Feeling uninspired? Have a kid. Probably the most effective way to change the world.

This site collects and displays scanned pdfs of (3.5 million partial and 200,000 complete) old books, may from university labrary collections. There's a lot to wade through, but I was able to find some early edition of some classics (like Edward Johnston's Writing, Illuminating & Lettering) and some early 20th century books on design and ornament. There's also some of those much-coveted type specimens (see the ATF pages above)! The resolution is so-so, and the reproduction of photographic plates leaves much to be desired—but the black-and-white/solid ink stuff displays just fine, and most texts are searchable (same as Google Books).

Here's a great series of compilations from BBE/Rapster records. To date, they've published Kings of Hip-Hop, Jazz, Diggin, Techno, House, Funk, and more recently, Reggae and Electro. Each collection is well-curated by "authorities" on each genre, and contain some great tracks—both well-known and not, old and new—that are all hard to find on vinyl. Some installments also include unexpected selections that are not unwelcome, since they serve as inspiration or framework for the genre in question (for example; Kings of Hip-Hop includes classics from Percy Sledge and Curtis Mayfield, as well as Vicki Anderson's Message from the Soul Sisters).

This is a wonderful and semi-obscure typography mag from the UK. Sort of like an "eye" for the typographically-inclined. I have a subscription, and the arrival of each issue (4 times a year) is a major event...in my life, anyway.

Does anyone use Processing? It's a piece of share-ware that allows you to create/program information-based visuals. I read an article in eye recently, and I'm intrigued. I downloaded the software, but I haven't had time to really explore it. Websites, interactive, flash, etc. are not my bag, but I do have more than a passing interest in information architecture/design. Some of the images, animation and info-graphics out there that were done with Processing are beautiful. There's also a couple of books out there on Processing; just wondering if anyone here knows more or has "Processed" first-hand...

Tokyo publisher BNN has a great series of clip-art pattern books. Each book comes with a CD-ROM of 80-100 hi-res images. The books are basically specimens; each page has a full-bleed color reproduction of one of the images on the disc. Some of my favorites are Grain, Camouflage, Chiyogami, and 2Tone Vision Warping Patterns! Hennessey + Ingalls sells the BNN Pattern series in the US.

The Library of Congress's Online Print and Photo Catalog has a collection of great old posters from the WPA, Civilian Defense, and some other sources that were cranking them out in the 1930s and 40s. Many images are uncompressed medium-to-high resolution tiff files. All are free to the public.

Probably best remembered for their 1991 pop hit "3AM Eternal", the Kopyright Liberation Front also wrote "The Manual: How To Have A Number One the Easy Way", which is a step by step guide to producing a No.1 single with no money or musical skills (and a thinly-veiled rip on the music industry). In addition, they recorded the seminal trance album "Chill Out" (1990). In 1994, as a heavily-publicized "final act", they burned £1 Million in cash (said to be the liquid profits of their music career) on the Scottish island of Jura. This was memorialized in a film "Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid" and book. They simultaneously deleted their entire catalog of music in the UK, where it is still unavailable, and therefore unable to chart and therefore unplayable on commercial radio. Totally extreme behavior, because very few people cared. There's something pure in their deconstruction, I think. The link below has more, and there's also a site. Not sure if it's legit.

More vinyl...this time, for the sophisticated set. Reac Japan is up to their fifth series of these miniature designer chairs (series two is pictured). All of the classics are included: Le Corbusier's LC2 sofa, the Zig Zag Stoel, Charles Rennie MacKintosh's Hill House Chairs, and many Eames designs, etc., etc. At $12.99 a pop, it's really a guilty pleasure. These are also packaged as a "blind assortment"...so risky, but so seductive.

In the tradition of Dunnys and all that Kidrobot stuff, MAD's Bent World Vandals are vinyl toys with something special for all the designer kids out there—the first ever Sharpie action figure (see image, far right)! All of the marker, brush and spray-can characters in the series come in new and used condition. Kidrobot distributed a line of figures called Fatcap from Montana Colors around the same time (end of last summer)—which were basically Dunnys with spray-can caps for heads—but I like this series better. As with the Fatcaps, MAD's Vandals also have ball bearings inside so they sound like a real can or paint pen when you shake 'em! Genius. Both of these collections are packaged as a "blind assortment" (like Dunnys), so all the boxes are the same, with no indication of which figure is inside.