Juliana Lemos

Ernst Haeckel, portrait by Minouette
The renowned German scientist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was an early proponent of Darwinism  who did much to popularize the work of the English naturalist in his home country.
His scientific works were praised by Darwin, even though their ideas diverged on several important points, 
and his books outsold On the Origin of Species. A member of more than 90 learned international societies,
 he was selected as one of the consultants to the Challenger Expedition, the first non-commercial
 exploration of deep-sea environment. He coined the terms "philum", "phylogeny", "Darwinism",
 and "ecology", and was the first to postulate a missing link between ape and man. 

Haeckel was a prolific writer and natural history illustrator, and focused his work on various invertebrates
 such as sponges, medusae and annelids. During the 1860s he published numerous taxonomic
 volumes describing hundreds of species of radiolarians, an order of unicellular marine microorganisms
 that forms part of the Ocean's zooplankton. His 1868 volume Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte
 (The Natural History of Creation) was a great success and gained him world recognition.
 Other titles include Systematic Phylogeny, The Riddle of the Universe, Last Words on Evolution, 
and The Last Link. As a scientist and accomplished artist, Haeckel was fascinated with patterns
 and symmetry, and found his inspiration in Goethe's belief that both art and science 
can lead us to understand the underlying truths of nature. 



Haeckel traveled around the world on his scientific expeditions, obsessively observing
 and drawing aquatic life forms and other creatures. From a series of more than 1000 engravings,
100 colored lithographic plates were chosen to be published between 1899 and 1904 in Kunstformen der Natur
 (Artforms of Nature), one of the masterpieces of 19th century naturalist illustration. 
While Heackel's depictions of higher animals look rather stiff when compared to the work of other 
artists/naturalists, the intricate forms of microorganisms allowed him to display his elegant, dazzling
 graphic talent and indulge in his inclination towards order, organization and geometry.
 Haeckel's delicate pencil and ink drawings were beautifully adapted for the book by the lithographer 
Adolph Giltsch. The subjects of each lithograph were carefully selected and elaborately arranged 
to emphasize the organisms' organization and symmetry. 







There was debate at the time on whether Hackel's marvelous life forms were over-embellished 
and idealized. Their sinuous lines are in fact closely reminiscent of the contemporary Art Nouveau style,  and he certainly utilised distortion, stylization and geometry in his descriptions of organic
 phenomena, often discarding scientific accuracy in favor of beauty and decorative effect.  




Art Forms in Nature was aimed at the general public rather than specialists, and each plate
 was accompanied by a short and accessible commentary. The stunning illustrations gave the book
 appeal to a wide audience, and in the decades before World War I the tome was a huge success. Haeckel's scientific reputation was tarnished when some of his theories were questioned and discarded
 due to lack of empirical support, misleading information, and possible data fabrication. However, his natural obsessions have never ceased to fascinate and inspire artists around the world.

Presumably reflecting the combined effect of latitude and cloud cover.

Via fuck yeah cartography!

All bulldogs are horribly deformed by Mandy_moon on Flickr.

English Bulldog skull change in less than 100 years by ropemonkey09 on Flickr.

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore-paws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbour.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For [he] keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin & glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him & a blessing is lacking in the spirit.
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
For every family had one cat at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.
For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For the dexterity of his defence is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacious of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows that God is his Saviour.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
For he is of the Lord's poor and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually -- Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.
For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat.
For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.
For he is docile and can learn certain things.
For he can set up with gravity, which is patience upon approbation.
For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.
For he can jump over a stick, which is patience upon proof positive.
For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.
For he can jump from an eminence into his master's bosom.
For he can catch the cork and toss it again.
For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.
For the former is afraid of detection.
For the latter refuses the charge.
For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.
For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.
For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.
For he killed the Ichneumon-rat very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived God's light about him both wax and fire.
For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For he can creep.

-- From Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno, written between 1759 and 1763

tim walker's la dame for W magazine september 2012.

-  画

Babs Campion, King, February 1970.

What happens when a fox steals a purse from an unsuspecting woman? He returns it moments later, of course. According to Digital Spy, that’s precisely what happened to Anna and Jeremy Clark while preparing for a trip to the hospital.

“We were in the [estate's] car park and he looked at me for a few seconds before letting out this feeble yelp,” Jeremy explained to The Argus. “Next thing I knew he had my wife’s handbag in his mouth and was running towards the bushes.”

Although Jeremy attempted to get the sneaky fox to drop his wife’s purse, the woodland creature with a knack for thievery disappeared into the bushes. It was around this time that the couple started to panic. After all, a number of Anna’s possessions were inside the purse at the time.

“Anna had everything in there: her phone, money, purse, keys and letters. I couldn’t believe the fox had just taken it – it was mad. I thought that was it,” Jeremy recalled.

Just as the couple were about to give up, the fox returned to the scene of the crime with the purse in its mouth. After dropping the stolen item at Anna’s feet, the creature quickly fled the area. While Anna and Jeremy aren’t quite sure why the little guy decided to return the purse, they’re incredibly grateful that his conscious got the better of him.

Foxes are notorious thieves, and have been known to swipe anything that’s not nailed down. In 2009, a treasure trove of footwear was discovered inside a foxhole on the outskirts of a small German town. According to Reuters, authorities unearthed over 100 pairs of stolen shoes inside the culprit’s home.

“There was everything from ladies’ shoes to trainers,” a spokesperson for the local police explained. “We’ve found between 110 and 120 so far. It seems a vixen stole them for her cubs to play with.”

Word of advice: If a fox steals your purse, then you might want to stick around for a moment. After all, the animal’s guilt may work in your favor.

Fox Steals Purse From Woman, Returns The Bag Moments Later is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jeff Bridges in Fat City. John Huston. 1972.

Filed under: cinema, context

Life mask of Michael Jackson made during the production of the Thriller video. 1983.

I’ve been thinking about Michael Jackson a lot lately. When Michael was alive I always imagined what kind of insane stories would come out about him after his death but here it is more than 3 years after that event and I’m not sure that one even half-way decent biography has emerged—trashy or otherwise. So without much alternative I read one called Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009. The edition I got (from my local library) was published in July 2009, less than a month after Michael’s death, which must have given its author only a few days to update it (it had been out in various forms since 1991) and is consequently a mess with grammatical tense issues and ends in mid-air during Michael’s 2003 molestation trial only to pick back up (in a different font weight) after his death. The author is a (or was a—now I’m having tense issues) sometimes Jackson family insider who seemed to tread softly on certain aspects of his subject’s life just in case he could one day find himself in the financially advantageous position of being again useful to Michael. I have no idea how accurate the material in this book was for a number of reasons—mostly because the book’s subject was Michael Jackson, and who would put anything past him, and because the endnotes cite too many supermarket tabloids to be considered fully on the up and up.

Regardless of the quality of the book, I was still able to trace the general arc of Michael Jackson’s life and it goes from adorable to astonishing to frustrating to monstrous. The supporting cast features cameos or lengthy appearances by more stars than there are in the heavens in situations one more mind-boggling than the next. Michael chilling on the New Hampshire set of On Golden Pond with Katharine Hepburn and Jane and Henry Fonda; having dinner with Diana Ross and her then-boyfriend Gene Simmons; a 13 year-old Michael discovering a peephole in a backstage dressing room that allows him and his brother Marlon to peep in on Carol Channing undressing; Michael as Liza Minnelli‘s date to a party thrown by Swifty Lazar whose other guests that evening included Orson Welles, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, Joan Collins and Jacqueline Bisset; Liza leaving that party to take Michael to meet her father; Don King being brought in by Michael’s father to promote the disaster that was the Jacksons’ Victory Tour; Michael being directed by world class movie directors Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorcese in projects that range from the indulgent to the idiotic; Michael befriending Paul and Linda McCartney before Michael sort of screwed Paul over on a business deal and then befriending Yoko and Sean Ono after he did; Michael essentially demanding an audience with President Reagan and then supposedly acting the damn fool once he gets to the White House; Michael marrying Elvis’s weirdo daughter (the groom’s best man was some random 8 year-old boy) and freaking out his mother-in-law when Priscilla turned up unannounced at Neverland to find Michael in the living room playing with a dozen babies and so on and so on.

Like I said, the mind boggles. The story has almost an unwieldy amount of villans too: Notoriously awful father Joe Jackson, unscrupulous businessman Berry Gordy, Grade A slimeball Evan Chandler, snake-in-the-grass Martin Bashir, that weird Janet Arvizo woman and her weird J.C.Penney story, that disgusting swill Pepsi Cola (I’m a Coke drinker myself) and, of course, Michael Jackson himself, he with the incredible, alien song and dance talent who mutilated his face and spent the second half of his life and career whining about his lost childhood and acting like a creep—and we all saw Michael Jackson’s childhood and from an outsider’s point of view, it didn’t really look all that bad.

So after digesting all of this I decided that we should have, like, 2 global holidays commemorating Michael Jackson’s life. One where we celebrate the Michael Jackson who sang I Want You Back and did Thriller and Off the Wall. And a second one where were all just sit around and dwell on how profoundly weird Michael Jackson was.

Oh, Happy Halloween everyone.

Filed under: cinema, context, life or death

Miguel Llorens is a freelance financial translator based in Madrid who works from Spanish into English. He is specialized in equity research, economics, accounting, and investment strategy. He has worked as a translator for Goldman Sachs, the US Government's Open Source Center, and H.B.O. International, as well as many small-and-medium-sized brokerages and asset management companies operating in Spain. To contact him, visit his website and write to the address listed there. Feel free to join his LinkedIn network or to follow him on Twitter.

Theft (and destruction) of wild ginseng is an increasing problem in Wisconsin and other midwestern states:

Cody Adams, a DNR warden in Crawford County, said camouflage-dressed thieves illegally ripping the root from the ground leave little chance of its long-term survival. "There’s a right way and a wrong way to harvest it — and a designated time," Adams said in a news release. "These thieves are pulling the root from the ground causing damage that could prevent the plant from surviving and regrowing."
The motive is money, and grabbing the slow-growing plants now before the ginseng season opens on Sept. 1. Ginseng, which sold for $200 per pound last year, could rise to $500 per pound this year, the DNR said...
The DNR is reminding ginseng harvesters that they need a license (cost is $15.75) and permission from the landowner. Also, harvesters must immediately bury the plant’s berries to ensure the plant grows back.

These tactics are employed by the same type of people who use machetes and chainsaws to cut the horns off living rhinos (photo below the fold) (warning: gore), and for the same reason - to treat flaccid penises around the world.
Image credit: Biju Boro /AFP/Getty Images.

99 of them listed and illustrated at Joel Zimmerman, via BoingBoing.

Wow.

Photo credit Joe Brown, via フリンジ削除.

Submitted by: Unknown

Tagged: duckface , photobomb , stephen hawking , STEPHEN HAWKING! Share on Facebook

The giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), also known as the golden-capped fruit bat, is a rare megabat  and one of the largest bats in the world. The species is endangered and is currently facing the possibility of extinction because of poaching and forest destruction. It is endemic to forests in the Philippines.

agamist

n. an unmarried person

Schedule of a bachelor’s life, from the Yorkshire Observer, Nov. 30, 1822:

At 16 years, incipient palpitations are manifested towards the young ladies.
17. Blushing and confusion occurs in conversing with them.
18. Confidence in conversing with them is much increased.
19. Is angry if treated by them as a boy.
20. Betrays great consciousness of his own charms and manliness.
21. A looking-glass becomes indispensible in his room.
22. Insufferable puppyism exhibited.
23. Thinks no woman good enough for him.
24. Is caught unawares by the snares of Cupid.
25. The connection broken off from self-conceit on his part.
26. Conducts himself with airs of superiority towards her.
27. Pays his addresses to another lady, not without hope of mortifying the first.
28. Is mortified and frantic at being refused.
29. Rails against the fair sex in general.
30. Seems morose and out of humour in all conversations on matrimony.
31. Contemplates matrimony more under the influence of interest than formerly.
32. Begins to consider personal beauty in a wife not so indispensible as formerly.
33. Still retains a high opinion of his attractions as a husband.
34. Consequently has no idea but he may still marry a chicken.
35. Fails deeply and violently in love with one of seventeen.
36. Au dernier desespoir! another refusal.
37. Indulges now in every kind of dissipation.
38. Shuns the best part of the female sex.
39. Suffers much remorse and mortification in so doing.
40. A fresh budding of matrimonial ideas, but no spring shoots.
41. A nice young widow perplexes him.
42. Ventures to address her with mixed sensations of love and interest.
43. Interest prevails, which causes much cautious reflection.
44. The widow jilts him, being as cautious as himself.
45. Becomes every day more averse to the fair sex.
46. Gouty and nervous symptoms begin to appear.
47. Fears what may become of him when old and infirm.
48. Thinks living alone irksome.
49. Resolves to have a prudent young woman as housekeeper and companion.
50. A nervous affection about him, and frequent attacks of the gout.
51. Much pleased with his new house-keeper as nurse.
52. Begins to feel some attachment to her.
53. His pride revolts at the idea of marrying her.
54. Is in great distress now to act.
55. Is completely under her influence, and very miserable.
56. Many painful thoughts about parting with her.
57. She refuses to live any longer with him solo.
58. Gouty, nervous, and bilious to excess.
59. Feels very ill, sends for her to his bed-side, and intends espousing her.
60. Grows rapidly worse, has his will made in her favour, and makes his exit.

“It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere by-product of matter. For if my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.” — J.B.S. Haldane, Possible Worlds, 1927

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Russian fairy tales from the Russian of Polevoi, by R. Nisbet Bain, illustrated by Noel L. Nisbet; 1915; Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. A collection of Russian fairytales translated from the Russian of Nikolai Polevoy, a notable editor, writer, translator in the early 19th century. The translations were made by Robert Nisbet Bain, a British historian who worked for the British Museum, and a polyglot who could reportedly speak over twenty languages fluently. He famously taught himself Hungarian in order that he could read the works of Mór Jókai in the original after first reading him in German, going on to become the most prolific translator into English from Hungarian in the nineteenth century. The book is housed at the Internet Archive, donated by the Boston Public Library. Sign up to get our free fortnightly newsletter which shall deliver direct to your inbox the latest brand new article and a digest of the most recent collection items. Simply add your details to the form below and click the link you receive via email to confirm your subscription!

A Chinese bootleg version of How I Met Your Mother's Season 7 offers some details about the show:


via

Steve Lacy played soprano saxophone in Thelonious Monk’s quintet for 16 weeks in 1960. He took down the pianist’s advice in a spiral notebook:

“Monk’s tunes were ideal and difficult, and interesting, intriguing, and satisfying,” Lacy remembered later. “I started and I’ve never stopped looking into his music.”

Let’s hope this isn’t true — Francis Joseph Baigent’s History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke (1889) records the story of a woman who was buried alive twice. Baigent cites two sources, an undated tract from around 1675 and a book published in 1786, The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death. Mrs. Blunden, the wife of a local malt trader, was “a fat gross woman” who in July 1674 drank so much poppy-water (opium) that she fell into a deep sleep that arrested any apparent breath or pulse. The apothecary declared that he supposed she would never wake, and her husband left for London on business, directing that she be buried on his return. But the woman’s relatives noted that the weather was warm and that the body would not last four days, so they buried her on the following day, a Wednesday. Now the tract reads:

The Friday following toward the evening some of the Scholars of the Town being at play in the Churchyard near her grave, they fancied they heard a kind of hollow voice, as it were under ground, to which laying their ears and listening more attentively they plainly heard somebody say:

Take me out of my Grave,

which words the complaining voice repeated several times, intermixing them with fearful groans and dismal shriekings.

The boys reported this to several people but were dismissed. They returned to the chuchyard on Saturday and heard the voice again, “if not with so distinct yet with a louder accent,” and that afternoon the clerk finally exhumed Mrs. Blunden. “And now surveying her body, they found it most lamentably beaten, which they concluded to proceed from the violence she did herself in that deplorable an astonishment, but upon the most diligent scrutiny they could not apprehend that she had the least breath of life remaining, and therefore they again let her down into the grave, intending on the morrow to send to the Coroner.”

Guards were set to watch the resealed grave, but as the night was wet they abandoned their post, and “on the morrow morning at their return to the grave, they found she had torn off great part of her winding sheet, scratched herself first in several places, and beaten her mouth so long till it was all in gore blood.”

A number of citizens were indicted for their negligence, but a town doctor testified that he had held a mirror to Blunden’s mouth before her burial and could see no sign of breath, so “only the Town had a considerable fine set upon them for their neglect.”

The U.S. government did not issue paper money until 1861. Until then, private banks printed their own currency under charters to the states.

As a result, this $5 bill featuring Santa Claus was legal tender in the 1850s. It was issued by the Howard Banking Company of Boston.

A number of banks issued Santa-themed money in the same period — the most natural being the St. Nicholas Bank of New York City.