Statue of a nymph and satyr once held in the Secretum
The Secretum was a British Museum collection of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that held artefacts and images deemed sexually graphic. Many of the items were from pre-Christian traditions and the collection covered wide ranges of human history and geography. Many of the early artefacts with erotic or sexually graphic images acquired by the museum were not put on public display. Modern scholars believe this segregation was probably motivated by a paternalistic stance from the museum to keep what they considered morally dangerous material away from the public. By the 1860s there were around 700 such items held by the museum. In 1865 the antiquarian George Witt donated his phallocentric collection of 434 artefacts to the museum, which led to the formal setting up of the Secretum. Beginning in 1912 items were gradually transferred from the Secretum into departments appropriate for their time frame and culture. The last remaining items were moved out of the collection in 2005. (Full article...)
... that after some of Anders Årfelt's lion sculptures (example pictured) were struck during the 2017 Stockholm truck attack, the city ordered new versions weighing 3 tonnes?
... that pastry chef and television judge Benoit Blin cut off the tips of his fingers in a kitchen accident during his service in the French Navy?
Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist. He developed important concepts and proved mathematical theorems in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory and topology. Euler introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics and astronomy. Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time. He was prolific; if printed, his works would occupy between 60 and 80 quarto volumes. Euler was featured on the sixth series of the Swiss ten-franc banknote and on numerous Swiss, German and Russian stamps. The asteroid 2002 Euler was named in his honor. This portrait of Euler was created by the Swiss painter Jakob Emanuel Handmann in 1753 and is now in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Reference desk — Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Village pump — For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.
Community portal — Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Site news — Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikipedia's sister projects
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
.jpg)
.jpg)
