Saturday 15 December 2012

Flossie, the computer and book bricks are just two of the interesting items for you today

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Book Bricks for the Best Bookends Ever
via AbeBooks’ Reading Copy by Beth Carswell
I know it’s impolite to openly salivate, but I’m only human, and a book nerd can only take so much and keep her cool! Wouldn’t these bricks painted to resemble books make the greatest bookends ever? My shelves have been crying out for these and I didn’t even know.

They are the brain-child of an Australian company called Light Reading Melbourne, and these images come from the Light Reading Melbourne facebook page. And yes, you can have them made-to-order.
A couple more pictures on Beth’ blog and some more information (including the fact that these wonderful things are available only in Australia). Look carefully – easily replicable rather than wrapping bricks in fancy paper which is what I’ve done in a couple of places.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Clive James insists that he’s not about to die. In fact, the man with every illness in the book is translating The Divine Comedy... more

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10 IT relics I really miss
via on TechRepublic by Brien Posey
Do you remember the days of BBSes and shareware subscriptions, magazines full of BASIC code for your CoCo, and true desktop cases?
Take a techie stroll down memory lane

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DPC Special: 1902
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
DPC Special
1902
“Detroit Photographic Co. Special (William Henry Jackson seated at table in Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad car)”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative
View original post
I’ve been reading WHJ’s autobiography, Time Exposure, which he began in his tenth decade and completed in 1940, two years before his death at age 99
Highly recommended by Shorpy’s Book Club
All very well recommending something but where can I get it from? Ah yes, Abe Books but I am not willing to pay £17 for a second-hand book unsure whether I'll like it. Local public library? Not a hope in **** and since inter-library loan in Northamptonshire is £10 per item that is not an option. Ah yes, British Library. I have requested it.
Update: And have now seen it. Worth getting if you can. Fascinating.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“Th’ Dustiest of Th’ Dustbowlers”. Woody Guthrie’s “aw, shucks” persona was both genuine and a masterly work of performance art... more
Given the time delay between my reading this and fitting it in to a miscellany post (several weeks at best) the “will happen on ...” of this article has become “will have happened on ...”

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Duo restore famous early computer
via BBC News – Technology
One of the world’s oldest commercial computers, Flossie, is restored back to working order by two enthusiasts in a barn in Kent.
Rod Brown with Flossie
Continue reading

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Hauntingly Photos of Floating, Plastic-Wrapped Bodies
via Flavorwire by Caroline Stanley
As a kid growing up in Savannah, Georgia, photographer Andrew Brodhead worked in his parents’ health food store. It was there that he came to the disturbing realization that much of what we throw out each day isn’t recyclable. “I began to think about landfills and where everything goes,” he says. “There are islands of plastic taking over the oceans, the earth is suffocating from plastic that never biodegrades, and our water and environment are leaching toxic estrogenic compounds.” The strangely unsettling images in his Floating series – which juxtapose what look like plastic-shrouded corpses with lush, natural backdrops – are his attempt to create awareness around this overwhelming waste. “Visually, I want to convey the sacrifice we have made by our consumption and waste,” Brodhead explains. “The wrapped bodies represent invasive cocoons floating over vulnerable landscapes.”
Whether or not they deliver the intended message, we think these creepy photos will stick with you.
My chosen example:

See the rest here

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
A few scientists write fiction, but the neuroscientist Giulio Tononi has produced a deeply bizarre, deeply imaginative work about science... more

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Classic Fairy Tales Retold for Twenty-Somethings
via Flavorwire by Emily Temple
Fairy tales are an elemental part of our culture, our world, and the way we tell and experience story. But for some twenty-somethings, tales about losing your way in the forest and getting tricked by wolves don't really have any resonance – didn’t Little Red Riding Hood have Google Maps?
Enter the awesome new Tumblr Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings, pointed out to us by the fine folks at io9, which imagines your favourite characters from fairy tales and children’s books as they might face the world today, embroiled in their quarter-life crises. Luckily, unlike wearing novelty t-shirts, hanging unframed posters on your walls, and staying out all night every night, you’ll never get too old for fairy tales.
Emily’s favourites are here and of those mine is, yet again, Alice.

The crazy thing is that eventually even Alice began to doubt whether what she’d seen down the rabbit hole had ever really existed. And it didn’t make her sad, there was nothing overly dramatic about it, it was just that now she understood how the world actually worked.
But then she was tagged in a photo by an old friend, by the White Rabbit. It was a faded picture of her and the Cheshire Cat, and, wow, it just brought her right back.
Text and image via Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings

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40 Vintage Computer Ads of Yesteryear
via How-To Geek by Asian Angel
Earlier this week we shared an awesome retro ad for a 10 MB hard-drive with you and today we are back with more classic ad goodness.
Travel into the past with these forty vintage computer ads from yesteryear!
Special thanks to ETC reader George for sharing this awesome link with us!
40 Vintage Computer Ads of Yesteryears [HongKiat]
Just one of the forty!
ExtenSys 64K for $1495


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