I saw a few interesting things today. At Slashdot I saw a link to a really neat exhibit on the Library of Congress website. They have some photographs from a Russian photographer who used a fascinating early color photographic process. 
His name was Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii and in the years 1909-1912 he was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II to photograph the extensive Russian Empire. These photographs are fascinating because the color is so vivid and yet still quite realistic looking, The color is just slightly saturated. Also, the photos are from a period where color photography was extremely rare. The process involved using 4 different glass plates and lenses, one for the black and white negative and one for each color. Anyway, the photos are outdoors for the most part and are almost like using a time machine. Several of them would make great backgrounds. I like this one a lot. These photos remind me of some of these old encyclopedias I had that had photos from the early part of the 20th century. There were pictures from all around the world. There were one or two volumes dedicated to a certain part, like Western Europe, Northern Africa, etc. I wish I still had them.
Speaking of color, do you know if your color blind? If you’re male, you might be one of the lucky 10% who are. If you don’t know if you are or not, try this test. And, if you are color blind, blame your mother.