News - Hacking Your Computer

Thought it would be a good idea to post this. It's not just YouTube but it's also MySpace, FaceBook and AIM that have been attacked by hackers. They steal your data from your computer in such a clever way. It's scary how easily we can get hacked, just by opening an email with a fake YouTube link from a friend.

Hackers using fake YouTube pages to attack computers
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081010020252.fvjimzrq&show_article=1

Watch Out, Vincent! Here Comes the B Monster!

The Astounding B Monster features actors and actresses who starred in scary B movies like Marie Windsor and John Kerr. You can read articles, interviews and the newsletters. You can find the list of the scary movies that these actors played at. There are well known actors that I didn't know played in B movies, like James Arness (who played the sheriff in Gunsmoke). There are also interesting interviews like the one with Victoria Price, the daughter of Vincent Price.

I wish they hadn't stopped posting on their site. Last time it was updated was in January 2006. What a bummer! They do have a book though, that you can buy at Amazon.

Click on the main image to enter the site. The images at the top of my post were partially clipped, I just couldn't screen the entire layout. By the way, if you keep refreshing the B Monster homepage, you'll get a different image each time. They are not in a specific order, so it takes awhile to see them all, but it's fun.

The Astounding B Monster
http://www.bmonster.com/default.php

Wisconsin Historical Society's Birdeye Maps

Recently, on September 13 I post a site called "Texas Bird's-Eye Views". The Flickr link is similar, except this time it's the Wisconsin Birdeye Maps. Both sites below are from the Wisconsin Historical Society. You can view the maps at Flickr. The second url is the Wisconsin Historical Society's site.

Flickr - Wisconsin Birdeye Maps
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whsimages/sets/72157601590007015/

Wisconsin Historical Society
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

Blog - Wonderful Wonderblog

I hope I didn't post this last yer. The Wonderful Wonderblog blog currently has a countdown for Halloween. It's not a day by day countdown though. The blogger stopped posting in October 8. I believe the intended goal was to post daily. Unfortunately the blogger, Erick, has a hard time keeping up with the countdown due to personal issues. It does have good Halloween items. There are also good non-Halloween related pop culture posts. Great stuff.

Additionally, there is also a real time list of other blogs' halloween countdowns and posts.

Wonderful Wonderblog - Halloween Countdown 2008
http://wonderfulwonderblog.blogspot.com/

Flickr - tOkKa

tOkKa's Retro Revelations of the K-Mart Kid's set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrible2z/sets/72157594472559160/

The Real Brothers Grimm's Scary Stories

I don't know how well known is the fact that the original Brothers Grimm's stories were very dark and cruel. They weren't children books. Those original stories were met with great dislike from teachers, parents and religious figures. The Kennedy Center tells us that they mostly disliked the "the gruesome punishments inflicted on the stories' villains. In the original Snow White, for example, the evil stepmother is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she falls down dead."

But their stories gradually became very popular with children. It was a period when children books were in a high demand. The brothers realized the potential their stories have in that area. That prompted the brothers to soften their stories for children.

Besides reading all about these brothers, you can read the original stories.

About the Brothers Grimm and Fairytales
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/family/intothewoodsjr/fairytales/home.html

Grimm's Fairy Tales
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html

Guardians of the Fairy Tales: The Brothers Grimm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/article.html


The brothers picture above is from the Nation Master Encyclopedia:

Nation Master Encyclopedia: Brothers Grimm
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Brothers-Grimm

What To Read? A Dime Novel or A Story Paper?

So, here is a basic summary of the introduction. Stanford's Dime Novel and the Story Paper genres were popular from the mid to the end of the 19th century in America and England. In England though, the novels were referred as "Penny Dreadfuls". They targeted the young working class. They were sold in newsstands and dry good stores. The dime novels covered stories of the Wild West adventures with cover illustrations. Other covered tales of urban outlaws, detective stories working-girl narratives of virtue defended and costume romances. The wild west adventure stories had gory cover illustration. I viewed the wild west stories and indeed, they were too gory for me!

The story papers were distributed as a weekly eight page tabloid, who were similar to the dime novels. Unlike the dime novels, the story papers material and themes were appropriated for the entire family. They had a huge circulations those days. In a major contrast to the Dime Novel illustration, the story papers combined the text with the illustrations as wood engraving.

The Stanford Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection has over 8,000 individual items! If you choose to use the "browse images" method via the home page, you'll come across the results of 2369 images! Holy cow! I also recommend that you check out the "Time Line" section. It's pretty cool.

Dime Novels & Penny Dreadfuls
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html

eBay - King's Toys And Dolls

An excerpt from King's Toys and Dolls: "King's Toys & Dolls offers a great selection of 1950s through 1980s pop culture collectibles". They also have items from the 90's.

Indeed there are tons of toys from those eras. It's amazing to see so many of them. There are 29 subjects total. I was jealous when I was viewing the cartoon characters and advertising dolls ;-) Good stuff.

If you are unable to go the store's url directly, use the tinyurl.com link. It should direct you to the eBay url.

King's Toys and Dolls
http://stores.ebay.ca/Kings-Toys-and-Dolls_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfclZ4QQfsubZQ2d999QQftidZ2QQtZkm

OR

King's Toys and Dolls
http://tinyurl.com/3wrgzp

YouTube - Mother Goose Goes To Hollywood (1938)

According to "TheHideHoMan" this cartoon has been banned for racist stereotypes (I don't know when). It was nominated for the Oscars though. It features caricatures of Katherine Hepburn, les Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, Laurel and Hardy, Edward G. Robinson, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp1M6xzI2Z8