Plenty of Nothing

Oni Helmet

This helmet in the Royal Ontario Museum could have been created by mangaka or dessinateur.

Roman Glassware

Roman glassware at the museum of the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa.

Have you ever wondered why Roman glassware always looks dirty? It's because it is. An agricultural society like the Romans' maintained a very close relationship to the soil. Today a wine expert can speak authoritatively about the terroir that produced a vintage. The peasantry of the Roman Empire could identify the terroir of pork, egg, mussel or even bread. Their intimate understanding of the soil sprang from the farming practice of tasting the earth to learn its mineral content. The soils of particular estuaries were considered especially healthful. Taverniers bottled earth from these favoured spots with natural spring water and sold it as a refreshing beverage. The dirt you see in Roman glassware is a residue of this soft drink, trademarked Agri-Cola.

Nefertiti as Daruma

When Japanese visitors to the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin find themselves in front of the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, do they wonder, "When are they going to paint the other eye?" In Japan the figure of Daruma receives a second eye when some important task has been completed. Perhaps Nefertiti's one eye is saying, "You still haven't returned me to Egypt."

The Witch Computer

The Witch is a working digital computer from the Nineteen Fifties. You can see it in operation at the Bletchley Museum of Computing at Bletchey Park, Milton Keynes, or watch this item from BBC.

The Textile Museum of Canada

From an exhibit in 2006.
The Textile Museum of Canada, located in a condo tower just off Dundas in downtown Toronto, is one of Canada's undiscovered treasurehouses.

Hiroshige Foxfire

Did you know about the foxes who congregate around a certain tree on New Year's Eve and breath fire? You can read about it at the Brooklyn Museum site, and view the rest of Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo as well.

Barley Toys

The Colchester Historeum in Truro, Nova Scotia, located in the former Normal School Science Building, currently has an exhibit on Robertson's Candy, makers of barley toys since 1928.

About the Korean FA Cup

A Goryeo dynasty (AD 918-1392) bronze bottle from the Korean collection of the Smithsonian Institution, and not in fact the Korean FA Cup.

The 2012 Korean FA Cup began in March with 8 clubs from the third-tier Challengers League, 7 from university competitions, and 1 from the reserve league. In April the 8 winners were joined by the Challengers League champion plus 5 clubs from the second-tier National League. In May the 7 winners were joined by the top 9 from the National League and all 16 K-League clubs in the Round of 32. June 20th was the Round of 16. Today it's the quarterfinals.

Are Pohang Steelers still in it? Yes. They entered at the Round of 32 and beat Cheongju Jikji 4 - 0, then in the Round of 16 they beat Gwangju FC 3 - 1. Today they play Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Pretty much the first notable event of the London Olympics was the Korean flags screw-up, in which pictures of North Korean players were displayed next to a South Korean flag. Ouch! So, to remove any ambiguity in this article, let me just state that the Korean FA Cup is contested in South Korea. North Korea has the Republican Championship, which could stand some better publicity. Though you can get your North Korean football hit here.

[Pohang win 3 - 2! Incidentally, Steelers' No Byung-Jun was Man of the Round in the Round of 16.]

Osaka #247

The Edmonton Radial Rail Society maintains and runs a fleet of streetcars preserved from Edmonton's rail past, and from other cities in Canada and overseas, including #247 from Osaka, Japan. I originally learned about the railway and this expatriate Japanese streetcar at From Japan. There are more pictures here. Check this site for a map of Edmonton's streetcar network in its heyday.

Cow Birth

Whenever we're in Toronto we like to get to the Egyptology section of the Royal Ontario Museum and have a look at this unusually true to life carving from the Middle Kingdom.