Opus – Page 133 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

The Ice Block Expedition Of 1959

The Ice Block Expedition Of 1959 was a publicity stunt carried out by the Norwegian insulation material producer Glassvatt. Responding to a challenge from the radio station Radio Luxembourg, Glassvatt decided to equip a truck to bring a three-ton block of ice from the Arctic Circle to the Equator. There was no form of refrigeration applied, and the expedition was intended to display the efficiency of the insulating glass wool used. Crossing the Sahara, where the truck repeatedly got stuck in the sand, proved both a dangerous and laborious task. Once the truck had made it through the desert, however, and reached its final destination, it was revealed that the ice block had lost no more than 11% of its original weight. The expedition was an enormous success, judged both by the end result and by the media attention generated for the company, and has been called “the world’s greatest publicity stunt”.

Augustus Hare

Augustus Hare was a travel writer, a storyteller and memoirist of the first order, and his work is a record of a lost way of life amongst the strangest upper classes of English society.

Edward Lear

He was known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised.

JAR

Using exceptional precious and semi-precious stones mounted in rare and unusual metals, JAR jewels are classics with a twinkle. Galconda diamonds, Kashmir sapphires, natural pearls, Indian emeralds, Burma rubies as well as demantoid garnets, pink sapphires and spinels are regularly used in Joel Arthur Rosenthal's creations. Rosenthal's demand for perfection in the production of each piece is so high that only 60 to 70 jewels are made each year. All of them are unique - never duplicated.

Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato

Sassoferrato was a baroque painter. He was also active as a copyist and reproduced paintings by other masters. His copying style was highly free and individualistic and he rather modified the original compositions or their dimensions than slavishly copy.

Sima Humboldt

Sima Humboldt is an enormous sinkhole located in Venezuela.

Skovshoved Petrol Station

Skovshoved Petrol Station is a historic, still-operating filling station in Skovshoved at the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. First opened in 1936, it was designed by Arne Jacobsen and is an example of the functionalist style typical of the time.

Angelo d’Arrigo

Angelo d'Arrigo was an Italian aviator, of French origin, who held a number of world records in the field of flight, principally with microlights and hang gliders, with or without motors. In 2003 he flew 5,500 kilometres from northern Siberia to the Caspian Sea in Iran in the company of a flock of Siberian Cranes who had been born in captivity and, due to imprinting, considered him their parent: the bird is at risk of extinction and in order to try to save the species, Russian ornithologists hatched this plan: have the eggs incubated under Angelo's hang-glider, so the chicks saw this as they hatched. Have Angelo be with the chicks as they fledge. And when they were ready to fly, have them fly alongside Angelo so they would consider him their mentor. That way, he could show them the traditional migratory route for their species. They had no other way to learn it.

La Castiglione

La Castiglione was an Italian courtesan and secret agent who achieved notoriety as a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III of France. She was an advocate for Italian unification through the influence she had upon the Emperor. She was also a significant figure in the early history of photography as a collaborator of photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson.

Mikhail Krug

Mikhail Krug was a Russian singer, one of the leading singers of the style of songs known as blatnaya pesnya (songs about criminals). A significant portion of Mikhail Krug's songs invoke the secret code of Russian prisons and the symbolism of prisoner tattoos. They describe the emotional emptiness and the despair of the prisoners who are separated from their families and loved ones. He also wrote many love songs, and songs about Tver. Krug liked to associate with criminal elements, which inspired his music and his diamond ring was a gift from the notorious criminal Khobot. In writing his songs, Krug used a 1924 dictionary of underworld slang, compiled by the NKVD. In the late evening of June 30, 2002, Mikhail Krug was fatally wounded in his Tver house by unknown intruders. He died in a hospital a few hours later.