The Ara Pacis monument illuminated by coloured projection.

Rome’s publicity often leaves a lot to be desired. So when friends invited me to the Ara Pacis on Saturday night, I had no idea there was anything special going on. As we shuffled forward in the line (one person on duty to sell tickets for a special occasion) you could see something rather speci...

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2022-04-22: The original of this post suffers from a not-entirely-unusual level of linkrot, but I know what I read and copied and pasted. In digging, I did find this: Disney Consumer Products To Showcase New Produce Selection At Fresh Summit, which suggests that in three years, Disney themed foo...

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Annals of Important Research: An Economist blog post alerts me to a study that has apparently roiled the blogosphere, and that I slept through. Elmo1 can make broccoli attractive to children.2

Bottom line:

[I]n the control group (no characters on either food) 78 percent of children par...

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Clickety clackety click. Yes indeedy, I'm firing on all cylinders here, and the room resounds to the rat-a-tat of my spiffy new keyboard. It's a Das Keyboard Model S Professional UK and I love it to bits.1 As a typewriter, it's the best. Not just the noise but the spacing, pitch and feel of the...

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A neighbour is coming towards me, labouring to carry 18 kg of bottled water (plus the weight of the bottles). He seems glad to stop, put the water down, pet the dog. I comment that he has enough water for a month. No, till this evening, he jokes. I tell him I’m very happy with Roman tap water. Oh no...

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