03 janeiro 2018

The First Fashionable Knockoff

About 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from the cocoon of silkworms. Silk quickly became highly prized – and very expensive – so to keep their monopoly, the Chinese kept the secret of how to make the valuable fabric. It was illegal to take silkworms outside of China. Anyone caught trying to export the secret of silk could face the death penalty. With such stringent measures, the Chinese managed to keep the secret for almost 3,000 years! Which opened the door for knock-offs.

The most common knock-off was cotton, beaten with sticks to soften it, then rubbed against a stone to give it a shine like silk. The resulting fabric was called “chintz” because it was “cheap.” Even today, with silk much cheaper and more available, the word chintz means something less valuable and of less good quality.

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Perhaps no photograph so well illustrated the the assassination...



Perhaps no photograph so well illustrated the the assassination of President JFK as this one: John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting as his father’s casket passes. Most of you probably recognize it. The photograph was the most reproduced image of the funeral. It does have a small mystery around it: who took this famous shot has been debated for years. 

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From Mercury Mark II to Project Gemini


On Jan. 3, 1962, the newly announced Mercury Mark II project was renamed Project Gemini. This artist's concept of a two-person Gemini spacecraft in flight shows a cutaway view.

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