Project Gutenberg

Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90

Margaret H. Hamilton, a profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program, died at age 90.

Fstoppers

The Math Behind Every JPEG: Ahmed's Rejected 1972 Proposal | Fstoppers

How a rejected 1972 NSF proposal led to the discrete cosine transform, the mathematical foundation powering nearly every JPEG ever created. Ahmed's summer of 1973 changed digital imaging forever.

All That's Interesting

Syndrome K, The Fake Disease Invented To Save Rome's Jewish Residents During World War 2

Doctors at Fatebenefratelli Hospital used "Syndrome K" to protect Jewish Romans from the Nazis.

Libraries are a lifeline, new research finds

Public libraries play a vital role in communities, helping people connect, access support and improve wellbeing through everyday interactions.

10 Classic Films That Defined the Sci-Fi Genre’s History | TheCollector

From A Trip to the Moon to Godzilla, these ten films showcase the evolution and impact of sci-fi cinema throughout the decades.

Books by Addams, Jane

Project Gutenberg offers 79,556 free eBooks for iPhone, iPad, Kobo, Android and Kindle.

Literary Hub

Remembering Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s First Asian-American Star

If the old Ernest Hemingway adage holds true, that courage equals grace under pressure, then Anna May Wong (1905-1961) had it in spades. Wong embodied a model of how to reinvent oneself in the face…

Dolly Parton brought music and books to the world

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Jeff Conyers, president and vice chair of the Dollywood Foundation, about Dolly Parton's philanthropy, including the Imagination Library.

All That's Interesting

33 Vintage WPA Posters That Offer A Glimpse Into 1930s America

These inspiring images helped bring America back from the brink.

The Conversation

Forgotten Mozart notebook reveals how a young woman learned to compose

The notebook preserves something that composer-centred histories often miss: the musical work taking place around Mozart, in this case by a young woman.

Literary Hub

Remembering Grazia Deledda, the Sardinian Nobel Prize-Winner We Should All Be Reading

“Cross the sea,” a young Grazia Deledda wrote in a poem to Americans in 1893, “and tell everyone that the island of Sardinia is still waiting to be discovered and known.” On…

Before the canon: the non-European women who founded philosophy | Aeon Essays

Philosophy was once a woman’s world, ranging across Asia, Africa and Latin America. It’s time to reclaim that lost realm

Reactor

Misunderstanding the Genius of Jules Verne — And Why It Matters to Science Fiction - Reactor

Our cultural obsession with Verne's predictive abilities ignores the real critical nuance and power of his writing, to everyone's detriment.

Most Challenged Books

Every year, the American Library Association compiles a list of the books most frequently targeted by censors based on reports from the field and media coverage.

The Conversation

Beatrix Potter was obsessed with fungi – and she was quite the naturalist

Her illustrations remain beautiful works of art, but they also show how the best natural history drawings make us notice things we might otherwise miss.

Communication Has Taken Flight Since The Days of Carrier Pigeons

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette. Our history can be painted with some broad strokes. We had the Ice Age, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Discovery, the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Today, we are living in the age of communication. We are connected through cellphones, radio, TV, podcasts and the internet. We talk, we tweet, we link, we text, we email, we Facebook and we badger

The Conversation

Lessons for the 21st century from a 200-year-old book by ‘Frankenstein’ author Mary Shelley

The catastrophic story is familiar, but the insight, and the ending, offer an opportunity, and perhaps motivation, for modern readers.

1,300+ Hand-Colored Wildlife Illustrations Now Available in The Naturalist’s Library Digital Archive

These illustrations were first looked at hundreds of years ago within 40 volumes filled with information. Now, anyone can browse them in this digital archive.

To Dismantle the Concept of Separate but Equal, Thurgood Marshall Methodically Devised a Winning Strategy: Divide and Conquer

While other activists aimed to take down Jim Crow in one fell swoop, the future Supreme Court justice compiled a series of wins that ultimately added up to an undeniable resolution

The Conversation

Who were the Luddites? Their legacy ripples through politics, cultural commentary and literature

In the age of AI we are once again hearing about Luddites, the 19th-century textile workers who sought to protect their livelihoods in early industrial England.

7 People Who Saved the Most Lives in History | TheCollector

While tyrants may dominate public memory, there are many heroes who helped mankind and saved millions of lives.

Humans did not invent art. It was the other way around | Aeon Essays

When early humans first painted cave walls, they began to find out who they really were: our minds emerged from our images

This 18th-Century British Queen Turned King Arthur Into a P.R. Strategy, Drawing on Myth to Promote Her Dynasty's Claim to the Throne

In 1735, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach commissioned a cottage called Merlin's Cave, which linked the German House of Hanover to both Britain’s ancient heritage and its future success

Medievalists.net

This Medieval Astrolabe Turns 1,000 Years Old - Medievalists.net

A medieval astrolabe made in Córdoba in 1026–27 marks its 1,000th anniversary at the National Museum of Scotland.

Who Owns Women Detectives? | Los Angeles Review of Books

Now that Miss Marple and Nancy Drew’s early novels are entering the public domain, what comes next for them?

Quanta Magazine

Why Are Rivers So Mathematical? | Quanta Magazine

A simple scaling law brings order to the chaos of flowing water, rock, and sediment. New findings have extended the law even further.

ZME Science

A Soldier Erased From a Dutch Golden Age Painting Has Finally Taken His Seat Again

A restoration turns a calm courtyard into a scene of drink, dare and doubt.

Literary Hub

What Barriers Do Women in Science Face When Trying to Publish?

I went to high school and college at the height of the women’s liberation movement, in the 1970s. We knew that sexism was a problem—but we were solving it. My father, the center of our household, e…

Marvelous Marbled Paper

Literary Hub

An Integral Part of the Story: A Short History of Short Fiction by American Women

Women writers from 1830 to 1926 turned to the short story for many reasons. In 1830, the short story was a relatively new genre and the first genre that we might consider to have been born in the U…

Literary Hub

Fun fact: Salvador Dalí designed a tarot deck for the film Live and Let Die.

In the early 1970s, the producer Albert R. Broccoli commissioned the artist Salvador Dalí to make a tarot deck for the upcoming James Bond film Live and Let Die. Based on Ian Fleming’s 1954 n…

The Conversation

Why we love literary anniversaries

Celebrating literary anniversaries centres on many things including cultural connection, nostalgia, pride and a sense of belonging.

Literary Hub

This Week in Literary History: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is Performed for the First Time (Probably)

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. The earliest existing eyewitness account of a performance of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth comes to us from the astrologer…

8 Famous Women Writers Who Wrote Under Male Pseudonyms | TheCollector

Historically, female writers have faced barriers to publication and prejudicial attitudes, leading some to adopt male pseudonyms.

Literary Hub

How Jane Austen Blew a Hole Through the Romance Genre She Created

The most dramatic moment in Jane Austen’s Emma, and, arguably, in her whole body of work, has nothing to do with romance. After all, Emma Woodhouse’s reaction to George Knightley’…

Bending Toward Justice - The American Scholar

Rejecting the “race riot” myth means facing the ugly truth

All That's Interesting

Frontline Nurses Experience Bandage Shortage In WWI. How Does That Turn Into Kotex Creating The Maxi Pad?

During World War I, nurses began using Cellucotton bandages as menstrual products, leading to the invention of the Kotex maxi pad.

The Conversation

Reading by ear: how audiobooks can help people with phonological dyslexia to enjoy books

Listening to stories can remove the ‘decoding’ process that dyslexia sufferers struggle with.