Baghdad Battery, battery of the ancient past?

The Baghdad Battery, sometimes referred to as the Parthian Battery, is the common name for a number of artifacts created in Mesopotamia, during the dynasties of Parthian or Sassanid period ( the early centuries AD ), and probably discovered in 1936 in the village of Khuyut Rabbou'a, near Baghdad, Iraq.

These artifacts came to wider attention in 1938 when Wilhelm Konig, the German director of the National Museum of Iraq, found the objects in the museum's collections. In 1940, Konig published paper speculating that they may have been galvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating gold onto silver objects. This interpretation continues to be considered as at least a hypothetical possibility. If correct, the artifacts would predate Alessandro Volta's 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium.

You can read more about it here

اليوم الوطني

National Day
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY

 23^rd of September marks an important date for anyone who is Saudi or lives in Saudi Arabia. For it's the national day, a day of  recognition and celebration of this amazing country, where King Abdulaziz Al-Saud had united and changed the history in 1932. 

For most of you out there, you would notice that this day wasnt celebrated in the early years, or even considered a public holiday (non working) but after King Abduallah had taken the throne, he declared that  this day would be a day of celebration.

Thats why on this day Saudis of all ages take the streets to celebrate and rejoice, Green and White are the 2 colors that you see, flags, national songs played loudly from cars, boys and sometimes girls dancing in the streets.

Shops, offices, even mini markets (baqalas) share the spirit of this day and display flags and stickers on their windows. Its a wonderful sight to see the love Saudis have for their country.

HAPPY SAUDI NATIONAL DAY !!!!

Jowhara Alsaud "Out of Line"

Photographer Jowhara Alsaud first solo show at Athr Gallery in Jeddah. Phtotographs from her series

"Out of Line" which she started as an explanation of censorship and its effect on visual communication.

"Photographs of intimate social images of family and friends, manually manipulated through fastidious etchings on negative, reveal figures depleted of all facial features. Yet, in spite of the absence of identifiable features, the images appear intimate and inviting, even charming and carefree, while still demonstrating the complex cultural constraints that govern the depiction of people in Saudi Arabia".

check her website. Some of her work:

   

  

The exhibition will be held until 19th October 2011