And Did Those Feet

I discovered some interesting new 'facts' while reading about St Thomas Hospital in 'the Religious houses of London and Middlesex' (Ed Caroline M Barron and Matthew Davies). Firstly, the Hospital in 1535 had 3 laysisters, while originally the Sisters were professed and of the Augustinian order. At the same time the Master was accused of closing the Free School which the Hospital used to run with a £4 allocation. After a scandal in 1323 Bishop Asser involving the 'brethren and sisters' ordered that they should all follow the rule of St Augustine (the implication being that they did not subscribe to this rule before) and that the Master should eat with the Brethen In 1357 the hospital presented a petition to the Pope, asking for an indulgence of 2 years for fund raising. In the petition they claimed that the Hospital was founded by St Thomas Becket himself in Southwark. In 1299 Isaac the Jew gave a house to the Hospital (interesting because the Jews were suppo...

I watch Bruce Parry's Tribe yesterday about the Penan - it was very moving about how their nomadic lifestyle is being ruined by the loggers. On Wade Davies web site is the following message from the Penan Not long ago, we were happy. Things were good. Our fish were clean. Our food was pure. Our way of life staying in the forest was good. As things are now, we are in difficulty. The land is being destroyed. Many open places. These plants are our medicines. If we ask for medicines from the government, they give us Panadol. It is already spoiled. The more we take, the sicker we become. This is what we don't like. We are content to stay on this land, to make our shelters in this forest. This is a good life. But if all these trees are gone, there is no longer a way for us to stay here. Trees that are cut down were once the shelter of hornbill, the home of gibbons, the home of langur, the home of every single kind of animal that lives up high. Where is their ...

Excavations in Georgia have found early evidence of hominids outside of africa. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Georgia clues to human origins

I am now an Honorary Lecturer at UCL, on the Museum Studies Course.

The London Paranormal Society visited the Museum at the weekend - looking at their web site it looks a bit like a leisure tourism club! London Paranormal Society

The finding of a late Roman burial at St Martins in the Fields nearby Saxon remains of around 500, has been said to have reduced the 'lost centuries' of the Post Roman period where we know very little about what happened in London. The gap is now 90 years from St Martin's so-called 'Last Roman' to the Saxon remains. The gap was previously 200 years from the end of the Roman period to the beginning of the Lundenwic sequence. Before the 1980's the gap was 410AD to the late 9th Century in the City. The findings also disturb the current models of the London Dark Age, currently, there is nothing to link Londinium with Lundenwic, except a common name - now the gap is diminished and reminds archaeologists that the data is not yet strong enough to be sure what was happening in this period - it may be that London continued throughout and there is no Dark Age break. For information on St Martins discoveries look at: BBC NEWS | UK | Bridging London's lost centuries

Constructivism in the Museum - simple explanation in the Gem publication . Not sure I entirely agree as he divides museum displays up into 4 types of which one type is the Constructivist Museum, while, to me, it seems, that Museums, lend themselves to constructivism even when planned on a very traditional basis - the user can take what they want, they can make up their own routes, and meanings even if there is a very heavy party line in the museum didatic panels. Learning in the Museum - Google Book Search