Museums enjoy their free for all

The gamble of free admissions at Baltimore’s two largest art museums seems to be paying off. Admissions are soaring, and both the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Walters Art Museum report that they are attracting a more diverse crowd than ever before. Link & a link to Baltimore’s “Free Fall” events calender.

Man seeks a home for black history

In a county that has museums for boats, rural art and duck decoys, John T. Lee Sr. says there is a noticeable omission in Harford’s repertoire. Link

Hunters outfox sport’s challenges

Upon the huntsman’s command, the hounds sprinted out ahead, followed closely by riders galloping across a farm field on a clear, crisp morning. The entourage — about 40 crossbred hounds leading 25 horsemen — raced over rolling hills spread across four farms in Harford and Baltimore counties, a spectacle of action focused on pursuit of a single, diminutive yet tricky creature: a fox. Link

On Hallowed Ground, a Place of Painful Beauty

IT’S strange that a military graveyard should be so lovely, but lovely is the only way to describe the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, 26 miles northwest of Verdun. As exquisite as any French park or chateau grounds, the cemetery is a formal garden of perfectly clipped trees, immaculate lawns, fountains and roses and long white rows of grave markers. Given its beauty, it’s also strange how empty the place is — and stranger still since this is the largest American military cemetery in Europe, the burial site of 14,246 United States service members who died in the war to end all wars. Link

Reconstructed slave cabin opens, adding realism to Mt. Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, Va. - The homes of the nation’s first presidents receive as much care and attention as any historic sites in the nation. Special societies raise money to preserve and protect them. Researchers dote on the finest points of their architecture and family heritage.
But until recent years, there was little focus on a painful reality in the history of several of the founding fathers: George Washington, who led the colonial forces seeking freedom from the British; Thomas Jefferson, whose Declaration of Independence proclaimed the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and James Madison, who wrote the Constitution “in order to . . . secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” all owned slaves. Link

Quote of the day: “It used to be that people moved to where the jobs are,” Plosila said. “Now they move to where they want to live and find a job there.” Link

Jaume I, King of the newly united Aragón and Catalunya, had just conquered the Balearic Islands in 1229, ending 300 years of rule of the . However, it took about another 3 years until the last of the Arab resistance was crushed on the population that still remained after their defeat. He was well educated, and became the tutor of Jaume II of Aragon. Llull wrote in Latin, Catalán and monk. In 1273, he founded a Franciscan missionary school in , near Deià, Mallora, which today is a museum for Ramón Llull, as well as for the . Miramar is well worthy of your visit. Talk to the gardener there if you have a />

mountain in which Ramón Llull related seeing the whole universe reflecting the divine attributes, he conceived of reducing all knowledge to first principles and determining their common point of unity.

for the purpose, each of which consisted of two or more cardboard discs inscribed with alphabet letters or numbers that referred to lists of attributes. These discs could be rotated individually to generate a large number of combinations of ideas. This method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge.

have adopted Llull as a sort of founding father, claiming that his system of logic was the true beginning of religions - whether Jews, Muslims or Christians - would agree with these attributes, giving him a firm platform from which to of Tunis to Christianity. He was violently expelled from Tunis, in an incident which was wrongly magnified by some later historians into a stoning to death, and therefore a martyrdom. On his return, Llull began to preach for a unification of the three monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - which, together, he hoped, would be able to defeat the Asian invaders then threatening Europe and the Middle East.

of the Church by logical argument. But in 1376, Pope Gregorio XI charged Llull with confusing faith with reason and condemned his teachings. The Roman Catholic church did, however, pardon Ramón Llull more quickly than they did , venerating Llull during the 19th

we arrived safely in singapore last night. what a city! highrises all over the place and food stalls every step of the way. we’re staying in a $80 a night hostel in the city until we can find a more affordabe place to live. hopefully, we will find that place tomorow. for today, we are exploring and havig a blast. right now, we are at the sciene museum which has a water area that ez is about to strip down and enjoy. we rode the subway out here; her first time on an underground subway. in perth, aus we rode the above ground mass transit rail all the time. she seems to remember those rides well b/c as soon as we stepped onto the subway today, she said, “australia, perth!”. next, we are headed to the chinese and japanese gardens then the bird park. all should be within walking sdistance or at least a short bus ride. the mass transit here is awesome and accesible; we bought ez-ride cards this morning that can be used with a quick scn on the MRT (aka subway) or the buses. some buses are double deckers and e already wants to ride them. a and i keep talking about public transport and how we have to live in a place where we an easily use it all the time. in addition to vounteering and haing a fabulous time exporing cities, we talk a lot about our life upon return to nc. what we love about it (mainly, how great our friends are and how yummy the food is) and how we would like to change a few things about our lifestyle. since i am blogging from the “icafe’ within the science museum, i better move on for now! we’re taking lots of great pictures and thinkng of the fun we had at the Durham Museum of Life and Science on LLL’s 50th anniv party and with our co-family. We look forward to more of those days in the future!