10 useless items which may interest you as much as they did me

My Party Dress: 1939
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

February 1939
“Child of white migrant worker ironing in tent camp near Harlingen, Texas”
35mm negative by Russell Lee for the FSA
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Yelp, Amazon, and the like have upended the idea of critical authority. On those fronts now seesaws the battle for the future of taste and expertise… more

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The men who designed space colonies
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
If your mental image of futuristic human colonies in space involves tubular ships, rolling hills, and a population seemingly plucked from a cocktail party in Sausalito in 1972, chances are good that you’ve been influenced by the art of Rick Guidice and Don Davis – illustrators commissioned by NASA to envision human homes among the stars.
At Discover.com, Veronique Greenwood writes about these artists and the lasting impact they’ve had on science and science fiction.

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How the Impressionists Dressed for Success
via Big Think by Bob Duggan

“The latest fashion… is absolutely necessary for a painting,” artist Édouard Manet announced in 1881. “It’s what matters most.” When most people think of Impressionism, they may think of flowers, haystacks, water lilies, dancers, and even nude bathers, but rarely of haute couture caught on canvas ...
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Diederik Stapel’s psychology experiments produced eye-opening results – all fabricated, it turns out. “It was a quest for beauty instead of the truth”… more

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History of Swing Dancing
Written by Lori Heikkila
The history of swing dates back to the 1920s, where the black community, while dancing to contemporary Jazz music, discovered the Charleston and the Lindy Hop.
On March 26, 1926, the Savoy Ballroom opened its doors in New York. The Savoy was an immediate success with its block-long dance floor and a raised double bandstand. Nightly dancing attracted most of the best dancers in the New York area. Stimulated by the presence of great dancers and the best black bands, music at the Savoy was largely Swinging Jazz.
One evening in 1927, following Lindbergh's flight to Paris, a local dance enthusiast named "Shorty George" Snowden was watching some of the dancing couples. A newspaper reporter asked him what dance they were doing, and it just so happened that there was a newspaper with an article about Lindbergh's flight sitting on the bench next to them. The title of the article read, "Lindy Hops The Atlantic," and George just sort of read that and said, "Lindy Hop" and the name stuck.
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E. Nesbit: Queen of Children’s Literature
via Pages & Proofs by Richard Davies

Edith (E.) Nesbit was the queen of children’s literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her best-known work is The Railway Children (1906), a story of three children trying to prove the innocence of their father, who is falsely imprisoned for espionage.
Nesbit’s writing went beyond children’s books to adult novels, political writing, and even poetry. She is a talent not to be missed.
Read on for more about E. Nesbit

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Oscar Wilde in America. Though little known when he arrived, he was supremely confident. “  have nothing to declare except my genius"… more

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Fast-Acting Gel Stops Bleeding “Instantly”
via Big Think by Kecia Lynn
Joe Landolina, a 20-year-old NYU student, has created a substance called Veti-Gel that, when applied to an open wound, stops bleeding and starts the healing process almost instantaneously.
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The end of the European Dream
What future for Europe's constrained democracy?
Stefan Auer
A political culture of total optimism has obscured one of the paradoxes of European unity: a constrained democracy, borne out of the experience of the devastating wars in the first half of the twentieth century, and aimed at suppressing pernicious populist instincts, has now become the source of new resentment. Coupled with the unintended consequences of the single currency, these are exceptional times indeed. And the challenges awaiting democracy are not about to get any easier, according to Stefan Auer.
Continue reading from Eurozine