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1855, Union Square...

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1855: Broadway and Broome st...

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This led me on deep dive into old NYC photos. Mainly for this link: www.history101.nyc/history-of-n...

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tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's probably obvious, but I hadn't known that the landscaped median of Park Avenue in #Manhattan was the site of an 1800s railroad. I think some of it still there - but now underground up as far as 125th st. This pic from 1893 shows it as it was back then... #NYC

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Thanks to @audiodrama.bsky.social for the shoutout. They recommend some great shows, so we're really honoured!

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Cedar Lounge Revolution @clrevolution.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Scottish Fish From Boston in the US, Scottish Fish are a Scottish style fiddle band that all met together at the Boston Harbour Scottish Fiddle school. They released their first album "Splash" in 2017 and have had three other major releases since.

cedarlounge.wordpress.com

This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Scottish Fish

From Boston in the US, Scottish Fish are a Scottish style fiddle band that all met together at the Boston Harbour Scottish Fiddle school. They released their first album "Splash" in 2017 and have had three other major releases since.

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Catherine Crichton @catherinecrichton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So excited to see the cover for my novel based on the life of Irish artist Harry Clarke. It tells the story of his controversial Geneva Window as seen through the eyes of a young female assistant in Clarke’s studio. Set in 1920s Dublin, publishing January with @stairwellbooks.bsky.social

The cover features a highly detailed stained glass panel by Clarke. It features the character of Nelly from Liam O’Flaherty’s Mr Gilhooley. He picks her up from the street and she dances for him wearing only a thin veil. The figure of Nelly is depicted with a head of golden curls. Her pink veil, decorated with tiny star and heart shapes and a yellow zigzag border, seems to float around her. Clarke used a photo of a dancer from the Ballet Russes as inspiration. Cover text reads ‘The Window, A Novel, Catherine Crichton’

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eolaí the artist @eolai.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

An Irish #painting "To The Beach" came as much from a love of places where people could be avoided, because people, they're the worst. Specifically this is that part of south Mayo protected by Killary harbour, the ocean and the mountains, as you look across to north Connemara. #SpéirGhorm #ArtYear

Landscape format in loose painterly acrylics on canvas panel. By a patch of gravel in the foreground, is an open gateway between concrete posts in a dry stone wall through which we see a view down into a green field, following a stone track, with grass down the middle, to a five-bar gate to another field of brighter green surrounded by stone walls. Beyond it lower down is the yellow of the beach. Past that a maroon hill slopes down from the left and the glassy blue-grey ocean is on the right with a couple of dark long slim islets of maroon. Along the horizon is a low ridge of mid-blue hills with hints of beach edging in a few places, and behind it are gentle mountains of paler blue-lilac. Sky is loose and wild mixtures of greys with a few touches of orange and of green. Photo was taken before my signature was added.

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 30/09/2026

just had fun explaining this to my 7-year-old

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tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thanks to @audiodrama.bsky.social for the shoutout. They recommend some great shows, so we're really honoured!

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eolaí the artist @eolai.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A #painting from everyday Ireland, "Sheep, Stone Wall II". If you see sheep every day, that is. Like I used to, when I had a little dog and we'd walk for miles stopping every so often to let the sheep look at us as we'd talk about the countryside and how yellow it all seemed. #SpeirGhorm #ArtYear

Square canvas in acrylics. Against a background of all golden yellow in varying painterly shades, some more orange, are four sheep. They are white with navy, almost black, heads, legs and shadows underneath. No eyes can be made out but their ears project out sideways. All are standing except the nearest which is sitting facing towards the viewer. The wool is lilac in the middle with touches of pink as it transitions from the white on top in the sun to navy in shadow and when dark wool. Wool color edges are not blended but hard in a stylised fashion. Behind them in the mid-distance is a low dry-stone wall of navy and white stones, with seven navy fence posts rising at intervals from it. In the foreground are some darker low tufts of a green created by a dark blue washed over with yellow. Photo taken before my signature was added.

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That is as close an image I can find for what the narrator's rooming house might have looked like in 1858, where he went on to see wonderful things in the microscopic world, and to do awful things in this world... #ScienceFiction #SciFI stg-productions.simplecast.com

Audio drama - beginning with three classic Irish Science Fiction stories adapted from A Brilliant Void, an anthology published by Tramp Press, bringing these stories to life with great actors, expert...

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Maybe a bit more like this famous photo - from the 1850s, but with a railway running down the street.

So I'm guessing it was what is somewhere around 30th st on what is now Park Ave.... This is what that looks like now according to Google maps, but it was obviously different back then...

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I was on a hunt for images of where the narrator in the Diamond Lens might have rented rooms in 1858. The story says 4th ave - and describes them as comfortable. So I don't think he was in the crowded downtown area. And further uptown at that stage wasn't town at all...

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1855: Broadway and Broome st...

This led me on deep dive into old NYC photos. Mainly for this link: www.history101.nyc/history-of-n...

tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

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The 3rd Man Gregory's Girl Passport to Pimlico Room with a view Prick up your ears

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T.E. Bean @tebean.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

HERE BE POSTCARDS! Surely you want one? Perhaps even need one? Might possession of an 𝙄𝙉𝙁𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙏𝙀 𝙉𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙀𝙔𝙀𝙎 postcard be a biological imperative, for you are but an organism responding to the ancient call of the rectangle? A mammal with a profound and inexplicable craving for cardboard?

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tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Going out to walk the dog once the rain stops* Why not take along a riveting tale Classic #ScienceFiction #SciFi Podcast, A Brilliant Void? You could travel to NYC in 1858 and follow a young man on a dark and wonderful journey into the microscopic... stg-productions.simplecast.com/episodes/the...

The Diamond Lens, A Brilliant Void | A Brilliant Void

Adapted from the short story by Fitz-James O'Brien. A young man becomes obsessed with the wonderful world he finds while looking through a microscope. Classic Irish Science Fiction.

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tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't know about the rest of the country but in North Dublin, the libraries have all been upgraded in recent years. Big extensions with welcoming and warm interiors. As well as borrowing books, a lovely spot to sit down for ten minutes and read a newspaper or magazine. Truly, a good news story.

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Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

And now for some good news: "Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years. New figures show that almost 16 million visits were made to Ireland's libraries in 2025, compared with nearly 14 million in 2023." www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

rte.ie

Public library visits increased by two million nationwide

Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years, new figures show as National Public Libraries Open Day takes place nationwide.

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So this is my question: we know Leeuwenhoek as the father of microscopy, and he is sometimes called the father of microbiology ... but is it possible he was also a key figure in art history? 🧪

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David Hockney, and My Favourite LC Physics Question....

And what is intriguing about this is that we know Vermeer had a collection of optical instruments, including high quality lenses - and many have speculated that he used these lenses in his art. Including David Hockney: www.physicsresourcebank.com/post/david-h...

physicsresourcebank.com

Reposting this from years ago to mark the passing of David Hockney. t must be either evidence of Stockholm Syndrome or excessive nerdiness that I have a list in my head of my favourite LC Physics ques...

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This is a set up Hockney did to show how clear an image could have been created by artists of Vermeer's generation if they had good lenses (and we know Vermeer had good lenses)... He argues that the realism of Renaissance painting is due to the use of lenses. 🧪

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I was prompted into this search by Leeuwenhoek's improbable appearance in #NYC in 1858 - playing a central role in The Diamond Lens, where his advice sends a young man on a dark and wonderful path ... stg-productions.simplecast.com

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He opened a drapers shop in Delft in the 1650s and did well in business. Drapers then would use a magnifying glass to examine the quality of a cloth, but he was dissatisfied with this, and this led to him developing an entirely new process for making better lenses, and eventually microscopes.🧪

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Also living in Delft at the time was the painter Vermeer. The two were contemporaries and both prominent citizens in a small town. And we know that they knew each other because Leeuwenhoek was an executor for Vermeer's will - which suggests to me they were far more than acquaintances.... 🧪

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In particular, he asserted that the moving objects he saw through his microscopes must be alive - and thus the whole world of microbiology was born. Enough for any one man. But I was intrigued by a sidenote in his life story...

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Beyond this, many believe that Vermeer's painting, the Geographer, is actually of Leeuwenhoek. It's hard to imagine that the two men would have met without Leeuwenhoek explaining to his friend how he could use lenses to make his work better - and hard to image that Vermeer wouldn't listen. 🧪

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I read that first as King William Trial. Thought it odd the Unionists were backing the idea.

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tom t @bankphysics.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Among the arguments that Hockney makes is the fact that Vermeer repeatedly painted people beside brightly lit windows. Possibly an artistic choice, of course - but also possibly a way of creating a bright enough image on a canvas that he could paint over. 🧪

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How cool is this? An effect that can be seen some data projectors - mainly those built by Epson, as far as I can tell - and it combines a wonderful demonstration of polarisation with colour mixing. Shown here with a polarising filter, but it will work with many sunglasses....🧪

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