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I’ve biked a fair bit over the past five days. The old skills are coming back, like peddling standing up when trying to get that extra power to go up hills. I’m no longer just getting by, puff-puff; I’m able to conquer some of the hills in our neighbourhood. I can eye the next ones with a thoughtful gleam in my eye: maybe another week or two before I’m able to conquer all but the most daunting of them!

Exercise seems to consume my days this summer: I walk the dogs, first thing, then either walk youngest to the park for her exercise or bike around the local streets with eldest (and save the park trip for after dinner). That’s more than an hour each day that I’m on the go under my own power.

I’m also doing a few more things to catch up around the house. Now that there are actually a few days of sunshine, here and there, I can look forward to repainting the trim and doors. Paint’s bought and rollers are ready! Other household cleaning and tidying projects are getting done (youngest’s desk is usable again, I’ve got the layout figured out for my wax seals to hang on the dining room wall, etc.). Summer means catching up on life, as well as work!

Obviously, some things have to give in order to make this happen. Since I’m not teaching during the summer, that mostly means online time. I’m putting off logging on until later and later (unless I have a morning meeting in the office, in which case all bets are off). This also has the beneficial effect of pulling me away from email, which is, most of the time, a pure timesink.

This wouldn’t be a half-bad way to live, except for the fact that I keep feeling like I’m neglecting something more important. Like the revisions on my conference paper or chapter. Eep! Back to work!

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. — H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia

I have a bike. It’s been thirty years since I used to gobble up the miles on my bicycle, though the flat terrain of Indiana’s a fair cry from the hills hereabouts. I’m a little bit out of practice so the two kilometres I ventured today was more than enough for my first go but, as my daughter wants to go biking with me this summer, I’ve incentive to get back on the road.

This weekend we’ve seen:

• one bear cub (started to head out on the highway then turned tail back to the woods)
• two moose (placidly grazing in the marsh alongside the highway)
• one buzzard
• a dozen hawks
• a pair of capybara (along with cavies, burros, many goats and other beasties at this event)
• John de Lancie and Robert Picardo with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Again, with autism and education in the news: Canadian Press: Autistic boy suffocated in Quebec classroom

A report by coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier says the boy was being noisy in class and was asked by a teacher to calm down.

But after two warnings, he was taken to a corner of the class and rolled up in a therapeutic blanket.

The report says Poirier, who weighed 53 pounds, was placed on his stomach and then had the 39-pound blanket wrapped around him four times.

His head was inside the blanket and only the tips of his toes were visible.

When a teacher went to check after 20 minutes, the child wasn’t moving and was in a coma.

There aren’t enough words to express how horrific that must have been. And how wrong it was to use a therapeutic aid as an unmonitored disciplinary device. Gah!

Via Boing Boing: Recently, in Barrie, a school called in Children’s Aid to investigate a charge of sexual abuse against a child who happened to be non-verbal and autistic.

All well and good, no?

No, because the accusation was based on information provided to the student’s Educational Assistant by a psychic. (Who further described the assailant as a male between 23-28 years of age.)

Let’s stop for a moment and consider the source of this information: a “psychic”?

. . . under the Child and Family Services Act, anyone who works with children and has reasonable grounds to suspect a youngster is being harmed, must report it immediately - and the CAS has an obligation to follow up. (See the full report at City News’ website)

Note the words “reasonable grounds”. Nowhere in today’s world should that terminology be used to justify following up the wild comments of a so-called psychic. Fortunately, the mother had evidence to repudiate the charges: since the school has had problems keeping track of her daughter on the school campus, she invested in a GPS system with audio recording. The records showed that the girl had not been abused and the file will be closed but the mother has now lost all faith in her daughter’s school, pulling her from their care and searching around for alternate accommodation.

I only hope that the Barrie police will follow up to lay charges against the psychic for her reckless and unjustified claims. (And I’d also hope that the EA who consulted the wacko and brought forward these charges would be required to go back and do some remedial work of her own.)

Zappos ships to Canada!

(Sure, they charge an arm and a leg for customs duty and shipping, but, nevertheless, I rejoice that I can finally replace my aging handbag with a perfect replica and for ten dollars less than eBags could manage.)

You may now return to your various sober and scholarly activities. I’ll be here, gloating over my shopping triumph.

Being the fortieth such since first these were instituted in 2004 and not to be taken as an indicator of an eXtra-Large sizing (unless that be the copious amount of links and references provided by the many good readers and participants) and paying particular attention to material touching on the early modern period.

Textualities: As if you need any justification, here are Ten Reasons to Read Dante. Tired of the modernist bent in all those “Great Books” lists? Make suggestions towards a listing of a thousand great works of medieval and early modern writing. Lunenberg celebrates the return of a 300-year old “Vinegar” Bible and Metafilter entertains talk of the Prague Bible.

Terminologies: C.S.L. Davies takes many of us to task for participating in The Tudor delusion (note, happily, this does not require any familiarity with the television series of same name). See Early Modern Notes for some discussion of Davies’ article.

Researching: Over at The Long Eighteenth, David Mazella discusses his work with manuscripts at the Guildhall while Digital History Hacks has six parts in the serialized story of a Naive Bayesian in the Old Bailey (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6). (See the roundup of Old Bailey blogging at Early Modern Notes. Medieval Material Culture Blog alerts us to the restoration of a 17th century painting in Minneapolis. Walking the Berkshires takes readers along on the whys and hows of researching the 18th century British military leader, General Thomas Stirling.

Portraits: Many bloggers are discussing a recently unearthed family portrait of Henry VIII and his children found in the Duke of Buccleuch’s collection. An 18th century sketchbook in Madrid contains rare portrait of a Musqueam chief.

Artifacts: Philobiblon delights us with Renaissance tidbits from the V&A. Earthly Paradise highlights Historic Pottery at the Cluny Museum. There are too many new and newsworthy exhibits to highlight, but Medieval Material Culture Blog points out several, including and the Folger’s exhibit on Arms and Armor in Shakespeare. (I also credit MMCB with interesting highlights on the planned restoration of Shakespeare’s tomb.)

Archaeology: Many sites are agog over the recent discovery of the shipwrecked HMS Ontario (sometimes described as the “Holy Grail” of Great Lakes shipwrecks). Near Alderney, the remnants of an Armada ship are being explored, also earning some coverage. (Regarding marine archaeology, study of the Vasa has helped to explain the accumulation of sulfur in marine wrecks.) Mirabilis.ca also alerts us to recent uncovering of parts of Casas Nuevas, Montezuma’s Palace. In Newfoundland, they’ve uncovered a 17th century Scottish gold coin.

Places: Admirable India provides illustrated accounts of a trip to historic Orissa and Chikmagalur (Day 1) (Day 2). Does the Hotel Beauvais in Paris host the image of the woman who (presumably enjoyed) Louis XIV’s virginity?

Endings: Early Modern Whale tackles Thomas Appletree’s shooting of Elizabeth I’s watermen in 1579 as well as A true relation of one Susan Higges’s 1640 account of cross-dressing, murder and execution. Speaking of executions — plans are afoot to rehabilitate Anna Goeldi, the last woman executed in Europe for witchcraft.Executed Today tackles the 1622 end of Antonio di Nicolo Foscarini.

Events: Alex at Military History and Warfare discusses Wolfe’s Capture of Quebec in 1759. Also regarding Quebec, I go back to 1608 for a discussion of the quadricentennial of Champlain’s foundation (amidst a broader discussion of memorializing discoveries and foundations).

Wonders: Mercurius Politicus debunks the modern enthusiasm for seeing crop circles in the class-conflicted 17th century pamphlet, The Mowing Devil. Steve Mulhberger’s Early History brings up the possibility of Fourteenth Century Robots (further discussion of this marvel that was part of Richard II’s coronation is in this second post).

Culture: Investigations of a Dog shares his recent presentation on Humans and Non-Humans in Early Modern Society. One of the great works in English witchcraft history, Mary Moore’s 1650 pamphlet Wonderful News from the North gets an in-depth examination at Early Modern Whale. Everything you need to know about life on an early modern campus comes courtesy of Mercurius Politicus.

Recreation: 18th Century Cuisine gives us sweet reading with Mad for Macarons and June for the Confectioner. From the same era, we see forthcoming 18th century weeks at Gammel Estrup and Skansen.

Losses: The Passing of Hans Turley.

Amusements: LOL Manuscripts riproaringly revisits many early modern images, including some from The Expert Midwife, 1637, a 1630 broadsheet of the Arms of Tobacconists and my personal favourite, An Exact Description of Prince Rupert’s Malignant She-Monkey from 1643. Edward Vallance discusses Prince Charles’ discharging Charles II’s outstanding debt to the clothiers of Worcester, delinquent since 1651.

Please to see also more than half a dozen relevant posts highlighted at today’s 15th Military History Carnival at Cardinal Wolsey’s Today in History. Also, it’s worthwhile checking out the new portal for Oxford’s Centre for Early Modern Studies. Did I miss anything that should be included? Let me know in the comments! And remember to submit posts for the next edition of Carnivalesque (ancient/medieval)!

Here’s a story that grabbed my interest from CNN: Controversial World War II book questions ‘just war’:

Even the staunchest opponents of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq are loath to take issue with World War II, the quintessential conflict between good and evil that became the model of a morally just war.

So it’s no surprise that novelist Nicholson Baker’s latest venture into nonfiction, “Human Smoke,” has stirred up strong feelings. After all, he questions the popular notion of the just war and indicates that Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt share blame with Adolf Hitler in setting the stage for the deadliest and most destructive war in history.

Baker makes his case through hundreds of brief vignettes culled from newspapers, diaries and secondary sources that are presented chronologically and without context or commentary by the author. The book ends on December 31, 1941, as the world plunges into the abyss.

First things first — what does the author and the audience mean by “just war”? I get the feeling that the term is used in an intellectually lazy fashion — if you simply mean “justified” by Hitler’s publicly-known actions up to 1939 or 1941 or with the hindsight to know about the death camps, you’ll come up with quite different answers than if you pose that with the context of a thousand years (and more!) of philosophical consideration on the subject. Read more »

As Michael Geist had warned, today the Industry and Heritage ministers introduced a worrisome and draconian “Copyright Reform” Bill to Parliament. This bill touts the way it legalizes things we’re already able to do while it fails to address the ways in which the bill would shut down commonplace use of current technologies in favour of the corporate interests of a few, powerful multinationals. While you can timeshift some TV programs in some ways, according to the proposals here, it would now be illegal to watch your DVDs on a Linux box (have to circumvent the CSS since DVD playing software doesn’t work on the OS) or rip your CD/DVD to enjoy on your portable player. More importantly, for my interests, regarding the impact of the bill on educational communities:

New Provisions for Educational Use of Internet Material: Teachers and students could use material that they find on the Internet, as long as it is used for educational or training purposes. For example, teachers and students could make multiple copies of articles found on the Internet and distribute them to classmates. (I already do this — it’s called providing a hyperlink. Students can click on links. If it’s available online, it’s available whether we’re in the classroom or not. I am befuddled at the way in which this law seems to privilege printing things off of the internet as something “gosh wow and gee, shiny!”)
Limitations on Educational Use of Internet Material: Teachers and students could not rely on the exception if their use of the Internet material has been restricted by a digital lock or prohibited by a clearly visible notice. The exception would not apply to material posted on the Internet without the consent of the copyright owner. (So it’s all available unless they say it isn’t available in which case it’s not available to read or just not to print off? Do you mean that maybe we’re talking about things behind a subscription firewall like the one that exists at our university library in which case, everyone in the classroom has access to those resources already. I don’t understand the logic here.)

Write your MP, the Ministers and encourage others to do the same. Stop this bill before it goes any farther in eroding our rights.

Via Boing Boing, we have a healthy conversation revisiting the old question of “What would you do if you traveled in time back to the year 1000?”

I’m pretty sure that we covered this a long while back on rec.org.sca. (Probably more than once: I only found a more recent iteration of the time travel question from 2002 but I remember a discussion in the early 90s.) Someone posed the theoretical question of what would happen if you transported the entire group in attendance at Pennsic War back a millennium and into Western Europe. The general consensus that I recall was to let the stupid people either a) try to confront the locals or b) set up a chain of modern conveniences they lack the infrastructure to maintain while the rest of us snuck off and dispersed ourselves quietly into service at variously appropriate monasteries, nunneries or farming communities. Or die, most likely.

Second, my thought always comes back to gloating at the thought that I’d finally have a use for all that medieval Latin I struggled through at PIMS.

Finally, what better time to note various time travel fictions that I’ve read and enjoyed?

• L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall (1939)
• Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (1992)
• Harry Turtledove, The Guns of the South (1992)
• Eric Flint, 1632 (2000)
• Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr, Household Gods (2000)