Friday Links!
If you're unlucky enough to be at work today (in the U.S., anyway, since it's July the Fourth), stick it to the man by spending your morning with the Friday links.I heard this on NPR last week, and it's a protest song from the 1960s by Phil Ochs called Here's To The State Of Mississippi. It's an incredibly powerful song, and tremendously emotional as well. Please be warned that some of the images accompanying this song are very painful to view, but there are uplifting images as well.
Here's a remarkable find. The lost reels of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's futuristic 1920s masterpiece, have been discovered in an Argentinian museum. Incredibly, after eighty years, the film will once again be viewable in its original version. Restoration is expected to take several years.
From John D'Angelo, a link to GLaGPS: Genetic Lifeform and Global Positioning System. That's right--it's a voice for your GPS that sounds very much like GLaDOS in Portal. Outstanding!
In the past, I've mentioned post-WWI era Germany and Yugoslavia (1994) as having the two highest inflation rates in history. Well, we might be able to add Zimbabwe to that list soon. The annual inflation rate is somewhere between eight million and thirty-two million percent (depending on which expert you believe). Stunning numbers, and a Newsweek article explores what's going on.
George Paci sent in an epic link to a nineteenth century barometer--that used leeches.
From the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a link to Oops! Weirdest Accidents.
Here's an article titled How The Pharaohs Were Fed, and it highlights the findings of the Tell Edfu archaelogical dig. Here's an excerpt:
Moeller and her colleagues excavated what amounted to the downtown area in a provincial capital, south of ancient Thebes (modern-day Luxor). Thebes is hundreds of miles upstream on the Nile from the Great Pyramids - but for long stretches of Egypt's history, the city served as a pharaonic capital.
Among the most intriguing structures excavated so far are seven grain bins dating back to the 17th Dynasty (1630-1520 B.C.). Because grain served as a form of currency, this wasn't merely a granary - it was also the ancient equivalent of a bank, essentially managing tax collections for the provincial governor and the pharaoh.
From Sirius, a link to 10 Things You Didn't Know About Birds, based on the results of a five-year analysis of genetic data. Also from Sirius, a link to a story about what a CT scan of a Stradivarius revealed.
DQ reader Howie Shack is now writing for Rotohog, and his latest article is a list of the top ten greatest name changes for professional athletes.
From Chris Miller, a link to images of the work of micro-sculptor Willard Wigan. I've linked to articles about Wigan before, but these are the best pictures I've ever seen of his work.
<< Home