Thursday Things: Get Incensed Edition
15 April 2021. Vol 3 No 15 By Dan McGirt. #88
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Made with 11 secret herbs and spices. Photo by Stéfano Girardelli on Unsplash
The Enchanting Visuals of Portuguese Fish Tins “Portugal, with its long, winding coastline and a fishing tradition that dates back centuries, is famous worldwide for its tinned fish. Just as revered as the cans’ salty contents, however, are their beckoning exteriors: exquisitely illustrated with intricate engravings, vibrant hues, and bold fonts that come together in a unique and instantly recognizable graphic style.”
So, naturally, there is an online collection of images of these exquisite Portuguese fish tins, right? Of course there is!
The idiosyncratic visual culture of Portugal’s tinned foods industry is the subject of Conservas de Portugal, an online museum featuring more than 40,000 entries including fish tin designs, labels, photographs, and more.
I knew it! You can go straight to the fish tins here: https://conservasdeportugal.com/category/cans-embalagens/
Emporium - Sardines Portugaises à l`huile d` olive. Apparently Portuguese fisherman train eagles to catch sardines for them. Source: Conservas de Portugal
As long as we’re digitizing things, why not digitize the Pyramids of Giza? Oh, Harvard did that already: Digital Giza
The Giza Project is a non-profit international initiative based at Harvard University. Through digital archaeology, we assemble, curate, and present archaeological records about one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, the Giza Pyramids and surrounding cemeteries and settlements. The Project manages arguably the world’s largest digital archive of Giza material. We use this data to build immersive 3D model reconstructions and other media as we develop powerful new teaching technologies and research tools.
Digital Giza, is the Project's online digital repository of all archaeological documentation from multiple institutions, presented free to all, alongside Giza 3D, a virtual environment based on some of that documentation. Anyone can easily access real, detailed information about Giza and its archaeological history while also “experiencing” some of it as well!
Secrets of Bhutanese incense sticks. Bhutan’s 350-year-old recipe for wellbeing. The secret incense formula is known by only two people. I suppose it is the Bhutan equivalent of the formula for Coca-Cola. Only with better karma.
Many of the medicinal plants and leaves that Nado uses are harvested by nomadic yak herders at high altitudes to ensure that they are free of toxins and contaminants. "They live a hard life, but the harvest provides them with extra income," he said. "That good deed sets ripples of good karma in motion before a single stick is made or burned."
I’ve never thought about how those incense sticks are made, so this was an interesting article.
How to save yourself another pointless guilt trip. Guilt trips are the worst kind of trip. Except maybe “going for a ride” with the Mafia. But at least you only have to do that once. Psyche is a website I only recently discovered:
Psyche is a digital magazine from Aeon that illuminates the human condition through psychology, philosophical understanding and the arts.
Lots of interesting articles on those topics, including the one I linked, about how to save yourself from excessive guilt:
Many people around the world live with a recurring sense of excessive guilt that triggers too easily, lasts too long, and leaves a wreckage of self-esteem and confidence in its wake. The good news is that excessive guilt doesn’t have to rule your life, and freeing yourself from its grasp is entirely possible.
If that’s something you could use, go read the article for some helpful advice! And don’t feel guilty about it. Also, it might help to burn some Bhutanese incense.
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