The world's greatest headless dad

Today, Radio 4's excellent "A History of the World in 100 Objects" featured a beautiful jade cup made for the Timurid Emperor Ulugh Beg, grandson of Timur (AKA Tamburlaine The Great). Apparently, Ulugh Beg was a cultured fellow, a lover of mathematics and astronomy, whose patronage got the Observatory of Samarkand built.  A crater on the moon is named after this astronomer-king.

Sadly, although he was a notable intellectual and patron, Ulugh Beg didn't really cut it in the world of power politics.* His rule lasted only two years. The BBC web site notes:

This jade cup from Central Asia would have been valued for its beauty and its protective powers. When this cup was made it was believed that jade would crack if it came into contact with poison...

Ulugh Beg would have owned such a cup to protect himself from assassination by his rivals. However, the cup could not save him from his own son who seized power in 1449 and had Ulugh beheaded.

The clouded jade cup is a rather lovely thing, but this is one of those times when I'd gladly not trade places with the rich and powerful. When my son gets old enough to buy presents, I'd be happy to get a cheap and nasty, mass-produced "World's Greatest Dad" mug and a promise not to decapitate daddy. I'm easily pleased.

*A reputation he shared with the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II of Bohemia.

Today's featured blog

Consists of bite-sized chunks from the lively and entertaining mind of Francis Sedgemore. Explore for yourself, but for a taster, try his takes on the shameful killing of Blair Peach and the culture of police immunity, Gordon Brown before he had to go crawling for the bigot vote, the ecological Fascism of James Lovelock, the passing of Kate McGarrigle, the effects of a citizens' basic income, Herman van Rompuy (crazy name, crazy Haikus), wondering where all the money went, not going shopping, torture as a public health issue, the joy of idleness, the marching cheerleaders of Kim Jong-il, using nanotech to produce stronger, greener concrete and the weirdness of Norwegians.

A smörgåsbord of tasty brain treats from a myriad-minded man. This one went straight onto my favourites* list.

*well, bookmarks (I'm using Firefox)

Frozen music

Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music.

(Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling)

Gardening tip of the day

The Mandelbulb (narcissus mandelsonii) will grow almost anywhere and flourishes in dark shade as well as in the full sunlight of publicity. The flower emerges in many different shapes and colours that can bloom vigorously in many soil types. The scientific name of the Mandelbulb derives from the Greek legend of Narcissus, who looked into a pool, saw his reflection and fell in love with himself.

The Mandelbulb does best in rich soil and is most at home on the yachts of tycoons and oligarchs, although with a judicious application of interest-free loans, it will also do well in Europe or Westminster.

Being easy to grow, once established, the Mandelbulb will return year after year. Some regard the plant as an annoying weed, which is very difficult to control. The Mandelbulb’s foliage is highly invasive, smothering surrounding vegetation by casting a dark shadow.

Like all Narcissus varieties, the Mandelbulb is highly toxic, containing high levels of the alkaloid poison lycorine. The Mandelbulb can easily be confused with an onion, thereby leading to incidents of accidental poisoning.

Only kidding. In fact, the Mandelbulb is a 3D version of the Mandelbrot Set. To be precise it's not the true 3D version of the Mandelbrot set (something which was hitherto thought impossible), although it does suggest that a true 3D version is possible. Until then, click here for the images which are nonetheless pretty impressive. Originally found on Slashdot Science.