Laz, that is not content-free. It's a summary, because as I said, I've had this conversation sooo many times on SI I can't do it again.
ESPECIALLY because my hubby just suggested we go into the city for the weekend ! -- and I said yes, so have to get a few things together, shampoo my hair, send some emails, and get some sleep. See you late Sunday or Monday, and haha the dp discussion will be over when I get back haha.
We're going to the Met to see the Thomas Eakins show and the photography, and we're going to see this wonderful thing, how much fun will that be? And the weather will be good:
A Postmodernist Of the 1600's Is Back in Fashion
By SARAH BOXER (NYT) 1551 words
Late Edition - Final, Section B, Page 7, Column 5
LEAD PARAGRAPH - A puckish question was raised on Thursday night at New York University: ''Was Athanasius Kircher the coolest guy ever, or what?'' For those who have no idea who Kircher was, let's begin with the ''or what.''
The German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-80), a rough contemporary of Descartes and Galileo, was no ordinary man. He studied Egyptian hieroglyphs and helped Bernini with his fountain in the Piazza Navona. He made vomiting machines and eavesdropping statues. He transcribed bird song and wrote a book about musicology (still used today). He taught Nicolas Poussin perspective and made a chamber of mirrors to drive cats crazy. He invented the first slide projector and had himself lowered into the mouth of Mount Vesuvius just as it was supposed to erupt. He proved the impossibility of the Tower of Babel and made a model of how the animals were arranged in Noah's Ark. And he collected the objects that filled the Museo Kircheriano, Rome's first wunderkammer or collection of curiosities.... [excerpt]
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