collections

Flickr Commons, participating institutions

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Flickr Commons Participating Institutions

It started with The Library of Congress in June, 2007 and has grown considerably since then.

The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives.

And they’re doing just that.

I could have posted a lot of stuff here but I hope anyone who reads this will follow the links and poke around. If you have a blog, all of these images are easily embedded. I like to give some context when I use things like this but it’s not always possible.

Have fun.

Walt Whitman, ca. 1860 - ca. 1865

Walt Whitman, image by Mathew Brady, 1865

From Flickr member The U.S. National Archives.

Rear end of Bridal Veil mill

Rear end of Bridal Veil mill from hotel. Palmer, Oregon. 1910

From Flickr member The Field Museum Library.

Group photograph captioned 'Hungarian Gypsies all of whom we...

Hungarian Gypsies coming into Ellis Island, 1905

Ruth St Denis in a Burmese solo dance.

Ruth St Denis in a Burmese solo dance, 1923

From Flickr member New York Public Library

Överenhörna Church, Södermanland, Sweden

Överenhörna Church, Södermanland, Sweden, 1905

Evertsberg Chapel, Dalarna, Sweden

Evertsberg Chapel, Dalarna, Sweden, 1900

From Flickr member Swedish National Heritage Board

Flashlight fetish

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Flashlight Fanatic Pics and even more Flashlight Fanatic Pics

I thought I had a flashlight fetish: I have a bunch of “low end” Surefire G2 flashlights in the house and in the cars as well as a Surefire headlamp for hiking and some Streamlights in various sizes and shapes. The collections shown at core77 and at the CandlePower Forums show just how far people get into this stuff.

Flashlights are interesting objects, they have utility but they also have an aesthetic which has many aspects: fine machined steel or aluminum or plastic, the design of the switch, power (lumens), battery type and life, and lastly, how cop-like or weapony or “tactical” they are.

In the old days this was the territory of Maglite but now with LED illumination, Surefire has taken over as the popular US manufacturer of tactical flashlights.

Surefire flashlights are expensive but they’re made in the USA (like Maglites) and Streamlight, Fenix and many others are made in China. An interesting site to check many out is Optics Planet.

Oh, on my keychain I carry a Photon Micro-Light and I have to say, it’s fantastic, one of my most used flashlights. I also have one of these lights in my camera bag and another in my carry-on bag I take on planes. Not “tactical” but very “practical.”

Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang collect beach plastic

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One Plastic Beach from High Beam Media on Vimeo.

What appeals to me about this is less the finished pieces, more the collecting, sorting, playing. Note the 128 megapixel camera on a stand for documenting it. These two really have done amazing work over a long period of time.

Gary, this one’s for you. I want to see the Oregon coast equivalent of this soon.

[via The Kid Should See This]

Aggravated about aggregation

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NYT Editor Says It’s Only Journalism When He Does It

I love it. Matthew Ingram’s Gigaom piece was aggregated by the New York Times and the piece is about Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times looking down on aggregation as theft.

The piece is brilliant.

Here’s the piece that set Matthew Ingram off: All the Aggregation That’s Fit to Aggregate. I’m with Matthew Ingram, Keller comes off like an ass.

Alain Delorme’s Totems

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Alain Delorme’s Totems

The new Totems series by Alain Delorme plunges us into the core of contemporary China and its complexity. Under the blue sky of a highly colored Shanghai, men carry throughout the city unbelievable piles. These precarious columns made of cardboard or chairs appear as new totems of a society in complete transformation, both a factory for the world and a new El Dorado of the market economy.

I love these, as much for their informality as for their amazingness.

[via Coudal Partners]

Josh Billings Quotations

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I’ve been collecting quotations for years and figured I’d put my collections online for others to use as they wish. Enjoy these quotations, use the comment form to share any quotations by Josh Billings you don’t find here.

More on Josh Billings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Billings.

The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.
– Josh Billings

The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
– Josh Billings

There is gravity in wisdom, but no particular wisdom in gravity.
– Josh Billings

There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together.
– Josh Billings

Live within your income, even if you have to borrow money to do so.
– Josh Billings

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.
– Josh Billings

Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.
– Josh Billings

A learned fool is one who has read everything, and simply remembered it.
– Josh Billings

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
– Josh Billings

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.
– Josh Billings

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Ambrose Bierce Quotations

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I’ve been collecting quotations for years and figured I’d put my collections online for others to use as they wish. Enjoy these quotations, use the comment form to share any quotations by Ambrose Bierce you don’t find here.

Note: I’ve got quite a bit of The Devil’s Dictionary included here.

More on Ambrose Bierce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce.

A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
– Ambrose Bierce

A cynic is a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be.
– Ambrose Bierce

A cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness, and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.
– Ambrose Bierce

A man is known by the company that he organizes.
– Ambrose Bierce

A penny saved is a penny to squander.
– Ambrose Bierce

Prejudice, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
– Ambrose Bierce

Prehistoric, adj. Belonging to an early period and a museum. Antedating the art and practice of perpetuating falsehood.
– Ambrose Bierce

Quoting, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
– Ambrose Bierce

Specialist, n. One who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else.
– Ambrose Bierce

Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.
– Ambrose Bierce

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