Parental controls for cars

Just a matter of time, of course -- and long the subject of speculative chatter among my friends and fellow parents -- here is Ford's offering:

Cars could soon come with parental controls that limit what younger drivers can do with a vehicle.

Developed by Ford, the MyKey system limits a car's top speed, how loud its stereo can be and sounds warnings if seatbelts are not being worn.

Ford will introduce the controls on some US makes of car that are due to debut in 2009 but go on sale in 2010.

From the BBC.

Actually, I was expecting more, such as a GPS-based feature that prevents stopping or opening of doors near specified addresses, and a built-in Breathalyzer.

Early color photos to museum

A museum in Cromer has paid £42,000 to buy a collection of Edwardian photographs including rare colour plates of Norfolk fishermen.

The works are by renowned photographer Olive Edis, who had homes in London and at Sheringham in Norfolk.

Cromer Museum, which bought the photographs with help from a number of art funds and museums, aims to put some of the collection on display by 2009.

From the BBC.

Latin revival

Enrollment in Latin classes here in this Westchester County suburb has increased by nearly one-third since 2006, to 187 of the district's 10,500 students

Alas, still a tiny number in total.

The resurgence of a language once rejected as outdated and irrelevant is reflected across the country as Latin is embraced by a new generation of students . . .

The number of students in the United States taking the National Latin Exam has risen steadily to more than 134,000 students in each of the past two years, from 124,000 in 2003 and 101,000 in 1998, with large increases in remote parts of the country like New Mexico, Alaska and Vermont.

"Remote parts"?! Oh, that metropolitan bias, showing through once again.

The number of students taking the Advanced Placement test in Latin, meanwhile, has nearly doubled over the past 10 years, to 8,654 in 2007.

From the NY Times.

Monkeys in the restaurant

Check out the video at the BBC.

Deep fish

The "deepest ever" living fish have been discovered, scientists believe.

A UK-Japan team found the 17-strong shoal at depths of 7.7km (4.8 miles) in the Japan Trench in the Pacific - and captured the deep sea animals on film.

The scientists have been using remote-operated landers designed to withstand immense pressures to comb the world's deepest depths for marine life.

Monty Priede from the University of Aberdeen said the 30cm-long (12in), deep-sea fish were surprisingly "cute".

From the BBC, with video.

Fatimid ewer sells at auction

A 1,000-year-old carved rock crystal ewer, one of only seven known surviving examples, fetched 3.2 million pounds at auction on Tuesday, Christie's said.

The ewer is the same one that came up for auction in Britain in January this year, when it was catalogued as a 19th century French claret jug and valued at 100-200 pounds.

In fact experts now believe it is an extremely rare ewer from the Fatimid dynasty which ruled parts of northern Africa and the Middle East in the 10th-12th centuries.

Reflecting its importance it sold in January for 220,000 pounds, although auction house sources said that transaction was later "annulled by agreement". They gave no further details.

Further background:

Of the other six surviving examples, one is in London's Victoria & Albert Museum, two are in the treasury of the Basilica of San Marco, Venice, one is in the Cathedral of Fermo, Italy, another is in the Louvre in Paris and one was stolen from the Museum of Limoges, France, in 1980.

There was one other known ewer, but it was dropped by an employee of a museum in Florence in 1998 and shattered irreparably, according to reports.

From Reuters.