Take The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences, and Marvels for the Eyes, an eleventh-century Arabic geography compiled by an anonymous scribe. Despite the wear of centuries, the book is still a wonder. Its illustrations are designed to excite the senses as well as the intellect. Waters painted with silver to make them shimmer; comets that blaze with flakes of gold; lapis lazuli deepening the ocean’s blue. In those days, paper was an expensive commodity, such that the book’s wide margins were a show of lavish excess. Although usually extremely accurate, Big Ben has slipped up a couple of times with its timekeeping. Article on acquisition of the manuscript by the Bodleian Library, from Blueprint (The newsletter of Oxford University), 10 October 2002 ( https://www.ox.ac.uk/blueprint/2002-03/1010/07.shtml). The last dated event mentioned in the treatise is the construction buildings for merchants in the city of Tinnis in 1014-1015. Moreover, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Fatmid ruler of Egypt and Syria from 996 to 1021, is referred to in the chapter on Tinnis as if he were no longer reigning. Therefore, the treatise was probably composed after 1021. Spiders eat insects by filling them with digestive juices • Spiders eat more insects than birds and bats combined. [9]

a b c d Savage-Smith, Emilie; Rapoport, Yossef (2014-01-01). An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe. BRILL. doi: 10.1163/9789004256996. ISBN 978-90-04-25699-6. Spider webs contains vitamin K, which assists in reducing bleeding • Hundreds of years ago, people put spider webs on their wounds because they believed it would help stop the bleeding. Scientists now know that the silk contains vitamin K, which helps reduce bleeding. [2] How Electricity Helps Spider Webs Snatch Prey and Pollutants.” Science Daily. January 14, 2014. Accessed: January 23, 2015.

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The author of the Book of Curiosities is not named and has not been identified, although he refers to another composition of his titled al-Muhit (‘The Comprehensive’). On the basis of internal evidence, we can suggest that the treatise was composed in the first half of the 11 th century, probably in Egypt. The copy we have today is more recent and appears to have been made some hundred and fifty to two hundred years later. Although the copy is undated and unsigned, the paper, inks, and pigments appear consistent with Egyptian-Syrian products made from the early 13 th through the 14 th century. Book 1 – Chapter 1: On the extent of the celestial sphere, and a summary of the sayings of the scholars regarding its knowledge and structure The BBC first broadcast Big Ben’s chimes to the country during a New Year’s Eve radio broadcast in 1923.

Most spiders live alone, meeting other spiders only to mate. A few species of spiders are social and live in groups. For example, in Africa, the web of social spiders such as Stegodyphus colonies can cover whole trees. In India, webs may cover trees for several miles. [8] Some spiders, such as house spiders, are able to run up walls because their feet are covered in tiny hairs that grip the surface. They can’t get out of a bathtub, however, because the surface is too slippery. Other spiders, such as garden spiders, cannot crawl up walls because their legs end in claws, which help them grip threads of silk instead. [10] Some tarantulas will fling tiny, irritating hairs, known as urticating hairs, to thwart predators—similar to the way a porcupine uses its quills as defense. [11] Michael and Micaela Jemison. “ Eight Strange but True Spider Facts.” Smithsonian Science. November 28, 2014. Accessed: January 23, 2015.At the furthest edges, even the boundaries between human and vegetable begin to dissolve: On a distant island in the Indian Ocean grow the Waq-Waq trees, which bear fruits in the shape of plump, curvaceous women who constantly scream “waq waq!” The bird-dropping spider gets its name because it looks like bird poo. This type of camouflage prevents birds from eating it. [8]

Maps from the distant past look nothing like the world as we imagine it today. They guide us not through space but through time. A world map from the eleventh century promised people alive in the eleventh century the chance to peer into distant, exotic lands; looking at the same map today affords a glimpse into a distant time, a chance to see through the eyes of people who lived and died more than 900 years ago. When acquired by the Bodleian Library, the volume was contained in an Ottoman binding of, possibly, 18 th or 19 th century date; the binding was too small for the manuscript and in extremely poor condition. The first folio of the manuscript has staining which indicates that an earlier binding included an envelope flap. At present, the volume is disbound with the binding removed and stored separately. The conservation laboratories of the Bodleian Library will ultimately rebound manuscript and give it a new binding meeting modern standards of preservation and conservation. Book 2 – Chapter 1: On the mensuration of the Earth and its division into seven climes, as related by Ptolemy and others According to Greek myth, a girl named Arachne could spin so well that the goddess Athena became jealous and turned her into a spider. [2]

It's 1979 and Peter Weller’s rich eccentric invites four top artists and scientists to his bunker-like homestead promising a viewing of, well, something. Plying the group with expensive drink and drugs (the "space cocaine" mentioned could also have been the episode title), they casually banter for most of the runtime until the viewing itself. Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes. In early comic books, the radioactive spider that bites Peter Parker is incorrectly referred to as an insect. [13] Chrysti. Verbivore’s Feast, Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins. Helena, MT: Farcountry Press, 2006. Rapoport, Yossef, ‘The Book of Curiosities: A Medieval Islamic View of the East’, in Andreas Kaplony and Phillip Forêt (eds.), The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road (London: Routledge), forthcoming. Arabic book Map of Sicily from a 13th-century copy of the Fatimid cosmography, The Book of Curiosities, housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.