Documentary
Speed…Kills: A Town With a New Name
A town of just 45 people called Speed in Australia pledged to change their name if more than 10,000 people ‘liked’ their Facebook page. They reached that target on the day of launch, so local farmer Phil Down said he would change his name to Phil Slow Down if the ‘likes’ reached 20,000. At the […]
Rape of a Nation
Photographer Marcus Bleasdale, has spent time documenting the plight of women who have suffered, sometimes multiple, rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He tries to understand why rape is such a powerful weapon in war, and why it’s so effective at destroying whole communities… and why those women often end up marrying their rapist. […]
The Not-Quite-Hidden But Too Often Ignored…
U.S. academic Minh-Ha T. Pham has put together “an alternative archive of the not-quite-hidden but too often ignored fashion histories of U.S. women of color’, as a reaction against fashion exhibitions that concentrate solely on the fashions of wealthy white women. Explore some of the photos on Of Another Fashion, such as the photo of […]
50 Things Internet is Killing Off…
According to The Telegraph the internet is killing off all manner of things, from polite disagreement (No.1) to the lunch-break (No.50) via wedding telegrams (No.23) and the the curiously adjacent dogging (No.24). Read the full list here.
NGO’s ‘Fess Up to Failure
Engineers Without Borders Canada have done what many NGOs have failed to do and that is admit that help given to developing countries isn’t always helpful. In some cases a solution to a perceived problem just brings more problems. But no-one will admit it in case people stop donating their money to charity to help […]
The Father of Modern Fitness
Jack LaLanne was able to do fingertip push-ups well into his 90s. Never heard of him? If you struggle to the gym before or after work you can thank him because he founded the modern fitness movement in the 1930s, when lifting weights was considered weird (some still do consider it weird…). In 1951 he […]
The Nanny Photographs
Vivian Maier, was an eccentric, shy nanny who worked for wealthy families in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s turns out to have been leading a double life as one of the most talented photographers of the 20th century. But nobody knew this until an author researching a book, John Maloof, bought a job lot […]
Cass Pennant: Football Hooligan and Gentleman Publisher
A recent article in The Bookseller lamented the demise of a small publishing house, Pennant Books, driven out of business by the cold financial climate. John Blake wrote that the owner, Cass Pennant, paid his authors “decent advances. I heard he was meticulous in paying his royalties.” But look into his back-story (already documented in […]
Kidnapped Baby Reunited with Parents After 24 Years
When Carlina White, just 19-days old, was snatched by a bogus nurse from Harlem Hospital she disappeared without a trace. Twenty-four years on, her parents might be forgiven for not expecting to ever see her again. But they would have reckoned without Carlina’s tenacity at tracking down her biological family, after having suspicions about the […]
Taxi! The Secret Life of Taxi Drivers
A recent phone-in to the Scott Mills show on BBC Radio 1 revealed that taxis are used for much more than getting from one place to another. One woman called a taxi driver to remove a spider from her bath; someone else sent the taxi driver to the local supermarket to do their shopping, and […]
Mad(-ish) Entrepreneurs
You don’t have to be mad to be an entrepreneur, but it sure helps, suggests an article in the New York Times. The qualities exhibited by risk taking businessmen – optimism, drive and big ideas – are also typical symptoms of someone in the grip of a hypomanic episode; but the key difference is that […]
Celebrity Magazine Porkies – Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Gawker has compiled a handy analysis of which celebrity magazines are the most accurate with their stories – and conversely, which, ahem, stretch ignore the truth a little lot. Us Weekly turns out to be the most honest (or perhaps better predictors of the future pregnancies, break ups, divorces and reconciliations of famous folk). Star […]
In Almost Every Picture
Every year, 88-year-old Dutch woman Ria van Dijk visits a fairground shooting gallery ad picks up a gun. And every time she scores a hit a camera flashes and her photo is taken. She’s been visiting the shooting gallery almost every year since 1936, and the series of pictures taken chronicle her life since she […]
GPS Rhinos
A number of South African rhinos have had GPS devices inserted into their horns, to try to stop them being poached – the GPS alerts game wardens if the rhino is detected to be in an unexpected location, behaving in an odd manner (sleeping too long) or running. The hope is to stop the illegal […]
“It’s amazing how things have changed since 1994…”
Recently, two sisters were released from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility on condition that one donated her kidney to the other one who relies on dialysis. In their press conference speech one of them remarked on the changes to the world since they were convicted in 1994 of taking part in a $11 robbery. “It’s […]
The Real Peggy Olsen R.I.P.
Phyllis Robinson, who died on New Year’s Eve 2010 aged 89, was one of the advertising pioneers when she was appointed to run the copy department at a new agency Doyle Dane Bernbach and she was called “the first great modern advertising writer” by former Esquire art director, George Lois. She was responsible for successful […]
Golden Voice
The world has been abuzz with the story of golden-voiced homeless man Ted Williams who was given a second chance as a voice-over artist after being discovered begging on a street corner in Ohio. Within days of being signed by food company Kraft, a leaked video showed he’d been cast as the voice of Kraft’s […]
How to Give £1m to Charity – For Non-Millionaires
Why not make it your new year’s resolution to give away a million to worthy causes? Toby Ord earns just over £2,000 a month and gives £833 of that to charity. He has pledged to give away £1m over the course of his lifetime and he insists that it is possible for anyone to do. […]
Secret Life of the Prison Library
Avi Steinberg describes life as a prison librarian at the Suffolk County House of Correction, Massachusetts. Prisoners would run to the library as soon as they were released from their cells, but the history of prison libraries is a troubled one. On one side they are thought to be a good thing – educating and […]
Making NYC A Place to Retire To
As the population ages, NYC is looking at ways to make the teeming city more livable for elderly people. Ideas include ‘perches’ in shops where people can rest, more public toilets in shops and cafes and personal shoppers in supermarkets. Read the full article in the New York Times.
American Ruins
Photographer Arthur Drooker’s photos of N. American buildings make them look as if they’ve survived (or decayed) since ancient times. He uses infrared photography to infuse an other-worldliness in industrial landscapes and dilapidated mansions. See them here.
Sick Memoirs
If you enjoy reading about other people’s illnesses you’ll enjoy the list of Sick Lit put together by Flavorwire. Among others, you can choose from books covering everything from cancer to depression and eating disorders: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person by Miriam Engelberg It’s Not […]
The Breakup 2.0
Something else to add to your Things To Do Before I Die list: break up with someone via social networking. Illana Gershorn interviewed 72 people about how they conduct their romances and break ups via voice mail, texting, Skype, Facebook and instant messaging to get a picture of how love is pursued, and terminated, online […]
A Building of Books
The UK government, currently trying to cut costs in public funding could kill two birds with one stone: close all the libraries and use their books to build social housing: take a look at this building made of books on PSFK.
Dress for Success
Dress for Success is a not-for-profit organization that supplies disadvantaged women with business attire to help them secure a job and become successful in forging a career and supporting themselves through employment. Every year they help 50,000 women around the world. Once admitted to the programme women can access training and mentoring throughout their working […]
Extreme Real Estate Feuds
If you’ve ever had trouble with your neighbours, here’s something to make you feel better (or get you all cross again). NY Magazine lists eight mega-property feuds, ranging from a 40-yr court dispute (that continued even after the deaths of the main protagonists) to a doctor who blew up his 4-story home to stop his […]
The Sheikh’s Batmobile
The Sheikh’s Batmobile by Richard Poplak takes readers on a tour of 17 Muslim countries in an exploration of how American pop culture has been embraced and reinterpreted – for example plastic surgery in Beirut, and a video game classified as a terrorist training tool. Read a review on More Intelligent Life.
Eat Like a Movie Star
Matthew Sweet spends a day hanging out at the catering truck on a movie set to see what actors do, or don’t eat, when they are working. The caterers have to serve three meals a day plus snacks to pernickity thespians on £15 a day. Read the full article in More Intelligent Life. As always, […]
A Veiw of 2000 From 1911
In 1911, Liza Morris’s great grandmother, Estella Jenny Bennett, wrote an account of how she imagined the year 2000 would be. Liza only recently found the account, an excerpt of which has been published by Hub Culture. She imagines a world where people travel underground via something called The Tube and by fast-travelling airships. She […]
How to Work in a Mortuary
Down Among the Dead Men by Michelle Williams tells the story of a year in the life of a mortuary technician; doing a job many people would rather die than do. It’s full of detail of what happens between unexpected and hitherto unexplained death, and disposal of the body. Just as fascinating are the stories […]
Murder Map: London
Make sure you’re too scared to ever leave your house by exploring the data on the MurderMap of London. It aims to log details of every homicide in the city from Jack the Ripper to today and is based on crime reports from the Old Bailey. The site is easily navigable and data can be […]
Why Things Don’t Work
Marketing guru Seth Godin explains why things don’t work – such as lines for taxis outside airports – in this TED Talk. He also outlines several types of broken, including “it’s not my job syndrome”. Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
Guinness World Record Breaking Animals
The Guinness World Records 2011 features ten pages of animal records, including the longest jump by a rabbit (9’6″), the oldest dog ever (29 years and 5 months) and most eggs laid by a chicken (371 in 364 days). Read a round up of animal records in USA Today. Go straight to the Guinness World […]
How to Predict a Malaria Outbreak
Scienitists at The Kenya Medical Research Institute have developed a prediction tool that uses knowledge about mosquito breeding habits and weather patterns to predict outbreaks of malaria. Authorities will have warning of an outbreak three months in advance, allowing them to mobilize resources to the areas that will be affected in advance. The tool can […]
What Does an Army March On? Its Stomach…
The New York Times has published a list of the various army rations fed to the troops of different countries – and which have various barter values between the soldiers keen to give their tastebuds a break from the monotony of home-grown (or at least packed) food rations. Aussies are issued with Vegemite and the […]
Teens in Solitary Confinement
I Don’t Wish Nobody To Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup by David Chura, who spent ten years tutoring teenaged inmates at Westchester County Jail, New York, describes what it’s like to be a young person committed to an isolation unit. Mother Jones wonders whether isolation does more harm than […]
Reverse Graffiti
Reverse graffiti is practiced by people who clandestinely clean the dirt off buildings or vehicles, leaving behind an artwork. See some stunning examples on Environmental Graffiti.
No Shame
Christine Rosen notes that people seem to have no problem undergoing beauty treatments – like teeth whitening or eyebrow (or ladies’ mustache) threading – in public places, such as in the middle of shopping malls and wonders if we have lost the capacity to be embarrassed. It’s safe to assume she’s yet to be acquainted […]
Misconception
When Shannon and Paul Morell finally had two daughters after undergoing the misery of IVF, they were overjoyed. The also looked forward to having a litttle brother or sister for the girls using the six remaining frozen embryos… until the fertility clinic called to say the embryos had been implanted in another woman. Misconception: One […]
Red Carpet Disasters
The Miami Herald notes that celebrities have flocked to earthquake-torn Haiti, as they did to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But this seems to be part of a growing phenomenon that is based on a real desire to roll up their sleeves and help, rather than just show up and glad-hand a […]
Rome
John Hooper writes an article about the pleasures and frustrations of living in – as opposed to visiting – Rome: the snarled traffic, two-tier system for locals and tourists, the sense that anything could happen at any moment and holes in the road that swallow whole cars. Sounds a lot like New York. Read the […]
Exporting Harlem Children’s Zone
In the early 1990s Geoffrey Canada started a social experiment in the impoverished neighbourhood of Harlem, NYC. The aim was to see if it was possible to ensure that every child living on a single block could succeed by changing their housing situation, exposure to violence, health and education. Today the experiment has been hailed […]
Racism in Canada
According to the National Post Canadians are racist. And if you say that ain’t so, that make you a racist too. Read the article to find out why.
White Collar Boxing
Here’s a video on white collar boxing on Babelgum – where bankers knock seven bells out of each other. Now wouldn’t it be nice if ordinary folk got a chance to step into the ring with bankers to vent their frustrations…
Online Dating Infographic
Buzzfeed has published a fascinating infographic about online dating, which reveals among other things: At 28 women have more online suitors than men; at 48 men have twice as much interest from the opposite sex than women; 1 in 10 sex offenders use online dating; The porn industry believe that online dating is behind it’s […]
What Would You Buy With $50?
100+ kids in Uganda were asked by Giveology what they would buy with $50 and were asked to draw their answers, which range from shoes to an iPhone to a plane ticket to NYC. What would you buy with $50? from Jiashan Wu on Vimeo.
Meet Mr Haynes – Manual Man
Ever wondered who the Mr Haynes behind the Haynes manuals is? Find out here.
Being a Fake Businessman
Mitch Moxley describes in an article in The Atlantic Magazine describing how he got a job as the token white guy and fake businessmen at a Chinese company that wanted to give the impression of being an internationally connected business. It’s a lucrative gig for expats who want to make good money by pretending to […]
Survival Gardening
Forget survival shelters, the new paranoid hobby du nos jours is survival gardening. Residents in Lafayette, New Jersey, USA are turning their lawns into veg patches in an attempt to become self-sufficient in the face of threats from climate change, terrorism and declining oil stocks. Linda Grinthal teaches survival gardening skills on her farm, including […]
Does Diversity Training Work?
The Boston Globe explores the history of diversity training in the workplace an asks if it is ever effective in changing attitudes and behaviours, or whether diversity training is just a way to tick boxes and ward off law suits. Read the full article.
