Monday, April 29, 2019

Happy Monday!

If you want to see giant statues, India is building lots of them. (I have yet to see anything like Argonath, however.)

This article on how nightclub culture influences the general population has about a dozen great links in it, so if you want to spend some time diving down that rabbit hole, I recommend it.

Meow Wolf is an immersive art…thingy. I think it has to be experienced, not described, most likely.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Happy Friday!

From Tedium: The joy of baseball, statistics, and doing the impossible. 

Via Now I Know: Did you know Amazon has its own mascot? Meet Peccy! 

From Zazoo: Behold, a Pete Burns prayer candle. (Also candles for nearly everyone else who’s anyone.)

From Cassandra: Is women’s sexuality really that complicated? 

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Bits and pieces today:

Nobody archived the early internet, which is something I’ve been banging on about for ages.

The Future of Storytelling is a pop-up immersive theater experience. I so wish I’d gotten to be part of Chained: A Victorian Nightmare!

Minor League Baseball is celebrating Latinx communities with Copa de la DiversiĆ³n, and one of the best parts is the team names and logos, with hats and t-shirts available. The Mal de Ojo de Durham! The Cucuys de San Bernadino! The Ardillas Voladoras de Richmond (with a masked flying squirrel)!

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Good news, fellow Americans! Our freedom of the press is sinking, and so is our life expectancy! Um, wait. (It's true, though. You can even determine your life expectancy by state. I'm living in the wrong place, apparently.)

Anyway. For the spooky, the Funeral Museum of Vienna is a lovely place to visit – even more so now that they have customized LEGO figures for sale in their gift shop! Hearses, ghosts, mourners, carriages…it’s all there.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Hello! Come with us as we quickly traipse through the past hundred years or so.

1900: Look at this gorgeous Art Deco calendar from Austria. I’m going to try to use it as a template for a birthday/event calendar.

World War I: Women went to work. Here are photos of British women doing pretty much anything and everything. 

The 1920s: Newsreels used their own created footage (the first fake news?) if they didn’t have actual footage of events.

The 2010s: Remember the Morbid Anatomy Museum? Good news, it’s (temporarily) back at Green-Wood Cemetery! There’s an exhibit which looks amazing this spring, and it starts this weekend with a spring garden party.

Monday, April 22, 2019

Happy Monday! And happy Earth Day. Google celebrates it with an information-rich doodle. 

Have you heard of Clara Rockmore? She was a child prodigy who later became a virtuoso theremin performer. Her story is fascinating. 

What would historical figures look like with modern hairstyles? There’s a Reddit for that! (Napoleon and Katherine of Aragon look surprisingly good in today’s styles.)

In 16th century Italy, nun choirs were the best in the land. (You had to really work to hear them, though.)

There’s a database of inks! I had no idea. Most of the details are hidden away, but there are some articles about the International Ink Library.

Friday, April 19, 2019

Happy (Good) Friday!

From Tedium: Hey, it’s Weird Paul! (We know Weird Paul, in that odd “we have corresponded online” sort of way, and he is super fun.)

From Cassandra: People with more intellectual humility have better general knowledge. 

Also from Cassandra: An episode of Cosmic Queries about the asymmetry of the periodic table! (Cassandra knows me well.)

Did you know there’s a Squirrel Photo Contest? Here are some of the finalists. 

A new project about Brooklyn’s queer history includes a walking tour! (Some NSFW historic photos at the end of this article, just FYI.)

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Today is all about the Mueller report, so here's a nice fun thing to distract you: Epidemic Tracking! Hahaha! (Oy.)

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Some scattered bits today:

 - Did you know they just made a movie about the Church of the Subgenius? (Note to Bunny: Craig Baldwin of Tribulation 99 is mentioned!)

- Atlas Obscura lists some local cryptids. My hometown Loveland Frog is on the list, and apparently it has somehow obtained a stick that creates sparks. This is news to me.

- Meanwhile, in Vancouver, college kids are living in empty mansions for super cheap. Living amidst the decline of an empire is weird.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

The Notre Dame cathedral fire is heartbreaking. Yes, it’s just a building. But it’s beautiful and historic, and any loss of historic beauty these days is especially sad. (Here is a photo of me up in the bell tower a zillion years ago.)

Monday, April 15, 2019

Happy Monday!

As 20th Century Fox closes down, here’s an oral history of what it was like to be on the set and part of the company through the years.

 Meanwhile, in the UK, Thomas Duke visits film scene locations and takes photos to show them in context.

What does it take to maintain and preserve the art in the Sistine Chapel? A lot of people, for starters.

Friday, April 12, 2019

Happy Friday!

Google is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement properly. I approve.

It’s time for the annual Carnegie Mellon Sweepstakes, which is a buggy race competition. They have to build their own buggy (more like a lightweight enclosed soapbox) and then race it through the streets. Anyway, it’s being livestreamed right now, and it’s hilarious.

From Julie: They've found a library catalogue from 500 years ago! Think of all the literature that’s been lost to the ages.

From Cassandra: The role of the Irish language in its relationship with England. (It’s…fraught, let’s say. The relationship, that is.)

Elsa Bleda’s Midnight Gothic Johannesburg photograph series is dark and lovely. Her Instagram is great, too!

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

It’s National Library Week – the 61st annual one, apparently – and here are some links from others to celebrate!

From Scot: Some fascinating(?) facts about libraries and librarians. 

From Nicole: Being a librarian was once considered dangerous for women. (I sort of want to revive that idea of a Seaside Rest Home for Broken Librarians. I think it could make a nice sabbatical retreat in these modern times!)

From Bill Lucey: Appreciate your local library - it does more than you might think!

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Today: Space! More specifically, black holes. We have an image of one for the first time, and it looks disturbingly like the Eye of Sauron. Maybe Tolkien was on to something. There are lots of cool stories and images at the linked sites.

Tuesday, April 09, 2019

Thanks to the always-amazing We Make Money, Not Art, I learned that the Center for Technological Pain is here to solve the problems of this modern age. Who among us does not need a Tranquility Cube? 

Also, from Beyond Victoriana: Check out the new issue of Neo-Victorian Studies! (And happy ten years of steampunk to Diana / Ay-leen!)

Monday, April 08, 2019

Happy Monday! It was difficult to get going this morning. So let’s look at toys and games, shall we? 

Found via Tedium’s chronicle of the history of the erector set (which takes some unexpected turns), the Toy Hall of Fame has everything from sticks to pinball machines. They also have a weblog – this post on jigsaw puzzles is great. (Cutouts? No picture to go by? Awesome!)

Related, and at the same place (Rochester’s The Strong), is the World Video Game Hall of Fame. 

And finally, a new robotic museum in Korea might be constructed by robots. Hopefully they will let humans visit, at least.

Friday, April 05, 2019

Friday!

AZ Central just published an incredibly detailed, extensive investigative report about how so many state laws are now dictated (almost verbatim) by corporations. It’s sort of terrifying. Highly recommended. (Also, the interactive graphics are amazing. This is what 21st century media can be like.)

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, here is what to make if you’re having a 1920s Italian Futurism party. (Hey, I don’t know your life. You might be planning just such a shindig.)

Psychiatric drugs can be literal life savers. But what happens if/when it’s time to stop taking them? The studies haven’t caught up with that just yet. This is long, but worth the read.

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you next week.

Thursday, April 04, 2019

Behold, the championship battle of March Mammal Madness!


 


Thanks for watching, everyone. We're now going to sleep for about a week. (But there will be some links tomorrow!)

Wednesday, April 03, 2019

Tonight we finish off March Mammal Madness! Huzzah!

In related conservation news (sort of), did you know there are dark sky sanctuaries? A new one has just been established in Nevada. 

If you ever wanted the ballroom table settings from the Haunted Mansion, good news! Here’s how you can recreate it on your own! 

These super interesting Irish surname maps shows where families were likely to be in 1901 and 1911. It’s also broken down by religion, what languages were spoken, and more!

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Watch as our crew reenact "Are You Afraid of The Dark" for March Mammal Madness's Final Roar! (This was fun.)


 

Monday, April 01, 2019

Happy Monday, Happy April, and Happy April Fools’ Day, although we really don’t need that sort of thing in these ridiculous times. That being said, ThinkGeek always has some great products on this day (check out the Banksy Burned Toast Toaster offer!) and Google lets you play Snake in several different cities. Sort of.

Also, today is a bonus Links from Others day! (March Mammal Madness ends this week; we will return to normal afterwards, we hope.)

From Satori: Thomas Dambo’s giant trolls are visiting Kentucky’s Bernheim Forest for a short while.

From Cassandra: How did flappers deal with menstruation? 

From a bunch of sources: The mystery of the Garfield phones washing up on Brittany shores has finally been solved. 

An article in the Paris Review talks about what we believe, and links to Philip Pullman’s essay on the same topic, encompassing magic, faith, and reason.