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The Friday Digest 04/07/14

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THP Friday digest

This week's update features global war, mistakes in medieval manuscripts and the age-old print/ebook debate. 


Great War Britain Exeter. Soldiers at the pyramids in Egypt


* Was World War One really the first global war? 


Gavrilo Princip is paraded by his Austrian captors after assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo Photo: Alamy


* Gavrilo Princip and the lie that started the First World War


 

* The National Library of Scotland has digitised more than 130 trench maps covering the major battlegrounds across France and Belgium, allowing you to see how the Western Front evolved between 1915 and 1918.  

 

Mobile phonesThe irritating person chatting with her long-distance bestie during a movie. That 'master of the universe' shouting sell orders at the table next to you through lunch. You have WWI to thank for both of them, because it was during the Great War that the idea of taking a phone with you came to fruition. Telephones themselves had passed the novelty stage but were still far from a fixture in every home or office. Military units, though, found that the ability to reach out and touch forward units through a voice call was far more efficient and effective than relying exclusively on carrier pigeons, telegraph, or couriers (all of which remained in service.) (Source: National Archives)

 

* From mobile phones to air traffic control: seven surprising technologies from the First World War


Low-wavelength lasers removed centuries of damaging grime from the bronzed Gates of Paradise in Florence, Italy.  Credit: Wikimedia Commons


* How modern chemistry techniques can save ancient art



* A fascinating look at Van Gogh's paintings brought to life.


Design by Frederic Barnett for a 'duplex' low-level Tower Bridge, which would have allowed 'uninterrupted continuity of vehicular and general traffic'


* London's Tower Bridge, which turned 120 years old on 30 June, is one of the most iconic London landmarks. But, thanks to an open competition, many other designs were submitted for consideration before Horace Jones' submission was selected. 


Using modern dating techniques, a Cambridge historian found Henry VIII (pictured) was largely incompatible with any of his wives

 

* According to a recent study by a Cambridge historican, Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII's most compatible wife, but do you agree? 

 

 Canvey Island sea wall mural

 

* The Canvey Island flood disaster of 1953 has been remembered with a mural on the 262ft sea wall painted by professional artists and Canvey inhabitants.


Caroline Wazer, a PhD student in ancient history at Columbia (@CarolineWazer), found an image of a nursing mother on a Roman sarcophagus: "Here's a nursing mother & baby on a 2nd c sarcophagus at the Louvre. Tunic/diaper combo? pic.twitter.com/C76NdTL6of."

 

* Where did Roman babies poop?


Image (c) Penelope Trunk via http://education.penelopetrunk.com/2014/06/30/are-museums-irrelevant/

 

* Penelope Trunk asks: in this day and age, are museums now irrelevant?

 

Leiden UB, VLF 30, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, f. 21v 

 

* Medieval manuscripts and the beauty of mistakes


Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk who in 1551 died of the sweating sickness hours before his brother Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk. Image from http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2014/05/dreaded-sweat-other-medieval-epidemic


* 'The dreaded sweat': the other medieval epidemic


Val McDermid - photo Mimsy Moller. Image from http://www.valmcdermid.com/gallery

 

 * Crime novelist Val McDermid has said she would not be able to build a career as a writer today, as publishers would not take the risk on her low-selling early books. Do you think that writing is getting harder to break into?



* ThrillWriting discusses what not to wear: clothing choices to save your heroine ...


The Panel: Neil Morrison, Lisa Milton, Peter McKay, and Anna Rafferty. 


 * UK publishing pros ask: is publishing cool anymore? 


World Book Night logo


* A halt has been called to the US World Book Night after the scheme failed to secure external funding. 


e-book and print books


* Author Tony Horwitz has caused outrage with his recent New York Times op-ed piece which claimed that despite being a 'digital bestseller', he actually lost money on his ebook and he is 'wary of this brave new world of digital publishers and readers' as a result.

Whilst many agreed with Horwitz's conclusions, other disagree, with websites such as The Ploughshares questioning whether going digital had anything to do with the problem

 

* Publishing Perspectives ask: what does your brain like better, print or ebooks?


Paper Knowledge By Lisa Gitelman


* Digital Book World shared an interesting interview with Lisa Gitelman on the written word in translation.


* As the Amazon/Hachette dispute rumbles on, Amazon has taken to the Wall Street Journal  this week to defend itself

 


  Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?


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