1. NASA’s Giant Wind Tunnels
Throughout the 20th century, NASA (and its predecessor, NACA) made extensive use of gigantic wind tunnels to test and refine designs for airplanes, spacecraft, and many other vehicles and structures in efforts to make flying safe… The largest, still in operation, is the 80-foot by 120-foot tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
Full article, compiled by The Atlantic.
2. This Abandoned Sniper’s Tower in Lebanon
Burj el Murr is also known as the tower of bitterness in Lebanon. The tactical hotel battleground is abandoned and has, until now, been a sad reminder of the events that happened there four decades ago, during the civil war…The old sniper hideout where bullets once flew now dances colorfully in the wind.
Artist Jad el Khoury has given the building new life: a crescendo of color waving to passersby.
Found on Design Boom.
3. Couple finds Stolen Treasure in their Backyard
Matthew and Maria Emanuel say they were excited after finding a rusted, rotting metal box submerged in dirt at their Wooddale Avenue home while having new trees planted.
But they were then stunned to learn the box was actually a safe with $52,000 worth of valuables inside — including wads of wet $100 bills and baggies stuffed with diamonds, gold and jade.
Also inside the safe was a Brooklyn address written on a note inside one of the bags — which the Emanuels linked to one of their neighbors.
“We realized it must have been them, so Monday morning, I walked on over to their house and knocked on their door,” Matthew Emanuel said. “I asked them if they’d ever been robbed.”
The neighbors said they had — nearly seven years ago.
Full article found on the NY Post.
4. The Marlboro Man has nothing on these pioneering cowgirls
Harriet, Elizabeth, Lucie, and Ruth Chrisman at their sod house in Custer County, Nebraska, 1886. (Solomon D. Butcher/Library of Congress)
A woman and her horse hurdle a convertible at a California rodeo, circa 1934. (Library of Congress)
Bonnie McCarroll thrown from Silver, Pendleton, Oregon, September 1915. (William Scott Bowman)
‘A True Girl of the West’, Del Rio, Texas, 1906. (George Bancroft Cornish/DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
Mildred Douglas riding wild steer, Cheyenne, Wyoming, c.1917. (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
“…Long before John Wayne and the Marlboro Man, the cowboy ideal was created in traveling spectacles. Some of the biggest stars to break out of the Wild West shows also happened to be women…Any farm girl not satisfied with a little house on the prairie would have been mesmerized by the possibilities.”
Full article found on Timeline.
5. The Amazons Were Based on Real-Life Women Warriors Who Were Cool as Hell
The Amazons aren’t just the stuff of Greek myth and “Wonder Woman” movies. New evidence suggests that they had living counterparts in nomadic Scythian warrior tribes.
…the fact that over a third of the Scythian skeletons in some graves are typed as females with heavy battle scarring indicates that women warriors were a common sight among the fearsome Scythians… the skeletons buried with bows, arrows, and other weapons.
…many—but not all— of the tribes featured women warriors who shot from horseback alongside the men.
Full article found on Broadly.
6. The Late Tom Wolfe and his Wolf Cane
Author and journalist Tom Wolfe, who chronicled 20th century America like no other, passed away last week. Here he is pictured at the New York Public Library with his amazing wolf cane. The NYPL Library acquired Wolfe’s archives in 2013.
The cane looks like one of the Wes Anderson dogs– wonder if it was a gift from Anderson?
Found on NYPL Instagram
7. X-Rated Graphic Design of the 60s & 70s
More found on Flashbak.
8. His & Hers
A look at anti-masturbation devices on Vintage Everyday.
9. The Supercharged Art of Walter Molino
In 1941 Molino became the chief cover illustrator for La Domenica del Corriere, an Italian weekly newspaper… almost all of them depict life and death situations. They’re like freeze frames in the midst of extreme action… You can feel the energy. Many depict women and children at risk, fires, explosions, and calamitous crashes.
Some of them of quite disturbing, but always fascinating. See more, found on Design You Trust.
10. An Archive of Old Record Labels
Compiled by Reagan Ray, designer and illustrator. Browse them all here.
Found via Present and Correct.
11. Mikiphone portable pocket gramophone
Swiss made 1924, found here.
12. The Groovy IBM System mainframe, 1964
Found on From Deco to Atom.
