A joint project of the Smithsonian Collection and the Library of Congress, this archive houses more than a million recordings of American roots music, songs, poems, and speeches from 1890 to the present. Highlights include oral histories from the last living ex-slaves recorded for the WPA during the 1930s, Woody Guthrie's original recording of "This Land is Your Land," speeches by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders, and wax cylinder recordings of Native American and Hawaiian chants. Perhaps someday all of this material will make it online. The site features an interview with preservationist/guitar player Jerry Garcia, contribution details, and several sound clips.
It's a "sometimes penetrating look at antique medical quackery and electrotherapy devices" dating from the turn of the century. Submitted for your approval: the Faradic Battery, a small wooden box that inflicts electrical shocks for the purposes of curing "asthma, diseases of the brain, deafness, diabetes, cataracts, felons(!!?), measles, hysteria, hernias, loss of smell, ovarian tumors, cancer etc." Other featured devices include the Radio Disease Killer (which flashes multi-colored lights), Galvanic Batteries (which radiate "magical healing powers"), and the Electropoise (which employs the miracle of "Diaduction" to fortify the bloodstream). Knock yourself out.
Expeditions into Myth: In Search of Seaman
The cryptozoological search team at the American Science Journal Online is committed to chasing down "truth in life." Their scientific expedition, based in Alexandria, Egypt, presents new research on the sphinx-like Seaman of the Nile, a 4500-year-old mystery. A handful of experts hypothesize that this intelligent and amiable, merman-like river dweller, who goes by the scientific name Habibi de Kimo, may have inspired the inventions and advances of ancient Egyptian civilization. This site is a shining example of Internet alternative science, but don't take our word for it; check out the illustrated timeline of Seaman, at large and in captivity, and draw your own conclusions.
Beyond The Fall: The Former Soviet Bloc in Transition 1989-1999
This beautiful photography exhibit is the work of Anthony Suau, a freelance photographer who spent 10 years capturing the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. "The ensuing years brought political, economic and social chaos to the countries of the former Soviet bloc as they struggled to redefine themselves following their emancipation. Having been given a contract by TIME magazine in the early 1990s, I had an open ticket to witness and document the transformation of the so-called Evil Empire for myself." An interactive map lets you browse the deeply moving collection by country.
Heavy Metal Memories: Lunchboxes
Whole Pop Magazine Online presents this special feature dedicated to that icon of twentieth century childhood: the metal lunchbox. The golden age of lunchboxes flourished from 1950-1980, when Dad's depression-era dinner pail metamorphosed into a way for baby-boom and Gen X youngsters to express their aspirations and advertise their heroes and role models "to a largely indifferent world." Paileontology is an illustrated history; Lunch Money links to the economics of lunchbox collecting; there's even a Lunchmeating of the Minds. Thanks for the memories.
This fantastic site from the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (birthplace of HAL, remember?) chronicles the history of computers and artificial intelligence in film. You'll find descriptions and analyses of dozens of great sci-fi flicks, from the intriguing-sounding early titles like The Mechanical Statue and the Ingenious Servant and Dr. Smith's Automaton to latter-day classics like Solaris, Silent Running, and Terminal Man. The gallery offers a number of excellent still sequences, the sound clips area features every HAL quote you could ever want, and the filmography is darn near canonical.
The Eloise timeline began in 1948 when actress Kay Thompson created a bewitchingly bratty little girl alter-ego to amuse fellow performers. In 1954, Thompson met illustrator Hilary Knight, and a remarkable collaboration began. Subtitled A book for precocious grownups, the picture book Eloise was first published in 1955. Thompson died in Manhattan in 1998, and a year later Simon & Schuster began a fresh marketing campaign. By 1999, there was an Eloise movie in development, out-of-print titles were being reprinted, and the merchandising of Eloisiana kept pace. Moral: Even a snarky sophisticate from an earlier era can step out of the Plaza and onto Web.
Here's an outrageous collection of hilarious, obscene, witty, sophomoric, and just plain silly global ephemera: headlines, photos, and videos. We're talking real bloopers clipped from real print ads, news columns, and outdoor signage -- fraught with innuendo, Freudian slips, barnyard epithets, juxtaposed body parts, and playground humor. This outstanding collection from the anonymous editors at 3BP is not for the prudish or faint of heart, so be sure to look before you leap.
