a Faux Pas

Awful Library Books indeed!  Metafilter user wendell put together a terrific post exploring some of the best posts from the Awful Library Books blog.  One of the better posts included this book with some rather outdated commentary:

Volumes that are so outdated or so outmoded that they no longer belong in a public library.Your grandfather’s Computer Science. Your grandfather’s Rocket Science. Your grandmother’s Feminism.Your great-grandmother’s Pre-Feminism. (And your great-grandfather’s.) Your grandparents’ parents! World Powers that no longer exist! Old predictions that didn’t happen! Bios of people when they were famous for something else! Roller Disco! Books considered crackpot when they were new! Stuff even the Politically Incorrect would think are Just Plain Wrong! And more!
(via Metafilter and Neatorama)

How about these bonus nuggets of advertisements that I’ve scrounged from the internets…
(click the pictures to enlarge)

Housekeeping Monthly – The 1955 version:

Every good woman needs a good spanking:

Lysol is what is missing in your marriage.  Not love:

The answer to this question is “certainly.”  That is, when she can’t work a simple postage machine:

And the age old picture that’s made its round on the web for years:

- Still impressed with the boldness of our grandparents, AFP

In September of 2008, two Austrians traveled 13,000km by rail from Vienna to Pyongyang – without asking permission and going through the official Koran travel agency.  Travelling via Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia, they chatted up North Korean border officials, were invited to eat lunch by North Koreans on the train, spent 36 hours without a guide, reaching areas not normally accessible to tourists.

Travelogue with photos:
Vienna-Moscow : Moscow-Barnaul : Barnaul-Irkutsk : Irkutsk-Skovorodino
Skovorodino-Khabarovsk : Russia-DPRK : Tumangan
Kilchu-Pyongyang 1 : Kilchu-Pyongyang 2 : Pyongyang & Mt. Myohyang
Arirang Games, &c. : The Demilitarized Zone

via Metafilter

You can even check out their route on Google Earth.  Give Kim Jung Il as slap on the bottom for me.

- Having fun with my buddy Hollywood, AFP

If you’re into the whole DIY (do you like to do it.. yourself?), then this is an incredibly powerful and effective way to turn your weak point & click camera into a beast capable of THIS:

Lightning at Dusk

The above affect was created by adding some software to your camera and doing some tweaking to make it automatically take pictures based on motion detection.  Makes you suddenly think of a thousand more uses, right?

One of the most amazing user-led projects out there, CHDK firmware turns cheap Canon cameras into photography powerhouses. You can take take time-lapse movies as in this stunning sunset example; automatically photograph lightning; easily make pretty HDR images and stereograms; have unlimited depth-of-field; and, perhaps most impressively, take photographs with shutter speeds of 1/60,000 of a second!
(Courtesy of Blahblahblah, on Metafilter)

Read more about the usage of CHDK, or the dirt in the detailed forums.  As a bonus, check out the NYT article How to Be a Better Photographer When on Vacation.

- Professional photographer, AFP

This fantastic list of Bean episodes comes from Metafilter user Christ, what an asshole.

Episode 01 – Mr. Bean (1 2 3 4 ) {exam, beach, church}

Episode 02 – The Return of Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {busking, department store, restaurant, Queen Elizabeth II}

Episode 03 – The Curse of Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {swimming pool, parking garage, park lunch, intersection, movie}

Episode 04 – Mr. Bean Goes to Town (1 2 3 ) {new TV, camera, shoe, picture, magic show, disco}

Episode 05 – The Trouble With Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {oversleep, dentist, boat, picnic}

Episode 06 – Mr. Bean Rides Again (1 2 3 ) {bus stop, post office, packing, train, airplane}

Episode 07 – Merry Christmas Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {department store, girlfriend, engagement, tree, turkey}

Episode 08 – Mr. Bean in Room 426 (1 2 3 ) {hotel, staircase, sleeplessness}

Episode 09 – Mind the Baby Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {fair, baby, stroller}

Episode 10 – Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {New Year, sales, drive, apartment redesign}

Episode 11 – Back to School Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {open school, art, chemistry}

Episode 12 – Tee Off Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {launderette, golf}

Episode 13 – Goodnight Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {hospital, guard, sleep}

Episode 14 – Hair by Mr. Bean (1 2 3 ) {barber, games, dog show, railway station}

Bonus: Mr. Bean’s Wedding , Mr. Bean on a Blind Date , Torvill and Mr. Bean , Mr. Bean’s Red Nose Day , Mr. Bean at the Library