Fazal Sheikh: Ladli.

Ladli means 'beloved daughter'.

http://www.steidlville.com/books/509-Ladli.html - 'The stories told here will come as a shock to many: the abortion of thousands of healthy fetuses every year because of their gender, the murder at birth of baby girls, the abduction and rape of adolescents forced into prostitution, the exploitation of child labor, the physical abuse of domestic workers and, worst of all, the murder of young women whose dowries, or performance as wives, does not match their husbands’, or their husbands’ families’, expectations. Through a network of street-level activists, Sheikh builds up a picture of India that undermines its new role as a modern democracy. '

The CURTA Calculator.

A calculator from Germany, 1948.




United States 1970-1975.

'In the early 1970s, when Jacob Holdt first arrived in the US with 40 dollars in his pocket, he planned to travel quickly across the country to South America. But, totally shocked and fascinated by what he discovered, he ended up staying five years. His family could scarcely believe the letters he sent them detailing the poverty he saw, so his father sent him a cheap amateur camera in order that Holdt could send home proof of his claims. '




Monkey King.

Comic version.

' "Monkey King",or known to the Chinese as "Journey to West",written by Wu Ch'eng-en(1500?-1582),a scholar-official, is one of the renowned classical Chinese novels about an allegorical rendition of the journey, mingled with Chinese fables, fairy tables, legends,superstitions, popuar beliefs, monster stories as well as whatever the author could find in the Taoist and Buddhist religions...'




Future Buildings in Dubai.




Industrial Ruins in Romania.




Brick City.

Photographs of St. Louis, Missouri.




Photographs of the Pamir Mountain District, Tajikistan.




Music for the Masses.

'Books containing music for Christian church ceremonies are among the largest and most beautiful manuscripts that have survived from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This exhibition explores the splendid decoration of these manuscripts and the significance of music in medieval religious life.'




Chambers's Book of Days.

'A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in connection with the Calendar
an electronic reprint of the original:
Chambers's Book of Days. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1879.'




Tibetan Geomancy Texts.




1895 US Atlas.




Solar Biology (1887).

A very strange astrology book with a great title.



Querying the Hive Mind.



'No Limit Honeymoon. My new wife and I would like to go on a 2 - 2 1/2 week honeymoon. We will go anywhere in the world and want somewhere outside of the States or Europe...'

http://ask.metafilter.com/85837/No-Limit-Honeymoon



'What instrument should I learn?'

http://ask.metafilter.com/85872/No-skill-music-playing



'Why aren't turtles dinosaurs?'

http://ask.metafilter.com/85863/Seems-dinosaurs-and-humans-do-coexist



'What are your favorite things to put on pasta (besides tomato sauce)?'

http://ask.metafilter.com/85191/More-than-just-tomato-sauce



'I've been living on my own for about five years now, but I still cannot for the life of me understand grocery shopping.'

http://ask.metafilter.com/85241/How-do-I-grocery-shop-and-cook

Do Some Good:
Chinese Red Cross Disaster Appeal.
http://www.redcross.org.cn/english/donate.htm
The aftermath of the 2008 Chinese winter storms is still causing a humanitarian crisis in China, especially in the south.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_winter_storms
Donations can also be made online from US and Canadian bank accounts via the Canadian Red Cross :-
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=026119&tid=001
The International Committee of the Red Cross allows you to donate online 'where help is most needed' :-
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/helpicrc
(A friend of mine has been involved directly in relief efforts and they still appreciate donations).
---
Do Some Good:
Nicky Skye.
http://www.nickyskye.com/
Someone who could do with some help. (A friend of mine).

http://projects.metafilter.com/1373/An-open-letter-from-Nickyskye
---

Stuff Your Doodles.

Your doodles, stuffed.



American Geographic Society Photo Archive.

'The AGSL Digital Photo Archive presents over 2,500 images from the holdings of the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library. The current selection focuses on the countries of Asia and the Middle East. The images come from the collections acquired over many decades by the AGS Library including an extensive photographic print collection.'



Siberia Diary.

'The Post's Robert G. Kaiser and Lucian Perkins spent the month of August 2001 on a 3,700 mile journey across Siberia, reporting almost daily on the people, culture and natural resources of Russia's most abundant region'.



Solemates: The 20th Century in Shoes.



Suharto: A Declassified Documentary Obit.

'As Indonesia buries the ex-dictator Suharto, who died Sunday at the age of 86, the National Security Archive today posted a selection of declassified U.S. documents detailing his record of repression and corruption, and the long-standing U.S. support for his regime.'



American Patriotic Melodies.

'Patriotic Melodies tells the stories behind many of the songs that have now become part of the American national heritage. A combination of hymns, national songs, music of the theater, radio and television, military themes, and poetry, all of this music demonstrates that while over history many things have changed, this expression of pride and hope remain a constant part of the American experience.'



The Calvin Shedd Papers.

'The Archives and Special Collections Department at the University of Miami Library houses a series of remarkable letters written by Calvin Shedd, a carpenter from New Hampshire, who enlisted in the Seventh Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers and served the Union Army during the Civil War from 1862 - 1863. In these letters to his wife and three young daughters, Shedd recorded the debilitating physical hardships, the incredible tedium and the ever-present dangers of military life in Key West, Fort Jefferson and St. Augustine, Florida. Shedd wrote these fifty-three letters with great love, painstaking attention to detail, and a calm, reassuring hand. '



The Shaker Historic Trail.

'Originating in the religious ferment of Manchester, England, in the mid-18th century, the "Shaking Quakers" reached fruition after settlement in America in 1774. "Mother" Ann Lee, the English-born leader of the Shakers, began her public ministry in America in 1780. By 1784 she had died, but her charismatic preaching had sparked a revolutionary new movement that had enduring impact on American religion and culture. The Shakers were ardent believers in the millennialist principle of establishing "heaven on earth" through the practice of communitarian social organizations, pacifism, celibacy, gender equality and the confession of sin. The Shakers offered an intriguing alternative to mainstream culture in post-Revolutionary War America.'



Volcano of Delight: Historic Sheet Music 1800-1922.

'Notable in this collection are early pieces by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, as well as music by other popular composers such as Victor Herbert, Jean Schwartz, Paul Dresser, Ernest R. Ball, Gussie L. Davis, Charles K. Harris, and George M. Cohan. Numerous arrangements of classical tunes by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and other famous classical composers are also well-represented.'



Graveyard of the Pacific: The Shipwrecks of Vancouver Island.



Milwaukee Repertory Theater Photographic History.



The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura.



Astro Pics.

Sand Dunes Thawing on Mars.

Mauna Kea Shadow Play.

Twelve Lunar Eclipses.



German Decorative Bookbindings.



Querying the Hive Mind.

'Unlike most other places I've been in the world, people didn't beg for money. They begged for bread. They begged for clothes. Old t-shirts back in your hotel room. Your hat. Your shoes...' On poverty in Zimbabwe.

Some more information on microcredit lending.

RIP Gary Gygax.

London 1960s.

Photo-set.



Ernst Haeckel.

'Artforms from Nature' by a German naturalist and artist - more on him here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel



J.J. Grandville: French Caricaturist & Cartoonist 1803-47.



Ghost Towns of Ontario.
'Visiting and documenting forgotten places'.



In Pictures: A Mongolian Nomad Family.




Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Western Europe.

'More than 2,000 manuscript pages and associated illuminations dating from the 9th through the 16th centuries give vivid testimony to the creative impulses of the often nameless craftsmen who continually discovered new ways of animating the contents of hand-produced books. '



Handbook of the Indians of California.

'Originally published in 1925, this monograph is a representative work of Alfred L. Kroeber’s (1876-1960) contributions to American Indian ethnology. It also illustrates why Kroeber, a noted American anthropologist and founder of the anthropology department at the University of California at Berkeley, is considered to be the father of California Indian studies. Kroeber’s handbook provides a comprehensive look at the Indians of California and offers a foundation for the ethnographical study of California’s Native American cultures.'



Christmas in Brixton.



Photos of City Island, Bronx, NYC.



A Manx Note Book.

'An Electronic Compendium of Matters Past and Present Connected with the Isle of Man'.



Astro Pics.

A Mysterious Acid Haze on Venus.

The Universe Nearby.

Trifid Pillars and Jets.



Cueva de las Manos.

'Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands) is a cave located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, 163 km (101 mi) south from the town of Perito Moreno, within the borders of the Francisco P. Moreno National Park, which includes many sites of archaeological and paleontogical importance...'

Eclipse Photography.



The Turk Chess Automaton Hoax.

'To impress the Austrian Court of Empress Maria, the Hungarian polymath, Wolfgang von Kempelen, designed an ingenious chess playing mechanical device in 1770...'



Galeria Cuba.

Photos of Cuba.



Photos of Bento Boxes.

Japanese lunchboxes.



After Columbus: 400 Years of Native American Portraiture.



The Great Book of Gaelic.

Irish and Scottish language poetry and art.



Waves on the Turquoise Lake: Contemporary Expressions of Tibetan Art.



Works by Banksy.

stencils + graffiti



Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts.



Querying the Hive Mind.

'What words should English steal from other languages?'

'What is the most useful book you own?'

How hotels deal with being 'fully booked'.

'How do I become a trivia master?'

'What are some movies that have either drastically changed the way you view the world or changed the way you live your life?'

'What is the first book you remember loving? '

'Why can't I articulate thoughts as crisply as I would like to?'

'Help me learn HTML and CSS.'

'What is the secret to bread texture?'

What do you look at/notice, as you wander through the world, that I probably ignore?"

'What stock banter lines do you keep in your back pocket?'



Landscapes.

Photoset.

Hearts on Flickr.



Women's Suffrage Photo Collection.



Early Postcards of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.



The Chinese in California 1850-1925.

'The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. '



New York World's Fair 1964/65.

'...We called those years "The Space Age." It was a time when we were in the middle of a Space Race with the Russians to see who could put the first man on the moon and we were fighting a Cold War with the evils of Communism. While technological advances were exploding all around us, our world was turning topsy-turvy with an increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia, political assassinations and civil unrest at home. Over it all hung the threat that we'd be blown to smithereens in a nuclear holocaust if someone accidentally pushed the button and the Cold War suddenly got very hot! Is it any wonder that we imagined a future of limitless promise?...'



NYC Subway Art Guide.



'World's Highest Standard of Living'.

'Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky, 1937'.



Close to Home.

'This exhibition is devoted to American family photographs that were separated from their owners and then rediscovered by artists, writers, collectors, and museum curators. Removed from their original context, these snapshots become open to many different interpretations: Who are the people in the photographs? What did these photos mean to them? Where are they now?'



1797 Map of Great Yarmouth.



Silent Film Actress Norma Talmadge.

'Norma Talmadge was one of the greatest stars of the silent era. She began her film work as a teenager in 1910 at the Vitagraph Studios in Flatbush, just a streetcar ride from her home. In 1916 she met and married exhibitor Joseph M. Schenck, and together they formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, one of the most lucrative partnerships in film history. Talmadge became one of the top box office attractions for the rest of the silent era, evolving from a spunky teenager into one of the finest dramatic actresses of the screen. One of the wealthiest women in Hollywood, she retired after her two talkies proved disappointing at the box office. She died on Christmas Eve, 1957.'



Astro Pics.

Earth at Twilight.

Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1132.

Saturn's Moon Epimetheus from Cassini.



The Belgian-American Collection.

'One of the country's largest concentrations of Walloon-speaking Belgians is found in northeastern Wisconsin, resulting in a unique cultural and social flavor. The largest wave of Belgian immigration to Wisconsin occurred in the mid-1850s. While the 1850 U.S. Census lists only 45 persons of Belgian nativity in the state, by 1860 the number had increased to 4,647. The 1890 U.S. census also shows that 81% of Belgians in the state lived in the northeastern counties of Brown, Kewaunee, and Door. The Belgian immigration into northeastern Wisconsin came to an abrupt halt in about 1858, when word reached the homeland of the physical and economic hardships and the cholera epidemic sweeping the settlement...'



The Mormons.

'A four-hour exploration into the richness, the complexities and the controversies of the Mormons' story as told through interviews with members of the church, leading writers and historians, and supporters and critics of the Mormon faith.'