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#TreasureTrove

vibrant, sinuous painting of wild irises with long bright green stalks and deep purple heads, with one white iris visible, and smaller orange-yellow flowers in the background -- possibly marigoldsIrises by Vincent van Gogh

adamrice posted The Getty Makes 88,000 Art Images Free to Use However You Like, featuring a huge trove of images released under a CC0 license.

03/12/24
by taz

slippery history

The one thing I have definitively learned is the old Doctor House mantra applies: Everybody lies: Mefi's own garius (Gareth Edwards) comments in the post on his article about the Rise and Fall of Steve Jobs’s Greatest Rival — and adds "a sneaky Mefi bonus" preview of next month's "The Crazy Ones" column!

03/10/24
by taz

"like an anal probe"

Close-up of weathered sign reading UNITED STATES | CANADA INTERNATIONAL BORDER LINEUS Canada border photo by Chris Connelly on Flickr

St. Peepsburg wondering about the days before crossing the US/Canada border became so painful, eh? People have answers and interesting anecdotes.

02/24/24
by taz

hither and yon

Photo of a green, leafy, narrow, tunnel-like sunken road with high banks of reddish earth, roots, and mossA hollow way at La Meauffe, Manche, France By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0, By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0

"Also known as holloways, they have inspired literary and artistic reflection, conjuring images of fantastic landscapes" ... cupcakeninja leads our path to a "serene and tranquil post" about the sunken roads of the Anthropocene. (Also, don't miss 43rdAnd9th's delightful tidbit about drovers getting geese to market)

02/17/24
by taz

curious but distinctive signs

photo of an old postcard with Linear B characters written on itvia antigonejournal.com, The Linear B postcard written by John Chadwick to Michael Ventris, digitised by the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.

The reviews are in: "A fascinating story well told. Truly the Beat of the Web." chavenet posted the excellent article Cracking the Code of Linear B by Theodore Nash, chock full of details.

02/12/24
by taz

All Fun and Games

Close-up photo showing the edge of a monopoly board with the race car playing piece on the Go To Jail square and a small red plastic house on an adjacent square

Nice weekly free thread discussing the games we play! Don't miss Wobbuffet's commentary about the history of parlor games from antiquity to the present, and how old games reveal themselves in modern equivalents.

01/23/24
by taz

We put on our robe and our wizard hat ...

atmospheric photo of 2 multi-sided gaming dice with colorful bokeh lights in backgroundPhoto by Scott Swigart on Flickr

Wobbuffet casts a mage hand with a smashing megathread for Dungeons & Dragons 50th birthday (more or less)! 🐉

01/14/24
by taz

Cracker Barrel

illustration showing huge neon text ENTER THE DEMOSCENE atop a futuristic cityimage via generationamiga.com

Z303 has crafted an amazing megapost on demoscene history, techniques, creations, social scene, and more.

12/12/23
by taz

Time Tunnel

colorful abstract spiraling swirl against a dark backgroundTwirl Time by The Boy from Bare (cc by)

Among other things, Mefites ponder fashion changes (or lack thereof) in the last 20 years, and whether 96 unfrosted brown sugar PopTarts is too many unfrosted brown sugar PopTarts. Also, bisons are BACK, baby, and, timely: a 24-hour Dr. Who charity livestream event beginning 11/25, POV, Time Lord time.

11/25/23
by taz

You can get anything you want at...

Cover of Arlo Guthrie's album, Alice's RestaurantCover of Arlo Guthrie's album, Alice's Restaurant

It's Throwback Thursday, and we're looking back at post's about Arlo Guthrie's song, Alice's Restaurant! There was Miko's 2010 epic post that goes into details about the story, graymouser's 50th anniversary celebration of the song in 2015, and Winnie the Proust's post in 2021 about Guthrie's retirement.

"Hellish"

Dramatic chiaroscuro oil painting of roiling dark storm clouds with sunlight breaking through to illuminate the rocky valley belowAlbert Bierstadt - A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie via Wikimedia Commons

Fascinating: 19th Century Scientists Set Out to Solve the Problem of American Storms. In the comments, plastic_animals posts about Cleveland Abbe (first head of the US Weather Bureau) and his daughter, artist Elfriede Abbe, and Mefite johnabbe shows up to talk about his great-aunt Elfriede!

11/14/23
by taz

Maybe breakfast isn't that important

Full EnglishFull English by jthetzel (cc by)

'Phunniemee' asked about cultures that don't eat breakfast. 'Jane the Brown' provided a deliciously enlightening answer that covers technology, logistics, and history.

A Penne for Your Thoughts?

a single uncooked Penne noodlePenne Rigate, so much better than Lisce, tutti lo sanno

Did you know that there's a pasta rabbit hole? Well, apparently, yes, and davebarnes went down it and survived. Mumimor descended the pasta & chicken hole, yyz adds a durum roll, and St. Oops's mom was a recipe developer for an American pasta company. Lots of great comments in the Pasta  thread.

11/04/23
by taz

Thou art the bestest kitty

A page from a medieval manuscript that features a cat as a king You'll be happy to know that there was no large culling of cats in the 14th century that wound up causing the Plague. 'Spamandkimchi' shows the receipts on just how beloved cats were in those early times!

London's Green Cabmen's Shelters

Photo of a Cabmen's Shelter on the side of a street in London Ever wondered what those green huts by the side of the road in London are? They're Cabmen’s Shelters and ' chariot pulled by cassowaries' made a lovely post about these relics from the Victorian era.

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