GADGET FOR TODAY–Author Lawrence Lipton, chronicler of the beatnik scene, demonstrates his “robot,” Duhab (Detector of Undesirable HABitués). Lipton says robot ferrets out the undesirables – including censors, book-burners.
[…] “The Venice West beat scene was the most promising attempt ever made to bring avant-garde culture to Southern California, and it was murdered by self-righteous, puritanical busy-bodies and hostile police,” he said.
Nigel Cockerton received a Master’s in Forensic and Medical Art from the University of Dundee, Scotland, and has also trained and worked with FBI officials in the U.S.
One day Cockerton decided to perform some forensic facial reconstruction on a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka.
The skull-shaped bottle is based on 13 crystal heads that have been found in various regions around the world – from the American southwest to Tibet. The heads – believed to be between 5,000 and 35,000-years-old – are thought to offer spiritual power and enlightenment to those who possess them.
Mr Cockerton said the skull he reconstructed was a European female aged between 21 and 30 – although without the real fragments of teeth, he was not able to be more precise.
The Star Spangled Banner, The Diamond Four (ca. 1898) Berliner 4258, 7-inch 70 rpm record found here. Under the Berliner Gramophone trademark, German inventor and audio recording pioneer Emile Berliner began marketing 7-inch diameter disc records in the United States in 1894. The Diamond Four recorded several other songs for Berliner.
Stars And Stripes Forever, Kendle’s First Regiment Band (1901)Possibly the first recording of John Philip Sousa‘s “The Stars And Stripes Forever March.” Sousa wrote in his autobiography that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896, while crossing the Atlantic, after he learned of the death of his band’s manager. In 1987 an Act of Congress declared the song to be the Official National March of the United States of America.
Also known as (I’m A) Yankee Doodle Dandy, the melody goes back to folk songs of Medieval Europe. The earliest words of Yankee Doodle came from a Middle Dutch harvest song of the same tune, possibly dating back as early as 15th-century Holland. It contained mostly nonsensical words in English and Dutch.
In 1978 Yankee Doodle was adopted as the Official Song of the State of Connecticut.
Funny papers was the title of a German-language satire magazine. After a brief start-up phase in Hamburg, the magazine was published as a weekly newspaper from 1886 to 1944 in Berlin. It was founded and published by the writer Alexander Moszkowski.
[Image found here. Note that there is no Wikipedia entry for Lustige Blätter in English.]
Tacky Raccoons 