Lagardner

Everybody knows a healthy sex life is important for a good marriage. But keeping the spark in the bedroom may be even more crucial for older couples dealing with chronic illness.

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Sunday morning joggers, dogs, children, and passersby were shocked to find a giant hedgehog on London's Clapham Common on February 16. The sculpture, standing at 7-ft-tall and measuring 12-ft-long and 18-ft-wide, was created to mark the launch of Natural Curiosities, a new nature documentary series by legendary wildlife presenter Sir David Attenborough. It took a team of sculptors two months to craft the prickly creature from over 2,000 soft wood spikes and fur made of a coconut and fiber mix. The result is a remarkably lifelike replication of the hedgehog, from its realistic skin tone and prickly build to the inquisitive look on its furry face.

In addition to celebrating the launch of his new series, Sir David hopes that the giant hedgehog "serves as a fitting tribute to one of our most delightful species" and brings attention to the dwindling number of wild hedgehogs, which are endangered in the UK.

Natural Curiosities Website
via [Lustik]

With the explosive popularity of the HBO series Game of Thrones and the timeless appeal of the Disney Princesses, it was only a matter of time before the two worlds collided. Artist Sam Tsui (known as DjeDjehuti on deviantART) has created a terrific series of illustrations in which Disney Princesses, from the classic Snow White to the recent hit Elsa, are reimagined as Game of Thrones characters who live in the Wonderful World of Westeros. Disney Princesses aren't the only transported stars, however; we also get appearances from Mulan's Grandma Fa and Mushu, as well as Lilo from Lilo & Stitch.

In each illustration, Tsui takes care to not only seamlessly blend the iconic appearance of the Disney Princess with the recognizable outfit of the Game of Thrones character, but to match their personalities as well. For example, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones and Elsa from Frozen both evolve from meek young women into strong, compassionate leaders. This thoughtfulness and creativity of Tsui's illustrations are sure delight fans of Disney or Game of Thrones.












Sam Tsui deviantART
via [Laughing Squid]

Most likely, you’ll be seeing a lot of headlines today trumpeting the findings of a new study in JAMA Pediatrics about links between acetaminophen (Tylenol, paracetamol) use during pregnancy and later risk of ADHD or hyperkinetic disorders in children. But before you withhold Tylenol from your screaming teething baby or suffer through a horrendous headache in your second trimester, it may be helpful to view the evidence with a healthy dose of caution and skepticism.

As with so many other associations that researchers are digging into, the evidence related to acetaminophen’s possible long-term effects on children are far from settled and riddled with possible methodological bias that prevents us, so far, from having much to go on. In looking at the study published today, I’ll cover the findings first, then the strengths, then what all this means and the weaknesses — don’t skip that last part!

First, what did the study involve? The researchers conducted phone interviews with 64,322 pregnant women, one in each trimester, who gave birth between 1996 and 2002. They asked the women whether they had taken any painkillers and then asked which ones if the women said yes. (Women could choose from a list of 44 or add others.) The women also reported how many weeks during each trimester they had used these painkillers. Overall, 56% of the women had taken acetaminophen at least once during their pregnancies.

The mothers’ responses were then compared against diagnoses of hyperkinetic disorders in their children, the children’s use of ADHD medications and the children’s display of ADHD-like behavior at 7 years old, based on a 25-question assessment completed by the mothers.

When the researchers crunched the numbers – taking into account a wide range of other factors that I’ll get to in a moment – they did find associations between use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and hyperkinetic disorders and/or ADHD. Children were 37 percent more likely to have been diagnosed with a hyperkinetic disorder, were 29 percent more likely to be taking ADHD medications, and were 13 percent more likely to show ADHD behaviors at age 7 if their mothers reported taking acetaminophen during pregnancy (compared to moms who didn’t).

Further, the researchers found an “exposure-response” relationship. That means the risk of these three outcomes appeared to increase along with the number of weeks that the mothers reported using the acetaminophen, particularly if it was taken during the first trimester.

The study’s findings should be taken seriously because of how many children were involved in the study – the higher the number, the more accurately trends and associations can be identified – and because it was prospective, which means the information was gathered as it happened rather than after the fact. (Asking women how often they took acetaminophen after they’ve had their babies can be subject to recall bias.)

Another major strength of the study is the number of “confounders” considered, the things the researchers took into account that might otherwise influence the results. In other words, what else could have added to the risk for ADHD or hyperkinetic disorders besides the acetaminophen? (For example, let’s say it’s possible that a certain pain condition might be associated with ADHD; if a pregnant woman with that condition took Tylenol, there would be no way to know if it was the medication or the condition that was linked to the ADHD.)

The researchers considered a range of child characteristics (birth year, birthweight, sex) and mother characteristics (age, smoking/alcohol during pregnancy, socioeconomic status, weight and mental health). Importantly, the researchers also asked mothers about health conditions – fevers, inflammation, muscle/joint diseases and infections during pregnancy – that might have influenced why they were taking acetaminophen and separately influenced the results.

Despite these strengths, though, it’s important to understand what the numbers really mean, what the study’s weaknesses are and, above all, that a study like this (observational) cannot show that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy *caused* ADHD or hyperkinetic disorders in kids.

First of all, the numbers are not big. The ones I reported above are relative risk, not absolute risk. For example, the absolute risk of showing ADHD-like behaviors at age 7 was 2.5% for mothers who didn’t take acetaminophen and 3.4% for those who did. So out of 1,000 moms who didn’t take acetaminophen, 25 of their children would show those behaviors, and out of 1,000 mothers who did take acetaminophen, 34 children would show those behaviors. That’s not a huge difference.

However, the exposure-response relationship for ADHD behaviors shows that the difference can be big for mothers taking acetaminophen more often. Consider the following chart, in which I’ve adapted some of the study’s data for easier reading:

How long mothers took acetaminophen	Children with ADHD-like behaviors	Children lacking ADHD-like behaviors	Risk of increase
0 weeks	458	17,730	0%
1 weeks	160	5,689	-5%
2-5 weeks	199	5,550	18%
6-10 weeks	65	1,453	30%
11-20 weeks	50	1,374	9%
20+ weeks	87	1,714	46%

You can see that taking more acetaminophen generally increases the risk, except an odd blip at 11-20 weeks. It turns out that blip is not statistically significant, which means it might simply be due to chance. It’s also important to notice that the numbers of children decrease as we go up in weeks of use. The fewer kids involved, the weaker the found associations are in statistical terms. That’s just one grain of salt to keep in mind in looking at this study.

Other grains of salt:

—The discussion of ADHD relies on medications and observed behaviors at age 7, not official diagnoses of the condition.

—Almost a third of the moms missed one or more phone calls during the study, so the data is incomplete and not necessarily representative, especially if those moms shared characteristics (such as having ADHD, which can have a hereditary component) that made them, as a group, less likely to participate in all three phone calls.

—Other conditions not accounted for, besides fever and the others included, might be related to the ADHD risk. Could moms who have a lot of headaches and take acetaminophen for them be more likely independently to have kids with ADHD? Or, could the type of person who more quickly pops a Tylenol to deal with a headache also be the type of person who is more genetically prone to have a kid with ADHD? We don’t know.

—Finally, the number of weeks the mothers took the acetaminophen may not translate to dosages. Consider the difference between a mom who takes one Tylenol dose each week for 20 weeks versus a mom who takes four doses of Tylenol a day for three weeks straight and then no more. Throw in the question of which trimesters they were in, and you have some complicated data to sort through that wasn’t even collected in this study.

From here, possible avenues to explore could get even more complicated: if there is a real link between acetaminophen during pregnancy and these disorders in children, it’s possible that the link only exists in women or children with a genetic predisposition for it. Such a finding has already been found with alcohol exposure in pregnancy, in which some children are more genetically susceptible to smaller amounts of alcohol during pregnancy than others, even if all other factors (including the amount of alcohol) are similar.

And, even if the association is real, does this mean pregnant women should never take acetaminophen during pregnancy? Not necessarily. Like every other medication during pregnancy, the risks AND benefits of taking the medication should be considered. Some conditions, such as high fever, may be far more dangerous to a fetus than the acetaminophen that could help reduce the fever. And, again, more than half the 64,000+ mothers took acetaminophen at least once, yet only 3.4% of their kids had ADHD-like behaviors (not even an ADHD diagnosis). That’s not something to freak out about.

So, yes, there appears to be a possible link here, but it’s the first time the link has been seen, so a lot more study is needed, and there are a lot of other factors to consider before pregnant women swear off acetaminophen during pregnancy. Perhaps the only practical advice we can pull from this study at the moment is not to pop painkillers without good cause, which is generally a good practice anyway. But if you are in serious pain or have a high fever or have some other medically legitimate reason to be taking acetaminophen, this study doesn’t give us any reason to say you shouldn’t take it while pregnant.

You’ve probably already been hearing what a bad season it is for the flu. The news is awash with tragic stories of otherwise healthy children and even adults without underlying conditions succumbing to this year’s influenza. Because I am pregnant, the ones that hit me the hardest are the stories of pregnant women – especially those who did not get the flu shot – losing their babies and even their own lives to the flu. But the most tragic irony is that this season, those suffering and dying the most are the very folks who often skip out on the flu shot… because they’re healthy adults. In fact, early season estimates by the CDC put the flu vaccination rate at 39.5% for all ages.

When I wrote about top myths about the flu vaccine in October, some commenters took issue with the need for healthy young adults to get the flu shot, especially if they were not going to be around children or the elderly (and therefore feel a responsibility to prevent transmission). Among the inaccurate myths I countered were that the flu isn’t that bad and that people don’t die from the flu if they’re healthy. Unfortunately, this year’s flu season is a textbook case for why they’re horribly wrong.

The most recent CDC FluView summary, ending February 15, reports over 7,000 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in the U.S. (The actual numbers of flu this year are far higher since many who have the flu never get the laboratory-confirmed flu test, and the rapid test has a high false-negative rate, especially during times when flu prevalence is high in the population.) The most frequently circulating strain this season is the influenza A H1N1 virus, one which was included in this year’s vaccines and which tends to hit young and middle-aged adults particularly hard.

As this week’s CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows, the concern for healthy adults has borne out, and the single biggest factor shared among those becoming severely ill or dying from the flu are that they did not get their flu shot this year. (And it’s not too late! You can still get one!) In fact, adults aged 18 to 65 account for nearly two thirds (61%) of all hospitalizations for the flu this year. Ironically, this year’s season is not as bad as last season in terms of total cases, but you’re hearing so much about flu because so many healthy adults are dying from it this year.

Another somewhat sad irony is that the flu shot is particularly effective this year given that it included the H1N1 strain. The MMWR also reported on the mid-season estimates of the vaccine’s effectiveness, based on data from 2,319 children and adults who had acute respiratory illness and were enrolled in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network from December 2013 through January 2014. Researchers look at all these cases and then assess how many had received the flu vaccine and how many had not.

Based on these calculations, the flu vaccine was 61% effective this year in preventing people of all ages from needing to go to the doctor or hospital due to the flu. (Because there is no way to track those who don’t go to a doctor or hospital, researchers can only track effectiveness of the shot in terms of those more serious cases. This means the findings may underestimate the effectiveness of the vaccine.) Against the H1N1 strain in particular, the vaccine was 62% effective across all age groups for the same protection.

Together, these findings add support to the research letter published February 10 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. That letter outlined preliminary findings regarding those requiring treatment in the ICU for the flu this year. Among the patients included in that study, the median age for hospitalization for the flu was 28.5 years old. That means half the patients were younger than 28 and half were older (ranging from 2 months old to 101 years old).

Although the study was small, involving only 55 patients, the researchers found that 87% were sick with the H1N1 strain, and only 24% had been vaccinated at least two weeks before becoming ill. (As I’ve noted previously, the vaccine is never 100% effective, and it is unfortunately possible to get the flu despite getting the vaccine. But as we just saw above, the vaccine does considerably reduce a person’s risk of illness – and therefore increase likelihood of survival.) Forty percent of those patients were then admitted to the ICU, and three of the overall 55 patients died. (At the time of the letter, 18 were still hospitalized.)

One interesting finding in this letter is that 32% of those admitted to the ICU (7 of the 22 patients) had previously been tested for the flu and received a negative result, including four rapid tests. This finding underscores the fact that this year’s flu estimates are well below the actual incidence since the false negative rates for lab-confirmed tests are substantial.

So, the bottom line is pretty clear: This year’s flu season is especially bad if you’re a “young, healthy adult.” This year’s flu vaccine is particularly effective in preventing the very strain that is hitting young adults hard. And it’s not too late to get a flu shot.

For more data, charts and graphs about this year’s flu season, check out the CDC’s FluView. For a helpful Q&A about this year’s flu, check out this Mother Jones piece from January.

1. Wear your favorite plaid shirt
2. Take your best friend with you, because friendship
3. The comic shop employees should be happy to get the form because all the information is on it and they don’t have to look anything up, thus making their jobs easier
4. If they are rude, take the form back, yell A CURSE UPON THIS SHOP, then take your business to another shop
5. If you can actually perform curses, that would be ideal.
6. Walk away in slow motion as the shop explodes behind you. Don’t look at the explosion. Taylor Swift’s “Trouble” plays.
7. “They shouldn’t have messed with me” you say grimly
8. I forgot what we were talking about

In the eastern Sahara desert bordering the Red Sea stands Desert Breath, a stunning land-art project comprised of perfectly-formed cones and a glistening pool of water. Nestled between the hills on the Egyptian desert floor, this site-specific installation was the work of D.A.ST. Arteam, made up of Danae Stratou (installation artist), Alexandra Stratou (industrial designer and architect), and Stella Constantindies (architect). They spent from 1995 to 1997 working on Desert Breath, relocating 8,000 square meters of sand to create what we see here. The curves of the two interlocking spirals are dotted with cones that create both positive and negative shapes, as some point up towards the sky while others extend below the surface. Everything radiates from its center, a vessel of water filled rim to rim. All told, this massive and impressive project covers 100,000 square meters (about 1 million square feet).

The terrain was the the driving force behind Desert Breath, and the three women formed D.A.ST. Arteam just for the execution of this project. Danae Stratou explains, “In our mind’s eye the desert was a place where one experiences infinity. We were addressing the desert as a state of mind, a landscape of the mind.” You can view the installation in more than one way. From above, it forms a complete visual image where we can marvel at its design an execution. Or, if we’re lucky enough to experience it from the ground, it is a physical experience as you walk the pathway and come face to face with the larger-than-life cones.

Although it’s been 17 years since the project’s completion, Desert Breath still remains. Just like the conical sands that form when you turn over an hourglass, it too illustrates the passage of time, as wind and other elements reintroduce it to the surrounding landscape.

Desert Breath project page
via [Visual News]

merlwyb:

lemme see if it was any good

no delete it i look dumb

It’s really difficult being positive when things aren’t looking your way, but there’s always a sunny side coming through! Keep your head up. :D

Just when we thought everything possible had been turned into a tribute to Star Wars, London-based designer and illustrator Aled Lewis revealed this amazing piece, entitled The Coruscant Tapestry. Created in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, the massive piece was hand-stitched by the artist, along with family and friends, and tells the entire Star Wars tale (so far) from Episodes I to VI.

Lewis used cotton thread across 30 feet of continuous Klostern fabric to depict a large number of important cinematic moments including when Platoon Attack Crafts invade Naboo; Luke and Leia are hidden from Vader; the Clone Army lays siege to the Trade Federation on Geonosis; and Vader has his final confrontation with Luke. In addition to the detailed scenes, quotes from the movie are stitched along the border in Aurebesh lettering, and the back is hemmed with a custom-made printed pixel star fabric.

The piece is currently on display at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles and is available for purchase, with a hefty price tag of $20,000.

Aled Lewis' website
Gallery 1988 website
via [Laughing Squid]

Russian photographers and adrenaline junkies Vitaly Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov, who are no strangers to traveling to the world's towering skyscrapers and climbing them with absolutely no safety gear, have recently conquered the second tallest building in the world. The daredevil duo managed to gain access to China's Shanghai Tower earlier this month, ascend the 650-meter-high structure, and take some incredible photos from their unique viewpoints.

As if rooftopping/skywalking and photographing from such great heights wasn't enough, the two ventured off with the added pressure of sneaking into the construction site to scale the unfinished building while the city was busy celebrating the Chinese New Year. Raskalov says, "Aware of the strict Chinese law, we prepared carefully and picked an appropriate date, the Chinese New Year day. At that time the security was less watchful, workers were on vacations, and cranes did not work. We got to the crane at around midnight. It took us almost two hours to get on the 120th floor by foot. And also, we spend almost 18 hours on top of the building, sleeping and waiting for better weather."

Watch their heart-pounding adventure in the video, below.

Vitaly Raskalov blog
Vadim Makhorov on 500px
via [Wall Street Journal]

Maine could get a foot and a half of snow, while Massachusetts and Connecticut could see an additional 12 inches on top of what's already still on the ground.

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Yeah, so:

Today was pretty weird.

At about 2pm this afternoon, I was in the middle of explaining Kafka’s Metamorphosis to a tenth grader of my acquaintance, when suddenly my phone started BLOWING THE FUCK UP. I took a second to look at my phone and saw that I was getting Twitter alert after Twitter alert in response to a tweet by Noelle Stevenson.

I check out her tweet and it’s a screencap of a blog comment calling her a feminazi (sidenote: hey, dudes, if you use the word “feminazi,” literally all you are doing is telling me two things: 1) you don’t know anything about feminists and b) you don’t know anything about Nazis), but also embedded in that comment is an oblique reference to me being really mad about how ladies used and abused my comic book knowledge?

Look, trying to understand this comment with zero context while at the same time answering questions about how Gregor Samsa’s physical condition reflect what was happening to him spiritually was not super easy. (Another sidenote: look, I’m not trying to grammarshame someone or whatever the fuck, but this comment would have been WAY easier to understand if this dude had had less ideas about how women should act and more ideas about where periods should go.)

Anyway, I finally got home about half an hour ago, and I’ve finally read the blog post on which the comment was made, and at last I understand that my name wasn’t pulled out of obscurity at random as an “internet person”; rather, I was mentioned in the post specifically because of my "Batman for the Uninitiated" post.

And so now I know the comment meant this: I would be mad that a woman used my advice on how to get into comics and then complained that it’s hard to get into comics.

If there is any ambiguity on the matter, allow me to clarify:

I do not in any way agree with that shitlord’s opinion.

The VERY REASON I wrote a “Batman for the Uninitiated” post (and a Superman one &c.) is because there are numerous barriers to entry in comics, not only within the continuity itself, but literally in the physical act of walking into a comic store and buying a book, especially if you are a woman. I feel like that is clear in the subtext—if not the text—of the post itself; there’s a reason I try to warn about books that feature sexual violence and talk about the ready availability of digital comics.

I WANT women reading comics. I WANT women making comics. I WANT women starring in comics. If you don’t, you’re a piece of shit, and I’m not sorry for saying that.

(Sidenote: so what if she got into Batman via the Christopher Nolan movies? There are, what—optimistically—500k regular comics readers? The Christopher Nolan movies made LITERAL BILLIONS of dollars. Statistically, they are going to be someone’s introduction to Batman. That’s mathematics, fake nerd.)

If I may borrow from Chris Sims, whose name also got invoked in this discussion: “keep my name out of your mouth, son.”

Don’t make me the arbiter of who’s a fake geek.

Changed my mind. DO make me the arbiter of who’s a real geek and who’s fake.

All right, all you adult women who are just getting into comics and like to cosplay, line up on the left. All you dudes who think these ladies should have to pass some kind of superhero LSAT to wear a cute Batman outfit, line up on the right. Now, everyone who’s a real geek, step forward.

Not so fast, guys on the right.

If you have, as this guy claims, “dedicated a lot of time and money and actual effort to study and dedicate [your]selves to comic books,” and the lesson you took away from a lifetime of Superman, Batman and Spider-Man comics is that it is a cool idea to make someone feel like shit, you don’t know ANYTHING about comic books.

callmeprofessor:

dommykittenmommy:

gingerhaze:

Oh, I know I have it better than a lot of would-be comics buyers, and that’s what worries me. I’ve had it with the self-appointed gatekeepers in comics. 

I hate going into the gaming stores alone. Ugh.

I will continously write this reply until I feel it sticks. Do you want to know why many male nerds are so defensive and harsh about this?

Okey, I can with confidence tell you that the majority of us started this out as a form of escapism. I mean, look at all the tumblr posts about “I love fiction, it’s my way to handle reality” etc etc. It was the same for us. suddenly.. about, idk, 4-5 years ago, feminists started to tell us that we are in the wrong for BUYING things. Instead of going to the writers, we’re the bad guys. Comics I grew up with are being torn to pieces by people who don’t read them anyway. They’re causalized because instead of catering to us, they’re catering to people who don’t really care. I know that the majority of you will go “oh, grow up!”, but you know what? Fuck you, comics were one of the things I had growing up, I emotionally connected to the Hulk, it made me feel that maybe it wasn’t so bad to be a freak.

secondly, I don’t know why women expect to get help with everything and just give up when they don’t get help. When I started out, do you really think anyone would even care about a fat, acne-cursed kid? I did ask, once, they just looked at me and told me to just read the damn comics. So I did. I got into the middle of a story, If I liked it, I tried to hunt down the first one, or the one after. Rinse and repeat. not hard. But now! NOW! You have google, I’m not even kidding, it will take you 30 secs to find ALL information you want. I don’t know why everyone think that being a nerd is “share and share alike!”, it’s socially outcast people who have been wrecked emotionally and socially by other people. You really think that they’re gonna help you without a reason?

I know, it’s really “in” to be a nerd these days, but you’re not a nerd until you know your shit. Don’t believe me?

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/nerd?q=nerd

Being a nerd isn’t something that you flaunt, you’re not gonna get help getting into it, you’re not gonna get praise for trying to. read, then read some more, then read even more. Then doublecheck that info. Not because you’re gonna be “safe” when trying to have people acknowledge your “nerd-cred”, but because you LOVE IT! It’s not a social thing, it has never been. It’s not about sitting around a table and going “OMG! I’m such a nerd! I read a couple of books!”.

Sounds harsh? yeah, it is. But, if you love it, it won’t matter. Cuz you will still have the time of your life. And really.. no one promised to help you. want help? help yourself.

*preparing to get unfollowed by everyone*

btw, I’m not saying that no one can like the same things as me/nerds/others. I’m saying “you’re not special for doing that” and “LOVE IT MORE! If you can’t find basic facts without being spoonfed, do you really LOVE it?”

Okay, you pedantic asshole, listen here.

You read a comic by a woman who reads, cares about, and EARNS A PAYCHECK from comics, that has been reblogged LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES by other women/minorities who read, care about, and earn paychecks from comics, and you have to gall to say that comics are “catering to people who don’t really care”?

Because you were picked last at kickball and now YOU want to be the bully. Because someone told you you weren’t worthy of something, now you want to be the one to tell other people that they’re not worthy of something. 

First you say “this is escapism for us men” and then you say “no one HELPED me get into it” as if having a medium LITERALLY CONSTRUCTED AROUND PEOPLE WHO ARE EXACTLY LIKE YOU isn’t the biggest spoonfeeding you could possibly get. 

And now there’s a whole lot of people who don’t fit YOUR very narrow definition of what a “true nerd” can be who are FIGHTING UPHILL to be a part of this thing they love that doesn’t love them back and you have the nerve to say they don’t CARE about it enough and they’re expecting special treatment. As if it’s special treatment to BE SAFE FROM HARASSMENT, SEXUALIZATION, AND CONDESCENSION IN A PUBLIC SPACE.

No one’s taking comics away from straight white men. But I certainly wouldn’t mind taking it out of the hands of men like you, that’s for sure. You’re dinosaurs. And you’re not a REAL nerd.

Moscow-based photographer and daring rooftopper Kirill Oreshkin (aka kirill_opex) documents each of his adventurous and extremely dangerous feats as he manages to climb to the top of his city's towering structures and dangle off the edge, hundreds of meters in the air. Like so many other young rooftoppers (including his friend Mustang Wanted), there is no safety net or harness for the Russian thrill-seeker, only his camera and a rush of adrenaline.

With a fire in his belly, Oreshkin's penchant for urban scaling has led him to perilous heights and yet the young daredevil appears stoic in each shot—even while he is gripping onto a ledge with one hand! Rather than showing any hint of fear or remorse, the young man performs his life-threatening stunts with an unaffected and unbothered expression. One has to wonder what the ultimate incentive is for Oreshkin, other than capturing unique selfies and living to share the vertigo-inducing images.

Kirill Oreshkin on VK
Kirill Oreshkin on 500px
via [Lost at E Minor]

It has been a particularly cold winter so far in New York. The massive snow storms and frigid temperatures have sent most people indoors to seek warmth under fuzzy blankets with hot chocolate in hand. However, in response to the cold, photographer Dina Litovsky decided to venture outside to document the unusually deserted landscapes throughout Central Park.

Born in the Ukraine, Litovsky moved to New York more than 20 years ago, but she said "I realized that I’ve never seen Central Park in the snow in all these years. It was pretty magical there, I expected it to be scenic but [I] was just overwhelmed by how gorgeous everything was.”

The collection of monochromatic photographs, simply called Snow in Central Park, shows the accumulations of snow covering everything in a quiet, wintery wonderland. The park, normally booming with energy and life and vibrant colors, is completely bleak and dreary. Yet Litovsky looked beyond the gloomy atmosphere to capture incredibly breathtaking images that convey a few rare moments of quiet in an otherwise bustling city.

Dina Litovsky's website
via [PDN Photo of the Day]

New Comic!

One day I’ll do a comic about my cave and how awesome and wonderful my cave is and how sometimes I think I could never ever ever leave here. Sometimes I leave my cave and I’m instantly like THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME INCLUDING THAT WHOLE DOG-FACE MAULING INCIDENT. It’s just immediate regretsies.

But things must be done, jobs jobbed and all that. I usually get more than three metres. Usually.

On January 21st, a giant boulder was set loose from a mountain in northern Italy by a landslide and proceeded to rip through a 350-year-old stone barn in Ronchi di Termeno (Tarmin). Though no one in the four-person family was physically injured in the natural disaster, the owner of the house and accompanying vineyard, Trebo Herbert, has been left with tremendous damage to his property. In fact, more than one boulder came in contact with the farm, making for a huge amount of destruction.

It's reported that two chunks of rock, one at about 2,600 cubic feet and the other at 5,650 cubic feet, have demolished the barn housing farming equipment, which include tractors, and smashed through rows of the adjacent vineyard and farmland. Additionally, a massive boulder, which is over 14,000 cubic feet in size, managed to slide down and rest against the house that's connected to the barn. Luckily, it didn't roll through the home.

Markus Hell of Tareom was able to capture aerial footage of the unfortunate aftermath with a drone, which can be seen, below. It is with great hope that sharing these images will catch the eye of charitable individuals because for Herbert and his family, this was all an unforeseen disaster that has created a monstrous obstacle in their daily lives. A donation page has been created to help the Herbert family get back on their feet.

via [Neatorama, Alto Adige]

Alfred Bester’s 1957 classic The Stars My Destination is an influential work. Many science fiction greats credit it as one of the best in the field. William Gibson says that it blew his mind and Neil Gaiman, in his introduction, calls it “the perfect cyberpunk novel.”

Most of the members of my group had not read The Stars My Destination which was originally published with the title, Tiger! Tiger! We talked about the title and then delved into the main character, Gully Foyle, a man hellbent on revenge after a spaceship leaves him stranded on his bombed-out craft.

Gully Foyle is a challenging character–as Gaiman attests, he is a murderer, a rapist, a man filled with violent rage. Many readers made note of the misogyny in the novel, but one reader noted that Foyle is so awful that you aren’t necessarily being asked to accept the misogyny.

All readers, even those who didn’t particularly like the book, made note of the excellent world-building. The Stars My Destination does not feel dated because it incorporates compelling science and concepts.

The book starts with the discovery of humankind’s ability to teleport or, as they call it, “jaunt,” by tapping into their brain’s potential. When we meet Foyle, we learn that jaunting is forgone by the super-rich who instead choose to use outmoded transport such as cars. Bester delves into the economic and political ramifications of teleportation and space travel but the real thrust of the story is a revenge plot that he based on Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Stars My Destination is still a riveting read, revealing much in an amoral character who does (although this is up for discussion) evolve and morph despite his single-minded, destructive pursuit. Alfred Bester is still provocative after all these years.

 

While taking a quick break on an animal preservation trip at Imire: Rhino and Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe, 24-year-old Marcus Söderlund managed to capture this incredible image of an elephant photobombing his fellow volunteers. The seven-tonne bull elephant snuck up right behind the international group of women—Lisa Marie Winther (Norway), Deb Sulzberger (Australia), Sarah Daly (Scotland), Jane Burnett (England), and Nicky Walker (England)—completely unbeknownst to them. Söderlund says, "Eventually they noticed his presence and turned around and reacted with laughs, surprised looks and smiles."

via [GMA, Daily Mail]

Buzz Aldrin’s visor reflects Armstrong, Apollo 11, July 1969

It’s been over 50 years since President Kennedy declared that the United States will put a man on the moon, and a lot of exciting advancements in space exploration have taken place since then. A new exhibition at the London art gallery Breese Little titled For All Mankind: Vintage NASA Photographs 1964 - 1983 features over 100 rare photographs that span nearly 20 years of the program. Many of these amazing artifacts are from the NASA archives directly and taken by the men, women, and machines directly involved with their missions. During their journey, some awe-inspiring moments were captured, including the world’s first picture of the Earth taken from the vicinity of the Moon (December, 1966), the first Earthrise witnessed by human eyes (1968), and the first moon landing in 1969.

The vintage photographs on display showcase the golden age of space travel. NASA dipped in popularity at the end of the 1970’s until the early 2000’s. However, exploration into the great unknown is regaining popularity with achievements like the successful 2012 landing of Curiosity Rover on Mars, and with companies like Virgin Galactic that for $250,000, will train a private citizen to travel to space.

Works included in For All Mankind are the dawn of our quest to know what lies beyond. As Stephen Hawking writes in his book A Brief History of Time, "Today we still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Humanity's deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in." As time passes and advancements in technology and travel are made, these photographs illustrate the spark that started it all.

Apollo 11 lift-off seen from the top of the launch gantry, Apollo 11, July 1969

David Scott climbs out of the Command Module, Apollo 9, March 1969



James McDivitt, Ed White walking in space, Gemini 4, June 1965


ugene Cernan and the antenna on the Rover, Apollo 17, December 1972


Earthrise, the first ever witnessed by human eyes, Apollo 8, December 1968


Crescent Earth from 10,000 miles, Apollo 4, November 1967


Jupiter and its satellite Io, Voyager 2, June 1979


Saturn, Voyager 1, 1980


Eclipse of the Sun by the Earth, Apollo 12, November 1969

Breese Little website
via [Fast Company]

Creating the “myRA” – a Simple, Safe, and Affordable Starter Savings Account to Help Millions of Americans Start Saving for Retirement

 * Year of Action: Making Progress Through Executive Action *

To build lasting economic security, the President will act on a set of specific, concrete proposals to expand opportunity for all Americans. In the State of the Union, the President announced that he will use his executive authority to direct the Department of the Treasury to create “myRA” – a new simple, safe and affordable “starter” retirement savings account that will be offered through employers and will ultimately help millions of Americans begin to save for retirement.

• Starter Savings Account: Making It Easier to Start Saving for Retirement. This new product will be targeted to the many Americans who currently lack access to workplace retirement savings plans, which is usually the most effective way to save for retirement. Starting to save is just the first step towards a secure retirement, and the President wants to help more Americans save for their future.
• Safe and Secure: Principal Protection So Savers’ Account Balance Will Never Go Down. The product will be offered via a familiar Roth IRA account, and savers will benefit from principal protection, so the account balance will never go down in value. The security in the account, like all savings bonds, will be backed by the U.S. government. Contributions can be withdrawn tax free at any time.
• User-Friendly for Savers: Portable Account with Contributions that Are Voluntary, Automatic, and Small. Initial investments could be as low as $25 and contributions that are as low as $5 could be made through easy-to-use payroll deductions.  Savers have the option of keeping the same account when they change jobs and can roll the balance into a private-sector retirement account at any time. 
• Favorable Investment Return: Same Secure Investment Return Available to Federal Employees. Savers will earn interest at the same variable interest rate as the federal employees’ Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Government Securities Investment Fund. 
• Widely Available: Available to Millions of Middle Class Americans Through Their Employer. This saving opportunity would be available to the millions of low- and middle-income households earning up to $191,000 a year.  These accounts will be offered through an initial pilot program to employees of employers who choose to participate by the end of 2014.  The accounts are little to no cost and easy for employers to use, since employers will neither administer the accounts nor contribute to them.   Participants could save up to $15,000, or for a maximum of 30 years, in their accounts before transferring their balance to a private sector Roth IRA.

*  Continuing to Work With Congress on the President’s Existing Proposals to

Make Sure That All Americans Can Have a Dignified Retirement  *

The President remains committed to working with Congress to help secure a dignified retirement for all Americans. While Social Security is and must remain a rock-solid, guaranteed progressive benefit that every American can rely on, the most secure retirement requires a three-legged stool that includes savings and pensions. That’s why the President is using his executive authority to create the “myRA” and has already proposed to work with Congress on the following proposals to help Americans save for their retirement:

• Giving Every Employee Access to Easy, Payroll-Based Savings Through the Auto-IRA. About half of all American workers do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k)s, which puts the onus on individuals to set up and invest in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Up to 9 out of 10 workers automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan through their employer make contributions, even years later, while fewer than 1 out of 10 workers eligible to contribute to an IRA voluntarily do so. The President’s budget will propose to establish automatic enrollment in IRAs (or “auto-IRAs”) for employees without access to a workplace savings plan, in keeping with a plan that he has proposed in every budget since he took office. Employers that do not provide any employer-sponsored savings plan would be required to connect their employees with a payroll deduction IRA.  This proposal could provide access to one-quarter of all workers, according to a recent study.

-----  Making Sure the Auto-IRA Works for Workers and Small Businesses. Workers would not be required to contribute and are free to opt out. Employers would also not contribute. The plan would also help defray the minimal administrative costs of establishing auto-IRAs for small businesses, including through tax incentives.

• Removing Inefficient Retirement Tax Breaks for the Wealthiest While Improving Them for the Middle Class.  The Auto-IRA will spread the tax benefits for retirement savings to millions more middle-class Americans.  Current retirement tax subsidies disproportionately benefit higher-income households, many of whom would have saved with or without incentives. An estimated two-thirds of tax benefits for retirement saving go to the top 20% of earners, with one-third going to the top 5 percent of earners. Our tax incentives for retirement can be designed more efficiently.   According to one 2012 study, additional tax expenditures are a comparatively inefficient way to generate additional saving. The President has proposed to limit the benefits of tax breaks, including retirement tax preferences, for high income households to a maximum of 28 percent.  The President has also proposed to limit contributions to tax-preferred savings accounts once balances are about $3.2 million, large enough to fund a reasonable pension in retirement.

* Importance of Securing a Dignified Retirement for All Americans *

• Many Americans lack access to workplace retirement savings plans – usually the most effective and generous means of saving for retirement.  About half of all workers and 75 percent of part-time workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.

• The financial crisis dealt a severe blow to the retirement outlook for many families, wiping out more than $12 trillion dollars in household wealth. While financial markets have returned to their pre-crisis levels, median household wealth has only recovered 45 percent of the losses during the recession.

• The risk of an insecure retirement is especially great for women, minorities, and low-income Americans. Women continue to be less prepared for retirement than men and comprise 63 percent of the elderly living below the poverty line. White households have six times the wealth, including retirement savings, of African Americans or Hispanics. And low-wage and part-time workers are just one-third as likely as high-wage and full-time workers to participate in an employer-based retirement plan.

 

Sölvesborgsbron, or Sölvesborg Bridge, is Europe's longest pedestrian bridge, spanning over 2,480 feet. Located in Sweden, the bridge connects the small town of Sölvesborg with a new modern housing district across the bay. Wanting to further enhance the already impressive design, Swedish design firm Ljusarkitektur in collaboration with lighting company Lumenpulse has just finished outfitting the entire structure with a system of color changing LED fixtures.

Mounted on the outside of the structure, each module works to highlight the bridge's suspension cables and three iconic arches that together took over 150 tons of steel to make. To dampen the direct brightness from the lights, deep glare shields were constructed by the firm that aid in lessening glare, but also help to hide the source of the light. Different color sequences have even been programmed into the LEDs so that their colors change with with the progressing year. The overall effect, especially when seen in tandem with the reflection of the water, is an absolutely stunning display that perfectly accentuates the bridge's unique design.

Ljusarkitektur's website
via [designboom]

Chicken coops may be sprouting up on rooftops and backyards around the city, but don’t expect domesticated geese to be taking up urban residence anytime soon. “The biggest reason I don’t think you’ll ever see geese in an urban setting, or even a suburban setting, is they’re very loud,” said Hank Shaw, the author of Duck, Duck, Goose. “They honk at everything.”

Designers Kyuho Song and Boa Oh have developed a solution to having no electrical power source to plug into on the go. While our advancing technology provides countless benefits, it has also added to our modern day inconveniences. One such annoyance that nearly everyone can relate to is having your phone die on you with nowhere to recharge it. Luckily, Song and Oh have designed the Window Socket—a small, readily available, portable solar-charger.

Equipped with a solar panel and suction cup, this product is ideal for use on windows in offices or planes, but could also function while out in nature. The Socket converts the collected solar energy into electricity that can then actively charge any of your handheld devices. It also acts as a backup battery to have on hand for instant recharges.

Since this project is still in the developmental phase it takes up to 8 hours for the device to reach a full charge, making it rather impractical. However, the designers are working on the product in hopes of improving its efficiency and one day making it available to the general public.

Kyuho Song's Behance via [Yanko Design]

Readers outside the USA! You know the new Bad Machinery book, The Case Of The Team Spirit, is on Amazon, right? You can get it on amazon.co.uk HERE - or check your local version.

I’m going to try to return to doing a post every Friday in which I either round up a few of the best health/medical/parenting-related stories of the past week or in which I post something about a particular piece that really caught my eye.

This week I’m posting about an incredible interactive map that allows users to explore all the outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough and other vaccine-preventable diseases that have occurred across the world from 2007 to 2013. Below is a screenshot, for example, of all the outbreaks in the US in 2013.

The map’s data is being tracked by the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations and was made possible by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which, as most know, has been very active in worldwide immunization efforts and other public health initiatives. A great story in Business Insider goes into more depth about the map and what its reporters found when they spent some time exploring it.

You can put on your amateur epidemiologist hat and explore the map yourself. You can even download data to crunch numbers yourself if you’re a data junkie. Happy exploring!