Portable lighthouse keeper libraries of yesteryear

Portable lighthouse keeper libraries of yesteryear: "

Here's a beautiful display of the portable libraries that were once supplied to Michigan's lighthouse keepers; click through for a partial bibliography of titles, including 'MY APINGI KINGDOM: WITH LIFE IN THE GREAT SAHARA, AND SKETCHES OF THE CHASE OF THE OSTRICH, HYENA.'

In 1876 portable libraries were first introduced in the Light-House Establishment and furnished to all light vessels and inaccessible offshore light stations with a selection of reading materials. These libraries were contained in a portable wooden case, each with a printed listing of the contents posted inside the door. Proper arrangements were made for the exchange of these libraries at intervals, and for revision of the contents as books became obsolete in accordance with suggestions obtained from public library authorities.

The books were carefully selected from books of a good standard appropriate to the families who would use them. While largely fiction, other classes of literature were included in reasonable proportions including technical books when requested. The books and periodicals contained in the libraries remained the property of the Light-House Establishment and each was marked in the front with the official Light-House Establishment bookplate. The beautiful 3' x 4 ½' bookplate label bears a wonderful image of an iron pile lighthouse and Minot's Ledge Light, and a lightship and bears the words 'The Property of the Light House Establishment'.

USLHE Traveling Library

(via Neatorama)

• Funny Gummi Lighthouses


• The lighthouse at Devil's Island


• Abandoned nuclear lighthouses of the Soviet empire ...

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Animations made from found images

Animations made from found images: "

Cassandra C. Jones makes collage animations and photos by assembling found images into new ones, like this tribute to Muybridge's horses, made from stock photos strung together in clever sequence.

Snap Motion Re-Animation

(via Kottke)

• An honest person, or a very convoluted scam: You be the judge ...


• Virgin Mary in MRI


• 60 satellite images of Earth

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18th-century etching of a meteor breaking apart

18th-century etching of a meteor breaking apart: "

This detail is from an etching was done by artist Paul Sandby, based on a watercolor by his brother Thomas. Recently acquired by Harvard's Houghton Library, it depicts a meteor watching party at Windsor Castle.

Shortly after 9:00 PM on the evening of August 18th, 1783, a fireball streaked across the night sky, and thanks to the warm and muggy weather, was widely observed. Perhaps the best constituted party of observers was gathered on the terrace at Windsor Castle: their numbers included both the physicist Tiberius Cavallo and the artist Thomas Sandby. Cavallo would go on to publish his account and a diagram of the meteor's progressive breakup in the atmosphere in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society the following year, along with the observations of several other members who also witnessed the event.

You can read excerpts from Cavallo's manuscript at the Houghton Library blog.

Submitterated by Horace Rumpole

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A genuine 'elixir of life' - at least for mice

A genuine 'elixir of life' - at least for mice: "A genuine 'elixir of life' that can hold death at bay has been
discovered by scientists."

Lions turn on trainer at Ukraine circus

Lions turn on trainer at Ukraine circus: "A tourist's video has caught the moment two lions turned on their trainer in front of hundreds of spectators in a savage attack at an Ukrainian circus."

Veteran actor Norman Wisdom dies

Veteran actor Norman Wisdom dies: "

Actor SIR NORMAN WISDOM has died after an ongoing battle with ill health. He was 95."

Botched Botox injection left Delany with 'droopy' eye

Botched Botox injection left Delany with 'droopy' eye: "

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star DANA DELANY has warned women against face-freezing Botox injections because her own experience was so harrowing, it left her with a 'droopy' eye."