The first photo of a person

This photo shows the Boulevard du Temple in Paris and was taken by Louis Daguerre in late 1838 or early 1839. While it isn't the first photograph (that honor went to Joseph Niepce in 1826) it's the first to show a person. Early photography had very long exposure times and thus it was hard to take photos of people. In fact, this photo took more than ten minutes and Daguerre didn't intend to capture any images of people at all. This busy street looks deserted because everyone passed by too quickly to make an impression on the emulsion. But if you look to the lower left you can see a man with his foot up. Apparently he's getting his shoes shined, and he stood still long enough to be captured on film.

This is a historically important shot and makes it into most studies of photography, but what most people seem to miss is that there are in fact two people in the photo. You can see the shoeshine boy as well, although he's not as clear. I've blown up the image below.

Poor people and children tend to be written out of history, and it's a shame that this kid, struggling to make a living and probably doomed to an early death in some nineteenth century tenement, has been ignored by later generations. So here's a bit of belated recognition. Sorry for being overlooked, kid. I hope that guy gave you a good tip!

The first image is courtesy Wikimedia Commons. If it isn't public domain by now then I don't know what is!

The Killer Vespa

This has got to be the coolest Vespa ever.

Introducing the Vespa 150 T.A.P., a girly Euroscooter painted a less-than-girly olive drab and equipped with a manly M20 75mm recoiless rifle!

I discovered this gem while blogging about tank museums, and was impressed by the clever mix of an inexpensive scooter and dangerous firepower.

France developed these in the late 1950s, when it was strapped for cash and mired in a bitter war with their colony Algeria. Vespas were fast, cost only 500 bucks, and light enough that they could be airdropped on parachutes, making them good rapid infantry transport. The shaped charge warhead on the M20 could penetrate 100mm of armor, capable of punching through pillboxes, buildings, and lightly armored vehicles. Since there was no recoil, they could be fired from the Vespa, although ideally they were dismounted and set up on a tripod. About 800 saw use in the war. Despite this, the French lost and Algeria became a nation.

For more pictures, check out this site, and this site (the second one is in French).

Learning the Flags on Embassy Row

I was a single dad for the past nine days because Almudena was off in Oxford and Bonn for work. She brought me back a nice bottle of German mead, so all is forgiven. One of the nice things about taking care of Julián solo is I get to take him to school. It's right next to where Almudena works so usually that's her job.

Julián loves the bus. He already has several "bus friends", some of the drivers know his name, and he likes to read the numbers of the passing buses. Must be his mother's mathematical mind. His school is along embassy row, so I've been teaching him the flags. There's no better way to show off than to have your three year-old shout out, "Look, the flag of Colombia!!!"

What strikes me is how much the embassies symbolize their countries. The French embassy is a marble palace. The Japanese have a clean, modern office building. The American embassy is a fortress.

And the embassy of Canada, my own country? A little office in an upper floor of a nondescript building tucked away on a side street. Ah well.

Mobile phones on planes? No thanks!

I'm so happy I could puke. It was just announced today that mobile phones (cell phones to you Yanks) have just been approved for flights within Europe. New technology means they won't interfere with navigation systems. They'll be available on Air France as early as next month, with Ryanair soon to follow.

Great. Now I can be surrounded by yakking idiots on the plane too. I used to enjoy flights because it was one of the rare times I could get some quiet reading done. Now I have to tolerate people screaming into their mobiles. Time to invest in a pair of ear plugs.