Posts tagged archives

Predicting the Future via New York Times Archives

Well, not just the Times, scientists are also digging through Wikipedia among many other sites.

Via GigaOm:

Researchers at Microsoft and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are creating software that analyzes 22 years of New York Times archives, Wikipedia and about 90 other web resources to predict future disease outbreaks, riots and deaths — and hopefully prevent them.

The new research is the latest in a number of similar initiatives that seek to mine web data to predict all kinds of events. Recorded Future, for instance, analyzes news, blogs and social media to “help identify predictive signals” for a variety of industries, including financial services and defense. Researchers are also using Twitter and Google to track flu outbreaks.

Technology Review outlines how it can work.

The system provides striking results when tested on historical data. For example, reports of droughts in Angola in 2006 triggered a warning about possible cholera outbreaks in the country, because previous events had taught the system that cholera outbreaks were more likely in years following droughts. A second warning about cholera in Angola was triggered by news reports of large storms in Africa in early 2007; less than a week later, reports appeared that cholera had become established. In similar tests involving forecasts of disease, violence, and a significant numbers of deaths, the system’s warnings were correct between 70 to 90 percent of the time.

See Kira Radinsky and Eric Horvitz, Mining the Web to Predict Future Events (PDF).

laughingsquid:

The Endangered Languages Project, An Online Initiative to Save Languages Facing Exctinction

FJP — Via the Google Blog:

The Endangered Languages Project, backed by a new coalition, the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, gives those interested in preserving languages a place to store and access research, share advice and build collaborations. People can share their knowledge and research directly through the site and help keep the content up-to-date. A diverse group of collaborators have already begun to contribute content ranging from 18th-century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles. Members of the Advisory Committee have also provided guidance, helping shape the site and ensure that it addresses the interests and needs of language communities.

Google has played a role in the development and launch of this project, but the long-term goal is for true experts in the field of language preservation to take the lead. As such, in a few months we’ll officially be handing over the reins to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) and The Institute for Language Information and Technology (The LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University. FPCC will take on the role of Advisory Committee Chair, leading outreach and strategy for the project. The LINGUIST List will become the Technical Lead. Both organizations will work in coordination with the Advisory Committee.

Oh, God! We may NEVER KNOW! Via the New Yorker.

Oh, God! We may NEVER KNOW!

Via the New Yorker.

Going archival — treasure hunting in the Times’ “Lively Morgue” Imagine this: 4 (maybe 5) million pictures hiding in 4,000 cabinet drawers, more or less maintained by one man, all in a basement with no windows. Such is the world (better word: wonderland) that exists underneath The New York Times lobby on 42nd Street.  NPR’s Claire O’Neill recently visited the Times’ morgue — as employees call it — and Jeff Roth, its last custodian. She recounts her visit to the underground, fluorescent world at the picture blog. O’Neil writes: Though most of us associate a morgue with death, Roth describes this one as a “living, breathing” thing and celebrates the serendipity it fosters. Case in point: I asked him to pull a random selection, and there we were, thumbing through disheveled prints of William Faulkner, taken by none other than the celebrated Henri Cartier-Bresson.  Roth, being the last of the full staff he once worked with, inevitably knows things about the Times’ vast photo collection that no one else does, but is remarkably cool about his position. As he told O’Niell, It’s not rocket science. But one day, inevitably, there’ll be no more experts left to follow down into the depths. Then what? Well, there’s the Tumblr — The Lively Morgue, which posts a picture everyday, sometimes skipping a few. Happy spelunking!

Going archival — treasure hunting in the Times’ “Lively Morgue”

Imagine this: 4 (maybe 5) million pictures hiding in 4,000 cabinet drawers, more or less maintained by one man, all in a basement with no windows. Such is the world (better word: wonderland) that exists underneath The New York Times lobby on 42nd Street. 

NPR’s Claire O’Neill recently visited the Times’ morgue — as employees call it — and Jeff Roth, its last custodian. She recounts her visit to the underground, fluorescent world at the picture blog.

O’Neil writes:

Though most of us associate a morgue with death, Roth describes this one as a “living, breathing” thing and celebrates the serendipity it fosters.

A photograph of William Faulkner by Henri Cartier-Bresson at The New York Times morgue

Case in point: I asked him to pull a random selection, and there we were, thumbing through disheveled prints of William Faulkner, taken by none other than the celebrated Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

Roth, being the last of the full staff he once worked with, inevitably knows things about the Times’ vast photo collection that no one else does, but is remarkably cool about his position. As he told O’Niell,

It’s not rocket science.

But one day, inevitably, there’ll be no more experts left to follow down into the depths. Then what? Well, there’s the Tumblr — The Lively Morgue, which posts a picture everyday, sometimes skipping a few. Happy spelunking!

The Museum of Endangered Sounds On the other side of the Internet Brendan Chilcutt is gathering sounds from a not so distant past. Think the spinning of a blank cassette tape, the processing of a floppy disc, the 8-bit voice of a Speak and Spell, all presented as animated gifs. Via Chilcutt: I launched the site in January of 2012 as a way to preserve the sounds made famous by my favorite old technologies and electronics equipment. For instance, the textured rattle and hum of a VHS tape being sucked into the womb of a 1983 JVC HR-7100 VCR. As you probably know, it’s a wonderfully complex sound, subtle yet unfiltered. But… imagine a world where we never again hear the symphonic startup of a Windows 95 machine. Imagine generations of children unacquainted with the chattering of angels lodged deep within the recesses of an old cathode ray tube TV. And when the entire world has adopted devices with sleek, silent touch interfaces, where will we turn for the sound of fingers striking QWERTY keypads? Tell me that. And tell me: Who will play my GameBoy when I’m gone? Imagine! We love ourselves the collector’s passion, and that someone, somewhere, has taken it upon himself to organize the buck, ping and hum of the electronics we grew up on. The Museum of Endangered Sounds.

The Museum of Endangered Sounds

On the other side of the Internet Brendan Chilcutt is gathering sounds from a not so distant past. Think the spinning of a blank cassette tape, the processing of a floppy disc, the 8-bit voice of a Speak and Spell, all presented as animated gifs.

Via Chilcutt:

I launched the site in January of 2012 as a way to preserve the sounds made famous by my favorite old technologies and electronics equipment. For instance, the textured rattle and hum of a VHS tape being sucked into the womb of a 1983 JVC HR-7100 VCR. As you probably know, it’s a wonderfully complex sound, subtle yet unfiltered. But… imagine a world where we never again hear the symphonic startup of a Windows 95 machine. Imagine generations of children unacquainted with the chattering of angels lodged deep within the recesses of an old cathode ray tube TV. And when the entire world has adopted devices with sleek, silent touch interfaces, where will we turn for the sound of fingers striking QWERTY keypads? Tell me that. And tell me: Who will play my GameBoy when I’m gone?

Imagine!

We love ourselves the collector’s passion, and that someone, somewhere, has taken it upon himself to organize the buck, ping and hum of the electronics we grew up on.

The Museum of Endangered Sounds.

Emory Acquires Massive African American Photo Collection

Via Emory:

A rare collection of more than 10,000 photographs depicting African American life from the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been acquired by Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library (MARBL) from photo collector Robert Langmuir of Philadelphia.

The images range from the 1840s – the beginning of photography – to the 1970s, with most of the photos falling in the post-Civil War to pre-World War II era. They include nearly every format, from daguerreotypes to snapshots, and cover a wide range of subject matter. A number of the photos were taken by African American photographers, a topic in itself.

“This collection sparkles with intelligent insights into the lives and cultures of the African American experience over many decades,” says Emory University Provost Earl Lewis, also a professor of history and African American studies. “Its breadth is incredible, its depth is considerable, and its sheer beauty is breathtaking.”

“Scholars from many disciplines will find this collection to be a treasure trove for peering behind the veil and seeing the inner worlds of life in America,” says Lewis. “I am proud that we can add this collection to our library.”

Images: “Young boys with cotton bales”, 1895 (top left). Overseer and sharecroppers, Knoxville, 1910 (top right). Leadbelly with prison officials, Texas, 1915 (bottom).

Select images to enlarge.

Things You Can Do That You Never Used To Via Archive.org: For over a decade, CNN (Cable News Network) has been providing transcripts of shows, events and newscasts from its broadcasts. The archive has been maintained and the text transcripts have been dependably available at transcripts.cnn.com. This is a just-in-case grab of the years of transcripts for later study and historical research. So if you can’t get enough of whatever it is they’re trying to do in the Situation Room, a one gig tarball of text is waiting for your download. H/T: Flowing Data

Things You Can Do That You Never Used To

Via Archive.org:

For over a decade, CNN (Cable News Network) has been providing transcripts of shows, events and newscasts from its broadcasts. The archive has been maintained and the text transcripts have been dependably available at transcripts.cnn.com. This is a just-in-case grab of the years of transcripts for later study and historical research.

So if you can’t get enough of whatever it is they’re trying to do in the Situation Room, a one gig tarball of text is waiting for your download.

H/T: Flowing Data

(Google) Art Project!

Google’s Art Project is a growing, interactive collection of some 30,000 images taken from participating museums  around the world.

Launched in April 2011, the site now includes a social layer built with Google+. For example, visitors can create their own galleries and then use Hangouts to talk about and share the works with others.

Images are hi-res with a few works captured with “gigapixel” technology allowing viewers to zoom in on the art’s finer details.

Participating institutions range from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to Lima’s Museo de Arte de Lima to Delhi’s National Museum with 40 other countries in between.

Images: Pages from a Qur’an in Hijazi. Unknown, Arabia, late 7th Century. Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar.

Zero Dólar. Cildo Meireles, Brazil, 1978 - 1984. Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.

Cyclists. Jiri Naceradsky, Czech Republic, 1971. Museum Kampa.

H/T: Memeburn.

Nelson Mandela Digital Archives Now Online Via Memeburn: Google and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (NMCM) have created a new Nelson Mandela Digital Archive on the web that is freely accessible to the world. Google donated about US$1.25-million to the Johannesburg-based Centre in 2011 to help preserve and digitise thousands of archival documents, photographs and videos about Mandela. Along with historians, educationalists, researchers and activists, users from around the world now have access to extensive information about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African statesman. The new online multimedia archive includes Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa. The archive will also include the earliest-known photograph of Mandela, rare images of his cell on Robben Island in the 1970s, and never-seen drafts of Mandela’s manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom.” Nelson Mandela Digital Archive. Image: Warrants of Commital (document #1 front), 11/7/1962. This item consists of 1 Warrant of Committal issued to Nelson Mandela by the Magistrate’s Court of South Africa. The warrant contains Nelson Mandela’s fingerprints. Via the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive.

Nelson Mandela Digital Archives Now Online

Via Memeburn:

Google and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (NMCM) have created a new Nelson Mandela Digital Archive on the web that is freely accessible to the world.

Google donated about US$1.25-million to the Johannesburg-based Centre in 2011 to help preserve and digitise thousands of archival documents, photographs and videos about Mandela.

Along with historians, educationalists, researchers and activists, users from around the world now have access to extensive information about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African statesman.

The new online multimedia archive includes Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa.

The archive will also include the earliest-known photograph of Mandela, rare images of his cell on Robben Island in the 1970s, and never-seen drafts of Mandela’s manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom.”

Nelson Mandela Digital Archive.

Image: Warrants of Commital (document #1 front), 11/7/1962.

This item consists of 1 Warrant of Committal issued to Nelson Mandela by the Magistrate’s Court of South Africa. The warrant contains Nelson Mandela’s fingerprints. Via the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive.

Index on Censorship Opens Archives

For forty years England’s Index on Censorship has published journalists, authors, artists and activists from around the world about threats to freedom of expression.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Index is opening up its archives to provide free access to articles and essays written over the years by the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi , Nadine Gordimer, Kurt Vonnegut, Ai Weiwei, Salman Rushdie, Vaclav Havel and a host of eminent others.

Editors’ picks and access to the complete archive is here.

Free access to the Index archive is available for the next 40 days.

Entire Lomax Library to Come Online To celebrate what would have been the folklorist and musicologist Alan Lomax’s 97th birthday, the Global Jukebox label is releasing a 16-track sampler called “The Alan Lomax Collection From the American Folklife Center.” This is part of a larger effort to bring the entire Lomax archive online. Via the New York Times: A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads… …Starting in the mid-1930s, when he made his first field recordings in the South, Lomax was the foremost music folklorist in the United States. He was the first to record Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, and much of what Americans have learned about folk and traditional music stems from his efforts, which were also directly responsible for the folk music and skiffle booms in the United States and Britain that shaped the pop-music revolution of the 1960s and beyond. Lomax worked both in academic and popular circles, and increased awareness of traditional music by doing radio and television programs, organizing concerts and festivals, and writing books, articles and essays prodigiously. At a time when there was a strict divide between high and low in American culture, and Afro-American and hillbilly music were especially scorned, Lomax argued that such vernacular styles were America’s greatest contribution to music. Image: Woody Guthrie, Lilly Mae Ledford, Alan Lomax, New York, 1944, via The American Folklife Center.

Entire Lomax Library to Come Online

To celebrate what would have been the folklorist and musicologist Alan Lomax’s 97th birthday, the Global Jukebox label is releasing a 16-track sampler called “The Alan Lomax Collection From the American Folklife Center.”

This is part of a larger effort to bring the entire Lomax archive online.

Via the New York Times:

A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads…

…Starting in the mid-1930s, when he made his first field recordings in the South, Lomax was the foremost music folklorist in the United States. He was the first to record Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, and much of what Americans have learned about folk and traditional music stems from his efforts, which were also directly responsible for the folk music and skiffle booms in the United States and Britain that shaped the pop-music revolution of the 1960s and beyond.

Lomax worked both in academic and popular circles, and increased awareness of traditional music by doing radio and television programs, organizing concerts and festivals, and writing books, articles and essays prodigiously. At a time when there was a strict divide between high and low in American culture, and Afro-American and hillbilly music were especially scorned, Lomax argued that such vernacular styles were America’s greatest contribution to music.

Image: Woody Guthrie, Lilly Mae Ledford, Alan Lomax, New York, 1944, via The American Folklife Center.

Music — and chart — junkies rejoice: Billboard releases its back issues all the way to the 1940s.

Via Billboard:

We’ve partnered with Google to offer digital versions of more than 1000 classic issues of Billboard magazine for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. Look at charts dating back to the ’40s, read reviews of iconic ’60s albums, revisit cover stories through the 2000s and relive music history, exactly as it happened.