history

Typewriter – an ASCII art parent

I’ve known about ASCII art forever. I came across it even before I first connected to the Internet. And while I new it was an old concept, I never knew how old it was. Apparently, ASCII art predecessor was typewriter art. Wikipedia has this to say:

Since 1867 typewriters have been used for creating visual art. The oldest known preserved example of typewriter art is a picture of a butterfly made in 1898 by Flora Stacey.

In the 1954 short film Stamp Day for Superman, typewriter art was a feature of the plot.

Why would I suddenly remember an ancient topic like this, you ask? Because I came across some of the typewriter art and it’s awesome!

Big Picture of 9/11, nine years later

Big Picture is running a post with some very touching pictures of the 9/11 memorial service and the towers reconstruction progress. Some images are very moving.

Russia in color, 100 years ago

Big Picture has yet another amazing collection of photographs. This time it consists of color pictures of Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and a few other areas a whole century ago. Some of these images are beautiful. Like this picture of Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk in 1911.

When I see things like this, it often makes me think about the church and how it abuses and explores the poor people. It’s not only now, it must have always been like this.

Or here is another picture. Pinkhus Karlinskii, eighty-four years old with sixty-six years of service. Photo taken in 1909.

Just think about it! It’s not a painting, but a photograph, and a colored one at that, of someone who was born around 1825! Almost two centuries ago. Wow!

Sergey Larenkov : Now and Then

Sergey Larenkov seems to be spending quite a lot of time producing stunning images which combine photographs of the same place as it is now and as it used to be during the World War II.

If I saw something like this back when I was struggling through boredom of my history lessons, I think I would have done much better. This stuff is awesome!

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Via this blog post I came across this excellent photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy – a wife and widow of John Kennedy.

While she was definitely a very beautiful woman, I can’t think of anyone who would want to be her – there was so much grief and sorrow in her life, that it even seems unfair. Assassination of her husband is not even the first one on the list. By that time she already lost two children – her first daughter was delivered stillborn and her fourth child – a boy – died only days after he was born. Then her husband was killed. Then his brother. Then she left the United States, fearing for the lives of her other two children. She got married to a Greek guy, who soon also lost a son, after which got more and more sick himself. Not long after that he also passed away. Widow for the second time, she went through a bunch of legal arguments with the rest of his family. And if all that wasn’t enough, she was diagnosed with cancer and died at the age of 64.

But from what I understood, she remained strong, kind, and caring throughout her life. She did a lot of good for a lot of people and many still remember her with words of respect and gratitude. That leaves me absolutely speechless…