January 3, 2011

Historic New York Photo Collection

"The Museum of the City of New York is pleased to announce the soft launch of its online collections portal [where you can] view more than 50,000 newly digitized photographs by Berenice Abbott, Samuel H. Gottscho, Jacob A. Riis, the Byron Company, the Wurts Brothers, and many others."
posted by peacay at 11:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Hillbilly idols

Winter's Bone director Debra Granik offers her 45+ minute documentary, Hillbilly Up!, as a free exclusive iTunes download. The film features several of the local musicians and actors from the film discussing Ozarks culture and history.
posted by dobbs at 9:25 PM PST - 17 comments

Kowloon Walled City

This is an illustrated cross-section of Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 8:51 PM PST - 32 comments

Dewey's decimals keep me company

Library Girl by ReinaDelCid
posted by Toekneesan at 6:14 PM PST - 43 comments

Canine CODIS

Poo Prints: DNA Profiling for Pets; "... designed to help communities enforce their pooper scooper rules and give the pet owner tools that help them build a better relationship with their dog." [more inside]
posted by bwg at 5:22 PM PST - 73 comments

Five Cent Seurats

Four Color Process is a blog which reposts magnified details from old comic book panels. The images become semi-abstract and very striking (and surprisingly non-Lichtensteinian). Some favorites: Ruined City, Steranko's Strange Tales, Ghouls, Swirl Lamp, Kirby's Silver Surfer, Romance, Novelty Magic, Ditko's Dr. Strange, Man at Conference Table, Homo Comicus, Easy to Do and finally a comparison of contemporary printing with the old four color process. [via The Front Section]
posted by Kattullus at 5:13 PM PST - 21 comments

Mack Truck of Love

Let's talk parenting taboos (SLTedTalk) [more inside]
posted by joannemerriam at 5:12 PM PST - 89 comments

((( Groovy )))

Stacked vintage LP stereo banners. [more inside]
posted by gman at 4:11 PM PST - 39 comments

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

"I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete. Indeed, you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen." The lightsaber prop to own all lightsaber props, complete with crystal chamber and a blade bright enough to blind with the lights switched on. TL;DR? YouTube vids - with the blade attached; the crystal chamber. [via Geekdad, via Make]
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:59 PM PST - 42 comments

Ironic Sans: BUILD MONOLITHS ON THE MOON

The goal: Erect a monolith on the moon.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 2:50 PM PST - 72 comments

"An Illusional Intermission Between Invasion and Insurgency"

The Toppling: How the Media Inflated the Fall of Saddam’s Statue in Firdos Square.
A joint publication of ProPublica and New Yorker. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 1:52 PM PST - 46 comments

Women in War: Female Engagement Teams in Afghanistan

Since the spring of 2010, all-volunteer units called Female Engagement Teams have been doing what male soldiers can't: speak with women and children in rural Afghani communities, both to gain information and to foster trust. These soldiers may carry M4 rifles, but their toolkit includes sidewalk chalk and jump ropes, too. The FETs, trained for this specific mission grew out of more ad hoc programs like the Lioness program for traffic checkpoints in Iraq. "The FET mission to me is so critical that if I had to exchange blood for it, I would," said Sgt. 1st Class Sawyer Alberi, an FET team leader for the National Guard. "The FET mission is nested very closely in the COIN mission, and unless you do it, you're not doing the whole COIN mission." First Lieutenant Quincy Washa, platoon commander for the Female Engagement Team with Regimental Combat Team 1, describes the teams' role. Despite the apparent importance of the FETs' work, the program is still an experiment; it is unclear whether it will continue after the current teams' deployment.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:49 PM PST - 21 comments

felt cats

heartfelt felt cats. pregnancy (incl. sonography). newborn & begin of life cycle.
posted by megob at 1:21 PM PST - 12 comments

Decemberists gonna December

Go listen to the new Decemberists album, The King Is Dead.
posted by boo_radley at 1:15 PM PST - 107 comments

An identity so appealing, someone should launch a meat market just to adopt it

Why does Futura work here but Slanted Futura doesn't? Enter FONTS IN USE: A breakdown, explanation and appreciation of type design out in the real world.
posted by The Whelk at 12:58 PM PST - 17 comments

Goodbye, RSS button in the location bar of Firefox

Do you use RSS? Not many do, apparently. Goodbye, then, RSS button in the location bar of Firefox 4 (Bugzilla entry). “RSS is dying,” a blog hyperbolizes in response, with retort from Asa Dotzler of Mozilla, who states the functionality is being moved to a menu item.
posted by joeclark at 12:38 PM PST - 98 comments

Detroit, post-apocalypse.

Detroit, after the fall. Devastating photos by two young French photographers.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:24 PM PST - 69 comments

XO Movie Night

In 2006-2007, while Capt. Owen Honors was second-in-command of the USS Enterprise, the ship-wide closed circuit television was often used to broadcast videos to entertain the crew of around 6000. Not all of those videos were big budget movies. In fact, some of them were made by Honors himself, and depict simulated masturbation, female crewmembers showering together, and feature large amounts of sexual innuendo and homosexual slurs. (edited video included in link, maybe NSFW) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 11:14 AM PST - 74 comments

Violens' (NSFW) funny and strange promotional shorts

Slapstick eroto-psychodelia-(NSFW) Violens is made up of former members of the now defunct Lansing-Dreiden, a band responsible for beautiful, confoundingly strange, sublime, and rocking art and music. [more inside]
posted by Enigmark at 11:11 AM PST - 3 comments

Heart attacks from fireworks? Really?

First birds, then fish. between 4000-5000 blackbirds and an estimated 80-100,000 drum fish have turned up dead over the space of a few days around Beebe, Arkansas. [more inside]
posted by FatherDagon at 10:30 AM PST - 68 comments

Women Laughing Alone With Salad

Women Laughing Alone With Salad. [more inside]
posted by hermitosis at 10:27 AM PST - 86 comments

Hyperpype -- a flash game

HYPERPYPE -- a strangely addictive flash game. It's easy to fill most of the pipes, but it's very hard to get them all.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:00 AM PST - 36 comments

Make some music!

Bram Bos, maker of easy-to-use programs for making electronic music, has released all his old software for free download. Get some free VST instruments and samples from KVR Audio and make some music, or at least download Hammerhead and make some beats!
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:33 AM PST - 24 comments

Best Efforts

Sonicsgate, the movie: How Seattle Lost A 40 Year Old Basketball Team. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:00 AM PST - 56 comments

100 quirky things we didn't know last year

100 quirky things we didn't know last year, such as that pea plants can grow inside a human lung, mafia members unwisely use Facebook and swans occasionally get divorced.
posted by philipy at 8:52 AM PST - 38 comments

Salman Rushdie, in defence of video games

Salman Rushdie, in defence of video games
posted by nam3d at 6:34 AM PST - 96 comments

Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness

Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness. The DSM-V and its critics. (DSM-V previously)
posted by OmieWise at 5:40 AM PST - 99 comments

Unlocking money in pre-IPO companies

Employed by a startup? Working long hours for little pay but lots of stock options? When your company goes public you can finally realise the value of your options but what if the IPO is delayed or never happens? [more inside]
posted by Mutant at 4:36 AM PST - 33 comments

They came unto a land, in which it seemed always afternoon.

British actor Pete Postlethwaite has died at the age of 64, after a lengthy battle with cancer. A renowned veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company (he held the leading roles in both The Tempest and 2009's King Lear among others), Postlethwaite is perhaps best known worldwide for his roles in The Usual Suspects (trailer), The Constant Gardener and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg supposedly described him as "the best actor in the world", although Postlethwaite himself often denied this.
posted by fight or flight at 2:57 AM PST - 136 comments

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