10 stories and links I found educative, interesting or just weird (and one disgusting one)

Adverts from “Everybody’s” magazine, 1955 via Retronaut by Chris
I have to say that this one is really difficult. I not only want to bring you all the pictures to make sure that you see them but I want to print them and put them on my office wall!
One picture per item (or none as the case might be). I made the rule, I must keep it.

 View the rest of the pictures here.
Source: Mike Ashworth

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Has ever a fictional character so laid bare the horror of mortality as Ivan Ilych? Tolstoy was preoccupied with death – and his insights are now cropping up in medical journal... more

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Meat Glue via Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza
Filet mignon served in restaurants is often, in fact, an agglomeration of scraps of lesser beef, welded together with Meat Glue. [ABC] NB: The report includes a video of fillet steak being MADE.

Terje took powder and dusted it liberally over the meat pieces. The coated stew meat then went into a circular tin to give it a nice, round filet mignon shape. He was also able to make a New York strip out of thin cuts of round steak. Adding water makes a soupy glaze, and an easier way to coat the meat.The final steps were to seal the meat in a vacuum bag, adding some pressure to the bond, and then it was off to the fridge to set overnight. Twenty-four hours later, the humble $4-a-pound stew meat now looks like a $25-a-pound prime filet.

Delicious.
No, that's the wrong word. Disgusting is much more like it!

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How Lucian Freud Painted Himself by Painting Others via Big Think by Bob Duggan
“Nobody is representing anything,” Lucian Freud once said of all art, including his own. “Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait, even if it’s a chair.” Elsewhere, the grandson of Sigmund Freud announced that “My work is purely autobiographical. It is about myself and my surroundings. It is an attempt at a record.”
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Note: The exhibition that this piece refers to has now finished but some of the links are still interesting – if you are an art-lover!

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Pear of Anguish, Heretic’s Fork, Spanish Tickler: Names of pubs? Microbrews? Brands of condoms? No, instruments of torture... more


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The Origin of Marriage (And the Evolution of Divorce) via Big Think by Marina Adshade
A couple of weeks ago [as at 28 April 2012] a Dollars and Sex commenter wrote that the “origin of marriage was to create a legal contract by which a man could acquire a female slave”. Interesting point. Is there an economic story that explains the origin of this most-debated-of-all-institutions?
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Dalek dress documented via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Somevelvetmorning made a beautiful Dalek dress and uploaded her work-in-progress photos to Imgur. Perhaps they can serve as a guide to your own dalekwear efforts.

Also: matching hat!
Dalek Dress (via Wil Wheaton)
And here I am breaking my own rules!

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Why college matters. The view of higher education as an economic driver is a limited one, and one that endangers the future of liberal thought, says Andrew Delbanco... more

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The Tyranny of the Many is (Perhaps) as Bad as the Tyranny of One via Big Think by Tauriq Moosa
When we think of tyrants or dictators, I think many of us conjure up either Orwellian or, rather, Stalinist-type regimes; but as these are steadily disappearing from the world, we must watch for the other type of tyranny: the many-eyed beast that is growing in our backyard, feeding on our placidity within a comfortable existence.
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What A 16th Century Guild Teaches Us About Competition via Big Think by An Phung
Back in the 16th century, a group of rural and urban weavers who worked in the Black Forest mountain range of Germany formed a guild to prevent those from other occupations from infringing on their craft.
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