Recently a group of us went into our manuscripts store to have a look at some medieval genealogical rolls. We were examining Royal MS 14 B V, an English roll from the last part of the 13th century which contains quite a lot of marginalia, when one of our post-medieval...

As well as learning from humans directly, "the birds will mimic each other," says Jaynia Sladek, from the Museum's ornithology department. "There's no reason why, if one comes into the flock with words, [then] another member of the flock wouldn't pick it up as well." 'Hello cockie' is the most common phrase, though there have been a few cases of foul-mouthed feathered friends using expletives which we can't repeat here.  The evolution of language could well be passed on through the generations, says Martyn. "If the parents are talkers and they produce chicks, their chicks are likely to pick up some of that," he says. This phenomenon is not unique; some lyrebirds in southern Australia still reproduce the sounds of axes and old shutter-box cameras their ancestors once learnt.

the-absolute-best-posts:

reaill:

nyoommm

statues-and-monuments:

statues-and-monuments

Astronomical Clock 1540, Munster, Westfalen, Paulusdom 
Photographer: Groenling 

“I’m very inspired by Drew Faust and her articulation of ‘One University, One Harvard’ and the benefits that can accrue to the parts by sharing their knowledge, their expertise, their collections, their facilities,” said Thomas during an interview at Wadsworth House. She called the FAS appointment “thrilling.” “If you look at what’s happening in the world today in terms of educational and research partnerships, there is a growth in global collaboration,” she said. “So if we can’t practice what we preach at home and have our own individual libraries work together or have our own Schools work together, how can we partner with Singapore or another part of the world? We have to learn how to put in place those modes of working together.”

New York Daily News

Zimmerman's estranged wife conflicted over Trayvon case USA TODAY She said a recent spat with her husband "really helped me take the blinders off." Shellie Zimmerman. In her first interview since a spat with her estranged husband, Shellie Zimmerman says she is now conflicted over what happened the night George ... George Zimmerman's Wife's Doubts Her Husband's Innocence In Trayvon Martin ...AllHipHop all 62 news articles »

Detail - Elephant & Castle, London Bus Map

When you have sixteen routes passing through one stop, it might be time to rethink your approach to station/interchange design.

I do note that the current TfL “Buses from Elephant & Castle” spider map (external PDF link) shows this interchange with a geographical street map — a huge improvement which also has the advantage of showing you exactly where each bus stand is (there are eighteen!) and which buses stop at them.

(Source: Mach V/Flickr)

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) says Obamacare defunders are following in the footsteps of Rosa Parks and MLK.

124301 - NAVY SUEDE


124348 - MARACCA SUEDE

Introducing our Ladies Collection

100% Goodyear welted on lasts specially designed to meet ladies tastes & fitting. Not just another small men’s shoe… 

Check the new additions HERE & Much more to come really soon!

You already heard about that incident in Michigan in which two men with concealed carry permits and handguns got into a road rage incident and managed to shoot each other to death when the guns came out. Well it turns out there's a bit more to the story.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — About 25,000 customers of the Kent County Water Authority have been advised to boil their water until at least Thursday after tests found E. coli bacteria contamination in a storage tank.

Producers of Atlas Shrugged Part 3 turn to kickstarter for funding

We've published more than a few stories on subway etiquette around here (Don't: Use the molded plastic chairs as substitute toilets. Do: Be a small shark commuting from Coney Island.) But there is one incredible breach of etiquette that happens with such frequency, we can't even muster the energy to write about it anymore: Male Leg Spreading. [ more › ]

SALEM — A student on leave from Salem State University was arrested in upstate New York Wednesday night after he allegedly stabbed a female student on a university shuttle bus earlier in the day and then wounded the driver who tried to help.

BOSTON — A MIT astrophysicist who is “fueling curiosity about life in worlds beyond our reach” is just one of the three women from Massachusetts among this year’s 24 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” recipients.

Through her study of exoplanets, or planets that orbit stars other than the sun, Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science at MIT, is exploring the possibility life on other planets throughout the galaxy.

“My main goal right now is to lead an effort to actually be able to find the true Earth twins. That is, Earth-like planets orbiting nearby sun-like stars,” Seager explained in a video provided by the foundation. “There’s absolutely an earth twin out there somewhere, we just don’t know exactly where. And that’s why we have to build a sophisticated space telescope to find it.”

Seager is looking to achieve that goal through ExoplanetSat, a university collaboration to build “nano-satellites” to observe planetary transits.

The MacArthur foundation explains the project this way:

ExoplanetSat is a new concept for space science: a fleet of dozens of cheap copies of an ultra-small space telescope that will open up a new avenue for wide-ranging space exploration.

Two other Massachusetts residents will also receive the $625,000 “no-strings-attached stipends” to pursue their research.

Robin Fleming, chair of the Boston College history department, researches late Roman and medieval Britain. The foundations says her work provides “a framework for incorporating material culture into the writing of history.”

Dina Katabi, a MIT computer scientist, researches the reliability and security of wireless networks. She is working with her colleagues to design “wearable devices that protect pacemakers against unwanted manipulation while allowing medical personnel emergency access without security codes.”

The grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recognize “exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for even more significant contributions in the future.”

• From NPR: Latest MacArthur Geniuses Include Sound Savior

The multifunctional Cubel seating design utilizes a series of folding cubes to allow the user to mold it to their needs. In just seconds, it can be transformed into a bench, chaise lounge, pouf, table, or even a bed! Cleverly placed velcro strips hold everything together no matter the configuration. Better yet, there’s also a Mini Cubel  for compact spaces!

Designer: DesignYouEdit

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE - We are more than just concepts. See what's hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(The Rubik’s Cube of Chairs was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Chairs from Space
2. All the Little Paper Chairs
3. Chairs in Love

Watching the Siegfried from the wonderful Lepage production of the Ring Cycle for the Metropolitan Opera. Spectacular, wonderful effects, and possibly the cleverest and most flexible set ever seen.

Only one question so far. Why is Wotan (granted, in disguise as the Wanderer) wearing a Stetson?

About half a dozen readers have sent me this series of photographs, showing an incident reported in several places, including Nature News and the Daily Mail  (quotes from the former, photos [credited to Linda Kersey of the Zoological Society of London] from the latter). It show what seems to be the first documented attack of a golden eagle on a deer.

A camera trap in the forest of the Russian Far East captured rare and surprising images of a golden eagle attacking a young sika deer.

Golden eagles are not known to attack deer, but the image of the bird latched on to the deer’s back and bringing it down to the snowy ground is as clear as it is puzzling. The eagle’s attack was successful, researchers later found the deer’s carcass a few yards away from the camera trap.

“I’ve been assessing deer causes of death in Russia for 18 years — this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” said Linda Kerley of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who found the images so compelling that she co-authored a paper on the attack in the Journal of Raptor Research.

Kerley said she was preforming a routine check to switch out the camera trap’s batteries and memory cards when she noticed the deer carcass in the snow. But something in the scene was off, she said.

“There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died,” Kerley said. “It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

It looks as if the eagle is trying to fly away with the deer, though they’ve been known to attack prey clearly un-carryable.

Camera trap images are typically recordings of common prey species and occasionally a resident or transient tiger, so seeing an image of an eagle in the act of taking down a deer was unexpected. But Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Kerely’s study co-author, said golden eagles have a well-documented history of eyebrow-raising predation attempts.

“The scientific literature is full of references to golden eagle attacks on different animals from around the world, from things as small as rabbits — their regular prey — to coyote and deer, and even one record in 2004 of an eagle taking a brown bear cub,” Slaght said.

Slaght added that Kerley was “really lucky” to have obtained images of such a rare and opportunistic predation event.

And the remains.  This is of course saddening, but it’s nature red in beak and claw.  I’m amazed the deer couldn’t get away.

Excerpts from a grim story in the Wall Street Journal:

Akshay Kumar Singh and three other men were convicted this month of a crime that focused the world's attention on violence against women in India: the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in December.

For the parents of the woman who died, the sentencing brought a measure of closure. For Ms. Devi, who is in her 20s, and her 2-year-old son, her husband's crime and punishment have opened up a chapter of profound uncertainty.

Ms. Devi expects to be cast out by her in-laws and face ostracism and destitution here in India's conservative hinterland—not because she is married to a convicted murderer, but because she is a woman without a husband. "As a widow, my honor will be lost forever," she says.

Her husband's relatives say they can't afford to feed her. Her parents say they are too poor to take her back. The customs of purdah practiced in the region make it almost impossible for her to work outside the home.

"I am not educated. Our traditions are such that I cannot even step out of the house," Ms. Devi said. "Who will earn money to feed me and my son?"...

Ms. Devi says she can write her name and a few Hindi words, and read a bit. She knew from an early age, she says, what was expected of a woman: to raise children and take care of household tasks...

Since Mr. Singh's December arrest, his family has been thrown into upheaval. His brothers, Vinay and Abhay, who had also been working around Delhi, left their jobs for three months to help out at home, straining household finances. The family's reputation has been damaged.

"They treat us as untouchables," says Abhay Singh, who works in a paint factory in a Delhi suburb...

Ms. Devi doesn't know where to turn. "Is there anyone who is thinking of me?" she asked, crying after learning of the death sentence. "I am alive and I have a small child who is still breathing."

Everyone has an uncle they’d rather you not meet.

Facebook wants to make online shopping just a bit simpler. According to All Things D, Facebook is beginning to roll out a feature that will allow its users to save their credit card and billing information, and then automatically fill that information into apps that they've connected to Facebook. That should simplify the process of buying goods through apps — something that users might like, and that app developers ought to like even more.

Continue reading…

Two things inspired this post:

1. Some of my handmade dresses were not making it out of the washer/dryer as safely as I would have hoped.
2. I saw some beautiful images of hand washed vintage garments on DearGolden’s instagram feed.

I decided I needed to do a bit of research on how to properly care for my precious handmades, and extend their lifespan. I asked Lauren of Dear Golden for a few tips.

I found that knowing how to properly prewash your fabric will indicate how you should wash and dry your final garment. I now hand wash nearly all of my handmades with the following process:

Wash

Give it a warm bath with appropriate strength detergent.

Lauren says, “I don’t have a set method or process for cleaning vintage. It’s garment by garment based on the fabric, age, condition and type of stain/discoloration.”

The being said, the products she uses are (from most gentle to most heavy duty):

• Water only.
• Palmolive for anything that seems organic.
• Fantastik on synthetic chiffon or acetate.
• Regular Tide.
• Nellie’s oxygen brightener.
• Borax, OxiClean & bleach very very sparingly and never on silk or lace.

“Different garments have different needs – I’ll have one tub with more harsh stuff in it with perhaps a cotton dress that can deal with that, right on down to a tub that just has water in it.”

Rinse & Soak

Drain out soapy water, rinse off the garment, then let it soak in clean water.

Towel Dry

Gently squeeze water out so the garment is not sopping wet, then lay it out on a towel.

Hang Dry

Now that your garment isn’t sopping wet, you can hang it on a clothesline to finish drying.

Tip: Don’t have enough yard for a clothesline? They make really nifty ones you can mount above your bathtub! I have one of these at home and use is weekly to hang-dry all of my intimates.

Or just lay your garments out in the grass to sun-dry like Lauren did below. “The sun does wonders. Sometimes just soaking say a cold-rayon dress in water, quickly so it doesn’t bleed as they sometimes do, then letting it dry laying flat in the sun will remedy stains.”

Do you have any machine wash/dry disaster stories? How do you cheer yourself up when mistakes happen?

I’m sure this will sound more than a little ridiculous, but I got a bit teary-eyed when I saw the new Weather Diary collection from Marimekko for the first time on Saturday night. You know how sometimes you have a picture in your head of exactly what something (a sweater, a chair, a plate…whatever) should look like, but it’s a little bit like a dream because it never actually materializes in front of you? I suppose that’s the moment when artists decide to create; to make real the thing they want to see. The rest of us wait for someone else to do it. I feel like Marimekko just did it for me. This is exactly what I wanted. Did I know that before I saw it? I can’t remember anymore.

The collection, inspired by Finnish weather patterns and named for islands in the archipelago, was designed by Aino-Maija Metsola. Over a period of several months, Metsola documented changes in weather along the Finnish shoreline through photographs (a number of which can be seen accompanying this interview), which then became sketches and in turn watercolor and ink illustrations. The resulting designs were printed on textiles as well as on Sami Ruotsalainen’s Oiva tableware. Collaboration between Metsola and Ruotsalainen centered around a the idea of dishes to be used for “simple picnics and cottage meals: crepes, wild mushroom soup, freshly baked coffee bread.”

Video direction by Ezra Gould at Cocoa for Marimekko

I feel like crawling inside of that video. Yesterday marked the official start of fall, and I couldn’t be happier. This is the best time of year as far as I’m concerned. Everything seems cleaner, fresher and more vibrant. There’s a sense of urgency to try to get done all of the outdoor things you can before winter comes (or before it starts raining), and a relief over not having to sweat under a blazing sun while it happens. I always think of fall as the beginning of the year, probably because I still associate it with starting a new year at school. It’s also my birthday season. The timing could not be more perfect…

Some words from Aino-Maija Metsola about weather:
“I like many kinds of weather, including rain and wind. Finding yourself in thick fog or a thunderstorm can also be a surreal experience. Of course, I’m not a big fan of unrelenting rain. Changes in weather are also inspiring if, like me, you’ve learned to dress according to the weather by living on an island. I don’t particularly dislike any weather, except perhaps too warm and drizzly winter weather. Every shower, drizzle or cloudburst is unique and beautiful in its own way. When it’s raining, everything seems to stop for a moment, which I enjoy somehow.”

Weather Diary, my favorites…

1. Rosala poster
2. Sääpäiväkirja teapot
3. Sääpäiväkirja bowl
4. Sääpäiväkirja dinner plate
5. Sääpäiväkirja salad platter
6. Hiittinen tea towel set
7. Sääpäiväkirja mug
8. Small Sääpäiväkirja bowl

The entire Weather Diary collection is now available. I’m going to have a very hard time figuring out which piece (pieces?) will be coming home to live with me! I don’t need a teapot, but I want THAT teapot. Same goes for the tea towels — aside from being good for drying dishes, they’d also be so nice made into pillows (!) or even in a frame. And all I can think about is wild mushroom soup and freshly baked coffee bread…

The rubbishness, it burns.

lousybookcovers.com

Via singingsawbooks.wordpress.com

lousybookcovers.com

morebadbookcovers.tumblr.com

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Grace Helbig , the Internet’s princess, stopped by NYC for a hot minute, and here’s what her fans had to say.

First, the fans told us what lesson Grace has taught them from her daily YouTube series, DailyGrace:

Sarah Karlan / BuzzFeed

Sarah Karlan / BuzzFeed

Sarah Karlan / BuzzFeed

Sarah Karlan / BuzzFeed

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The Boss's bangin' bod, petition to light ESB for Doctor Who, Yassky out at TLC, dog loves leaf pile and more end-of-day links. Don't forget to follow Gothamist on Twitter and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here. [ more › ]