Displaying post 1 to 50 of 253
"Looking for all the world like an engine abandoned in the Amazon jungle, M2 class 4-8-0 number 1118 lies forlorn and forgotten at the Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal yard in Roanoke, VA."
The Lost Engines of Roanoke website chronicles the
history of four steam locomotives that were sold in the 50's to a scrapyard in Roanoke, Virginia. There are plenty of
photos of the engines and other train equipment and information on
two other lost engines. The
news section has been busy of late since one of the engines has been sold to a railroad themed restaurant in Bellville, Ohio. The move was
photodocumented.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 12:18 PM on July 25, 2008
(3 comments)
The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
has an extensive,
searchable online collection. It focuse on material art and household items and has objects from all over the world. The website can be browsed either by geographic orgin:
Africa,
Asia,
North and Central America,
Pacific,
South America, or through its two exhibits,
Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives and
Fowler in Focus. Some of my favorite objects (but really, everything is entrancing) are
The Blind Scholar (
a Taiwanese handpuppet),
Chikunga (
a Zambian mask) and a
stirrup spout bottle which looks like a puma eating a piglet (
Peruvian). All items have accompanying descriptions and some have short texts or audioguides with further information.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 9:36 AM on July 23, 2008
(3 comments)
Someone I have to interact with on a fairly regular basis has a voice that grates really badly on my nerves. How can I listen what the person is saying without being annoyed by the voice?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kattullus
at 10:35 AM on July 22, 2008
(12 comments)
Hellenica
is an encyclopedia of Greek culture, from classical Hellas, through the Byzantine Empire until the modern day, though its focus is on antiquity and especially the
science and technology of Ancient Greece. Featuring technical diagrams and explications, there's no better site if you seek information on
gigantic galleys,
now obscure great Greek mathematicians,
the last still working Ancient lighthouse and
gears and how they were used by Archimedes and other ancients. This is not to denigrate other sections of the site, such as the page on the
Olympics (including a
Google Map of the site of the games), biographies of
ancient,
Byzantine and
modern Greeks, the
warring and
healing of the Byzantines or the overview of Greek literature, taking in
antiquity,
the medieval era and
modern times. That said, Hellenica is at its finest when treating science and technology.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 6:21 AM on July 18, 2008
(8 comments)
If the Tiber rises so high it floods the walls, or the Nile so low it doesn't flood the fields, if the earth opens, or the heavens don't, if there is famine, if there is plague, instantly the howl goes up, "The Christians to the lion!" What, all of them? To a single lion? So wrote
Tertullian. In the huge intellectual project that was the foundation of the Christian Church he was the great wit, most powerful rhetor and finest writer. Starting out as a pagan delighting in adultery and gladiator combat he became a great champion of martyrdom, defender of Christianity against its malefactors and heretics. His most famous contribution to our culture is undoubtedly the doctrine of the trinity. Towards the end of his life he threw his lot with a small group of hardcore ascetics called
Montanists and was denounced as a heretic. Ending his life among the defeated of ecclesiastical history he was forgotten for a millennium until
rediscovered during the Renaissance.
The Tertullian Project collects all his extant writing and information about his lost texts as well as biographical information,
selected quotations and much more.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 9:58 PM on July 15, 2008
(15 comments)
Back in the late 90s, I think in the winter of 1997-8, I saw a stand-up comedian on Conan O'Brien that blew me away but I've never been able to track him down since. I think his name was David Jerusalem. He made jokes about the Olympics and having been a heroin addict. He didn't perform in front of a mic but was interviewed by Conan. I've been trying to find information about this guy for years without success, does my description ring any bells for you?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kattullus
at 7:57 AM on July 15, 2008
(20 comments)
In Parentheses
is a collection of many ancient, medieval and classic texts from all over the world, many of whom are hard to find anywhere, let alone on the internet. There are translations from
Greek,
Old Norse,
Medieval Irish,
Japanese,
Incan,
Old French,
Medieval Latin and many more! As well as all that they have
papers in medieval studies and
vaguely decadent and
orientalism series. Adding to that there's a
linguistics section with wordlists and language flash cards in languages such as
Icelandic,
Quechua,
Basque,
Classical Armenian and a whole bunch more.
[flashcard links go to pdf files]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 12:19 PM on July 10, 2008
(18 comments)
Are there any good English-language sources on dissent in World War II era Japan?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kattullus
at 11:10 AM on July 3, 2008
(7 comments)
Rare Kishore Kumar Songs
is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood
playback singer and comic actor
Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 8:07 PM on June 16, 2008
(9 comments)
The horrifying crimes of Joseph Fritzl shocked Austria and the world. Recently two essays explored Austrian literature in an attempt to understand what cultural conditions could foster such monstrosity. Nicholas Spice, in
Up from the Cellar, explores the work of Nobel Prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek and her dissection of male violence. Ritchie Robertson searches for antecedents in
Josef Fritzl's fictive forebears.
[via The New Yorker's Book Bench]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 10:29 AM on June 8, 2008
(63 comments)
For Those Who Tried To Rock is a blog about the bands that never went anywhere, for example.
Urbicide,
The Tribulations and
Only One. The band photos are usually accompanied by mp3s and short testimonies, such as this one about
Soft Option: "Flock of Seagulls owned Liverpool when we came together but we were really Depeche Mode fans. Trouble was, we only had one Synth – the Roland pictured above – so on the more complicated songs we covered like Everything Counts (see cassette below) I had to play parts on a Melodica – the small keyboard you blow into. It was my Mother's idea. We went to an all boys school, so the gigs were boys only, which meant we did not get laid but the nights we played were some of the greatest of my adolescence."
[via Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 1:49 PM on June 5, 2008
(50 comments)
The continuity I have in mind has to do with the nature of information itself or, to put it differently, the inherent instability of texts. In place of the long-term view of technological transformations, which underlies the common notion that we have just entered a new era, the information age, I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable. Let's begin with the Internet and work backward in time.
The Library in the New Age by Robert Darnton, historian and Director of the Harvard Library. A wide-ranging overview of the status of libraries in the modern world, touching on such subjects as: journalist poker games, French people liking the smell of books, bibliography at Google, news dissemination in the 18th Century, book piracy and the different texts of Shakespeare. Some responses:
Defending the Library of Google,
The Future in the Past and
Librarians Need a Better Apologetic.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 9:12 PM on June 1, 2008
(22 comments)
How do I get personal information from banks and utility companies? For immigration purposes I need to gain access to utility bills from old addresses and bank loans I co-signed. How do I get utility companies and banks to give this information to me in a prompt and timely fashion?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kattullus
at 2:35 PM on May 20, 2008
(2 comments)
Chinese Poems
is a simple, no frills site with over 200 classical Chinese poems, mostly from the Tang period. The poems are presented in traditional and simplified chinese characters, pinyin and English translation, both literal and literary. Here's Du Mu's
Drinking Alone:
Outside the window, wind and snow blow straight,
I clutch the stove and open a flask of wine.
Just like a fishing boat in the rain,
Sail down, asleep on the autumn river.
Among other poets featured are
Li Bai (a.k.a. Li Po),
Du Fu and
Wang Wei. As a bonus, here's the entire text of Ezra Pound's
Cathay, most of whom are from Li Bai originals.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 9:16 AM on May 19, 2008
(15 comments)
Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy
from the collection of The Library of Congress. 373 individual pieces from ranging in time from the 9th to the 19th Century, all explained and some translated. A few personal favorites (note that very high quality scans can be viewed by clicking the appropriate link after clicking thumbnail):
marriage decree,
verses on tragic love,
practice sheet,
verses 10-11 of the 48th chapter of the Qur'an,
poetic verses offering advice,
frontispiece of Qur'anic exegesis and
quatrain by Rumi. There are also four special presentations:
Calligraphers of the Persian Tradition,
Ottoman Calligraphers and Their Works,
Qur’anic Fragments and
Noteworthy Items. This last presentation also features representational art, for instance images of
The battle of Mazandaran and
the Persian king Bahram Gur hunting.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 5:21 PM on May 12, 2008
(11 comments)
"With most animals, males duke it out and the winner gets the girls," says Holekamp. "But with hyenas, females have 100 percent say." They decide when and under what conditions they will tolerate deferential sperm donors. At age 2 or 3 a male leaves his natal clan and wanders off to beg acceptance into another clan. After vicious rejections, he eventually succeeds and reaps his reward: brutal harassment as the clan's nadir, one of the last in line for food and sex. This probation, which biologists call "endurance rivalry," is a test, Holekamp explains: "The guy who can stick it out the longest wins." The trial lasts about two years, after which some females may grant him access. "You do not want to be a male hyena," Holekamp says.
-From an article in Smithsonian Magazine,
Who's Laughing Now? Professor Holekamp's
hyena site. Also,
hyena pictures and
The Hyena Pages, a fine site about this fascinating animal.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 8:28 PM on May 7, 2008
(32 comments)
In this way, Lu Yang became one of the "RMB gamers" she disdains. More than 10,000 RMB was quickly and nearly imperceptibly spent. In the game, the "queen" possessed fearsome power. She carried out vengeance for herself and her friends, she accepted entreaties, and she protected the caravans of the kingdom. At the same time, she went out with the heroes to invade other kingdoms. Her reputation spread far and wide. [...] "Long live the Queen!" People bowed to her in submission. That was the high point for Lu Yang on ZT Online, and for that one fleeting moment, she felt that the time and money she had spent was worth it.
The System is a translated Chinese article examining ZT Online, an MMORPG that has taken fleecing gamers to a new level.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 7:40 PM on May 6, 2008
(34 comments)
Honoré Daumier
is one of the great French artists of the 19th Century, beloved of no less an aesthetic judge than Baudelaire. Most famous as a lithographer and caricaturist, over 5000 of his lithographs and engravings can be seen, in high resolution, at
The Daumier Register. One of the best places to start are the many
online exhibits of his work.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 1:13 PM on May 1, 2008
(9 comments)
Tohoku University's Kano Collection
is an unparalleled collection of japanese books from the Edo period. The beautiful and grizzly
Kaibou zonshinzu anatomical chart has been
making the blogrounds lately but that's only one of the countless treasures the Kano Collection has to offer. Stumbling around near-blindly, like a non-Japanese reader such as myself, with only minimal help from the site, I have come across an amazing variety of beautiful objects, such as
this picture book,
a scroll with images of animals,
city map,
map of Japan,
battle map,
another picture book,
the Kaitai shouzu anatomical chart and
this picture scroll which has
my favorite little scene I've come across in the collection. Whole days could be spent just surfing idly through the Kano Collection.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 4:06 AM on April 28, 2008
(9 comments)
Silver Bookmarks
is a collection of images of over 1000 antique silver bookmarks. They can be browsed by category (e.g.
shape,
origin,
style) all of which are divided into myriad sub-categories (e.g.
Art Deco,
cat,
Shakespeare,
Iceland,
Tunbridgeware,
knife).
Stevengraphs has pictures of the famed bookmarks made by the firm of silk weaver Thomas Stevens as well as other products. Among my favorite Stevengraphs are
Ye Faire Ladie Godiva and Peeping Tom,
The Apostle of Free Trade, John Bright, MP,
Assassinated at Washington 14 April 1865 - The Late Lamented Lincoln,
Speed Well Remember Me and for cheap laughs there is the glorious duo of
Ride the Cock Horse and
I Love Little Pussy.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 10:01 AM on April 25, 2008
(2 comments)
Awaiting autopsy, the newly deceased lies supine, naked, on a metal table. The head is positioned as if the closed eyes were looking straight up. The arms are at the side. The knees and elbows are straight. The ankles are bent forward, not to the side, at an angle of about 45 degrees. I have seen the bodies this way of persons I had known, persons I had spoken with the previous day. And sometimes a live patient, consulting me for a physical examination, will lie the same way on the examination table, naked, looking up, arms at his side; and my thoughts turn to the autopsy suite. I wonder if I will someday see him too lying this way, recently cold, and I wonder about the complicated awful predicament of the physician.
Short essays by Charles Bardes, M.D. on the practice of medicine.
An appreciation of Charles Bardes by Sven Birkerts.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 7:29 AM on April 24, 2008
(15 comments)
When I was younger I was told that Kraftwerk's Man-Machine/Mensch-Maschine album had a French-language version (L'homme-machine, presumably) that was never released. Does anyone know whether this is true or not?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kattullus
at 6:28 PM on April 19, 2008
(4 comments)
Labour, which had started the disasters of Cyprus by denying it any decolonisation after 1945, had now completed them, abandoning it to trucidation [by doing nothing when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974]. London was quite prepared to yield Cyprus to Greece in 1915, in exchange for Greek entry into the war on its side. Had it done so, all subsequent suffering might have been avoided. It is enough to compare the fate of Rhodes, still closer to Turkey and with a comparable Turkish minority, which in 1945 peacefully reverted to Greece, because it was an Italian not a British colony. In the modern history of the Empire, the peculiar malignity of the British record in Cyprus stands apart.
The Divisions of Cyprus, an article in The London Review of Books by historian Perry Anderson, is an excellent history of Cyprus from 1878 to the modern day as well as a polemic against the way that outside powers have treated the island.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 11:59 AM on April 17, 2008
(17 comments)
Duke University has three image collections of old U.S. and Canadian advertisements.
Ad*Access a database of over 7000 print ads from 1911 to 1956.
Emergence of Advertising in America has 9000 images of ads from 1850-1920.
Medicine and Madison Avenue has 600 medical ads and documents from 1911 to 1958. You can browse the collections by product, company, subject, year and categories or you can use the search function. Here are some of my favorites:
Miss Clairol,
They're Both in the Swim Today,
Fancy Goods and Toy Bazaar,
Sky Blue Pink,
SAS Makes Airline History,
A Montgomery Ward Hat that Becomes Nearly Every Woman,
Radiant Peony and
Hitler's Death Warrant.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus
at 7:57 PM on April 14, 2008
(11 comments)
