
scent.
Perhaps these historical women were the
forerunners of today's celebrities whose names are now closely
associated with fragrance - albeit for more commercial reasons! Kylie,
J Lo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Paul and even Jade Goody have all
placed their monikers on a bottle of scent! In fact, it could be argued
that in today's culture there are some who see celebrity as an almost
'god-like' status, so perhaps we haven't come that far from the
religious roots of perfume all those thousands of years ago.
Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.
By Zonk
on won't-someone-think-of-the-braaaaaiiinnnnsss
KublaiKhan
writes "According to an article on Reuters, the Chinese censors have
decided that horror movies are verboten. 'Offending content included
"wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other
inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole
purpose of seeking terror and horror," the administration said. This is
apparently a sort of Chinese version of the Jack Thompson effect, as
the "mental health of adolescents" is cited as one of the reasons for
the ban. Presumably, this ban Ñ much like the spitting ban Ñ is
intended to improve China's image in the rest of the world before the
Olympics open; but given the Streisand effect, would this ban perhaps
unintentionally spur a surge of horror movie popularity in China?"
Blizzard has had trouble with skeletons in World of Warcraft , and I
imagine this decision stems from similar objections.
The
Narrative Fallacy writes "This week Cringely offers up a speculative
piece asserting that Microsoft might not really care if its bid to buy
Yahoo succeeds or not Ñ Bill Gates just wants to disrupt Yahoo and
poach the company's employees. 'Microsoft's offer for Yahoo has thrown
that company and several others into a tizzy. Yahoo can't be getting
much work done, that's for sure ... Redmond's real goal may be simply
to poach people from Yahoo, and this deal could help them do just
that.' Cringley says there is plenty of precedent for Microsoft's
behavior Ñ Microsoft's bids for Borland and for Intuit back in the
1990s sent both companies into a tailspin. 'A failed Microsoft bid,
even one involving a termination fee, could lead to horrific results
for the company. Remember that Yahoo is staggering here while Intuit
was at the top of its market and its game.'"
The iconic building is the Oriental Pearl Tower (Dōngfāng MÕngzhūtǎ,
东方明珠塔). Gaudy and impractical, it somehow sums up the spirit of
Shanghai better than the remaining ñhistoricî buildings.
This is a three-exposure HDR made with Photomatix using the details-enhancing setting, and then tweaked with Aperture.
No tripod, so there's more ghosting than I'd like (look closely at the
top of the tower). I know the colours are a bit too flashy and
overdone, but then so is Shanghai!
Location: Pudong (Pǔdōng Xīn Qū , 浦東新區), looking across the
Huangpu River (Huàngpŭ Jiāng, 黃浦江) from The Bund (Wöitān, 外灘), Shönghǎi
(上海市), PeopleÍs Republic of China (Zhōnghuà RŽnmÕn G÷nghŽguÑ, 中华人民共和国)
