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...'