Jeremiah Warren takes a look at The History of Thomas Edison in honor of his 165th birthday.

Quarterly Co. is one of the coolest subscription services to come down the pipeline. Here’s how it works: you sign up to receive tangible items from a contributor of your choice and every three months, you get interesting things snail-mailed to you. The list of contributors and what they will mail out is impressive. For example, Jesse Thomas, CEO and founder of JESS3, will be packaging up “awesome stuff I find in my travels around the world, and a background on the product.” Maria Popova of Brain Pickings is also a contributor and she plans to send out “some of humanity’s most intriguing and unusual efforts to order the chaos, artifacts that tickle your curiosity and quench it at the same time, a layer of fascination that makes reality both more interesting and more digestible.” Also, each mailing has its own “unique hashtag…so you can follow its progress on Twitter.”

Quarterly is a new way to connect with the people you follow and find interesting. We spend so much of our lives connecting with people online that we forget the value of tangible interactions that happen in the real world. Quarterly wants to bridge that gap by allowing anyone to subscribe to influential contributors and get physical items in the mail from them. It is like a magazine, but instead of receiving words on a page, our subscribers receive actual items that tell a compelling story crafted and narrated by the contributor.

image via Quarterly Co.

Earlier this week, BBC public affairs program Panorama focused on the issue of Internet bullying in the episode “Hunting the Internet Bullies.” As part of the program, journalist Declan Lawn tracked down and confronted Internet troll Nimrod Severen, whose real name is Darren Burton. Nimrod Severen has gained notoriety by posting inflammatory and racist comments on social network tribute pages for people who have died.

via The Next Web

The FBI has released their file on Steve Jobs, making it available to the public.

via Cult of Mac

Jake Reilly took a 90 day vacation from email, the Internet, cell phones, and other aspects of modern communication and documented his experience in a short video: “The Amish Project.”

via Viral Viral Videos

Back in 2006, Improv Everywhere sent comedian and black person Colton Dunn to the overwhelmingly white ski resort town of Aspen, Colorado so the inhabitants could meet a black person. Improv Everywhere is remastering and rereleasing some choice videos from its archives to commemorate its 10th anniversary.

Brawler-turned-author Patrick Davis has self-published Fighteytown: An Auto-Fight-Ography, a biographical book of his real-life fistfights. Davis is now adapting the book into a one man show and possibly, a feature film.

LA Weekly’s Public Spectacle blog recently featured Davis and talked about Fightey-town:

As it turns out, he was Mr. Tough Guy. After about 35 street fights — many in L.A. — he was hit with the inspiration to combine his bloody, bare-knuckle hobby with his mostly deferred dream of being a writer. He self-published Fighteytown: An Auto-Fight-Ography, the self-deprecating story of an overprivileged underachiever told through the prism of his often ridiculous fights.

…Instead of a sadist, Davis considers himself an avenger of bullies, a defender of the downtrodden. “One of my most righteous fights was with a guy who’d been terrorizing the homeless in my area of Venice. He was on the ‘scumbag miracle diet’ — Cheez Whiz, Fluffernutter, minidonuts — but he still thought he could take me.”

via Public Spectacle

Actor William Shatner will be starring in Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It, his one-man show beginning with two preview shows on Broadway on February 14 and 15, 2012. Opening night is February 16, 2012 and the nearly two-hour long show runs for 19 performances until March 4, 2012 at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. After the Broadway run, Shatner is taking his show on the road to various U.S. cities. Tickets are on sale now.

In SHATNER’S WORLD…a one man force of nature delivers a larger than life performance complete with his laugh-out-loud humor, signature storytelling and select musical selections in his inimitable style.

Through anecdotes, songs, jokes and even some poignant moments, you will experience William Shatner ‘s phenomenal path from classically trained Shakespearean actor to cultural icon, brilliantly creating the larger-than-life and most important character he has ever played, William Shatner.

Ms. Tanning in 2010 by Sylvia Plachy

The Dorothea Tanning Foundation has confirmed that American surrealist painter, sculptor and poet Dorothea Tanning died on January 31, 2012 at the age of 101. Tanning, a brilliant artist, writer and the oldest surviving Surrealist, had been married to German painter Max Ernst for thirty years until his death in 1976. In 2011, Graywolf Press had published Coming to That, a book of new poems from Ms. Tanning.

Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Portrait of Muriel Levy

via Vulture & Dangerous Minds

images via The Dorothea Tanning Foundation

photos by Lee Miller, Robert Bruce Inverarity and Sylvia Plachy

Scottish centerian Kathleen “Kit” Connell thinks her Nintendo DS portable gaming system is “absolutely super”. Kit, who just turned 100 years old last week, shows how gaming keeps her brain sharp in this video. The Sun has more of her charming story and quotes her as saying. “The Nintendo has been a great help to me, it’s absolutely amazing. If there’s any secret to a long life it’s to think positive and keep your mind active.”

via Kotaku and The Sun

“To R.P. Salazar, with Love” is a short animation that tells the true story of how two strangers with very similar names (and nearly identical email addresses) fell in love after a misdirected email connected them. The animation was created by The Rauch Brothers and is part of the StoryCorps oral history preservation project.

In January 2007, Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar were living 9,000 miles apart and completely unaware of each other’s existence. But when an email meant for Rachel accidentally went to Ruben, it wasn’t long before an ordinary mistake began to look like an extraordinary stroke of luck.

See Previously: Animated 9/11 Stories Recorded by StoryCorps

via Neatorama

Here’s a photo taken by Irish Willis Peele of what he claims is a young Jon Stewart (center) moshing at a Dead Kennedys and Front Line punk show at the Casablanca club in Richmond, Virginia. When the photo was snapped in July 1982, he was a student at William & Mary and went by his given name, Jon Leibowitz.

via Dangerous Minds and Filthy Pit

photo by Irish Willis Peele

image via Wes Harman

Stephen Colbert talks with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak (best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are) in Grim Colberty Tales (parts 1, 2), a hilarious two-part interview on The Colbert Report.

What Are You Doing Tonight? Wall Street

What Are You Doing Tonight? Staten Island

What Are You Doing Tonight? The Bowery

What Are You Doing Tonight? Bushwick

What Are You Doing Tonight? Rockefeller Center

Famous photographers pose with their favorite or most iconic photo in the “Behind Photographs” portrait series by Tim Mantoani (see the behind-the-scenes video). The series is available as a photo book.

via Wired Raw File

YouTuber MJRecession placed a video camera on a sushi serving conveyor belt at a restaurant in Japan. As the camera traveled around the restaurant it captured the wonderful reactions of the customers. This isn’t the first time someone has placed a camera on a sushi conveyor belt—the concept has even been used in a music video.

via PetaPixel

Los Angeles-based artist and photographer Madeline Schichtel took 1-second snippets of each day of her life in 2011 and condensed it into a sweet film called This is What Madeline Did in 2011.

via Colossal

photo by Madeline Schichtel

Last January, you might remember the rags to riches story of Ted Williams, the Columbus, Ohio man escaped homelessness by having his “golden voice” discovered by Doral Chenoweth III of The Columbus Dispatch. Entertainment Tonight caught up with Mr. Williams one year later and found that while he used to live on the street and smoke crack, he is now gainfully employed, has a steady girlfriend and a roof over his head. He’s also been gifted a free membership to the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab in Los Angeles to continue developing his career.

He’s even co-authored a book, which will hit the shelves in May 2012 called A Golden Voice: Ted Williams: How Faith, Hard Work, and Humility Brought Me from the Streets to Salvation.

via reddit

“Iowa Nice” by Scott Siepker and Paul Benedict is a punchy informational video that challenges a few stereotypes about the nice people of Iowa.

via Daily What & Towleroad

Matt Stutzman was born without arms, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a competitive archer (video via BP Team USA). Stutzman holds the record for the longest archery shot (230 yards), is a member of the ParaUSA Archery Team, and hopes to compete in the 2012 Paralympics in London.

via Super Punch

photo via Matt Stutzman

Charlie Chaplin died 34 years ago on Christmas Day 1977 at the age of 88. Much more than just a great comic actor, Chaplin conceived, directed, produced, and even wrote the scores for his films (as well as starring in them). In the process he pioneered silent film comedy and laid foundations for all the film makers who followed. Above he plays a barber in a scene from his 1940 classic The Great Dictator.

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88.

Here are a few more iconic examples of his work. Chaplin’s Little Tramp character literally eats his shoe in a famous scene from 1925′s The Gold Rush (ranked 58th on the American Film Institute’s list of the all-time greatest films).

Here’s the Tramp in the Lion’s cage from The Circus (1928). This scene uses some filming tricks, but Chaplin was actually in the cage with the Lion on many takes. He also learned to tightrope walk for the film.

Chaplin died in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland on 25 December 1977 and is buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery, Switzerland. Shortly after, his body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from his family. His body was recovered and buried again, this time under 6 feet of concrete. You can imagine a suitably Chaplin-esque scene if graverobbers ever returned, breaking their picks & backs trying to chip through the concrete. You can rest in peace now, Charlie.

photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images via Wikipedia

Kim Jong-il Dropping the Bass documents the North Korean ex-dictator’s little known side job: DJ.

Thanks to Ben Popper for the tip!

Last December Al Jaffee, the 90 year old creator of the Mad Magazine fold-in, performed his first-ever live reading from “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” another long-running Mad feature (video). The reading occurred at HEEB Storytelling: Lives Comics Edition at Joe’s Pub in New York City, hosted by HEEB Magazine.

This year Jaffee released a compendium of 410 Mad Magazine fold-ins, and was interviewed by Upright Citizens Brigade.

Thanks to Jeff Newelt for the tip!

photo by Seth Kushner

In the photo series “Triptychs of Strangers,” Germany-based street photographer Adde Adesokan takes photographs of strangers and creates wonderful triptychs that capture the stranger’s personality.

via PhotoJojo

Saturday Night Live writer Mike O’ Brien hosts a hilarious seven-minute talk show in a closet called 7 Minutes in Heaven. He’s had several “intimate conversations” in a closet with well-known personalities including the guys from Insane Clown Posse, Ellen DeGeneres, Andy Samberg, Christina Ricci and more. The show’s name comes from a party game for teens of the same name where two people are put in a closet for seven minutes to do whatever they want. Be sure to stay to the end where Mike attempts to plant an awkward kiss on his guest.

images via 7 Minutes in Heaven