: conspicuous ; conspicuously bad
: flagrant
I haven't done a who's-birthday-is-it notice in a while. Well, today it's the birthday of Anton Van Leeuwenhoek.
Van Lay-when-who, you say?
The Delft-born Leeuwenhook was born in 1632 and died in 1723. He was one of the most distinguished scientists and inventors of his time. He is regarded as the father of microscopy. Working as an inventor in a dry goods store in Amsterdam (where he lived for six years before returning to Delft for good), where drapers used magnifying glasses to inspect the thread count in cloth, Leeuwenhook began experimenting with the glasses himself, grinding and polishing his lens. He worked with the curvature of the lens and was eventually able to create a pair of glasses with a magnification of up to 270x. From this, he created microscopes, which were, at the time, considered the most practical of their kind.
With is microscopes, he was to discover bacteria, protozoa, and spermatazoa, yeast plants, the life within a drop of water, among other life forms.
His microscopes were made out of silver and gold; his family sold them off after he died, and none have ever been recovered.
(Thanks to http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blleeuwenhoek.htm) for the info.)
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Halloween's around the corner. I'll post a scary book a day until All Hallows' Eve.
Okay, sure it doesn't sound that scary: A group of young vacationers in deepest Mexico stumble upon a hillside and find that the surrounding villagers won't let them leave the hill. Why?
Well, that's for you to find out. Books don't make you jump and they don't have the visceral impact or assault that movies do, but I'll say this about Scott Smith's second novel: I have never been so tense or on edge during a reading experience in my life.
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What Rare Bird Was Seen In Bulloch County This Week?
Long-billed dowitcher
A shorebird distinctive for, among other features and traits, for its sewing machine-like feeding style. It's usually seen west of the Mississippi.
(Thanks http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-billed_Dowitcher/id)
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A painting today, too: (Jeez, I've forgotten to do this in a while too!) John George Brown (1831-1913) is today's artist.
The Music Lesson
1870
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
One of 19th-America's more distinguished child portraitists (it was on the cover of a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that I discovered him), Brown did a little something different here, showing a couple in the throes of courtship; it's music that brings them together.
(Here's info from the Met on the piece: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/21.115.3)
Don't forget to check out my other blog: http://mybookylife.blogspot.com/ for book reviews, including Chase Novak's horrific Breed.
Images courtesy of:
http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/museums/met-museum/big/John-George-Brown-xx-The-Music-Lesson-1870.jpg
http://c.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/lb-dow-41.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KTyiV-gdBes/T_tyS7gPW6I/AAAAAAAABFI/eJQcYFOgiwE/s1600/The+ruins.jpeg
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/docroot/dulcinea/fd_images/features/profiles/v/anton-van-leeuwenhoek/features/0/image.jpg
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