Getting Out the Vote: 1840-2008

We love the graphical representation of data . . . such as the beautiful, interactive maps at Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008, created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond.

Pictured below, state-level popular voting in the 1860 presidential race:

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

One of our favorite authors--Neal Stephenson--has published a new book: Anathem.

How Does One Say "Oink" in Korean?

"A cow says Moo. A sheep says Baa. Three singing pigs say La La La!" At least, that's what Sandra Boynton would give us to understand in Moo, Baa, La La La!

For an alternate explanation, we suggest bzzzspeek.com, which is an absolutely charming web site with a "collection of 'onomatopoeia' from around the world using sound recordings from native speakers imitating the sounds of mainly animals and vehicles."

One clicks, for instance, on the British flag-cow to hear what cows say in UK English, on the French flag-cow to hear it in French, and so on. The native speakers seem to be mostly children, making their charming animal sounds.

JAMA to FDA: "BPA Not Safe"

Many students travel the campus with their own refillable water bottles in hand--as a matter of going green or of global justice. Now a JAMA editorial urges using the right kind of water bottle as a matter of better health.

The 17 September 2008 editorial--"Bisphenol A and Risk of Metabolic Disorders"--points to a study which suggests "a significant relationship between urine concentrations of BPA and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver-enzyme abnormalities in a representative sample of the adult US population." BPA, or Bisphenol A, is a chemical commonly used as a base in polycarbonate plastic food and beverage containers.

The editorial urges the FDA and other regulatory agencies to follow the lead of Canada and declare "BPA a 'toxic chemical' requiring aggressive action to limit human and environmental exposures." It also urges follow-up studies to establish biological causality between BPA and major human metabolic diseases beyond the shadow of a doubt.

What does this mean to you?

Well, first of all, make sure you are using a BPA-free water bottle. National Geographic's Green Guide lists safe water bottles:

• Kleen Kanteen stainless steel water bottle w/ cap, 27 fluid ounces ($17.95; www.kleankanteen.com)

• MLS Stainless Steel Thermos Bottle, 1 liter ($22.16; www.mls-group.com)

• Nissan Thermos FBB500 Briefcase Bottle, 1pt ($35; www.coffee-makers-espresso-machines.com)

• Sigg resin coated aluminum sport bottle, 25 ounces ($19.99; www.mysigg.com)

• Platypus #5 polypropylene 2+collapsible water bottle, 2.4 liters ($9.95; www.rei.com)

• Nalgene HDPE Loop-Top Bottle, 16 ounces ($4.53; www.nalgene-outdoor.com)

Pencils, Not for Writing Alone

As it happens, we aren't the only pencil-lovers in the world. The fellows at JAD Projectcreated beautiful hand-carved pencil sculptures years ago:

Artist Jennifer Maestre produces eerily beautiful creature forms using colored pencils which she's cut and strung like beads:

To help celebrate its centenary, Faber Castell commissioned all kinds of pencil sculptures from German artist Kerstin Schulz, using thousands of sharpened ‘Castell 9000’ pencils:

Finally, here's a slightly more comfortable looking bench, from 3D Creative Solutions:

Free Movies . . . Online

How often have you sat around on a Saturday night, wishing you could go to a movie but--darn it!--you're a poor student, so it wouldn't be prudent?

No need to be culturally deprived! Free resources on the internet come to the rescue once again:

PublicDomainFlicks.com provides free downloads of full-length feature films that are in the public domain. When we visited the site, the newest additions to the collection ranged from from Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936, dir. John Cromwell) to Terror in the Midnight Sun (1959, dir. Virgil W. Vogel -- "Aliens release a furry critter in the wilds of Lapland where it takes a woman captive and threatens a group of scientists.")

The Moving Image Archive of the Internet Archive also features films that are within the public domain, conveniently categorized according to type, such as Animation & Cartoons, Arts & Music, Ephemeral Films, Movies, etc. One can view classic films here, such as D.O.A. (1950, dir. Rudolph Maté), The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960, dir. Rodger Corman), Topper Returns (1941, dir. Hal Roach), or the Charlie Chaplin films. It was in the web site's Prelinger Archives that we found Alaska: A Modern Frontier (rev. ed., 1948), a useful introduction to the Republican veep candidate's home state.

Of course, some current movies are available, too, on internet sites. We like the following site:

• imdb.com--a selection of full-length movies and full-length TV episodes
• hulu.com--free content shown with commercial interuptions
• Fancast
  

And how to decide what's worth watching? Take a look at Film Resources on the Web: An Introduction from the Association of Colleges & Research Libraries.

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See also our previous post on Historic Video Footage from NARA.

Souvenirs

 

Michael Hughes, a photographer based in Berlin, has covered the globe since 1999 taking pictures of the world's most famous tourist destinations . . . and holding toy or miniature replicates in front of them. (Above, the Eiffel Tower covered by an "inflated polyeurothane, coloured, model kit from which the lowest storey fell off.")

The result, oddly enough, isn't particularly kitschy; instead, it leads to interesting ruminations upon the nature of monuments and memory. You can view the delightful photo set on Flickr.

Creepy Ads of Yesteryear

Weirdomatic.com, which is "A resource for most interesting, funny and weird pictures gathered from around the web," has a strangely disturbing feature on creepy old ads. Seriously, doesn't that little girl pictured above worry you?

Other ads are equally troubling, such as the one which pictures the line-drawing of an enormous-eyed waif with the blurb: "There is a form of short-acting Nembutal to serve every need in barbituate therapy."

You can view the gallery at Weirdomatic.com.

The Greatest Trips in History

Good Magazine has posted an interactive map feature called Wanderlust: GOOD traces the most famous trips in history. Just launch interactive graphic, choose a route from Magellan to Kerouac, and start exploring. [via Boing Boing]

Extreme Ironing

According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau's FAQs,

The sport that is 'extreme ironing' is an outdoor activity that combines the danger and excitement of an 'extreme' sport with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt. It involves taking an iron and board (if possible) to remote locations and ironing a few items of laundry. This can involve ironing on a mountainside, preferably on a difficult climb, or taking an iron skiing, snowboarding or canoeing. . . . It all started in the city of Leicester in the UK, in the summer of 1997. When mild mannered Steam, returned home after a long day in the knitwear factory, the last thing he wanted to do was start on a pile of ironing. The sun was shining and Phil preferred the idea of an evening out pursuing his (somewhat unsuccessful) hobby of rock climbing. Then it occurred to him to combine these activities into an extreme sport - the result: extreme ironing.