Uighur Music Video.

The greatest living Uighur musician playing in a musical instrument shop in Kashgar here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IRSq7pZH3g

More here : http://www.metafilter.com/80539/Abdurehim-Heyit-now-thats-some-STRUMMING-right-there




China - 1983.

'A selection of images throughout most of China, July - October 1983. Many cityscapes have changed beyond recognition since then ...'




London Town 1883.

'London Town 1883
Designed and illustrated by
Thos. Crane & Ellen Houghton
Library of Congress.
Beautiful in every way.'




Images of Russia and the Caucasus 1929-1933.

'This digital collection presents over 700 images of Russia and the Caucasus region, particularly of rural areas in Georgia and Dagestan. The photographs, taken by William O. Field in the late 1920s and early 1930s, are housed at the American Geographical Society Library. '




Underwater Photography.




Gothic Architecture in Portugal.




An Iranian Old Painting.




Answers in Genesis Creation Museum.

Creationist Christians have brought to America's roadsides a number of unique tourist attractions. The Answers In Genesis Creation Museum is the most opulent of all -- an umpty-million-dollar effort to make biblical creationism look like just any other modern science museum. But is that really the best approach? No one seems to be asking the key question: is this place fun?'




Abraham Lincoln and Jesus.

'Religious attractions can deliver a lot of inspirational eye candy statuary -- scenes from the Bible, obscure saints being martyred, demons battling angels, etc. But there's an unlikely trinity at the miracle site where the Virgin Mary appeared in Necedah: George Washington, Jesus Christ, and Abraham Lincoln. They're arranged like an Olympic medal ceremony, with J taking the gold.'




Vintage Restaurant Menus.




Edo Monsters.

Weird illustrations of Japanese folk monsters, Edo Period (1603-1868).




Sounds of the Thames.

'The part of Wapping where I occasionally have to go to work is typical of London in its squashing together of incongruous things. Wailing bankers mill around the bottom of the Lloyds building, Tower Bridge swarms with confused tourists - then on the other side of the river, beyond all the restaurants, there's a completely different atmosphere. '




One of the Lives.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What are your favourite kitchen and pantry management tricks to avoid the waste of food and money?'


'If you're a heterosexual woman who cares about such things, at around what age do men stop looking at you? I don't mean a husband, or a boyfriend - I mean men on the street.'



Astro Pics.


Signals of a Strange Universe.


Possible Mud Volcanoes on Mars.


Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars.

Timelapse Toadstool.

More timelapse plants : http://www.metafilter.com/80290/Timelapse-plants




Katharine Hepburn: A Centennial Celebration.

'Bursting into Hollywood’s dream factory, Katharine Hepburn was an ironic misfit, sporting a highly stylized personality and headstrong independence that boldly announced a new kind of female presence on the silver screen.'




Barcelona 1908.



See if you can make the numbers on the left by combining the numbers on the right using +, -, * and /. Put the operators in the spaces. Easy peasy.

1 = 2 4 4

3 = 4 9 9

3 = 2 6 9

5 = 9 6 2

6 = 1 7 2

7 = 5 5 3

8 = 5 3 1

8 = 7 4 3

9 = 2 0 9

10 = 8 8 9




Nangi, A Village in Nepal.




Vintage Christmas Catalogues.




Pulp Art.

Pulp fiction and pinups.




Views of Montreal 1863-1865.




Antarctic Fox.

An Antarctic travelogue.

'We were given the amazing opportunity to join ten of our family and friends and go on a twelve day private expedition cruise in the Antarctic Peninsula on the Hanse Explorer. Over the course of the adventure Rachel and I took over 16,000 photos while having some of the most amazing and unexpected experiences of our lives.'
Icebergs : http://antarctic.fury.com/4-chicken.php




Handmade Russian Prison Playing Cards.




Hunkin's Home Experiments.

With nice cartoons.




Beer Ads from Old Newspapers.

'These are some beer ads from late 19th and early 20th century newspapers.'




Roadside Creatures.

Guide to Bigfoot, the Blob of Pennsylvania, the Frog People of Ohio, the Jersey Devil etc.




Wassily Kandinsky.

A nice little gallery.




A Walk through Prospect Park, Brooklyn.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'Please help me compile a list of offbeat things to do with a friend or friends, to serve as a reference for when I'm sick of the same old plans.'


'I seem to lose time. Or, more specifically, I'm one of those people that needs to get a bunch of things done, but I can easily sit on my laptop and play flash games for what turns into 4 hours. How do I break this habit/get my stuff together?'


'What are your favorite novels from an aesthetic/writing style point of view?'


'What interesting foods can only be found in ethnic grocery stores?'




Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War 1895-1895.

'The energy and artistic skill of the best war prints are all the more remarkable when we keep in mind the haste of their composition. Some sense of the impressive nature of this accomplishment can be gleaned by an overview of prints by Kiyochika, the most esteemed of these artists, who is calculated to have produced more than seventy triptychs during the brief ten months of the Sino-Japanese War. Kiyochika’s impressions of the front ranged from the lyrical to the atrocious, sometimes even bringing these two extremes together.'




Posters in the City of Amsterdam.

'Almost everyday I take pictures of posters that catch my eye in the city of Amsterdam. Here are most of them. They start from somewhere in 2002 till now.'




Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science.

'This exhibition charts the artistic and scientific explorations of German artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) and her daughters Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria. Enterprising and adventurous, these women raised the artistic standards of natural history illustration and helped transform the field of entomology, the study of insects. The exhibition presents books, prints, and watercolors by Merian and her contemporaries and features one of the greatest illustrated natural history books of all time, The Insects of Suriname.'



Astro Pics.


The Seahorse of the Large Magellanic Cloud.


A Prominent Solar Prominence.


Martian Moon Deimos.

Recession Costumes.

'In these hard times we'll all have to make our own clothes, according to the newspaper style sections. At least it's an opportunity to branch out and reintroduce some forgotten garments. For instance, the pelerine:'




Rudimentary Solresol, a Musical Language.

'Solresol is an artificial language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. He published his major book on it, Langue musicale universelle, in 1866, though he had already been publicizing it for some years. Solresol enjoyed a brief spell of popularity, reaching its pinnacle with Boleslas Gajewski's 1902 posthumous publication of Grammaire du Solresol.'

More on Solresol: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/solresol.htm




Beijing's Underground City.

'... also known as Dixia Cheng, is a bomb shelter comprising a network of tunnels located beneath Beijing, China, which has since been transformed into a tourist attraction. It has been called the Underground Great Wall because it was built for the purpose of military defense. The complex was constructed during the 1970s in anticipation of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and was officially reopened in 2000.'

More : http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Beijing+Underground+City




Paris through a Pinhole.




World's Largest Cross.

'198 feet tall and 113 feet wide, forged out of over 180 tons of steel anchored in untold fathoms of cement, the cross can withstand winds hurled by evilest of forces at up to 145 mph. Its stark, slab-sided design conveys the corporate utility of a logo -- no distracting crucifixion blandishments, just the plainest symbol of Christianity. The structure also conjures aspects of the World Trade Center towers, which came crashing down in 2001 less than three months after the cross went up.'




Celia Cruz - Guantanamera.




The Strange Story of King Ludwig II.




The Forty-seven Ronin.

Japan's 'national myth'.




Margate Harbour in the 1920s.




Old Motels.

'Like the crossroads at Pruner's Cottages, multiple points of appeal intersect in these postcards. The quaintness is about equal in the cards themselves and the motels they picture -- both associated with memories of road trips long past, where the first thing you did after checking in was rush to the room to grab the stationery. Even the most humble places gave you at least a postcard. '




The Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal and Indian Miniature Paintings.




In Our Own Backyard: Resisting Nazi Propaganda in Southern California 1933-1945.




The Renaissance Kitchen.

'Lasting fame accompanied the publication in 1570 of the 6-book series known as 'Opera' [The Work(s)]. It was more a culinary treatise than a mere cookbook. Scappi included more than a thousand recipes, demonstrating his familiarity with dishes from a range of European and North African countries as well as his expertise with regional Italian cooking.'




A Love of Monsters: Gargoyles in NYC.

The monsters of Wall Street.




Albrecht Durer Gallery.

'Dürer, Albrecht (b. May 21, 1471, Imperial Free City of Nürnberg [Germany]--d. April 6, 1528, Nürnberg), German painter, printmaker, draughtsman and art theorist, generally regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and self-portraits, and copper engravings.'




Gandhi as India.

'This stamp was issued by India in the year 2000, showing Gandhi’s flowing cape taking on the shape of India. '




The Sprout!

Looks like a happy kid.




Etsy Wedding.

Offbeat finds for the eclectic bride.




Differences between the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian Languages.

'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.'


Mutually intelligible languages : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutually_intelligible_languages



Confucius sat outside of the gates of the city, watching visitors arrive. One visitor approached the old man and greeted him with a question:

"Old man, tell me something. What sort of people will I meet in this city?"

Confucius reflected on this for a moment, then asked the traveler, "What sort of people did you meet in the last city you visited?"

"God, that whole city was miserable. The people were rude, and they were mean to strangers, and nobody did anything to make me feel welcome. I'm telling you, people from that city are just plain rotten."

Confucius shook his head sadly at this tale, and with a heavy heart informed the visitor: "I'm sorry to say this, but that's the same kind of people you'll meet in this city, too."

Hours passed, and Confucius continued to sit outside of the city gates. Another visitor approached him.

"Pardon me, sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but can I ask you a question? Would you mind telling me what sort of people will I meet in this city?"

Confucius asked the second traveler, "What sort of people did you meet in the last city you visited?"

"Oh, that city was wonderful...I hated to leave. The people were so generous, and they were kind to everyone, even strangers, and everyone went out of their way to make me feel welcome. The people from that city were wonderful."

Confucius nodded happily as he heard these words, then told the visitor with a smile: "Then that's the same kind of people you'll meet in this city, too."

http://www.metafilter.com/76999/The-bartender-hates-you#2358801




Ringo Starr Japan TV Ad.



1938 Martian Landing Site, Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

"A humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror. What's that? There's a jet of flame springing from the mirror, and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on! Good Lord, they're turning into flame!"




Abandoned School.

'This school became abandoned after strange happening in the school, it was closed down after a large chalk board flew from the wall nearly hitting students. It used to be used as part of the church it is next to. I think it is now waiting to be demolished.'




Haitian Carnival Masks.




Someone's Photos of Laos.




Anatomical Plates 1522-1867.

'This collection features approximately 4500 full page plates and other significant illustrations of human anatomy selected from the Jason A. Hannah and Academy of Medicine collections in the history of medicine at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. Each illustration has been fully indexed using medical subject headings (MeSH), and techniques of illustration, artists, and engravers have been identified whenever possible. There are ninety-five individual titles represented, ranging in date from 1522 to 1867.'




Bernd and Hilla Becher.

'For nearly 50 years, Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed the industrial architecture of western Europe.'

The Siddi Community of India.

'During colonial years, Europeans brought with them several people of African origin to India as labor. Most of them set themselves free thanks to complicated mosaic of kingdom boundaries and a dense forest cover and have come to be known as Siddis. Siddis are completely Indianized - they speak local languages, practice local religions including Hinduism, Islam and Roman Catholic.'

Afro-Indians: http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/people/afro-indians/

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddi




Five Centuries of Board Games.




The Crees of Northern Quebec: A Photographic Essay.

'On April 30th, 1971, the Québec Provincial Government announced that Hydro-Québec, a Crown Corporation, would develop the river systems draining into James Bay, Canada, for hydroelectric power. Since that time the landscape has undergone a significant change including the diversion and daming of major rivers and the formation of huge reservoirs. This geographical alteration has also transformed the life of the indigenous Crees - an Algonqian-speaking people who moved into the region long before the arrival of Europeans. '




Botanical and Cultural Images of Eastern Asia 1907-1927.

'The Arnold Arboretum’s collection of eastern Asian photographs represents the work of intrepid plant explorers who traveled to exotic lands in the early years of the twentieth century and returned to the Arboretum with not only seeds, live plants, and dried herbarium specimens, but also with remarkable images of plants, people, and landscapes. '




At Home in Brooklyn: The Nooney Brooklyn Photographs 1978-1979.

'Working almost daily from January 1978 to April 1979, she crisscrossed the borough, documenting the broad ethnic and economic range of Brooklyn's residents. The portraits that emerge are striking in their attention to the details of architecture and décor, which reveal just as much about the subjects as how they choose to pose themselves for Nooney's camera. This project was the subject of an exhibition, At Home in Brooklyn, at the Long Island Historical Society in 1985. '




Staten Island in Vintage Postcards.

'This focused, comprehensive collection of postcards came to the Library in 2001 as a gift from Catherine Robinson, a collector who spent her childhood in Staten Island, and who later assembled and organized the postcards as a hobby.'




Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Centennial 1909-2009.

'This UW Libraries digital collection contains more than 1200 photographs of the 1909 fair held on the grounds of the University of Washington, depicting buildings, grounds, entertainment and exotic attractions.'




The Pineapple Nurse Book Collection.

'My family has a tradition of picking up “unusual” books at thrift stores. (For instance, last Christmas my father received a copy of Yoga Tennis by Baba Rick Champion.) Then one day, my sister, Jenny, mentioned that she had started to accumulate quite a few nurse books…and that’s all it took. From that moment on, whenever someone came across a nurse book, they would buy it and give it to her.'




Art Opposed Injustice! - Picasso's 'Guernica'.

'Picasso's great mural has been seen as the symbolic painting of the horrors of war — its destruction, its cruelty. The beauty of the painting, however, has another source. This mural is great, as I have learned from Aesthetic Realism in my study with its founder, Eli Siegel, because it shows, even as it takes on the cruelty and seeming non-sense in the world—that there is form, there is organization, there is something larger than man's "inhumanity to man."'




Greece Runestones.

'The Greece Runestones (Swedish: Greklandsstenar) are about 30 runestones containing information related to voyages made by Norsemen to Greece, the term being used broadly to describe the Byzantine Empire. They were made during the Viking Age until about 1100 and were engraved in the Old Norse language with Scandinavian runes. All the stones have been found in modern-day Sweden, the majority in Uppland (18 runestones) and Södermanland (7 runestones). Most were inscribed in memory of members of the Varangian Guard who never returned home, but a few inscriptions mention men who returned with wealth, and a boulder in Ed was engraved on the orders of a former officer of the Guard.'




Bas Reliefs of Angkor.




Karawane: A Dada Poem.

More on this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ball




Japanese Fine Prints, Pre-1915.




Mental Floss: Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix.




Someone's Photos of Russia.

Church of the Nativity, Nizhny Novgorod : http://www.flickr.com/photos/billogs/3046761442/in/set-72157609532909693/

Utoli Moya Pechali Church, Saratov : http://www.flickr.com/photos/billogs/3103678126/in/set-72157611188126070/

Russian buses : http://www.flickr.com/photos/billogs/sets/72157608769592345/




London at Night.




100 Abandoned Houses.



Astro Pics.


Gibbous Europa.


Anemic Galaxy NGC 4921 at the Edge.


Alpine Conjunction.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'I'd like recommendations for short stories that are strange, humorous, or have a surprising twist.'

Short of the Week.

The best of online short films.

By genre and country : http://www.shortoftheweek.com/films/

On YouTube: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/category/host/youtube/


One Rat Short : http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2008/09/19/one-rat-short/


Asience: Hairy Tale : http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2008/09/25/asience-hairy-tale/


The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello : http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2009/02/16/the-mysterious-explorations-of-jasper-morello/




Women!

Vintage photos.




More Women!




Greek to Me: Mapping Mutual Incomprehension.

' “When an English speaker doesn’t understand a word of what someone says, he or she states that it’s ‘Greek to me’. When a Hebrew speaker encounters this difficulty, it ’sounds like Chinese’. I’ve been told the Korean equivalent is ’sounds like Hebrew’,” says Yuval Pinter ... '

Diagrammed here.




Lost London.

'Some old pictures of London I found on the internet.'




Nostalgic Found Photographs.




Aboriginal Languages of Australia.

'There are more than 200 Australian Indigenous languages. Less than 20 languages are strong, and even these are endangered: the others have been destroyed, live in the memories of the elderly, or are being revived by their communities. This site has annotated links to 231 resources for about 80 languages. About 35% of these resources are produced or published by Indigenous people.'




Lewis Hine, Photographer.

'Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American photographer. For Hine, the camera was both a research tool and an instrument of social reform.'




A Visitor's Guide to Hell (Chinese Mythology).

'Descriptions of what happens to the human soul after death abound in China, as in other places. An extremely common motif is that after death we are rewarded or punished by a morally concerned universe for the deeds of our lives on earth...'




1965 Boy Scout Handbook.

'I find this old 1965 Boy Scout Handbook so fascinating that it’s hard to choose which pages to scan for you, but here’s a selection from cover to cover.'




Evolution of Art and Design 1845-1980.




Metro Map of Smells.




The Illuminated Lantern: Essays on Asian Cinema.




Governor of Duck Island.

'This 1734 map of St James's Park in London shows a strange, small territory - that of Duck Island. Charles II created the post of "Governor of Duck Island" as a sinecure for one of his favourites, and it was revived by Queen Caroline the year before this map was made, and given to the poet Stephen Duck, presumably because of his name.'




Abandoned Shipyard Covered with Vegetation in Japan.




The Poorest Postal Code: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in Photos.




The Second Congo War.

The 'Great War of Africa'.




The Westinghouse Time Capsules.

'The Westinghouse Time Capsules are two time capsules prepared by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company: "Time Capsule I", created for the 1939 New York World's Fair; and "Time Capsule II", created for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Both are buried 50 feet below Flushing Meadows Park, the site of both world's fairs, the 1965 capsule 10 feet north of the 1938 one. Both are to be opened at the same time in 6939 AD, five thousand years after the first capsule was sealed.'




Connie's Cornish Kitchen.

The cuisine of Cornwall.




Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' Series.




German and Central European Manuscript Illumination.

'This exhibition explores the tradition of manuscript illumination—book painting using brilliant colors and precious metals—in Germany and central Europe. A beloved artistic medium, illumination began with the flowering of book production under Charlemagne in the early 800s and continued even after the invention of the printed book in the 1400s.'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'Help me make quick and very satisfying breakfasts.'


'I have the attention span of a gnat.'


'What were the social impacts of the lost decade in Japan?'


Suggestions for random acts of kindness.



Astro Pics.


An Etruscan Vase Moon Rising.


Barnard's Loop around the Horsehead Nebula.


Two Tails of Comet Lulin.