Saturday Trivia

Desert Guns: 1937
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

June 1937
“Idle men attend the morning movies. There are three such movies in one block. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma”
Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration
View original post

==========================================

Using Sewage To Grow Algae To Produce Biofuel

by Kecia Lynn in Big Think
The Spanish resort town of Chiclana de la Frontera can now lay claim to the world's first municipal sewage plant that purposely uses wastewater to grow algae that is then converted into clean biofuel. Carbon dioxide from sewage produces the algae, the first crop of which was harvested last month. The resulting biomass will be made into vehicle fuel, which should be ready for use by December. Right now the plant is still in a pilot stage and fairly small, but plans are to have it fully operational by 2015, growing enough algae and producing enough fuel to run about 200 cars a year.
Read it at Scientific American

==========================================
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Can grief at the death of a loved one be diminished by the way we think? Is there a philosophy that can prepare us for the death of others?… more

==========================================
Gorgeous Microscopy and Visual Journalism
by Katie McKissick in Scientific American via 3 Quarks Daily
This is, visually, my favourite.

Continue reading

==========================================
via BoingBoing
Fashion trends in “swinging London of the sixties”, captured in an archival short film


==========================================
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
In 1931, Scott Fitzgerald parsed the word “jazz,” noting its progress toward respectability. “It meant first sex, then dancing, then music”… more

==========================================
Your fruits and vegetables can tell day from night – and even get jet lag
New science shows that cabbage, carrots and blueberries experience circadian rhythms, with potential consequences for nutrition
via 3 Quarks Daily and smithsonian.com by Joseph Stromberg
Read more


==========================================

Bookstore in a train-car

Here’s a mouth-watering set of photos from La caverne aux livres, a bookshop in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris. The store is in a converted train-car, and appears to be a magical wonderland. The pics were taken by the Gallifreyan Detective, and the whole set is wonderful.
Continue reading

==========================================
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Mr. Chan and the Machine by Caitlin Dwyer

A tale of ink and grease. In Hong Kong, a half-century old printing press – “The Windmill” – continues to churn out pages. “It sounds like a woman gasping”… more

==========================================
Segregated headstones reach over the cemetery wall

These grave markers -- pressed up against either side of an imposing wall, with a pair of clasped hands reaching over the wall's top -- date to a time in Dutch history when Catholic and Protestant graves were strictly segregated. A Catholic and a Protestant married couple, separated in death, arranged for this unique workaround in order to rejoin one another.
Continue reading and watching