archive.org
Rejoice, ’90s kids: More than 2,400 of your favorite MS-DOS games are now available to play online via the Internet Archive. READ MORE: Over 2,400 MS-DOS Games — Like Oregon Trail — Can Now Be Played Online | BuzzFeed News.
Related
Internet Archive offers 900 classic arcade games for browser-based play | Ars Technica
As part of its continuing mission to catalog and preserve our shared digital history, the Internet Archive has published a collection of more than 900 classic arcade games, playable directly in a Web browser via a Javascript emulator.
The Internet Arcade collects a wide selection of titles, both well-known and obscure, ranging from “bronze age” black-and-white classics like 1976s Sprint 2 up through the dawn of the early 90s fighting game boom in Street Fighter II. In the middle are a few historical oddities, such as foreign Donkey Kong bootleg Crazy Kong and the hacked “Pauline Edition” of Donkey Kong that was created by a doting father just last year.
READ MORE: Internet Archive offers 900 classic arcade games for browser-based play | Ars Technica.
Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians from British Library Learning on Vimeo.
While Discovering Literature is an important cultural resource that can be enjoyed by all ages, it has been carefully tailored to appeal to GCSE and A-level students. The British Library’s research among teachers showed that original manuscripts, with their edits and revisions, dodgy grammar and messy handwriting, can be a powerful way of engaging pupils. Contextual material can also be a source of inspiration, and the site is packed with items such as letters, diaries, dictionaries, newspapers and illustrations that illuminate the historical, social and political contexts of classic works.
READ MORE: British Library gives teachers tools to inspire | Books | The Observer.
Charles Darwins Galapagos expedition is one of the most famous scientific voyages in history and now you can see how he fed his mind aboard the Beagle. Darwin Online, which houses the world’s largest Darwin collection, has now published in PDF format what it believes to be all 404 books that Darwin had access to on the ships library. They comprise some 195,000 pages with 5,000 corresponding illustrations in French, English and Spanish from encyclopedias, history books, literature and even a racy Spanish novel. Darwin called his years aboard the Beagle a crucial a period that helped him create his seminal theory of evolution, On the Origin of Species. Though you may not have as much time as Darwin did on the infamously long trip, its worth a look just for the spectacular hand-drawn illustrations.
Access links here: Read the books that inspired Darwins theory of evolution | Engadget
Yahoo has released a massive data set of Flickr images and videos that are free to share under their copyright licenses. Yahoo believes the data set, which comprises 99.3 million images and 0.7 million videos, is one of the largest public multimedia data sets ever released. The data set, which promises to be a boon to computer vision researchers, contains metadata including title, description, camera type, and tags. About 49 million of the images are also geotagged. Yahoo is collaborating with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to provide compute resources through the lab’s supercomputer to help researchers analyze the data.
via 100 Million Flickr Images for Download | Center for Data Innovation
The White House promised that it would open up government data last year, and it’s now expanding those plans in some intriguing directions. For one, it’s opening up the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s digitized collection; you’ll soon get to build apps and other tools using the institution’s artwork as a foundation. Even curators don’t have that much access right now, the administration says. via The US is opening up the Smithsonian’s digitized art collection | Engadget
From the White House Continued Progress and Plans for Open Government Data:
A spinal column with fused vertebrae. The bones of a woman with advanced syphilis. Skeletons deformed by rickets and leprosy. A fascinating online library of deformed bones from the Middle Ages goes live today—and while I didn’t even realize such a thing existed, now I can’t imagine living without it. God bless technology.
The Digit[ised] Diseases website is run by the Royal College of Surgeons in London. It brings together 3D scans of over 1,600 bone specimens taken from patients with debilitating and disfiguring conditions like rickets and leprosy, and makes them free for the public to browse. Bored on a Monday morning? Gawk at this deformed spinal column or marvel at this alien-like skull with an enlarged cranium. In the scientists’ own words, “it does not resemble any known hominid species.” Cool!
Read: Finally, a Digital Library of Bizarre Human Bones From the Middle Ages | Gizmodo
There’s no shortage of places for people to share memories of where they were 50 years ago when they found out John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. But a website debuting Monday aims to take the focus from past to future by asking people of all ages — even those who weren’t alive when Kennedy died — to share their thoughts about how he has inspired them.
The website is part of the JFK Library and Museum’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of JFK’s death, which is Friday. The museum also plans a new exhibit of never-before-displayed items from his three-day state funeral, including the flag that draped his casket and notes written by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Visitors to the “An Idea Lives On” site can explore an interactive video that includes NASA Commander Chris Cassidy, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, comedian Conan O’Brien, Freedom Rider Charles Person and others talking about Kennedy’s lasting impact.
Education & Technology
With MakerBot Academy, the 3-D Printing Movement Aims for Schools | AllThingsD
The company announced on Tuesday an initiative to begin seeding its Replicator 3-D printing machines inside of K-12 schools across the U.S. The effort comes in partnership with DonorsChoose.org, a site that allows public school teachers to make online requests for classroom projects, which are then backed by a Kickstarter-like funding drive.
Twitter goes for the masses with new storytelling feature | CNET
Twitter excels in capturing the “moment” as events happen, but it isn’t great at telling a story. With custom timelines, the company hopes to lure a broader audience by giving it coherent narratives rather than just the raw materials.
Librarianship
How Iran Uses Wikipedia To Censor The Internet | BuzzFeed
A new study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School claims that Wikipedia might hold the key to understanding how Iran censors, and controls, the internet. The answer, in four words: with a heavy hand.
infophile 