Storm Katie ruined your Bank Holiday excursion? Stuck at home with your family? Nick some chocolate off the kids, and settle down to read this lot instead:
Happy invoicing!
- In the Land of Missing Persons - The strange tale of a body found in Alaska: ”Firefighters battling a huge blaze on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula first spotted a boot in the dirt. Then they noticed some bones scattered across a wide grassy area… No one knew at the time that the Funny River bones would set in motion a series of other discoveries, adding a surreal twist to a long and disjointed tale of people lost and found and lost again, and in the process reminding everyone involved of their smallness in this vast land.”
- Noisy dissent disrupts a harpsichord recital - "The international virtuoso Mahan Esfahani faced what may be the first recorded riot at a harpsichord recital yesterday when a conservative Cologne audience objected to him playing Steve Reich on a baroque intrument." Aficionados of the harpsichord seem to take it a little too seriously
- Subways Are for Sleeping - Another one from the Harper’s archive, describing the life of an ordinary man who happened to be homeless in New York in the 1950s: ”Henry Shelby is not a hopeless man, but he is certainly bewildered… In his months as a vagrant he has become an expert at management and has learned to put first things first. In his case this means food, cleanliness, and shelter, in that order. He prides himself on the fact that he has never panhandled, never visited a soup kitchen, or taken a night’s lodging in one of the various hostels maintained by charitable agencies in the city.” Fun fact: this piece inspired a Broadway musical, which in turn led to a rather clever hoax perpetrated in an attempt to drum up business
- The heart of the world - For centuries, Central Asia has been the predominant influence upon the affairs of the Western world, yet we seem to forget this: ”These countries lie at the centre of global affairs: they have since the beginning of history… Europe was irrelevant to global history until around 1500 AD. For all the resources enlisted in studying Athenian democracy and Greek art and architecture, the Greeks themselves looked only to the East.”
- Atomic Heritage Foundation: Profiles - "One of the goals of this site and the Atomic Heritage Foundation is to help people find out more about the 600,000 men and women who worked on the Manhattan Project… Some profiles include a detailed description of the person's life and work, while for others all the information we know is their name and Manhattan Project location. We have also included profiles of early nuclear pioneers, Manhattan Project experts, and German scientists who worked on Nazi Germany’s efforts to develop the bomb.” Loads of interesting stories tucked away in this growing archive
- The David W. Niven Collection of Early Jazz Legends, 1921-1991 - "650 tapes · 1,000 hours · 1,378 WAV files · 637 GB · 691 JPEG scans of cassette liner cards & literature. Meticulously Collected, Compiled, and Narrated by David W. Niven, 1930-1993." And now all available free at the Internet Archive: more recordings of classic jazz 78 and 33⅓ rpm records than you could shake a drumstick at
- 6 Shocking Realities of the Secret 'Troubled Teen Industry' - The bizarre US business (literally, a big money business) of kidnapping “troublesome” children with the consent of their parents, and subjecting them to brutal regimes in order to “fix” them: ”One night in August 2004, I awoke to a man and a woman in my room whom I had never seen before telling me that they were "escorts" and we were going to a place called "wilderness." I was not allowed to bring any belongings or tell anyone where I was going. I didn't know what "escorts" and "wilderness" were, and I was terrified. It was like being Liam Neeson's daughter in Taken, if it had turned out later that Liam Neeson arranged the whole thing.”
- My Year in Startup Hell - Dan Lyons describes life in an Internet startup full of millennials as a man in your fifties: ”The offices bear a striking resemblance to the Montessori preschool that my kids attended: lots of bright basic colors, plenty of toys, and a nap room with a hammock and soothing palm tree murals on the wall… Every new HubSpot employee has to go through training to learn how to use the software. That’s a good idea, and it also keeps me from having to worry about what I’m supposed to be doing here, or why Cranium, who hired me, still has never come by to say hello or talk about what he wants me to work on.”
- Characteristics of Musical Keys - "This document contains a selection of information from the Internet about the emotion or mood associated with musical keys." Handy if you need to compose a piece in a key that expresses ”feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key."
- Old Engineering - "Old, vintage and retro ephemera, advertising and articles relating to engineering, product design and to a much lesser degree general science and technology. Most images are from my collection of journals or from library, archive or associates' material." Bonus related linky: Antique Machinery Scans: ”This site is a showcase for some of the most detailed advertisement engravings produced. During the later part of the 19th century most machinery and equipment makers spent large sums of money to have their tool or piece of machinery converted into an engraving for advertising.”
Happy invoicing!
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