Russian Sledges

"The bloody Welsh."

figgyloo-pudding:

pokemonyewest:

lampsarepeopletoo:

what the

Nothing beats a snow pentagonal dodecahedron

I quit

crowseyegreyjoy:

shinoddddd:

ラバーダックの空気が一夜で抜けた

NO

Michelle Bolt’s Tanglewood Farm in Georgia is home to over one hundred miniature livestock — horses, alpacas, goats, sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, and more — and is also a local petting zoo. To learn why Bolt decided to breed miniatures and to see more photos of the adorable animals, take a look at Modern Farmer’s article about their visit to Tanglewood Farm.

images via Modern Farmer

via Modern Farmer, Digg

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The powerful storm named Super Typhoon Haiyan (or Super Typhoon Yolanda, as it is referred to within the Philippines) hit the central islands of the Philippines on Friday, with reported wind speeds of 190 to 195 miles per hour at landfall. For comparison, a commercial airplane takes off at speeds in the range of 160mph.

Haiyan is reported to be the strongest typhoon in the world in 2013, and may be the most powerful recorded tropical cyclone to ever hit land.

Millions of people fled for safer ground and took refuge in storm shelters in the Philippines' central islands, as the typhoon struck. At the time of this post, only one reported death: a woman on the island of Cebu was crushed to death by a tree that fell, according to the Philippine Information Agency.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters at Weather Underground predicts "extreme damage" in the Philippines: "Wind damage in Guiuan (population 47,000) must have been catastrophic, perhaps the greatest wind damage any city on Earth has endured from a tropical cyclone in the past century."

An old tree at Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City succumbed to the tenacious winds of #YolandaPH pic.twitter.com/dDiA8qJDnL | @RedCrossCebu:

— Province of Cebu (@cebugovph) November 8, 2013

From Reuters:

Haiyan, a category-5 storm, lashed the islands of Leyte and Samar with 5-6 meter (15-19 ft) waves as it headed toward densely populated central and southern Philippines, including the resort island of Boracay and other holiday destinations. Authorities warned more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of the Philippines' second-largest city Cebu, home to around 2.5 million people, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.1-magnitude quake last month.

One lane of Osmena Blvd. in #Cebu City closed due 2 falling cladding from Crown Regency. #YolandaPH pic.twitter.com/HafTwdnrc3 | @life_of_ri

— Province of Cebu (@cebugovph) November 8, 2013

Dr. Jeff Masters, at Weather Underground:

Super Typhoon Haiyan has made landfall. According to PAGASA, Haiyan came ashore at 4:40 am local time (20:40 UTC) November 7, 2013 near Guiuan, on the Philippine island of Samar. Fourty minutes before landfall, Guiuan reported sustained 10-minute average winds of 96 mph, with a pressure of 977 mb. Contact has since been lost with the city. Three hours before landfall, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed Haiyan’s sustained winds at 195 mph, gusting to 235 mph, making it the 4th strongest tropical cyclone in world history. Satellite loops show that Haiyan weakened only slightly, if at all, in the two hours after JTWC’s advisory, so the super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph. The next JTWC intensity estimate, for 00Z UTC November 8, about three hours after landfall, put the top winds at 185 mph. Averaging together these estimates gives a strength of 190 mph an hour after landfall. Thus, Haiyan had winds of 190 - 195 mph at landfall, making it the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in world history. The previous record was held by the Atlantic's Hurricane Camille of 1969, which made landfall in Mississippi with 190 mph winds.

At the time of this blog post, Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda has already made five landfalls, according to the Philippines national weather bureau PAGASA.

From philstar.com:

PAGASA reported that the super typhoon slammed into land for the third time over Daanbantayan town in Cebu at around 9:40 a.m. The weather disturbance, considered the world's strongest this year, initially made landfall in Guiuan, Samar. Three hours later, the super typhoon hit land over Tolosa town in Leyte. PAGASA said the superhowler is expected a fourth landfall over Negros Occidental.

On Thursday night, before the storm made landfall, President Benigno Aquino III made a televised statement in which he described the typhoon as "a serious threat." From the Philippine Information Agency:

Relief goods have been prepositioned in most of the areas that may be affected. To those who have not received relief goods, please be patient. Rest assured the relief goods will come soonest.

In the Philippines subReddit, a #YolandaPH thread with live updates.

Total of Cancelled flights as of 1200H pic.twitter.com/SWQJQaljVD

— NAIA (@naia_miaa) November 8, 2013

Flashfloods also affecting residents of Sitio Bahala, Barangay Dumlog, Talisay City, #Cebu. #YolandaPH @sunstarcebu pic.twitter.com/TDJDQIx2EP

— Rianne Tecson (@life_of_ri) November 8, 2013

Super Typhoon #Haiyan #Yolanda curated Twitter list --> https://t.co/Dw81UNJOiC (with @philredcross @typhoonfury @dost_pagasa etc.) #cnni

— Kristie Lu Stout CNN (@klustout) November 8, 2013

Enormous storm predicted to be largest ever recorded, topping hurricane Camille in 1969, hits north Pacific

• In pictures: the storm rolls into Philippines
• Share your experiences of Haiyan

Typhoon Haiyan has hit the Philippines with winds of 195mph, with experts saying "catastrophic damage" will result from what is predicted to be the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in recorded history.

Thousands of people have been evacuated and thousands more have fled their homes as the category five storm sent waves as high as 5m (15ft) ashore on the islands of Leyte and Samar in the central Philippines, overturning powerlines and leaving streets knee-deep in water.

Haiyan – the Philippines' 25th typhoon so far this year – is expected to barrel through the archipelago close to Cebu, the nation's second-largest city and home to around 2.5 million people.

With speeds at landfall of 195mph and gusts of up to 235mph, Haiyan is believed to be stronger than the world's last strongest tropical cyclone, hurricane Camille, which was recorded in the US at 190mph in 1969.

Although schools and offices have been closed and roughly a million people are in shelters scattered around 20 provinces, Haiyan's powerful winds could potentially blow off the roofs of storm-proof buildings and suck out their walls due to the sheer force of its energy, experts have said.

"There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind," meteorology expert Jeff Masters told the Associated Press of Haiyan's 195mph landfall. "The wind damage should be the most extreme in Philippines history."

The storm – which is dubbed Yolanda in the Philippines – ripped iron roofs off buildings and threw trees across roads, cutting out power to entire provinces, particularly around the storm's centre in Eastern Samar province. 

"We've been hearing from my colleagues in [the city of] Tacloban that they've seen galvanised iron sheets flying just like kites," Mai Zamora, of the charity World Vision, told the BBC. "It's actually all around the roads now. The roads are flooded in Tacloban."

Haiyan is expected to miss Manila, although the capital may get heavy rain and winds and has been put on low-level alert.

President Benigno Aquino III said three cargo planes, 20 navy ships and 32 military planes and helicopters were on standby for rescue operations and to provide relief. "No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he said in a televised address.

Typhoon Bopha in 2013 destroyed much of the southern islands, killing about 1,100 people and causing over $1bn worth of damage. 

Haiyan is expected to lessen by Saturday as it moves towards the South China Sea, where Vietnam, Laos and China are in its potential path.

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Universal Monsters

What's tough for Armagnac is probably a windfall for American consumers, however. Most significantly, because of the glut, Armagnac producers are using older brandies in their blends, increasing their quality. That means a VSOP (from four to nine years old) or an XO/Hors d'Age (from 10 to 19 years old) now could very well be blended with a significant amount of 20- to 25-year-old Armagnac. (Armagnac follows a classification of VS, VSOP, XO/Hors d'Age similar to that of other French brandies.)

For the purposes of this project, I am counting "female engineers" as women who are writing or architecting software, and are in full-time roles. This generally does not include people just writing HTML/CSS (depending on the level of sophistication of the CSS being written), designers, PMs, sysadmins, etc. although the line can be blurry for people who are in mixed roles, like engineering managers who were formerly ICs and still contribute code -- use your judgment. Only full-timers please; no interns or contractors.

Several pieces of original artwork by the late Westport artist and illustrator Bernard “Bernie” Burroughs (1912 -1993) will be auctioned off on Sunday by Black Rock Galleries in Bridgeport with previews beginning today.

The preview and auction will take place simultaneously online and live at 1720 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport. Phone (203)335-0000.

Bernie Burroughs was renowned as a men’s fashion illustrator during the “Mad Men” era of advertising art, with his work for Van Heusen, Fruit of the Loom, Arrow shirts, MacGregor, and many others, appearing in national magazines throughout the 1950s and ‘60s.

A father's attempt to teach his son a lesson for taking his truck without permission ended in tragedy Monday after a local police officer shot the teenager dead.

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A covenant is a legal spiritual agreement between a person and God.  This was shown in a Barmitzfa, when children accept Christ into their lives and promise to follow him.

RITE HOOK: Personally I don’t like his music. I don’t like his pronunciation and think that he is feminizing hip-hop. I’m not a fan of the hipster movement and am a masculine guy. I’m about being a man. He’s too soft for me. He probably loves kittens. Rating: 1/5

Read and comment. From thedailyswarm.com.

BOSTON — The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the recovery of two weapons stolen overnight from an FBI SWAT team emergency response vehicle parked in Andover.

The FBI said Thursday the stolen government weapons are a Colt M16-A1 rifle and an HS Precision Pro-Series 2000 sniper rifle.

The FBI said items also were stolen from other vehicles parked at nearby homes in Andover during the same time period, Wednesday evening to early Thursday morning.

The FBI said it is working with Andover police and members of the Violent Crimes Task Force, which includes State Police and police from Somerville, Malden, Saugus, Cambridge and Boston

Anyone with information is urged to call the Boston FBI at 617-742-5533 or Andover police at 978-475-0411.

Our Band Could Be Your Life author Michael Azerrad’s website The Talkhouse is the best place to find new album reviews written by actual recording artists. It’s how you get things like the late Lou Reed’s review of Kayne West’s Yeezus back in July, Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg on David Bowie’s The Next Day, and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig waxing philosophic on Drake’s Nothing Was The Same. The latest notable reviewer is Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, who takes on Arcade Fire’s latest record Reflektor. Instead of a straightforward review, Clark tracks her Google searches and related Internet exploration while listening to the record. She lists trying to find details on the similarities between the bass sound on “We Exist” and Madonna’s “Like A Virgin,” how searching for “Porno” yields very few results related to the Arcade Fire song ...

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What does Sir Ian McKellen wear beneath his wizard's robes—or his gold shorts? During a performance this week, he revealed his tighty-Gandalf-the-whities.

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Last Saturday morning at around 2:30am 19-year-old Renisha McBride got into a car accident in Dearborn Heights, a predominately white Detroit suburb. Because her cell phone battery was dead, she went to nearby home for assistance. That might seem like the reasonable and understandable thing to do, but it was the biggest mistake of McBride's short life.

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According to Place Names of the White Mountains by Robert and Mary Julyan, the origin of the name comes from this: "These curious circular stone cavities on Lucy Brook originally were known as the Home of the Water Fairies; tradition says evil water sprites inhabited the ledges, tormenting the Sokokis Indians until a mountain god answered the Indians' prayers and swept the sprites away in a flood. But sometime before 1859 a Miss Hubbard of Boston, a guest at the old Mount Washington House in North Conway, rechristened them Diana's Baths, presumably to evoke images of the Roman nature goddess. The pools are also called Lucy's Baths."[citation needed]

Well, this sequence of events might be the most ridiculous thing we've seen in the NHL this season.

Late in the third period of Wednesday's Jets-Blackhawks game, Winnipeg's Adam Pardy was checked so hard that he went through the glass and landed in the front row of the United Center. That's when a fan decided to reach down and rip Pardy's helmet off of his head.

And then he put it on himself.

And if that all wasn't bad enough, somebody casually dumped a beer all over him.

What a night.

More from SB Nation NHL:

Follow @SBNationNHL

• NHL could change rules after Caps-Flyers brawl

• The Sabres could be historically bad

• College puck coverage at SBN College Hockey

• The Goal: The rivalry between two high schools where hockey is life

Continuing with my posts about parasitic plants, this is Indian Pipes, Monotropa uniflora. It is a holoparasite, because it has no chlorophyll. It leeches nutrients off of mycorrhizal fungi, which are fungi that have symbiotic relationships with trees. It grows in temperate areas of Asia, North America and South America. It is rare, and hard to cultivate because of the specific growth conditions it requires. [x]

The Burlington Route


Detail: Chicago


Detail: Omaha


Detail: The Wahsatch Range


Detail: Oakland and San Francisco

Historical Map: The Burlington Route (Chicago to San Francisco), 1879

Here’s a beautiful map from the glory days of American railroading, showing the route from Chicago to San Francisco via Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. Amtrak’s modern-day California Zephyr still calls at many of the same locations between Chicago and Omaha to the east and from Elko to Oakland in the west, but takes a different route through the middle, using Colorado instead of Wyoming.

Although presented as one continuous route, the journey is actually made up of smaller sections owned by multiple railroad companies: the section from Chicago to Omaha is the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, then Union Pacific to Sacramento and the Western Pacific the rest of the way. Many other railroads have track that connects to and branches off this main trunk route — Southern Pacific, Central Pacific, Utah Central & Southern, Utah & Northern, Central Railroad of Iowa… the list seems endless!

The map itself is packed full of information: the population of towns, connecting rail and stagecoach services, the distance from either Chicago or San Francisco, the elevation of the railroad (cleverly shown as a green profile line below the map), and even the terrain type and major industries and land uses along the way — “heavy timber”, “gold and silver mines”, “elegant farms”, etc. Poor Stockton, CA is noted for its “insane asylum” (see detail image above). As the blurb at the bottom of the map proclaims, “Armed with this Guide, the passenger needs no further information.”

About the only thing that lets this map down is the low quality printing. There’s a lot of poorly registered colours, which slightly spoil the flamboyant and stylish look of the map. The design certainly asks a lot of a late-19th century (pre-offset lithography) printing press!

Our rating: A superb piece of American railroading ephemera, only slightly spoiled by poor printing. Four-and-a-half stars!

(Source: The Big Map Blog)

OK, so we didn't do a scientific study or anything, but this Angora rabbit is one of the fluffiest creatures you'll ever see. It's also been bred by humans for its long fur for a really long time.

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Gubernatorial races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York's mayor's race dominated the news last night, but while we were focused on things like humanoid Grumpy Cat Joe Lhota go down in flames, people were voting to legalize weed in Maine's biggest city and secede from Colorado. Here's a quick roundup of those "down ballot" contests that make local elections so much more interesting:.

The Other Portland Wants Legal Pot, Too

In Portland, Maine, residents there voted to legalize the possession of marijuana. And it wasn't even close. "With all 12 of the city’s precincts reporting just before 10:30 p.m., the legalization referendum held a 9,921-4,823 advantage. That represented more than 67 percent in favor of the measure," The Bangor Daily News reports.

Unfortunately for these folks, the state of Maine, unlike Oregon, still finds pot illegal and police there have still promised to enforce state laws. Still, advocates believe that Portland might have a Denver-like effect in the state and possibly the whole East Coast. Denver voters approved a similar ballot measure in 2005 before the state followed in 2012.

Secessionists Live in Colorado

Speaking of Colorado, there were 11 counties in the state where the "51st State Initiative" floating the idea of secession appeared. In five of those counties, the proposal to break away from the rest of Colorado failed, but "in six of the 11 counties where the secession question appeared on the ballot, the measure passed by strong margins," The Denver Post reported. The move was more of a political gesture as secession is almost impossible, since it requires approval of the state legislature and the U.S. Congress. The last time a state let a new one break away was when Maine left Massachusetts in 1820. (Although West Virginia did secede from Confederate Virginia in 1865)

The main push for secession came from rural voters upset by Democrat-backed measures coming from Denver, like gun control and green energy requirements. "The heart of the 51st State Initiative is simple: We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state Capitol," 51st state advocate Jeffrey Hare told The Denver Post. 

Fracking Good in Ohio, Bad In Colorado

Still in Colorado, three towns passed anti-fracking initiatives that will ban the controversial gas drilling technique in their localities. However, a fourth town defeated the anti-fracking bill, as did two other towns in Ohio that will push for more drilling.

New Jersey Raised Minimum Wage by a Dollar

This vote wasn't close either. On Tuesday, New Jersey voters overwhelmingly passed a measure that amended the state's constitution to raise the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour. "But it doesn’t come as much of a surprise. One late-September poll showed support at 76 percent with opposition at just 22 percent," The Washington Post reported last night. With that vote, Chris Christie's great state becomes the fifth in the country to raise the minimum wage using its constitution.

Massachusttess Resident Will Have to Go to New York to Gamble

Two Northeastern states tackled the question of adding more casinos to their lands, with one rejecting the idea and the other embracing it. New Yorkers agreed to an expansion of casino gambling (but only upstate, not in the big city), while two different casino plans were voted down in Massachusetts. The Suffolk Downs proposal in East Boston, will try another approach that keeps the casino solely in the town of Revere.

Washington Doesn't Care About Genetically-Engineered Food

Washington state voters on Tuesday denied a bill that would have required food containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) to sport a label saying as much. "The vote was 54.8% opposed to labeling and 45.2% in favor of it," USA Today reports. This is a victory for agricultural biotech companies and pro-GMO organizations like Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, who donated heavily to the "No on 522" campaign. That effort raked in some $22 million in fundraising, the Seattle Times reported.

In an updated list of threatened species released today in 2011 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, The Western Black Rhinoceros has been declared extinct. The black rhino subspecies was last seen in western Africa in 2006. From an article updated today at CNN.com, which is making the rounds anew:

The IUCN warns that other rhinos could follow saying Africa's northern white rhino is "teetering on the brink of extinction" while Asia's Javan rhino is "making its last stand" due to continued poaching and lack of conservation.

[CNN]

Catherine Legrand releases Indigo: The Color that Changed the World, a must-have book that traces the history and use of indigo throughout the world.

While indigo’s existence in textiles has been around for centuries, its presence and appreciation in modern fashion has been notably growing as of late. A heady mix between violet and blue, indigo’s mesmerising, striking and much loved beauty has been intrinsic to many cultures throughout history with artisan’s the world over cultivating, processing and practising blue-dye traditions in textile design. Today it continues to inspire creativity with designers across denim, apparel and interiors (to name a few) looking to indigo’s ancient techniques, patterns, and clothing traditions as a source of inspiration. 

Indigo: The Colour That Changed the World, a new book by Catherine Legrand and published by Thames & Hudson, visits those places where the ancient blue-dye traditions still survive and indigo is part of everyday life. The hardback release offers an insightful documentation of the dye to demonstrate why indigo has been so important and renowned in multiple textile practices for so many centuries. The journey takes the reader through villages and markets, to dye studios, second hand shops and museums of ethology, following the blue thread that links Japan to Central America via southern China, India and Mali.

Gloriously curated, much like the beautiful textiles it portrays, this lavish book takes the reader on an international tour of indigo textiles, presenting a huge swathe of remarkable clothing, people, and fabric. Legrand spent the last 20 years traveling the world (America, China, India, Africa, Central Asia, Japan, Laos, and Vietnam) documenting the practices, garments, art, and communities the indigofera plant has been present in. The book features 500+ original color photographs and specially commissioned illustrations, as well as unique commentary explaining why the modern world is still fascinated with the ancient and timely processes. This is an essential purchase for any fashion and textile enthusiast, especially all you denim heads out there.

Pick up your copy now direct from Thames and Hudson or at Amazon for £38.

Below are some more images from the book to entice you even more: