Cory Doctorow: These remarkable photos of French psychiatric hospitals from the 1950s have just been published — some for the first time: In 1954 Jean-Philippe Charbonnier documented French Psychiatric hospitals and this exhibition includes rarely seen photographs from the series. Some of the photographs were first published in Réalités in January 1955. Here a selection of the original reportage is shown followed by the magazine layouts – published in the magazine with two fluffy cats on the cover. It is interesting to see that a number of most most powerful images were not published due to the sensitivities of the 1950s and that the eyes of the patients are at times masked to protect their identities.
In 2006 a 24 page booklet Jean-Philippe Charbonnier: HP hôpitaux psychiatriques was published by Le traitement contemporain n°4 in conjunction with gallery Agathe Gaillard.
Link (via We Make Money Not Art)
Videos of “20 greatest guitar solos”
Mark Frauenfelder: After reading Guitar World’s list of the top 100 guitar solos, CityRag found the top 20 on YouTube and compiled a list of links.
Filed under: WTF
David Pescovitz: A four-year-old’s screams killed hundreds of chickens, according to a court in the eastern China province of Jiangsu. Frightened by a dog, the little boy apparently cried loudly near the hen house window for quite a while. From Metro.co.uk:
A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal sound” and that the 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.
The boy’s father was ordered to pay around £117 in compensation to the owner of the chickens.
Nick (aka “Loose Stool”) from New Urban Transport (the place to buy a scooter in New Mexico) turned me on to this YouTube miniseries mockumentary about the smooth 70s stylings known as Yacht Rock. Freekin’ awesome. Thanks Stool
Cory Doctorow: 
This fan-made re-enactment of the final space battle from the original Star Wars movie uses nothing but elaborately posed naked hands (the actors are wearing all black and are nearly invisible) that swoop, dive, shoot and dodge. It’s surprisingly effective — and incredibly creative. Link (via Neatorama)
Sounds like something from Six Feet Under…
Woman dead after water-drinking contest
David Pescovitz: Jennifer Strange, 28, died of water intoxication, called hyponatremia, on Friday after participating in a Sacramento radio station’s contest to see how much water contestants could drink without urinating. The winner of the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contests was to win the videogame system. From the Associated Press:
Initially, contestants were handed eight-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.
“They were small, little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy,” said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland, west of Sacramento. “They told us if you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t put your health at risk.”
Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. “My bladder couldn’t handle it anymore,” he added. After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.
Mark Frauenfelder: 
This 1955 time-lapse video of the development of a Picasso painting is fascinating. (From the documentary The Mystery of Picasso) Link
David Pescovitz: 
WFMU has posted an MP3 of this fantastic 1972 record titled “Play It Safe! Vol. 4.” It’s 47 minutes of conversation between a couple that’s meant to be played when you’re away from home to make thieves think your place is occupied. The record originally came with a pack of twist-ties to rig up your phonograph to replay the record over and over.
Link (Thanks, Coop!)
