Cary

Pre-order my book of comics, The Worrier’s Guide to Life, from Andrews McMeel.

‘Bitter is the wind tonight

It tosses the ocean’s white hair

Tonight I fear not the fierce warriors of Norway 

Coursing on the Irish sea‘

This anonymous poem is written in the margins of an Early Irish manuscript that now resides in the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland. Most likely dating from around 850 AD, the text may have been complied in a northern Irish monastery such as Nendrum or Bangor (both in Co. Down). In a just a few, short words it conveys the sense of dread that was permeating through Irish monastic communities in the 9th century AD. During this period Viking raids were an every present danger and the Irish Annal’s record numerous attacks on monasteries. 

Source 

beauty

Native american indian knife cherokee blue opal”fire within” master knapper ga

Meet the surfing girls of Iran.

Susan Peters in a publicity photo for Random Harvest (1942)

"A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn’t think he’d remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn’t see me at all, but I’ll bet a month hasn’t gone by since that I haven’t thought of that girl."

— Mr. Bernstein, “Citizen Kane”

Nauhi Olin per Edward Weston, 1923-24

A casual visitor to that first location would never have guessed that Taco Bell would eventually become the multibillion-dollar business it is today. It was one of the country's centers of aerospace engineering starting in the '40s, as the NASA facility in Downey built many of the spaceship components for the Apollo Project. The once-beige facade has been painted orange, and the ornamental edifice above the entrance that once housed the titular bell was destroyed in a fire a few years ago. Want to read more from HuffPost Taste?

All other things being equal, the south, parts of the west, and upper midwest are the happiest places in the United States according to a recent study.

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Karaba Brick Quarry David Pace

Karaba is a small African village in southwestern Burkina Faso. Outside the village, a short distance from the dusty main road, is a quarry where men carve bricks from solid stone using only picks and shovels.

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I love this strange, sexy, gorgeous editorial of Queen Chloë. She sells odd beauty so perfectly. My adoration of her is in the same league as Paz de la Huerta, Tilda Swinton, and Helena Bonham Carter. They’re all so unbelievably beautiful and so unbelievably weird, which makes them wonders deserving of worship.

If you're looking for me, I'm lost somewhere in 50 Watts.

The Genetics of Domestication

If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know that sometimes they feel only half domesticated, ready to become wild animals the second they make it out the door. But housecats are, in fact, genetically distinct from their wild cousins, having been domesticated some 10,000 years ago, right around the time that humans developed agriculture and settled into what became the beginnings of human civilization.

Today’s domestic cats are directly descended from the Near Eastern Wildcat (also called the African Wildcat) about 10,000 years ago, when it is thought that the desert dwelling wildcats started hunting the rodents that were attracted to the newly established grain stores that came with agriculture. Cats kept the rodent population down and in return were given a warm, dry place to sleep and a steady supply of food, leading to a sort of self-domestication where “they just hung out […] and humans tolerated them.” The more social the cats became, the more stable their place with humans was, leading eventually to cats becoming the most popular pets in the world.

A new study published recently in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science examined the genomes of 22 domestic cats and compared them to the genomes of two European and two Near Eastern Wildcats. The researchers identified at least 13 genes linked to domestication, as they have clearly changed between wildcats and housecats. These genes are linked to things like learning, memory, and behavior: all things that make housecats more social than their solitary cousins. The idea that housecats are social may surprise some of you, but try petting that adorable wildcat next time you’re on the African savannah and you’ll see just how social Professor Snugglepants really is.

Another important set of genes uncovered by this study is involved with the migration of neural crest cells, stem cells that are immensely important in the developing embryo and control everything from skull shape to fur color. This finding supports the hypothesis that these cells are the ultimate controller of domesticity, something that would explain why domesticated animals share many similar traits such as smaller brains and certain coloration patters.

This is important because the main trademark of domestication is sociability, not only with other cats in this case but with humans and other animals such as dogs as well, which were domesticated some 30,000 years ago. The genes that control domestication may also control social development on an evolutionary scale, which could tell us something about how early humans evolved to be the social butterflies we are today.

References:

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2013/12/when-cats-became-comrades

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat

Submitted by Kelsey M., Discoverer.

Edited by Jessica F.

humansofnewyork:

"We’re going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house."
"What do you do at Grandma and Grandpa’s house?"
"Anything I want."

By Temple Grandin, Colorado State University Editor’s Note: Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and an advocate for people with autism, wrote eloquently about her identification with Spock, the half-Vulcan character in TV’s Star Trek, in her 1996 autobiography Th...

by elektor.com:

Whether he really said that or not is still up for debate. The quote appeared at the beginning of an editorial written by James E. Fawcette published in the April 29, 1985 issue of InfoWorld and the was attributed to a certain William Gates, chairman of Microsoft in response to a question about why PC-DOS had an upper memory limit of 640 KB.

Well, things move on and at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona SanDisk Corporation introduced the ‘200GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition’, which is currently the world’s largest capacity microSD card for use in mobile devices. This comes one year after they introduced the 128 GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card.

According to Christopher Chute, Vice President, Worldwide Digital Imaging Practice, IDC “Seven out of 10 images captured by consumers are now from smartphones and tablets. Consumers view mobile-first devices as their primary means for image capture and sharing, and by 2019 smartphones and tablets will account for nine out of 10 images captured,” This high capacity card is suitable for Android smartphone and tablet users and the Premium Edition microSD card combines the world’s highest capacity with fast transfer speed of up to 90MB/s. The 200GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, has a ten-year limited warranty and will be available worldwide in Q2 at an MSRP of $399.99.

640 K ought to be enough for anyone… - [Link]

devil bearing Jesus

(Matthew 4:8 ‘the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them’)

missal, France ca. 1470-75

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 425, fol. 48r

jenny holzer