President Ronald Reagan aims a rifle in Air Force One

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.

President Ronald Reagan aims a rifle out a window of Air Force One, circa 1983.  I guess he armed up after the assassination attempt.  Source: unknown.

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Digital art: Orchids

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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A small surrender in one of the battles in "the war on drugs": DoJ allows marijuana legalization to proceed in Washington and Colorado

By Mona Goldwater, Jurisprudence Ed.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently let the governors of Washington and Colorado know that the Department of Justice was backing down from their earlier statements and would allow the states to implement the ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana.

Holder's memo outlines the priorities for federal prosecutors enforcing marijuana laws. According to the guidance, DoJ will still prosecute individuals or entities to prevent:

• the distribution of marijuana to minors;
• revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels;
• the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;
• state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;
• violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana
• drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use;
• growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands;
• preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.

DAGMemo8-29-13

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Habitual Drunkards — images from the 19th and early 20th century

By Jack Brummet, Substance Abuse Ed.

At some point in American history (e.g., the 19th century), tough laws were enacted against habitual drunkards.  These laws were often far harsher than any measures enacted since against heroin, crack, or meth addicts.

According to the Free Dictionary/Legal Dictionary, a Habitual Drunkard was:

• A person given to ebriety or the excessive use of intoxicating drink, who has lost the power or the will, by frequent indulgence, to control his appetite for it.  

• By the laws of Pennsylvania an habitual drunkard is put nearly upon the same footing with a lunatic; he is deprived of his property, and a committee is appointed by the court to take care of his person and estate. Act of June 13, 1836, Pamph. p. 589. Vide 6 Watts' Rep. 139; 1 Ashm. R. 71.  

• Habitual drunkenness, by statutory provisions in some of the states, is a sufficient cause for divorce. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 296. 

        [from A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856]

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Wound Man, from middle ages surgery textbooks

By Jack Brummet, Anatomy Ed.

Wound Man is an illustration from European surgical texts in the Middle Ages. It shows the various wounds a person might suffer in battle or an accident.  The text details treatments for the various injuries. It first appeared in 1492 in Johannes de Ketham's Fasciculus Medicinae and used often in surgical texts up to the seventeenth century.

Public domain images from Wikipedia Commons:

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Reclaimed and redecorated birdhouse

By Jack Brummet

[pencil, pen and ink, and Sharpie on found birdhouse]

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Image: The Papal Blessing

By Jack Brummet

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The cave paintings of Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands)

By Mona Goldwater, Anthropology Ed.

“Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) is a cave in Argentina.  The art on the walls of the cave dates from 13,000 to 9,000 years BC. The early artwork has been carbon-dated to ca. 9300 BC.  The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create hand silhouettes.  Because the hands are mostly left hands, scientists believe that the  painters held the spraying pipe with their right hand”

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Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Vertumnus (a 16th century Carmen Miranda)

By Jack Brummet, Painting Ed.

In this painting, The Holy Roman Emperor is painted as Vertumnus, Roman God of the seasons.

According to the Wikipedia, “Giuseppe Arcimboldo (c.1526–1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books”

Carmen Miranda has nothing on the Emperor. . .

Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Vertumnus

Carmen Miranda

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The Tunnel Of Love

By Mona Goldwater, Romance Ed.

The Tunnel of Love. You've probably seen one in cartoons like the Flintstones or Scooby-Doo.  The Boss released an a song, and an album Tunnel Of Love, and Dire Straits released a song with that title. When I was young, the Puyallup Fair had a ride called "The Old Mill" that was popularly known as the tunnel of love.

tunnel of love, Chicago, 40's

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Digital art: Craters

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Remembering mainframe ASCII printouts (with images of Lincoln, Marilyn, Mickey Mouse, Mona Lisa, Jack B)

By Jack Brummet, Technology Ed.

I took a tour of some large company with a main frame computer sometime in the mid- to late-60's.  We saw the tapes and punchcards, cooling systems, reports, etc.  What really stuck in my mind--and they knew this was a hit with visitors--were the ASCII images they generated programmatically and then printed out on their chain/line printers.  I remember seeing a Marilyn and an Abe Lincoln, among other images.

You don't see these much anymore, now than we can print high definition images.  But, like all good retro technologies, there are people out there keeping it alive.  You can create your own ASCII images using one of several on line image generators.  I created the one of myself on the Ascii art Generator website at http://asciiart.ca/.

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