My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Albrecht Düre – BBC In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) who achieved fame throughout Europe for the power of his images. These range from his woodcut of a rhinoceros, to his watercolour of a young hare, to his drawing of praying hands and his stunning self-portraits such as that above (albeit here in a later monochrome reproduction) with his distinctive A D monogram. He was expected to follow his father and become a goldsmith, but found his own way to be a great artist, taking public commissions that built his reputation but did not pay, while creating a market for his prints, and he captured the timeless and the new in a world of great change.

With

Susan Foister
Deputy Director and Curator of German Paintings at the National Gallery

Giulia Bartrum
Freelance art historian and Former Curator of German Prints and Drawings at the British Museum

Ulinka Rublack
Professor of Early Modern European History and Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge

Listen to this podcast

Links and Further Reading on the BBC Web Site

In the US, mascots are used to pump up crowds at sporting events, or for traumatizing generations of children at Chuck E. Cheese, but in Japan it’s different. There are mascots for towns, aquariums, dentists’ offices, even prisons. There are mascots in cities that tell people not to litter, or remind them to be quiet on the train. Everything has a mascot and anything can be a mascot. The reason why mascots and character culture flourish in Japan is connected with the nation’s fascinating history with mythical monsters known as Yokai.

Singing with others is a powerful form of expression. That’s why the composer Eric Whitacre started the Virtual Choir; an experiment that connects singers from every corner of the globe. In this episode, we hear how a choir can unite people from different backgrounds to achieve a common goal – creating beautiful music.

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Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) – 1 in a series

This Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) has become an almost daily visitor to the garden in the last few weeks, so I’ll be sharing a series of video clips of its behaviors for those interested in raptors.

In this video you can see the hawk spreading its wings when a squirrel on the ground approaches too closely. I have seen this behavior several times in the past. sometimes with the squirrel actively chasing off the hawk.

More information on Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooper):

• Cooper’s Hawk on Wikipedia
• Cooper’s Hawk at All About Birds
• Cooper’s Hawk at Audubon Field Guide

Get your own Arduino Yun and start experimenting with the Internet of Things!

Introduction to the Arduino Yun #2

Discovered in my daily YouTube Viewing

Get your own Arduino Yun and start experimenting with the Internet of Things!

Introduction to the Arduino Yun #1

Discovered in my daily YouTube Viewing