Crocodile Tears

nprfreshair: Charles Glass, author of The Deserters, tells Dave...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:51:26 -0400

Charles Glass, author of The Deserters, tells Dave Davies about the Parisian black market run largely by deserters during WWII:

The Paris press was writing about it a lot at the time — that [there] was ‘Chicago-style vandalism and gangsterism’ in the streets of Paris, and the American military had to do something about it. There were shootouts between the Paris police and the American and British MPs on one side and the deserters on the other side. They would rob banks, they would rob cafes, they would stop people on the street and steal women’s jewelry, they were gangs of real, hardcore outlaws, and they were armed and trained.

Image of Paris in 1940 via the NEH

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:47:57 -0400

astronomy-to-zoology: Moth Sonar Jamming acoustic warfare A...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:07:38 -0400

astronomy-to-zoology:

Moth Sonar Jamming

acoustic warfare

A species of arctiid moth known as Bertholdia trigona has evolved a clever way to save itself from being eaten by bats. It has the ability to disrupt the bat’s echolocation. The moth accomplishes this by clicking its tymbal at an extremely fast rate (4,500+ clicks per second). These clicks disrupt the bat’s echolocation and cause it to miss when it goes in for the kill. The exact biological mechanism that causes the bat to miss is still unclear, but it is thought that the clicks disrupts the bat’s neural processing of when the echoes return. All of this happens in a couple of seconds and the moth has to click at the exact moment when the bat ramps up its echolocation, signalling it is going to strike. It is a very fast and amazing process.

Other tiger moths use clicks as-well but these clicks are a from of warning, telling the bat that the moth is toxic.

Read more about B.trigona

Read about echolocation jamming in other animals

Image Source(s)

美丽的稻穗 - 杨弦

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 01:14:00 -0400

美丽的稻穗 - 杨弦

ayjay: Three-dimensional typography by Oded Ezer

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:53:56 -0400

ayjay:

Three-dimensional typography by Oded Ezer

foxmouth: The Halted Traveller, 2012 “The term ‘halted...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:07:11 -0400

foxmouth:

The Halted Traveller, 2012

“The term ‘halted traveller’ is usually associated with German romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich, to describe a person seen from behind facing a landscape. The lonely wanderer appears to have been halted by the view of the landscape.

This implies to us as a viewer that there is perhaps more to the landscape than we see. One can also identify with the figure. His posture invites you to imagine what he feels facing this landscape in front of his and your eyes.”

by Damien Rayuela

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Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:47:19 -0400

pardonmynorwegian: Yes, it’s true. Norway is getting its own...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:28:00 -0400

pardonmynorwegian:

Yes, it’s true. Norway is getting its own show about … knitting!

The show, title Strikking minutt for minutt (Knitting minute by minute) is still in the works, but could be on air this winter. If you remember, this is the same country that had live documentaries about its famous boat ride, Hurtigruten (the world’s longest live documentary) and also firewood, both which were hits.

PHOTO: Aftenposten

"The emergence and success of antisemitism in the late 19th and 20th centuries cannot be understood..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:42:08 -0400

“The emergence and success of antisemitism in the late 19th and 20th centuries cannot be understood without recognition of the large part played by a centuries-long heritage of Christian doctrinal hostility to Jews. This ‘anti-Judaism’ was an inherent part of Christianity after Paul, and was virtually inevitable once Jews had rejected the essential Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. This conflict over beliefs led to the institutionalization within medieval European Christendom of the Jews as a protected, but oppressed minority. Doctrinally, Jews, cast in Christian theology as ‘Christ’s killers’, were to be held in a subordinate and wretched state in order to act as evidence of the consequences of their blindness toward the truth of Christ’s divinity, but this also meant that they were to be preserved, so that they could eventually act as witnesses, at the Second Coming, to that truth. As such, Jews were the sole minority faith tolerated within the confines of Western Christendom; and Jews also clearly played a central role, as the original Chosen People of the one God, to Christian understanding of the world.”

- Steven Beller, Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction (via lazersilberstein)

beatonna: erikkwakkel: Medieval smiley face This is a true...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:29:25 -0400

beatonna:

erikkwakkel:

Medieval smiley face

This is a true feel-good doodle, drawn by a medieval reader and found in the lower margin of a 13th-century page. The surprisingly modern-looking smiley face is wearing glasses and seems to float towards the text in a balloon, quite content. This little scene made my day.

Pic: Conches, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 7 (main text 13th century, doodle 14th or 15th century). More medieval doodles in this Tumblr.

You should all follow Erik Kwakkel’s tumblr, all of his amazing medieval posts have lovely annotations, a rare thing on tumblr where too often we see images with little context. Superb!

spellczyker: Edoardo Ballerini

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:28:22 -0400

spellczyker:

Edoardo Ballerini

astronomy-to-zoology: Rosy Woodlouse (Androniscus...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:01:06 -0400

astronomy-to-zoology:

Rosy Woodlouse (Androniscus dentiger)

Also known as the pink woodlouse, the rosy woodlouse is a species of isopod native to England, Europe and Northern Africa. Like other woodlice the rosy woodlouse has a wide range of habitats and can be found in gardens, quarries, caves and areas with lime deposits. South of the British Isles rosy woodlice become more troglobitic (cave dwelling) and are widely distributed through several different cave systems.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Arthropoda-Crustacea-Malacostraca-Isopoda-Trichoniscidae-Androniscus-dentiger

Image Source(s)

astronomy-to-zoology: White-spotted Porostome (Doriopsilla...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:22:21 -0400

astronomy-to-zoology:

White-spotted Porostome (Doriopsilla albopunctata)

… a species of dorid nudibranch found on the western seaboard of North America, ranging from California to Mexico. Like other nudibranch species the white-spotted porostome feeds almost exclusively on sponges, which it scrapes up with its radula.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Mollusca-Gastropoda-Doridacea-Phyllidioidea-Dendrodorididae-Doriopsilla-albopunctata

Image Source(s)

theatlantic: In Focus: More Flooding in Central Europe The...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:11:06 -0400

theatlantic:

In Focus: More Flooding in Central Europe

The historic flooding throughout central Europe continues, as the Elbe River has broken through several dikes in northern Germany, and the crest of the swollen Danube River has reached southern Hungary, and threatens Serbia. Parts of Austria and the Czech Republic are now in recovery mode, as thousands of residents return home to recover what they can. Gathered here are images from the past several days of those affected by these continuing floods. See earlier entry: Flooding Across Central Europe.

See more. [Images: Getty, Reuters, AP]

euphorbic: cock-speed: sexykangaya: WHAT THE FUCK I think...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:52:00 -0400

euphorbic:

cock-speed:

sexykangaya:

WHAT THE FUCK

I think this is the commercial I’ve always wanted

Agreed.

Ghosts of the Rio Grande

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:46:26 -0400

Ghosts of the Rio Grande:

longform:

On the hundreds of corpses that go unindentified every year along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Brendan Borrell | The American Prospect | Jun 2013

theparisreview: “David took a long sip of his drink. He wanted...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:44:34 -0400

theparisreview:

“David took a long sip of his drink. He wanted to close his eyes as the cool burn ran down the back of his throat, but he was afraid of appearing too satisfied in front of Agnes while they were fighting. Instead he stole a glance at her. Her eyes were focused on the table. Her face had hardened. She looked exactly like her mother, he thought hatefully: a deadly, beautiful queen, the skin stretched smooth and thin and cold-looking over her forehead, the blue eyes unapproachably clear and deep, the fine, thin-boned jaw set precisely, the spine erect, the shoulders thrown back. Then her eyes flashed at him under the bright fluorescent lights, and he felt his stomach churn with fear.

“‘I wonder if I’ve ever seen you uglier,’ she said quietly.”

—Todd Dorman, from “The Flannigans”
Art Credit Drew Young

Photo

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:41:22 -0400

reallyreallyreallytrying: Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. give a fish a man and you...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:08:10 -0400

reallyreallyreallytrying:

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. give a fish a man and you appease the Fish-lord who has terrorized coastal communities.But at what cost? the people will not be happy that one of their own has been given to a fish

Photo

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:14:18 -0400