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The Dresden Codex: The Oldest Book in America
02.04.2010
04:03 pm
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Check out these full-color, large-size reproductions of pages from the Dresden Codex, a Mayan magical script. Pages include invocations of gods and planetary energies. Fascinating stuff.

“The height of Maya civilization in what are now parts of Central America and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula lasted for most of the first millennium CE, and elements of Maya culture survived until the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century.

Among the greatest accomplishments of the Maya was the development of highly sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems, both of which played an important role in their religious beliefs and practices.”

The Dresden Codex (named for the city where it is housed) is a fig bark paper manuscript in concertina style, produced around the beginning of the 13th century (a contentious point). The seventy four pages are sewn together producing an eleven foot document which was originally folded up between protective wooden covers bearing engraved jaguars. As the most complete of the few remaining Maya manuscripts, it is a comprehensive source for Maya calendar and astronomy systems and an aid to glyph interpretation in the wider iconography of the Maya culture.

“The Dresden Codex was written by eight different scribes using both sides. They all had their own particular writing style, glyphs and subject matter. [..] Its images were painted with extraordinary clarity using very fine brushes. The basic colors used from vegetable dyes for the codex were red, black and the so-called Mayan blue.”

(BibliOdyssey: The Oldest Book in America)

(Amazon: The Dresden Codex)

Posted by Jason Louv
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02.04.2010
04:03 pm
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New Footage Of The ‘86 Challenger Explosion
02.04.2010
02:35 pm
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Just over 24 years ago, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded over Florida’s Atlantic Coast.  Some newly discovered footage of that tragedy, filmed from a Florida driveway by optometrist Jack Moss, follows below:

The four-minute film, shot at Moss’ second home in Winter Haven, Fla., might have remained stuffed away in a basement box, lost among the many 8-millimeter tapes he filmed of his family over the years. But shortly before the 88-year-old Moss died in December, he donated the tape to the Space Exploration Archive, a non-profit, educational organization in Louisville.

It’s not slick or polished, which makes it all the more a chilling, poignant snapshot of a tragedy, Marc Wessels, the archive’s executive director, said Thursday on the 24th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. The explosion killed the shuttle’s seven crew members, including science teacher Christa McAuliffe who had been chosen by NASA to become the first civilian in space.

 
Late Optometrist’s Video Offers Rare View Of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

(via TDB)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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02.04.2010
02:35 pm
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The Diary Musings Of Dr. Mengele
02.03.2010
07:20 pm
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The diary of Nazi medical experimenter, Josef Mengele (above, arms folded), was put up for auction in January, but, so far, there’s been little interest in it.  Written in the ‘60s when Herr Doctor was camping out in South America, the diary had apparently been kept by Mengele’s son.  Here are some entry snippets:

I see how right my plans have been all along and I understand now that following people’s advice mostly results in irreparable nonsense.  But I refuse to pass guilt onto others: I was solely responsible for my decisions.

The real problem is to define when human life is worth living and when it has to be eradicated.  There’s no good or bad in nature.  There’s only appropriate or inappropriate.  Both sides receive equal chances.  Nevertheless, nature provides a strainer.  Things that are inappropriate fall through since they lose in the struggle for survival.

Everything will end in catastrophe if natural selection is altered to the point that gifted people are overwhelmed by billions of morons.  We have to prevent the rise of the idiot masses.  Inferior morons should be exterminated.  We have to make sure that nature’s suspended eradication will continue through human arrangements.  Birth control can be done by sterilizing those with deficient genes.

(via Israel Herald)

 

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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02.03.2010
07:20 pm
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Gerald Ford’s goofy TV commercials: “I’m feeling good about America”
01.31.2010
10:24 pm
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“I’m feeling good about America.” No, not me, those are the lyrics to the jingle in this 1976 vintage Gerald Ford TV commercial. Can you imagine a major presidential campaign doing anything even remotely like this today?

Bonus clip: Pearl Bailey tries to explain, but never quite articulates, why she thinks people should vote for Gerald Ford. In the end, she settles for she likes him, so should you:

See more political TV commercials of olde at The Living Room Candidate. Thank you Timothy Stanley!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.31.2010
10:24 pm
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Serial KIller on The Dating Game
01.27.2010
08:50 pm
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It’s difficult to happen upon a headline like “LA Weekly Found the Creepiest Thing Ever Put on the Internet” and decide to pass it by. I’m like you, I want to see the creepiest thing ever put on the Internet, right? That came into my inbox this afternoon courtesy of Tina Dupuy/Fishbowl LA and… you know, it is pretty fuckin’ creepy. What am I talking about? Try this on for size:

Rodney Alcala is a man stuck in a time warp, his flowing silver hair, granny glasses, beige blazer and jeans reminiscent of a creative-writing professor circa 1980, the year he began life behind bars. As he walked into an Orange County Superior Court room one recent day, news photographers snapped his lean, no-longer-handsome face. His handcuffs were removed, he picked up a pen with his left hand and waited for Orange County Superior Court Judge F.P. Briseno to bring in the 12 jurors who will decide if he should die or spend the rest of his life in prison or, though exceedingly unlikely, go free.

The once-dashing ladies’ man, UCLA fine-arts grad, former Los Angeles Times typesetter, amateur photographer and film student of Roman Polanski’s is believed to have used his smooth-talking charm and access to the creative communities in L.A. and Greenwich Village during the 1970s to entrap and murder seven women and girls, and to rape several others. So smooth was Alcala that he was selected to compete on the ABC prime-time show The Dating Game in 1978, where “bachelorette” Cheryl Bradshaw picked him as her date. Later, police say, she reportedly refused to go on the winning date, sensing that there was something creepy about Bachelor Number One.

Smart girl. A serial killer on The Dating Game! Here’s the footage. Yikes!


Rodney Alcala: The Fine Art of Killing by Christine Pelisek (LA Weekly)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.27.2010
08:50 pm
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Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts
01.26.2010
10:39 pm
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LIFE’s photo gallery—more like rogues gallery—of famous writers who have done their livers no favors.

Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts (LIFE)

Thank you Mark Pesce!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.26.2010
10:39 pm
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Iranian Breaking Dance Off (1991)
01.26.2010
11:45 am
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The female audience looks thrilled!
 
(via HYST)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.26.2010
11:45 am
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The Eccentric Ecclesiastical Architecture of the North San Fernando Valley
01.21.2010
04:46 pm
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SEPULVEDA UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY (THE ONION) 9550 Haskell Avenue
Frank Ehrenthal (1964) The Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society sanctuary, widely known asThe Onion for its unique, bulbous shape, was designed by Frank Ehrenthal, a student of Richard Neutra. The contoured wood beam building features a circular shape with a flat point at the highest peak of the roof, resembling the tapered end of a giant onion. In February, 1966 The Grateful Dead along with Ken Kesey and various Merry Pranksters staged an Acid Test here !
 
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KNOLLWOOD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 12121 Balboa Boulevard
Hal C. Whittenmore (1966) The ultra-modern Knollwood United Methodist Church is defined by its swooping, asymmetrical white walls, including a soaring fin-like tower that evokes a traditional Mediterranean campanile (bell tower).
 
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CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF NORTHRIDGE 9659 Balboa Boulevard
A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons (1962) Built as a pyramid, this church’s sanctuary appears infinitely solid on the outside yet equally light and airy inside. The interior’s exposed beams soar to a skylight at the apex, while hanging cylindrical light fixtures float throughout. Walls of glass integrate outdoor gardens with plantings along the inside perimeter. A below-grade entrance and garden wall minimize street noise. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the building was deemed one of the safest in the San Fernando Valley.
 
(thanks L.J.Williamson !)

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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01.21.2010
04:46 pm
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Larry ?
01.20.2010
07:17 pm
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Tuli Kupferberg was a mentor to all of us who grew up in the ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.20.2010
07:17 pm
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When Roadies Were Real Men
01.19.2010
11:28 pm
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Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.19.2010
11:28 pm
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