I just uploaded Space Creature mimeograph masters from a 1979 school book! Purple Monsters Make Great Teaching Aids !
I scanned in all ten Space Creatures because this is exactly the kind of ephemera that disappears without a trace. I was luck enough to score the master sheets and had to share them with my blog readers.
Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts website has an interesting collection of medieval illustrations, including this set showing deaths by unnatural causes:
Methods of murder and torture... It is tempting to think of medieval society as a violent society. Many hundreds of the pictures from the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and Museum Meermanno seem to confirm this. They show a rich variety of people being tortured and killed. Thanks to the method of description, various types of violent acts can even be separately retrieved from the database, as is shown below.
The killing of the prophet Isaiah is from Speculum Humanae Salvationis.
Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old Afghan man, is facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity!
Rahman, a father of two, was arrested last week and is now awaiting trial for rejecting Islam. He told local police, whom he approached on an unrelated matter, that he had converted to Christianity. Reports say he was carrying a Bible at the time.
"They want to sentence me to death, and I accept it," Rahman told reporters last week, "but I am not a deserter and not an infidel."
The Afghan constitution, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law, says that apostates can receive the death penalty.
Representative Tom Lantos said it best:
"In a country where soldiers from all faiths, including Christianity, are dying in defense of your government, I find it outrageous that Mr. Rahman is being prosecuted and facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity," Lantos wrote.
Checkout Steve's build-log of this remote-controlled miniature tank, complete with rotating turret and electronic gun trigger (it shoots paintball pellets!)
For those who can't get enough of the brouhaha over South Park's Scientology / Tom Cruise / Isaac Hayes controversies (and online petition to feature "Trapped in the Closet"), here's something a little out there: a children's pageant on the teachings of Scientology. From the website:
A jubilant cast of children celebrate the controversial religion in uplifting pageantry and song. The actual teachings of The Church of Scientology are explained and dissected against the candy-colored backdrop of a traditional nativity play.
From left to right: Molly Mtzke as Prince Xenu, Kristopher Barnett, and Tony Quinonez as Tom Cruise.
Worldwide Aeros Corp and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo are developing a flying hotel, complete with restaurants and shops.
The proposed 850-foot-long luxury liner is called Aeroscraft, and although it looks like a blimp and uses some blimp technology, Aeros company spokesman Edward Pevzner is quick to point out, “It’s NOT a blimp.” The Aeroscraft uses lifting gas like an airship, but incorporates dynamic liftoff similar to an airplane and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing like a helicopter.
Federal drug enforcement agents in Northern California shut down an elaborate "marijuana candy" factory that produced drug-laced snacks called Rasta Reece's, Pot Tarts, and other parodies of popular products.
Authorities raided five locations Thursday, arresting 12 people for allegedly running the criminal enterprise.
Police say the group produced candy and soda that looked like popular treats but were laced with pot. Agents seized boxes of "treats" with names like Buddahfingers, Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's, Pot Tarts and Puff-a-Mint Pattie.
Brett Huneycutt, Victoria Criado, and Rudy Adler spent three months on the US-Mexico border filming and distributing hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the immigration issue: immigrants crossing the desert and Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them.
You can see the photos they take here: Link (Thanks Rudy Adler!)
Harvard chemist Sunney Xie and colleagues have developed a new assay allowing real-time, molecule-by-molecule "movie" of protein production in live cells.
"Although central to life processes, the expression of many important genes takes place at very low levels, making it difficult or impossible to observe using current technologies," says Xie, professor of chemistry and chemical biology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Our experiments provide the most sensitive means to date of observing real-time activity of single molecules inside cells. This new technique could provide us with unprecedented insights into gene expression and many other fundamental biological processes in living cells."
In sailing-obsessed Annapolis, Maryland, boaters celebrate the first day of spring with Burning of the Socks, to signal that it will soon be warm enough to wear boat shoes without socks.
Dutch theater group The Lunatics specializes in large-scale street performances. This one is called No More Dreams, and is about (and also on) a building about to be torn down.
From the website:
2500 spectators watched how a 4 stock-high building became a gigantic white screen when 80 volunteers managed to paint it in less than 5 minutes. Beamers projected all sorts of images that became more and more clear as the building was painted.
A simple story of people on the move, a car driving on the roof and a man jumping over the 20 meter high building created images that will not easily be forgotten.
We lived and worked 2 weeks on the location and were allowed to do everything we wanted with it, as the building was going to be destroyed by the government. This spectacle was a farewell to the building…
