via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
Somewhere around San Francisco in 1920
“Grant Six touring car”
Pointed straight into the 20th century, although the Grant brand itself was not long for this world, expiring in 1922
5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin
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A lovingly curated scrapbook biography of the late Nick Drake
via Boing Boing by Gareth Branwyn
When English singer/songwriter/musician Nick Drake tragically died in 1974 (ironically from an overdose of anti-depressant medication), he was not tremendously well-known. But in death, his hauntingly beautiful compositions have transformed him into a highly influential musical figure who’s inspired generations of musical artists.
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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
On James Wood
James Wood was saved by literature. Son of a minister who maintained a strict home, he found novels an invitation to think beyond the Gospels… more
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Why can’t we let go of our old tech?
via BBC News by Zoe Kleinman, technology reporter
Looking at some of the latest tech news, it’s tempting to wonder whether we’ve all jumped out of the same DeLorean famously driven by time travellers Doc Brown and Marty McFly in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
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Beautiful black and red variegated 78 records from the 1920s
via Boing Boing by Andrea James
Portland area archivist Cliff Bolling has curated and digitized thousands of 78 records. One prized addition is this variegated series from Pathé's Chanticleer line. Bolling says this was an attempt by the French company to gain market share in the US.
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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Defending Darwin
Half of Americans reject evolution, the second lowest acceptance rate of 34 developed countries. Just try defending Darwin in Kentucky… more
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A window on Chaucer’s cramped, scary, smelly world
via 3 Quarks Daily by Paul Strohm in The Spectator
Proust had his cork-lined bedroom; Emily Dickinson her Amherst hidey-hole; Mark Twain a gazebo with magnificent views of New York City. Where, then, did the father of English poetry do his work? From 1374 till 1386, while employed supervising the collection of wool-duties, Chaucer was billeted in a grace-and-favour bachelor pad in the tower directly above Aldgate, the main eastern point of entry to the walled city of London.
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Watch raindrops in slow-motion and learn where that familiar rain smell comes from
via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
From MIT, a video about rain: “Using high-speed cameras, MIT researchers observed that when a raindrop hits a surface, it traps tiny air bubbles at the point of contact. As in a glass of champagne, the bubbles then shoot upward, ultimately bursting from the drop in a fizz of aerosols.”
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via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Poetry and truth
We don’t look to poems for factual truths. Poetry is truest when it attends to something beyond facts: the education of our emotions… more
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When Threatened By Worms, Bacteria Summon Killer Fungi
via 3 Quarks Daily: Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science
When you’re the size of a human, you worry about lions and tigers and bears [oh my!]. But if you’re a bacterium, a tiny nematode worm, just a millimetre long, can be a vicious predator. Nematodes are among the most common animals on the planet, and many of them hunt bacteria in soil and water. The microbes, in turn, have evolved many defences. Some secrete toxins. Others gather in large, invulnerable swarms.
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