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3-D images have a longer history than you might imagine. Stereographs were invented in the mid-1800s, and quickly became very popular. You can still view 3-D pictures of the Civil War, cowboys and Native Americans, World War I, Egypt circa 1900, small town America of the 19th century, and zeppelin wrecks(!). How do you view them? You can buy or build a viewer (like this classic), but a better way might be to learn to do it with the naked eye (try this method if you have trouble). A new technique converts stereograms into "wiggle images" [prev.] the approach has been used on this picture of a downed zeppelin and this picture from the Civil War. Free software will let you make your own wiggle images.
comment posted at 1:13 PM on Apr-23-07

Sgt. Alvin C. York was the most decorated individual US Soldier in WWI. Subject of the top grossing movie of 1941, He was credited with capturing 138 German soldiers nearly single handedly by flanking a Machine gun nest, and killing its occupants. The Machine gun in question may be destroyed because the library that owns it does not have a proper license.
comment posted at 9:44 AM on Apr-23-07
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The gangsters that rule Hip Hop are the same gangsters that rule our nation. An open letter to Oprah Winfrey about misogyny and the gangsta chic in rap and hip hop, now under scrutiny in a post-Imus world. (via Poetry Foundation)
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Shift happens. Thought-provoking, powerpoint-ish, reference-free, Friday Fun.
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“We consider the 'primitive' music of blues singers such as Leadbelly to be more authentic than that of the Monkees. But all pop musicians are fakes . . . Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor . . . have turned out their personal record collections to produce a persuasive defence of inauthenticity as the defining characteristic of great popular music[.]” (via)
comment posted at 12:21 PM on Apr-20-07

Happy Birthday, Jack Chick! Belated Birthday Greetings! The undisputed king of kings of Christian Comic literature, the inventor of “Chick Tracts” -- Jack is 83 years young this year and still cranking out those little comics So where is the love?! Finally some films are being made of his work: "Titanic" “The Thief” "One Way" and "La Princesita" are but a few. The question remains -- Can any of these every surpass Jack’s own masterwork "The Light Of The World"
comment posted at 7:05 AM on Apr-20-07

Alan Rayner Making the case for Inclusionality.
comment posted at 12:07 PM on Apr-19-07

James D. Macdonald on why you should wear your seatbelt. Not for the squeamish. I haven't been to a rollover with unrestrained passengers and driver since ... Thursday. Public safety messages. Response to James Adams paper (PDF). Besides being an EMT, Macdonald is a SF/fantasy author (with his wife Debra Doyle); he's also the author of Red Mike's Reviews. Via Brad DeLong. Previously.
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Apr-17-07

I'm a modern man, I'm a modern man, A man for the millennium, Digital and smoke free. - George Carlin hits one out of the park with the first four and a half minutes of this hour and a half Google Video. Then it's back to his stock in trade.
comment posted at 2:49 PM on Apr-15-07

Drug-resistant TB strain raises ethical dilemma. A man in Arizona who has a virtually untreatable strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) has been locked up indefinitely because he failed to take precautions to avoid infecting others, even though he has not commited a crime. The new strain of TB is described as a nightmare by health officials, and though mainly found in Africa and Asia, it is slowly beginning to spread in the U.S. [Via Technoccult.]
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Apr-5-07
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What they didn't teach us in library school. An article written by a former public librarian in Salt Lake City, concerning the dilemmas of dealing with the homeless. [via alternet]
comment posted at 11:01 AM on Apr-3-07

A British research team led by the world's leading heart surgeon has grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time.
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comment posted at 12:48 PM on Apr-3-07

The most effective Surreality is that which is entirely Unintentional (15-minute Google video). A delightful balance between amusing & disturbing. Harvested from Doctor Macro's MGM Shorts page. Previously.
comment posted at 4:54 PM on Apr-1-07

Cockeyed Absurdist - jonmc's 300 most favorite songs and why, including Iron Maiden, The Exciters, Neil Young (as a greaser), Captain Beefheart, Hanson, and of course, The Dictators.
comment posted at 9:41 AM on Mar-23-07

Chinese Christians in House Churches throughout the country have heard "a call from God for the Chinese Church to preach the Gospel and establish fellowships of believers in all the countries, cities, towns, and ethnic groups between China and Jerusalem. This vision is no small task, for within those nations lay the three largest spiritual strongholds in the world today that have yet to be conquered by the Gospel: the giants of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism." They call this movement Back to Jerusalem.
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comment posted at 12:59 PM on Mar-20-07

The Cuyahoga County Courthouse is a magnificent building. [via]
comment posted at 8:52 AM on Mar-18-07
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comment posted at 9:16 AM on Mar-18-07

Sad Sack George Baker's subtly subversive WWII strip.
comment posted at 9:23 AM on Mar-15-07

...Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from northern Europe and drove the Celts to the country’s western and northern fringes. But geneticists who have tested DNA throughout the British Isles are edging toward a different conclusion. Many are struck by the overall genetic similarities, leading some to claim that both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one.

A United Kingdom? Maybe
See also Myths of British ancestry
In the words of one well known Basque cultural icon: HA Ha!
comment posted at 6:36 AM on Mar-10-07

What is Philadelphia's trajectory in 2007? Seven cities are compared: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
comment posted at 2:48 PM on Mar-5-07

"We asked 100 writers and thinkers to answer the following question: Left and right defined the 20th century. What's next? The pessimism of their responses is striking: almost nobody expects the world to get better in the coming decades, and many think it will get worse." From Prospect Magazine.
comment posted at 3:36 PM on Mar-4-07
comment posted at 4:13 PM on Mar-4-07

It begins in the paraventricular nucleus. It has been observed in the womb. Muslims believe it's an indication of Satanic possession. Too much of it might be a bad thing. Pandiculation sometimes occurs. In terminal rabies cases and in five percent of Clomipramine users it leads to spontaneous orgasm. Previous wisdom held it was caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood and mirror neurons make it contagious. And yet still nobody knows precisely why it happens.
comment posted at 2:04 PM on Mar-2-07

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, featuring "the largest collection of Holmesian graphics online", a Scholars' Wing featuring essays and articles, pastiche and parodies. Arthur Conan Doyle's champion of logic and reason is the antithesis of the author's spiritualist beliefs. In his will (5.B), Doyle left sums of money to the Spiritualist Alliance of London and the Psychic College stating "...these institutions represent the most important religious movement that this world now holds". His belief in the occult and in particular fairies is surprising, yet somewhat understandable considering the era in which he lived.
comment posted at 9:18 AM on Feb-27-07

Would you like to listen to some bad music? You know, just in case your good music gets boring. Opinions will vary of course. I kind of like the Temple City Kazoostra's version of Also sprach Zarathustra. The Museum of Bad Album Covers on the same site was discussed previously.
comment posted at 11:22 AM on Feb-26-07

Late Night with Conan O'Brien Bumper Art Site, mostly from HD TV screencaps. [Personal faves: 1, 2, 3.]
comment posted at 9:26 AM on Feb-22-07

Ron Paul Says it Best pithy and to the point
comment posted at 11:32 AM on Feb-14-07

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has endorsed the recent IPCC report, reversing the White House stance on the existence of global warming. Bodman claims that the Bush administration has always accepted scientific studies pointing to man-made climate change, even as Henry Waxman, House oversight committee chair, has been holding hearings on the White House's misleading the public on global warming for the last six years; hearing documents. Bodman also rejects caps on CO2 emissions, claiming that the US is "a small contributor when you look at the rest of the world," when in fact it's the largest contributor worldwide (and has an even greater share of cumulative CO2 emissions). Previously: IPCC, Waxman.
comment posted at 12:54 PM on Feb-6-07

The Black Youth Project, "will examine the attitudes, resources, and culture of African American youth ages 15 to 25, exploring how these factors and others influence their decision-making, norms, and behavior in critical domains such as sex, health, and politics." The project is run by University of Chicago professor Cathy J. Cohen. The sitemap may help you get a handle on what is a tremendous amount of information. Or you could read the press release for a succint summary and links to mentions in the media.
comment posted at 12:18 PM on Feb-5-07
comment posted at 12:48 PM on Feb-5-07

Heart attacks, not overdoses, number one cause of musicians' early demise. An almost-thorough list of dead rock stars, but there are some "cause" blanks that need filling in.
comment posted at 8:56 AM on Jan-25-07

As radicals of the 60s tried to find their place in the aftermath of Vietnam, former members of the Weather Underground, and former Black Panthers who were still dedicated to militant action were, in part due to COINTELPRO, increasingly marginal. Some joined the Black Liberation Army or other radical cells. In New York, a few activists who had recently spearheaded the use of accupuncture to treat drug addiction set out to fund an independent nation of New Afrika (although the money may have been feeding the leaderships' growing drug addictions). The Brinks truck robbery ended terribly. 3 men were killed. A number of the actors are still in prison (including Tupac's step-father). Some are gone. The child of two of the players was left without his parents to raise him. In retrospect, their tactics were questionable at best. But those who are concerned with making real change in the world can at least try to learn from the past.
comment posted at 1:15 PM on Jan-24-07

Some like him, some don't. Regardless, today marks the 200th birthday of Robert E. Lee. Check out his first home, his most famous home, and not so famous home. Read his letters, including his thoughts on surrender, as well his first major biography, and last, naturally, his obituary from the New York Times. Oh, you can also get married by his entombed remains.
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Jan-19-07

The Morphable Face Model "captures the variations of 3D shape and texture that occur among human faces. It represents each face by a set of model coefficients, and generates new, natural-looking faces from any novel set of coefficients, which is useful in a wide range of applications in computer vision and computer graphics." Amazing/terrifying tech from Herr Prof. Dr. Volker Blanz.
comment posted at 11:33 AM on Jan-15-07

Lance speaks out on cancer: one of cycling's all-time greats and possibly the world's best known cancer survivor, founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation with the goal of inspiring and empowering people with cancer. He now campaigns for more government funds for cancer research and treatment. {commentary on CNN}
comment posted at 1:02 PM on Jan-10-07

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
comment posted at 12:04 PM on Jan-9-07

The Loganberry Book Store is the place to go if you have a favorite book from childhood and remember the characters, setting, plot and everything but the title? Well your problems are solved. Check out Loganberry Books' stump the bookseller section. They help me track down one of my all time favorites - My Very Own Special Particular Private and Personal Cat by Remy Charlip. It's like a trip to the nostalgia library.
comment posted at 11:42 AM on Jan-5-07

Fairfax County Public Library system ditches the classics. If titles remain untouched for two years, they may be discarded--permanently. "We're being very ruthless," boasts library director Sam Clay.... Books by Charlotte Brontë, William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust and Alexander Solzhenitsyn have recently been pulled.
comment posted at 12:26 PM on Jan-4-07

...He expressed regret that he had said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus and enclosed a gift for the Oral Roberts University. After quoting the line "money can't buy me love" from "Can't Buy Me Love" he said, "It's true. The point is this, I want happiness. I don't want to keep on with drugs. Paul told me once, 'You made fun of me for taking drugs, but you will regret it in the end.' Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phoney? Can He love me? I want out of hell."

John Lennon's Born-Again Phase
comment posted at 11:32 AM on Jan-4-07