broughtonbirnie.co.uk.blog

The Room of Enlightenment

‘The room of enlightenment’ is always the first place to explore when we visit the British Museum.

One of our favourite objects is the ‘Mermaid’. A strange mixture of monkey and fish stitched together by an imaginative 18th century oddball to bring reality to the creature of seafarer’s myth.

Like most objects in the room it lies in the darkened shadows of one of the many curiosity cabinets that surround the room.

When sailors fall for this you need to question their rum rations!!

The mermaid  epitomises the most interesting characteristics of humanity; creativity and imagination. It’s quite extraordinary that someone would make so much effort to realize this creature and totally ignore the general view of a beautiful & alluring vision that would drive sailors to despair. Even the scale has no part in the myth, this object is just over a foot long.

But with all the faults that seem so apparent in the disparity between the object and it’s subject, the mermaid for us, does succeed in providing a far more important element; a belief in imagination and the triumph of a mind still open to possibilities.

do you feel lucky punk??

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter’s gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said Thursday.

The unnamed hunter, who had approached the fox after wounding it from a distance, was in hospital with a leg wound, while the fox made its escape, media said, citing prosecutors from the Grodno region.

“The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw,” one prosecutor was quoted as saying.

Fox-hunting is popular in the picturesque farming region of northwestern Belarus which borders Poland.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Matthew Jones

"t'ler!!"

” A Finnish dog which gave Nazi salutes so annoyed Germany’s World War II government that it launched a campaign against its owner.

Tor Borg’s wife had reportedly given Jackie the nickname Hitler – saying the dog’s strange way of raising its paw and barking reminded her of the Fuhrer.

Newly discovered documents show Mr Borg was interrogated by the Germans on suspicion of insulting Hitler.

Attempts were also made to sabotage his business, the papers show.

Researchers at the German Foreign Office uncovered a cache of documents and diplomatic cables concerning Jackie

The documents had been exchanged by the Foreign Office, the Economy Ministry, the Chancellory of the Nazi government and German diplomats in then Nazi-friendly Finland, the Tagezeitung newspaper reports.

In one exchange, dated 29 January 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki wrote that “a witness, who does not want to be named, said he saw and heard how Borg’s dog reacted to the command ‘Hitler’ by raising its paw”.

Mr Borg was called into the German embassy for questioning, where he admitted that his wife Josephine – a known anti-Nazi German – had called the dog Hitler, but denied being involved in anything “that could be seen as an insult against the German Reich”.

The Foreign Office spent three months investigating ways of bringing Mr Borg to trial for insulting Hitler, but no witnesses would come forward, the newspaper reports.

But in March 1941, the Chancellory decided that “considering that the circumstances could not be solved completely, it is not necessary to press charges”. It was unclear whether Adolf Hitler had been involved in the saga himself.”

BBC News 7 January 2011