Russian Sledges

Illinois is the possibly the last place one might think to find a full-sized viking sailing ship, but thanks to a relic from the 1893 world's fair Nordic history is still alive in one of the state's public parks.

Built to resemble a viking ship known as the Gokstad, the unimaginatively named Viking was the jewel of the World's Colombian Exhibition which took place in Chicago in 1893. The modern historical ship was constructed in Norway using traditional methods including using iron rivets to hold the ship together. The boat was 78 feet long from stem to stern and just 17 feet wide, just the like the sleek ships of the original viking invaders. The decorative dragon's head and tail were also added to either end of the vessel, bringing its fearsome profile to life. Once completed, the ship was actually sailed from its Scandinavian shipyard, to the Hudson River, connecting to the Great Lakes, and eventually Chicago.

The ship was a hit at the fair and after traveling down to New Orleans in a final voyage, the Viking was returned to Chicago, where it would remain to the present day. While the ship was beloved, funding to maintain a replica viking boat was hard to come by. Across the years local Scandinavian groups volunteered to maintain the boat in dry dock, but even their efforts struggled to maintain the wooden vessel. Eventually the Viking was moved to its permanent home in Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois.

The elaborate head and tale piece have been moved to a nearby museum, but the boat itself is now stored under a protective canopy for tour groups to visit. While preservation efforts still flag the Viking has been declared a historic site and will now likely survive for a whole new generation of pillagers to marvel at.         

Vera Wang, wedding dresser to the stars, has officially gone grunge.  Her fall 2014 collection is dark and full of wool tartan tailoring, tough-chic black leather, plaids, floral chiné, pj’s dressing, metallic lamés and chunky ribbed knits.

Me likey! Do you?

 

Photos: VOGUE

The post Vera Wang Fall 2014 appeared first on because im addicted.

The floating mountains of Yasuaki Onishi at Rice Gallery, Houston - Installation
In his installation, “Reverse Volume of RG” at Rice Gallery in Houston, Texas, Yasuaki Onishi uses the simplest materials: with plastic sheeting and glue, he creates a monumental work. Mountains seem to float in space.

The process he calls “the invisible casting” implies a sheet of plastic wrap on a cardboard structure which is then removed to leave its mark. This process is reversed sculpture in the heart of the work of Onishi and reflections that are focused on a vision of nature as a negative space, abandoned.

These plastic sheeting semi-translucent and misty, held by thin black glue flows, fueling a vision of a fragile nature, although it seems huge.

Justin Stone is a freelance writer and hospitality professional who has held court behind the bar at Tavern Road and currently keeps the party going at Drink.

K. Jonas Nordby cracked the “Jötunvillur code,” which is present on over 80 Norse inscriptions and has long baffled scholars. One of his finds was a 700-year-old stick in which two men, Sigurd and Lavrans, carved their names and wrote a brief message that read “Kiss me.”

empty-movement:

You know, back when the series was new, people used to deny and deny and deny that Akio and Touga were fucking. And I could never figure it out— what did they think this shot was of, anyway??? Is this like some alternate parchesei rules or something???

Redditor Boothin shared this shawl their wife made by tweaking one pattern and combining it with another. The end result was a beautiful and cozy garment that is also an accurate map of our sky as seen from the North Pole. By all means, join me in the Jealous Corner.

In the 19th century, Charles Joseph Hullmandel illustrated a glorious series of landscapes shaped as the letters of the English alphabet. You can see them all in the British Museum's online collection: The Landscape Alphabet (via Juxtapoz)

Nicely done, Shutterstock.

Now that the band is an icon for the struggle against human rights abuses in Putin's Russia, the two women said it will also act for the rights of prisoners in the United States. Tolokonnikova and Alekhina said they plan to visit prisons and meet with nonprofit organizations to learn about the issue of solitary confinement in the U.S.

"They found a lot of support from folks in the U.S., especially from Russia's diaspora community in Brooklyn, who called passionately for their release," Goswami said. "But they're also learning about the prison conditions in the U.S. and plan on doing some research here."

“We're very interested in the fact of how NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) in the U.S. work and collaborate with penitentiary institutions,” Alekhina said. “One of our main goals is to exchange experience.”

Pussy Riot inspired a new generation of activists around the world, Goswami said, adding that their supporters followed in the footsteps of those who helped Amnesty International obtain the release of some 44,000 prisoners since its international inception in 1961.

"Pussy Riot were street performers," he said. At the subway, on the streets, they would call on people to take their rights seriously. “There are street performers in the U.S. whom we pass every day, but we don't realize that they can help elevate human rights to the global conversation."

Goswami said he hopes that people leave the Wednesday event realizing that "when we act individually or collectively, it has an impact. Tens of thousands of people supported Pussy Riot, and now they're free."

Original Source

Restaurants that automatically serve you a glass of pristine municipal water when you haven't requested it are law-breaking hooligans, as it turns out.

welcometoohtori:

[Image: Mikage working on a computer.

Text: Your password must be at least 8 characters long & contain a capital letter, a number, and a hideous personal secret.]

Text originally from the Night Vale Twitter.

I’m always impressed how so many people associate Dungeness crab with San Francisco. It almost seems like a February pattern. It never happens when the crab season begins in the  fall, but at this time of year requests pour in for suggestions on where to get crab. Maybe people are so wrapped in the holidays and the aftermath, but once things settle down it’s as if people want to celebrate where they live.  This week I’ve already received three inquiries: one from Danville, another from visitors coming from Ohio, and a third from San Francisco.

One of the big surprises as I was dining at the Crab House at Pier 39, a part of the San Francisco Port restaurant series that’s been running since last year in the Food & Wine section, is how good the crab is. The place is all decked out in white tile and overlooks the bay; the crab comes on a sizzling skillet with a buttery garlic sauce  ($24.95/$38.95 for 2+ pounds) — and a bib, which is needed.

If you want  slightly more formal surroundings, and even better views, sister restaurant the Franciscan farther down Fisherman’s Wharf also serves the same style crab.

The go-to place for many people is Vietnamese Thanh Long. You can also get the crab at its newer sibling, Crustacean on Polk Street, where the same preparations are available:  roasted  in garlic sauce or drunken crab simmered in sake and wine ($50).

I’m always pleased with the steamed crab at R & G Lounge on Kearny, where the thing to order is the salt and pepper crab (price varies)

Another excellent preparation is at Hard Water, where the crab is flavored with olive oil, lemon and a dose of chiles ($18) and served with house-made buttermilk crackers that are far better than the standard oyster crackers. Does it go with the house specialty — bourbon? It doesn’t  matter because both are so good.

If you like crab served cold, one of the best places is at Bar Crudo ( $16 half; $28 whole). Then there’s Swan Oyster Depot where the cracked crab (price varies)  comes with bread and butter and either traditional cocktail sauce or mayonnaise. Or if you’re lazy, as I tend to be sometimes, you can get it already picked.

Speaking of picked, several of my favorite crab preparations are in salads.

I especially love the one at Piperade where the crab ($16) is enhanced with grapefruit, orange, basil and aioli. I also love the crab tower at Pesce, where the seafood is molded into a cylinder with avocado, diced tomatoes, cucumber and basil.

Another note: Just two weeks ago I had one of the best crabs of my life at Camino, where it was grilled in the fireplace by Russell Moore and his crew. It’s not always on the menu, but if it is, it’s worth a special trip.

Fil-Am Cuisine, the Daly City dive with a cult following and regular lines out the door during the lunch rush, has opened a second location.

This time around, the Filipino quick-service restaurant is hawking its signature bargain-priced barbecued skewers and rice plates to a new audience in South San Francisco. In addition to the Fil-Am staples, the same lumpia and pancit are available in South City, but there are also some additions to the concise menu, like tortang talon (an eggplant omelet) and chicken tocino.

The Examiner also reports that the new location is “slightly larger and much brighter” than the original (pictured above), which is basically a little shack off Mission.

Fil-Am Cuisine: 66 School St., near Mission, Daly City; (650) 992-6191. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Cash only.

Fil-Am Cuisine:  321 Grand Ave., near Linden, South San Francisco; (650) 871-5010. 9 a.m. – 9 pm daily. Cash only.

· Previously: Fil-Am Cuisine offers comfort food  [San Francisco Chronicle]

socimages:

Teachers offered personal loans to buy school supplies.

If you’re looking for just one image that says a thousand words about what’s wrong with America, here’s a contender.  It’s an email from a Nevada schools credit union inviting its teachers to go into debt to do their job.  So, that happens, apparently. 

A Vancouver baby has just become the first child in British Columbia with three parents listed on a birth certificate. Three-month-old Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards is the daughter of lesbian parents and their male friend. "It feels really just natural and easy, like any other family," said biological father Shawn Kangro. "It doesn't feel like anything is strange about it." B.C.'s new Family Law Act, which came into effect last year, allows for three or even more parents. Della's family is the first to go through the process, and they finalized the birth certificate registration last week. B.C., which is celebrating Family Day on Monday, is the first province in Canada with legislation to allow three parents on a birth certificate, although it's been achieved elsewhere through litigation.

Late last week, Tim Armstrong, the chief executive officer of AOL, landed himself in a media firestorm when he held a town hall with employees to explain why he was paring their retirement benefits. After initially blaming Obamacare for driving up the company’s health care costs, he pointed the finger at an unlikely target: babies.

Literally going to jail. Actual jail. Because they don't know what to do about my junk.

Celebrity mixologist Darryl Robinson was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment early Wednesday morning, police said. Officers entered Robinson’s Bed-Stuy apartment shortly around midnight after a concerned friend couldn’t reach him and then alerted police, law enforcement sources said. Robinson, 50, was found in a second-floor bedroom in his Greene Ave. home with no signs of trauma on his body, cops said.

The ACLU is representing Scott and Sharon Lane, the parents of a child known in the proceedings as "CC," in a case against the Sabine Parish, Louisiana School Board, where their child was ridiculed for his Buddhist faith, and was forced to endure Christian indoctrination, including forced prayer, in the class. They say that their son's sixth grade curriculum included exam questions like "ISN'T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (the correct answer was "LORD"). The school superintendent told them that they had no business being upset by this, because the school is in the Bible Belt, and he recommended sending the child to a school 25 miles away where there were "more Asians."

The ACLU is calling on supporters of the Lanes and CC to sign a petition to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for a "an immediate investigation into unlawful religious discrimination in Sabine Parish public schools."

To the right, the charming logo of Negreet High, whose school team is the "Negreet Indians."

Like any parents, we were deeply concerned when our son C.C. began getting sick to his stomach on the way to school each morning.

At first, we thought he had fallen ill. But we soon found out a far more disturbing truth—that our son, a Buddhist of Thai descent, was afraid to go to school because his teacher was chastising him in front of his peers for his Buddhist faith.

As we dug deeper, we discovered that our son’s sixth-grade curriculum at Negreet High included extreme religious indoctrination. The school itself was covered in religious icons. Christian prayer was incorporated into nearly every school event. And our son’s teacher routinely preached her biblical beliefs to students and tested the children on their piety with exam questions such as this one: "ISN'T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When our son failed to answer religious questions like this correctly (the answer was “LORD”), his teacher mocked him for his beliefs.

Religious Discrimination Has No Place in the Classroom (Thanks, Catherine!)

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

I am the worst person in the world for shareblocking the ArkBros, legitimate owners of this news

but

Via Bored Panda, photographs from Rocky Ridge Refuge in Arkansas, a facility that cares for abused and abandoned animals from some 60 domestic and wild species. [Facebook, website].

[ All images courtesy Rocky Ridge Refuge. HT: Meredith Yayanos].

Original Source

Masahiro Tanaka, the flamboyant Japanese pitcher the Yankees signed this off-season, put his newfound dollars to immediate use. The plane rental cost an estimated $200,000.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada's attorney general and governor said Monday that they won't defend the state's gay marriage ban when it goes before a federal appeals court, saying that a recent court decision makes the state's arguments supporting its constitutional amendment "no longer defensible."

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i have been piercing shells with hot needles so i may make augury of the cracks and oracle bones-so that we the faceless milleu of cl missed connections may know the will of our emperor in yellow and most importantly do not descend into the barbarism [...]

noodles shoveling

likeafieldmouse:

Magdalena Jetelova - Iceland (1992)

This is Dawn, one of the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary's 6 resident foxes that cannot be returned to the wild. The majority of animals we get in is injured wildlife that is aimed to be returned into the wild, however, Dawn was a young fox that was took into a dog rescue centre as the member of public that found her thought she was a dog! When they realised they bought her into us but it was too late, because she was too tame and this meant that she wouldn't be able to look after herself in the wild. Dawn is not a pet, and we do not recommend any fox or wild animal as a pet.