Resource: fantastic “new” picture resource – LIFE!

This is simply amazing, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one extremely excited about this! Google and Life have teamed up for a partnership, and so there are now tons of so-far “hidden” high-resolution pictures of just about anything available for your viewing pleasure:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

By “amazing” I mean “amazing” – just look at these results:

Horatio Nelson

18th Century

Tall Ships

Larry and Tony Curtis sans shirt in the bathtub (Yes, yes, I know, but COME ON… it’s better than Armadillos…)

Hours and hours and hours of fun…!

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Books: “Animals at Sea” by Liza Verity

Last week, I’ve visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich; regular readers of my journal will know that I can’t pass any opportunity to indulge in my uniform fetish research naval history. They will also know that I possibly couldn’t spot a book with a title like

and leave the shop without buying it!

Animals have shared the limited space aboard ships all through the ages. Dogs, monkeys, cats, parrots, wallabies, goats, elephants – you name it, it’s been at sea. Cats have certainly undergone the biggest “career move” of all animals. From the mass-destruction of the dark ages, where they were suspected to be in league with the devil and not welcome aboard a ship, to much-loved hunters of vermin. Considering the damage caused by rats, one can understand that seamen took a special liking to their four-pawed messmates.

Piracy: From Cutlass to AK-47

Very interesting article by Angus Konstam on BBC online; I’m sure it will ring true to many of us.

The Royal Navy this week shot dead two Somali pirates after intercepting a boat in the mouth of the Red Sea. But Britain’s battle with but Britain’s battle against international piracy goes back a long, long way.

FROM CUTLASS TO AK-47

“(…) The trouble with our view of piracy is that the word has become romanticised. It conjures up images of Jack Sparrow rather than someone wielding an AK-47. The hard-edged reality of modern piracy involves murder, kidnapping, extortion and rape. (…)”

This was considered a successful piece of
maritime law enforcement

This week on Emma Collingwood’s community…

A list with links to the latest entries:

Welcome!

Excerpt: “Crawford’s Casket” (from “The Radiant Boy”) (G)

Excerpt: “PSCL” – 18th century setting (PG-13)

Excerpt: “PSCL” – modern London setting (R)

Upcoming projects, updates etc.

Emma Collingwood Community

From the blog of Emma Collingwood:

“WordPress is not very discussion -friendly – if anything, the format represents an oversized soapbox for people who like to hold monologues.

But that’s over now! Well, almost. I created my own community, and you are cordially invited to join, lurk on or ignore

p_s_c_l

What you can expect to read there are excerpts, short stories and drabbles, the odd review (it happens), art etc. There will also be some posts about my research on naval history and 18th century Britain in general, articles I’ve written and so on and so forth. What I expect in return is honesty. Look, I know some folks are touchy when it comes to their work, and I understand it, but if you think I’ve goofed it up and wrote nonsense, tell me. The cult of nice is not for me.

I write Age of Sail adventure with paranormal elements and gay romance. Don’t give me that look, my stories are good. Not my fault if there are prejudices towards certain genres. Give it a try, you might like it. It’s a bit like Marmite.”