Rather cheesy dialogue, but still of some interest.
Via Mr Harris Tweed.
05 May 2011
04 May 2011
Caterpillar of The Baron
The 5th instar caterpillar is medium green, and the yellowish-white dorsal stripe loses the earlier purple-brown spots along the edge of the stripe. The branched spines appear almost like a bird's feather, with the secondary spines arranged neatly perpendicular to the main spine. It reaches a mature length of about 45mm before shortening and adopting its pre-pupation pose.Posted as a reminder that butterfly season is returning here in the upper midwest; expect to see more posts on this subject in the coming months.
No image is sacred on the 'net
41 years ago today
When should you visit a museum ?
The graphic at the site comes from data mined at Foursquare, rather than from the museum itself. What puzzles me is why museums and entertainment sites don't publish such material on their own; it seems it would be to their advantage to let the public smooth out the curve.
Traffic warden parks in handicapped space
"And then to see the wardens parked in a disabled bay at Tesco Greenfield just seemed so hypocritical. I know they have a pass to park in certain places when they are issuing tickets but they weren’t, the driver had nipped in to do some shopping."Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath.
Oreo-stuffed chocolate-chip cookies
Via 22 Words.
Not your neighborhood basement ping-pong
"International table tennis player Mattias Oversjo looked like he was going to lose the point in his match against Jörgen Persson. The Swede slammed a forehand and it looked as if he would go on to win the point, but Oversjo came back with an unbelievable no-look shot that flew by his opponent."Don't blink or you'll miss it.
Via Huffington Post.
Molecules with unusual names
It's one of an impressive number of molecules and compounds catalogued at Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names. Some will be familiar to those with a science background; most are quite obscure, including "arsole," "moronic acid," and "diurea." (Note that when you get to the bottom of the linked page, there are three additional pages, the last of which is replete with additional anecdotes and links to chemistry humor sites.
If the site interests you, you might also explore the Science Humor Netring.
Recommended by Miss C.
Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (2010)
I have previously posted about the paleolithic art in France's Chauvet Cave, and linked to two videos in which Herzog discusses the cave and the making of his new film. Now here's the trailer for Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Via Kottke.
Via Kottke.
02 May 2011
Yareta (Azorella compacta)
"occurring in the Puna grasslands of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, the north of Chile and the west of Argentina at between 3200 and 4500 metres altitude... Yareta is well-adapted to high insolation rates which are typical of the highlands, and cannot grow in shade... Many yaretas are over 3,000 years old."Kuriositas has about a dozen more photos, and some additional ones are here. Via Neatorama.
Photo credit: szeke.
Detroit Public Library criticised
The Detroit Public Library is under fire for spending $2.3 million to renovate a library wing while claiming financial pressure is so severe they may have to close most neighborhood branches.- I was willing to cut them some slack, because I love libraries, and even simple renovations can be quite expensive if asbestos etc. is present. But then I saw the next photo and the second paragraph...
Spending $1,092 apiece for European-designed lounge chairs and $500 each for decorative light fixtures has been criticized as frivolous spending and misplaced priorities.Via Librarianista (where I can't find the primary source link).
A bit hat tip to Zhoen, who found additional information at The Detroit News:
Library commissioners may soon take action. An investigation into the South Wing renovation found "inexplicable irregularities" in awarding contracts, and staffers could soon be disciplined, said Russ Bellant, a member of the Detroit Public Library Commission.More details at the link.
"It appears abuses took place regarding the South Wing construction," Bellant said. "Policies were ignored in the awarding of contracts."
He declined further comment. But a copy of the investigation obtained by The News shows the library granted a $125,600 contract to a Chicago architecture firm to manage and design the South Wing, even though the company's initial bid didn't include any prices.
A new edition of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
It is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents -- a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction -- a gloating study of the mental and physical corruption of a fresh, fair and golden youth, which might be fascinating but for its effeminate frivolity, its studied insincerity, its theatrical cynicism, its tawdry mysticism, its flippant philosophizings....As noted in a Salon column this week -
"Unclean," "corruption," "leprous," "putrefaction," and "French decadents" were of course all coded terms for "homosexuality" -- a word that would not enter the English language until two years later, and a concept that could not be openly discussed in a respectable newspaper of the time, nor mentioned in polite company; when "Dorian Gray" was revised for publication in book form a good portion of the material deemed unclean and leprous had to be removed...More at the link. There have been quite a few cinematic adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray; perhaps better, in my view, is the biographical movie Wilde, starring Stephen Fry.
Strangely, considering the cult status that "The Picture of Dorian Gray" would eventually attain, Wilde's original version has never been published until now, more than 120 years after the Lippincott edition. It has been made available by Harvard's Belknap Press in a richly annotated and illustrated volume edited by Nicholas Frankel...
Frankel has provided a wealth of supplemental material and visual matter, as well as a "Textual Introduction" and a series of notes that explain references and cultural context, help the reader understand the editing processes, and point out the passages that were singled out for deletion...
Whether the original text is actually "better" than the book version published in 1891 is a moot point. Some of Wilde's original material may have been lost in the latter (even the word "mistress" was deemed unsuitable for publication at that time, and the novel's heterosexual material was censored as ruthlessly as its homosexual innuendos). But much was gained, too, in the expanded version that Wilde prepared in 1891, with the brilliant Lord Henry being given some wonderful new material. This annotated version, though a treasure for scholars and for anyone with a serious interest in Wilde, the 1890s, and aestheticism, should serve as a supplement to the standard text rather than a replacement.
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