Digitising Bibles

Eumaeus - The Noble Swineherd: "The two books are a Wycliff Bible, an early English translation dating from approximately AD 1410, and the famous St. Chad’s Gospel,"

"For the work, we will use an old-fashioned bellows camera with a medum-format digital back. The digital sensor is monochromatic, and 38 megapixels. The resolution is a good thing, and the lack of color is also a good thing. In a normal, color, digital camera of, say, 24 megapixels, there is a color filter laid over the sensor. Of the 24 million pixels, 8 will be filtered through red, 8 will be filtered through green, and 8 will be filtered through blue. So each full color "pixel" will consume three pixels of resolution. The software in the camera will merge the three pixels into one, full-color pixel, at the cost of some softness to the image.

Our black-and-white camera has no color filter in front of the sensor. This does not mean that we won’t have lovely color images of these Bibles, however.

The lights for this photography consist of banks of LED lights, with each bank bank of LEDs emitting a specific frequency of light. There are thirteen banks, ranging from ultraviolet, through the visible spectrum (blues, greens, oranges, reds) down to several levels of infrared. The camera and lights are controlled by a computer, which will automatically cycle through the spectra of light, taking a picture for each one.

The result is thirteen monochromatic images, each showing particular features of the page, as different kinds of ink and different kinds of stains or damage reflect differently.

At the end, the thirteen images can be merged to create full-color images that take advantage of the full resolution of the sensor. Other “false color” images can be generated to suit particular kinds of analysis.

In addition to this digital photography, the team is capturing structured light data, which involves projecting a series of patterns on the page, and photographing each one. From this data, we can generate a 3-dimensional model of the page."

Antiquities

The Portable Antiquities Sceme: "The Scheme's database holds records of artefacts and coins found by the public."

Retro Living

Ultra Swank: "Design, architecture and the lifestyle of the 1950s to the 1970s."

Gods List

Bullfinch's Mythology: "Encyclopedia Of Mythology, Folklore And Religion"

Calcutta

The Imperial gazetteer of India: "1907 - 1909"

Japanese Places

Folk walk all ages (up to city folk.): Locations.

russiamania

Nazi Occupation Photos: "Russian City Kharkov"

Swiss Photography

Fotostiftung Schweiz: "Swiss Foundation of Photography" has a large image database.

Princess Iron Fan

Princess Iron Fan (鐵扇公主): "Produced by the Wan brothers in the midst of war, Princess Iron Fan is the first feature length animation made in China. We follow the Monkey King and his friends on their journey to the west. As they reach Fire Mountain they are unable to pass because of the fire but learn that a special iron fan can quench the flames. However, the fan belongs to Princess Iron Fan and she will not willingly lend it to them..."

Dour English

The gloomy world of spoken English (hover over the pink phrases to hear them): e.g. Past tense:

My friend had left me and I was unhappy…

I weighed 99 kilos.
Did your girl-friend say you were fat?
No, she didn't say that....

…because she'd already left me!
But had she really liked you?
No, she hadn't ever really been serious about me…

I'd been eating from the fridge at night.
Had nobody been checking the fridge?
No, my mother hadn't been checking.
I was eating 6 Big Macs a day!
Why were you eating so much?
I wasn't eating because I was hungry…

Then I met someone new and everything changed…

Postmortem

Virtual Autopsy: "Have a look at the inside of a human being."

Falling

Mechanical analysis of survival in falls from heights of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet* [PDF]: "A scientific approach to injury."

Say What?

The Name Engine: "provides the correct name pronunciations of athletes, entertainers, politicians, newsmakers, and more."

Kashi

Great photography from Ed Kashi.

Sacred Mtn.

Sacred Mtn: "Art." [NSFW]

Jules Garnier

Jules Garnier (1839-1904): "Explorer."

The Bourbaki Code

neverendingbooks: "Where is the Royal Poldavian Academy?"

McCluskieg(a)unj

Wikipedia: "McCluskieganj is a town in Jharkhand State, India. It is about 40 miles northwest of Ranchi. The town used to have a significant Anglo-Indian community, however this has declined. The town was founded by the Colonization Society of India in 1933 as an independent homeland for Anglo-Indians and was home to 400 Anglo-Indian families within ten years. [In 1932 Ernest Timothy McCluskie the founder of the town sent circulars to nearly 200,000 Anglo-Indians in India inviting them to settle there. Of the nearly 300 original settlers, only 20 families remain, as most of the Anglo-Indian community left after World War II."

A cluster of links: TIME: "Letter from India: No Place Like Home". Homeland for the Anglo-Indians?: "Fotos from the Gunj". India Currents: "Red Hibiscus Among Abandoned Houses". Deep Blue Ink: "The romance of a forgotten Anglo-Indian summer". RootsWeb: "McCluskieganj was a dream — a dream that never came true". The Armchair Historian: "Chutney Mary". Indian Express: "Caste away". Naxal Watch: "Glorious journey of McCluskieganj on way to end". Memory, identity and productive nostalgia:: "Anglo-Indian home-making". Hinduism Today Magazine: "Between Two Worlds Bharat's Anglo-Indians struggle with identity". The McCluskiegunj Gallery: "'The Skippers', from: The Colonization Observer, March-April, 1938 issue".

Pre-Prohibition

The pre-Prohibition Collector's Resource Site: "This website is a repository for information about the pre-pro liquor industry, including names and dates of operation of the old distilleries, the dealers who sold liquor, and the often colorful names of whiskey brands that were popular in the day."

Some Came Running

One of those foo-foo film sites.: "By Glenn Kenny". Film critic – stills included.

Gruts for Tea

Gruts: A random, humorous blog.

Video Podcast Directory

Miro Guide: "Popular Shows"

Letters from Stan

The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project: "hopes to collect and catalog as many of Stan's letters as is possible".

History of Borrego Spings, CA

Borrego Springs: "was a hideaway for the Hollywood Stars back in the 1950's. The Hoberg Resort was their hangout."

The Pitiful Elephants

Starving the Elephants: "The Slaughter of Animals in Wartime Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo".
[image - Cover of “Kawaisōna Zō”, the most popular version of the myths about the Ueno Zoo slaughter in 1943]

Djin Djin

The Japanese Bogie Man: "Pantomime was a very popular form of entertainment in the 19th Century. Djin Djin proved to be a successful production of the form. It maintained the strong tradition of pantomime that was imported from Europe. This tradition was adapted to the Australian experience and the plot and script of Djin Djin reflected the attitudes and characteristics of contemporary society. It portrayed images of Australia that relied on racist stereotypes and satirized the rising wave of feminist thought in the country. Djin Djin was a snapshot of Australian society at the end of the 19th Century."

MegaPenny

The MegaPenny Project: "Visualizing huge numbers can be very difficult. People regularly talk about millions of miles, billions of bytes, or trillions of dollars, yet it's still hard to grasp just how much a 'billion' really is. The MegaPenny Project aims to help by taking one small everyday item, the U.S. penny, and building on that to answer the question: 'What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?'"

You're in the Picture

TVparty!: "Probably the most forgotten show of all time was one that I was fortunate enough to see the only real episode of. It was a live game-type show and starred Jackie Gleason. It was called You're in the Picture."

Rants

Samizdata.net: "A blog for people with a critically rational individualist perspective."

No. 1 on Google

unliteral - Google Search: I'm loving this new name.

Ruralists

The Brotherhood of Ruralists: "was a group of artists exhibiting together between 1975 and 2007."

Some pig!

Head Cheese: "a jellied loaf or sausage made from edible parts of the head."

Fulton

Postcards [flash] of Fulton NY.

Curious George

Margret and H. A. Rey's Life in Paris and Narrow Escape.

Safari Extensions

Safari Extensions: "A handy list of available Safari extensions."

Popular amusements

An appeal to Methodists, in regard to the evils of card-playing, billiards, dancing, theatre-going, etc. — Hiram Mattison (1811-1868)

EVILS OF DANCING
I. Like playing cards and billiards it is A USELESS WASTE OF TIME.
For children to learn to dance requires a great deal of time, which they need for other and better purposes.

II. It is a USELESS WASTE OF MONEY.
To learn to dance requires a dancing-master or school and no little outlay of money for tuition, extra dresses, slippers, etc.

III. Dancing often brings the otherwise virtuous and pure-minded into association with the low and vile.
Public balls are not apt to be very select in this respect. In fact, there are all grades of "hops," from the private parlor to the dance-house and the brothel.

IV. Public dancing and moral impurity are almost inseparably associated.
Among the Greeks the public dancers were almost invariably wretched females, who made merchandise of their own persons.

V. Dancing is usually associated with tippling, and often leads leads to intemperance, and consequent ruin.
The fact is, both ladies and gentlemen drink at balls, and both get heated with wine and inflamed by passion.

VI. Dancing is usually as injurious to the HEALTH of its votaries as it is to their purity of mind and morals and their habits of temperance and sobriety.
Every dancer knows that after a night spent in the ballroom it takes two or three days for the system to recover its wonted elasticity and spirits.

VII. The habit of dancing is necessarily opposed to all true piety and spirituality.
No Christian can go to a ball and dance without having a sense of demoralization, a feeling of condemnation and personal unworthiness and shame.

The complete text and other fabulous books can be read at Making of America (MoA).

Caning

Bastoni: "Pictures with canes or walking sticks."

Anatomy Murders

Burke and Hare: "On Monday, November 3, 1828, Edinburgh awoke to the horrifying news that the most atrocious murders of the decade — of the century — had been committed in the West Port district of the Old Town. William Burke and William Hare, together with Helen M'Dougal and Margaret Hare, were accused of killing 16 people over the course of 12 months, in order to sell their cadavers as 'subjects' for dissection."

Hotel room keycards collection

Key Card Collect: "Welcome to the Hotel Keycards Collecting area."

Stein in Central Asia

Fascinated by the Orient: Aurel Stein (1862-1943).

Cypriot Religious Buildings

Greek Cypriot & Turkish Cypriot: "religious buildings of Cyprus built before 1974."

Retrodigitized Journals

Seals - Swiss Electronic library: I'll draw your attention in particular to the architectural publication - Werk.

Memoro International

MEMORO: "The Memoro Project is a non profit online initiative dedicated to collecting and divulgating short video recordings of spontaneous interviews with people born before 1940."

Wax Maps

JAIC 2003, Volume 42, Number 3, Article 4 (pp. 419 to 424): "A Historical map-printing technique: Wax Engraving."

Magazines

Magazines: "a vast number of magazines covers."

Internal Sounds of Bugs

Listen to the Haunting Internal Sounds of Bugs: Discovery News - For the first time, scientists have just recorded sounds emanating from inside living insects, such as flies, mosquitoes and ladybugs. [via]

Mr Yoshi

Plastic Spoon is an ongoing documentation of Muirhouse, a council scheme in Edinburgh U.K.

Apple 1

Apple 1 For Sale | Applefritter
Joe on August 14, 2004: "The cost of the Apple 1 system is Thirty thousand ($30,000) US dollars."
Lorne000 on April 18, 2010: "I am interested in buying it and will pay as much as you want, since I'm more concerned if it's still available to purchase."

Igor Sergeev

The Biggest in the World: Collection of Full Cigarette Packs. "I collect full unopened cigarette packs since 1976. There are 36546 packs in my collection now (4 of May 2010)."

Kentuckiana

Kentuckiana Digital Library: "is your gateway to rare and unique digitized collections housed in Kentucky archives."
In this scene, children make a citizen's arrest on corpulent, red suited intruder.

A way to get around

Alternate Modes of Transportation: 35 bicycles.

Olm

ARKive: a unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species… gathering together the very best films and photographs of the world's species into one centralised digital library.

Disasters

10 World's Weirdest Disaster - garbled text but here they are:
10. Elephant rampage Forest Chandka
9. Mass poisoning in Basra
8. Chains reaction explosion in Texas City
7. Tunguska event
6. Fall of the Empire State Building
5. The Gillingham fire demonstration
4. Pittsburg gas cylinder explosion
3. Cane sugar flood on The Great Boston
2. Panic in the Shiloh Baptist church
1. Invasion of snakes in St. Pierre