Thursday, January 07, 2010

Good Reads and Information

The Vintage Ad Browser can show you hundreds of ads going back hundreds of years, broken down by category and year. Watch the clock; you could lose hours wandering through this! (via the Presurfer)

Which is the world’s hardest language? !Xóõ, a language from Botswana, causes a lump to grow in a speaker's larynx, but that's just one example of the world's linguistic complexities. (via Neatorama)

Darfur has gone from genocide to a not-quite-peaceful stalemate, but no one knows which way to go from this point. There is no peace agreement for peacekeepers to enforce, and refugees no longer want to go home. (via Metafilter)

The Transatlantic accent is neither British nor American, but legible and pleasing to both. This post has tips for cultivating your accent so you can sound like a classic movie star. (via Cynical-C)

In the 1940s, Harry Dubin talked various New York City workers into changing clothes with him, so he could do their job while his son took pictures. Now you can see some of those fascinating full-color photographs. (via Metafilter)

As the pendulum swings too far, unintended consequences pop up. Airport security body scanners may violate laws against child pornography.

One graph shows states that allow same sex marriage, the other shows states that allow first cousins to marry. The difference is striking.

Blind spots in our self-knowledge. Sometimes the only way to find out about ourselves is to ask the people around us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's striking on the gay marriage vs cousin love.

Miss Cellania said...

It's sad how few states allow same-sex marriage when they already allow cousin to marry. That is striking.