| NASA's Visible Earth NASA redefines the phrase "global perspective" with hundreds of high-resolution snapshots taken from orbiting satellites. This "searchable directory of images, visualizations, and animations" is filled with beautiful and sobering images: oil spills in the Galapagos, smoggy haze over Eastern China, dust over the Red Sea, sea ice in Antarctica. Don't miss the Earth's city lights at night, which has been making the screen background rounds. We suggest you start at the browse page. |
| Follow The Sun: Australian Travel Posters 1930s-1950s When did mass market advertising lose its style? Sometime after the mid-1950s, judging from these luminous travel posters commissioned for the Australian National Travel Association. Enjoy this beautiful collection of illustrated posters highlighting Down Under's "golden beaches, exotic wildlife, healthy bodies, and beautiful scenery." Head to Perth in Western Australia for sunshine and surf, summit the glorious Mount Gambier in the South, amble along Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, or take the ferry to Tasmania: The Angler's Paradise!. Critically minded folks will appreciate the trenchant analysis of pictorial styles in the posters. |
| Albumen Albumen was a breakthrough mid-19th century photography technology. It's a process that begins with the actual breaking of eggs and the preparation of albumenized paper. The technique offered fine image resolution, extended tonal range, and was widely adapted for single prints and for reproducing illustrations. At this extensive archive, we learned about the science and technique of albumen printing and about modern efforts to conserve and restore albumen images. However, we spent most of our time looking at the pictures: hand-colored and ivory-toned images from Meiji Japan, Julia Margaret Cameron's portraits of eminent Victorians, and Atget's archetypal Parisian scenes. |
| Government's 50 Greatest Endeavors The Brookings Institution, a D.C.-based think tank, ranks the last 50 years of U.S. federal government endeavors by evaluating how government time and tax-payer money has been prioritized since the end of World War II. Over 400 historians and political scientists ranked governmental successes and failures in a variety of public arenas. The top-10 list of greatest achievements is a fascinating subset of the 50 endeavors; it includes rebuilding Europe after the war, expanding the right to vote, reducing disease, and improving quality of life for elderly Americans. Bonus activities: take the survey yourself, or consider the ranking scores in relation to the respondents' demographics. |
| Folk Art in Bottles Here's an enthusiast's introduction to the intricate, obsessive world of "whimsey" or puzzle bottles, a folk-art form that dates back to the 18th century. Although the ship-in-a-bottle is the best known example of this miniature genre, "crosses and crucifixions, fans, chairs, spinning wheels, wishing wells, photographs, buildings, tools, saloon scenes, fanciful bird trees and complicated interlocking puzzles" have all been mysteriously contained in narrow-necked glass containers. Make sure to read about Carl Worner, a rambling man who specialized in amazing bottled saloon and bakery scenes from the turn of the century. |
| Screenshots Digital artist Jon Haddock presents this disturbing and fascinating exhibit of "drawings from an isometric perspective, in the style of a computer game." The subject of each drawing is the image, or images, that created a popular cultural event. Historical events (like the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel) are used interchangeably with fictionalized events (like the picnic scene from The Sound of Music)." Please be warned: several of these images depict violent content. |
| Albert Speer: Architect of the 20th Century This site focuses on the career of a brilliant architect whose place in history is marred by his affiliation with the Nazi party. Taking a non-judgmental view of Albert Speer, the site's author pays homage to the grand offices, stadiums, palaces, and new cities that were built in Germany during the 1930s and '40s under the auspices of the Third Reich. The site features sound files of Speer's speeches, photo galleries showing Speer with family and Führer, and images of his projects. |
| Not My Desk Help celebrate Not My Desk's one-year anniversary with a visit to Christopher Livingston's shrine to the temp life. Featured highlights include a celebrity interview with ex-Mystery Science Theater performer (and former temp) Mary Jo Pehl, a vitriolic review of the Timothy Hutton non-thriller The Temp, a guide to suggested temp reading material ("stick to Grisham, A.A. Milne, or something written by a Spice Girl"), and an exegesis on Donkey Kong. Clockwatchers will also take solace in learning that famous temps through time include Christopher Columbus, Rosa Parks, and Albert Einstein. |
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