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.'