Link-O-Rama

How the Rockefellers hired terrorists to shoot machine guns at sleeping women and children.

Meet the designers behind your favorite doll clothes.

Autistic boy overcomes obstacles and builds the largest LEGO replica of the Titanic.

Artist designs metal jewelry to block facial recognition software from tracking you.

Why high school musicals should be as respected as sports programs are.

In Uno, Plures: How New Yorkers fought fascism in the 1930s.

Fuzzy “grandpa” bat looks like a dog with wings.

Affrilachians: The FSA photography of Ben Shahn and Marion Post Wolcott.

What’s lost when we rush kids through childhood.

Study says art makes you mentally healthier, even if you’re not good at it.

Link-O-Rama

FREE TUTORIALS

Planning a night garden party once the weather warms up for the spring? Here’s a free tutorial on how to make glow-in-the-dark jars that only costs 20 cents each.

This free tutorial on how to make weathered-looking signs includes instructions on how to transfer anything printed on an ink jet printer to the surface of your project.

Here’s a free tutorial on how to make your own Raggedy Ann-style doll.

Here’s a video tutorial that shows how Sonia Singh of Tree Change Dolls takes used thrift shop dolls, removes the original factory paint, and re-paints their faces. She especially has a talent for taking Bratz dolls and making them look less like overly made-up tarts and more like real people.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Still haven’t found anything appropriate for your Valentine? No problem. Here’s a free tutorial on how to make a DIY Confetti Painted Heart Mug that you can quickly whip out in about an hour or less.

MISCELLANEOUS LINKS

Here’s a map of the United States that emphasizes the most iconic movie filmed in each state. It’s kind of cool that The Blair Witch Project is considered the iconic movie for my state (Maryland) since I thought it was an interesting film. (Avoid the sequel at all costs—it totally sucks.)

How the anti-domestic violence organization, No More, is more focused on branding and feel-good corporate marketing than on actually helping domestic abuse victims.

Here is a cool stop-motion animation showing artist Jon Rolph recreating a Piet Mondrian masterpiece with Legos

Here’s a realistic looking midcentury American town that is actually made up of 1/24 scale miniatures.

A fascinating story about a novelist named Barbara Newhall Follett who published her first novel to major critical acclaim at 13 only to mysteriously vanish without a trace just a few years later. (By the way, you can now download for free her first novel that she published at 13, The House Without Windows & Eepersip’s Life There, right here.)

Another fascinating story about a man known as Australia’s oldest man, 109-year-old Alfie Date, who spends his days knitting small sweaters for penguins injured by an oil spill.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which is when the much-hyped movie is finally unleashed to the world that I like to call Fifty Shades of Twilight Fan Fiction (because Fifty Shades of Grey originally started as Twilight fan fiction—all this “writer” did was to turn the vampires and werewolves into human beings, made the female character just a few years older than the teenaged Bella, and included lots of sex and BDSM). Instead of shelling out money to watch this in the theaters, here are some cheaper—and far more enjoyable—ways of experiencing the movie for yourself.

• Gilbert Gottfried reads Fifty Shades of Grey in a hilariously booming voice.
• George Takei drolly reads the same book, which is also hilarious.
• The Fifty Shades of Grey movie trailer as reenacted by Lego Minifigs.
• The Rambling Curl: Fifty Abusive Moments in Fifty Shades of Grey.
• Fifty shades of grey, tacky merchandise.
• Fifty Shades of Grey: Some of the novel’s funniest, least sexy lines.
• Fifty Shades of Buscemi, featuring Steve Buscemi as Christian Grey.
• 7 kinky books and movies that are way better than Fifty Shades of Grey
• Fifty Shades of Earl Grey.
• Fifty Shades of Pink, starring Barbie and Ken.
• Rosie Reviews: Fifty Shades of Grey.
• I felt dirty watching Fifty Shades of Grey—and not because of the sex.
• Consent Isn’t Enough: The Troubling Sex of Fifty Shades.

Occupy the Dollhouse

The protesting dolls have been laying low in Dollotti Park throughout the summer while creating new alliances in order to help further the cause of the 99%. On the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in New York (which started the worldwide Occupy movement), the dolls finalize their new alliance with a street action involving a stencil, spray paint, and concrete.

Pony 2012. Not to be confused with Kony 2012.

Occupy the Dollhouse

A meeting of the Dolls of Color Working Group and Their White Allies at the Occupy the Dollhouse site in Dollotti Park.

Now through June 23 you’ll be able to see and purchase print versions of these photos at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia. The Occupy the Dollhouse exhibit is located on the 10th floor in room 166.