Documentary
My Last Polaroid
My Last Polaroid is a site that is attempting to gather images of the last ever Polaroid people take as a tribute to the format. There’s also a documentary in the making. Director and photographer Steve Glashier is filming people who have used Polaroid film in their work – artists, fashion photographers, forensic scientists and [...]
The World’s Toughest Endurance Race?
Iconoculture reports on a new ultra-sports phenomenon it describes as a “mashup of Iron Man athleticism and Burning Man primitivism”. The Tough Mudder one day race is a seven-mile extreme obstacle course complete with barbed wire and fire, designed by the British Special Forces. The Americans have their own version called The Death Race “part [...]
Deaf Courier Service
Mumbai-based Mirakle Couriers launched its delivery service in 2008 has picked up a number of big clients. What sets Mirakle Couriers apart from its competitors is that all its workers are deaf. Six percent of India’s population are deaf but there are very few employment opportunities as they are shunned. Founder Dhruv Lakra, a former [...]
The Poisoner’s Handbook
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum tells the story of the birth of forensic toxicology. It’s the story of Dr. Charles Norris, Manhattan’s first trained chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, its first toxicologist and New Jersey medical examiner Harrison Martland who together [...]
The Little Kingdom
There’s a new fantasy theme park with a difference in Yunnan province in China – it employs 108 dwarfs (with an aim to expand its staff to 1000), who pretend to live in a village of fairytale houses, and perform twice-daily song and dance routines for tourists. The one of the park’s main attractions is [...]
Fraudulent Food
Uh oh, another thing to worry about as you set off to the farmers’ market: you might not be buying what you bargained for. Food fraud is on the rise, with honey sweetened with corn syrup, catfish masquerading as red snapper and sheep’s milk cheese made of cow’s milk. New DNA techniques mean that dodgy [...]
TED Talks: Shukla Bose
Shukla Bose set up the Parikrma Humanity Foundation from her kitchen table, with the aim of taking education to India’s poorest people by educating one slum child at at time. See her talk about her project at TED:
What the Butler Saw
Eugene Allen, who died in March 2010 aged 90, grew up under segregation in Virginia but went on to to work as a butler at the White House, where he served eight US presidents from 1952. His wife of 65 years died on the eve of Obama’s election, so he had to go to vote [...]
Five Hundred Ship Wrecks
Mauritania’s Nouadhibou Bay is home to some of the world’s last Monk Seals. It’s also the resting place of around 500 derelict ships; most of which have been abandoned and reported as sunk to insurance companies. The ships are gradually rusting away, polluting the surrounding ocean with diesel and oil, and creating a hazard for [...]
Michael Jackson Museum Plans
Michael Jackson’s father Joe and the mayor of Gary, Indiana are planning a museum tribute to the late singer, which is expected to attract up to 750,000 visitors a year to the town. Read more on CNN.
