Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Chinese New Year




Sunday is the start of the Chinese New Year. It'll be the "Year of the Dog." Every year is year of the Dog in my house; spoiled animals that they are. At any rate here's a cool page that New York's Chinatown did outlining traditional munchies. If anyone wants to come to the parades with me (dragon puppets!) on Sunday (in Chicago), drop me a line.

Guess They Really Do Stunt Your Growth



I shouldn't be laughing, but the combo headlne and picture makes me laugh. It's not funny, I know. (via Gridskipper)

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Dust Bowl Photographs - Farm Security Administration



Here's a link to pictures taken during the dust bowl migration. Even though I've seen these before, I'm always a little bit awestruck at the grittiness and hard times evoked.

These images depict people who were driven from their homes in the Southwestern states by drought and economic depression and migrated to the West in search of work. Most of the images in this archive were taken in the mid to late 1930s by Dorothea Lange, one of several photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document migrant life. Many of the FSA photographs were used to publicize the deplorable living and working conditions of the migrants.

The images in this collection are part of a larger collection of FSA photographs in the Library of Congress’ American Memory Historical Collections. For copyright and credit information consult the Library of Congress’ Restrictions on FSA/OWI Black-and-White Images.

If you would like further information on the CSU, Bakersfield library’s collection of FSA photographs, please contact Librarian Christy Gavin (cgavin@csub.edu or 661-664-3237).

(via Neatorama)

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Lenticular Clouds

I have never seen this type of cloud formation before:




Very interesting. (via Neatorama) These are formed by "mountain waves" - strong waves of atmospheric pressure that form as air moves over mountains. Given the right conditions, moisture in these waves condense to form clouds.