Get A Doll To Do A Trick

I did not play with dolls when I was a kid. But looking at these pictures, I can kinda see why there are children who like dolls. However, those Beatles dolls sure look like they are on a "trip".

Thank you Cathy, for the link.

Favorite Dolls of The 60's
http://www.dollinfo.com/dolls60.htm#American

Bill Hartmann - An Astronomy Artist

This image is titled as: "Clearing Out the Solar Nebula: The First Planetesimals"

Check out Bill Hartmann's space painting! Mr. Hartmann is a self taught astronomy painter who works for the imaging team of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. His artwork was featured in various publications. He is also a writer of science books and 2 novels.

Mr. Hartmann basically began to develop his art for his textbook in the 1970's, when he was teaching. He realized that since the textbook's illustrations during that era were not well done (I guess they were pretty crappy), that his more sophisticated astronomical illustrations might get the students more engaged in astronomy. I bet that he achieved this goal right on. After all, his paintings are just amazing. I don't think you have to be a student to appreciate his gift.

In 1982, Bill Hartmann organized the first International Space Art Workshop, that in the long run resulted as an organization called "International Association of Astronomical Artists".

William K. Hartmann
http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/index.html

Operating System Toilet Paper (sort of)

Have you seen this yet? The 'news' is circulating around the web. Yeah, a Japanese toilet paper that promotes the Windows Vista SP1. Too bad I don't speak Japanese. I'm curious what the text on the paper says.

This link is from the http://www.techeblog.com/ But the link to the particular page is so long, I used the "snipurl" site to shortened it.

Tech Blog: Vista Toilet Paper
http://snipurl.com/22b84

A Brief Illustrated History of Voting

The painting above, "The County Election", was painted by George Caleb Bingham in 1846. It's a political event outside the courthouse in Saline County, Missouri, that took place in 1846. There is a much bigger version on the site. When you are there, click on it and you'll get a huge display of this painting.

Have you noticed that all these people are men? Not a single woman in sight. Well, it's typical for that era, but I would think they'd at least wait outside for their husbands or something. Maybe wait with the children for the father.


If I had seen this site sooner, I would have posted it then. It would have been better with all the elections that are happening around the US. Now, don't get me wrong. I greatly dislike politics. But, this site is more about the methods and the process of the voting machines, which I thought were interesting.

It was interesting to see some of the machines, the ballot papers and cards.

Brief Illustrated History of Voting
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/pictures/

Pan-American Expo's Food & Drink

Much of the food that was first promoted at the expo is still around to this day. A lot of them were developed between 1850 and 1900. There was a great emphasis on healthful food at the expo. However, the emphasis lasted only untill the late 19th century, when the public wanted a speedy way to cook food. This demand brought us the canned meat and fruit. Food that are mentioned here are, ice cream soda, Hires Root Beer, Coca Cola ( not surprising), Soda Water, Peanut Butter, Tootsie Roll, Condensed Soup, Jello, Cracker Jack, Cottonlene, Popcorn, Orangeade, and Coney Island Hot Dog.

Besides food and rink,the expo provided the manufacturers an outlet to present an opportunity to display their technological inventions of the latest tools and gadgets.



Read more about it here. It's really easy and fun to read. There is even a news article from 1901 about the popcorn theives! There are pictures of ads too. I, of course. can't post a site without pictures!

Food and Drink at the Pan-American Exposition
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/exhibits/panam/food/marvels.html

Blog - Do What Now?

According to the blogger, Jim Dunn, the "Do What Now" author, he is a "retro-obsesed nerd" who likes "musty old magazines, horrid cookbooks and frightening design books". OK, I admit, I have not read much, but focused more on the vintage pictures, which I thought were cool. He really has a lot of awesome ones.

Do What Now?
http://dowhatnow.typepad.com/do_what_now/

I Hate Mondays!

The Early Office Museum site has interesting vintage office photographs from 1904 - 1909. It doesn't look like these people were particular comfortable. They had wooden chairs that anybody who sat on one, can tell you these chairs are a pain to sit on all day long. How about the stools that don't have any back support? Sitting on them all day! What a good way to make the chiropractors happy! More pain, more money. Heh.

Having no privacy seemed like a drag when sharing the office with a lot of people back in those days. I am sure that today, lots of people can appreciate "their" cubes. Nice having privacy, and putting your toys on the desk. ;-) Oh yeah, and playing secretly on the web with your partner on the third floor.

Early Office Museum
http://www.earlyofficemuseum.com/photo_gallery_1900s_ii.htm

Children Of The Past

The "Children in the Collection" site is dedicated to children photography that are from the late 19th century and early 20th century. There are also a few from the 60's. I enjoyed looking through the pictures. So many of the young ones look so naive and innocent. I wonder if any of the children are still alive today. Well, the youngest ones from the 30's anyway. They would have to be in their late 70's - 90's.

Children in the Collection
http://photoswest.org/exhib/faves/kidsintro.htm/



You can also view the photographs here. Same site but a slide show. You can also see other collections.

Children in the Collection-Slide Show
http://history.denverlibrary.org/sales/showCategory.cfm?category_id=29

The Wild West Outlaws

This is a great source about the wild west outlaws, accompanied with their pictures. It is supposed to be a complete list. I was actually looking for "wanted dead or alive" vintage posts from that era, but have had no luck so far. Some of the pictures are kinda creepy and/or gloomy.

Old West Outlaws
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-OutlawList-A.html/

Blog Plaid Stallions

The Plaid Stallions blog makes fun of the 70's. The description of the blog is that it's "mocking the 70'd one catalog page at a time". The author uses humor when he describes the subject of his post. There are stuff about clothes, toys, newspaper articles, advertising etc. I recommend checking out this blog. It brought me memories for the 70's. I don't remember the toy ads, but I sure remember those old Sears & J.C. Penney's catalogs it was fun for me browsing through the pages.

Plaid Stallions Blog
http://plaidstallions.blogspot.com/

A Few Old-Modern Japanese Ads

There are 8 small pages in the "The Nation in Modern Japanese Advertising" that feature a unique advertising style of modern advertising in Japan. The "modern" ads are actually from the 20's - 30's.

The ad above is for cigarettes. I can't translate it for you though.

The Nation in Modern Japanese Advertising
http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/Slideshows/nation_advertising/med_res/sld001.htm

A Very Cleaver Dog

I just absolutely love this video. It was posted on YouTube last April. I have seen it a few times. It still amazes me each time that I view it, how clever this dog is! Basically what happens is that he is trying to reach his ball which is in the pool, while he is on the ground. He won't jump into the pool. So he hatches an amazing plan which you'll see in the video.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflRbYdCbNg