The Millennium Bug (1998).

'The 1998 book The Millennium Bug by Michael S. Hyatt is pretty pessimistic about mankind's future, given the "Y2K problem." Ironically, Mr. Hyatt blogged more recently about cynics who are pessimistic about the future. He says that real leaders "look on the sunny side." Priceless turnaround.'

'As ridiculous as the hysteria over Y2K may have been, it was certainly more palatable than the current "2012" nonsense. Whatever happened to being afraid of a good, old-fashioned robot uprising?'




Hospitals in the Sky! (1958).

'This "hospital in the sky," as imagined by Arthur Radebaugh in the May 11, 1958 edition of his comic Closer Than We Think, operates under the assumption that the "weightlessness, irradiation and low temperatures of outer space" would allow for more effective treatment of patients.'




In the moonlight a worm ... the Haiku Homepage.

'Show Don't Tell is the most fundamental poetry lesson ever, demonstrating the principles of creative writing. These principles apply to screenwriting and the novel as much as to haiku, but because haiku are so short they offer the best way to learn them.'




Monsoons of India.

'It is not exaggerating to say that the entire life in India revolves around the monsoons. From crops and drinking water to weddings and festivals, all are determined by the rains. This is a pictorial exhibition celebrating the monsoons in India.'




Alice the Flapper.

'Of all the many versions of Alice in Wonderland at the Rare Book Room, I think I like this sweet 1929 one, with illustrations by Hungarian Willy Pogány (who it seems worked on everything from Djer-Kiss perfume adverts to the set design for Boris Karloff's The Mummy). '




Gould's Tropical Birds.

'Beautiful ornithological works by John Gould, from a 1948 picture book. '




Slovakian Book Covers.




The September Testament.

'Luther’s first translation of the entire New Testament ['Das Newe Testament Deutzsch'] from the Greek original was published by Melchior Lotter the Younger in September 1522, with woodcut illustrations by Lucas Cranach. The so-called September Testament was received so enthusiastically that a second edition with corrections by Luther was printed as early as December of the same year.'




The Knight's Tour.

'The Knight's Tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. '

Some example animations as well.




Peruvian Retablos.

'The term retablo traditionally applies to a broad variety of religious images which are painted and sculpted over much of Latin America. The word is derived from the Latin retro tabula, which means behind the (altar) table, where devotional images were typically placed. In Mexico, New Mexico and Guatemala retablo (or strictly speaking, retablo santo) has taken the form of images of Christ, the virgin, or the saints, painted on tin or wood. '




Out of Bounds: Images in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts.

'Scenes in the margins of a page often comment on the paintings illustrating the text in the center. As often as they expand on the narrative, they also poke fun at the lofty themes and, more broadly, at human foibles.'

'This exhibition covers the sweep of marginalia's history in three stages of development: beginning in the early Middle Ages with Ottonian and Romanesque art, reaching its zenith with Gothic illumination, and working its way into the borders of late medieval manuscripts.'



Astro Pics.


Stephan's Quintet: The First Identified Compact Galaxy Group.


Clouds and Sand on the Horizon of Mars.


Equinox at Saturn.


The Tarantula Zone.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What is the best love song you've ever heard? Not sticky-sweet or sappy, but genuinely romantic. Any genre will do.'


'I'd like a list of the most important, basic, essential programming algorithms.'


'In the art forms you are experienced or well versed in, what kinds of stuff is notorious for being only liked by the experts, and what kinds of stuff is notorious for only being liked by less experienced or educated casual consumers?'


'What are your secrets to maintaining sanity in this increasingly connected and busy world?'




Strangers on a Bus, 1943.

"Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee. Passengers on the Memphis-Chattanooga bus."




The Lobotomist.

'In the early decades of the 20th century, before the development of psychiatric medications, there were few effective treatments for mental illness. For most patients, the last stop in their anguished journey was an overcrowded state asylum. While Freudian psychoanalysis and "talk" therapy was gaining prominence as a potential cure, an ambitious young neurologist named Walter Freeman advocated a more radical approach -- brain surgery to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms.'

'The brilliant scion of one of America's most distinguished medical families, Freeman spent years searching for the biological abnormality that lay at the roots of madness. In 1936, he learned of a Portuguese neurologist who was using a thin steel instrument to operate on the frontal lobes of mentally ill patients. Freeman set about perfecting the procedure he later named lobotomy and began performing it in the United States.'