Russian Sledges

pictured: the Brewery Gulch Inn in Mencodino, CA A recent thread at American Bungalow's online forums gives very truncated run-down of Craftsman-style hotels throughout the United States; I've started there and added a number of others. Take a look at the list below, and add any of your personal favorites by commenting on this entry. The Grove Park Inn Resort...

Castro, Joannes à, active 1686-1690. De on-ghemaskerde liefde des hemmels, 1686.

WKR 9.4.2

Houghton Library, Harvard University

A pierced silver binding (probably late 18th century) with chased medallions depicting the Nativity and the Ascension on front and back covers; silver clasps.

Uganda's parliament passes a bill to toughen the punishment for homosexual acts to include life imprisonment and force people to report gay activities.

Students and teachers at Watertown High School have been ordered to shelter in place this afternoon and will be dismissed early after a round of ammunition was found in a bathroom at the school, according to a automated message to parents from Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald.

Wolverine in the Kitchen

There's a lot of data behind The New York Public Library's What's On The Menu?, and here's your chance to explore it. This is built for programmers and power-users, so if you're looking for an easier way to explore the dataset you may want to take a look at our Biweekly data exports, which are in CSV format. However if you're looking to do powerful analysis of historical menu data, this is the tool for you.

Otherkin are individuals who identify as “not entirely human.” Scholarship has framed this identity claim as religious because it is frequently supported by a framework of metaphysical beliefs. This article draws on survey data and interviews with Otherkin in order to provide a more thorough treatment of the phenomenon and to assess and qualify the movement's religious dimensions. It is argued that, in addition to having a substantively religious quality, the Otherkin community serves existential and social functions commonly associated with religion. In the final analysis, the Otherkin community is regarded as an alternative nomos—a socially constructed worldview—that sustains alternate ontologies. Keywords:Otherkin, identity, modernity, functionalism, Paganism

Boston Public Library posted a photo:

Local Accession Number: 06_11_004839
Title: Volunteers on Second Street, San Francisco, going to join the Fourth Expedition for Manila
Genre: Stereographs; Photographic prints
Created/Published: Meadville, Pa. ; St. Louis, Mo. : Keystone View Company, manufacturers and publishers
Copyright date: 1898
Physical description: 1 photographic print on curved stereo card : stereograph ; 9 x 18 cm.
General notes: Title from item.; No. 9382.; Copyright 1898 by B. L. Singley.
Subjects: Recruiting & enlistment; Streets; Soldiers; Spanish-American War, 1898
Collection: Stereographs Collection
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Shelf locator: Spanish-American War
Rights: No known copyright restrictions

Last week the ever-incredible British Library announced that they were gifting more than 1 million images to the world, uploaded to Flickr Commons under the public domain mark, meaning complete freedom of re-use. The range and breadth of images is phenomenal. As they say in their post announcing the release the “images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of”. Each image was extracted from its respective home (books making up a total of 65,000 already digitised volumes) by a program known as the ‘Mechanical Curator’, a creation of the British Library Labs project. A crowdsourcing application is being launched in the new year (likely using tools developed by our very own Open Knowledge Foundation!) to help describe what the images portray – and the British Library is also putting out a general plea for people to innovate new ways to navigate, find and display this incredible array of images. (Email BL Labs here). Although, of course, it will one day be wonderful to be able to sort and filter these images into […]

At the death of painter Frida Kahlo, her husband (painter Diego Rivera) ordered her personal belongings, including nearly all of her clothes, to be locked up. It would be another 50 years before this wardrobe was opened up and this year, for the first time, it was exhibited in Mexico City.

Kenn and I were lucky enough to make the trip down to Mexico while this exhibit was going on at the Frida Kahlo museum, and to see some of her exquisite clothing and personal effects in person.

So many women are drawn to Frida, myself included. Here was a woman who endured unimaginable pain throughout her life due to her multiple disabilities, and yet was able to somehow render that pain into art. Pain and suffering were a large theme in her work, and clearly formed a big part of her identity.

Yet until I saw this wonderfully curated exhibit, I hadn’t thought much about the link between her iconic appearance, her inimitable style, and her disabilities.

My personal history has a lot to do with my own Frida obsession. I don’t talk about this much, but I have my own spinal deformity which was treated with spinal surgery at 12 years old. Though it was very painful and deeply affected my self image, my issues are nowhere near the scale of the trauma Frida Kahlo lived through. Yet, I cannot look at her painting The Broken Column without tears of sympathy welling up. It is for me the most wrenching of all her works.

Frida used her clothing to celebrate some aspects of her identity while disguising others. The long flowing skirts of her Tehuana dress represented her cultural heritage, but also disguised her withered (and later, after amputation, false) leg. It reminded me of the shame I felt about my body as a young teenager, how self conscious I was about my scars and covering them up, how mortified I was by comments on my body.

And even today, though I don’t think about these things as much, I surely don’t relish talking about them either. Who wants to draw attention to their flaws?

Yet some of the objects on display hinted at a different attitude towards the body that tortured her. The painted casts in particular suggested a kind of “dressing up” of the pain. It isn’t necessarily a celebration but, like her art, it is a direct confrontation of it.

And she was clearly fearless in her sartorial choices. She had no problems mixing traditional Mexican and European fashion in innovative ways. With her bright colors, bold jewelry, flowers in her hair and silk and lace everywhere, her presence was commanding and unmistakable.

I think nearly all women can relate to these two impulses, whether we have disabilities or not. There are times when each of us feels broken, imperfect, and ashamed. And there are times we fight through that to express who we are, not in spite of our imperfections but because of them.

“The artistic representation of a specimen, unlike the indiscriminate camera, must also walk the razor’s edge between an uninformative abstract schematic, on one hand, and an idiosyncratic, hyperexact representation, on the other.”

- Stephen T. Asma, Stuffed Animals & Pickled Heads (2001)

mapsontheweb:

Lactose intolerance map

Source

“I was realistic about the book’s marketing … it was, after all, a memoir about some cats, and no state-of-the-nation literary epic. Nonetheless, Simon & Schuster’s birthday-cardish cover—an anonymous actor kitten sitting in a pair of jeans, against a sky-blue background—seemed a curious choice.” —Tom Cox

 

Houses of the Holy

The Gun Club And Glen Checks Crowd.

Gene Tierney, and a dude lighting her cigarette.

Los Angeles Yelpers can now view a restaurant's health inspection letter grade directly on its Yelp page. The LA Times reports the upgrade comes as a result of a "partnership" between what are probably the two most reviled entities in a restaurateur's life: the crowdsourced review site and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. [LAT]

Dmitri Isakov faces a fine of about $120 for violating Russia’s law against “gay propaganda” by holding a sign that said violence against gays “is criminal.”

Classical Archaeology, UNC-Chapel Hill

History, Stanford University

Human Sciences, University of Oxford

inspiration-imusam:

Bees from France got into some waste from an M&M’s factory and produced blue honey. 

Olympic figure skating champion Brian Boitano came out Thursday, two days after he was named to the U.S. delegation for Sochi along with openly gay athletes Billie Jean King and Caitlin Cahow.

Modern Farmer: Do you have an agricultural background? What made you want to have a farm?

Neko Case: My parents moved to the city but I was on my grandparents’ dairy farm a lot. All of their relatives were dairy farmers, too. It’s funny, if other people mentioned their “grandparents” I just assumed they all lived on farms automatically! I was always heartbroken when we came back to town, but I was lucky enough to spend a large part of my life on the farm. I’ve always thought I would be an artist and I always thought I would live back in a rural setting, and sure enough! I just feel normal and natural with animals and dirt, things growing and dying around me in real time.

It’s a reset button. Plus, I plan to farm full-time eventually, I’m just part-time now. Getting the feel and learning as I go.

MF: Has living on your farm influenced your songwriting?

NC: I’m sure it has though I can’t put my finger on an explanation of how. Like I said above, I just feel normal and natural there so I’m sure it helps me store up reserves of energy and creativity.

MF: You recorded Middle Cyclone on your farm. What made you want to record in a barn on your farm and what unique challenges arose from this choice?

NC: One song was done in the barn and another in the house. The barn was the inspiration. It’s just such a big space. It had taken forever to clean out and put a floor in, so I wanted to do an art project in it. I had never had access to such a huge amount of space before! I (with a LOT of help from my best friend and roomie, Stuntman Nate, who is a contractor) brought in as many free pianos as I could get in two months (which turned out to be eight, six of which were tunable), and recruited friends and bandmates to be a piano orchestra. It was fun as hell! The hard part was the cold Vermont spring temperatures in a hay barn (open-spaced siding) and competing noise. I relented to the sounds, there was nothing I could do. I ended up loving it though, it’s all on there –creaking wood, baby robins, wind and crazy-loud peepers. It was fantastic.

MF: What’s the toughest lesson you’ve learned raising animals yourself?

NC: When it’s the right time to let them (or help them) die. It’s harsh sometimes, but I never regret bringing any of them home. They are all such a joy. They “tell you” when they are ready to go. No matter how many times it’s happened I doubt my own ability to see it, but they always tell me.

MF: What’s been your biggest success as a farmer?

NC: Carrots, kale and tomatoes. My pears are also getting a good reputation.

MF: Tell us about your favorite animals.

NC: I own 100 acres, four chickens, one horse, four dogs and two cats. Fergie is my favorite chicken, she’s independent and lays large blue eggs. She peed all over the front of my shirt the first time I picked her up. My neighbor’s cows also graze on my land. They are like big, doe-eyed dogs. I love to spend time scratching their necks. Such sweet, gentle girls. There’s no way to pick a favorite, they all have such charisma.

MF: What was the adjustment like moving from the city to the farm?

NC: None really, it’s like I dropped into the oil painting of my life pretty seamlessly. It only took about six months, but I can touch ANYTHING disgusting now though without batting an eye.

MF: How is your time split now? How much time do you spend touring versus time on the farm?

NC: I’ve been at work a LOT this past year and I notice a definite edginess I get when I’m not home enough. But like everyone else, I have to pay the bills. Luckily, I really love my job.

MF: What advice would you give to someone who’s just bought their first chicken?

NC: Don’t lock them up so much. They are smarter than people think and thrive when given challenges and choices within their natural scope. Also, when they are allowed to range their eggs taste better because they have proper variety in their diet. Plus, who wants to live in a coop all the time?!

MF: Has being on the farm changed your eating habits?

NC: Yeah, 360! I can’t hardly touch processed food anymore and I don’t grow anything with GMO’s. All as naturally as I can, no pesticides or poison. I save seeds. It’s the punk rock, revolution-begins-at-home thing to do! Farms need farmers who are fighters, now more than ever. My dearly departed grandma is right behind me.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

The post Neko Case on Music, Farms and Owning Your First Chicken appeared first on Modern Farmer.

This post originally ran in December 2013. We are rerunning it, with Parks and Recreation in its final season.

In the Parks and Recreation episode “The Cones of Dunshire,” which aired November 21, 2013, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) finds himself unemployed for one week and he spends the time “cooking up something pretty big” — namely, the obsessively detailed board game that gives the episode its title. “Presenting ... the Cones of Dunshire, a brand-new gaming experience [for] eight to twelve players,” he excitedly tells his interest-feigning wife, Leslie (Amy Poehler), before rattling off ever-nerdier details about his invention, including its goal (“to accumulate cones: Four cones wins, but in order to get a cone you have to build a civilization ... which is where the Spirit Cards come in”), its hyper-specific character types (“two wizards, a maverick, the Arbiter, two warriors, a corporal, and a ledgerman,” the latter of which merely keeps score while wearing a hat that says Ledgerman), and its many quirks (“the thing about the Challenge Play is that it’s basically the game” — here, Ben opens his hand dramatically to reveal disc-shaped game pieces — “in reverse”). To build a prop worthy of Ben’s neurotic intensity, the Parks and Recreation producers turned to Mayfair Games, publishers of the meticulously crafted strategy game The Settlers of Catan. Vulture spoke with Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation honchos, and the Mayfair Games brain trust to find out how the game was dreamed up, whether the cones are, in fact, a metaphor, and if we’ll ever see Ben’s creation in stores.

Dave King (co-producer, Parks and Recreation; writer of “The Cones of Dunshire”): We knew that there was going to be a story point that Ben was going to have about a week off between jobs. The last time he was unemployed, he worked on Claymation, so we talked about making a sequel to [his Claymation short] Requiem for a Tuesday. But as soon as the idea came up for Ben to design his own Catan-like board game, I remember Mike Schur, our creator and showrunner, was like, “Yes. That’s it. Absolutely.”

Morgan Sackett (executive producer, Parks and Recreation): A bunch of our writers are fans of Settlers of Catan. Ben Wyatt played it at his bachelor party; he was a huge fan, he was nationally ranked in that game — all those things that we put into an episode last year.

King: The idea was that this would be a kitchen-sink-type thing; it would have elements of Dungeons and Dragons where there were dice, and Catan elements where there would be actual hexes and resources. We all talked about our favorite games, like Dominion and Ticket to Ride, and what elements we could borrow from those. We just wanted to paint the picture that he had spent a week in a rabbit hole of gaming and come out the other end with no clear game — just like a hundred game pieces that vaguely fit together. I think cones came up instantly, like, “Oh, there should be three-dimensional cones.” Someone said, “You should roll the dice to see how many dice you roll.” Everyone was pitching out ideas. It was the fun of adding details on top of details on top of nonsense.

Pete Fenlon (CEO, Mayfair Games): We had provided the Parks and Recreation guys with Settlers of Catan for Ben’s bachelor party last year, and it was a really nice shout-out for our product. So Morgan Sackett called me in August and said, “Because you guys have been so supportive and because we also love your stuff, would you like to provide us with a game?”

Sackett: The point where I had a real script to describe what we needed was only about two-and-a-half weeks before we shot the episode.

Fenlon: He offered to push filming back a week, but we talked it over and we said, “No, we can put something together in a couple weeks.” And we could do that because we didn't have to have a working game so much as a prototype, which is just a physical game that met the specs that were described in the story and was visually evocative. So we basically said, let’s give it a shot.

Coleman Charlton (project director, Mayfair Games): One thing we wanted was to have hexes, so it implied Catan. So I started by putting a bunch of hex tiles on a board in a big spiral with crossover plays and adventures on each of the corners. Of course, I didn’t have any big cones lying around, so I used little pyramids.

Fenlon: So, Coleman put this first prototype together, and we had a Skype meeting with the Parks & Rec art director and creative team to go over the specs. And they said to us, “It’s almost there, but (1) we want this huge emphasis on the cones, (2) we want it to be very colorful, and 3) we want it to be relatively simple in its nature, very arts-and-craftsy, as if it were put together by a guy who’s not necessarily very good at this.” And once we left the conference with their comments, I think we just nailed it.

Charlton: Luckily, [the crafts store] Michaels already had cones out for Christmas, in all different sizes. No question, if it had been two or three months earlier, they wouldn’t have been available.

Fenlon: So we went to Michaels for some additional craft materials, especially the gems and stuff. We even went to the farmers' market and got a gourd that looked like it might be a good lava worm. It was just a crazy pastiche of stuff.

Charlton: And we wanted to make it look like something that somebody who had a bunch of old games put together themselves. If you look really closely, you could probably recognize which games some of the stuff comes from.

Morgan Dontanville (art director, Mayfair Games): Even though Ben is obsessive about this game, we put in a lot of errors that he’s mended. We misspelled desert as “dessert” and crossed it out and then changed it to “hot sands.” I tried to overglue some stuff. I peeled stuff off and put stuff on and peeled stuff off and put stuff on. So I tried to create the idea that he was obsessive to the point where it causes damage. I didn’t know how much was actually going to be shown, so I wanted to do as much detail work as possible.

Adam Scott (Ben Wyatt): I hadn’t seen the game until we got there to shoot the scene, and it was beyond my wildest expectations. It was very thorough. Like, this is the work of a madman.

King: I wrote a bunch of rules up that it is probably almost impossible to actually build a real game around, but we wanted something just for Adam to be able to reference at any point. When we shot it, Adam did a lot of ad-libbing, which was hilarious, and we also just wrote a bunch of what we call “wild lines.” So I would just stand off-camera and feed him lines like, “Are the cones a metaphor? Well, yes and no.” As a staff, we had all written up probably five pages of those because it was so much fun to do.

Scott: I remember just not wanting to screw it up, because it was incredibly important to Mike Schur. This Cones of Dunshire thing was near and dear to his heart. And there were so many specifications and guidelines, things that I could not get wrong. Mercifully we shot it in three or four separate chunks, so I didn’t have to memorize all of it in one go, which made the whole thing a lot easier.

Dontanville: In the extended cold open, Ben talks about cone covers — which was improvised from the fact that we actually made those. When you get to the Cone of Decision at the center of the game, then you can decide to either put the cover on the cone or take the cover off the cone. And that determines whether you choose the dark side of the cone or the light side of the cone. And apparently they ran with that.

Scott: When I was a kid I was into comic books, and I kept them all in plastic bags and would get really annoyed when anyone would not treat them with the utmost of care. So I tapped into that, I guess.

Charlton: Also, there’s a huge market in gaming for card sleeves. People who play games and don’t want to ruin the cards buy tons of card sleeves. So when he’s talking about cone covers, it’s really an inside gamer joke.

Sackett: We shot a lot of stuff. Way more than you would normally do on a little cold open like that. I think Amy Poehler was sort of befuddled by the whole situation. [Laughs] Amy doesn’t get it at all. Or maybe she gets it, but she doesn’t have a lot of interest in it. So she was standing there probably as horrified as Leslie Knope was.

Scott: Amy just thought it was ridiculous. And it was.

Dontanville: I guess the game is playable right now … but do you mean “good?” Honestly, we could probably bust out a set of rules in, like, three nights.

Charlton: I mean, if we talked about the ideas we have for the game, we’d be just like Ben was on the show.

Fenlon: We’ll have a game by August of next year, for sure. It was never our plan, and it is not now our plan, to make a commercial version of Cones of Dunshire. But there will definitely be a staging of Cones of Dunshire next summer at GenCon in Indianapolis, which is the biggest game show in the United States. It will be big and festive and probably for charity. It’s our hope for the Parks & Rec guys to be there, for Ben to play his own game.

Scott: That would be amazing. I want to be on the box. 

Sackett: Our intention on Parks and Recreation is that somehow Cones of Dunshire is going to come back around.

King: I mean, let’s put it this way: It ended up in the hands of those accountants, who will hopefully spread the Word of Cone as much as Ben would.

Read more posts by Gwynne Watkins

Filed Under: adam scott ,parks and recreation ,settlers of catan ,micro oral histories ,oral histories ,the cones of dunshire ,board games

See also: Logopolis (Doctor Who)

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan sit on Santa’s lap at Macy’s Santaland in New York City in this delightful photo tweeted by Stewart.

image via Patrick Stewart

"Our investigations found that there was a true criminal system in action. A group of people... carried out a devastating, systematic looting of the library." BBC 12/19/13