Egypt: Facebooking the struggle.

'After little less than a month following the April 6 strike in support of the textile workers in Mahalla City, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Hosni Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet...'

Thamesmead, Riverside School, 1976-78.

Photographs. 'In my early days I was employed, at my second school, as a science teacher at Riverside School, Thamesmead. Situtated on the Bexley/London border, it was a relatively new school in a "London" housing estate. Riverside School is now Bexley Business Academy...'




19th Century Swedish Copybook.




Minik: The Lost Eskimo.

'In October 1897, the renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. At the request of anthropologist Franz Boas, he brought with him five polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural History. '

'The embryonic science of anthropology regarded the Eskimos as a rare species, and their arrival in New York caused a sensation. Within months, however, four of the Eskimos had fallen sick and died, leaving a seven-year-old boy named Minik to fend for himself in a foreign land. Eventually adopted by a member of the Museum's staff, it was sixteen years before he was able to return to his native Greenland. '

'This American Experience production retraces Minik's life journey to provide a thought-provoking look at the intersection of race, culture and the nascent science of anthropology in America at the turn of the twentieth century. '




Photos of an Abandoned Library in Russia.




The Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs.




Field Guide to Traffic Cones.

'Until the late 20th century, traffic cones were not thought worthy of scientific study. It is the Society's mission to counteract these centuries of neglect.'




Beatle Money: An Economic History of the Beatles.




Daisuke Inoue.

The creator of the karaoke machine. 'Inoue Daisuke taught the world to sing with the karaoke machine but never bothered to patent it, losing his chance to become one of Japan’s richest men. Is he bitter?'




ASCII Artwork.

'Not content to be limited by the text of ASCII, people since the beginning of computer communication have used the given character set of a system to express themselves artistically. Ranging from the ubiquitous smiley :) to extreme photo-realistic digitizations of portraits, this art continues to this day and shows no sign of slowing down.'




Punk Rock Photo Pool.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What is the most beautiful place on Earth? I'd like to make plans to go there.'


'May, 1968 - Paris. I would like to learn about it.'


'I seem to have a very particular social skills deficit. Can you suggest software that might serve as a kind of brain prosthetic for me?'


'Is it the fog from getting older, or is it something else? As I've gone through the years (late 30s), I can clearly feel myself getting less brainy...'


'What are some interesting, uncommon "vocabulary" words that you use regularly or semi-regularly?'




The Corolla: University of Alabama Yearbook 1893-.




Mormon Architecture.




The International Year of the Potato.

Access Denied Map.

A map of global censorship of the Internet.


Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested.


Wife of Chinese blogger speaks out on sentencing.

Patricia van Lubeck's Painted Cars.




Photos of Frinton Park Estate, Essex.




Photographs of Japanese Floodgates.




Classic Tales and Fables.

'What Can You Do With These Tales?

1. Read them to yourself, for fun.

2. Read them to your kids or students. They'll have fun, and their cultural literacy will grow. They'll become familiar with our literary history. They'll understand common allusions that come from classic tales

3. Learn them so you can tell them.

4. Adapt them into your own stories. Change any or all of the characters, the setting, the antagonists, the conflict, and make the story your own. Tell your new story, or try to get it published.'




Two Hundred Years of Children's Books.

'Obedient miniature adult, mischievous free spirit, or mini-consumer--the image of the child in society has changed many times over the past three hundred years. The books given to children are meant to mold or train the young mind to the values of their elders. For this reason, children's literature is often more reflective of the adult society than of the intended readers...'




Cuba!

Photographs of Cuban artists, musicians, and ordinary people.




Celebration of Vintage and Retro Design.

'Below you’ll find the celebration of retro and vintage design — ads, illustrations, book covers, pins and posters from 1920-1980s. The images weren’t necessarily created in the mid of 20th century. Vintage is living today which is why this post also features artists and designers who make use of the vintage and retro style in their works.'




Computer Science Unplugged.

The basics of computer science, without needing a computer.




The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

Photos of summer.




Spec-ology of the Circus.

'The word "Spec-ology" was coined by A. Morton Smith as the title of an article published in the July 31, 1943 Billboard. '

'The Spectacle as a pantomime, pageant, tournament or grand entry is as old as the circus in America. Next to circus parades, which are as extinct as the proverbial dodo, the grand entry or spectacle presented at the beginning of or during a circus performance is the most glamorous, eye-filling and impressive feature of the program...'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'I'm looking for jokes that sound like they are going to be very involved at the start but end up being very short.'


'I want to give my friends the time of their lives. Give me some ideas for spur of the moment things to do.'


'What are some ways to tell the direction [North, East, South, West] you are headed? And more generally, what are some cool nature tricks you've learned through the years?'


'I'm trying to put together a list of the happiest sounding songs with the saddest lyrics... can you help?'


'How do people become stupid? '




US Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.

(Pomology = the study of fruit).

'The exhibit presented here consists of approximately 175 images of fruit watercolors. All of the fruit varieties featured in the exhibit were introduced and described in the Report of the Pomologist between 1886 and 1900. The actual watercolors of the varieties may not have been completed until sometime after the report publication. '




Religious Practices of the Diegueno Indians (1910).

'Of note is what appears, in hindsight, to be an early description of the UFO activity that continues over southern California to this day (p. 342). Waterman, with nothing to compare it to, decided that the being called Tcaup was actually ball-lightning. However, here is his description of the native accounts: "The being described in the myths is widely thought to be accompanied by thunderings, to have a 'bright' or 'beaming' appearance, and to fly about close to the surface of the ground." '

Then and Now: Eight South African Photographers.

'An exhibition of 160 photographs mounted in 5 venues at Duke University. South African photographer Paul Weinberg conceived and curated Then & Now which is comprised of black and white and color photographs from 8 South African documentary photographers. Twenty photographs were selected from each photographer, 10 made under apartheid and 10 photographs made after the historic democratic elections of 1994.'




War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement 1942-45.

'The collection contains approximately 7000 photographs and 317 Kodachrome slides which have been arranged into 18 series (described below). Series 1-6 and 8-11 document day-to-day life and activities in $individual relocation centers in California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Arkansas as captured by WRA photographers. The remaining series cover pre-evacuation activities in California only; relocation of evacuees in various states; assembly centers in California; and resettlement activities, primarily in California cities. Most of the photographs are well captioned with information on the photographer, place, date, people, and activities featured in the photographs. Series 18 consists of Kodachrome slides for the WRA lecture "The Wrong Ancestors", and slides of the Granada and Central Utah relocation centers...'




Black Farmers in America.

'Those of us concerned with the welfare of meaningful photography take some heart whenever a worthy project gets exhibited and published. John Francis Ficara's elegant take on black farmers in America documents a vanishing way of life and points to failures of social justice that sadly contribute to its passing. The book and exhibitions from his project are a significant contribution to the photographic ethnography of what has been one of our country's most important institutions, the independent family farm. '




Ladybird Books Prints.

'Welcome to Ladybird prints a new website that brings to life the pictures from the Ladybird Books.
Ladybird prints contains over 4000 images from the Ladybird Books, now available to browse and buy as prints and canvases. Each one is available to buy in different sizes and finishes to suit you. To find your favourite pictures either use the categories shown or search by title. '




Subway Reader.

Photographs of people reading while using the NY Subway.




Vintage Fashion Ads.




ComicAdVille.

'Old vintage ads from comic books!'




1981 Atari Catalogue.

'A friend of mine was moving and found some old Atari product catalogs buried in a box somewhere. He passed them on to me because he figured I was nerdy enough to care about them. He was right. These were standard pack-ins with Atari cartridges in the early 80s. This was a golden era when game boxes and advertisements had lavish artwork to compensate for the blocky graphics. Well, it would be a stretch to call this artwork "lavish" but it does a fine job of distracting you from what the games look like. Back then games were a lot of fun, even if you needed a bit of imagination to play them.'




Street Art in Japan.




Castles of Japan.




The Silver Skull Watch of Mary, Queen of Scots.




Images of Arctic Polar Science Stations 1881-1884.




10 Unusual Bicycle Designs.



Astro Pics.


Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars.


The Milky Way at 5000 Metres.


Andromeda Island Universe.

Kolmanskop, a Namibian Ghost Town Buried in the Sand.

'Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert...'




13 Fabulous Photos of a Rainy Day.




Photos of the Space Shuttle Preparing for Takeoff.




Japanese Fertility Festivals.




Roxycraft's Stuffed Toys.

A bit like previously posted Stuff Your Doodles - v. nice.




Sword Swallower's Hall of Fame.



Thirty Years of Injustice: Free Gary Tyler.

'Gary Tyler, at one time the youngest person on death row, turned forty-eight years old this July. He has spent thirty-two of those years in jail for a crime he did not commit. The case of Gary Tyler is one of the great miscarriages of justice in the modern history of the United States, in a country where the miscarriage of justice is part of the daily routine of government business...'

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Tyler

Gary Tyler website - http://www.freegarytyler.com/index.html




Voodoo.

Photography. '... On the surface Haiti is a photojournalist's paradise. It appears that all you need to do is hold the camera up, press the shutter and you'll have an image with more grit and depth than you could imagine. But to capture the real Haiti, one must endure the daily dangers of violence in a place where any foreigner stands out, and with a culture very foreign to the average American...'




Picturing the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Tribes.

'Major Lee Moorhouse of Pendleton, Oregon was an Indian Agent for the Umatilla Indian Reservation and a photographer. From 1888 to 1916 he produced over 9,000 images which document urban, rural, and Native American life in the Columbia Basin, and particularly Umatilla County, Oregon. So extensive and revealing are Moorhouse's images that his collection is one of the preeminent social history collections for Oregon. Special Collections & University Archives of the University of Oregon Libraries has a collection of 7000 images by Major Moorhouse...'




Maps of Scotland 1560-1928.

'Included here are about 1,300 of the most important maps from the first four centuries of the mapping of Scotland.'




Selected African American Artists at the National Gallery of Art.




Winslow Homer: Behind the Scenes.

'Winslow Homer, who created some of the most breathtaking and influential images in the history of watercolor, was, famously, a man who received almost no formal artistic education. Acknowledged in his own day as America’s most original and independent watercolorist, he had an intuitive relationship with this challenging yet flexible medium. Between 1873 and 1905, he created nearly 700 watercolors...'




The Spirit of New Orleans.




The Story of the Saree.

'The Indian Saree (a.k.a. Sari, Seere, Sadi) boasts of oldest existence in the sartorial world. It is more than 5000 years old! It is mentioned in Vedas, the oldest existing (surviving) literature (3000 B.C.) Patterns of dress change throughout the world now and then but, the Sari has survived because it is the main wear of rural India. 75% of the population (now a billion as per official estimate) wear versatile sari. We can certainly call this cloth versatile because it could be worn as shorts, trousers, flowing gown-like or convenient skirt-wise--all without a single stitch!'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What makes a great photograph?'


'Recently, someone recommended that I try putting grapes in milk and drinking / eating it. It was more delicious than I expected. Are there any other unusual / unexpectedly delicious food combinations that might make our super boring dining hall more of an adventure? A delicious adventure?'


'Life-altering experiences. Can you point to a single experience in your life, as a child, which you can define as having contributed to the person you are today?'


'How do Ladies get their hands looking good?'


'How do you tip people without anyone else noticing?'


'As summer approaches, how about some nice suggestions for alternatives for cola/sodas? I want to save money, bottles, and empty calories.'


'Commonly misused phrases or expressions?'


'Where is your favorite NYC spot to clear your mind?'


'Looking for first-hand accounts of acts of genuine evil.'




Picturing the North Carolina Fund.

'Launched by Governor Terry Sanford in 1963, the North Carolina Fund was a five year initiative to fight poverty statewide through the creation of eleven community action agencies and other community initiatives. '

'During the summers of 1964 and 1965, the North Carolina Volunteers Program created teams of African-American and white college students to work together and show that communities could be stronger if their members reached across lines of race and class to solve problems of poverty...'