Posts Tagged by history
Found History
| June 9, 2011 | Posted by Laura under Uncategorized |
Found History explores public history and digital humanities in all their forms. By taking seriously the work of amateurs and professionals alike, as well as new modes of digital scholarship and learning, Found History aims to foster a broader, more democratic understanding of what history and the humanities are.
I like the idea for this blog. Basically, finding history around you and posting about it. It’s not a blog with a lot of updates. It’s found history, you can’t control what you find or how you find it at the time. I’ve seen other sites about found items like postcards, photographs, hand drawn maps, etc. Each of those is a found history in itself. But there is so much more to history. History happens all around us, every day and in every way.
Treasure Hunt in the Library (New York)
| April 16, 2011 | Posted by Laura under Uncategorized |
NY Public Library to hold overnight treasure hunt – Yahoo! News.
NEW YORK – The majestic main branch of the New York Public Library is seeking 500 people to spend the night there on a scavenger hunt designed to tap into their inner creativity and potential as they explore its miles of rare treasures.
The hunt, called “Find the Future: The Game,” was created for the library’s centennial celebration by Jane McGonigal, renowned for designing games that tackle real-world problems.
“We realized that if we could bring players face to face with these treasures, these world-changing objects from the past, they would be able to tap into their own world-changing potential,” said McGonigal, the author of the best-seller “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.”
Would-be scavengers at the midtown Manhattan library can register on a website going online Friday. Each needs to complete a written challenge, or quest, for the chance to play the game, which starts on May 20 at 8 p.m. and ends the next day at 6 a.m.
“We want people to engage with their imaginations, their creativity,” said Caro Llewellyn, the producer of the library’s centennial celebration.
The goal of the game is for people to write stories about the kind of future they want to see and the kind of world they envision, she said.
It’s an opportunity, McGonigal added, for people to “leave their own legacy.”
The Difference Between Dinosaurs
| February 24, 2011 | Posted by Laura under Uncategorized |
I’m watching a documentary about dinosaurs. Trying to figure out why they sometimes had tiny arms, huge spikes or scales that were too thin to be for battle or protection. Lots of other details about dinosaur appearance too. The archaeologists use these features to identify species of dinosaurs. But, I wonder if they take into account how a single species can look quite different between the male and the female. How many species of dinosaurs have been mislabeled as a different species when in fact, they are just the female or male version of another species already known.
It would be very hard to figure this out. We just don’t have enough real information versus educated guesses. A time machine would come in handy, but isn’t very practical right now.
