Les Pieds Nickelés: Early 1900s French Comics

By Louis Forton:

In 1908, he became the leading artist of L'Épatant, a magazine that had just been launched by Offenstadt. He created numerous covers, illustrations, but also the legendary 'Pieds Nickelés'. The exploits of the three vagabonds Riboulingue, Filochard and Croquignol were an immediate success, and several book collections of this "anarchist" strip, that gave comments on aristocrats and political figures of the time, followed from 1915. Apparently, Forton wasn't drafted during the Great War, but he did send his characters to the battlefield, letting them deal with the "Boches" (nickname for Germans) and even their "Kaiser" in person.

Wiki commons.

Extra.

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Boxing Kangaroos in Chinese

Simple pleasure, I know, but I was checking my site meter and I had a very long visit here today from someone in Taiwan. The image at the left is how this site looks after going through Babelfish. Dang pretty.

Here's the link.

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A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries

Rooms, it seems, are the theme for today. Here are more than a few amazing examples, from Curious Expeditions, in a post titled Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries:

For us here at Curious Expeditions, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library.

The example here is from the Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, or the Old Library of the House of Representatives in the Hague, Netherlands. (Click for much larger image.) You can practically smell it.

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Inspiring Hotel Rooms

There must be a Web site for everything.

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"Trial by Combat Between a Man and a Woman"

From a 15th century Fechtbuch - "fight book" - a manual on the art of trial by combat, part of Germanic Law, practiced in Medieval Europe from after the fall of the Roman Empire in the the 5th century until, in some cases, until the 19th century. Excerpt:

Hie hatt sie In gebracht an den Rucken vnd wyl In wirgen vnd ziehen vsz der grub.

Here she has laid him on his back and wishes to strangle him and drag him out of the hole.

More here.

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Periodic Table Printmaking Project

This is amazing:

Ninety-seven printmakers of all experience levels, have joined together to produce 118 prints in any medium; woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, silkscreen, or any combination. The end result is a periodic table of elements intended to promote both science and the arts.

The image above is by Mark M. Cullen of Middleton, Wisconsin, is a linocut with watercolor and gouache, and represents the element platinum, atomic number 78.

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Digital Photography Discussion Forum

With shots like this. (As with all photos, click on image to enlarge.)

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Vintage Postcards From Hawaii

This one here is of the Hakalau Sugar Mill, on the Big Island, early 1900s.

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Jalgaon District, India

The Jalgaon District of India has a wonderful Web site.

Jalgaon:

Jalgaon District is located in the north-west region of the state of Maharashtra. It is bounded by Satpuda mountain ranges in the north, Ajanta mountain ranges in the south. Jalgaon is rich in volcanic soil which is well suited for cotton production. It is a major business centre for tea, gold, pulses, cotton and bananas. Languages spoken are Marathi, Ahirani, Hindi, and English. Jalgaon District receives an average rainfall of about 690 mm and the temperature varies from 10 to 48 degree Celsius.

48? That's 118 Fahrenheit. Ow.

A map.

A physical features map.

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Never Mind the Pussy Cat

The Ornithological Art of Edward Lear:

In 1830, visitors to the new Zoological Gardens in London were bemused by a young man—a boy, really—who sat sketching the birds in the Parrot House. He drew the birds as they perched and played, and with the help of a zookeeper named Gosse, measured their wingspans, and the dimensions of their bodies, beaks, and legs. Visitors lingered to watch, and he filled the margins of his paper with caricatures of the people around him.

Edward Lear was working on a startlingly audacious project. Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots was a monograph he planned to publish by subscription in fourteen folios. It was ground-breaking in several ways: Lear was the first ornithological illustrator to publish in the large folio size, and the first to devote an entire book to a single family of birds. His insistence on drawing from life whenever possible was innovative, as was his decision to use lithography.

Lear published the first two folios of the Psittacidae on November 1, 1830.

• Photo from Wiki Commons. Click on photo for very large image.

• Hat tip, Monkey Filter.

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Islamic Baby Clothes

Islamic baby clothes.

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