Plep - NY

2011-02-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

Palavra de intérprete.
My old friend Maria's translation and intepretation blog.

2010-01-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

Oversharpening a blade causes its edge to be lost.
Line your home with treasures and you won't be able to defend it.
Amass possessions, establish positions, display your pride: Soon
enough disaster drives you to your knees.
This is the way of heaven: do your work, then quietly step back.

- from the Gender-Inclusive Tao Te Ching (
http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/tao/ch_09.html ).

2009-12-08T15:44:00.001-08:00

Perry-Castaneda Library: Historical World Maps.

Quite a collection from around the world.

Family Portraits of All 56 Ethnic Groups in China.

'This is a “Family Portrait” of China’s 56 ethnic groups. Chen Haiwen, a photographer, recently lead a team of 14 photographers to create a book entitled, “Harmonious China: A Sketch of China’s 56 Ethnicities.” The team spent one year travelling all over China to complete the project. They ended up taking over 5.7 million photographs.'

Subway Architecture Worldwide.

'london’s underground became the first subway system in the world when it began operation in 1863.
since then, underground subways have been built in almost every major city of the world. from new york
and paris to hong kong and dubai, subways are an essential part of public transportation in cities.
within these systems, architecture plays a big role in defining the environment of the subway. here is
a collection of some of the most architecturally interesting subway stations. '

Iranians, You Are Not Alone!

'In reply to Iran’s cry for freedom, Italian Graphic Design Association (Aiap) gathered these posters overtime, and eventually, Social Design Zine, a daily blog published by Aiap, released them. Recently, the thumbnails of these posters have been widely distributed in Iran via mass email messages. The heartwarming gesture of empathy from the international community has been felt throughout Iran and continues to reverberate in-kind.'

The Oberammergau Passion Play.

'"Gripped by war, poverty and plague, the villagers of Oberammergau, in Bavaria, southern Germany vowed to put on a 'passion play' every ten years… That was back in 1633. They survived, and performed the first Oberammergau Passion Play in 1634. Ever since, their descendants have carried out that pledge. For the past four centuries the tradition has continued, every ten years. Only villagers have been allowed to take part.'

Berlin's East Side Gallery.

'The Berlin Wall at Muehlenstrasse was painted by about 100 artists from all over the world in the beginning of 1990.
The gallery has become famous as East Side Gallery and is the world's largest open air gallery.
The photographs were taken between 1990 and 2001. '

The Winter War.

Photos of the Finno-Soviet war of 1939-1940 (preceding the German invasion of the USSR and following the German and Soviet invasion of Poland).

How to Host Your Christmas Party, 1964.

'"From Refresh Your Table Manners", by Luella Cuming, 1964 Family Circle.'

Sawing Off of Manhattan Island.

'The sawing off of Manhattan Island is an old New York City story that is largely unverified. It describes a practical joke allegedly perpetuated in 1824 by a retired ship carpenter named Lozier. According to the story, in the 1820s a rumor began circulating among city merchants that southern Manhattan Island was sinking near the Battery due to the weight of the urban district. It was believed that by cutting the island, towing it out, rotating it 180 degrees, and putting it back in place that Manhattan would be stabilized, and that the thin part of the island could be condemned. Surprisingly the main concern was not the futility of the idea but of Long Island being in the way. '

Facing History: Drawings by Iranian Artist Saeed Siadat.

Lord Ganesh on a Wall Painting.

Red Rock Cinema, Reykjavik.

'While searching for some evening entertainment in Reykjavík I came across a list of times for The Volcano Show at Red Rock Cinema. I was intrigued but struggled to find any further details or reviews, eventually I found one description online - "a bit of an oddity that attracts geologists and curious tourists alike". That sold it for me.'

Astro Pics.

Himalayan Skyscape.

Ice Moon Tethys.

Butterfly Nebula.

Route 66.

'U.S. Highway 66 -- popularly known as Route 66 or the Mother Road -- holds a special place in American consciousness and evokes images of simpler times, mom and pop businesses, and the icons of a mobile nation on the road. This travel itinerary aids the public to visit the historic places that recall those images and experiences that are reminders of our past and evidence of the influence of the automobile. The Route 66 Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary was produced by the National Park Service's Heritage Education Services and the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, in partnership with the American Express and World Monuments Fund Sustainable Tourism Initiative and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.'

2009-12-01T04:52:00.001-08:00

The Abysmal Calendar.

'theAbysmal Calendar has been developed as a replacement for the Gregorian calendar in its role as the global standard. It was developed anonymously from December 21st 2005 to December 20th 2007 in Vancouver Canada.
theAbysmal Calendar seeks to harmonise a number of different Calendars' features in order to provide the most eloquent means of translating dates between one Calendar system and another, and for communicating dates across the world's cultures...'

'... theAbysmal Calendar combines Calendar features from the Hebrew, the Hellenic, the Chinese, the Buddhist, the Mesoamericans and the Mesopotamian Calendars, which support its claim as a more globally relevant Calendar than the Gregorian. '

Alternative and proposed calendars: http://calendars.wikia.com/wiki/Alternative_and_Proposed_Calendars

The prospects for calendar reform: http://calendars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Prospects_for_Calendar_Reform

The implementation of the Abysmal Calendar : http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/theabysmal-calendar/

Demonstration of Mars in retrograde.

An interesting discussion.

'The Moral Dimensions of Ditching a Mortgage: University of Arizona law professor Brent T. White has written a provocative new paper (pdf) that urges homeowners with "underwater" mortgages" to walk away by strategically defaulting on their mortgage debts. '

Quote : 'In a society where you and your family are treated like expendable garbage by Wall Street, as a "business decision", why should only corporations be allowed to make "business decisions" that hurt you? Why shouldn't individuals be allowed to commit the same economic violence done to them on a regular basis? These are the questions people are now starting to ask.'

(Note - this is obviously a very US-centric discussion. I believe that the law in the UK, for example, is much more favourable to the consumer, so therefore this kind of discussion would be quite different on the other side of the Atlantic).

Fading Ad Campaign.

'Fading Ad Campaign is a photographic project documenting vintage mural ads on building brickfaces in New York City spanning nearly a century. It has become a metaphor for survival for me since, like myself, many of these ads have long outlived their expected life span. Although this project doesn't deal directly with , it is no accident I've chosen to document such a transitory and evanescent subject. Of the hundreds of ads I've photographed, many have already been covered up, vandalized, or destroyed. But still many silently cling to the walls of buildings, barely noticed by the rushing passersby.'

A Chinese Construction Worker's Notes.

'A young migrant worker updates a post of his raw, yet I found to be truthful and insightful notes while working at a construction site of soon to be multi-million luxury homes in Sanya, Hainan.'

Green Screams: Slogans on Walls in Iran.

'In the aftermath of the June uprising and the brutal ways in which peaceful protesters were beaten, murdered, imprisoned, raped, and tortured, Iranians have begun to define their own forms of civil disobedience from boycotting products advertised on state run IRIB, to nightly chanting Allah-o-Akbar on their rooftops, to turning off their electricity during state officials' TV appearances. One of the most effective methods of public disobedience for Iranians has become writing their thoughts on city walls. '

Moscow Postcards, 1890.

Moscow Postcards, 1927.

Moscow Postcards, 1967.

The Seven Liberal Arts.

'"The areas of secular education considered liberal have their foundation in classical antiquity and were codified in the medieval period into a distinct set of seven, with two subdivisions. The upper division, the quadrivium, consists of Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music; while the lower division, or trivium, is made up of Grammar, Logic (or Dialectic), and Rhetoric. [..]'

French Children's Books of the 1930s and 1940s.

The Eye of Argon.

'The Eye of Argon is a heroic fantasy novella that narrates the adventures of Grignr, a barbarian. It was written in 1970 by Jim Theis and circulated anonymously in science fiction fandom since then. It has been described as "one of the genre's most beloved pieces of appalling prose",[1] and has subsequently been used as part of a common science fiction convention party game.'

Dr. Bronner.

'He was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.[1] He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name. As his father was Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazis, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father."'

A Monkeyfilter post about him : http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/432

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Inspired by this, does anyone know of other interesting locations that can be explored using Google Street View?'

'Creep me out! Lately I've been on an "unsettling stuff" kick -- I like feeling unsettled and I find it creatively inspiring -- but I'm running low on things to explore.'

Leon Czolgosz, assassin of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was electrocuted for his crime on October 29, 1901, at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York. Among the personal effects found in his cell was a U.S. quarter stamped with the date 2218. The face in profile on said quarter was not George Washington, but rather a face which has yet to be identified.

'What are some cool math and number facts that would blow the mind of a seven year old?'

Phi : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

'Seeking fire department incident response websites from anywhere in the world – updated on the fly (e.g. Toronto) or whenever they get the chance (Shropshire), it doesn't matter. Does your area's fire service do this?'<

Old Penny Memories, Bridlington.

'Just off the sea front in Bridlington you can walk around the corner from the promenade and experience a different type of amusement arcade. Old Penny Memories allows you step back in time and play coin-operated arcade games from the heyday of British seaside entertainment.'

Roadside Art in Downstate Illinois.

'Downstate Illinois: You can't beat a region that boasts a House of Stuff!'

Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils.

Astro Pics.

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars.

Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Images.

Filaments of the Veil Nebula.

Princeton University Historical Postcard Collection.

'The Historical Postcard Collection documents the buildings and environs of the Princeton University campus in the form of picture postcards. Featuring both monochrome and color postcards , the bulk of the collection ranges in date from 1900 through the 1960s. Both unmarked and canceled postcards exist in the collection, and several postcard makers are represented. '

Sword Hilt Designs.

'A set of plates by Antoine Jacquard representing designs in blackwork for sword handles, dagger hilts and pommels, decorated with abstracted foliage, grotesques, chimeric figures and drolleries. Produced between about 1610 and 1630.'

Sati and Shiva in Indian Art.

2009-11-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

'The reverse side also has a reverse side.'

Japanese Prints.

'SESSHU'S LONG SCROLL is the masterwork of the 15th-century artist whom Japan honors as her greatest. Famed not only as a painter but also as a Zen priest and a great traveler, Sesshu found inspiration for his wonderful landscapes both in China and Japan. This magnificent scroll, which pictures the procession of the seasons, is essentially religious painting with a strong atmosphere of Zen Buddhism. Nature, rather than man, is dominant, although the human touch is charmingly evident from time to time.'

'One can take this fascinating Zen landscape journey again and again, and always find new delights along the way.'

'Here Be Dragons'.

'Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed, ( 1465–1554/5) was an Ottoman-Turkish Admiral, Privateer, Geographer and Cartographer more commonly known as Piri Reis. In 1521 he finished his Kitab-I Bahriye or Book of Navigation This is an exquisite C17th - C18th revised and expanded version.'

Margaret and Helen's Thanksgiving Letter to the Family.

'This year I am thankful to have you as my family rather than a normal American family. I say that because Sarah Palin is fond of talking about her family being a normal American family.'

Astro Pics.

Annapurna Star Trails.

Ancient Layered Hills on Mars.

Enceladus Venting.

Crescent Earth.

Milky Way Panorama.

Faith, Science, and the Flood.

'Faith and reason, usually jostling for primacy over one another, unite on this map to describe [t]he Earth-sphere after the Deluge in its broken state, shown with Mountains and valleys, great Sea-Bosom and Islands and Shallows of the same. The map was produced for Willem and Jan Goeree’s (1) immensely popular book Introductions to Biblical Knowledge (2), and apparently is based on a similar hemisphere map illustrating Thomas Burnet’s Sacred History of the World (3).'

Flowcharting 'The Lord of the Rings'.

'Equally delightful, if not as yet as iconic, is this flow chart of Lord of the Rings. It charts the itinerary of the story’s main characters, individually and in group, showing when they meet, separate and rejoin each other. The progression is from left to right, not only in tune with the traditional (Western) reading direction but also mirroring the trajectory in the story itself, which starts in the Shire on Middle-Earth’s western edge and leads to Mordor in the east.'

Light and Shadows of a Shattered City.

Kabul photo-essay.

The World Calendar.

'The World Calendar is a proposed reform of the Gregorian calendar created by Elisabeth Achelis of Brooklyn, New York in 1930.'

The Sugar House, El Paso, Texas.

'Started in 1973 by Rufino Loya, a retired Levi Strauss worker, it has been growing ever since. The inspiration for the house was a promise he made to his wife that he would make something beautiful for her. Drawing from memories of the churches he saw growing up in Mexico he created a magical corner of the world in El Paso - an oasis of beauty sitting incongruously beside Highway 54. It's a true labour of love...'

Victorian Toilets, Rothesay.

'The gentlemen’s toilets in Rothesay are a veritable palace of public convenience. Described by Lucinda Lambton, architectural historian and well known cludgie connoisseur as “jewels in the sanitarian’s crown”, they are one of the finest examples of late Victorian lavatories left in the UK.'

Variations of Green.

Tallulah Bankhead.

'My recently acquired copy of Tallulah Bankhead's autobiography (which looks as if it's still in print) turns out to be an ideal winter evening read. She describes her notoriously rackety life with total insouciance: "Let's face it, my dears, I have been tight as a tick! Fried as a mink! Stiff as a goat!" "I've rejoiced in considerable dalliance, and have no regrets... I found no surprises in the Kinsey Report." ...'

The Report from Iron Mountain.

'The Report From Iron Mountain is a book, published in 1967 (during the Johnson Administration) by Dial Press, that states that it is the report of a government panel. The book includes the claim that it was authored by a Special Study Group of fifteen men whose identities were to remain secret, and that it was not intended to be made public. The best selling book purportedly details the analyses and conclusions of a government panel that states that war, or a credible substitute for war, is necessary for governments to maintain power. Report from Iron Mountain was on the New York Times bestseller list and was translated into fifteen different languages. Controversy exists concerning whether the book is the result of a hoax authored by Leonard Lewin or the real result of a secret government panel.'

Drinking in Ancient Karnataka.

'Drinking was undertaken leisurely, with a method under pleasing surrounding and decorated pavilions. Goddess of wine (Madhudevate) was invoked and the Mother Earth was propitiated. Draughts of liquor were put on the head (as mark of respect). Then it was poured into artistically shaped bowls with bird heads and carved from mother pearls, beautiful shells etc. and offered to elders. Then it was turn of youngsters to help themselves. '

Food and drinks in medieval Karnataka: http://www.kamat.com/database/books/sociallife/food_drink.htm

Christmas in Buffalo, 1910.

Soviet Storefronts.

'In Soviet times there were no privately owned shops. All the outlets belonged to the state and were managed according the general trading rules from the Federal center. You could meet absolutely same design of two shops in two totally different cities. Storefronts were often also identical. Like these ones on those photos, back from the Soviet times: '

The Discordian Calendar.

'Yün Kiang, rambling to the east, having been borne along on a gentle breeze, suddenly encountered Hung Mung, who was rambling about, slapping his buttocks and hopping like a bird. Amazed at the sight, Yün Kiang stood reverentially, and said to the other, 'Venerable Sir, who are you? and why are you doing this ?' Hung Mung went on slapping his buttocks and hopping like a bird, but replied, 'I am enjoying myself.' Yün Kiang said, 'I wish to ask you a question.' Hung Mung lifted up his head, looked at the stranger, and said, 'Pooh!' Yün Kiang, however, continued, 'The breath of heaven is out of harmony; the breath of earth is bound up; the six elemental influences do not act in concord; the four seasons do not observe their proper times. Now I wish to blend together the essential qualities of those six influences in order to nourish all living things;-- how shall I go about it?' Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head, saying, 'I do not know; I do not know!' '

Alcatraz Is Not an Island.

From November 1969 to June 1971, Alcatraz Island was occupied by Native American activists.

Three Iranian Sopranos.

International Robot Exhibition 2009.

Which chess piece are you?

2009-11-17T13:05:00.001-08:00

World Atlas of Panoramic Aerial Images.

'Exploring the world, one vista at a time...'

Photos of 19th Century Russia.

'Maksim Dmitriev was born in 1858 in Tambov province. At the age of 15 he became an apprentice of the famous photographer of that time - M.P. Nastiukov, where he obtained basic knowledge about the art of photography. He became famous at the beginning of the 90-s of the XIX century after representation of the exposition called “Bad harvest in Nizhny Novgorod region”, where he showed ruined villages and sick and starving peasants. With this exposition he became the founder of the photo report genre in Russia.'

Flatlands.
Fiction in 2 dimensions. "How does gravity curve space? Well, imagine that the world is two dimensional, like a rubber sheet..."

The French Republican Calendar.

An attempt to decimalise time, amongst other things.

More at Preserving the French Republican Calendar : http://www.kokogiak.com/frc/

Street Art in Newtown, Sydney, New South Wales.

My old stomping ground.

S_P_A_M Haiku.
Going back some years.

There's even a section

On cannibalism.

The Great Moon Hoax.

' "The Great Moon Hoax" was a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, perhaps the best-known astronomer of his time.'

Bio-Diversity.

Autumn in the NY Times.

Green in 1953, Iranian Protests.

'Photo essay: Anti-establishment protests before 1953 coup'.

Cham Village and Yazd, Iran.

'Images of the village of Cham and Yazd in April 2009. Emphasis is on "Dakhmeh" or "towers of silence" which are no longer used and the surrounding landscape.'

Towers of silence ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence ) - used by Zoroastrians for the exposure of the dead.

Vision On.

(UK) 'Readers of a certain age will remember the delight that was Vision On. Presented by avuncular art legend Tony Hart who died last year, it ran from 1964-1976 on the BBC and showcased art and animation from artists and kids alike. '

George Orwell on The Perfect Cup of Tea.

Museum of Firecracker Label Art.

'Thanks for checking out my site. I have over 400 labels available
for you to enjoy. Most are from my personal collection,
although some have been loaned to me so that I could share them.
Click on the links for the different classes to load the links to the individual labels. Have fun and hopefully some will bring back nice memories.'

The World Stone Skimming Championships, Scotland.

Japanese Toy Designs.

'By turns scary and intriguing (much like Japanese game shows and the garbled translations below) the selection of images above comes from the sixty albums in the Kyosen Guangucho section of the website.'

The Theatre of Cruelty.

(16th century illustrations of religious persecution in England). 'Verstegan's book attempted to record, in gruesome detail, the cruelty, torture and murder of Catholic martyrs in Europe - including English victims under the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I* - at the hands of Protestant heretics. Upon publication, the author was arrested and imprisoned for libel against the Crown and all books were confiscated and destroyed (a single page has been saved). Through the intervention of friends in the clerical hierarchy, Verstegan was able to secure his release and he fled the country, ultimately settling in Antwerp.'

Venezuela, 1905.

'Circa 1905. "Country store, Venezuela." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.'

Candy Factory Kids, 1913.

'October 1913. Dallas, Texas. "A few of the young workers in Hughes Brothers Candy Factory, South Ervay Street. I counted five going and coming at night and at noon, that appeared to be from 12 to 15 years old. One girl told me that she is 13 years old, 'but we have to tell them we're 15. I run a chocolate machine.' "'

Vietnamese Contemporary Art.

'VietnamArtist.com is the combined, online gallery for three galleries in Saigon. '

Astro Pics.

Halloween's Moon.

M83's Centre.

Milky Way over the Badlands.

Querying the Hive Mind.

A very sweet thread.

2009-11-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

Too Late for Flowers.

Short story from Liberia.

'Theresa was in her seventies, lean, gray-headed, with a wrinkled face and almost toothless mouth when I moved into her house as a tenant. She had suffered a stroke that left her right leg crippled and her left arm useless. Besides the meager rent Theresa received from me, she sold pepper and palm oil on a ramshackle table at Red Light market...'

Soviet Soldiers of WW2 in Colour.

'Such photos always fascinate me. I mean the color photos from the past, the older the better. These ones is no exception. We got used to see only black and white photos from the World War 2 - the color photography was very expensive at that times and actually was not widely implemented, and especially usually nobody took the expensive equipment to the battlefront. Still there are some color photos from the times where our grandfathers were young, like 70 years ago.'

British Dialects.

'"It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed." Despite efforts by Victorians to eradicate them, dialects of English in Great Britain continue to vary greatly, much to the consternation of many traditionalists. But a recently acquired archive is giving new insight into old dialects--some of which no longer exist. Recorded in a WWI prisoner of war camp on shellac disks, the archive was part of an effort by German linguists to study regional variation in the English language. A report by PRI's The World includes a brief synopsis--and a powerful rendition of a beloved Scottish ballad by a homesick soldier. '

Japanese Postcards from the Year of the Monkey.

Marc's International Pringles Can Collection.

18th Century 'Hyakki Yako' Scroll.

'An 18th-century picture scroll featuring a procession of Japanese demons and monsters is for sale on eBay. This 11.25 meter (37 ft) long work depicts the Hyakki Yakō (lit. “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons”) — a deadly parade of demons and yōkai (traditional monsters) that, according to Japanese folklore, would often take place on summer nights. The Hyakki Yakō was a popular theme in Japanese visual art during the Edo period, and portrayals of these processions, while frightening, often incorporated a sense of humor.'

Hijra.

'In the culture of South Asia, a hijra, is usually considered a member of "the third gender" — neither man nor woman. Most are physically male or intersex, but some are physically female. Hijras usually refer to themselves linguistically as female, and usually dress as women.'

Laura Lean's Photos of South Kensington Tunnel.

'A project photographing the South Kensington tunnel that links the underground station with a number of museums. '

The Sphinx.

'Featured here are John Buckland Wright's illustrations for "Le Sphinx" by the Belgian Symbolist Iwan Gilkin. Richard Sica gives the back story to these rare illustrations from his collection: '

Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939.

Interesting to compare this style with the style in 'The Sphinx' above.

God's Man.

Another set of prints worth comparing, from about the same time period...

Peaceful Conquerors: Jain Manuscript Paintings.

Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans'.

Astro Pics.

Saturn after Equinox.

Art and Science in NGC 918.

Galaxy Merger from Hubble.

Stickney Crater.

Ring Nebula Deep Field.

Russia's Seven Wonders.

'There are seven wonders of the world, but most of them were already destroyed either by the hands of humans or by the cruel passing of time. And last year a group of some Russian TV-channels, newspapers and radio stations hold an official opinion poll and discovered what kinds of real wonders Russia has. Anyone could participate in the poll taking votes via internet or SMS services. So, the seven best-looking and really fascinating places were chosen. Here they are:'

The Soviet Calendar.

'The Soviet calendar added five- and six-day work weeks between 1929 and 1940 to the Gregorian calendar adopted by Russia in 1918. Although the traditional seven-day week was still recognized, a day of rest on Sunday was replaced by one day of rest sometime during each work week. Many sources erroneously state that the weeks were organized into 30-day months.'

Amorita, 1900.

Asbury Park, 1905.

'New Jersey circa 1905. "Boardwalk, Asbury Park." '

Dictionary of British Slang.

'A monster online dictionary of the rich colourful language we call slang... all from a British perspective, with new slang added every month. '

Russian Fairy Tales.

'These illustrations come from Russian Fairy Tales (Pantheon, 1945), translated by Norbert Guterman, with "folkloristic commentary" by Roman Jakobson (yes, that Roman Jakobson). Eudora Welty blurb: "These Russian tales are rambunctious, full-blooded and temperamental. They are tense with action, magical and human, and move in a kind of cyclone of speed. These tales are gorgeous."'

Shusei Nagaoka's Sci Fi Illustrations.

'In the 1970s and 1980s, the sci-fi art of Japanese illustrator Shusei Nagaoka graced numerous album covers and appeared in a variety of advertisements, magazines, and movie posters. Here is a small sample of his fantastic work.'

Basoli's Alphabet.

'n Bologna, in 1839, the decorative artist Antonio Basoli published his Alfabeto Pittorico, ossia raccolta di pensieri pittorici composti di oggetti comincianti dalle singole lettere alfabetiche (‘Pictorial Alphabet, or, a collection of pictorial thoughts composed of objects beginning with the individual letters of the alphabet’). This was an album of twenty-five elaborate lithographs, each one featuring an alphabetical character cast in some fantastic architectural form, in a setting contrived to illustrate any number of figures and objects for which there were Italian words beginning with that same letter.'

2009-11-04T15:36:00.001-08:00

Java Calendar Conversions.

'The applet on this page does conversions between various calendar formats. '

I find this sort of stuff fascinating - mathematically and culturally. I'm playing with scripts to do some of these. I never knew, for instance, the significance of Rosh Hashanah ( http://home.howstuffworks.com/holidays/rosh-hashanah.htm ) and the symbolism of the ram's horn and the story of Abraham and Isaac.

Calendrical calculations: http://emr.cs.uiuc.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/index.shtml

Photo Essay: Iran and Iranians.

Handing It to War: Surviving Victims of the Iran-Iraq War.

China's Dark Satanic Mills.

'On Oct. 14th, Chinese photographer Lu Guang won this year's $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his photos on China’s environment... It was the first time for a Chinese national to win this award and, what was more important, one of the first times that China’s perilous environmental situation was presented with such visual power.'

More : http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/#

Voyager Golden Record: Images and Greetings.

Many of the musical tracks from the Golden Record are here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz126SNxAts&feature=related . Including Eastern and Western classical music, American popular music and ethnic music from Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific.

BBC2 Test Card Music.

Animated Stereoviews of Old Japan.

'In the late 19th and early 20th century, enigmatic photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured a number of 3D stereoviews depicting life in Meiji-period Japan.'

Jacob Riis's New York.

'After more than a century, the oeuvre of the photographer and activist Jacob Riis remains indelible. Following are some of the images he captured in New York's unseen quarters.'

Dutch Covers: Picture Books from 1810 to 1850.

'There is both humour and moralism to be found in children’s books; they play with the relationship between reality and fantasy.'

Moscow in the 1960s: A Glance at the Soviet Lifestyle.

'This is our third post devoted to Marc Riboud, an outstanding French photographer, who traveled extensively throughout the Soviet Union. His images captured an array of everyday life episodes from the lives of the Soviet people.'

Recipes for Dreaming.

'Dreaming = free and fun. Done correctly, it can fill those apparently useless sleeping hours with adventure. For the benefit of mankind, we have tested the following notorious dream-causing foods, to see which has the most spectacular results:'

Goodbye, "Leih Hou Ma," Hello "Ni Hao Ma!".

'"Chinatown" communities across the United States (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco) are undergoing a shift in linguistic identity, as recent immigrants are more likely to natively speak Mandarin (the official spoken language of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,) instead of Cantonese...'
Interesting collection of links.

Artforms of Nature.

'The nineteen century German biologist Ernst Haeckel is famous for his fantastically illustrated book Artforms of Nature. The copyright for this book from 1904 has now expired and thanks to Wikimedia Commons it is available for everyone to appreciate.'

'Haekel's artistic interpretation of the biological forms he studied have a clarity of symmetry and detail that has been a source of inspiration for many artists and engineers over the years...'

As It Might Have Been: Hexagonal London.

'It takes aspiring London cabbies two to four years to acquire ‘The Knowledge’. Only if they know their way around the 25,000 streets in a 6-mile radius from Charing Cross (and along 320 main roads within Greater London) will they be licensed to drive one of London’s iconic black cabs. The London Taxicab Examination System is reputed to be the hardest of its kind in the world, and this speaks to the complexity of the British capital’s road grid.'

'That complexity, and the cabbies’ Knowledge, put passengers at the risk of being overcharged, the Victorians feared. Mid-19th century, even before the current Examination System was instituted (in 1865), a Mr John Leighton devised a system to prevent passengers from being taken for a proverbial as well as a literal ride. Leighton, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published a scheme to divide London in a number of hexagonals, specifically aimed at preventing overcharging by cab drivers...'

Enheduanna, the First Poet We Know by Name.

'Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna.'

Astro Pics.

Blue Sun Bristling.

The Average Colour of the Universe. 'Cosmic Latte'.

The Milky Way over Devils Tower.

A Little Zen.

'So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one's self from one's surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all. '

Klingon Proverbs.

Vulcan Proverbs.

Zen Proverbs.

Soviet Proverbs.

Proverbs from the Game of Go.

The Bodhisattva Ideal.

'A group of people was once traveling through a desert, when it so happened that three of them strayed away and got lost. Tired and thirsty this trio wandered around the desert in the hope of finding some respite. Finally their quest came to an end when they discovered a high well. The first man rushed to it, looked over the wall and found it full of delicious ambrosial water. He immediately exclaimed in a gesture of frenzied euphoria and jumped into it never to come back. The second too did the same. The third man finally walked over quietly over to the well, peeped over its high wall and then turned around and went back, returning to the desert to search for his other fellow travelers, to help guide them to this paradise. '

Old Soviet Advertising Posters.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Please help me understand what does "having a strong work ethic" mean? '

'HELP! I'm totally stuck outside because a skunk is holding me hostage, and it's cold.'

'What are some of your favorite novels under (or around) 150 pages?'

'Why are some clouds black while others are white?'

'How do I discover what day/night and seasonal cycles are like on a hypothetical unusual planet?'

10 Weird Romantic Destinations.

2009-10-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

The Van Gogh Letter Sketches.

'This magnificent new edition of the complete Van Gogh letters is a celebration not only of a great artist but of art itself. Through six large volumes of more than 900 letters, meticulously annotated and accompanied by a wealth of illustrations, we are allowed to follow the painter's progress through a long and at times painful apprenticeship to ultimate artistic triumph.'

A Vintage Christmas Carol.

' "The Works Progress Administration in Ohio presents the Federal Theatre for youth in 'A Christmas Carol.'" This poster for the Federal Theatre Project presentation of "A Christmas Carol" was created between 1936 and 1941.'

See America: 1939.

'From 1939 and Alexander Dux, a Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project poster promoting tourism.'

Dorothy Parker: 1938.

'August 4, 1938. Washington, D.C. "Miss Dorothy Parker has been selected as Miss Washington and will compete for the title of Miss America at the Atlantic City beauty pageant to be held during Labor Day week. 18 Years old, she weighs 112 pounds and is 5 feet, 4 inches in height.'

Bathing Beauties: 1919.

'Washington, D.C., 1919. "Beauty contests at Tidal Basin." Two spectators check out the ladies. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative.'

Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese Characters.

Very interesting.

Pro :- the simplified Chinese character set makes literacy much much more accessible (which was surely the intention with its proponents in the PRC committed to, in simple terms, breaking the tyranny of the mandarins who ran China for centuries).

Con :- it also cuts out a large part of China's literary heritage (which is really the flipside of 'pro' - unlike other societies, China was in large part traditionally run by scholars - not nobles, priests, or soldiers - and cutting off people from their heritage was a big part of the dark side of the legacy of the revolution).

Mainland China uses simplified characters, Taiwan uses traditional characters.

Interesting discussion :- http://www.metafilter.com/86278/

The 'No True Scotsman' Fallacy.

'Imagine Hamish McDonald, a Scotsman, sitting down with his Glasgow Morning Herald and seeing an article about how the "Brighton Sex Maniac Strikes Again." Hamish is shocked and declares that "No Scotsman would do such a thing." The next day he sits down to read his Glasgow Morning Herald again and this time finds an article about an Aberdeen man whose brutal actions make the Brighton sex maniac seem almost gentlemanly. This fact shows that Hamish was wrong in his opinion but is he going to admit this? Not likely. This time he says, "No true Scotsman would do such a thing." '

Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters.

'Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated guide to yōkai authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, features a collection of cutaway diagrams showing the anatomy of 85 traditional monsters from Japanese folklore (which also appear in Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitarō anime/manga). Here are a few illustrations from the book.'

The Accrington Pals.

'This site is dedicated to the memory of the 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington) East Lancashire Regiment, better known as the Accrington Pals. '

During World War I, it was common for groups of British young men from the same village, factory or street to sign up to war together as a group of 'pals'. Thus, during the Battle of the Somme and other offensives, entire communities were disproportionately affected as 'Pals' Regiments' were devastated.

Another famous 'Pals' Regiment' was the Grimsby Chums ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_Chums ), which was practically wiped out.

More on Pals' Regiments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pals_battalion

Martin Gardner, Mathemagician.

The Allied Merchant Navy.

'The 30,000 men of the British Merchant Navy (one-fifth of its pre-war strength) who fell victim to the U-boats between 1939 and 1945, the majority drowned or killed by exposure on the cruel North Atlantic sea*, were quite as certainly front-line warriors as the guardsmen and fighter pilots to whom they ferried the necessities of combat. Neither they nor their American, Dutch, Norwegian, or Greek fellow mariners wore uniform and few have any memorial. They stood nevertheless between the Wehrmacht and the domination of the world.'
- John Keegan.

The Sami.

'The BBC has captured footage of golden eagles hunting reindeer calves in northern Finland, confirming Sami reports. For more about the Sami, you can watch this series of videos, which cover a wide range of subjects, among them the language, arts and crafts, religion and music. And here is more about Sami reindeer folklore. '

Britain Punches Above Its Weight.

'This comes down to the UK's ludicrous self-esteem problem. They ran the world for 100+ years, lost their Empire, lost the sea to the US, and has had to cozy up to their hated European rivals as part of the EU. And yet, they still have a major economy, their standard of living is at or near an all-time high, and while they may be caught between being the 51st state and just another province of Brussels, they still hold sway on the world stage and will for decades to come... '

That's because poms like whingeing as much as seppos like boasting.

Lego Version of Kinkaku-ji (Japanese Temple).

Symphony of Science - 'We Are All Connected' (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye).

Eleanor Powell: Dance me to the End of Love.

Stormy Weather.

Fred Astaire once called this performance "the greatest dance number ever filmed."

Colossal Sea Monster.

Roadside Art Online: Tiny Design.

'Sea Foods: In the universe of graphical matchbook covers, this represents one of the most primitive designs I've seen. Aside from the oddly proportion bather, the scroll behind her, the four dots along its bottom, and the barebones typography all combine to make this a masterpiece of a sort...'

The Tudor Pattern Book.

'The present work, Bodleian MS. Ashmole 1504 ('The Tudor Pattern Book'), is unique in the sense that it is part-bestiary, part-herbal and an important visual record of early cultivated plants. It was produced in East Anglia in about 1520 and its twin (known as the 'Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary' and perhaps a little older than the Ashmole variant) is now part of the Yale Center for British Art in Virginia.'

Kuan Yin, Compassionate Rebel.

Buddhist art.

BLICKFANG: The Eyecatching Covers of Weimar Berlin.

'I feature here twenty-five book covers and posters from the out-of-print book Blickfang: Bucheinbände und Schutzumschläge Berliner Verlage 1919 - 1933 (Holstein, 2005), ISBN 9783000147869.'

Dino Buzzati's 'Poem Strip'

'These incredible images come from Dino Buzzati's Poem Strip, just out from NYRB Classics (translated by Marina Harss, with lettering by Rich Tommaso). Daniel Handler provides an accurate description of the book in his blurb: "I think I stumbled upon this on late-night TV when I was a kid: Donovan, playing himself, wandering through a neo-Caligari lava-lamp world of writhing Barbara Steeles and Sophia Lorens in search of love and justice and groove. I'm happy to see it's on again."'

Alexeieff's 'Queen of Spades'.

Illustration. 'All images by Alexander Alexeieff for Pushkin's The Queen of Spades (London, Blackamore Press, 1923).'

Beach Buggy: 1905.

'The Jersey Shore circa 1905. "At Atlantic City." In the background: Clabby's baths on the boardwalk. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative.'

Boat Club Rowers: 1919.

'September 20, 1919. "Potomac Boat Club eight." On the river at the old Aqueduct Bridge. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.'

Hendrick Motor Co.: 1928.

'Takoma Park, Maryland, circa 1928. "Hendrick Motor Co., Carroll Avenue." National Photo Company Collection glass negative.'

Astro Pics.

Pleiades and Stardust.

Herschel Views the Milky Way.

Galaxies in Pegasus.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'If you only had one year left before moving out of New York City, what would you make sure to see and do before leaving?'

Ah, how appropriate.

'What are different cultures' versions of comfort foods that are prepared for people who are sick and feeling under the weather?'

'By the beard of Zeus! I'm looking for fantastic exclamations!'

Crime and Punishment.

'Photos around the theme of Crime and Punishment in the first half of the 20th century.'

Flowering Plants by Anne Pratt.

'"The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, And Ferns Of Great Britain, And Their Allies The Club Mosses, Pepperworts And Horsetails" - By Anne Pratt (1806 - 1893). Volumes Two, Five & Six. First published in five volumes between 1855-1866. A sixth volume was added in 1873. This edition about 1870.'

2009-10-15T13:36:00.001-07:00

Letters of Note.

'I was ready to sink into the earth with shame' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/i-was-ready-to-sink-into-earth-with.html - a Tang Dynasty official apologises for getting drunk and swearing.

'The things I saw beggar description' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/things-i-saw-beggar-description.html - Eisenhower describes a German concentration camp at liberation.

'I miss my brother' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/i-miss-my-brother.html - an English orphan working on an Australian farm in 1922.

'Okay, you lazy b1tch' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/okay-you-lazy-bitch.html - Hunter S. Thompson is upset with a producer.

'The word God is the product of human weakness' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/word-god-is-product-of-human-weakness.html - Einstein writes to a philosopher.

'From your Daddy and pal always' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/from-your-daddy-and-pal-always.html - an Australian POW writes to his son.

'Most of you steal your software' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/most-of-you-steal-your-software.html - Bill Gates is upset with pirates.

'My dear little one day old baby' : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/my-dear-little-one-day-old-baby.html - a mother writes.

A love letter in code : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/i-u.html

'You are a decoration, you little witch! : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/you-are-decoration-you-little-witch.html - Mark Twain writes to a 9-year-old fan.

A witty thankyou from Marilyn Monroe : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/my-best-marilyn-monroe.html

Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence.

'As a child, the actor regularly saw his father hit his mother. Here he describes how the horrors of his childhood remained with him in his adult life'.

Gargoyles.

'"Gargoyles (in the strict sense) are carvings on the outside of buildings designed to direct water from the roof away from the base of the walls... ...Some gargoyles are undecorated but many are zoomorphic or anthropomorphic - often very imaginative and/or grotesque. This has led to the term 'gargoyle' being applied more widely to any grotesque carving in medieval buildings." (from Bob Trubshaw, posting in BritArch archives, 23Feb1999)

Strange Visions of Kuniyoshi.

'From wikipedia: "Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese: 歌川国芳) (1797-1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting and belonged to the Utagawa school."...'

Illustrator Josef Lada.

Czech painter and writer.

Radio Days, 1938.

'Washington, D.C., circa 1938. "Dancing class, WRC studio." Smile for the microphone, girls. '

Anarchist Art.

'Anarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly in music and literature. It shares these traits with other political movements, such as socialism, communism, liberalism, libertarianism and even fascism...'

Marikamba Temple.

'The temple of goddess Marikamba in the town of Sirsi is a splendid example of syncretic evolution of tribal and so called brahminical customs and rituals, befitting Hindu ethos.'

Zinc, Arkansas, 1935.

' October 1935. "Among the few remaining inhabitants of Zinc, Arkansas, deserted mining town... Per Wikipedia, the place still exists. It is home to 76 people and a KKK headquarters."'

Les Fleurs Animees.

'The delightful caprice of JJ Grandville's imaginative - and posthumously published - series of flower illustrations ensured that 'Les Fleurs Animées' was popularly received in 1847 and reissued and translated many times.'

Pictures of Bacteria.

'This site features an extensive collection of photographs of Bacteria, Microbes, Biofilms, and Bacterial Colonies.'

The Mechanical Man of the Future (1928).

'On December 9, 1928 The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden City, Utah), along with many other papers, ran a syndicated story about the mechanical man of the future. Much like the insistence that giant robots would soon fight our wars, this article clearly must be taken with a grain of salt.'

Querying the Hive Mind.

'How many calories are in the average human brain? As in, if you were to eat a brain zombie style, how many calories would that represent?'

'Why is it that I seem to instinctively prefer houses from the late-19th or early 20th century to post-war architecture?'

'When somebody is paying a bunch of craftsmen to build them a house they hope will be in their family for 100 years, things come out a bit differently than when they are paying Toll Brothers the lowest possible price for a house for them to live in till the GE Accelerated Executive Program causes them to move again in the next three years...'

An explanation of sign language syntax.

'Why do people hate math and science so much?'

Astro Pics.

Earth and Moon from Mars.

Orion Deep Field.

Storm Alley on Saturn.

Uncle Joss Ambler's Life in the Movies.

'My late uncle, Joss Ambler, was an actor in English movies and T.V. from 1937 to 1958. Sadly, he died in 1959 at the age of 60. This set is a tribute to his life and work. He usually played small character roles. I hope to display posters and memorabilia for the roughly 60 movies he had a part in. I hope to also find some photographs of him, but until I do, I will include photos of stars he worked with and screen shots from his movies. He was married to my Auntie Reenie. They lived in London.'

Traditional Japan.

Navratri Hindu Festival, Jersey City.

More : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogseat/sets/72157594318103793/

Flickr's Diwali Pool.

Article about sacred-texts.com

' "Essentially, this is my gift to the world," he said. "I don't want it to go away if I die. People consider it a world treasure." ... '

Jim and Jack, 1943.

Forgotten NY: Wall Street and South Ferry.

'The Wall Street station's ceramic plaques depict the defensive wall set up by the Dutch in the approximate location of today's titular street to protect New Amsterdam, or New Netherland, against any Indian tribes or enemy British who may have wanted to invade. A Dutch house, typical with its stepped roof line, can be seen in the background, with trees resembling cedars on each side. Accompanying each plaque is a stylized letter W. The plaque was produced by Rookwood Pottery. The Cincinnati pottery, instituted by Maria Longworth Nichols in 1880, was the first female-owned manufacturing company in the USA and is still going strong today. '

Tokyo Architecture.

Black Hmong Life.

'Black Hmong People from Sapa. A mountainous Northern region of Vietnam. Photos taken 2005-2007.'

Mimz.

Unusual dolls. 'My little happy hujoo! named Mimz it just seemed to fit!'

2009-10-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk.

Rule 1 - do one thing at a time.

Art for Housewives.

Everyday art for good.

Map of Australian Aboriginal Cultures and Languages.

The Aboriginal Memorial.

'The Aboriginal Memorial is an installation of 200 hollow log coffins from Central Arnhem Land. It commemorates all the indigenous people who, since 1788, have lost their lives defending their land. The artists who created this installation intended that it be located in a public place where it could be preserved for future generations. '

Kodo - Irodori.

Japanese Ghost Paintings.

'These scans come from the book Japanese Ghost Paintings: The Sanyutei Encho Collection at Zensho-an (Perikansha Publishing, 1995), ISBN: 4-48315-0887-X. (In Japanese, with some basic info and abstracts in English.)'

Indra's Ratha in Melakkadambur, a Chola Masterpiece.

A remarkable temple. 'It is one of the least known treasures of South Indian art. Hidden in the isolated village of Melakkadambur, the Amritagateshvara temple is unique for its sculpture, its architecture and its astronomical significance.'

Cathedral Architecture of Western Europe.

Lots of images. 'Many cathedrals are among the most renowned works of architecture on the planet. These include Notre Dame de Paris, Milan Cathedral, Cologne Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Barcelona Cathedral and many more.'

Bell Labs in the 1960s.

'In the late '60's I worked for Bell Labs for a few years managing a data center and developing an ultra high speed information retrieval system. It was the days of beehive hair on the women and big mainframe computers. One day I took a camera to work and shot the pictures below. I had a great staff, mostly women except for the programmers who were all men. For some reason only one of them was around for the pictures that day. '

Japanese Town Logos.

'Japanese town logos — official symbols designed to communicate the identity of each municipality — come in a vast array of shapes and colors. Many of these municipal symbols incorporate typographical elements (particularly kanji, hiragana, katakana, and Roman letters) into their designs. In most cases, the stylized characters are straightforward and easy to spot (even if you don’t read Japanese), but sometimes you have to bend your eyes to see them.'

History of Hot Air Ballooning.

The Leonardo of Wermsdorg: Technical Illustrations by Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke.
'Have you heard of Janke before? No? Well then stop reading here and go and have a look through his portfolio of nearly 3,500 drawings/documents that Deutsche Fotothek uploaded in the last couple of months.'

Weird Islands.

'Mad Art Nouveau fantasy illustrations by the Belgian artist, Jean de Bosschère, from his 1921 book, 'Weird Islands', available from the Internet Archive in various formats. '

The Life of the Dead.

An illustrated poem.

'The Life of the Dead (1933) is a collaboration between American poet Laura Riding Jackson and British painter John Aldridge. It is a product of the intense period when Riding and her partner Robert Graves were at the centre of a small community of expatriates in Deyá, Mallorca, busily writing and running their own Seizin Press...'

Astro Pics.

Stars over Easter Island.

Double-Ringed Basin on Mercury.

Lagoon Nebula.

Red Moon Triple.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What are your picks for melancholy, lonely, time-stopping and heartachingly beautiful songs?'

'What well-designed, yet inexpensive, possessions are you fond of?'

'What is the most important scientific question of our time?'

'Asking for a friend: What questions should he ask Richard Dawkins during a radio interview?'

'I like biographies of ordinary/non-famous people with interesting stories to tell, or stories from before they became notable. Can anyone recommend any?'

'I have absolutely no comprehension whatsoever of how fiber optic cables can transmit information -- phone calls, emails, whatever -- by using light. Seriously, this makes no sense. Please explain it to me as if I'm a fifth-grader who makes decent grades in science class.'

'Are we too old to trick or treat?'

Duluth, Minnesota, 1905.

Shiny Datsun, 1971.

Dead Confederate Soldier, 1865.

The Millennium Dome.

'Photographs taken around the Millennium Dome (now known as The O2), North Greenwich peninsula, London, 2000 - 2008 '

2009-10-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Japanese Magic Lantern Slides.

'The University of Hawaii at Manoa hosts an online collection of about 1,500 magic lantern slides created in the 1930s and distributed around the world to educate people about Japan. Here are a few.'

Photos of the Abandoned Pilgrim State Asylum, NY.

Creepy and interesting.

A brief history : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_Psychiatric_Center

The Abandoned Peoria State Asylum, Illinois.

Creepypasta.

'Crepypasta are short stories designed to unnerve, disturb, elicit a negative emotional response from, and scare the reader...' Many examples.

Sentenced Home.

Cambodians in America, and back in Cambodia again.

'After escaping the long war and the Khmer Rouge genocide, hundreds of Cambodian refugees reached safety in America, only to wind up, decades later, deported to a land many never even knew. Isolated and ill equipped to fit into society, they form a strange sub-culture in one of the world's poorest countries, turned into a human dumping ground in yet another shameful sidebar to America's relentless search for Homeland Security.'

Nightmares and sleep paralysis.

'Common images are bearded, goblin-like demons laughing or whispering sinister speech, a faceless girl (usually covering her face with hair, moving around in bed moaning and feeling my body), hands appearing from the wall and attempting to strangle me. A hung man talking in the corner of the room, and some of the most bizarre experiences may include up to a dozen 'critter' entities (think Gremlins movie) laughing and talking about me...'

Henry Fuseli's 'The Nightmare' : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare

Japanese Antique Bicycle Gallery.

The Stroud Pound.

A new currency in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

The Illustrated Story of Copyright.

'In this book, I trace the story of copyright from its adoption in this country over 210 years ago through the headline issues posed by the Internet and the digitizing of creative works. Using sidebars and photographs to illustrate the major turning points, I try to explain copyright straightforwardly enough so that teenagers can understand it, and in enough detail to help inform even those who are already familiar with the basics. '

Astro Pics.

Saturn at Equinox.

Carina Pillar and Jets.

To Fly Free in Space.

Oxford Circus X-Crossing.

Iran: Art in protest.

Anne Frank: The only existing film images.

'July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. '

Nazi film found in English church.

'A film found in the storeroom of a church in rural Devon, made by Nazi officers showing them laughing and joking on a verandah, enjoying coffee and cake with female companions. '

David Attenborough: Life in the undergrowth.

'Sir David Attenborough introduces the amazing world of insects and all other small animals that shape our planet and colonise the world.'

Interview with a Buddhist priest.

Kodo drummers.

'Magic Flute' (Queen of the Night aria).

'Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "The Magic Flute" - Royal Opera House production Diana Damrau as Queen of Night Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina conducted by Colin Davis '

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Help! My door knob is stuck and I'm trapped in my room!'

'What can some people do that other people can't do? What can some see that others can't?'

'Is there a way to tweak my personal psychology so that I perceive failure and rejection as neutral or even positive, rather than negative, events?'

Avatars of Vishnu.

Some really nice images.

A Short History of the Wheelbarrow.

Native American Sites in the City of Philadelphia.

Turkish Costumes.

'This 17th century album, simply entitled 'Turkish Costumes', is hosted by the Digital Library of Poland '

Book Covers from Poland.

Blinky Bill and Friends.

A cute koala in old Australian children's books.

'Dorothy Wall (1894-1942) completed some artistic training in her native New Zealand before emigrating to Australia in 1914 where she quickly obtained work as a commercial graphic artist. It is no little coincidence that another contemporary childrens book artist, the more famous May Gibbs, had also come to Australia at about the same time. Gibbs' work at least partly inspired Wall (and others) to move from the calendar, card and advertising industry into children's book illustration.'

Mexican Vintage Ads.

The Armageddon Flowchart.

Theatres on Postcards.

'CARTHALIA shows my collection of old and new postcards of exterior and interior views of theatres of all times worldwide. The web site does not yet feature the entire collection - "black" text in the menu on the left means that I have not yet scanned my postcard(s) of that theatre. However, you can already have a look at over 4300 images of over 1900 buildings in 100 countries. '

American Environmental Photographs 1891-1936.

2009-09-24T10:31:00.001-07:00

'The more I see of people, the better I like my dog.' -- Frederick the Great.

The Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon Hoard on Flickr.

An Anthropology of Happiness: The Sisterhood of Filipina Maids in Hong Kong.

'ONCE a week, on Sundays, Hong Kong becomes a different city. Thousands of Filipina women throng into the central business district, around Statue Square, to picnic, dance, sing, gossip and laugh. They snuggle in the shade under the HSBC building, a Hong Kong landmark, and spill out into the parks and streets. They hug. They chatter. They smile. Humanity could stage no greater display of happiness...'

'... “Nowadays, bayanihan really means togetherness,” says Mr de Leon, and “togetherness is happiness”. It might sound too obvious, almost banal, to point out—had not so many people across the world forgotten it.'

Vintage Lawnmower Cards.

'The lawn mowers advertised by the 20 trade cards shown below were manufactured by American companies, probably from 1880 to 1900. Most of these cards show the mower being pushed by a child or woman. This is typical of lawn mower trade cards, emphasizing how easily the mower can be operated.'

Designs by Bold: Broomsticks and Other Stories.

'These "designs by Bold" (as the illustrations are credited on the title page) can be found in Walter de la Mare's Broomsticks & Other Stories (Constable, 1925), a collection of supernatural stories for children.'

Cook's Voyage to the Pacific.

'The National Library of Australia have 87 engraving plates on display from Captain James Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean of 1784. Multiple resolution and pan/zoom options. Cook was speared and stoned to death in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in February 1779. '

Googie Central.

'Welcome to Googie Central, home to some of most space-age, "astro", bold, and yes, Googie architecture and sign in all the land. Back in the 50's and 60's, America was enthusiastically anticipating the future. Space travel was in and many wondered what it would be like to trade in their old automobile for a space ship, just like... The Jetsons.
Architects envisioned what "future world" was to look like and began designing buildings with huge "caddy-like" tail-fins, pronounced shapes, and boomerang angles, just to name a few. Not to mention some that just designed the building like a flying saucer.'

The Temple of the Tooth, Sri Lanka.

Houses a tooth relic of the Buddha.

From
a Buddhist Pilgrim's Guide to Sri Lanka : http://www.buddhanet.net/sacred-island/introduction.html

The Tree of Jesse.

In cathedrals' and churches' stained glass windows and medieval Christian art.
'Pictorial representations of the Jesse Tree show a symbolic tree or vine with spreading branches to represent the genealogy in accordance with Isaiah's prophecy. The 12th century monk Hervaeus expressed the medieval understanding of the image, based on the Vulgate text: "The patriarch Jesse belonged to the royal family, that is why the root of Jesse signifies the lineage of kings. As to the rod, it symbolises Mary as the flower symbolises Jesus Christ."'

The Persian Zodiac.

'These images come form an egyptian manuscript from the 14th/15th centuries. It reproduces a persian astrological treatise from ~9th century - 'Kitâb al-Mawalid' - by Abû Ma'shar, said to have been the most influential document in the development of western astrology. [I believe it is otherwise known as 'The Book of Nativities' or 'The Book of Revolution of the Birth Years'.]'

The only woman in the French Foreign Legion.

Kings (and Queens) Of Their Own Domains.

'Ursula Graham-Bower, an English archeology student who ventured to India in 1939 "to putter about with a few cameras and do a bit of medical work, maybe write a book" and ended up in the jungle on the Burmese border as "Queen of the Nagas", leading headhunting tribes against the advancing Japanese Army.'

20 Classic Beauties: 1950s-1980s.

Cosmos Remixed - Sagan and Hawking.

'A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way '

Truck Farm, 1938.

"Farm woman beside her barn door. Tulare County, California. No more horseshoes!"

On the Road, 1938.

'June 1938. Outskirts of El Paso, Texas. '

C Girls, 1910.

'Washington, D.C., circa 1910. "Girls' basketball." The C might stand for Central High.'

Weegee's World: Life, Death and the Human Drama.

"He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful."

Also known as Arthur (Usher) Fellig. Early 20th century NYC photojournalist, known as 'Weegee' from 'Ouija' - he had an uncanny ability to turn up at crime scenes.

Literary Map of San Francisco.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Tell me some scary and/or mysterious things that are local to your area, but not necessarily well-known to the rest of the world.'

'What cultural or spiritual practice involves an alter or offering incorporating a dead chicken and money?'

'Looking to learn more about Haitian voodoo in America.'

'would you consider this a miracle? or what??' 'To make a long story short - my entire family (that's my mom, bro's and sis and spouses) were watching the Lakers play the Celtics on Xmas day. It's sort of been our tradition during the holidays. During the middle of the game, the telecast was interrupted with a picture of Jesus Christ! '

'I am thinking of making some quirky, amateur porn that straddles the borderline between porn and art....'

' What is a good comeback for an introvert, attending a social occasion, who gets told, for the umpteenth time, "Hey you're really quiet aren't you?" '

' "Well, bless your heart!" and "How nice for you!" are two of my favorite barely-veiled criticisms. Can you provide me with some more?'

'What are the canonical signs that someone doesn't know much about your field, or only picked up enough to make cocktail-party conversation? (categorized science and nature, but other disciplines welcome!)'

'What is the coolest and quirkiest event you've ever attended or heard of?'

'What are the world's most acclaimed short stories?'

'Please help me really grok chemistry.'

Found Fantastic Buddhist Quote, Looking For Its Origin - 'What is the origin of this quote - "We're as dead now as we'll ever be."? '

Clarence Larkin's (1850-1924) Biblical Wallcharts.

Pastor from Pennsylvania - classic wallcharts of Biblical timelines.

Rokuro Taniuchi.

'I discovered the incredible Japanese illustrator Rokuro Taniuchi (1921 - 1981) while searching for Tadanori Yokoo books. On the Amazon listing for this profusely-illustrated book -- Taniuchi Rokuro Gensouki (Shinshindo, 1981) -- Yokoo is listed as the editor. The book seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found it...'

More : http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/search/label/rokuro

Crater Lake, Oregon.

Japanese Traditional Town.

Sichuan - Tibet - Yunnan.

Human India.

2009-09-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Around the World in 1815.

'Louis Choris, a painter from the Ukraine, was 20 years old when he boarded the Kotzebue in 1815 for a 3 year world tour. He eventually published Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amerique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des iles du Grand ocean; des paysages, des vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle in 1822. The text, which makes up about half the nearly 300 pages was by Baron Cuvier and a couple of others.'

Dalit Saint Peddi.

'Urilinga Peddi (C-1150-1200) occupies a unique place in the Virashaiva mvement of India. He belonged to the low caste and was a robber. Once Peddi had gone to steal at the residence of Surayya, a rich man and devotee of Urilingadeva, a great Shaiva Saint. Peddi heard the exposition of scriptures and the way to pious life. Peddi was a changed person onwards and for twelve years he brought firewood to Urilingadeva's hermitage without being noticed.'

Forgotten Illustrator Jiri Trnka.

'Jiri Trnka (1912 - 1969) is well-known (relatively-speaking) for his brilliant animated puppet movies. He has even been dubbed the "Walt Disney of the East." Recently I discovered that this Czech artist also illustrated children's books throughout his career. Many of these books were published in English from the fifties to the seventies, though none are currently in print.'

Forgotten Illustrator Viera Gergel'ova.

'I can't find any information about her, but it appears she was working in Bratislava in the 60s and early 70s.'

Chinese Thumb Rings.

'It is not often that an implement of warfare evolves into an item of jewelry. But that is precisely what happened with Chinese archer’s rings. '

Roadside Characters.

'Remember the roadside characters that used to greet you as you whizzed by? How about the famous Doggie Diner? The Blue Whale off Route 66 in Catoosa? You can't forget Dinah as well as Kadie the Cow.'

'See them here in this index to these roadside characters by region.'

Neon Theatres of the Midwest.

Vintage Postcards of Route 66.

Astro Pics.

Ultraviolet Andromeda.

Moons and Jupiter.

Starburst Galaxy M94.

Querying the Hive Mind.

What are some movies with moral beauty?

'What is the probability of one or both events occurring.'

'Choose Your Own Adventure question.'

'Mefites, please show me the oddest blogs you have ever seen?'

' I need a story about a person who has an uninspiring job but does it in a way that makes a difference people's lives.' (Ikiru, of course!)

'I have a strange question... Assuming that world sea-level rises by 1 metre over the next hundred years - Would it be possible to cordon off a section of land, somewhere in the centre of a continent, and flood it to create an artificial ocean, thus reducing the consequences of the sea rise?'

'Why can't I, and how can I, hear my dad's accent?'

'Does everyone categorise shades of colours in the same way? I'm interested in the way shades of colours are bundled together in different cultures/languages.'

'Please help me convince my 19 year old niece that she shouldn't drop out of her upcoming professional course to become a stripper. '

Why Is Colour?

Hindu Deities' Vehicles.

'Most Hindu Gods have their own vehicles that they use to go about their tasks and responsibilities. We bring you this fascinating exhibition of pictures from Indian mythologies. '

Biloxi, Mississippi Shrimps (1945).

Poetry for Primates.

'There's been increased interest lately in monkey languages after discoveries were made about how putty-nosed monkeys combine sounds to create a basic syntax:
* Hack-hack-hack-hack: "There's an eagle over there!"
* Pyow-hack-hack-pyow-pyow-pyow: "I've seen a leopard, let's move away!"
* Hack-hack-hack-pyow-hack-hack-hack-hack-hack "There's an eagle over
there, let's move away!" ... '

Nageshvara Nataraja.

'Nataraja is called “one of the most popular forms of the god Shiva” by the great scholar of South Indian art and architecture, Dr. Douglas Barrett [1]. Following his and other scholars’ work, many authors support the idea that the Dancing Shiva as Nataraja was a tenth century innovation by Chola artists and architects. A novelty possibly initiated or directed by the Chola queen Sembyan Mahadevi. It has also been suggested by some authors that this development was related to certain political objectives of the Chola dynasty, especially its imperial and expansive ambitions. '

Indian Cinema.

Vintage European Geishas.

Red Dust in Sydney.

'As I write this, there's an insane dust storm that's sweeping over Sydney. I found out about it by seeing a Twitter post from Dan Hill. I'm based in San Francisco but found it so extraordinary I decided to go and see if I could spot pictures coming in and make a little gallery out of them.'

Luna Park: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhide/3945957994/

Classic Coaches of Wombourne.

'Classic Coaches of Wombourne in Staffordshire ran an odd fleet of old buses and coaches. One of these oddities was EUG885D, an unusual centre-entrance AEC Reliance coach that had been new to the Wallace Arnold coach fleet in 1966. EUG885D is seen in Station Street, Walsall on a shuttle service between Walsall and Bescot. '

Milk Float.

'Saturday job by Lady Wulfrun.
Two young lads pose alongside an old 'Unigate' Morrison 'D1' electric milkfloat in Womboune, Staffordshire one Saturday morning in December 1986, They'd both been helping the local milkman on his rounds to earn a bit of extra pocket money, bless em. '

Sunny Staffordshire.

'Sunny Staffordshire by Lady Wulfrun.
With its windows open, and its passengers enjoying the resulting cool breeze, West Midlands Travel Fleetline 6447 (NOC 447R) roars along Plantation Lane in Himley, Staffordshire, bound for Wolverhampton on a warm and sunny afternoon in June 1989. '

Irish Comics Wiki.

2009-09-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

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.'

2009-09-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Museum of British Folklore.

Pat & Mat.

'Pat & Mat, lovable Czech puppetmen who have complex solutions to simple problems'. YouTube links.

The Big Picture: Recent Hindu Festivals and Rituals.

Jan Janszoon Van Haarlem, aka Murad Reis: The Pirate King of the Barbary Coast.

'About 1575 a child, later christened Jan, was born in the city of Haarlem, North Holland, the Netherlands. Jan grew up an average Dutch boy, and when he reached maturity, he married a local girl whose name is unknown. Lysbeth Van Salee was born to this union in 1596. There were likely other children...'

'He was destined to become a pirate king on the Barbary Coast in North Africa. Jan was known in the English speaking world as Captain John, John Barber and Little John Ward. His Arabic names were Caid Morato, Morat, Morat Rais, Murad, Murad Reis, Mutare Reis, Morato Reis and Murat Reis. Reis or rais in Arabic means captain.'

The Year 2038 Bug.

20th Century Magazine Covers from Japan.

'These covers come from Bookcover Design in Japan 1910s-40s (ISBN 4-89444-426-7) edited by Masayo Matsubara. Published in 2005 by PIE Books, this incredible book is already out-of-print and becoming hard to find (it was actually hard for me to find and I spend hours per day searching for rare books). This book is in Japanese only, but of course you need it for the 650 illustrations.'

Book Cover Design in India 1964-1984.

Slang and the Great Depression.

'Much slang from the era comes out as a response to the Great Depression: from words referring to President Herbert Hoover, to Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl, to Apple Annies trying to make ends meet. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1932, Americans talked of a New Deal and its slew of programs, known by their initials.'

'Those who wanted to get away from it all could hit the road... or the tracks. Auto Touring was the new way to vacation, but hoboes who couldn't travel by car jumped the blinds or went on thumb.'

Historical Playing Cards.

Dore's Engravings for the Old Testament.

'Woodcuts by Gustave Doré (1832-1883)'.

Dore's Engravings for the New Testament.

Roadside America: Tiny Churches.

'Tiny churches are adorable symbols of understated Christianity. For the small communities that built them, they are perfect for small weddings or quiet contemplation. For frazzled travelers, fending off road rage or interstate ennui, wee houses of worship poke up suddenly from the asphalt firmament like little miracles.'

Historical Photos of Central Asia.

Roadside America: Big Coffee Pots.

'One of the few towns with a semi-legitimate coffee claim-to-fame, Stanton is the home of "Mrs. Olson." Or, at least, was the home of an actress -- stage name Virginia Christine -- made famous as Folgers' Mrs. Olson, hawking their "mountain grown" coffee in TV commercials and on the sides of coffee cans. She'd long since departed the Iowa, but returned for the town's Centennial celebration in 1970 as parade Grand Marshal. Stanton celebrated the connection, along with its own Scandinavian coffee roots, with a 120-ft. Coffee Pot Water Tower erected in 1971. '

Astro Pics.

Despina, Moon of Neptune.

Shadows of Saturn.

Beneath the South Pole of Saturn.

Jupiter over the Mediterranean.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Favorite Ramen Recipes? I am looking to augment my Ramen meals. '

'Do you have a soft heart? How did you get one?'

Tennis, Anyone?

'Washington, D.C., circa 1915. "Women's tennis league section leaders." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative.'

A Book of Moss.

'So this 1950 King Penguin book by Professor P.W. Richards might be of interest. Professor Richards complains that moss is unjustly neglected, quoting botanist John Bartram: "Before Dr Dillenius gave me a hint of it, I took no particular notice of mosses, but looked upon them as a cow looks at a pair of new barn doors."'

Prancing Knights.

'More medieval catwalk posing than stereotypical jousting scenes perhaps, this group of illustrations precedes an historically significant text, Ludwig von Eyb's 'Turnierbuch'.'

The Blasket Islands.

'Island of Sorrows. On the far western tip of continental Europe lie The Blasket Islands, picturesque in the sunlight. Great Blasket produced a great wealth (scroll down) of oral and written folk history from personages such as Peig Sayers (photo); and Tomas O'Crohan and Maurice O'Sullivan. '

Junko Mizuno Fans.

'Born 1973 in Tokyo, Japan, Junko Mizuno is one of the most promising young artists in Japan's fast-moving manga (comics) scene. Her instantly recognizable illustrations blending the cute and the grotesque grace everything in Tokyo from T-shirts to CD jackets to nightclub décor.'

Festivals of Kerala, India.

Someone's Photos of Shanghai.

Chicago Street Art.

2009-08-27T14:36:00.001-07:00

'I Life My Lamp Beside the Golden Door...'

The cartoons of Maira Kalman, on New York and America.

'What are we doing here? Who knows? How did we get here? I'll tell you...'

For Goodness' Sake.

Another Kalman cartoon, on New York.

'My love of New York City and love of cleaning are well known. A clean city if a beautiful city. And I want to help. My city it like any city: mind-bogglingly complex...'

5000 Years of Indian Art.

Roadside America: Mega-Messiahs.

' It's still fashionable, during these post-millennial years, to ponder The End of Everything. Media-worn warnings from the Bible, Nostradamus, and assorted bunker-dwellers continue to give us pause. Fans of Hollywood Apocalypse films believe the End will be laden with spectacular special effects. And while students of the Book of Revelation may not agree on all the details, one thing is very possible:'

'A giant Jesus will be looking for you. '

1930s Russian Experimental Homemade Photography.

'These photos are from a private collection of a typical Moscow family. They are dated back to 1936-1940 - the years known as the period of Stalin’s most cruel political repressions. Several million people are said to be affected: sentenced, shot or sent off to labour camps.'

'There is a Russian movie about those times – “Burnt By The Sun” (Utomlennye Solncem), which in 1994 won the Academy Awards as the best foreign language film (imdb rating 7.9/10). The story is about love in the times of political turmoil, the love that survives all fears of purges and uncertainty. Surprisingly enough, people still managed to try and have a few laughs during those harsh times.'

Harry Clarke, Illustrations for E. A. Poe.

'A friend gave me her parents' copy of this 1923 rarity to scan: Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe, illustrated by Harry Clarke (Ireland, 1889 - 1931). She remembers being fascinated and haunted by details like the killer's toes from "The Tell-Tale Heart" (see above).'

The Appetite of a Bird.

'This is an actual film sequence from Appetit d'Oiseau (Appetite of a Bird) by Peter Foldes. I scanned thumbnails from the book Graphis: Film & TV Graphics (1967), which says the film "recounts in harrowing images the pursuit of the female by the male."'

Microscopia.

Tiny creatures. 'On a rainy afternoon visit the Micropolitan Museum to find revealed the most amazing things:'

Film Posters Paintings from Ghana.

Tibetan Anatomical Paintings.

Magician Souvenir Programs.

Hypnotist Posters.

A Japanese Historical World Map.

African Barber Shop Signs.

Tom Thumb Trade Cards.

'Shown below are thumbnail images (at 25 percent of actual size) of 7 trade cards and 4 cartes de viste having Tom Thumb as their main subject. '

Jumbo Trade Cards.

'Jumbo was brought as a baby from Africa to the Royal Zoological Gardens in London, England, and grew to be 11-1/2 feet in height and 6-1/2 tons in weight. In almost 20 years of service there, he gave rides to thousands of children.'

'P. T. Barnum wanted Jumbo as an attraction for his shows and made an offer of $10,000, but had no hopes of ever owning him. But in 1881 the Zoological Society accepted Barnum's offer after Jumbo threw some temper tantrums. A controversy arose between the English and Americans, mostly instigated by Barnum for publicity, as to whether Jumbo should be allowed to leave England.'

Roadside America: Big Fruit.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What is a Buddhist to do about bullies?'

'Looking for good quotes from evil men.'

'What cooking secrets take your food to the almost-pro level?'

'What are we fighting when we fight against depression?'

'What are the most interesting or unusual questions you've ever been asked at a job interview?'

'What are good examples of jokes with long story-telling set-ups?'

'What’s the probability that I have drunk the same molecule of water more than once in my life?'

'I’m interested in learning more about meditation. I also have ADD and find it impossible to shut off my brain and clear my mind.'

Astro Pics.

Dark Sky over Sequoia National Park.

Moon and Mars.

Pillars of Eagle Castle.

How to Make Primordial Soup.

Milwaukee Neighborhood Posters.

'The Milwaukee Neighborhood poster series began with Bay View in 1983. In the ensuing seven years, Milwaukee graphic artist Jan Kotowicz added 25 posters to the collection. The reverse side of each poster carries a history of the neighborhood written by local historian John Gurda. '

Pulp Fiction Book Covers.

Yangtze River Sketchbook.

'At 3,900 miles, Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia, and third in the world. It winds through most beautiful land forms in the world, the Yangtze River reaches the edge of the Tibetan plateau, and plunges off the roof of the world through huge gorges.'

Japanese Temples and Shrines.

Disassembled Household Appliances.

New York Summer.

2009-08-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Surinam Slave Trade.

Prints related to the slave trade in the former Dutch colony of Surinam.

"Going now to take my leave of Surinam, after all the horrors and cruelties with which I must have hurt both the eye and the heart of the reader, I will close with an emblematical picture of Europe supported by Africa and America, accompanied by an ardent wish that the friendly manner as they are represented, they may henceforth and to all eternity be the props of each other... We only differ in colour, but are certainly all created by the same hand."

Japanese Crepe Paper Fairy Tales.

'The Baika Women's University Collection of Crêpe Paper Books in Japan consists of more than one hundred and fifty works produced between about 1880 and 1940 in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese editions. Not all of the books are present in each language and some of the books were published on thick Japanese paper rather than crêpe paper. Most, but not all, of the books are traditional fairy tales.'

Cambodian Paperback Novel Covers.

'So why follow the literary scene in Cambodia? Cool discoveries like these. The above image is by Hul Sophon, who has worked in illustration both before and after the years of war. In addition to his primary work on covers he does many other kinds of art, and had an adaptation of ‘Kolap Pailin’ published by Reyum. (Now sold out.)'

Roadside Art of the Northern Plains.

'Question: What do you do when you live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and want to drive to Glacier National Park, and you don't want to be bored out of your skull for 2000 miles?'

'Answer: You do a little research, and plan to take a week each way meandering around the countryside looking for roadside art!'

The Unintentionally Terrifying World of Bright Tales and Funny Pictures.

'Maggie Brown's 1894 Bright Tales and Funny Pictures has undergone a remarkable transformation in the digital collection of the The Baldwin Library. On Baldwin's site, you can click through these "placeholders" to see the original works, but I recommend just enjoying the accidental zebra face art.'

Vending Machines of Japan.

'PhotoMann has a large 'collection' of images of unique vending machines found around Japan. Over 50 of them can be seen here. The machines are everywhere. Estimates suggest there are 5.6 million vending machines which works out to be one for every 20 people in Japan.'

The Crystal Factory of Gus-Khrustalny.

'The crystal plant is the main and the greatest construction of Gus-Khrustalny, a small Russian town, which was granted its name for the fiver it is located on (Gus) and the crystal (khrustal’) industry. In the 19th century it was known all over the Russian Empire thanks to Ivan Maltsov, who brought in a lot of European innovations, including making Bohemian glass. In war periods the plant was manufacturing various glass mass-produced items, like thermometers, flasks, thermoses and other consumer goods. Later its status of the main crystal plant was reclaimed. In our short but fascinating photo set you can see how the crystal things are made in modern times.'

Atlas de Trudaine.

18th century maps of France.

'The National Archives of France offers a geneorous sampling from a collection of more than 3000 manuscript maps (62 volumes) of the roads and country side of France made by Charles Daniel Trudaine between 1745 and 1780. Each volume covers one or more parts of France according to the election regions under the Ancien Régime.'

60s and 70s Fashion Photo Galleries.

Nina Simone at the Harlem Cultural Festival, 1969.

Four Women, Backlash Blues : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65rz61qOwhc&fmt=18

Be My Husband : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwhV69f3Ej0&fmt=18

Ain't Got No, I Loves You Porgy : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc49cprX5nc&fmt=18

To Be Young Gifted and Black, Revolution : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gLVvsy7TXE&fmt=18

Are You Ready? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHXtB9ssnhw&fmt=18

Biography of Khamtrül Ngak’chang Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche (1926 - 1993).

Tibetan shaman and the Dalai Lama's weather controller.

Kodachrome Goes to War, 1942.

'October 1942. "Women are trained as engine mechanics in thorough Douglas training methods. Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California." Skipping ahead to 2009, and the end of an era: Today Kodak announced that, after 74 colorful years, it will stop making Kodachrome film. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information.'

Yamamoto and the Sosaku Hanga.

'Kanae Yamamoto (1882-1946) was a founder of the Japanese art movement, Sosaku Hanga or 'creative prints'. It was "a Japanese woodblock print movement of the 20th century which utilized Western concepts of art; both in the production, in which the artist was more involved in the production of the prints (often undertaking the entire process on their own), and in the subject matter and presentation, which was that of modern art."'

Gallery of Fanta Bottlecaps.

The Four Stages of Cruelty.

'The Four Stages of Cruelty is a series of four printed engravings published by William Hogarth in 1751. Each print depicts a different stage in the life of the fictional Tom Nero.'

'Beginning with the torture of a dog as a child in the First stage of cruelty, Nero progresses to beating his horse as a man in the Second stage of cruelty, and then to robbery, seduction, and murder in Cruelty in perfection. Finally, in The reward of cruelty, he receives what Hogarth warns is the inevitable fate of those who start down the path Nero has followed: his body is taken from the gallows after his execution as a murderer and is mutilated by surgeons in the anatomical theatre.'

Pension Office, 1918.

'Washington, D.C., circa 1918. "Pension Office interior." This former repository of Civil War veterans' pension records is now the National Building Museum. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.'

Otter Family.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What is an example of a cookbook wherein the recipes have had the hell tested out of them?'

'How do I learn to build stuff?'

'Help me find music that makes me feel small and insignificant.'

'Take three kids and a flute. Anne says the flute should be given to her because she is the only one who knows how to play it. Bob says the flute should be handed to him as he is so poor he has no toys to play with. Carla says the flute is hers because it is the fruit of her own labour. How do we decide between these three legitimate claims? '

2009-08-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

Real USSR.

Articles about Soviet life.

The Great Flu.

Pandemic control game.

Land's End.

Fading towns of coastal British Columbia.

Giant Carnivorous Plant.

Sot oc'h gant ar binîoù?
- useful phrases in many tongues.

It's all Greek to me. 'The equivalent of this phrase in quite a few languages compares incomprehensible things to an unknown language, particularly Chinese or Greek, while many of the Slavic languages associate Spanish villages with incomprehsion. The Chinese themselves compare such things to a 'heavenly script'. The Japanese use a string of nonsense syllables which imitate the sounds of unknown languages, especially Chinese. '

Iranian Kids' Book Covers.

The Road from London to Land's End (1675 Map).

'This extraordinary map, dating from 1675, details The Road From LONDON to the LANDS END Comencing at the Standard in Cornhill and Extending to Senan in Cornwall. It was made by IOHN OGILBY Esq[ui]r[e] his Ma[jes]ties Cosmographer and covers 308 miles and 3 furlongs (almost 500 km).'

Old Circus Posters.

The Book of Genesis by R. Crumb.

North Korea at Night.

Old Japanese Octopus Toy Paintings.

'The Ningyo-do Bunko Database is a huge online collection of watercolor paintings by Kawasaki Kyosen (1877-1942). The collection consists of over 5,000 still-life images of antique toys and folk crafts from across Japan, including a few lovely octopus-themed items.'

Speech of the Dead Christ (1796).

'Here's an excerpt from Speech of the Dead Christ from the Universe that There Is No God (1796), a section from Jean Paul's Siebenkas (the word Siebenkas will stick in your head forever once you read Thomas Bernhard's Extinction).'

Turn-of-the-Century Bitters Trade Cards.

'Bitters originated in England to avoid a tax levied on alcohol by adding bitter flavoring to alcohol and promoting it as a tax-free medicine having healing and curing capabilities. During the "snake-oil" Patent Medicine period of the mid-1800s in America, bitters having other additives such as herbs, spices and narcotics were offered by many companies with extravagant claims as to their curative powers. Typical diseases claimed to be cured by bitters were ague, fevers, rheumatism, gravel, kidney complaints and nervous debility. They remained high in alcohol content, however, and usually made the user feel good if not cured.'

'... Popular bitters during this later, turn-of-the-century period included Pond's, Lash's, Rex and Hostetters, and their makers made good use of trade cards and postcards in advertising them to the public. In contrast to earlier bitters cards which emphasized curative powers and were nicely printed, these later cards are cruder and often vulgar and suggestive in their use of double entendre. However, today they serve as an interesting insight into the life and humor of that period.'

1893 World's Fair Cards.

'The American Cereal Co. issued a set of 12 trade cards as souvenirs of the 1893 World's Fair. These cards copied a set of paintings displayed at the American Cereal Co. exhibit and titled "The Procession Of The Seasons." The artists were H. Dalton Jones (1848 - 1927) and his brother Francis C. Jones (1857 - 1932) whose names appear on the first 11 cards.'

Abandoned Structures in Rochester, NY.

'Rochester has its fair share of fun abandoned buildings and public works. Most famous is the several miles of intact underground tunnel which is the Abandoned Subway. On Elmwood Avenue there is a partially Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital, the largest building being ten stories tall. Soon to be demolished, the Iola Campus on Westfall Road & East Henrietta Road features several overgrown buildings with plenty to offer explorers.'

Comic Ads.

'This site is devoted to the advertising in old comics. It begins with illustrated pseudo-comics, moves on seed-and-salve selling, muscle ads, guns, cereal, candy, bikes, the ads of the 60s and 70s (my childhood, and hence of great interest to the world) and finally, ten tons of stuff that doesn’t belong elsewhere.'

Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Let's you and me talk about spooky music.'

'I like mind-blowing books. Please give me your best suggestions.'

'Did you work in an office before the Internet? What did you do? Also, what was on your desk?'

'What are some (non-Roswell) examples of unsolved "paranormal phenomena"?'

'The year is 1900, and I earn $2550 annually. What is my life like?'

Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.

Xeno-Canto: Bird Sounds from Around the World.

1970s Escalator Public Information Film.

Dark and Lonely Water.

A public information classic.

Green Cross Code.

Road safety classic.

All About Japan.

India Graphics.

Ainu.

Indigenous people of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island.

East European Cars.

Graffiti Archaeology.

2009-08-06T12:55:00.001-07:00

10 Levels of Intimacy in Today's Communication.

Greco-Buddhist Art.

Along the Silk Road, in Afghanistan, long ago...

'Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE. '

An example of a 'Greek Buddha' : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhara_Buddha_(tnm).jpeg

'Iconographical evolution of the Greek Herakles into the Japanese Shukongoshin.' : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heracles-Shukongoshin.JPG

Greek-looking Cambodian bodhisattva: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CambodianLokesvara.JPG

Kabul Museum.

'For thousands of years, Afghanistan was a crossroad for trade from India, Iran, and Central Asia. As a result, many treasures and artifacts have been discovered and collected. The Kabul Museum, housed the most comprehensive record of Central Asian history. Many of its pieces have been dated as far back as pre-historic times...'

The Lofstrom Launch Loop.

Better than a space elevator.

Rembrandt van Rijn: Famous Works.

Sketches of Hell by Kyosai.

'Prolific Meiji-period artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889), well-known in the West for his darkly humorous illustrations, was commissioned by Scottish surgeon and Japanese art collector William Anderson (1842-1900) to produce a large number of comic paintings in the 1870s. Anderson’s collection, which today forms the core of the Japanese paintings at the British Museum, included the handful of fanciful depictions of hell shown below. '

One Hundred Years Hence.

'The trade cards shown below are a set of 12 stock cards that predict what things will be like in the year 2000. This set was most likely produced at the Kuntsdruck-Friedberg printing plant in Berlin, Germany, and is found in both American and European versions. The images are identical for both versions, but the American cards are in English and have wider and more decorative borders. The European cards were imprinted for chocolate companies in Germany and Belgium, and the English language cards were imprinted for at least 14 different American companies.'

Wagon Train to the West.

'Daniel Jenks traveled to Yreka, California, twice from his native Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1849 he joined thousands of '49ers who poured into California by sailing around Cape Horn. In 1859, after a few months at home, Jenks began his overland journey, intending to mine for gold at Pike's Peak. Disillusioned, he returned to Yreka and, on December 24, 1859, bought a mining claim on Long Gulch, where he had mined previously.'

'These are four of twenty drawings illustrating his travels that Jenks created after he arrived in Yreka, in 1859. He mailed them home to his sister in Pawtucket with a volume of his edited diary.'

Cherokee Pass: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(cph+3c28886))

The Wizard of New Zealand.

'The Wizard was born Ian Brackenbury Channell, 4 December 1932 in London. He served in the Royal Air Force and taught in universities in Australia.'

'The Wizard moved to Christchurch New Zealand where he has become a national icon.'

The Anonymous Portrait Gallery.

'Anonymous art is wonderfully simple. What's there is what the artist put into it, no more or less. Intentions and creative contexts, ethnicity, mental diagnosis, educational background, the artist's art-historical role -- all are ciphers. In place of biography there is mystery, and the creative process speaks for itself to viewers who are as anonymous to the artist as the artist is to them. '

Art Deco in Lower Manhattan.

Exploring Space (1958).

'While The Complete Book of Space Travel was aimed at teen and pre-teen boys, the 1958 book Exploring Space was looking for a younger audience (still of boys, mind you, since we all know that lady-parts get confused with all that science and math).'

'Below are sample pages from the book, including one that some little tyke got after with a brown crayon.'

Tomorrow's Kitchen (1943).

'The July 16, 1943 Morning Herald (Uniontown, PA) ran this piece about the kitchen of the future, complete with built-in pots and pans. The kitchen was designed by the Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass company, which may be the same company that imagined the glass house of the year 2008.'

Antique Maps of Paris.

Astro Pics.

Diamonds in a Cloudy Sky.

Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon.

The African Rock and Roll Years.

King Sunny Ade in Concert :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osNAy1DNkOQ&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fIzasVGSck&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBnmwDG84kI&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqrUT-RF5VQ&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9h2ZQTVAZQ&fmt=18

Planets and Stars to Scale.

Ganguro Makeup Tutorial.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'I want to record my parents telling the story of their lives. I would love to hear tips, pointers, guides, resources or your experiences of doing the same thing - anything which might help me do as good a job as possible would be appreciated.'

'How many calories are in a human brain?'

'I've always been interested in spies, secret passages, and gadgets. How can I transform my home to incorporate these things?'

A Stroll Down Seattle's First Avenue.

'Four years after a Jog Around Lake Union, I decided to take another jaunt—this time on downtown Seattle’s main artery—and brought Caitlin Burke, friend and shutterbug, along for the walk.'

'From north to south, here’s what we saw on a sunny day in the Emerald City.'

Wolf Spider.

Butterflies.

Walking the Great Wall of China.

3D Stereoviews of Old Japan.

Someone's Photos of Vietnam.

2009-08-01T11:36:00.001-07:00

Someone is wrong on the Internet.

The observable Universe.

Gods of Japan.

'This photo library and dictionary is a labor of love. After moving to Kamakura in 1993, I became intrigued by the many deities and faces of Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism. There are dozens of temples and shrines near my home, many dating from the 8th to 13th centuries, many open to the public. There are 400+ deities in this dictionary, and 2,500+ photos of statuary from Kamakura, Nara, Kyoto, and elsewhere in Japan.'

Line-Crossing Ceremonies.

'The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and other navies which commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. Originally the tradition was created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Sailors who have already crossed the equator are nicknamed (Trusty) Shellbacks, often referred to as Sons of Neptune; those who have not are nicknamed (Slimy) Pollywogs...'

Seurat's 'Grande Jatte' and 'Circus'.

Dead Malls.

'Read the stories and see the pictures of retail establishments and malls past, and some present. '

King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Outsider Folk Art.

Self-taught folk and naive artists.

'Great artists produce great art, whether they are trained or simply have a natural gift for expressing themselves through the outlet of their art.'

Praying Mantis.

Bumblebee Queen.

Indian Court: 1939.

'Six of seven WPA posters by Louis B. Siegriest (1899-1989) promoting American Indian art at the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. Available as Vintagraph fine-art prints, made from ultra high-resolution scans of the original serigraphs -- very detailed and quite beautiful.'

Vulcan and Vishnu.

A wordless web comic about 'the travels and travails of two honest workmen devising their way around obstacled and through calamities on their way to fortune and glory.'

1979 Deutschland.

'Here you will find several photo galleries, all dealing with the punk years 1977 - 1980 in Germany; MP3s of the German Bands mentioned; sample pages of old German Punk Rock Fanzines. And some further links. Have fun and enjoy.'

Capturing Nature's Beauty: Three Centuries of French Landscapes.

The Natural History of Palm Trees.
"The author of over 150 botanical titles, including the great flora of Brazil, Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius also wrote the still-definitive three-volume treatise on the palm family, one of the first plant monographs. He developed his life-long fascination with palms during an expedition through Brazil [map] from 1817 to 1820, and he worked nearly 30 years to prepare this grand summation, including palms found only as fossils."

Fortune-Telling by Cards (1915).

'This is a short book on telling fortunes, primarily with a standard deck of playing cards. There is a short two-chapter section at the end about the Tarot. Described are several different spreads, including the 32-card method, the French and Italian methods, the Grand Star, and Etteilla's Tarot spread. '

Macedonian Apron Designs.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Suggest absorbing fiction about mysterious England.'

'Intelligent space opera?'

Bollywood.

China Collection.

Guatemalan Colour.

2009-07-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Map of Online Communities.

Map of the Internet.

Interesting Puzzle.

Cordyceps.

Fungi which are parasitic upon insects.

'Some Cordyceps species are able to affect the behavior of their insect host; Cordyceps unilateralis causes ants to climb a plant and attach there before they die. This ensures the parasite's enviroment is of the optimal temperature and humidity, and maximal distribution of the spores from the fruiting body that sprouts out of the dead insect is achieved.'

Chinese Cultural Revolution Posters.

'These decades encompass an era of great internal change, during which China was almost closed to the outside world. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution questioned and rejected much of China’s own cultural past as well as influences from abroad. The posters depict not only the impact and ideals of the Cultural Revolution, but also a society’s developing confidence in the role technology could play in modernisation.'

The Pookie Story.

Some cute furry primates.

Ladybird Eats Aphid.

The Summer of '41.

People enjoying summer, long ago. 'A colorized version of Russell Lee's "Summer of '41," posted here in 2007. '

Suffragette Banners.

'I think we've all had enough stripper memoirs and ironic domestic goddess stuff now, thanks, so please can everyone go and have a look at the Women's Library's splendid collection of rousing suffragette banners, for a reminder that our grandmothers were made of sterner stuff. '

Old Dinosaur Books.

'I know it doesn't seem to bear the slightest relationship to the rest of this page. But I love old dinosaur books. It's just a hobby of mine. Whenever I see any old, scientifically out of date books about dinosaurs, I grab 'em. The more inaccurate the better! I know dinosaurs were actually real animals but I love it when dinosaurs are depicted as outlandish, horrible monsters. I've developed quite a little collection. Since there is absolutely nothing on the web as far as I've been able to see about this, it is my duty to supply it! '

Family Life to be Altered Greatly by 21st Century (1968).

From 1968. 'By the year 2000 Americans may travel by ballistic missile, swallow a pill for a meal and wear tights and helmets like people in science fiction comic strips. Or they may not. There's no way of telling, and perhaps it doesn't make much difference.'

Detroit's Abandoned Belle Isle Zoo.

Abandoned Properties in Detroit.

'These scenes are from the city’s north end, in a neighborhood known as State Fair, so called because one end of it borders the Michigan State Fairgrounds. It’s one of the neighborhoods that’s been hardest hit by crime, population loss, and decay in a city known for all three. Some blocks have been cleared entirely of housing over the years, one house at a time, until nature runs rampant, untrammeled by human endeavor, leaving nothing but telephone poles that still carry electricity past open fields with no machines to power, no homes to light.'

Astro Pics.

The Big Corona.

Spiral Galaxy with a Central Eye.

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300.

Catacombs of Newark, NJ.

Chicago Roadside Art.

West Norwood Cemetery Catacombs, in London.

The Simpsons Opening Sequence.

Sir Humphry Davy

Was not fond of gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.

The clerihew : http://www.metafilter.com/83549/Clerihews

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Recommend me some sci-fi with female lead characters!'

'What are the qualities of the most charismatic or magnetic person you know?'

'What are some underrated but mind altering books?'

'How can I alleviate my depression?'

Caricatures of Famous Communists.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What are some underrated but mind altering books?'

'What adult life skills have you learned that were well worth the time spent learning?'

Nuclear Slide Rules.

Tales from Chaucer (1833).

'This is a modern retelling of the highlights of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.'

Ancient Mexican Designs.

Buddha Eyes, Nepal.

2009-07-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

Alchemy.

'Alchemy is a complex subject with many different interconnected aspects. Many people still only think of the quest of the philosophers' stone to change base metals into gold. On this web site you will be able to explore the riches of alchemical texts, some of which are wonderful works of allegorical literature, delve into its amazing, beautiful and enigmatic symbolism, and ponder its underlying hermetic philosophy, which holds a picture of the interconnection of the Macrocosm and Microcosm.'

Virtual museum of alchemical imagery: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/virtual_museum/floorplan.html

Practical alchemy: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/physical.html

Meteor Strike on Jupiter.

'1000 Frames of Hitchcock.

"1000 Frames of Hitchcock" is an attempt to reduce each of the 52 available major Hitchcock films down to just 1000 frames. The aim of the project is to create a library of images which can be used to illustrate blog posts, web articles and reviews, etc. '

Aircraft Nose Art Gallery.

'nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually located near the nose, and is a form of aircraft graffiti'

Astro Pics.

Prometheus Creating Saturn Ring Streamers.

Flowing Barchan Sand Dunes on Mars.

Jupiter's Three Red Spots.

Planets, Great Wall, and Solar Eclipse.

The Chameleon's Dark Nebulae.

PlayPumps.

Children pump clean water by playing on a merry-go-round.

Cultural Entomology.

Insects in human culture - as food, in art, as pets, around the world.

Asian Odyssey.

Bhutan: http://www.pbase.com/asianodyssey/bhutan

Classic Illustrated Zoologies 1550-1900.

'Illustrated books from the 16th century to the early 20th depicting the fish, birds, and animals of the world.'

The Lithuanian Press Ban 1864-1904.

'From 1864 to 1904, the Russian Empire tried to quelch the nationalism of Lithuanians by ordering all Lithuanian texts to be printed with Cyrillic characters instead of in the Latin-derived Lithuanian or Polish alphabets. But they didn't count on the Knygnešiai - the Booksmugglers...'

Old School Etiquette.

Rhotic and Non-Rhotic Accents.

It's Me Snitches.

The Present Sound of London.

Red Primer for Children and Diplomats.

'Published in 1967 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution'.

Satire by a Hungarian dissident cartoonist.

Names of the Planets in Different Cultures.

Planets (and days of the week) in European languages are named after (Greek, Roman, or Germanic) gods and goddesses. In East Asian languages, after the traditional elements of Chinese alchemy.

The Buddhist Flag.

Someone's Photos of Nepal.

Ghost Signs.

2009-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Art Scene China: Contemporary Chinese Art.

The Birth of Ginger.

All (Known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter.

Germinal Tenas: French Pop Music.

'Badly translated from the sleevenotes to "Wizzz! Volume 2":
Germinal Floreal Tenas, initiator of the 'Reverendus Chorus' project, is in retrospect one of the major record producers of the French 60's counter-culture. A disciple of mockery and the DIY sound, his productions during the Sixties thumbed their nose to the masquerade of yéyé.'

Monkey!

Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

'This is a fascimile reproduction, along with transcribed text, of William Blake's masterpiece of bookmaking, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. These poems are one of the treasures of world literature, simple enough to resonate with children, but with enough exoteric and esoteric meaning to keep a gnostic sage pondering for several lifetimes. Blake's vision of a universe alive on all scales of being is luminously represented in the hand-colored illustrations, which contain clues to the overtones of the text. The poems are also firmly rooted in the misery of 18th century London, and many of them are embued with a politically radical (but still bardic) outlook on the squalid everyday life which surrounded Blake. This is a text which needs to be experienced with both sides of the brain.'

Museum of Calculators: Rockwell (USA).

1983: The Brink of Apocalypse.

'1983: The Brink of Apocalypse -- In 1983 the NATO war exercise Able Archer almost started a nuclear war. Unknown to NATO, just a few months earlier a false alarm had already put the Soviet leadership on edge, and the exercise triggered preparations for a counter attack in the Soviet military. Only a few double agents on each side may have saved the world from nuclear armageddon. '

Bon, Tibet's Oldest Religion.

'Often described as the shamanistic and animistic tradition of the Himalayas prior to Buddhism's rise to prominence in the 7th century, more recent research and disclosures have demonstrated that both the religion and the Bönpo are significantly more rich and textured culturally than was initially thought by pioneering Western scholars.'

The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs 1860-1960.

Classic Las Vegas Signs.

'The Wind in the Willows' Illustrations.

''The Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Grahame was first published in 1908 but the masterful, scratchy drawings by EH Shepard, - illustrator of 'Winnie the Pooh' - that are most closely associated with the text, were not produced until 1931.'

We Met the Space People.

'This is a UFO contactee account by two sisters from the Midwest US in the late 1950s. The Mitchell sisters, Helen and Betty, are approached by space aliens, who can pass for human beings, in (of all places) a coffee shop in St. Louis, Missouri. On a second encounter (again in the coffee shop) they are given a schematic for a communicator, which they build, and through it they receive messages from the Space People from Mars and Venus. Unlike the more aggressive aliens of later decades, they wait until the third date to take Helen on a ride to the mothership. There she learns that the aliens have one-piece uniforms that 'feel like satin,' speak a Universal Language, and play a game like shuffleboard when off-duty. '

French Flying Machines.

[Collecting cards with pictures of events in ballooning history from 1795 to 1846]

Norman Rockwell's Illustrations to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Sex Quotes.

"Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."

Astro Pics.

Dark River to Antares.

Auroral Corona over Norway.

Sarychev Peak Volcano in Stereo.

2009-07-04T12:21:00.001-07:00

Why Chicks Cry.

In the Land of Invented Languages.

The Size of the Universe.

Griots.

About griots, a musician (or bard or minstrel, or praise singer) caste of West Africa.

The Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour is partly of griot ancestry and the recent film 'Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love' - which is about what makes him tick deal with this :
http://www.ibringwhatilove.com/

Griots on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQMFN-whbEU

The Graphing Calculator Story.

'Pacific Tech's Graphing Calculator has a long history. I began the work in 1985 while in school. That became Milo, and later became part of FrameMaker. Over the last twenty years, many people have contributed to it. Graphing Calculator 1.0, which Apple bundled with the original PowerPC computers, originated under unique circumstances.'

'I used to be a contractor for Apple, working on a secret project. Unfortunately, the computer we were building never saw the light of day. The project was so plagued by politics and ego that when the engineers requested technical oversight, our manager hired a psychologist instead. In August 1993, the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed.'

'I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up.'

The Hands Resist Him, or The Haunted Ebay Painting.

Codex Fejervary Mayer.

'The Codex Fejérváry-Mayer depicts specific aspects of the tonalpohualli the 260-day Mesoamerican augural cycle. The painted manuscript divides the world into five parts. T-shaped trees delineate compass points: east at the top, west on the bottom, north on the left, and south on the right. The four directions are distributed around a sacred center, shown here as Xiuhtecuhlti, the god of fire.'

Museum of Firecracker Label Art.

My Life as a Drunk.

'On 200 mg a day of baclofen, in an important meeting with several associate deans of my college and three new department chairs (I was made chair of my philosophy department just a few weeks before I tried to commit suicide), I fell asleep with my head on the conference room table and, for 40 minutes, everyone was too embarrassed to wake me. Somnolence is the most obvious and inconvenient side effect of baclofen. I reduced my dosage to 100 mg a day, and started taking it only at bedtime. A few days later, a colleague asked if I had changed my medicine. ‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘Why do you ask?’ She is German, an analytic philosopher, and therefore very direct: ‘You are drooling less than you were.'

Medea.

'Euripides likes to give a twist to an old myth. Jason was a real man, a great hero, who had led the Greeks' greatest overseas adventure (this was long before the Trojan War). He'd married a beautiful and clever princess. But they dont "live happily ever after". Euripides imagines the couple years later, when Jason is beginning to show symptoms of the male menopause. '

The Classics Pages : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/whoisloxias.htm

Monsterama: Cute Creeps from Pop Culture.

Evian Roller Babies.

Unmistaken Child.

The Bank That Time Forgot.

'The SkyBank building in downtown Youngstown, one of the oldest buildings in the city, was constructed in 1909 and has barely been touched since. I recently had the opportunity to work at this bank, and explore the vast secrets its labyrinthine layout holds. After many adventures, I escaped with my life, and hereby present my findings.'

North Korea's Beer Ad.

Flags of Forgotten Countries.

Herland (1909).

'Gilamn's feminist novel, Herland was one of a flood of utopian books at the turn of the 20th century where sex roles are inverted. Gilman imagined a society where women not only rule, but are the only gender. Reproducing by parthenogenesis, they worship a female deity. This particular book later became a must-read for the second-wave feminists, particularly the 'separatist' wing. '

Phallic Worship (1875).

Manga-style Illustrations by Shohei Otomo.

'Ballpoint pen artist Shohei Otomo mashes up old and new in bold illustrations spiked with heavy doses of manga-style gore and perversion.'

Buddhist Holidays.

Astro Pics.

NGC 4676: When Mice Collide.

Inside the Eagle Nebula.

The North America Nebula.

The Trifid Nebula in Stars and Dust.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What have you learned through your career, major, or specialization that you wish the general public knew?'

E.g. - 'As a world business traveller, I wish Americans and Brits would learn the concepts of "indoor voices" and "shouting doesn't get your point across, it just makes people hate you".'

'Ridiculous and rad combinations of 2 or 3 flavors. The weirder the better.'

'I crave a great novel that's as addictive as a popcorn movie. Please recommend me some literary page-turners.'

On being sober.

How cheque-cashing scams on Craigslist work.

Someone's Photos of China.

Washington Heights, NYC.

2009-06-28T14:15:00.001-07:00

Carl Sagan on YouTube.

Includes episodes from the classic series 'Cosmos'.

Pale Blue Dot : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M&feature=fvw

Casimir Zagourski: Photographer of the Congo.

'Casimir Zagourski (Kazimierz Zagorski) was born the 9th of August 1883 in Zytomiez (Zytomierz) Poland (Ukraine). His father was a Polish nobleman. As a young man, he took up a military career in the Czarist Air Force (Russia). He left military service as Lieutenant Colonel Zagourski. Circa 1924 found him struggling to make a living. He set sail for Léopoldville - Belgium Congo, as an amateur photographer...'

Maps, Mapas, Cartes.

‘The following are a few maps of interest to us in the study of Magical Realism. In fact, these might be simply referred to as, indeed, "maps of interest." They are drawn from particular perspectives. The ways in which we consider visual truth when thinking about optical illusions might similarly be applied to ideas of geographic truth.’

Upside-down world map: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/maps/page3.html

A swell map of Manhattan: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/maps/page6.html

Dante’s Hell: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/maps/page8.html

Iran in 1959.

‘I don't know whether I have stumbled upon something completely worthless or a treasure chest! Look at these. They are newly released stock footage of Iran from 1959. There is no audio, but the images and colors are crisp and the subjects are fascinating.’

Astro Pics.

Tiger Stripes on Saturn’s Enceladus.

Saturn: Moons in Transit.

Saharan Starry Night.

RoboGeisha.

Photos of Deserted Icelandic Farms.

The Fascinating Axolotl.

Summertime Santa: 1956.

Balzac’s Paris: A Guided Tour.

‘A promenade through the monumental heart of Paris in the time of Balzac, as described through some of his works, and as documented in maps and engravings of
The Vernon Duke Collection
Special Collections Department
University of California Library ‘

Jataka Tales.

‘This is a retelling of stories from the Jataka, the treasury of tales of Buddha's previous animal reincarnations. Babbitt wrote this with young adults and children in mind, but the simple language and sprightly black and white illustrations add appeal for readers of all ages, Buddhist or not.’

Perfume for Time Travellers.

‘It's very difficult to find the perfect perfume: for some reason nearly all modern scents smell of custard. Fed by Birds readers are discerning: they want perfume to transport them somewhere stranger than the inside of a cake shop. Luckily we are here to suggest more exciting olfactory experiences.’

Comics: Jean-Claude Forest.

‘In 1962 George Gallet, editor of France's most popular line of science fiction paperbacks, Le Rayon Fantastique, asked the imprint's leading cover artist Jean-Claude Forest to create a new, "no holds barred", strip for the 'adult' V-magazine which Gallet also edited.’

‘The result was Barbarella (her likeness modeled on Brigitte Bardot), France's first female comic strip character since WW2 and the country's first space hero.’

Comics: Mod Love 1967.

‘She's the Hippest Girl in the World" from 'Mod Love', Written by Michael Lutin, artist unknown. Published by Western Publishing Company, inc. 1967.’

‘I was first made aware of this wonderful comic via Paul Gravett's amazing book 'The Leather Nun: And Other Incredibly Strange Comics' (UK title) aka 'Holy Sh*t!: The World's Weirdest Comic Books' (US title).’

Communist Posters of Nepal.

‘Maoist propaganda posters from around the Country of Nepal. The communist party posters have a distinctive visual style that shouts out their message of solidarity and revolution. It's almost like a brand identity.’

London Tube Photo Sets.

How to Hug a Tree.

Sunsets, Water, Sky, and Clouds.

2009-06-22T08:24:00.001-07:00

BFI Films - http://www.youtube.com/user/BFIfilms - has some great vintage videos of British and Indian subcontinental life. Some of my favourites :

Kiddies and Rabbits (1901) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihmafhw-oQg

Santa Claus (1898) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3ei1tseeM

Panorama of Calcutta (1899) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4MaWb1BwBQ&feature=channel

A Day in the Hayfields (1904) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SvPiPcs-5o

Old London Street Scenes (1903) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDwXzy_EJok&feature=channel

Springtime in an English Village (1944) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QbHhm4620I&feature=channel_page

Tea Making Tips (1941) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvYymrCn4g&feature=channel

Colour on the Thames (1935) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LGavykBbxM&feature=channel

Snow (1963) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl4pJwcE7JI&feature=channel

Scenes in Tibet (1940s) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WihR_g96F0E

A Punjab Village (1925) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aAdVenXVXs

World's First 1/2 Wave Powered Jacob's Ladder.

The modern day equivalent of Merlin did this.

R.Crumb.

‘Robert Crumb was born in Philadelphia in 1943. As a kid, he started drawing homemade comic books, together with his brother Charles, for the amusement of himself and his family. One of the characters he invented back then was Fred the Cat, named after the family's pet. Eventually, Fred became Fritz the Cat, one of Crumb's best-known characters…’

More Crumb: http://lambiek.net/crumb2.htm

Third Gender.

‘The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are considered to be neither women nor men, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders.’

Tart Cards.

‘Tart cards [NOT SAFE FOR WORK] are the means by which many London prostitutes advertise their services. Step into almost any central London phone box and you can contemplate up to 80 cards inviting you to be tied, teased, spanked or massaged.... [Wallpaper Magazine] asked designers – from students to superstars – to find the tart hiding in every typeface and create their own graphic numbers.... all 450 cards can be viewed here. [NOT SAFE FOR WORK]’

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What is the strangest, yet most delicious, cookie recipe you know?'

'How did you overcome a lifetime of chronic lateness? '

'I'm 25 and starting to cook - What? Where do I get it? Why?'

'Please help me find legal (in the US), mild, safe and non-addictive, yet exotic recreational drugs.'

'Do you know any good left wing propoganda for toddlers?'

'Dating on a budget. What are your fabulous, creative & romantic ideas for a 30-something couple to do that cost little or nothing?'

'What quotations / sayings have you found to be helpful to you in getting through daily life?'

'Help me make iced green tea that tastes like the stuff at Starbucks.'

Antipodean Fantasy.

'Australia's physical isolation and relative young age as a nation, as well as its modest population size has always engendered a certain lack of confidence in our competing - one way or another - in the wider world. It's strange to even think about it, let alone admit it in public, but it's absolutely true. We feel slightly intimidated, a little unsure of where we fit in and desirous of being told we are ok. Don't get me wrong, this national inferiority complex¶ has a lot of benefits too, particularly in the way our arts industry has evolved; it has inspired an amazingly unique film industry for one and possibly accounts for our industrial-strength obsession with sport. There are sociological Honors projects buried in that there image, I'm sure. Or maybe *I* am seeing too much.'

A Grotesque Alphabet.

'This late 16th century suite of ornamental letters by Giacomo Paolini is known as 'Grotesque Alphabet in Mythological Landscapes'. The only thing I discovered about Paolini is that he was an Italian artist.'

A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.

'The images above come from Volume One of 'Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri' by Albertus Seba, 1734, newly available from the Missouri Botanical Garden's Botanicus website.'

Photos of Abandoned Railway Stations.

Best of Craigslist: Magic wand to solve life's problems.

The Forgotten Immortals of Times Square.

'Long before the building at 46th & 7th Ave was a TGI Friday’s, it was owned by Israel Miller, a Polish immigrant who came to the US in 1892 and became famous making shoes for theatrical productions. As his shoes grew in popularity, he soon found himself making shoes for Broadway stars to use in their personal lives. This building was once his showroom.'

The Philip K. Dick Book Cover Gallery.

Science fiction art.

The Thunder Bird: Tootooch Legends.

'This is a transcription of a pamphlet which was originally sold to the tourist trade in British Columbia. It describes a vocabulary of symbols which are incorporated into totem poles, including a representative myth for each animal. While not an academic work, it still makes interesting reading, particularly in historical context, and the illustrations are charming. '

Temptation and Salvation: The Psalms of King David.

Illuminated manuscripts.

'The Psalms and their illustrations played a central role in medieval Christianity. Originally composed in Hebrew and incorporated into both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the 150 "songs of praise" include laments as well as prayers of thanks and exaltation.'

Photographing the Muslim Ladies of Kurva.

'It is no easy task to photograph traditional Muslim women, many of whom can appear in front of other men only in a veil. I knew of a Muslim farmer who took care our ancestral fields (the land reform act of 1955 in India transferred all the fields to the farmers) to whom I expressed my desire to photograph Muslim women in their habitat. He agreed and took me to his home on an island in the Sharavati river (February 22, 1986) on his hand powered boat...'

Old Konkani Poems.

'This rare Konkani lithograph manuscript, dated 1904 was printed in Mangalore. It contains devotional songs in Konkani in the glory of popular Hindu deities. Many compositions of Purandaradasa are translated into Konkani. '

Astro Pics.

Sunrise over the Parthenon.

Stars Young and Old.

Crescent Moon and Venus.

'The Garden of Earthly Delights'.

By Hieronymus Bosch.

Daibutsu at Kamakura, Japan.

Photos of Old Korea.

Someone's Photos of Serbia.

Photos of Almshouses.

2009-05-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Moments in Time 1989/1990.

Scenes from the fall of the Wall.

More : https://www.wir-waren-so-frei.de/index.php/Splash/Show/lang/en_US

Photos of the Kings of Africa.

'Between the years of 1988 and 1991, French photographer Daniel Laine spent about 12 months on the African continent tracking down and photographing figures of royalty, and leaders of kingdoms. During this time he managed to photograph 70 monarchs and descendants of the great African dynasties with his work on this series.'

Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus.

Watch-Paper Prints.

'Originally designed as a simple protective insert, watch-papers came to be used as an advertising medium for the watchmakers in the second half of the 18th century and another means by which print artists could ply their trade. These types of 'professional' or conservative watch-papers form the majority of the genre, but a popular 'amateur' variety also emerged that were valued as keepsakes.'

One Broadway.

'You never really think of Broadway having a beginning or ending. It’s the oldest north-south thoroughfare in NYC, and is derived from a Native American trail, the Wickquasgeck, which once carved through the swamps and rocks of the island. The avenue passes through so many important hubs of New York life that the idea of it actually terminating somewhere seems almost unnatural.'

All-American Space Fleet - 1950s.

Nostalgia.

American Girl, 1922.

‘Five years after this photo was taken, Kay was dead of pneumonia at age 37.’

William Gedney Photographs.

'From the mid 1950s through the early 1980s, William Gedney (1932-1989) photographed throughout the United States, in India, and in Europe. From street scenes outside his Brooklyn apartment to the daily chores of unemployed coal miners, from the indolent lifestyle of hippies in Haight-Ashbury to the sacred rituals of Hindu worshippers, Gedney recorded the lives of others with remarkable clarity and poignancy. These photographs, along with his notebooks and writings, illuminate the vision of an intensely private man who, as a writer and photographer, revealed the lives of others with striking sensitivity.'

Japanese Prints and the World of Go.

Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art (1909).

'This is a review of the folk-lore of animals, mostly of a legendary or purely symbolic nature, particularly as appearing in English Heraldry. It's a gold-mine of lore about such fantastic beasts as the hydra, the basilisk, the phoenix, as well as angels, dragons, mermaids, sphynxes and so on.'

Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (1900).

'This includes detailed treatment of the central triad of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Shiva, along with dozens of other Gods and Goddesses, nature spirits, half-divine heros of the epics, and so on. Wilkins covers the dozen of so principal avatars of Vishu, including Krishna and (suprisingly) Buddha, and prophecies of the mysterious Kalki avatar, yet to come. The dozens of line drawings are good reference art for each of the major deities.'

Jane Johnson.

'Among the online collections of Indiana University I found the Jane Johnson Manuscript Nursery Library, a set of cards made by Jane Johnson in Lincolnshire for the instruction of her son, George William Johnson. Since he went on to be High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1784, all the careful work she put in to teaching him obviously paid off. '

Pogue States: A Celtocentric World Map.

Brunei Money.

Astro Pics.

Dunhuang Star Atlas.

Whirlpool Galaxy Deep Field.

Carina Nebula Panorama.

Andromeda Galaxy.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Seeking first rate caper flicks or thrillers.'

'I'm looking for examples of insanely overbuilt, reasonably-priced consumer goods: "Cheap, bombproof...XXXXX"'.

'What are the simple concepts that have most helped you understand the world?'

Milwaukee Neighborhoods 1885-1992.

Train Stations.

Your Monkey Called.

A touching haiku.

History of English.

2009-05-16T12:57:00.001-07:00

Mr. Pikai Chiang's Biography.

'Shanghai, China was the birthplace of my dad in 1958. When he was young, he enjoyed playing soccer, ping-pong, and track. He also enjoyed building model airplanes, model boats, and hanging out with friends. Dad had a bird for a while and some crickets when he was young. His childhood was very interesting...'

More biographies of parents and grandparents by children : http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/

'Although my grandpa doesn‘t have a great relationship with his parents or his sister, he did eat lunch and talk with them every so often. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/aruotolo/index.htm

'He is as wise as an owl/He is as informative as an encyclopedia/He hates President Bush/He thinks he is foul': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/plevenson/index.htm

'Little did she know that they were just math colleagues, so as she rushed into the Melville class, and passed his chair she stated, "I didn't know you were an English major." Looking up at my grandma with his beautiful blue eyes he told her, "I'm not. I'm a math graduate student." The rest is history. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/dlamachia/index.htm

'All the sisters in my grandmother family have the word,” Zehra” meaning flower in the Arabic language. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/mhussain/index.htm

History of London Tube Maps.

Viewing Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e.

... are among the most widely known and admired arts of the Edo period. With the rise of the merchant class during the 17th century, there followed a demand for images of contemporary urban life in a new style reflecting the lives of the commoners.'

Antique Typewriters.

'Comprised of typewriters from the very beginning of the typewriter industry (1880s & 1890s), it is the
largest of its kind in Canada. The collection contains many rare and historically important typewriters,
showing the remarkable diversity and beauty of the world's first typing machines.'

Dan's Topical Stamps.

Postage stamps on such diverse subjects as detective fiction, Scandinavian flags, the Bayeux Tapestry, South Dakota, the Twelve Days of Christmas, etc.

Vietnamese Propaganda Posters.

65 Years of Photography in Mexico.

Remnants of Kleindeutschland, Lower East Side, NYC.

'At the turn of the century, there were approximately 50,000 German immigrants living in the area surrounding of Tompkins Square Park, which was then known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany (now referred to as Alphabet City). German schools, libraries, beer halls and shooting clubs served the cultural needs of a community permanently displaced from their homeland.'

Pretty much wiped out in one night in 1904 by the General Slocum Tragedy.

The Abandoned Boyce Thompson Institute, NYC.

'I recently posted about scouting Alder Manor, a dilapidated yet beautiful abandoned mansion in Yonkers. The manor was owned by William Boyce Thompson, an extremely rich copper magnate in the early 1900’s. This past winter, I had the opportunity to check out the former Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, a beautiful brick structure located across the street from the manor, and in far, far worse condition.'

Travels of a Boy Reporter.

Track Tintin's travels around the world (and the Moon).

Claremont Fashion Plates.

19th century women's fashion, including SWIMSUITS.

"There are three bathing dresses in black and white with no models. The outfit on top is horizontal. It consists of a dark gray short dress with a sailor collar, short sleeves, and a belt, as well as matching knee length cropped pants. White bands decorate at the sleeves, the center front on each side of the buttons, and the hem of the dress, and the hem of the pants as well..."

Naxi Manuscripts of Yunnan.

'Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection features ceremonial writings of the Naxi people of Yunnan Province, China. The Library of Congress’s Naxi collection is the largest outside of China and is considered one of the finest in the world.The Naxi language is the only pictographic writing system still in use today. '

The Saxon Mirror, or Medieval German Law.

Manuscript images.

'The Sachsenspiegel (lit. Saxon Mirror) is the original document of German jurisprudence in which the customary laws of Saxony, previously transmitted through an oral tradition, were given permanence and stability in written form.'

1950s-1970s Advertising Images.

Regional World Cities.

'This world map slices up the globe into two egg-shaped pieces and, for some reason, a kidney-shaped one. It purports to show the world’s three panregions (*), and the world cities with which they interact. In all, there are nine of these “regional world cities”: two “panregional centres”, three “major regional centres” and four “minor regional centres”.'

Astro Pics.

Atlantis and Hubble Side by Side.

Unusual Dusty Galaxy NGC 7049.

The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 274.

Moon Rays over Thurso Castle.

East of Antares.

Memories of Y2K, from Y2K.

MEMORIESSSSSSS.... (I was at work).

Querying the Hive Mind.

'I need a new "big think" book! I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and I loved his other books as well. I've read everything Jared Diamond has published (Collapse, Guns, Germs & Steel, The Third Chimpanzee etc.) I like books that stretch your brain and reveal the hidden factors in life, the world and society.'

'What single ingredient can make my cooking more exciting or interesting?'

'You know the feeling you get when you succeed at something you initially thought you weren't capable of? I want to feel that way more often. What things, big or small, do you do in your life which give you the joy of proving your inner pessimist wrong?'

2009-05-09T04:35:00.001-07:00

Asian Historical Architecture.

'Welcome to www.orientalarchitecture.com, a photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage. Here you can view over 14,600 photos of 743 sites in twenty countries, with background information and virtual tours. This website is a collection of photos from many different contributors.'

Intimate Paris at a Glance.

The William Blake Archive.

"what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language".

More : http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/blake/ - "I do not behold the outward creation... it is a hindrance and not action."

An Artist's Guide to Human Types.

"If I needed to draw someone from [a] specific part of the world, what would I need to know about his or her physical characteristics?"

A Lebanese artist's drawings of different peoples.

Asian : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes1.html

Caucasian : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes2.html

African/Pacific : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes3.html

Best Wardrobe of All Time?

'My nomination is American dancer Ruth St Denis, whose fantastic costumes feature in page after page of pictures at NYPL.'

The Visual Front: Posters of the Spanish Civil War.

'Propaganda posters constitute one of the most poignant documents that remain from the Spanish Civil War. As the remarks of numerous eyewitnesses demonstrate, the posters provided an essential part of the visual landscape in which individuals living the tragedy of the war went about their daily business of survival. '

The complete collection:
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/visfront/vizindex.html

Classic Covers of Penguin Science Fiction Books.

Lush Life.

'Though written in the 1930s, it was not until Nat "King" Cole recorded it in 1949 that it became well known: Lush Life is Billy Strayhorn's signature song (well, one of his signature songs). A haunting ballad with surprisingly dark lyrics, its definitive treatment is probably the famous 1963 recording by Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane (Hartman sang it again for TV in 1983), but it has been done countless times by many artists: by pianists Phineas Newborn, Jr. and Oscar Peterson; by saxophonists Joe Henderson and Stan Getz; even by Linda Ronstadt and Queen Latifah. '

Links to YouTube versions.

Martini Advertising Posters.

Irish Railway Posters.

Fukuoka Simplicity.

'These are Edo period woodblock illustrations (from the late 1700s to early 1800s). Of that much I am certain. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.'

Durer's 'Rhinoceros'.

Astro Pics.

Jupiter Eclipsing Ganymede.

Starry Night in Brazil.

Castle and Full Moon.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Is it possible for something to live inside a coconut? This one I have has started making chirps, clicks and almost bird-like chirps!'

'Best way to learn Spanish (and other languages) online, for free?'

'I'm having a really hard time dealing with news of humans' brutality to other humans. When I read the news (esp. that coming out of the African continent) , my immediate response is that, as a species, we simply don't deserve to exist. I need some recommendations for literature, films, poetry, that addresses these issues and comes out optimistic. No Cormac McCarthy thanks.'

'Please introduce me to your field of study (or work) in a way that one can experience'.

'How much tap-temperature water (say 15 C) would you need to add to 1 litre of (boiling) water to make a mass of water 80 C?'

Surrealist Art.

The Barren Lands.

'This site documents two exploratory surveys of the Barren Lands region west of Hudson Bay, in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the area now known as Nunavut. Drawing on materials from the J.B. Tyrrell, James Tyrrell and related collections at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, it includes over 5,000 images from original field notebooks, correspondence, photographs, maps and published reports.'

2009-05-03T12:28:00.001-07:00

The Empire That Was Russia.

'The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world--the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population. '

'In the early 1900s Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation....'

The Russian Empire's ethnic diversity : http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic.html

Architecture : http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/architecture.html

The Oriental Carpet in Early Renaissance Paintings.

'The Carpet Index contains over 180 examples of European paintings from the years 1250 through 1550, compiled into three chronological sets (with the primary focus on carpets in paintings from the century spanning 1420 through 1520). '

Old Photos of Japan.

Japan 1860s-1930s.

Good Girl Art Paperbacks.

'The GGA designation seems to have originated with comic books and is usually applied to attractive sexy young women who are either in peril or are perpetrating the peril like my favorite gun moll on the right. So it is often politically incorrect but can also be empowering when at the right end of a gun. There are two Galleries where you will see some of my favorite GGA covers from early Paperbacks and Pulps. '

Jonas Hallgrimsson: Selected Poetry and Prose.

'This Web site is intended to make available, through interactive technology, a wide range of materials that will enable interested persons to familiarize themselves with the work of the Icelandic poet and natural scientist Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845) and to have at their fingertips resources contributing to an understanding and appreciation of that work. Jónas is generally acknowledged to be the most important and influential Icelandic poet of modern times. In addition he has a secure place in the annals of Icelandic science and of his country's cultural and political history.'

Interactive map of Iceland with sites connected to Jonas Hallgrimsson's poems : http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/jonas/JonasTour.html

East German Architecture.

'The architecture of the former DDR is woefully under-appreciated and undocumented in today's world of pre-fabricated "historicist" trends and aura of political correctness.'

'While other Modernist and mid-Century buildings have received some kind of ersatz recognition, the architectural legacy of East Germany has been relegated to the dustbin of anachronism and political guilt. It is considered distastefully out of date and "ugly."'

'That kind of attitude is what caused Penn Station to fall to only cite one infamous example.'

Russian Professor's Prediction for the Breakup of the US.

Blue-Green across Cultures.

'The English language makes a distinction between blue and green but some languages do not. Of these, quite a number, mostly in Africa, do not distinguish blue from black either, whilst there are a handful of languages that do not distinguish blue from black but have a separate term for green[1]. Also, some languages treat light (often greenish) blue and dark blue as separate colors, rather than different variations of blue, while English does not.'

Aoi and midori.

The History of the Peace (CND) Symbol.

'One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain it is recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament —and in particular as the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the United States and much of the rest of the world it is known more broadly as the peace symbol. It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. '

A Book of Hours.

A lovely medieval prayer book.

Serbian Manuscripts.

'The Digital National Library of Serbia has more than five hundred cyrillic manuscripts available online¶. (in english) The images above were selected from: National library of Serbia's collection of cyrillic manuscripts (RS); Jernej Kopitar's collection of slavic manuscripts (Kop) and the Chester Beatty collection (Dublin) of cyrillic manuscripts (RU).'

Crazy Embroidery.

'The many samplers which the V & A has in its collection are remarkable not just for the amazing needle skillz of the very young makers, but the fact that it looks as if these girls had to embroider absolutely everything...'

Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy.

The Nature of Utamaro.

'The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge has a flash presentation of three elegant multi-colour woodblock Ukiyo-e books by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) known as 'The Bird Book', 'The Shell Book' and 'The Insect Book'. Just exquisite. The site was developed to compliment an exhibition --- Kachōfūgetsu - the natural world in Japanese prints --- running in the Shiba Gallery until May 17.'

The Rat Temple, Karnimata, Bikaner, India.
Where rats are worshipped as divine messengers.

'Campbell's Soup Cans'.

The Lewis Carroll Scrapbook.

'The Lewis Carroll Scrapbook at the Library of Congress is an original scrapbook that was kept by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Better known as Lewis Carroll, the Victorian-era children’s author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Dodgson was a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Oxford. The scrapbook contains approximately 130 items, including newspaper clippings, photographs, and a limited number of manuscript materials, collected between 1855-72.'

Astro Pics.

The Whale Galaxy.

The Eskimo Nebula.

Omega Centauri.

Titan Beyond the Rings.

2009-04-27T06:42:00.001-07:00

Cassini's Continued Mission.

Pictures of Saturn and its moons.

Travel Graphics from the 1920s and 1930s.

'This is a virtual online gallery I've created to display and share the best items in my collection of 1920s and 1930s travel-related ephemera.'

'... My basic passion is paper items such as travel brochures, airline time-tables, ocean liner time-tables, auto road maps, luggage labels, advertising, and graphic design publications from the 1920s and 1930s, primarily in Europe but also Asia and, to a small degree, the U.S.A.'

Vintage US Postcards, by State.

'We SPECIALIZE in old historic postcard views from throughout the United States and pay special attention to downtown views of the local businesses complete with an emphasis on railroad depots, streetcars, movie theaters, opera houses, hotels, restaurants, churches, the city park, library and cemetery, bridges, fire department facilities, gas stations, hospitals, orphanages, civil war monuments, post office, schools and roadside views. '

Thaipusam in Singapore.

'Thaipusam is a Hindu festival. After fasting and praying devotees make a pilgrimage of about 3 kms along a set route from one temple to another. Some carry pots of milk while others carry kavadis, large stainless steel structures, that are often held in place with skewers into their bodies. Some also have skewers through their cheeks and tongues.'

We Live in East Germany.

Cold War propaganda booklet.

Reflections in Waterdrops.

Africa Focus: Sights and Sounds of a Continent.

'is collection contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, 50 hours of sounds from forty-five different countries, as well as a large number of difficult to find texts that librarians, scholars, and other subject specialists have deemed important to these fields of study. '

Durer's Tarot.

'a Tarot deck by Giacinto Gaudenzi, inspired by German engraver Albrecht Dürer'.

Cardiff at Night.

Pictures of bad behaviour.

'St Mary street in Cardiff - a street with many big clubs, bars and pubs. This set shows scenes seen by me on weekend nights in this area.'

Songs of the Yukaghir.

'The poetry of the Yukaghir, a poor hunting tribe in eastern Siberia, consists of improvisations or verses handed down from narrator to narrator or from singer to singer through generations. Verses handed down in this way can be expected to vary from person to person. As can be seen, verses from these people deal with familiar themes in human life: experience of aging, expression of love, appeals to a harsh environment for relief, and celebration of a birth.'

Images from the History of Medicine.

Vintage Clothing Labels.

Folk Tales from the Russian (1903).
By Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal - what a delightful name!

The Devils of Loudun.

'This is an account of the possesion of the nuns of Loudun. In 1634 the Ursuline nuns of Loudon were allegedly possessed by demons. This is one of the largest cases of mass possession in history. Father Urbain Grandier, a local priest, was interrogated under torture, convicted of being responsible for the possessions (as well as sorcery), and subsequently burned at the stake. This is a 19th century translation of the primary account of the episode, originally written in French by Des Niau in 1634.'

From the Dungeon to the Dictionary.

Magocracy, libram, and other excellent words.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'I have reached the end of the Internet. Well, my Internet, anyway. Please recommend some sites that will refresh my surfing experience.'

'How to be charming.'

'What are the cleverest, wittiest picture books you know? '

2009-04-17T16:20:00.001-07:00
"Chance is always powerful. - Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish" - Ovid.

Vintage Photos of Pretty Girls.

Lost New York City.

'Photos of the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric.'

Northvegr: A Norse Heathen Site.

'The Northvegr Foundation strives to bring knowledge and understanding of Northern European pre-Christian history, culture and spiritual values (i.e. world-view and ethic) which is in evidence in many primary sources and well documented in many secondary sources, and can be gleaned through research. We believe strongly in promoting scholarship based upon critical thought.'

Norse sagas, folklore, runes and so on.

Depression-Era Photographs by Dorothea Lange.

3600 VHS Video Covers.

Himalayan Art in the Rubin Museum.

The Rubin Museum in NYC has a wonderful collection of Tibetan Buddhist and Nepalese art. It's all here.

Indigenous and Tribal People.

'Colorful people with uniqe culture'.

Southdale Mall, Minnesota, 1956.

High School Mythical, 1910.

South African Voices.

"Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, I made a number of research trips to southern Africa, hoping to gather a representative collection of oral tales, histories, and poems from among the Nguni peoples: the Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa, the Swati in Swaziland, and the Ndebele in the southern part of Zimbabwe. I encountered a wealth of oral traditions, met hundreds of storytellers, mythmakers, poets, and historians, and was allowed by these enormously talented raconteurs and poets to tape many of these works. In the end, I had taped and filmed over 9,000 pieces of oral tradition."

Hazrat Babajan, Baloch Saint.

'Hazrat Babajan (c. 1806 - September 18 1931) was a Baloch Muslim saint considered by her followers to be a sadguru or qutub. Born in northern India in Balochistan (now Pakistan), she lived the final 25 years of her life in Pune, India.'

Classics of Soviet Art.

The Beginner's Guide to Tree Hugging.

Medieval Map Myths.

A Day in the Park.

Astro Pics.

Jagged Shadows May Indicate Saturn Ring Particles.

Medieval Astronomy from Melk Abbey.

Lenticular Clouds above Washington.

Wenceslaus Hollar.

17th century etchings.

'Hollar was born in 1607, the son of an upper middle-class civic official. Very little is known about his early life, but he evidently learned the rudiments of his craft by age eighteen, left his native Prague at age twenty, and likely studied in Frankfurt under Matthaus Merian. His first book of etchings was published in 1635 in Cologne when Hollar was twenty-eight. The following year he came to the attention of the renowned art collector the Earl of Arundel who was making an official visit to the continent, and Hollar subsequently became a part of his household, settling in England early in 1637.'

Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides.

'This site provides access to the pre-1930 Canadian pamphlet and broadside holdings of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library by supplying both page images in full colour, and full searchability of the contents of each item. To date the site consists of 597 broadsides (single sheets, printed on one or both sides) and 2062 pamphlet titles which amounts to 71508 page images. Additional titles will be added on a regular basis. The collection includes items printed in Canada, by Canadian authors, or about Canadian subjects, mainly of a non-literary nature.'

Vintage Art Deco Travel Posters.

Excelsior 1968.

'Excelsior 1968 is a high school yearbook for the fictional Bristol County Secondary School in the fictional Staedtler, Ontario.'

'Each student here is redrawn (and renamed) from my mother's actual 1968 high school yearbook.'

The 1964-65 NY World's Fair Remembered.

2009-04-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

USSR Posters.

'Russian and/or Soviet propaganda & advert posters [1917-1991]'.

Papunya Tula: Australian Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert.

'Papunya Tula Artists is entirely owned and directed by traditional Aboriginal people from the Western Desert. The aim of the company is to promote individual artists, to provide economic development for the communities to which they belong, and assist in the maintenance of a rich cultural heritage.'

Synesthesia in Art.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition where the senses are combined, i.e. 'seeing' music, 'hearing' paintings, 'smelling' numbers.

The synesthetic experience is described here : http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/

There is a synesthetic alphabet here : http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/perspectives.html

The artist Wassily Kandinsky in particular may have experienced this condition, certainly it was an area of interest for him.

More : http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/

(Check out 'Composition VIII', 'Contrasting Sounds'.)

Also, the art of Mark Rothko : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko

An essay on art and synesthesia : http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.2.DR%20HUGO.htm

The Norse Discovery of America.

'This is a collection of texts relating to the voyages of the Norse west to America. A thousand years ago, nearly half a millennium before Columbus, the Norse extended their explorations from Iceland and Greenland to the shores of Northeastern North America, and, possibly, beyond'.

Photos of Suginami Ward, Tokyo.

Neon Sign Boneyard, Las Vegas.

Giant Stuff on the American Roadside.

Photographs of Wales and the English Border During the Second World War.

'Toad in the Hole' Recipe from 1936.

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.'

Rock Posters.

A Tenniel Gallery: Illustrations for 'Alice in Wonderland'.

300 Tang Poems.

Cartoonist Ronald Searle's Website.

He of St. Trinian's and Molesworth.

An Album of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

'This is the place to post pictures of houses in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We are shooting for big old houses such as those that line East Main Street just a few blocks from the square. '

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Help me do something sweet for a friend.'

'I need some secular resources for learning to forgive, and how to relate if you have a broken relationship model. I have got to stop wanting an apology from someone who is never going to apologize to me. '

Recommendations for good cult movies.

2009-04-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

Cynthia Korzekwa: Los Ojos.

An artist's studio.

Tesla Coil.

A friend of a friend has this in their back porch.

The Hammered Dulcimer.

An ancient stringed instrument.

More : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELWbrfZ2OL0

Smithsonian article : http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_Si/nmah/hdhist.htm

"...everyman that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship...." - Daniel 3:10.

My Pal Norlina's Photos of Malaysia.

Super-saturated colours.

Free Verse.

'All photos posted to the Free Verse project must include lines from a favorite poem written off the page in an unexpected or ephemeral way. Please include the author's name and poem title in the photo caption. '

Queen Anne's Revenge: Investigating, Interpreting and Preserving the Remains of Blackbeard's Flagship.

Arr.

'In November 1717, English pirates captured the French slave-ship La Concorde near the island of Martinique. Led by the notorious Blackbeard, the pirates converted La Concorde into their flagship and renamed the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge. After spending the winter searching for prizes in the Caribbean the pirate fleet consisting of Queen Anne's Revenge and three smaller sloops, blockaded the port of Charleston in May 1718. Continuing up the coast, Blackbeard lost his flagship while attempting to enter Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina and five months later he was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke...'

Alphonse Mucha.

'As a struggling and relatively unknown artist of Czech origin living in Paris, Mucha achieved immediate fame when, in December 1894, he accepted a commission to create a poster for one of the greatest actresses of this time, Sarah Bernhardt. Though the printer was apprehensive about submitting Mucha´s final design because of its new unconventional style, Bernhardt loved it and so did the public. '

The Mucha Window, St. Vitus' Cathedral, Prague : http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncle_buddha/1741956654/

The Nouvelle Vague: 50 Years On.

Nice collection of French New Wave posters.

Seattle World's Fair 1962 Photos.

'See you in Seattle
See you at the fair
Take a way ahead look at tomorrow
Just as if you were there
Take a rocket trip to Mars
Have your dinner way up in the clouds
Stroll the boulevards of the world
Have fun with the happy-go-lucky crowds
See you in Seattle
At the big World's Fair'

Nicaraguan Primitivista Art.

'Indigo Arts features paintings by self-taught artists from the Sutiava Primitivista painting workshop, in Léon, Nicaragua. This exhibition includes new work by noted artists Alejandro Benito Cabrera, Victor Santiago Crespin, José Ignacio Fletes Cruz and Rosa Delia Lopez Garcia.'

Japanese Postcards Archival Replica Prints.

'Japanese artists traveling to Europe to study oil painting at the beginning of the twentieth century became enthralled by the postcard, which was then enjoying a veritable boom. Immediately they sent cards to their friends and began to create their own compositions--many of which were influenced by contemporary European styles, particularly Art Nouveau.'

Eccentric Houses.

'Odd architecture and eccentric houses of all sorts. Everything from weird architect-designed houses to obsessive home-built outsider art is welcome here, with a preference for the truly uncommon and unusual.'

Hometown India: The Village of Bellave.

'Bellave is a little village, about 8kms. from Tumkur city in Karnataka. The name is believed to have been derived from Kannada words Bili + Ave / Ame (White Tortoise). Lord Someshwara temple is a very nice little temple on the outskirts of this village; the premise oozes with tranquility.'

The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.

'The LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia is based on what many consider to be the best encyclopedia ever written: the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in 1911. At a time when many encyclopedias have capsulated and condensed important knowledge, the 11th edition is generally much more in-depth and thorough on its topics. '

The Obscure Store.

Weird and wonderful news.

Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Wanted: YOUR easy and delicious meal recipes!!'

'Obscure New England? I've seen the best, what about the rest? What quirky, "second tier," and out of the way places have I missed?'

'How to I get better at connecting with people on an emotional level? I have lots of friends - but on a superficial level. How do break through?'

'What are some video games where unique gameplay complements a great story?'

'What's the difference between Michael and Vito in the Godfather trilogy?'

'What are some fun hobbies for a crafty, nerdy couple to pick up?'

'How can I focus when severely depressed?'

An Introduction to Vodou.

' 'Voodoo curses', pin-sticking dolls, flesh-eating zombies and devil worship... if any religion has been deliberately maligned, it's Vodou. In fact, the anti-Vodou propaganda machine has been so effective that many people don't even know that Vodou is a religion and not simply a system of harmful magic. This entry provides some very basic information about the sophisticated religious tradition that became an integral part of the African diaspora. '

The Art of Constant Niewenhuis 1920-2005.

Burgkmair Tournament Book.

'As best I can make out this paper manuscript, featuring exquisite hand-painted illustrations, is a copy after (unpublished) designs by the great Renaissance woodblock artist and painter, Hans Burgkmair the Elder, from around 1511-1520.'

'Burgkmair, along with Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer, prepared a large number of book illustration woodcuts, intended for a propaganda tribute book ('The Truimphs'), dedicated to Maximilian I. The Emperor died in 1519 and 'The Triumphs of Maximilian' wasn't published until 1526.'

'Drinking Alone' by Li Po.

More poetry by Li Po: http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Poetry/Li_Po/

The Buddha's Way of Virtue (1920).

'This is a translation of the Dhammapada, one of the central sacred texts of Buddhism. This primary document embodies key concepts of Buddhism expressed in simple parables and metaphors.'

RIP Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons.

2009-03-31T04:34:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-03-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

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.'

2009-03-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

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.'

2009-03-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-25T06:18:00.000-08:00
'What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.' - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Kalmykia, Europe's Only Buddhist State.

European Cinema Postcards.

'These are all scans of vintage postcards of the European cinema between 1895 and 1970. '

Old 45s - Vinyl Covers.

Small Town, USA.

'I just love shooting the "mom & pop" businesses that can be found within the quaint little towns that are sometimes only a few miles beyond (and sometimes within) the larger cities. With this gallery, I hope to present the slower pace and laid-back feeling of "Small Town, USA". '

Cane Hill Asylum, London.

With photos.

'In the years since its closure it has acquired the reputation of being the ultimate abandoned asylum, the supreme embodiment of dereliction and decay. This is due mainly to the amount of equipment still on site - the extraordinary wealth of mementoes and personal information that still litter the corridors and wards – but also owes much to the asylum’s uniquely fearsome exterior. Viewed from the surrounding path, it feels more like a prison than a hospital (…..a towering monument to Victorian bleakness and austerity…)'

Kings Park Psychiatric Center, NY.

Another abandoned asylum, with a collection of interesting links at the bottom.

Japanese Air Raid Posters.

'In 1938, the Japanese Red Cross worked with government authorities to create a series of posters to teach the public about the new Anti-Aircraft Defense Law, which was enacted in seeming anticipation of air strikes following the outbreak of the Japan-China War (1937-1945). '

Medieval Medical Illustrations.

Ko Un's Life Story.

Ex-Buddhist monk, political prisoner and poet.

He has a website : http://www.koun.co.kr/

Signs of Africa.

'Moses Rubn Omilia's photo of an Arsenal football supporter's home in Uganda is the first in a series of pictures taken of different signs in Africa and sent in by BBC News website readers.'

Surviving Congo.

'Conflict and the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have left 5.4m people dead since 1998, according to a major mortality survey by the International Rescue Committee.'

The Gallery of Confusable Flags.

'This is a gallery of pairs (or larger groupings) of flags that exhibit such similarity in design that they can be difficult to distinguish. They are organized by the number of main colors (disregarding, for example, colors in emblems) in the simplest design of the group.'

Lena Corwin's Wedding Photos.

The Welsh Hat.

The Right to Quiet Society.

'Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere.'

Quiet travel : http://quiet.org/travel.htm

Outdoor Love Map.

A worldwide guide to making love in the outdoors, obviously.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Please recommend me some recent films.'

'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?'

'What can I forage (for)?'

'What is it like to dream?'

'The 'w' in 'Keswick' is silent. So is the 'w' in 'Southwark'. And the 'h' in 'Pakenham'. Is there a name for this and is there a rule to apply it?'

'Stand-alone fantasy book recommendations?'

'How can I get my husband to shower more than twice a month?'

'What should I know before and after I shave my head?'

Pinguins.

An advert for Belgian public transport.

Carnivorous Plants vs. Herbivorous Insects.

Paul Cezanne.

'French painter, one of the greatest of the Postimpressionists, whose works and ideas were influential in the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, especially Cubism.'

Henri Rousseau.

'Rousseau, Henri, known as Le Douanier Rousseau (1844-1910). French painter, the most celebrated of naïve artists. '

2009-02-18T07:20:00.001-08:00

'The Recently Deflowered Girl' by Edward Gorey.

V. funny.

What Facebook Is For.

Pre-Inflationary German Currency.

'My wife's family lived in Germany unitil 1936, when they were lucky enough to leave. My wife's grandfather collected thousands of bills produced by the different towns and companies to make front to deflation first and inflation later and provide certain stability to workers and residents.
Each town hired artists and craftsmen to design this money, which reflects the aesthetic and concerns of the time and place. '

Pulp Paperback Covers.

Cockpits from US Military Aircraft.

Rubens: The Complete Works.

He liked big ... and I do not lie.

Festivals in Kyoto.

Dada Love Poem.

Virginia Emigrants to Liberia.

'Between 1820 and 1865 more than 3700 African Americans from Virginia emigrated to Liberia. Some went eagerly, others left reluctantly in exchange for their freedom. In 1847, they helped establish the first African republic. Their stories illustrate meanings of race, citizenship, and nationhood in the early American republic that still resonate today.'

New Jersey Historical Maps.

The Erie Railroad Glass Plate Negative Collection.

'The Erie Railroad Company glass plate negatives are arranged by Erie subsidiary railroads in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Mainline scenes come from all of the preceding states, as well as from Indiana and Illinois. The image content of the glass plates varies, including individual stations, mile posts, lengths of track, new track construction, and social organizations (such as the East Buffalo Car Shop Basketball Team and shop bands). While, to date, the station images have attracted the most researcher interest, the images also provide a valuable source of information for documenting the early 20th century landscape, product advertising, railroad construction, and on-and-off-the-job Erie Railroad Company employee activities.'

Century 21 Exposition.

This drawing shows a preliminary design of an observation tower and restaurant for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair Exhibition. Set on the only section of the fair grounds that was not owned by the city, the site did not have the height restrictions of other exhibits/pavillions at the fair. The lot, 37-by-37 m, was purchased by private investors for $75,000 and is still privately owned. Although there is much contention surrounding who came up with the final design of the Space Needle, John Graham is widely acknowledged as its architect."

Castes of South India.

'This illustrated manuscript made in southern India in 1837 consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of the various castes and religious and ethnic groups found in Madura, India at that time. Each drawing was made on mica, a transparent, flaky mineral which splits into thin, transparent sheets. As indicated on the presentation page, the album was compiled by the Indian writing master at an English school established by American missionaries in Madura, and given to the Reverend William Twining.'

Daily Climb.

An online journal in which the author climbs a tree every day.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'I want to improve my house cleaning skills... improve my speed, efficiency, thoroughness, etc. And use the best cleaning products for the task.'

'How do I motivate myself to do honest hard work at my job after a lifetime of cutting corners and slacking off?'

'I'd like to read some good books, preferably autobiographical, about managing a household in hard times.'

The Euro Invasion of France 2002.

'The euro has homogenised a variety of coinage that was as colourful as it was impractical. Euro notes are identical throughout the entire eurozone. The coins still carry a national imprint (2) on one side, though: member states of the European monetary system are allowed to apply national logos and symbols on the coins minted in (or for) their own country; the amounts of these nationally minted coins are obviously weighted: France will produce more French coins than Belgium produces Belgian ones, and Luxembourgish euro coins will be rarer still.'

19th Century Sea Bathing Cartoon.

2009-02-11T06:14:00.001-08:00

The NY Public Library's Vintage Valentine Collection.

Vintage Valentine's Day Cards on Flickr.

Subterranea Britannica.

Underground places in the UK - subways, Tube stations, air raid shelters, radar stations etc.

Photo Essay: Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution.

'I have a 30-year-old book of photographs of the revolution by a photographer named Hatami. I thought it would be interesting to reproduce them for the 30th anniversary of the revolution. I paid my nephew Nico $20 to scan the entire book :o) The photos that have a black line in the middle are the ones that were spread on two pages. '

Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologina 1575-1725.

'This exhibition tells the extraordinary story of a small group of artists who changed the course of art history. In the decades after the deaths of the great Renaissance masters, such as Raphael and Michelangelo, the art of painting was thought to have gone into steep decline. But then, in the late 16th century, the Carracci family of painters from Bologna burst onto the scene with tremendous energy and vitality, raising art to new heights. '

Vintage Mexican Advertisements.

The Village Atlas.

19th century maps of places in London, the West Midlands and other urban centres in the UK.

'This period saw much of England’s countryside alter beyond recognition; although London and the great new industrial towns of the Midlands and the North had begun their inexorable expansion in the latter decades of the eighteenth century and the opening ones of the nineteenth, it was during the sixty-four year reign of Queen Victoria that they saw their most spectacular period of growth. As a result, it is today almost impossible to visualise the villages, hamlets and green fields which existed, scarcely out of of living memory, where the concrete, brick and glass of modern conurbations rise today. '

The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.

'The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike is the common name of a 13 mile (21 km) stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 when a modern stretch opened to ease traffic congestion. The reasoning behind the bypass was to reduce traffic congestion at the tunnels. In this case, the Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hill Tunnel were bypassed, as was one of the Turnpike's travel plazas. The bypass is located just east of the heavily congested Breezewood interchange at what is now exit 161.'

The Voyage of Charles Darwin.

'This old series of BBC film depicts the life of Charles Darwin in the 1800s. Check out for more upcoming episodes! '

The Hypothetical Planet Vulcan.

A planet that was hypothesised to exist between the Sun and Mercury, based on a perceived anomaly in Mercury's orbit. It was believed that the 'wobble' could be explained by the gravitational pull of an undiscovered planet (the planet Neptune had previously been hypothesised for the same reason). In fact, the 'wobble' was no such thing - light was bent by the gravitational pull of the Sun which introduced a perception error - but this wasn't understood until Einstein's theory of general relativity explained how rays of light could be 'bent' by gravity.

Pictures of Buses in Las Vegas.

The Population of China's Provinces Compared.

'Here, for easy reference, is a list in descending order of magnitude of those Chinese territories (their population in brackets) followed by the foreign country they compare to.'

'1. Guangdong (113 million) Germany plus Uganda (3)
Henan (99 million) Mexico
Shandong (92 million) Philippines
Sichuan (87 million) Vietnam
Jiangsu (75 million) Egypt
Hebei (68 million) Iran
Hunan (67 million) France
Anhui (65 million) Thailand
Hubei (60 million) U.K. ... '

Winter in New York.

Photographs.

Miyako Festivals.

Nice artwork about Japanese festivals.

'[The albums depict] the annual festivals and customs of Kyoto at the beginning of the Showa2 period. These paintings are accompanied by explanatory texts written by the folklorist and Kyoto scholar Ema Tsutomu.'

The World Trade Center.

Photographs.

Ireland through a Pinhole Camera.

Florida Broadsides 1800-2000.

'Broadsides are traditionally considered to be large, one-sided printed posters used for public communication. These were usually posted in prominent public spaces such as churches, street corners, and town halls. '

'Typical examples of broadsides include campaign posters, playbills, public notices, announcements, petitions, proclamations, and advertisements. But paper-bound communications were not limited to broadsides, and included pamphlets, cards, tickets, blank forms, flyers, reprinted newspaper articles, and political cartoons. '

Pisco Clowns.

'Ruxandra Guidi reports from Peru on one effort to help quake survivors in Peru relieve their stress through laughter. A team from the group Doctors without Borders has been working in Peru since an earthquake hit parts of the county two months ago. The team includes clowns who put on shows for residents of quake-affected villages.'

Russian Cartoons.

'Mikhail Zlatkovsky has been lampooning Russian leaders since the days of perestroika. But he has discovered that satire permitted by Gorbachev and Yeltsin is dangerous under Putin'.

Berlin Wall Graffiti.

'A mile-long stretch was left as a memorial and decorated with murals commemorating the fall of communism. Now that section is in disrepair and there's a debate in Germany over what to do about it.'

My Father's Handwritten Instructions.

'Yesterday, my father died. When my brother and sisters and I pulled his pre-need folder this morning, we found (among the elaborate plans he'd laid out for us) these handwritten notes for how his services were to be conducted. He wrote these over 18 years ago. '

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What are small ways you use to make a mundane life more bearable?'

'After years of drifting along as a "spiritual but not religious" believer I am beginning to come to terms with the fact that I'm not actually a believer at all. I am an atheist with a lingering but unwanted desire to believe and it is making me miserable. Can you help me move past this? '

'Some people have this mysterious ability to be - disarming. Please explain this skill and help me learn it!'

'Recommend non-fiction books about animals -- books that will blow my mind.'

'How does your creativity work?'

'How do you organize yourselves using online tools? '

'What is your best technique for calming down quickly?'

The World of Dante.

'The World of Dante is a multi-media research tool intended to facilitate the study of the Divine Comedy through a wide range of offerings. These include an encoded Italian text which allows for structured searches and analyses, an English translation, interactive maps, diagrams, music, a database, timeline and gallery of illustrations. Many of these features allow users to engage the poem dynamically through the integrated components of this site. '

2009-02-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

The Museum of Found Photographs.

'Photographs that you either found or purchased at thrift stores, auctions, or flea markets. Please join if you are a collector of historical or vintage photographs. Let's create an archive of amazing photographs from the past.'

Black and White Photographs of America in the 1940s.

'In the small mountain town of Heber Springs, the Arkansas artist known as Disfarmer captured the lives and emotions of the people of rural America between 1939-1945. Critics have hailed Disfarmer's remarkable black and white portraits as "a work of artistic genius" and "a classical episode in the history of American photography."'

St. Andrews University Photographic Archive.

A nice collection of early photographs, and photographs of Scotland.

'This website offers you access to the amazing wealth of photography held within the Special Collections Department of the University of St Andrews Library. Here you will find masterpieces of very early photography from one of the world’s outstanding collections, as well as thousands of images taken by masters of the art, both professional and amateur, over the last century and a half.'

Photos of Leningrad under Siege Superimposed on the Presentday City.

Backview Bollywood.

'Painted mud-flaps of rickshaws & cycle carts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.'

Howard Finster: Man of Visions.

Eccentric artist.

'In 1976, Howard Finster was sixty years of age and had lived a full, hard, life. He had worked as a plumber, a grocer, a carpenter, a bicycle repairman, and as a traveling preacher in Georgia and Alabama. He had no inkling of his impending calling to create art, so late in his life. As he was repairing an old bicycle one day, touching up some of its scratches by applying small amount of white tractor paint here and there there with his finger, he had a vision. '

Cocktails of the Hedgerow.

How to make vodka and nettle cordial etc.

'Times are hard - these days, if you want luxury you'll have to forage for it. Fed by Birds is here to help, so we bring you cocktail recipes derived from the land. Let Ray Mears drink sap; we expect something a little more exciting from the wilderness. '

The Global Peace Index.

'The Global Peace Index (GPI) is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness. It is maintained by the Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks, together with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, Australia with data analysed by the Economist Intelligence Unit.'

With an interesting map.

The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism.

'The historical anecdotes in Tibetan literature and oral tradition that speak of mystics with powers of levitation and flight find their way into Tibetan art. The North American viewing public would be enthralled with the theme, both as an exhibition and as a reader.'

Red Hmong Women, Vietnam.

Caravaggio's 'Rest during the Flight into Egypt'.

'The “Rest during the Flight into Egypt” is one of the masterpieces of the young Caravaggio. The composition is divided by the figure of the angel seen from behind, intent on playing the violin, a rather innovative iconographic element, which has only the odd precedent in Italian figurative tradition...'

The Book of Eclipses.

16th century illustrations of eclipses.

Grand Alphabet Amusant.

''Grand Alphabet Amusant' by E Morel, ~1890; extracted from a pdf hosted among the ancient childrens literature at the Braunschweig Digital Library (the complete book has been posted above. There is next to no information about the illustrator online).'

Look at This Cat!

'I made Look At This Cat because I figured there are a lot of cats out there that people should look at.'

Sheets from a Teenage Sketchpad, 1976.

Astro Pics.

The Milky Way Over Mauna Kea.

Annular Eclipse: The Ring of Fire.

Labtayt Sulci on Saturn's Enceladus.

2009-01-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

The New Road.

'Rob Amberg's photographs tell a story of change within a rural community. This exhibit and his forthcoming book provide an intimate, long-term look at the social, cultural, and environmental impact of the construction of an interstate highway through rural Madison County, North Carolina.'

Dogpatch USA.

An abandoned amusement park.

'While planning your trip to Arkansas you might have found the town of "Dogpatch" on your Rand McNally in between Harrison and Jasper on Highway 7. Local residents petitioned the post office and the name of the town was changed to "Marble Falls" in 1997, but Dogpatch still lingers on many maps. Dogpatch took its name from an amusement park that opened here in 1968. Over a thousand acres were originally set aside for development. By comparison, Disneyland was forty acres. The park was based on a popular comic strip called "Li'l Abner" which was set in the fictional town of Dogpatch, know in the strip as the most miserable place on earth. (Contrast that with Disney's advertising slogan.) '

1940s Gandhi, Hirohito, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler Masks.

A Disney Rejection Letter from 1938.

What Goes Bump in the Japanese Night?

'Drawn from local tradition, the stories describe long-nosed mountain goblins called tengu, water imps that impregnate women, and mysterious men who inhabit the forests. Thinking of these while descending a path toward Nambu Shrine, I suddenly saw a shadowy form some ten yards away in the gloom. It was on all fours, bigger than a dog, smaller than a horse but it wouldn’t scare like a deer. It was definitely watching me, and not at all afraid - unlike me. I whipped out my camera before beating a hasty retreat. The only things visible in the photo are a few branches and a pair of glowing eyes. '

A Map of Hinduism's Holiest City.

'The temple-choked city of Varanasi (1) is the most sacred place in the world for hindus - comparable to what Jerusalem means for christians, or Mecca for muslims. It is located on the Ganges River in northern India, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. According to Mark Twain, Varanasi “is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” '

Amnesty International's United Nations of War.

' ‘Everybody Is Against Everybody – Somebody Has To Be For Them’: the message behind this Amnesty International poster is ultimately a pessimistic one – war is so endemic to the human condition that we can’t hope to eradicate, only to alleviate it.'

'That rather hobbesian world view is underscored by this world map composed of soldiers, warriors and fighters of every colour, creed and continent, a veritable United Nations of War, all placed as geographically correct as possible: from loinclothed tribes armed with long sticks or bows and arrows make up much of South America, while the north of the continent is lined with belligerents in Pilgrim dress, Revolution-era garb, Civil War uniform and even the Ku-Klux Klan costume. And so on for each continent, mutatis mutandis.'

The World War That Never Happened: US Occupies USSR.

'On 27 October 1951, the US magazine Collier’s devoted an entire 130-page issue to the theme of “Russia’s Defeat and Occupation, 1952-1960; Preview of the War We Do Not Want.” The cover showed an American soldier in a helmet emblazoned with US and UN insignia, reading MP (Military Police) Occupation Forces...'

Maurice de Vlaminck's 'Landscape with Red Trees', 1906.

The Law of the Playground.

Wake Up Everybody! - Melvin and the Bluenotes, 1975.

Soviet WW2 Propaganda Films.

Tango Argentina.

Winter Song.

Doris Ulmann's Photographs of South Appalachia.

' "I am not interested exclusively in literary faces, because I have been more deeply moved by some of my mountaineers than by any literary person, distinguished as he may be. A face that has the marks of having lived intensely, that expresses some phase of life, some dominant quality or intellectual power, constitute for me an interesting face. For this reason, the face of an older person, perhaps not beautiful in the strictest sense, is usually more appealing than the face of a younger person who has scarely been touched by life." '

'This site provides access to 1800 of approximately 12,000 images from the Ulmann Photograph Collection. The images were scanned prior to the development of local standards and information provided about each image is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. Staff from Special Collections and University Archives are in the process of reviewing the images and correcting information. In some cases, the images will be rescanned. As corrected information about the images becomes available, it will be added to a revised collection that will be linked from this one. Ultimately, this draft collection will be replaced in its entirety by the fully curated collection.'

Vanuatuan Gong.

'The towering slit gongs of northern Vanuatu are among the largest freestanding musical instruments on earth. Found primarily on Ambrym, Malakula, and neighboring islands, they are carved from the trunks of large breadfruit trees, hollowed out to create a resonating chamber with a narrow slitlike aperture. In each village, a number of gongs, comprising a sort of informal orchestra, stand on the village dancing ground. Gong orchestras are played at major social and religious events such as initiations, funerals, and dances. When playing, the musician stands in front of the gong and strikes the lip of the slit with a clublike wood beater. As the gong ensemble is played, rhythms of immense variety and complexity can be produced through the carefully coordinated actions of multiple drummers.'

Free Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic Resources.

'EduChoices offers some good free stuff online: 25 Places to Read Free Books Online l 50 Online Writing Websites for New Writers l Ranking of 20 Universities that Offer Free Courses Online (with links to the free courses), as well as information about university courses etc. l Great Reference Sites Other Than Wikipedia l Free Linux Tutorials for Beginners l Useful Online Calculators For Almost Every Educational and Life Need. '

Newsmap.

Social news site - another way of viewing the news online.

Vintage Baseball Photos.

Vintage Vespa Images.

'I gathered these to make an installation in my bathroom'.

Photo of Old Steam Locomotives in Chicago.

Astro Pics.

A Partial Eclipse over Manila Bay.

Thackeray's Globules.

Beneath the South Pole of Saturn.

2009-01-22T06:40:00.001-08:00

The Obakemono Project: A Gaijin's Guide to the Fantastic Folk Monsters of Japan.

'In English-speaking nations, Japan's popular culture has of late enjoyed immense popularity in the form of animation, comic books, and video games, and Godzilla and his fellow giant rubber-suit monsters have always had a cult following. But the kaijū's older cousins, the yōkai, remain largely a footnote and a curiosity in the West. Occasionally they sneak over in the form of a low-budget monster movie, or show up altered, toned-down, or romanticized into unrecognizability in an imported cartoon popular with teens. Yet much of the fertile, monstrous imagination contained in old Japanese folklore and art has never been collected, translated, and presented to the English-speaking world. '

Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts.

Collected by Jewish scholar and all-round genius David Kaufmann : http://kaufmann.mtak.hu/en/study01.htm

Easy Puzzle.

How can you give someone $63 using six bills, without using any one dollar bills? (Valid bills are $1, $2, $5,, $10, $20, $50).

The Fighting Filipinos.

WW2 poster. Interesting comments, too.

Chick Tracts.

'Chick tracts are short Evangelical-themed tracts created by American publisher Jack Chick. Chick tracts are styled as comics and are often controversial for their enthusiastic endorsement of fundamentalist Christianity and condemnation of other religions and other denominations, especially Catholicism.'

Train Graveyard in Bolivia.

'A weird place outside Uyuni in Bolivia, full of old, dead trains from the USA and UK, rusting away in the sun and the salty winds from nearby Salar de Uyuni.'

Black and Asian History in Canning Town, East London.

'This online resource charts the history of the black and Asian community in Canning Town, east London, in the 1920s and 1930s. It tells the story of the Coloured Men's Institute and its founder, Kamal Chunchie, a man who can rightly be called east London's first black and Asian community leader.'

Colour on the Thames (1935).

'This film is tricky to describe: is it a boat study, a film-poem, an experiment, a picture postcard? One thing is certain: it's a rare colour snapshot of the Thames and London in the 1930s...'

Indigenous National Festival, Brazil.

'A meeting to celebrate life, culture and traditions.'

Circus Poster, 1970.

'A poster advertising the Polish Circus in 1970. Circus was a state-funded art in Poland, and the graphic design it inspired was as varied and imaginative as the circus acts themselves. Hubert Hilscher's acrobatic and decorative lion is a creature that can be compared to the animals in his famous zoo posters - colourful, wild, aggressive and funny.'

Zora Neale Hurston, 1938.

Part of the African Americans set : http://www.flickr.com/photos/32912172@N00/sets/72157608250741007/

Mikhail Maiofis Illustrations.

'Mikhail Maiofis was born in St. Petersburg Russia and was an accomplished artist at a very young age. He is best known for his illustrations of children's books, most notably the famous Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen. His work is in both private and public collections throughout the world, and he is listed as one of the top 100 Russian artists of the century. '

Abandoned Russian Polar Lighthouses.

Astro Pics.

Alpine Conjunction.

Lenticular Cloud over New Zealand.

Suspension Bridge Solargraph.

2009-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Papu.

A green-eyed woman from Rajasthan. 'These are all photos from the same woman with incredible green eyes. Please visit www.papu.nl. '

Mamtu, Papu's daughter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54236819@N00/sets/72157594203696626/
'I know this little beauty since she was a baby. She has so many faces, she can be very angry or sad, or even arrogant (!) and has the most beautiful smile. She five years old.'

The Papu Project : http://www.papu.nl/

Cereal Commercials over the Decades.

Conjuring 17th Century Japan.

'One of the most important books that filled the vacuum of knowledge about Japan in the second half of the 17th century was an extensive volume by the Dutch vicar, missionary and church historian, Arnoldus Montanus...'

'... Obviously the first half of the images above - (orangutans!! Hindu Gods!) - suggest that the book was an altogether fanciful production, but that's only partly true. There are apparent oddities within the text as well, but on the whole, Montanus' work provided the most authentic accounts of Japanese culture available until the restrictions on foreigner travel were relaxed in the 1800s. '

The Ripley Scroll.

'The remarkable Ripley Scroll is, in simple terms, an alchemical manuscript that shows in pictorial cryptograms the production of the philosopher's stone (the elusive ingredient that produces incorruptible gold out of lesser metals; and/or the elixir of life).'

Growing Stocks of Unsold Cars around the World.

Photo gallery. 'Carmakers around the world are cutting production as inventories build up to unprecedented levels. Storage areas and docksides are now packed with vast expanses of unsold cars as demand slumps'.

Lino Block Prints of the Fifty United States and Their Mottos.

All put together in one map here: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/351-in-mottos-we-trust-united-statements-of-america/

An 11-Year-Old's Map of Jewish Emigration.

'In 1938, Germany was not a good place to be a Jew. While some German Jews might still have hoped the anti-semitism of the Nazi regime would somehow blow over, those who had the means to flee the country did so - if they found a place that would have them. The Freudenheims did, and managed to leave Berlin for Montevideo.'

'Their young son Fritz, 11 years old at the time, documented their traumatic odyssey in a map composed in bright colours, cheerfully entitled: Von der alten Heimat zu der neuen Heimat! (’From the old home to the new home!’) He documents the Freudenheim family’s locations as far back as 1925, before he was born himself. Africa, with only one port of call, is portrayed as relatively small, while South America is more defined (all countries are shown) but detached from North America. Of the European countries, Germany looms largest; the trains that take the Freudenheims on their travels inside the country would soon be used for more sinister transports.'

Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films.

'The Seventh Seal', 'Ikiru', 'It's a Wonderful Life', 'Wings of Desire', 'Breaking the Waves', the 'Three Colours' trilogy, 'Secrets and Lies' - as well as the little-known Japanese film 'After Life' ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165078/ ). All excellent films. Though I'm a little surprised that '2001: A Space Odyssey' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_2001:_A_Space_Odyssey ) and 'A Short Film about Killing' ( http://www.reelviews.net/movies/s/short_kill.html ) aren't on the list. 'Koyanisqaatsi' made the list but not 'Baraka' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film) ).

Land of Lincoln.

'Photos from trips through and around Illinois.'

East Berlin, 1990.

Photos.

Costumes Grotesques.

'There follows a selection of images from a series entitled Les Costumes Grotesques: Habits des métiers et professions… They were published in 1695 by one Nicolas de Larmessin, although I’m not exactly sure which Nicolas was responsible for them, as there seem to have been four generations of Nicolases in the de Larmessin family.'

Picturing Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration.

(Click on 'See all images' to browse).

'Hundreds of images from the thirteenth through the early twentieth century, in the fields of astronomy, chemistry, geology, mathematics, medicine, and physics, as represented by manuscript illuminations, engravings, lithographs, and photographs. '

Faces of Power and Piety: Medieval Portraiture.

'This exhibition explores portraits in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages (about A.D. 500–1500). '

Astro Pics.

Saturn's Hyperion: A Moon with Odd Craters.

Largest Full Moon on 2009.

Unusual Light Pillars over Latvia.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Is my husband trying to kill me?'

'What's your favorite two-person game?'

'Eating on $25 a week, suggestions?'

2009-01-14T11:06:00.001-08:00

Space Colony Art from the 1970s.

Vintage Board Games.

Catholic Children's Books from the 1950s.

Dust Storm in Australia.

The Ting Tings - 'We Walk'.

Treehoppers.

Vintage Sewing Patterns.

Fading Ads in Journal Square, Jersey City.

Yao Paintings from Vietnam.

Books at an Indian Street Market.

Edo Period Monster Paintings by Sawaki Suushi.

'In the sophisticated popular culture of the Edo period (1603-1868), much attention was devoted to Japan’s rich pantheon of traditional monsters and apparitions, known as yokai. Sometimes frightening, sometimes humorous, these compelling Japanese folk creatures were the subject of numerous artistic and literary works. One such work was Hyakkai Zukkan, a collection of picture scrolls completed in 1737 by Sawaki Suushi, a relatively unknown artist who studied under master painter Hanabusa Itcho (1702-1772). Hyakkai Zukkan’s colorful depictions of Japan’s most notorious creatures inspired (and were copied by) yokai artists for generations. Here is a peek inside. '

Monograph of Spiders.

'Carl Wilhelm Hahn (1786-1835) was a German zoologist and artist. Following a short stint in the armed services, Hahn completed a PhD and took the unusual step of setting himself up as 'freelance natural historian'...'

Elleore, A Kingdom 12 Minutes Ahead of Copenhagen.

'Out of a total of 443 Danish islands, only 76 are permanently inhabited. Elleore occupies a special place among them: unpeopled for most of the year, and not part of Denmark when it is – that is, if you’re partial to the semi-jocular sovereignty claims of micronations...'

All That Jazz.

'This set depicts vintage images of a variety of people in the jazz industry. '

Doo Wop Gold.

'Dedicated to various artists in the Doo Wop and early Rock n Roll era.'

20 Ways the World Could End.

Astro Pics.

Restored: First Image of the Earth from the Moon.

The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral.

Beautiful Spiral NGC 7331.

2009-01-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

'The Recently Deflowered Girl', by Edward Gorey.

Slugs mating on YouTube.

Both alien and moving.

Images from the Cassini Probe.

The Lure of the Open Road, 1944.

'In 1944, a dear friend, Doris Roy, and I undertook an adventurous journey that we dreamed of during countless hikes together over our college holidays. We had been Camp Fire Girls together, loving the out-of-doors, camping and hiking the open road. Our dreams finally developed into a plan to ride bicycles from our home in Buffalo, New York, to Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River met the Mississippi. We admired Mark Twain’s adventures, had read his Life on the Mississippi, and sought to follow his path to the Midwest. '

Images of Frozen Soap Bubbles.

Sweded Films.

Homebrew remakes of famous films, inspired by Be Kind Rewind : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Kind_Rewind

The Internet Pinball Machine Database.

'The Internet Pinball Machine Database — also known as the IPD or IPDB — is a comprehensive, searchable listing of virtually every pinball machine ever commercially made. '

Japanese Custom Scooters.

'These photographs of Japanese custom scooters come from bike shop galleries, auction sites, and Flickr. '

Le Livre d'Heures d'Isabeau de Roubaix.

'In the late 1480s, Isabeau founded the Hospital of Saint Elizabeth for the Black Sisters of the Order of St Augustine (it was part-hospital, part-convent). The illuminated manuscript seen above (as well as at least one other decorated manuscript) was bequeathed to the Order when Isabeau died (sometime between 1494 and 1502).'

The Jewel Book.

'Puppies and members of the royal court look on as the serious Duchess Anna and Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria face each other across a chessboard. We can only speculate as to why such a modest scene was chosen as a prelude to an album recording, in stark contrast, the ostentatious display of wealth from their marriage and position in society.'

Chittagong, Bangladesh.

'Along the southeast coast of Bangladesh are the ship breaking installations, where immense ocean freighters and tankers are torn apart by hundreds of gritty, lean, strong, bronze-skinned, men--by manual labor...'

Lovely fighting Japanese girl and more and more.

Morris dancing.

Courtroom Sketches of the Black Panther Trial, 1970.

Old Photographs of Sydney Harbour.

Walking the Berkshires.

'"Sharp, quirky, and occasionally nettlesome", Walking the Berkshires is my personal blog, an eclectic weaving of human narrative, natural history, and conservation science with the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills as both its backdrop and point of departure. I am interested in how land and people, past and present manifest in the broader landscape and social fabric of our communities. The opinions I express here are mine alone. '

The Gwolphs of Saturn.

'This 1946 advertisement for Casco was illustrated by the Russian-born surrealist Boris Artzybasheff. I'm not completely sure what Casco was/is, but they promise "new and unusual contributions to better living", and they certainly knew how to commission an eye-catching advert. '

Early Maps on the Web.

Querying the Hive Mind.

'Can you recommend any good books on writing poetry?'

' "Mudita is a Buddhist (Pali and Sanskrit) word meaning rejoicing in others' joy." ' The opposite of 'schadenfreude', another excellent word.

'Women with hairy nipples: how do you deal? Men who've seen 'em: how did you feel?'

'What's the most unique feature you've ever seen in a bar or pub?'

'How do you eat healthy during the winter? '

'What sort of things do you do to make individual days worth remembering?'

'Large pores on my face are getting me down. '

'Help me identify progressive, funky towns and small cities in this Good Ol' U S of A.'

'What were the movies that made you go WOW?'

'What are some of the loudest, heaviest, most rocking and head-banging classical pieces out there?'

2008-12-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Tree of Life.

'Each page contains information about a particular group of organisms (e.g., echinoderms, tyrannosaurs, phlox flowers, cephalopods, club fungi, or the salamanderfish of Western Australia). ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life. Starting with the root of all Life on Earth and moving out along diverging branches to individual species, the structure of the ToL project thus illustrates the genetic connections between all living things. '

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is among the few masterpieces that has been translated into most languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, and Urdu.'

Abandoned London - Christmas Morning.

Medieval Manuscripts in the Dutch National Library.

Japanese Matchbox Labels.

The Bubble Blower Museum.

'Bubble blowers are among the oldest and most popular of children's toys. Even when families had no money for toys, they could find a wire to twist into a circle and some soap for blowing bubbles.'

Artists' Books Online.

Books which take the form of works of art and are both text and art.

Some good ones :

'How to Humiliate Your Peeping Tom' : http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/hhpt/imageindex/1.1.1.0.xml

'Life in a Book' : http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/inbk/imageindex/1.1.1.0.xml

'Black Dog White Bark' : http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/bdwb/imageindex/1.1.1.0.xml

The Metcalf Collection of Images of Stained Glass.

'With the advent of World War II, these fearless individuals traveled throughout Europe to photograph stained glass before it was either secured for safe keeping or else destroyed in the war. Kodak developed a special color slide film for them and they devised their own unique classification system to document these works. The glass in these images covers Austria, England, France, Germany, Switzerland. The coverage of these areas is not comprehensive. By far the largest area to be photographed was France and only one building for example was documented in Austria and indeed only one image as well. Within each building they photographed what was there often against tremendous odds with enemy forces arriving as they were still documenting. Every effort was made to satisfactorily cover all of the glass from the twelfth century to the twentieth century, but it is clear that there are omissions. The collection lay for many years in the Dayton Art Institute from where it was transferred to Princeton’s Index of Christian Art in 2004.'

Zooborns.

'ZooBorns brings you the newest and cutest exotic animal babies from zoos and aquariums around the world.'

Baby aardvark : http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2008/12/naked-into-the-world-amani-the-baby-aardvark.html

Panda : http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2008/10/giant-panda-cub.html

Otters : http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2008/12/otter-you-glad-for-the-holidays.html

Vintage Oceania.

Vintage Hawaiiana.

Lighthouses of the Great Lakes.

A virtual gazetteer.

What On Earth Are We Doing?

What on Earth are we doing?, D.H.Keen and G.E.Simmons, illustrated by Pat Oakley, Ladybird Books, Loughborough 1976.

Covered Bridges of Madison County, Iowa.

Astro Pics.

Earthrise.

Jets on the Sun.

Galaxies in the River.

2008-12-26T07:23:00.001-08:00
Easy Puzzle.

Alice, Michiko, and Chelsea went bird watching. Each of them saw one bird that none of the others did. Each pair saw one bird that the third did not. And one bird was seen by all three. Of the birds Alice saw, two were yellow. Of the birds Michiko saw, three were yellow. Of the birds Chelsea saw, four were yellow. How many yellow birds were seen in all?

Famous People and Their Cats.

Someone's Bicycle Commute in Pictures.

Academic Houseguest.

'In December, John Hawthorne, a philosopher from England, visited us in NYC for a little while...'

Mr. T and Nancy Reagan.

Vintage Corgi Toys/Dinky Toys.

'Welcome to the collection of old Corgi Toys and Dinky Toys catalogues. They are presented here for your enjoyment; please let me add, I do not deal with the toys themselves nor do I know anything about today's value of those beauties.'

Spidercamp: Stories.

She's a very good writer. Check out this ghost story : http://www.spidercamp.com/2003/01/how_did_i_get_h.html

Also makes nice handmade stuff you can buy : http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=11492

Geisha with Photo Albums.

'Japanese Geisha Girls looking at various photograph albums, 1890 to 1915. From original photos in the Okinawa Soba Collection.'

Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde 1910-1917.

Portraits of Artists.

'Stored alongside original letters, diaries, and sketchbooks in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art are thousands of photographs of artists and art world figures. This set includes nineteenth and early twentieth-century images that provide a glimpse into the private lives of the artists–their studios, their homes, their families. '

Josephine Baker Photoset.

The Inca (Quechua/Aymara) Flag.

The Flag of Equal Marriage.

'This is a protest flag for equal marriage rights in the United States. The flag only has two stars, for Connecticut and Massachusetts (the 5th and 6th states in the union), the only states with legalized same-sex marriage.'

Typos in the US Constitution.

nBot, a 2 Wheel Balancing Robot.

News in the 1910s.

'Welcome to the daily news scene from almost a hundred years ago, as photographed by the Bain News Service in about 1910-1912. We invite your tags and comments! Also, lots more identification information. (Most of these old photos came to the Library of Congress with very little description.'

'This selected set of 1,500+ photographs is from a large collection of almost 40,000 glass negatives. The entire collection spans 1900-1920 and richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, and political activities, with a special emphasis on life in New York City.'

Tucson Monsoon Lightning.

The Smoky God.

'This is another classic fictional hollow earth adventure. The narrator, Olaf Jansen, is a Norwegian who sails with his father deep into the northern ice. There they sail over the lip of the hollow earth, and into the inner world, lit by a dim central sun (the 'smoky god' of the title). The inhabitants are an advanced race of giants who have electricity, monorails, and extremely long lifespans. '

Astro Pics.

Mountain Top Meteors.

Smile in the Sky.

Happy Sky over Los Angeles.

2008-12-23T11:08:00.001-08:00

Letters to Obama from Navajo Children.

The Presidents.

Easy Puzzle.

In the southern hemisphere, if you drop a steel ball weighing ten grams from a height of 2 metres, will it fall more rapidly through water at 20 degrees Fahrenheit or water at 20 degrees Celsius? Or will it make no difference?

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Photos.
'The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. '

1930s-1940s in Colour.

'These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.'

Swimsuit Girls of Old Japan.

'A pretty girl in a bathing suit is something most people don't mind looking at. For those that like pictures of old Japan, but want a short break from looking at Geisha dressed in Kimono, these are for you ! '

Photos of Geisha and Maiko without Kimono.

British Seaside Novelties and Jokes.

West Virginia Hot Dog Map.

One Minute Languages.

'Welcome to One Minute Languages where you can learn the basics of a language in a matter of minutes. Perhaps you have friends who speak another language, or maybe you're going to be travelling to a country where the language is spoken. The most important thing to remember is that even a few phrases of a language can help you make friends and get much more out of your travel experience.'

19th Century Egyptian Lantern Slides.

'In 1849, the Philadelphia daguerreotypists William and Frederick Langenheim introduced the lantern slide: a transparent image on glass that could be projected, in magnified form, onto a surface using a "magic lantern," or sciopticon. This new technology expanded the uses of photography, allowing photographic images to be viewed by a large audience. With lantern slides, Museum curators and educators could illustrate their lectures, letting audience members see detailed studies of objects and sites from around the world. '

French Revolutionary Pamphlets.

The Illustrated Ages of the World.

'Francisco de Holanda (Hollanda) (1517-1585) was a painter, historian, architect and humanist philosopher from Portugal.'

'He apprenticed under his father as a manuscript miniaturist at the royal court in Lisbon and was sent to Rome by King João III in 1538. For the next nine years, Holanda studied among the notables of the Italian Renaissance, including Parmiagianino, Giambologna and, most significantly, Michelangelo.'

Dental History Collection.

'This is a collection of sets of images related to different aspects of dentistry and dental history.'

The World Carrot Museum.

Sheffield Flood, March 1864.

The 19th Century American Trade Card.

'Baker Library holds more than 8,000 trade cards representing the full range of products and businesses advertised through this medium from the 1870s through the 1890s. As one of the most popular forms of advertising in the nineteenth century, and an indicator of consumer habits, social values, and marketing techniques, trade cards are of interest to scholars across many disciplines, including business history, American studies, graphic design and printing history, and social and cultural history.'

2008-12-19T07:37:00.001-08:00
Easy Puzzle.

What's the next number in the series?

2/3 7/12 1/2 5/12 1/3 1/4 1/6 ?

Dow 25,000!

Lest we forget, a warning from recent history against hubris.

Post Secret.

'PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.'

Pictures of Walls.

Walls with stuff written on them.

We Feel Fine.

'An exploration of human emotion, in six movements'.

Dopplr.

'Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. '

Querying the Hive Mind.

'What are some good looking world coins, the size of a US Nickel or smaller? It's for my pants.'

'Please lend a hand in helping me find a gracious way to tell my family members that I am donating to the local foodbank in their names in lieu of physical gifts this year. This will be a written note enclosed in a card, and I just can't seem to find the right words.'

'How can a somewhat solitary guy meet a need for hugs and human contact? '

'My close friend is converting to Islam. Do you think he's doing the right thing?'

'BellyFilter: Trying to find the name of a photography exhibit that featured women's bellies.'

'What might |000> + |111> mean, on a garden gate?'

'Addressing a girl as 'fair'. Flirting or just a figure of speech?'

'Gift ideas for a Mexican beauty queen'.

English Buildings.

'In this blog I share my encounters with many of my favourite English buildings, including some that are little known and that get short shrift in the architectural history books. Look here for accounts of breweries, prefabs, power stations, corrugated-iron barns and the occasional parish church as I share my meetings with England's remarkable buildings... '

Human Expressions.

'This selection of photographs is drawn from the books Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, Duchenne de la Boulogne, Paris 1862; and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin, London 1872 '.

Marvel Superheroes Card Game 1978.

'From the 1978 Marvel Superheroes Card Game, by Milton Bradley. '

Comic Japanese Prints of Raccoon Dogs.

'This series of comic prints alludes to the supposed ability of raccoon dogs to voluntarily enlarge their scrotums. It is listed as 209 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961). '

Sumo Wrestler Prints.

Black Africa in 3D.

'The old photos of Africa in this set have been sitting in a box for many years. There are actually MORE, but these were the most interesting to me. The last time I dug them out was in 1988 --- 20 years ago....for a roving 3-D Display of Old Africa held in Okinawa, Japan. It is estimated that over 10,000 Okinawan school kids saw these (and views of many other countries and continents) in large banks of "Roto Viewers" that allowed then to jump right into the photos in real 3-D. '

North American Indian Photography of Edward Curtis.

'Edward S. Curtis, a professional photographer in Seattle, devoted his life to documenting what he perceived to be a vanishing race. His monumental workThe North American Indian was published between 1907 and 1930 and contained over 2000 photogravures in its volumes and portfolios. It presented an extensive ethnographical study of numerous tribes, and the photographs of Curtis remain memorable icons of the American Indian. Although the Smithsonian Libraries owns a complete set of Curtis’ publication, only a small portion of the photogravures has been digitized.'

The Spirit Photographs of William Hope.

'These photographs of 'spirits' are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum's curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933).'

Christmas in New South Wales.

'The photographic collections of the State Library of NSW contain many images of events, both joyful and solemn. Look back at Christmas in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century.'

Bondi Jitterbug.

Old photos of Bondi beach.

Syrian Lingerie.

'Just off the crowded central market in Old Damascus, a sales assistant called Mahmoud is giving me my first introduction into an unusual Syrian speciality - musical knickers. '

Art Deco California.

Old Photos of French Chateaux.

By Bicycle, France, 1895-1900.

Amsterdam Olympic Games, 1928.

Time Cube.