Fun Friday Resources

If you were, say, writing a murder mystery or for some reason needed to know the average diameter and length of the small and large intestine, or if you’re just a nerd who likes to win at trivia night, then Harvard’s BioNumbers database is for you. They’ve labeled it the “database of useful biological numbers,” and I’m sure those who are dying to know what the Identification of total proteins in A. baumannii DU202 cultured in LB medium supplemented with imipenem is will find it very useful indeed.

Or if you needed a movie poster from last century to decorate the set of Hairspray or maybe for your own artistic purposes, then head to the Harvey Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin and check out their movie poster collection.

If you just need a timewaster, or maybe you have a 1950s instructional film fetish, head over to the Prelinger Archives, with its nearly 10,000 movies of all descriptions. Most are along the lines of 1927’s “How to Use the Dial Phone” from AT&T, or rather laughable b&w shorts teaching our precious young men and women how to go on dates without touching each other, but there are some gems in there.

Just in case you thought the adoration of cats is a relatively new quirk of the humans, here’s a nearly 11-minute film from 1940 called It’s a Cat’s Life, with kittens and everything: