71 Thousand High-Res Historical Maps Available for Free Download
via http://www.archdaily.com/797814/71-thousand-high-res-historical-maps-available-for-free-download

The PCL Map Collection includes more than 250,000 maps

see also: http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Search.cfm?CREIRN=32455&ORDER_SELECT=1&VIEW_SELECT=4

NASA has confirmed that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went through customs upon their return to Earth and the United States. They filled out the above form, declaring their travel itinerary and that they had brought back moon rocks, dust, and samples through the US border. They did not mention the whiskey smuggled inside Aldrin’s suitcase.

Link -via Geekosystem

Via How To Be A Retronaut, scans of a series of collectible cards, sold to raise awareness of the anti-slavery cause, with photos of slave children whom abolitionists had brought North and freed. It’s an interesting glimpse into how widely “blackness” could be defined in the slave-era South:

‘Slave children, freed and brought North by abolitionists to emphasize the plight of slaves. The proceeds from sale of the photographs were to be used to educate freed slaves who had come under the jurisdiction of the Union Army in the New Orleans area. A caption on one of these photographs points out that the children had been turned out of a hotel in Philadelphia because of their “color.”’

The British plotted to lace Hitler’s food with estrogen so as to turn him “feminine” or into a mustached transsexual or something. Because that would bring about peace. Lesson being, if it hadn’t ended when it did, World War II would have grown continually stranger and stranger. The Telegraph writes:

Some tried bombs to neutralize the Führer, others tried bullets. Now it has come to light that British spies looked at derailing the man behind the German war machine by giving him female sex hormones.

Agents planned to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food to make him less aggressive and more like his docile younger sister Paula, who worked as a secretary.

Spies working for the British were close enough to Hitler to have access to his food, said Professor Brian Ford, who discovered the plot. He explained that oestrogen was chosen because it was tasteless and would have a slow and subtle effect, meaning it would pass Hitler’s food testers unnoticed.

Speaking about the scheme, Prof Ford, a science writer and fellow of Cardiff University, said: “There was an Allied plan that they would smuggle oestrogen into Hitler’s food and change his sex so he would become more feminine and less aggressive.

electronic music genres dictionary. for the electronically challenged :)

re-finding the tweets that got away

'Happy birthdayday to you' is copyrighted!

for 9 days in July, 7 photographers of the Mioritics Association have covered a circuit that included 60 fortified churches in the area of Sighisoara - Medias - Sibiu - Agnita.