Saturday 31 May 2008

Querying the Hive Mind.


'How can I remember more of what I read?'



'What cheers you up?'





From the diary of a sinister Egyptian spinster.

Soviet Posters.





Dry Cleaning Typography in Tokyo.





Pub Signs in Suffolk.





Graffiti on Ruins in Brazil.





Account of a Motorcycle Trip through Angola.





The Rock Posters of Dan Stiles.





The Principality of Sealand.





Brutal New York - 1965/95.


Photographs.




Brooklyn Museum Graffiti Mural.


'During the Brooklyn Museum's Graffiti exhibition (June 30 - September 3), the Museum asked visitors to contribute designs and drawings, inspired by works in Graffiti, to a designated gallery wall. These photographs document the weekly progress of the Museum mural over the course of the exhibition.'




Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks.





Milk Bottle Collection.





The Nineteenth Century in Print: The Making of America in Periodicals.


'They include literary and political magazines, as well as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, and Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry. The longest run is for The North American Review, 1815-1900. '




Exhibitions of the Royal Photographic Society 1870-1915.




Astro Pics.


Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula.



Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841.



South Pole Lunar Eclipse.





Supercook: The Intelligent Recipe Search Engine.


'Supercook is a new recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with the ingredients you have at home. To begin, simply start adding ingredients you have. The more ingredients you add, the better the results will be.'




Once We Were One: Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora.

Saturday 24 May 2008


China: Ethnically diverse forum shut down.





China: Political blogger arrested, computer confiscated.





India: Google assists police in Orkut user’s arrest.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.


'This is probably the best known poem in the world and it has a fascinating history combining medieval Persia (Iran) with India, Victorian Europe and America, and much more.'

'...There is very little known about Omar Khayyam and his life, other than the knowledge of his treatises on mathematics and philosophy, some of which have been lost, and his involvement with the reorganisation of the Persian calendar at the behest of Sultan Malik-Shah. There are a few anecdotal stories of his adult life, written down by his contemporaries, and referring to his wisdom, memory and forecasting ability; but none relate to the composition of rubaiyat or other poetry.'




American City Flags, Ranked.





Gateshead Car Park Demolition Photos.





Disapproving Rabbits.


'Over the years, the Stitelers lived with other bunnies (all disapproving) and took photos of them documenting their disdain of the human race, but things came to a head when Sharon found Cinnamon at the St. Paul Humane Society. It was love at first sight on Sharon's part, aloof disinterest on Cinnamon's part...'




Margate's Mechanical Elephant.





Maneki Neko Museum.


'Home of Maneki Neko, Japan's Beckoning Cat!'




Paul Bunyan, Legendary Lumberjack.





Illustrated Viking Scenes.


Text in Norwegian.




Ad Blanking on the London Underground.


'It was then with surprise that whilst on our way to a Space Hijackers action, a group of agents spotted a Transport for London team blanking all of the adverts on the District Line. At first we could not belive our eyes, could this really be an official government sponsored team, taking part in a day of action against consumerism?'




Logologos.


Fun with logos.




13+ Inspirational Illustrators.


'Illustration is a vast range of artwork and styles of drawing, painting and digital art, however, it remains that illustration is inspirational, for any field of art or design. I composed this list of illustrators to help you find inspiration, if you need it, or just become introduced to the different works of these artists. '




Streets of India.


Photo-set.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'How can I improve my art awareness (i.e paintings, sculpture, crafts, etc.)?'



'Why, when I drag the fleshy (i.e., not furry) part of my cat's paw across the trackpad on my MacBook, does the cursor not respond?'



'What small-ish changes have you made that greatly impacted your life?'



'Why am I so lazy?'





Arab Media & Society.


'Arab Media & Society is the primary reference for understanding the role of media in shaping Arab societies and the broader Muslim world. '




The Nanking Massacre Project.


'On December 13, 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking and the ensuing six weeks became known to history as the Nanking Massacre. This web site provides access to first hand accounts and photographs from Westerners who remained in Nanking after the Japanese invasion. These resources do not provide a comprehensive understanding of what occurred in Nanjing during 1937-1938, but the observations made by these men and women provide an important historical lens to complement additional research.'




Ty and Renee Ziegel's Wedding.


Semper fi.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Ziegel - 'Ty Ziegel (born in 1982) is a United States Marine Corps Sergeant who was seriously injured while serving in Iraq. During his second tour in Iraq in 2004, his group was attacked by a suicide bomber. Mr. Ziegel had been trapped in a burning truck, the heat melted the flesh from his face. He sustained massive injuries, but survived...'




What D&D Alignments Mean.




Astro Pics.


Comet McNaught over Chile.



The Bay of Rainbows.



Apogee Moon, Perigee Moon.

Monday 19 May 2008


Letter from Egyptian blogger on hunger strike after torture.





Chinese earthquake: survival stories.


'No pen could suffice to write out all those happened and happening in where the quake struck. But undeniable, numerous common people created one after another legends of life,survival and sacrifice on this unprecedented crisis, transcending even the most formidable disaster. They are record-worthy. In memory of this trauma of China.'

Young Me/Now Me.


Photographs of people when they were young, and now.




Nudibranchs.


Colourful, toxic sea slugs.




Tokyo in 1913: 22 Photographs.





The Romani (Gypsies) from California to Camp Land.


'There is a Romany saying –
“Dance in your own circle - where ever you go learn a new step. Make the best of where you are, not to be like them, but to know."
Mary, American Gypsy ( Romni) California -USA'.




1950s Spanish Sci-Fi Novel Covers.





Bank Logos.





Photographs of Great Lakes Lighthouses.





Wisconsin History Explorer.


'Wisconsin's rich history spreads across the state, a living quilt of time, land, values and beliefs that forms the collective memory of who we are and where we came from. Each generation adds a piece, so the fabric of our time is interwoven with the past, connecting us to those who came before and enriching our lives with greater understanding and appreciation of the depth of our shared history. Historic properties are tangible connections to our past, places where the past is alive in the present. They allow us to touch the lives and stories of historic people and visit the special places that contribute to Wisconsin's unique character.'




Shoes: Photoset.





15 Great Examples of Web Typography.




Querying the Hive Mind.


'... what other repositories of historic/interesting/important periodicals exist online?'



'Know any happy 80-year-olds?'



'I need some good horror film ideas because I feel like I've seen them all.'



'Lately, the concept of "friends"
seems to have become incredibly diluted by the casual use of the term by Facebook, MySpace et al. But in "the real world" what do you consider to be important when you are making and becoming friends?'


'In Buddhist philosophy, how is one supposed to do anything?'





The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress.


'The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress present a selection of ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and folklorist. Deposited as typescripts in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997. The plays reflect Hurston's life experience, travels, and research, especially her study of folklore in the African-American South. '




The Willa Cather Archive.


'Born in Back Creek, Virginia on December 7, 1873, Willa Cather moved with her family to Catherton, Nebraska in 1883. The following year the family relocated to nearby Red Cloud, the same town that has been made famous by her writing. The nine-year-old had trouble adjusting to her new life on the prairie: the all-encompassing land surrounded her, making her feel an "erasure of personality." After a year, Cather had developed a fierce passion for the land, something that would remain at the core of her writing. By 1890, immigrants in Nebraska made up forty-three percent of the state population. Cather found herself surrounded by foreign languages and customs. Drawn together in their homesickness, Cather felt a certain kinship to the immigrant women of the Plains. It was to this land and these people that her mind returned when she began writing novels...'




Index on Censorship.


'Index on Censorship is one of the world's leading repositories of original, challenging, controversial and intelligent writing on free expression issues. '

Sunday 11 May 2008


UK Tower Blocks and Architecture of the 1960s and 1970s.





Soviet Tourist Labels.


'Some of the best Intourist labels and brochures produced during the 1930's were designed by A. Selensky. Some of the labels in this set are signed by him, including a rare constructivist style travel brochure I have included as well.'




Field Guide to New York City Subway Maps.


1924 to now.




Coolville Supermarket.


Vintage supermarket product packaging. 'Hopefully while strolling through the Coolville Supermarket you'll fill your shopping cart full of fun memories!'




Bridget Riley's Optical Art.


Riley creates art which exploits the fallibility of the human eye - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Riley




Cleaning the Great Buddha of Nara, Japan.


'The ceremony of cleaning the image of the Great Buddha of the Tôdai-ji Temple, in Japan, is performed on 7th of August every year. About 230 people, including priests, work in the dusting of this 16-metre giant statue. The cleaners have to climb all over Buddha to be able to polish the hands and feet and ride in baskets hung from the ceiling in order to clean its head. '




Hindu Gods on Flickr.





Delaware Postcard Collection.


'The University of Delaware Library Postcard Collection comprises over two thousand postcards of Delaware and nearby areas. The postcards in the collection date mainly from the very end of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth, although there are also postcards from throughout the later part of the twentieth century. Most of the cards in the collection were commercially produced and represent well-known Delaware buildings, monuments, and views, such as the State Capitol in Dover, Wilmington’s downtown buildings and historic structures, and Rehoboth’s beaches and boardwalks.'




Jean Thomas, the Traipsin' Woman.


'Jean Thomas was born Jeanette Mary Francis de Assisi Aloysius Narcissus Garfield Bell in Ashland, Kentucky on November 14, 1881. She earned the nickname "Traipsin' Woman" when, as a teenager in the 1890s, she defied convention to attend business school, learn stenography, and become a court reporter, traveling by jolt wagon to courts in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Her exposure to the musical traditions, dialect, folkways, and costumes of the mountain people she encountered, combined with her later work in "show business," led to her avocation as a popularizer of mountain music and as proprietress of the American Folk Song Festival, staged in and near Ashland, Kentucky from 1930 through 1972...'

The Jean Thomas Collection: http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fjthom




The Official R. Crumb Website.


The underground comix artist. 'I was one of those social rejects, but then, you know, a lot of people were — nothing unusual about being an outcast in high school.'

Crumb family art gallery : http://rcrumb.com/artgallery.html



Querying the Hive Mind.


How to concentrate.





History of the Mao Suit.


From Evolution and Revolution: Chinese Dress 1700s-1990s - http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/hsc/evrev/




The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936.


A US Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit.

'For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. Minimizing its antisemitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to impress many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. Having rejected a proposed boycott of the 1936 Olympics, the United States and other western democracies missed the opportunity to take a stand that contemporary observers claimed might have restrained Hitler and bolstered international resistance to Nazi tyranny. After the Olympics, Germany's expansionism and the persecution of Jews and other "enemies of the state" accelerated, culminating in World War II and the Holocaust...'




Introduction to Psychology.





A Mission Record of the California Indians.


'This is an 'interrogatorio,' a survey taken in 1811 by the Spanish government of Mexico regarding the status of the Native Californians at each mission in Alta California, translated and heavily annotated by A.L. Kroeber. Along with Boscana's account, this one of the few glimpses we have of the Native Californians, when pre-contact individuals were still alive. The accounts vary from friar to friar, but some are very detailed and mention completely unknown placenames and languages. There are reasonably value-free descriptions of religious beliefs, mythology, language, dance, music and ethnobotany.'

Tips on Burma relief organisations: http://www.metafilter.com/71400/Burma-Cant-Wait#2104879

Monday 5 May 2008


Discarded Photographs Found in an Alleyway.


'this collection comes from a heap of discarded photographs, found in a venice alleyway by my friend, mike lee. i was on vacation in cape cod when he called, asking if he should rescue them. he thought i'd be the only person he knows that'd be interested in them. other neighbors had looked through and passed, but mike's descriptions of the early 70s rock bands and buggy eyed entertainers unleashed an anxiousness in me,. i told him to save as many of the photos as he could. '




Latin American Graffiti and Street Art.





Peach Box Labels from the State of Georgia.





QANTAS Airline Nostalgia.





Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother'.


'Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” was photographed in February 1936 in a pea pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California, while on assignment as a photographer for the Resettlement Administration (RA), which soon would become the better-known Farm Security Administration (FSA)...'




Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Official Site.


Burma's pro-democracy leader.

Also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi




Northvegr.





A website devoted to the religion and culture of Norse heathenism - the 'practice, promotion and development of the Northern spiritual faith, which we call Hindrvitni or the Northern Way', i.e. the ancestral Norse religion. There's also an interesting collection of language resources : http://www.northvegr.org/resources_main.php




Japanese Pop Artist Yoshitomo Nara.


From the Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo_Nara ) - 'The manga and anime of his 1960s childhood are both clear influences on Nara's stylized, large-eyed figures. Nara subverts these typically cute images, however, by infusing his works with horror-like imagery.'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What are some of your absolute favourite online essays, articles and other pieces of non-fiction writing?'



'I find it hard to maintain friendships with women. What's up with me?'



'What other words out there lack elegant opposites?'





The price of food, the cost of despair.


'The crisis of skyrocketing food prices is affecting all economic groups in every corner of the world. Every day, it seems, high-priced food sends another country lurching through some crisis: demonstrations, riots, rumors of hoarding, falling governments, even deaths.'

'Global Voices is well positioned to follow the nuances of this complex issue with authors tracking citizen media in nearly every country of the planet. This article is an attempt to place an overall narrative on the global food crisis with observations from our authors from around the world. Clicking on the links will take you to all the posts that have been referenced.'




Snake Earrings of India.


'Traditional earrings in the villages and tribal areas of India are manifestations of symbolism, religious meaning and social significance. A woman wears a particular type of earring as a sign of identity, of membership in the defined social group into which she was born. Wearing the specific earrings of her community, she continues the tradition of her ancestors...'




Audio Tape Cassette Nostalgia.





Brazilian Album Covers.





Analysis of Sidewalk Fractures.





Gulag Prisoners at Work 1936-37.


Photographs.



Astro Pics.


Mercury Chases the Sunset.



Crescent Mercury in Colour.



An Avalanche on Mars.