This Entangled Bank: If you like jigsaws then why not try shredsmay contain traces of knowledgetag:entangledbank.co.uk,2005:TypoTypo2007-02-08T11:25:07+00:00Edurn:uuid:13ab7612-1d96-4971-808f-dfa8f9a068722007-02-08T10:51:00+00:002007-02-08T11:25:07+00:00If you like jigsaws then why not try shreds<p>I once heard a paleontologist boast about how she liked to do jigsaws in her spare time. Not normal jigsaws mind you – her spatial abilities being so superior – she liked to do her jigsaws with the pieces upside down, picture facing down.</p>
<p>If you like the idea of such challenge then consider this piece in which Robert Fisk (from his book The Great War for Civilisation) recounts a woman’s report of how in 1979 a young Iranian called Javad started reconstructing shredded documents recovered from the sacked US embassy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was a study in concentration: bearded, thin, nervous and intense. These qualities, combined with his strong command of English, his mathematical mind and his enthusiasm, made him a natural for the job … <p>One afternoon he took a handful of shreds from the barrel, laid them on a sheet of white paper and began grouping them on the basis of their qualities … After five hours we had been able to reconstruct 20-30 per cent of the two documents. <p>The next day I visited the document centre with a group of sisters. ‘Come and see. With God’s help, with faith and a bit of effort we can accomplish the impossible’ he said, with a smile.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fisk goes on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A team of twenty students was gathered to work on the papers. A flat board was fitted with elastic bands to hold the shreds in place. They could reconstruct five to ten documents a week. <p>They were carpet weavers, carefully, almost lovingly re-threading their tapestry. Iranian carpets are filled with flowers and birds, the recreation of a garden in the desert; they are intended to give life amid sand and heat, to create eternal meadows amid a wasteland. <p>The Iranians who worked for months on those shredded papers were creating their own unique carpet, one that exposed the past and was transformed into a living history book amid the arid propaganda of the revolution. <p>High-school students and disabled war veterns were enlisted to work on this carpet of papers. <p>It would take them six years to complete, three thousand pages containing 2,300 documents, all eventually contained in 85 volumes.</p>
</blockquote><p>I once heard a paleontologist boast about how she liked to do jigsaws in her spare time. Not normal jigsaws mind you – her spatial abilities being so superior – she liked to do her jigsaws with the pieces upside down, picture facing down.</p>
<p>If you like the idea of such challenge then consider this piece in which Robert Fisk (from his book The Great War for Civilisation) recounts a woman’s report of how in 1979 a young Iranian called Javad started reconstructing shredded documents recovered from the sacked US embassy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was a study in concentration: bearded, thin, nervous and intense. These qualities, combined with his strong command of English, his mathematical mind and his enthusiasm, made him a natural for the job … <p>One afternoon he took a handful of shreds from the barrel, laid them on a sheet of white paper and began grouping them on the basis of their qualities … After five hours we had been able to reconstruct 20-30 per cent of the two documents. <p>The next day I visited the document centre with a group of sisters. ‘Come and see. With God’s help, with faith and a bit of effort we can accomplish the impossible’ he said, with a smile.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fisk goes on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A team of twenty students was gathered to work on the papers. A flat board was fitted with elastic bands to hold the shreds in place. They could reconstruct five to ten documents a week. <p>They were carpet weavers, carefully, almost lovingly re-threading their tapestry. Iranian carpets are filled with flowers and birds, the recreation of a garden in the desert; they are intended to give life amid sand and heat, to create eternal meadows amid a wasteland. <p>The Iranians who worked for months on those shredded papers were creating their own unique carpet, one that exposed the past and was transformed into a living history book amid the arid propaganda of the revolution. <p>High-school students and disabled war veterns were enlisted to work on this carpet of papers. <p>It would take them six years to complete, three thousand pages containing 2,300 documents, all eventually contained in 85 volumes.</p>
</blockquote>tim@rogerlaborde.comurn:uuid:dd01705d-b3d7-4fd3-b1fe-aed79ed99ab02007-03-05T23:12:58+00:002011-06-02T09:21:56+01:00Comment on If you like jigsaws then why not try shreds by tim@rogerlaborde.com<p>The human jigsaw is so fascinating. Did you know that Alan Arkin, who just won the oscar for best supporting actor as a heroin snorting grandad in Little Miss Sunshine, co-wrote the Banana Boat Song made famous by Harry Belafonte.</p>