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24 Jan 23:12

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2014 Couture Collection

by Tom and Lorenzo
Snorkmaiden

No idea what's happening here, but some of it is fairly interesting.

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2014 Couture Collection           Photo Credit: IMAXtree
24 Jan 22:53

beetleshell: captainqueeg: I love the sort of sense it makes...

Snorkmaiden

eternal autoshare



beetleshell:

captainqueeg:

I love the sort of sense it makes as a metaphor, and then no, no sense at all.

I really like this. This is actually really cool.

24 Jan 22:04

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24 Jan 19:06

News on South Africa’s Hominins: Berger’s Rising Star Expedition

by mmagnan1

This November, a team funded by National Geographic and led by Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg made a huge find. 1200 hominin skeletal elements were recovered from a South African cave, representing at least 12 individuals. Human remains are pretty rare, and this one site contains more human fossil material than the rest of South Africa combined, according to Berger.  While I’m sure the researchers have their hunches, they have so far been cryptic about species attribution. Dates have also yet to be determined for the collection.

Only months passed between the original discovery of the cave and the excavation of the remains. Berger quickly mobilized a 60 person team and secured funding from National Geographic to conduct a field season (the team came to be called the Rising Star Expedition). Though the remains had been in the cave for perhaps millions of years, it was impossible to know if they would survive another rainy season, which was fast approaching in November.  Unlike most other fossils of the same antiquity these were sitting in loose sediments, which are easier to excavate than breccia but could likely make the bones more fragile.

In order to access the chamber with the fossils, scientists must squeeze through a seven inch opening.  While it has been suggested that the cave opening be widened, Berger doesn’t think a cave that has been forming for millions of years should be updated so that the project directors can stand over the finds. For this reason, small-bodied paleoanthropologists and archaeologists were recruited from all over the world to participate in the fieldwork. In fact, because of size, Berger sent his 15 year old son Matthew in to verify there were in fact human remains in the preliminary stages of the project.

Lee Berger with A. sediba. Photo credit Eloff.

Lee Berger with A. sediba. Photo credit Eloff.

While the finds coming from this project are remarkable, the way in which Berger has been directing the project has been equally fantastic. Typical fossil finds (see recent post on Ardi, for an example) are guarded for years, sometimes over a decade. Frequently only select researchers are able to access the material and data, which makes it difficult for publications to be critiqued or built on by other scientists.  Berger has gone the opposite direction, making fossils less his and more open-access. He already set the stage for this type of protocol with A. sediba, which was published in 2010 shortly after being unearthed.

Transparency and collaboration wasn’t enough for leaders of the Rising Star Expedition, though. Last week, they announced a call for applications to work on the fossil material, especially for early-career scientists.  Successful applicants will have their expenses covered to travel to South Africa for the month long project, which is guaranteed to generate some high-impact publications.  This type of cooperative research is unheard of, and will provide significant opportunities for future generations of paleoanthropologists.  If I didn’t specialize in stone tools, my application would’ve already been in.

The work of Berger’s team is commendable, and they will undoubtedly out produce most other proprietary, territorial paleoanthropologist in both quantity and quality. It will be interesting to see what else the cave yields next season, since literally only centimeters on the surface of a relatively small area have been scratched.

Matthew Magnani


Filed under: Blog Tagged: africa, human evolution, lee berger, paleoanthropology, south africa
24 Jan 18:59

Be The Overlord Of Your Office With A Chain Mail Necktie

by Amy Ratcliffe
Snorkmaiden

#menswearbeat

Sorry, everyone

1345_chain_mail_necktie_on_model

Does walking into the office feel like entering a battlefield? If so, you might need this chain mail necktie to add bonus points to your damage roll. It’s made from anondized aluminum in 10mm rings – it’s sturdy enough to keep your chest safe from paper cuts. Maybe the neck armor will even protect you against staples (we don’t recommend experimenting). Bonus: since it’s made from a lighter material, the necktie only weighs 4oz. That’s not too much to carry around your neck which means the necktie would be suitable for everyday wear. You know you’re tempted.

See a close-up of the tie after the break.

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Product Page ($29.99)


    






24 Jan 18:27

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24 Jan 17:38

trick dog

by sushiesque

sushiesque posted a photo:

trick dog

24 Jan 14:56

tastefullyoffensive: [asentientcicada]

24 Jan 07:27

Shoes 1935-1945 The Metropolitan Museum of Art



Shoes

1935-1945

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

24 Jan 06:53

wecameassickcunts: WHY AM I LAUGHING SO HARD

Snorkmaiden

Venus is obv a Mean Girl



wecameassickcunts:

WHY AM I LAUGHING SO HARD

24 Jan 05:12

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24 Jan 05:00

stormingtheivory: theatlantic: Here’s Exactly How Much the...



stormingtheivory:

theatlantic:

Here’s Exactly How Much the Government Would Have to Spend to Make Public College Tuition-Free

A mere $62.6 billion dollars!

According to new Department of Education data, that’s how much tuition public colleges collected from undergraduates in 2012 in the entire United States. And I’m not being facetious with the word mere, either. The New America Foundation says that the federal government spent a whole $69 billion in 2013 on its hodgepodge of financial aid programs, such as Pell Grants for low-income students, tax breaks, work study funding. And that doesn’t even include loans.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

For perspective that’s about a twelfth of the military budget.

Sickening.

24 Jan 04:59

lemonyanemone: So this was posted on the bulletin board at...



lemonyanemone:

So this was posted on the bulletin board at school

24 Jan 03:12

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Snorkmaiden

#beebeat



24 Jan 03:02

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24 Jan 03:01

diosacoyolxauhqui: glitchbent: Biquette, the grindcore goat...



















diosacoyolxauhqui:

glitchbent:

Biquette, the grindcore goat (who followed Wormrot around like a dog) has died. Rest in PVs, lil’ lady.

Damn that sux

King of Goats

23 Jan 20:31

Valentino Spring 2014 Couture Collection

by Tom and Lorenzo
Snorkmaiden

More detail shots of the embroidery. Some of these are very interesting, and some I think are rather culture-appropriating seen up close. So... meh.

Valentino Spring 2014 Couture Collection           Photo Credit: IMAXtree
23 Jan 19:35

fuckyeahvikingsandcelts: silksifandrahil: erikkwakkel: Mediev...


1. Novgorod Nr. 202 (Moscow Historical Museum).


2. Novgorod (Moscow Historical Museum).

fuckyeahvikingsandcelts:

silksifandrahil:

erikkwakkel:

Medieval kids’ doodles on birch bark

Here’s something very special. In the 1950s archeologists made a great discovery near the city of Novgorod, Russia: they dug up hundreds of pieces of birch bark with all sorts of texts written on them. The 915 items are mostly letters, notes and receipts, all written between the 11th and 15th century. Among the more notable scraps is a marriage proposal from a man called Mikita to his beloved Anna: “marry me - I want you and you want me, and the witness to that is Ignat Moiseev” (item 377).

The most special items, however, are the ones shown above, which are from a medieval classroom. In the 13th century, young schoolboys learning to write filled these scraps with alphabets and short texts. Bark was ideal material for writing down things with such a short half-life. Then the pupils got bored and started to doodle, as kids do: crude drawings of individuals with big hands, as well as a figure with a raised sword standing next to a defeated beast (lower image). The last one was drawn by Onfim, who put his name next to the victorious warrior. The snippets provide a delightful and most unusual peek into a 13th-century classroom, with kids learning to read - and getting bored in the process.

More information - On the scraps in general, see here. Here is a full inventory, in Russian. On the excavation, see here and here. More kids’ doodles here and here. Some letters in this Flickr stream. The Leiden scholar Jos Schaeken published a book in Dutch on this material, which can be downloaded for free here (English translation to follow next year). 

A glimpse in to medieval Novgorod.

23 Jan 19:30

gangtheway: sol—lux: top 10 trends ladies should avoid 2014

Snorkmaiden

This might be the most bizarre one yet.





















gangtheway:

sol—lux:

top 10 trends ladies should avoid 2014

23 Jan 19:08

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23 Jan 19:01

Photo

Snorkmaiden

This gentleman strikes me as rather... obtuse

*sunglasses descend onto face*



23 Jan 18:47

nintendobros64:

Snorkmaiden

Oh Kirby.

23 Jan 18:39

Frozach Submitted

23 Jan 16:17

Man’s Boots 1900-1910 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art



Man’s Boots

1900-1910

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

23 Jan 13:19

pleatedjeans: Struggling to achieve your dreams? Have you tried...



pleatedjeans:

Struggling to achieve your dreams? Have you tried giving up?

I was going to buy and change my life but… you know what… I gave up.

23 Jan 10:51

Vest 1846 The Victoria & Albert Museum



Vest

1846

The Victoria & Albert Museum

23 Jan 10:33

Make Them Dream

by stylebubble
Snorkmaiden

Interesting textures; really hate the footwear.

When the folks at Dior called me up to let me know that there would be a third couture show (to add to the usual two) because they had especially invited, flown in and put up sixty-eight fashion students from sixteen colleges from all around the world to attend the show, I think I might have audibly shrieked.  I’m no fashion student but I couldn’t contain my excitement on their behalf because this was really an unprecedented move by any big maison to open up their doors in this way to “spread the word about the magic of haute couture”.  When I was asked whether I would like to experience their Dior rêve with some of the students, in particular the ones from London, the answer was of course “Hell, YES!”  I can’t emphasise enough how generous an opportunity this is on the part of Dior, without any particular business motivation other than to communicate and educate what haute couture is all about and why it is something so special in an increasingly watered down mass of product in the fashion world.  In addition to seeing the show, the students were also given tours around the haute couture ateliers, to watch the petites mains at work.  Nobody has ever been given access to the ateliers on the day before the show and here were sixty-eight students walking through cutting tables, mannequins and busy-bee artisans in white coats, followed by camera crews and nosy bloggers (guilty).  Before the show, they also attended lectures about the house of Dior and were given the chance to meet key employees from the other LVMH houses.  All in all, a fashion student’s dream – a sanctioned invitation to a fashion show where normally they might have gatecrashed their way in and a prime opportunity to get one’s foot in the door at maison.

My first question was how the students were selected in the first place.  Dior chose the colleges internally but left the responsibility to the respective tutors.  From London, Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, Westminster, Conde Nast College and Royal College of Art were the lucky participants and globally, Parson’s, Bunka and Instituto Marangoni to name a few were in the mix.  When I asked Matthew Bovan, James Buck and Alexander Krantz, who have all started the MA course at CSM (who I shadowed for a separate write-up on this Dior student experience for Dazed Digital), how Louise Wilson picked them, they shrugged and couldn’t really pinpoint a reason.  Not to big up the cliche but as a trio, the CSM kids stood out from the rest of the students just by their attire and the video crew documenting the whole shebang seemed to gravitate towards them.

I plucked up enough courage to go up to one of my personal heroes Walter van Beirendonck, who was with his two fourth year students from the Royal Academy of Antwerp, to ask how he selected them and he explained that he chose people who had a possible synergy with Dior.  At MA level, prospective placement and employment is not far away and it’s interesting to see students and tutors walking around the offices of Dior, looking at it as a prospective place of employment.

“Surreal” and “OH MY GOD!” were the words uttered by the students when asked how they reacted when they found out they were going on this trip (although it wasn’t clear up until the last minute exactly how extensive the trip was).  Group by group (separated by country and college) students with their equally excited tutors shuffled in to the Dior headquarters to get their name badges.  If Dior ever set itself up as a by appointment museum they would ace it because the organisation level was pretty amazing.

IMG_8075James Buck, Matthew Bovan and Alexander Krantz from Central Saint Martins

We were asked to be quiet as we moved through the ateliers, first the “flou” dressmaking room and then the “tailleur” tailoring room.  At that point we had not yet seen the show so we were only seeing glimpses of garments being altered or finished.  Fittings were taking place elsewhere with Raf Simons.  The intricate cutwork and delicate embroidery would all make a whole lot of sense when it was later revealed that the collection was really dedicated to the work of the atelier and their revered skills.  These tireless artisans in the atelier also got to see the third extra show put on for the students.  What struck me was the number of people dedicated to each garment.  Wearing white lab coats and a serious expression, two or three people would be working on a dress, concentration unbroken even by a rabble of students and cameras.  It’s the sheer quantity of people and their skill and experience that produces such finessed and special work.  Even without seeing the silhouettes in full you could see that in detail.

Matthew from CSM remarked that it was so different seeing the embroideries up close as so much of the detail is lost in images onlune, even with the ultra zoomed shots.  It struck me that this was largely a generation that had experienced unprecedented access to fashion online and that increasingly they were missing out on tactile touch and firsthand experience.  Especially when it comes to something that is seemingly as intangible as haute couture at Dior.

I was told that Dior really just wanted to share the magic of haute couture with the future of the fashion industry – to make them understand the full scale of works that goes on behind the scene. Seeing the show gives the students a perspective that are normally only afforded to select press and clients. Most students said they had attended shows before but none at the level of Dior. Beyond creating a democratic and inclusive environment for this couture show, the bigger picture is that we are still questioning the future of haute couture. Can it grow? Is it a viable and sustainable business? Will those petites mains have a future twenty years down the line when these students might be senior creative directors up at houses or helming their own labels. Yes, it’s a two day magical jolly for the students taking them out of the doldrums of college but the way that haute couture operates might linger on their minds – the way that ateliers strive for absolute technical perfection without being constrained by cost or time. In a fashion world where speed, product and profit matters, it’s an idyllic sentiment to take away.

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IMG_8174 James’ handbag tied with a Dior ribbon

Another part of the answer to how haute couture is moving forward can be found in the Dior SS14 couture collection itself. Admittedly I’ve been a fan from the beginning but the last few couture and ready to wear collections have seen Raf being….well more Raf in his approach at Dior. There is something less forced and tentative with what he is doing now. In contrast to the last couture collection which had a lot going on in its narrative and execution, this one was in Simons’ words more “abstract”. In a sculpted space that felt meditative and intimate, Simons explored the private side to a woman and the relationship between client and atelier hands. This wasn’t a simple homage to craftsmanship. That’s a given. Instead, technical supremacy in all manner of cutwork married up with an emotional connection to the clothes. The slits and circular cut outs read like sensual peeks into a woman’s mind. The surreal dreamscapes depicting a woman on top of an unknown planet are imbued with meaning as well as technical proficiency. I could go on and on but I guess the point is with this one is that craft overrides concept. Hence why I’m glad that I along with the sixty-eight students got to see the ateliers and join up the hands, needle and thread with what we saw on the runway.

Oh and hello to what was at the time I think couture’s first pair of trainers (until Chanel today happened of course). Obviously they make me jump for joy. Or literally I can jump for joy. Or run. Or skip. Whatever.

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After the show, the students were invites to go backstage to see the clothes up close and in some cases meet Simons. Some even got his autograph and he happily obliged. Of course Simons was once a professor at the Applied Arts School in Vienna. He, compared to most creative directors appreciates the value of firsthand experience for a student’s benefit. Some of the students remarked that they didn’t think there would be this level of access. Journalists were also curious to know how the whole initiative was for them and some faced their first experience of the media. As they boarded the bus to take them to a dinner to round off their trip, you wondered which of them would have the tenacity and talent to stay for the long haul. In a week when we celebrate fashion’s greats, it was wonderful to be mindful of what the future holds.

raf

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23 Jan 08:42

ps-meade: so Katamari Damacy is a really good game

Snorkmaiden

Katamari Damashare

ps-meade:

image

imageso Katamari Damacy is a really good game

23 Jan 08:40

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23 Jan 08:39

Photo

Snorkmaiden

This is perennially hilarious.