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Maple Crest Farm was established in Brecksville, Ohio in 1826 and is currently operated, occupied and enjoyed by the seventh generation of the founding family. Over the decades, the farm has adapted to the pressures of surrounding economic development and a changing economy. Originally a dairy and grain farm, Maplecrest has transitioned from pure agricultural to horse boarding and training to stay economically vibrant.

Maplecrest comprises two farms. Brant Giere and Carol Sahley live in the original homestead, while Giere’s mother and sister operate the adjoining horse business. Carol and Brant work off farm and raise goats and chickens for companionship. They have found goats to be wonderful — sociable, loyal and downright funny. Sahley shared some of her favorite pictures of life with her goats on the farm.

The goats love to jump off the milkhouse roof and catch some air. This series captures one of Casper’s acrobatic stunts - a full rotation!

Mimi at top speed on a snowy day.

Bill was the original Maplecrest goat, handsome and rugged.

Jumper the pygmy goat enjoys the dahlias grown on the farm’s many gardens.

The trio of goats. Jumper, Casper (the friendly goat) and Mimi.

Jumper welcomes little Casper to the family. His gentle acceptance of the newcomer was touching.

Little Mimi stands guard over her territory.

Casper romps in his yard. He is a registered Nigerian Dwarf, a lovely miniature dairy breed.

Jumper’s little lips. They are often used to chow down on corn chips — the favorite goat snack of all time.

Mimi plays in the recently raked hay field. The hay rows towered over her.

Shall we dance? Twins Mimi and Jumper form a perfect mirror image. They are inseparable to this day.

Mimi in front of the 1910 barn.

Sweet Mimi as a kid.

Casper with sunglasses. One cool kid.

The post The Goats of Maple Crest Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

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A shabby, chaotic, ugly mess that’s full of "sewers for cars" – French daily Libération certainly didn’t pull its punches when roasting the city of Brussels recently. According to correspondent Jean Quatremer, the Belgian capital resembles Athens, with "the same urban chaos, the same scars left by delirious real estate speculation, the same uneven sidewalks, the same dirt…the same car madness." Before fans of Greece’s largest city bridle, Libération actually thinks crisis-hit Athens beats Brussels on some counts. It noted that "the Greek capital has managed to avoid the highways that rip through Brussels, as if it had the size of New York or Los Angeles when it barely has a million inhabitants."

As you might expect, the Belgian media resents the suggestion that the capital of the EU is really just Europe’s capital of ugly. Belgian French language daily La Dernière Heure hit back with an editorial with the simple headline, "Get lost, you little bastard." Elsewhere (and in rather calmer terms), journalists for the paper have pointed out that if you choose to focus on the negative, any city can be portrayed as a dump – even Paris. According to La Dernière Heure, France’s capital can come across as the "poubelle ville du monde", or the world’s trashcan city. It too has fender-to-fender traffic, cars climbing sidewalks (which are narrower still than in Brussels) and ubiquitous litter. Entries to the city center like Porte de la Chapelle are a multi-lane mess, while even posher areas can be chaotic. Fashion hub Faubourg St Honoré is cramped and blocked by construction sites, and elegant Place Vendôme (where yet more construction is also underway) aspires to chic but only manages bling.


Paris at its worst: A man stands on one of the city's ubiquitous trash cans, via Reuters (top);Port de las Chapelle. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (Bottom right); A sanitation worker sweeps copies of the French daily newspaper 'France Soir' which are scattered on the street after a union job protest action, via Reuters.

This little spat has seen some pretty overheated rhetoric on both sides. It’s certainly true, nonetheless, that the trip through Brussels that Quatremer asks readers to imagine – from shabby, faceless Brussels South Station along central highways to its bland, eviscerated EU quarter – brings out the city’s worst.

Many of Brussels' problems will be familiar to American urbanites. During the latter 20th century, highways and ugly development encroached on its historic core, planning favored cars over buses and bikes, and the center lost much of its population to dormitory suburbs. Other Brussels issues are specifically local: its municipal boundaries and many communes seem arbitrary, bizarre even. Made more complicated by the city’s intricate linguistic politics, repairs and public works initiatives are often slow and disjointed.

Brussels at its worst: The "faceless" South Station, via Wikimedia Commons (top); The EU Quarter via Reuters (bottom left); one of the city's many highways, via Shchipkova Elena/Shutterstock.com

Still, if you don’t mind things a little ramshackle, the city can be a joy. A different experience altogether from exploring immaculate Paris, walking Brussels streets offers a never uniform mix of pleasure, surprise and anticlimax, as building heights seesaw and architectural periods mingle. No grand metropolis, it’s still easy, varied and often charming. Certainly, while it has some of Europe’s most beautiful architecture, Brussels can also be ugly – but then a wry appreciation that Belgium isn’t always the prettiest runs through the country’s culture, as testified to by this Jacques Brel classic about Flanders’ bleak beauty, or the cult Tumblr Ugly Belgian Houses.

So why was Libération so harsh? As is often the case, there’s a political backstory. Following tax hikes for the French wealthy after a socialist victory in France’s elections last year, Belgium has gained a few high profile tax exiles. The sight of the super-rich complaining that taxes are bleeding them dry is never edifying, and Belgium has caught some of the flak aimed at the defectors. Take your hoarded cash if you want, Libération seems to be saying, but beware that sometimes the grass on the other side of the fence is actually browner.

Top illustration by Mark Byrnes

There are a lot of numbers used to tell the story of Greece's economic crisis. The country's unemployment rate hovers around 25 percent; a whopping 58.3 percent of the country's 15- to 24-year-olds are without a job. The homeless population has doubled since 2009, growing from 11,000 to more than 20,000 now. Greece’s economy contracted for a 19th straight quarter, its GDP has fallen 5.6 percent from a year ago.

Lost sometimes in the hard data are the individual stories -- tales of workers with years of experience and no options, left to live on the streets or in abandoned buildings when their savings run out.

Below, via Reuters, stories and portraits of suffering:

Michael, 36-year-old and unemployed, poses by an abandoned open-air cinema in central Athens February 8, 2013. Michael worked as a hotel clerk for over fifteen years but when the hotel closed he was unable to find work and in late 2011 became homeless. Two months later he was diagnosed with lymph node and thyroid cancer. He now lives outside a church. Picture taken February 8, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Andy, a 53-year-old unemployed German immigrant from Dusseldorf, sits by his makeshift home at a deserted harbour storage building in the port of Piraeus, near Athens April 13, 2013. Andy worked in Greece for many years became homeless after he lost his job six years ago. Picture taken April 13, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Giorgos, 50, sits with his belongings under a bridge, where he lives with a group of other homeless people, in central Athens May 25, 2013. Giorgos was forced to close down the billiard hall he owned in 2006, and spent time in prison for not paying his social security debts. Picture taken May 25, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Yiorgos, a 40-year-old who became homeless in 2010 after his grocery shop went out of business, sleeps outdoors in central Athens February 3, 2013. Picture taken February 3, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Yannis, a 53-year-old unemployed chef, sits with his head in his hands in front of a graffiti mural in central Athens January 28, 2013. Yannis was a chef for over 19 years, until he lost his job in 2010 and a year later became homeless. Picture taken January 28, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

A man waits to receive food outside Klimaka, a charity that works with the homeless, in Athens February 27, 2013. Picture taken February 27, 2013.(Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

People line up to receive food outside Klimaka, a charity that works with the homeless, in Athens February 27, 2013. Picture taken February 27, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Boris Potev, a 56-year-old Bulgarian immigrant, lies on a mattress amid garbage in an Athens suburb April 9, 2013. Picture taken April 9, 2013.(Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Costas, 63, and Rodoula (L), 28, who have been unemployed for over five years, watch television in an abandoned building in central Athens April 17, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Tareq, a 46-year-old unemployed painter, sits in the shed where he lives at an abandoned factory in central Athens May 30, 2013. Tareq, a Syrian refugee, who lived in Greece during the 1990s, returned to Syria, but fled back to Greece in 2012, to escape the violence there. Picture taken May 30, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Alexandros, a 42-year-old from Serres in northern Greece, sits in the abandoned car he lives in, at the port of Piareus near Athens April 10, 2013. Alexandros owned a plant shop in Athens until 2010, when it was forced to close, he became homeless soon after. Picture taken April 10, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Homeless immigrants from Syria and north Africa sit near their home in the central train station, Athens May 2, 2013. Picture taken May 2, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

A million times (Time Dubai) by Humans since 1982 from Humans since 1982 on Vimeo.

A Million Times by the Stockholm based studio Humans Since 1982 beautifully mixes the analog and the digital.  The piece begins with the simple analog clock as its starting point.  288 clocks are arranged on the wall, their hands spinning to run through hypnotic patterns and display the time digitally.   Each of the 288 clocks’ two hands  run independently, powered by 576 individual motors.  The entire installation is connected to custom made software and operated from an iPad.  Watch the dials spin in the video after the jump.

Two college student designers (Luke Greenway and Laura D’Asaro), 27 volunteers, seven hours of work, five attempts, and 2,131 books mixed together at the Seattle Public Library to create the longest book domino chain in the world. The library used the new world record to celebrate and promote their 2013 Summer Reading Program.

There are many, many more chain reactions, world records, and books in the archives, including this stop motion fun: The Joy of Books.

via Daily of the Day.

Given his ever-growing posthumous popularity, fueled by material newly discovered, released, and re-released, we might call Arthur Russell the 2Pac of experimental disco cello.  During his short life, he managed to collaborate with the likes of Philip Glass, Nicky Siano, Walter Gibbons, and even David Byrne. A little-heard version of the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” featuring Russell’s cello has recently resurfaced (above), to the delight of both Heads fans intrigued to hear one more slant on a favorite song and listeners newly intrigued by Russell looking to hear how his sound interfaced with the innovative pop music of his day.

In the clip just above, you can hear Byrne discuss the collaborative development of “Psycho Killer” (albeit well before the recording of this B-side with Russell) at a Q&A session on his How Music Works book tour. Unbelievably, the song first emerged as a ballad. “I can see the song as being softer,” he says. “I’m making it aggressive-sounding and thought, ‘That’s like saying the same thing twice.’ Which the singer of the song says you shouldn’t do. I thought it would be creepier, actually scarier, if you downplay it. But, you know, we had a rock band at the time; we got together, started playing it, and that’s not how it came out. Audiences liked the big chorus everyone could sing along with.” I imagine they also would’ve liked the big string instrument Russell would have brought up on stage, had he ever had the chance to join the Heads for a live performance.

via TwentyFourBit

Related Content:

The Talking Heads Play CBGB, the New York Club that Shaped Their Sound (1975)

How David Byrne and Brian Eno Make Music Together: A Short Documentary

David Byrne Gives Us the Lowdown on How Music Works (with Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin)

David Byrne: How Architecture Helped Music Evolve

Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on literature, film, cities, Asia, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.

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From left: Hillary Jenkins, Acorn, Amanda Hugnkiss and The Red Wizard prepare for Thursday's
Pedalpalooza kickoff ride and discuss the best rides of the month to come.

Once a year in a city park, Dropouts meet mountain climbers and cargo haulers meet tall bikers. For Portland bike lovers, the Pedalpalooza Kickoff Parade is the gathering of the tribes.

It's also the first time most people start thinking about which rides they're going to check out over the next three weeks. As the energy built in Holladay Park before Thursday's kickoff ride, I asked some of the throng of riders present to share a secret: which Pedalpalooza ride were they looking forward to that not enough other people know about yet?

Here's what I heard.

James Fischer (right): the Power-Pop Ride. "It's not Top 40 music -- it's like 60s garage, shoegaze, Belle and Sebastian-y stuff."

Luna and Ashley: The Dropout Prom, featuring fancy clothes and a late-night riverside party with photographers and music.

T.J. Tryke: the Heavy Hill Climb. "It's the only ride that's a challenge."

Esther Harlow: Puppypalooza. "The dog's name is Norm, who's leading the ride." Aaron Kaffen: The TMBG Ride.

Greg O'Hearne: The Columbia Gorge Ride.

Andy Schmidt: The Teddy Bear Tag-Along 4 Toddlers on Tabor, featuring clowns on tallbikes and balloons. "I have kids."

Diego Huber: "The Best Summer ride [from 2012] is pretty good. Last year I woke up under a tree with a smile still on my face. I imagine it must have been a good time."

Allison Quick and Justin Brauner: The Knott Street Sprints.

Andrew Haddock: The Hott Socks Ride. "Last year it went to a sock store, and there were two different sock manufacturers and sock games and prizes. It was amazing."

Shawna Cunningham: Cunningham said she'd been permanently sold on Pedalpalooza after seeing The Ginger Ride in action, including the creative ways people attempt to go redhead for a day. "Last year there was somebody with a big crown of orange balloons."

Alex Kunz: The Portlandia Ride. "Mocking them mocking us — it'll be interesting."

Alex Agnes: The World Naked Bike Ride. "People who are from Portland know about it, but people who are from the suburbs don't," Agnes said, even committed bicyclists. "I'm like, what? How do you not know about that?"

Brian Scrivner: the Urban Farm Tour. "I had the most fun at the farm- and animal-related rides last year."

Dingo: Twitch's Birthday, which starts in the Smith and Bybee Lakes restroom. "Twitch put his birthday on the calendar and he said, 'What's the most remote ridiculous place it can start? How about a bathroom?' Not only was he having a conversation with himself but he was agreeing with himself."

Josh Force, kneeling: The Morrissey vs. Bowie vs. Prince Ride. "Everybody in the city should be on that one." Robert Getch, in sunglasses: the Never Nude Ride. Becca Priddy, right: the Sexy Hippie Zombie Nightlight Ride.

Viola, right: Run-D.M.C. vs. The Beastie Boys. "I'm all about the old-school funk. I'm teaching all day tomorrow, but how can I not?"

Daniel Ronan: The UGB Ride. "I went on it last year and it was quite the urban planning hoot."

Max Hinz: "I'm not interested in much beyond Zoobomb."

Patrick McNearney and Grant Breitmeier: Darcelle's Parade (from 2012). "I hope she does it this year," said McNearney, left. "It's worth its weight in gay gold."

Lane Jensen: the kickoff ride itself. "This is my first one ever. I just got the bike last night." Jensen, who blogs about TriMet at PortlandTransitLane.wordpress.com, said he'd already biked about seven miles Thursday and discovered that bike-friendly parts of Portland are in fact a joy to ride through.

Meghan Sinnott: "Whatever Alleycat the new girl, Laura, is leading. The first month in town or something, she already had an Alleycat ride and it was killer."

Jon Takao, left: The Dead Baby Bikes Swinger Ride. "I've ridden Dead Baby in Seattle. One [custom bike] I remember is raked out four-foot forks with a chain, and whenever the chain went over any sort of bump it would slack and then it would tension back again."

Will Vanlue: "The custom cargo bike ride, "Lab to Lab," in honor of Tom LaBonty. And it's led by, like, a 13-year-old." Leah Vanlue: the Hott Socks Ride.

Daniel Silverman: the Deutsche Radfahrt. "One of my friends is doing a tour of Portland, in German, on Saturday morning. Last year it ended with fresh pretzels and beer. And there's lots of history of Germans in Portland."

Boomer the Cannon was a secondary mascot for the Columbus Blue Jackets next to Stinger who first appeared in November of 2010. An anthropomorphic gray cannon with wheels and a large white mustache, Boomer was not well received due to his phallic appearance.^[23]

Link (thanks, Bill!)

I love my XBox 360. I never get to play it but it represents a sort of hypothetical freedom to me. Someday I hope to enjoy a video game again.

The Xbox One, however, looks more like a console of despair. It has been designed mostly to make you frustrated, which is an interesting approach for an entertainment center.

The new Scenes From A Multiverse book, BUSINESS ANIMALS, is available for pre-order! Order before June 14th and you can choose to get your book signed and sketched and it will come with a free MYSTERY GIFT! You can also order a discount bundle with the first book and get ‘em both scribbled in at the same time. It is up to you!

This is my major release this year and I really, really hope it does well and that you guys enjoy it. If you love SFAM and want to support the strip, please consider pre-ordering a copy or three so I can keep doing this job and drawing comics for you. Thanks!

To a lot of non-developers, learning to code seems like an impossibly daunting task. However, thanks to a number of great resources that have recently been put online for free— teaching yourself to code has never been easier. I started learning to code earlier this year and can say from experience that learning enough to build your own prototype is not as hard as it seems. In fact, if you want to have a functioning prototype within two months without taking a day off work, it’s completely doable.

Below, I’ve outlined a simple path from knowing nothing about software development to having a working prototype in eight weekends that roughly mirrors the steps I took.

Introduce Yourself to the Web Stack (10 Minutes)

The presence of unfamiliar terminology makes any subject seem more confusing than it actually is. Yipit founder/CEO Vin Vacanti has a great overview of some of the key terms you’ll want to be familiar with in language you’ll understand.

Get an Introductory Grasp of Python and General Programming Techniques (1 Weekend)

• Learn Python the hard way: Despite the title, the straightforward format makes learning basic concepts really easy and most lessons take less than 10 minutes. However, I found that the format didn’t work as well for some of the more advanced topics, so I’d recommend stopping after lesson 42 and moving on.

• Google’s Python class: Read the notes and / or watch the videos and do all of the associated exercises until you get them right—without looking at the answers. Struggling through the exercises I kept getting wrong was the best learning experience. I would have learned far less had I just looked at the answers and tried to convince myself that I understood the concepts.

These two resources are somewhat substitutable and complementary. I recommend doing the first few lessons from both to see which you like better. Once you’ve finished one, skim through the other looking for concepts you aren’t fully comfortable with as a way to get some extra practice.

Get an Introductory Understanding of Django (1 Weekend)

• Work through the Django tutorial.

• Delete all your code.

• Work through the tutorial again, from scratch.

The first time I went through the tutorial I inevitably ended up just following the instructions step-by-step without really understanding what each step did since everything felt so new.

The second time through I wasn’t as focused on the newness of the concepts was better able to focus on understanding how all the parts work together.

Get a Deeper Understanding of Python/General Programming Concepts (2-4 Weekends)

• Udacity’s intro CS class: Udacity’s courses are generally 7 session classes (2-3 hours per session) that you can at your own pace. (I’m a huge fan of Udacity’s pedagogy and recommend the intermediate programming class or the web development class as follow-ups to this two-month curriculum.)

• Unit 1 of MIT’s intro CS course: Really well taught and surprisingly approachable.

Again, I would sample each and see which you like the best. I ended up doing both but that was probably overkill.

Practice Building Simple Web Applications (1 Weekend)

• Work through a few of the exercises in Django by example. These exercises don’t hold your hand quite as much as the Django tutorial but they still provide a fair bit of guidance so I found it to be a nice way to start taking the training wheels off.

Build Your Prototype (1 Weekend)

• Build a prototype in just one weekend? Yes, you’ll be embarrassed by what it looks like (I sure was) but that’s the whole point.

That’s it. Eight weekends (or less) and you’ve gone from zero to a functioning prototype. Not so daunting after all is it?

Author's Note: It goes without saying that there's a huge difference between the relatively cursory amount of knowledge needed to build a simple prototype (the focus of this post) and the depth of knowledge and experience needed to be a truly qualified software engineer. If you want to learn all that it takes to build modern web applications at scale, getting professional web development experience at a fast-growing startup like Yipit is a great next step. If you’re smart, hard-working, and passionate about creating amazing consumer web experiences drop us a line at jobs@yipit.com—we’re always looking for great people to join our team.

How I Taught Myself to Code in 8 Weeks | Yipit Django Blog

David Sinsky started at Yipit without any prior coding knowledge. Before long, he was a full developer contributing features directly into the code base.

Yipit collects local deals and online sales from thousands of sources and puts them in one place. Over 1 million people use Yipit to get a daily digest of the deals in their city and the online sales from the stores they follow.

Image remixed from ollyy (Shutterstock).

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niknak79:

Generation gap

The Home Office

“The Big Lebowski Kit”

Paris, France-based filmmaker and artist Alizée Lafon has made a creative series of illustrated hipster kits based on famous movies and television shows. Prints are available to purchase online via Curioos.

“Mad Men Kit”

“Moonrise Kingdom Kit”

“Pulp Fiction Kit”

“007 Kit”

“Les Amours Imaginaires Kit”

“A Single Man Kit”

images via Alizée Lafon

via Doctor Ojiplático, InspireFirst

New black-and-white photo app from my favorite iOS design firm, Pacific Helm.

I don’t have a lot to say about the app itself. Like Vesper, it’s nicely made and will please many buyers with its craftsmanship and design. But also like Vesper, it’s not the only app of its kind, it doesn’t have the most features, and it’s not the cheapest, so it’s probably not going to set the world on fire.

It does one thing well, and if you like that one thing and how they do it, it’ll be worth it to you. I like the photo effect, but I’m not really a photo-filters person, so I’ll neither use it much nor be qualified to speak much about how it compares to other filter apps.

But check out the website they made for it. Holy shit. (Watch the top for a bit.)

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Toothpaste For Dinner comic: i love that show band movie