A visual history of Apple ads

Dozens more here.

How Hubble's beautiful images are "made".

This video takes you through the process of turning three different black and white images into one complete, beautiful photo of a spiral galaxy.

A Reading Nook

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

"A Study in Scarlet" banned in a Virginia school

 

From a report in Charlottesville's The Daily Progress:

The Albemarle County School Board voted Thursday night to remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet” from sixth-grade reading lists. A parent of a Henley Middle School student originally challenged the book in May on the grounds that it is derogatory toward Mormons...

The board based its decision on the recommendation of a committee commissioned to study the Victorian work. In its report, the committee concluded that the book was not age-appropriate for sixth-graders...

“‘A Study in Scarlet’ has been used to introduce students to the mystery genre and into the character of Sherlock Holmes. This is our young students’ first inaccurate introduction to an American religion,” Stevenson told the board.Stevenson suggested replacing the book with Doyle’s fifth novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles, which, she said, is a better introduction to mystery.

A Study in Scarlet was the original Sherlock Holmes novel; it features the meeting of Holmes and Watson.  This is not the first time the book has been controversial:

According to a 1994 Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organization as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest". However, Conan Doyle's daughter has stated: "You know, father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons". Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, claimed that Conan Doyle had privately apologized, saying that "He [Conan Doyle] said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church".

From the StarTribune. Via TYWKIWDBI.

The Internet in 1995 on MTV News

How pencils are made (video)

British Library launches eBook Treasures

The British Library has launched a ground-breaking ‘eBook Treasures’ series which allows iPad users to download entire rare manuscripts. Starting with Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Arundel (1478-1518) and Geradus Mercator’s Atlas of Europe (1570s) users can now hold rare, unique and original manuscripts in their hands and explore them in depth and spectacular high-definition.

Photoshop blocks editing images of cash. Who knew?

Photoshop has built-in mechanisms that prevent you from editing photos of banknotes! I had no idea, but ran into this message:

while trying to manipulate this image (for an advert):

Amazon and WalMart offer web apps for books and movies

In response to Apple's requirement for a 30 percent cut of revenues resulting from sales within an app offered by the Apple app store, both Amazon and WalMart (vudu.com) have launched "cloud" web-based applications that bypass that fee, and they are not alone.

More at PC World.

Readable college textbooks on Facebook

Kno has announced plans to allow those who buy textbooks from them to read the texts not just on their existing iPad app but now on Facebook and via the Web. While the Facebook app does lack some features of the iPad version - like the ability to annotate, develop quizzes, etc. - the company promises that is coming to Facebook soon.

The Best Book Sharing Sign, Ever

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

U.S. expansion visualized as post office openings

Derek Watkins has built a neat animation that shows how formal US territorial control expanded in North America from 1700 to 1900, as seen through changes in the spatial distribution of post offices:


Via Boing Boing.

Gravity Glue: An amazing artist using stacked rocks

Large gallery here. Via Boing Boing.

30 very funny books.

Gina Barreca, Ph.D., is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin's Press), and has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, Joy Behar, Dr. Phil, and Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, popular culture, and humor.

Writing for Psychology Today, she has compiled a list of books that, to quote her:

"This is a list of the books that make me laugh until my mascara starts to run."

1. Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons

2. Three Men in a Boat and Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
by Jerome K. Jerome

3. But Enough About You and If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?
by Cynthia Heimel

4. The Sylvia Chronicles
by Nicole Hollander

5. When Do They Serve the Wine?
by Liza Donnelly

6. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories
by Jean Shepard

7. How I Got To Be Perfect
by Jean Kerr

8. The World According to Dave Barry or anything else written
by Dave Barry

9. Heartburn
by Nora Ephron

10. Without Feathers
by Woody Allen

11. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
by Fay Weldon

12. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos

13. The Complete Stories of Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker

14. With Malice Towards Some
by Margaret Halsey

15. Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
by Molly Ivins

16. The Best of Robert Benchley or anything else written
by Robert Benchley

17. How to Raise Your I.Q. By Eating Gifted Children
by Lewis Burke Frumkes

18. Social Studies and Metropolitan Life
by Fran Lebowitz

19. A Marriage Made in Heaven--or Too Tired for an Affair and
I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression
by Erma Bombeck

20. City Boy
by Herman Wouk

21. The Loved One
by Evelyn Waugh

22. Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

23. Brain Droppings
by George Carlin

24. Help! I'm a Prisoner in a Chinese Bakery! and
Whoever Owns His Own Home, Deserves It
by Alan King

25. The Hypochondriac's Guide To Life. And Death.
By Gene Weingarten

26. The Queen and I
by Sue Townshend

27. Not Waving, But Drowning and
A Good Time Was Had by All
by Stevie Smith

28. Small World
by David Lodge

29. The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
by Jane Wagner

30. Is Sex Necessary?
by James Thurber and E.B. White

Juno launches. Next stop Jupiter!

Next stop: Jupiter. Last week included one of the few times in history that humanity launched something completely off the Earth, moving away so fast that it will never return. Well, almost -- Juno's planned trajectory actually brings it homeward bound in about two years, zipping by, this time using the Earth's gravity to pull it to an even higher speed, high enough to reach Jupiter. The above video depicts the launch of Juno aboard a Atlas V rocket. When the robotic Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter in 2016, it will spend just over a year circling the Solar System's largest planet, using its unique cadre of instruments to probe the planet, sending back clues of its structure and origin. Then Juno will be instructed to dive into the thick atmosphere of the Jovian giant, taking as much data as it can before it melts.

If your house was burning, what would you take with you?

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question. The Burning House has pages and pages of reader submitted selections. Quite interesting, and reminds me of Every Day Carry.

The Printer of Udell's

The Printer of Udell's

(Via Libraryland.)

Aug. 8, 1876: The birth of the mimeograph machine

If you are of a certain age I am positive you can at this moment smell mimeograph ink. Mimeographs were everywhere before there were "Xerox" machines. You typed a document onto a stencil, mounted it to a drum, spun a handle (or flipped a switch if you had the deluxe model) and copies of your document squirted our with the fragrant ink still wet on the paper.

I had no idea Thomas Edison invented the machine! There is a great little article over at Wired.

From the article:

Before the inkjet printer, before the laser printer, before the dot-matrix printer, before the photocopier, there came the mimeograph machine. They were everywhere — in schools, offices and the military.

If you needed just a few copies of a document, you used carbon paper. If you needed thousands (and had the time and the budget), you could send it to a print shop for typesetting and publication.

But if you needed something in between, say 30 copies for a classroom handout (or test!) or 500 or 1,000 for a church bulletin or incendiary revolutionary poster, you had the mimeograph.

Grand Larousse

 

by Guy Laramée (website) Via The Unbound Book.

The Curse by William Sleator (as a child)

Renowned science fiction writer William Sleator passed away a few days ago after a long and prolific career. Here is a list of his works with commentary.

He began writing as a child to entertain his pals. The link below will take you to his first known work The Curse.

The Curse by William Sleator

A list of 43 book lists

1. 100 Most Influential Books of the Century

   Boston Public Library's list of "The 100 Most Influential Books of the Century". A booklist for Adults.
   - Boston Public Library
   

2. 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library

   From classics and sci-fi to poetry, biographies and books that changed the world… we present the ultimate reading list.
   - The Telegraph
   

3. 50 Greatest Books of All Time

   A list of the 50 greatest books of all time as determined by a panel of secret judges for Globe and Mail. The books are not ranked.
   - Globe and Mail
   
   

4. 50 Memorable Books from 50 Years of Books to Remember

   A representative selection from over 1500 titles on annual lists of Books to Remember from 1956 to 2005.
   - The New York Public Library
   

5. Books of the Decade

   The 50 books that defined the decade(2000)
   - The Guardian
   

6. Costa Book Award - Best Novel

   The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa C...
   - Costa Coffee
   
   

7. Donald Barthelme’s Reading List

   81 books recommended by Author Donald Barthelme to his students at the University of Houston.
   -
   

8. Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time

   
   The 100 greatest adventure books chosen by National Geographic.
   - National Geographic Adventure Magazine
   

9. Great Books of the Western World

   Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952 by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. to present the western canon in a single package of 54 volume...
   - Great Books Foundation
   
   

10. Harvard Book Store Staff's Favorite 100 Books

    A list of the Harvard Book Store staff's top 100 favorite books.
    - Harvard Book Store
    

11. Man Booker Prize

    The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citiz...
    - Man Booker Prize
    

12. National Book Award - Fiction

    The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prio...
    - National Book Foundation
    
    

13. National Book Award - Nonfiction

    The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prio...
    - National Book Foundation
    

14. National Book Critics Circle Award - Fiction

    The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.
    - National Book Critics Circle
    

15. National Book Critics Circle Award - Nonfiction

    The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.
    - National Book Critics Circle
    
    

16. Paste Magazine's Best Books of the Decade(2000-2009)

    The top 20 best books of the 2000s by Paste Magazine. It includes both fiction and nonfiction.
    - Paste Magazine
    

17. PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

    The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four...
    - PEN/Faulkner
    

18. Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography

    The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
    - Pulitzer Prize
    
    

19. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

    All the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction from 1948 to the present.
    - Pulitzer Prize
    

20. Pulitzer Prize for History

    The Pulitzer Prize for History has been awarded since 1917 for a distinguished book upon the history of the United States. Many history books have also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General N...
    - Pulitzer Prize
    

21. Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction

    The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.
    - Pulitzer Prize
    
    

22. Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels

    
    - Radcliffe Publishing Course
    

23. St. John's College Academic Program Reading List

    
    The reading list that serves as the core of the St. John's College curriculum had its beginnings at Columbia College, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Virginia. Since 1937, th...
    - St. John's College
    

24. The 100 Best Books of the Decade(2000)

    The Time's list of the 100 Best Books of the 2000s. It's a mix of fiction and nonfiction.
    - Times
    
    

25. The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century

    The 100 best non-fiction books of all time judged by a panel of historians, authors, publishers, and experts for the National Review Magazine.
    - National Review
    

26. The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time: The List

    The Observer's list of essential fiction from the past 300 years.
    - The Observer
    

27. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written

    The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today (1998) is a book of intellectual history written by Martin Seymour-Smith (1928–1998), a British poet,...
    - Martin Seymour-Smith
    
    

28. The 10 Best of the Decade(2000)

    Entertainment Weekly's top 10 best books of the 2000s
    - Entertainment Weekly
    

29. The 50 Best Books of the Century

    ISI defined "best" as "volumes of extraordinary reflection and creativity in a traditional form, which heartens us with the knowledge that fine writing and clear-mindedness are perennially possible...
    - Intercollegiate Studies Institute
    

30. The 75 Books Every Man Should Read

    
    

31. The Best Books of the 2000s

    The Best Books of the 2000s according to the Onion AV club. Includes Fiction and Nonfiction.
    - The Onion AV Club
    

32. The Best Southern Nonfiction of All Time

    
    The best southern United States nonfiction books of all time judged by 130 literary experts and authors.
    - Oxford American
    

33. The Best Southern Novels of All Time

    A list of the best southern novels of all time by Oxford American Magazine judged by 130 experts as well as authors.
    - Oxford American
    
    

34. The Big Read

    The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three quarters of a million votes were received to find the nations best-loved book of all time, ...
    - BBC
    

35. The Modern Library | 100 Best Nonfiction

    
    
    - The Modern Library

36. The Modern Library | 100 Best Novels

    
    - Modern Library
    
    

37. The New Classics - 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008

    Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 best reads from 1083 to 2008. There's no description of who the judges were.
    - Entertainment Weekly
    

38. The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time

    The list below is from the book The Novel 100: A Ranking of Greatest Novels All Time (Checkmark Books/Facts On File, Inc.: New York, 2004), written by Daniel S. Burt.
    - The Novel 100
    

39. The Top 10: The Greatest Books of All Time

    The Top 10 book chosen by 125 top writers from the book "The Top 10" edited by J. Peder Zane.
    - The Top 10 (Book)
    
    

40. TIME Magazine All Time 100 Novels

    Time critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.
    - TIME Magazine
    

41. Top 100 Works in World Literature

    
    The editors of the Norwegian Book Clubs, with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, polled a panel of 100 authors from 54 countries on what they considered the “best and most central works in world litera...
    - Norwegian Book Clubs, with the Norwegian Nobel Institute
    

42. Top 10 British, Irish or Commonwealth Novels from 1980 to 2005

    The Observer asked 150 literary luminaries to vote for the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005.
    - The Observer
    
    

43. What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

    The New York Times Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify...
    - New York Times
    

From The Greatest Books

A secret bookstore in NYC

A lovely video about Michael Seidenberg, who moved his shop, Brazenhead Books, into his New York City apartment after his bookshop rent skyrocketed. “It’s a continuation of just me being a bookseller in the way that I want to be… If it’s all about money, there’s just better things to sell. Just sell crack. That’s a much better business.” As for where he’s located, he says “My name is in the phonebook, and anyone can call me… I’m hiding in plain sight. Come find me, visit me, and I’m yours.”

There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.

Found at Open Culture.

Lead me not into temptation...

2 more videos from the makers of "Move"

I posted the first video "Move" back on August 6 and have just discovered there are at least 2 more in the series - "Learn" and "Eat". Here are the new ones (and I reposted the original one as well so you need not click the link).

From Rick Mereki, Tim White and Andrew Lees come three poetic and ambitious short films shot over the course of 44 days in 11 countries across 38,000 miles by way of 18 flights, exploring movement, learning and food

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

15,000 free video lectures on dozens of topics

Learnerstv.com is a comprehensive site providing thousands of downloadable Video lectures, Live Online Tests,etc in the fields of Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Medicine, Management and Accounting, Dentistry, Nursing, Psychology, History, Language Training, Literature, Law, Economics, Philosophy,Astronomy, Political Science etc FREE to its visitors. There are more than 50 in astronomy alone!

There is also a hefty collection of downloadable magazines, Power Point presentations and class notes.

How would you explain a Kindle to Charles Dickens?

Click image to enlarge
From Rachel Walsh

Interweb project: “Explain something modern/internet based to someone who lived and died before 1900”. I made this to explain Amazon’s Kindle to Charles Dickens.

Image used with permission of the artist.

Around the world in less than a minute. Wonderful!

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

From Gizmodo.

The First Civil War Tourists: Podcast

If you've ever visited Civil War battlefields or watched re-enactors stage non-lethal facsimiles of famous skirmishes, you've no doubt tried to imagine what it would have been like to witness the real deal. It turns out some tourists did just that 150 years ago. As part of a new series for the Slate Daily Podcast, radio producer Nate DiMeo brings us the story of the enthusiastic civilians who traveled to Manassas, Va., in July 1861, to take in the first major land battle of the young American war:


From Slate.

One Box of Girl Scout Cookies Worth $15 Billion: Lab Shows Troop How Any Carbon Source Can Become Valuable Graphene

Graduate students in the Rice University lab of chemist James Tour proved it when they invited a troop of Houston Girl Scouts to their lab to show them how it's done.

The cookie gambit started on a dare when Tour mentioned at a meeting that his lab had produced graphene from table sugar.

"I said we could grow it from any carbon source -- for example, a Girl Scout cookie, because Girl Scout Cookies were being served at the time," Tour recalled. "So one of the people in the room said, 'Yes, please do it. ... Let's see that happen.'"

Full story at Science Daily.

Leadership Hall Of Fame: The Best Business Autobiographies

Many entrepreneurs and leaders come and go without passing on what made them great. Here is a list of those remarkable businessmen and women who decided to tell their life's story and impart their wisdom, from Ash to Welch.

• Mary Kay: Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics: The woman behind the hugely successful cosmetics company talks about her life, her work, and how to sell.

• Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard The bohemian executive, and founder of Patagonia, talks about creating the company, making profit responsibly, and creating an enjoyable company culture.

• Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry by Michael Dell and Catherine Fredman A look at how Dell grew the small PC company into an industry powerhouse.

• Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca with William Novak The legendary car exec on growing up during WWII, starting at the car company, and the success he created there.

• Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy The famous ad man on how he got into the advertising business and the moves he made there.

• The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard The cofounder of Hewlett Packard answers these questions and more: How was the company founded? How was it named? And how did he help create a company that promotes creativity?

• Body and Soul: Profits with Principles, the Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick & the Body Shop by Anita Roddick The founder of The Body Shop tells readers how she created her business and how she instilled it with social responsibility.

• Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang The coffee king looks at how he joined the company, decided on a new direction, and implemented the bold expansion.

• Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story by Sam Walton and John Huey The retail giant relates how he grew the company, until he'd conquered the world.

• Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond by Thomas J. Watson and Peter Petre Here's the President of IBM on the global company's history, growth, and strategies.

• Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch and John A. Byrne The revered executive shares the story of how he started at GE, and how he shaped it into the behemoth it has become.

Read more from Leadership Hall of Fame.

(Via Fast Company.)

Use your library…

(Via Libraryland.)

TV appearance of Lincoln assassination witness

In 1956, 96-year-old Samuel Seymour appeared on a game show called I've Got A Secret...his secret was that he saw Lincoln's assassination when he was five years old.

via devour and kottke.org.

“The Basement Stacks” by Wary Meyers

“The Basement Stacks” by Wary Meyers (Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time

The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time is a list published in book form in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, the Mystery Writers of America published a similar list entitled The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time. Many titles can be found in both Crime Companions.  . Wikipedia hosts the lists.

The CWA List (first 10)

1. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
2. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
3. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
4. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)
5. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
6. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
7. Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
8. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
9. Len Deighton: The IPCRESS File (1962)
10. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)

The U.S. List (first 10)

1. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)²
   
2. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
3. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
4. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
5. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
6. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
7. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
8. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
9. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)

The other 90 are here

A Picture the Early Google Plus Adopters

Click the image to go to Google for an interactive view.

(Via The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian's Weblog.)

A one percent increase can mean a lot of cash

The New York Times has posted a cool interactive calculator that shows you how much you'll have saved in your time horizon at your chosen savings rate, if you save 1% more, and if you save an additional 1% each year (up to 16 percent). Adding 1% each year can can more than quadruple your savings if you start early enough. But even at my late date, it can still mean $20K or more over 10 years.

Found at lifehacker.

iCloud Beta is open for business

But right now only for developers.

Pricing has also been announced:

10Gb/year = $20
20Gb/year = $40
50Gb/year = 100

Twentieth century America documented in stunning photographs

For over fifty years, photographer David Plowden has photographed America's vanishing landscapes. His stunning black and white photographs form an image of life in 20th-century urban and rural America. Scanned, framed and presented, the collection unfolds like an epic movie about America.

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript has 83 pages of Plowden's photographs cataloged and available in hi resolutiom.

Loft Library

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)

Carl Sagan's Apple Pie

Saw this earlier at http://imgur.com/ with no attribution - cound be here...

Click image to enlarge

And it reminded me of this very pleasant diddy...

Lots and lots of photos of Marilyn Monroe reading

A couple of dozen more here.

Embeddable historic soundbites at SoundCloud

Apollo 13 - "Houston, we have a problem" - NASA by Parker Higgins

CBS D-Day broadcast - part 1 by Parker Higgins

A few more good ones here.

Found at kottke.com

Thinking in a box outside the box - cartoon

Tom Fishburne always seems to get it right.

"All innovation occurs in some kind of box. It’s always framed by some constraint, whether from the organization, the marketplace, or the consumer." - Tom Fishburne

More at the link.

7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs - Slideshare

Via The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian

Portraits (still and video) of prominent inventors

New York photographer and writer David Friedman has a fascinating collection of portraits of inventors and accompanying video interviews. Above is Steven Sasson, inventor of the digital camera. Below is the accompanying portrait. Many more at the link. Good stuff!

A list of even more literary terms you don't know

Back in May we published a list of 40 literary terms you should know and it proved to be one of our most popular posts ever (thanks to MetaFIlter!).

I just stumbled across what must be the definitive list at Wikipedia. The listings are alphabetical and just the "A" listings have 64 entries!

Minimalist covers for classic children's books

More by Christian Jackson over at ImageKind. (They are for sale, but we have no involvement in the company.)

Can someone describe the debt ceiling to me (Like I'm Five?)

A conversation over at Reddit has generated this easy to understand if somewhat simplistic explanation by The_Cleric:

Pretend you have a credit card. And this credit card has a limit, we'll say $1000. This credit card is pretty near maxed out and you don't really have any cash. You need to buy some stuff soon, and you know that between now and August 2nd you need to buy some things, and you have no choice but to buy them on the credit card. At that point the credit card will be completely maxed out.

This credit card is our debt ceiling. We will hit the limit of our borrowing limit on August 2nd. 

Now let's continue further. We know we have some bills next month, and we also know that we have some cash coming in, but when we look at what we have coming in vs what we have to pay, we don't have enough to cover it. Let's just say we know we'll be short by $100. So now we know ahead of time that we'll be short, and we only have one real option: call the credit card company and ask them to raise our limit. 

This is what the debt ceiling legislation is trying to do: raise our credit limit. 

As you said, normally this happens all the time without issue. This time, some politicians decided to stand up and say: "Umm, long term this whole 'borrow more money' method may not work out." So they are holding off on raising the debt ceiling until we can better align our "bills" and our "income". There's two ways to do this: either you lower your bills or you raise your income. Either you pay less money out, or you bring more money in.
This is where the argument happens. Democrats (traditionally) would prefer to bring more money in, so they'd like to "raise taxes". Republicans (traditionally) would prefer to have lower bills, so they'd like to do "spending cuts". 

So the argument now is "How can we find a compromise where everyone is happy?" We haven't (yet, hopefully) found that compromise. 

If we don't find the compromise, and we don't raise the debt ceiling, then we'll have a bunch of bills due and not enough money to pay them. At this point we'll have to start prioritizing who gets the money we do have. Should it be seniors on Medicare? Should it be active duty military? Should it be people we owe interest to for a loan payment? 

This is just like our credit card example if the credit card company doesn't raise our limit. Do we pay our rent? Do we pay our car payment? Do we pay back a guy we borrowed $50 from? 

And the repercussions are this: whoever we DON'T pay, how does that negatively affect us? Will we be able to get more loans? Will people lose trust in us and a government? Etc. So the outcomes could be nothing or they could be disastrous. No one knows for sure.

Bark

"Not only do we come in contact with it constantly in our daily lives, from cinnamon to cork to chewing gum to rubber, but it’s also a hauntingly beautiful, textured piece of living matter that looks like the skin of some magnificent mythical dragon. French photographer Cedric Pollet travels the world to capture this beauty and has documented it in his gorgeous new book, Bark: An Intimate Look at the World’s Trees.

The embedded photos show the bark of the ocotillo tree, a Mindonoan gum, and a type of manzanita.

Text and photos from Brain Pickings, and Dark Roasted Blend Via TYWKIWDBI.