iomikron: This is roughly the view of our neighbouring brightest galaxies if you were 20 million light years away from ‘home’ (red dot). A closer view reveals the closest neighbours as well. In a very small distance there are two galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, the Large and the Small Mangelanic Clouds. - I created this 3D map with Mathematica. Data collected from atlasoftheuniverse.
Kara JeanLook at this guy, so feebly clutching some boobs.
The youngest member of the San Diego
Zoo's animal ambassador team is a five-month-old Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth, and
this female baby needs a name!
Photo Credit: Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo
The zoo staff has selected four
names for the public to vote on:
Xena (pronounced ZEE-nah): The taxonomic superorder
Xenarthra is comprised of Armadillos, Sloths and Anteaters.
Dulce (pronounced DUEL-say): This is Spanish for sweet
Guiana (pronounced gee-ON-a): Two-toed sloths are
native to this region in northeastern South America.
Subida (pronounced soo-BEE-dah): In Spanish, this word
means rise, increase, ascent, and way up.
Visit this website
to cast your vote. The baby Sloth is currently being
trained to meet people up close during special animal presentations and
outings.
Sloths are slow-moving, solitary, arboreal, forest-dwelling nocturnal herbivores, found in tropical forests and cloud forests in Central and South America. Their sharp claws are 3 to 4 inches long and come in handy for hanging onto trees. Sloths sleep 15 to 18 hours per day and (slowly) look for food the rest of the day.
NatureTime Books™ Urban Explorer Series presents Toilet Bears: Our Backyard Friends by Nessie Carnitas
Kara JeanReshare from Nora. I am currently a very sick person and I just made this stuff and it was gooooooooooooooooood.
For a while it felt like someone was sticking a hot poker between my shoulder blades, particularly if I moved my neck in certain directions, like left or right. And the mornings? Ouch. I'm not entirely sure what I did, but I think it might have something to do with lifting sixty pound boxes up stairs. Over and over. Apologies for the complaining, but it was something that had been bothering me for the past few weeks, and nothing was really helping until it occurred to me to bump up the turmeric in my diet. It has significant anti-inflammatory properties (as well as a host of other benefits), and I started going for it - adding extra turmeric to curries, drinking turmeric tea in the morning and evenings, and generally keeping it out on the counter for easy access. I remembered an Ayurvedic turmeric paste I'd read about when I was flipping through books in the Los Angeles Library earlier in the summer, and started using that as my tea base. And it helped! I like turmeric in general, but the tea is, flat out, my favorite. I make a paste of honey and turmeric that keeps in a jar for easy use. I heat water, pour it over a spoonful of the paste, and finish with a big squeeze of lemon and a substantial amount of freshly ground black pepper. It's good stuff - the black pepper makes it invigorating (and also helps the body absorb the turmeric), and the honey sets off the earthy-acridness of the spice enough that the tea is still delicious.
One thing - use mildly hot water here, but not boiling - to help preserve the properties of the raw honey. I'll make note in the recipe below, but wanted to call that out in particular. You can also blend the paste into smoothie, or swirl it into yogurt. Hope you like it as much as I do. xo
Continue reading Turmeric Tea... 
As found in Curiosities of Puritan nomenclature (1888), a collection of Puritan names chosen "to remind the child about sin and pain." My favorite? "Kill-sin Pimple."
20 Puritan Names That Are Utterly Strange
1. Dancell-Dallphebo-Mark-Anthony-Gallery-Cesar. Son of Dancell-Dallphebo-Mark-Anthony-Gallery-Cesar, born 1676.
2. Praise-God. Full name, Praise-God Barebone. The Barebones were a rich source of crazy names. This one was a leather-worker, member of a particularly odd Puritan group and an MP. He gave his name to the Barebones Parliament, which ruled Britain in 1653.
3. If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned. Praise-God's son, he made a name for himself as an economist. But, for some inexplicable reason, he decided to go by the name Nicolas Barbon.
4. Fear-God. Also a Barebone.
5. Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes
6. Has-descendents
7. Wrestling
8. Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith
9, Fly-fornication
10. Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world- to-save. Brother of "Damned Barebone". I can only imagine this name shortened to "Save."
11. Thanks
12. What-God-will
13. Joy-in-sorrow. A name attached to many stories of difficult births.
14. Remember
15. Fear-not. His/her surname was "Helly", born 1589.
16. Experience
17. Anger
18. Abuse-not
19. Die-Well. A brother of Farewell Sykes, who died in 1865. We can assume they had rather pessimistic parents.
20. Continent. Continent Walker was born in 1594 in Sussex.
A Boy Named Humiliation: Some Wacky, Cruel, and Bizarre Puritan Names [Joseph Norwood/Slate]
(Image: Gallery of famous Puritans, Wikimedia Commons/Book Academy, Public Domain) 
    
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I found this so-called “hot sauce name generator” but within about two minutes I got “Matt’s Torrid Malevolence Sauce,” “Heartless Charred Widowmaker Gasoline,” and “Max’s Crying Pandemomium Sauce,” so I think what these people have on their hands is pretty much a hilarious-euphemism-for-semen generator.
Kara Jeangimme
A Klipspringer —a tiny antelope native to Central and Eastern Africa—was born in early August at Lincoln Park Zoo in Illinois. Unfortunately, the baby’s mother didn’t display proper maternal care, and so the little one had to be removed to be hand-reared. Animal care staff have done an excellent job nurturing the baby and it continues to grow behind-the-scenes at the zoo. Even at full size, the dwarf antelope will only measure 20 inches (51 cm) in height and weigh about 24 pounds (11 kg).
Photo Credits: Lincoln Park Zoo
This common antelope species prefers rocky habitats, such as mountains and river gorges. Klipspringers' hooves have a rubbery texture in the center that helps them grip rock, and the tough, sharp outer edges keep them firmly planted. They eat grasses, leaves, buds and fruits.
Klipspringers typically live in small family groups composed of a breeding pair and their young offspring. They are territorial, marking their territories with small scent-producing glands located on the face. Males can use their pointy, four-inch-long (10 cm) horns to wrestle for mates. After breeding, the female bears her young in a rocky alcove, where the offspring will remain for two-three months to be protected against predators.
