Month: December 2013

Mongolian princess hat

One of the most immediately recognizable symbols of the European Middle Ages is the towering, often conical or cylindrical, women’s headdresses popular throughout Europe in the 15th century. To this day, the tall, often veil-decorated “Princess Hat” is immediately known even to American children as a sign of feminine stature, nobility, and elegance. Tiny, cheap versions of this hat are sold to women and little girls by the millions at Renaissance Faires, theme parks, costume shops, and carnivals all over the United States. They look something like this:

In just about every American imagination, nothing is more essentially European than the elaborate, gravity-defying tall headdress or henin worn by the noblest women of history. Indeed, the European Henin is synonymous to many Americans as a visual symbol of frail femininity, “Faire Maydens”, milky complexions and delicate white women who must be protected by knights, preferably in shining armor.

The heads this historical hat truly belongs on are not only those of women of color, but unrivaled Warrior Queens who ruled a vast empire, went to war with infant sons strapped to their backs, and commanded armies of 10Ks?

The Henin did not spring out of nothingness to adorn the heads of European noblewomen. It is modeled directly after the willow-withe and felt Boqta of Mongolian Queens, which could reach 2m in height.

Medieval kids’ doodles


it is awesome that not just images of jesus (we have far too many of these) survive from the middle ages.

Here’s something very special. In the 1950s archeologists made a great discovery near the city of Novgorod, Russia: they dug up 100s of pieces of birch bark with all sorts of texts written on them. The 915 items are mostly letters, notes and receipts, all written between the 11th and 15th century. The most special items, however, are the ones shown above, which are from a medieval classroom. In the 13th century, young schoolboys learning to write filled these scraps with alphabets and short texts. Bark was ideal material for writing down things with such a short half-life. Then the pupils got bored and started to doodle, as kids do: crude drawings of individuals with big hands, as well as a figure with a raised sword standing next to a defeated beast (lower image). The last one was drawn by Onfim, who put his name next to the victorious warrior. The snippets provide a delightful and most unusual peek into a 13th-century classroom, with kids learning to read – and getting bored in the process.

Turning finance into a utility

my proposal: treat the finance industry like a utility. put strong pressure on reducing transaction costs above all else. the purpose of finance is to grease the cogs of the economy, not for frat boys to play with other people’s money.

In striking contrast with these past prosecutions, not a single high level executive has been successfully prosecuted in connection with the recent financial crisis, and given the fact that most of the relevant criminal provisions are governed by a 5-year statute of limitations, it appears very likely that none will be. It may not be too soon, therefore, to ask why.

Relational social image search

the search tool uses the locations of tagged persons to quantify relationships between them, even those not tagged in any given photo. Imagine you and your mother are pictured together, building a sandcastle at the beach. You’re both tagged in the photo quite close together. In the next photo, you and your father are eating watermelon. You’re both tagged. Because of your close ‘tagging’ relationship with both your mother in the first picture and your father in the second, the algorithm can determine that a relationship exists between those 2 and quantify how strong it may be.