Black Penguin
King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance — but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a “one in a zillion kind of mutation,” biologists say that the animal has lost control of its pigmentation, an occurrence that is extremely rare. Other than the penguin’s monochromatic outfit, the animal appears to be perfectly healthy — and then some. “Look at the size of those legs,” said one scientist, “It’s an absolute monster.”
this unique 18-minute genre has its own requirements
From a Wired article on how to ace a TED Talk:
“I’m surprised to see that half the people here know my career in some detail and the other half don’t know who I am,” he says.
Science is fine, but not when it messes with our illusions.
If she had included solar power and African child warriors, it would have been so perfect a TED talk that there would have been no need for others.
Wolfram wraps his talk by saying that when it comes to trying to boil down the universe to a simple algorithm, “it’s almost embarrassing not to at least try.”
“Just because someone has an ego,” he says, citing a writer whose name I can’t read from my scribbled notes, “doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
The death of Jermyn Street
I had just settled in my easy chair when a key turned in the lock and a nattily-dressed man in his 60s let himself in. He held a bottle of Teachers’ scotch under his arm. He walked to the sideboard, took a glass, poured a shot, and while filling it with soda from the siphon, asked me, “Fancy a spot?”
“I’m afraid I don’t drink,” I said.
“Oh, my.”
This man sat on my sofa, lit a cigarette, and said, “I’m Henry.”
“Am I…in your room?”
“Oh, no, no, old boy! I’m only the owner. I dropped in to say hello.”
This was Henry Togna Sr. He appears in a Dickens novel I haven’t yet read. I’m sure of it. He appeared in my room almost every afternoon when I stayed at the Eyrie Mansion.
—Roger Ebert, “I met a character from Dickens,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 5, 2010
(Via @davidmoldawer)
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday, Simone.
Just like Liz Parker said
My grandmother watched CSPAN like it was a marathon of General Hospital. While she thumbed through the morning’s newspaper and Senate committees hocked in the background, we kids jumped in and out of the swimming pool and then raced each other down to the beach. On the off-chance that she’d manage to grab one of us for a cuddle, Grandma would point at her 6″ television screen and say, “See that man? Look, see that wide smile? That man is a Democrat.
“Now wait. See that scowler? Can y’see how unhappy that man is? That’ll happen to you if you become a Republican.”
I never doubted her, not even for a minute. And then I came across this research, coincidentally from my grandmother’s nephew.
from the department of typos
Have succeeded in building strong partnerships with beers…
Submitted to my manager as part of my annual performance review.
noah | networked organisms and habitats
An open-source citizen science project by three of my classmates.
I don’t have an iPhone, or even a data plan for the smartphone I do have, so I can’t submit critter spottings to Project Noah. All you people with your fancy iPhones can contribute, though, using Noah’s beta iPhone app; sign up on the site to be a tester.
Tavi & Joanna and Rei Kawakubo
(Joanna Newsom via Boner Party)
Comme des Garçons is headed up by Rei Kawakubo, who personally invited Tavi over to Japan and let her pick out six items. Tavi is 13, she writes a fashion blog and has always worshipped Kawakubo’s fashion sense.
Joanna Newsom is dating Andy Samburg, star of SNL. But she used to date Bill Callahan, who performs musically as Smog, as well as Noah Georgeson who produced her first record and also produced for Devendra Banhart. Georgeson says this: “From the autumn of 1999 until the spring of 2004 I lived in the first floor apartment in a Victorian house on Castro Street in San Francisco. At first, I lived alone in a room that was about the right size for an infant to feel comfortable, and that had, in fact, once been a nursery. After a while, I moved into the room down the hall from the nursery. It was bigger and I shared it with my girlfriend Joanna and her harp and all the collected materials of our lives. Among the waves of our life in this room, Joanna wrote most of the songs that ended up being her first album, and I wrote these songs.“ Joanna Newsom’s second cousin is Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco. Girlfriend plays the harp and writes 20 minute songs about mythical islands.
Both Ms. Newsom and Ms. Gevinson are in Comme des Garçons jackets.
Oh hell no, I have no idea what it means, this information rolls around in my head all day. But I thought it was interesting.
Dear Clusterflock – What revelation from your childhood changed everything?
I have two but will start with this. I must have been younger than 11 because of where I was living at the time and being so young girls were just, well, girls. Anyway, the younger brother of a friend one day laid at my feet the revelation that girls had more holes than guys! I remember looking at this boy and asking “What!” He then explained how other than the holes we pee and shit out of there was another one. I asked him where it was and he explained it was down there with the other two. I then asked him what it was for to which he answered “I have no idea.”
As far as I remember that was all that was said – I was confused and had no-one to ask for fear of being thought stupid. Jump forward a few years, I think I was about 12 – I was friendly with a girl at school who seemed a little more worldly wise than I – we were on a school trip, caving! We were several hundred feet below ground when I decided that I would run this theory past this girl – I have no idea why I hadn’t explored the notion further in the years before, probably too busy kicking a ball or poking things with a stick. Anyway, she answered to the affirmative, it was indeed true and did I want to touch it? Naturally I said yes to which she said it would cost me 50p! I obviously coughed up the money and slid my hand down there and all I could find to say was “It’s very wet and warm!”
Thank you, Marion.
the unhelpful phonetic alphabet
From The Ragbag
Daily Drop Cap
Daily Drop Cap. (Via Abigail Schilling)
Lady Gaga, pianist
I had no idea. (via Lex A)
All manner of saints to comfort and protect.
A discovery from my recent trip to Crete.
I thirst!
Life Beyond The Kitchen Sink.
I hope you’ll all indulge me with posting another photo quite so soon. At least it’s not old people eating ice cream or taken with a toy camera! I have a problem with shooting derelict interiors, with showing the scene that I saw. Sure, I have got close a few times but I have always felt that the mood was wrong, the balance of light and dark – I have struggled with this shot since July, but the other night the processing clicked and this was indeed what I saw.
Naked Baby Photos
What did y’all look like as babies? Here I was a month and change old. This was in a photo album belonging to my uncle which I am scanning for my mother.
Driftless: Stories from Iowa By Danny Wilcox Frazier
Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.
The tension of contemporary rural life plays out here: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, the slaughterhouse, migrant labor, and the aged fading from Iowa’s mythical landscape. Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever.
As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl across the globe, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities.
Not my words – for more, click the photo or click here and enjoy. I was lost in Bloody Iowa for a week!
Everything Must Change
Oleta Adams – Everything Must Change from Phil Bebbington on Vimeo.
Discovered after I followed Phil’s giant.
Office for Word and Image
I could lose myself here.
Recursion
PITETSBKRRH
For 80 years, a beacon atop the Grant Building in downtown Pittsburgh has flashed out the word “Pittsburgh” in Morse code. At least it was supposed to. No one knows for how long it’s been happening, but a sharp-eyed city resident waiting for a 4th of July fireworks show noticed the dots and dashes actually spell out P-I-T-E-T-S-B-K-R-R-H.
Contra Costa
Groove while you can
Hey, have you noticed that the GrooveShark music service doesn’t suck yet? I was astonished, myself. Don’t worry, though—they are being sued, of course; soon they’ll be driven out of business or legally required to suck, and all will be right with the world again. Until then, here’s some nice stuff I found there:
(Via @kristinhersh)
Read more
And that’s why I know that I can say
I’m lucky today.
Everything You Need to Know
Figurine. Calcite. Circa 10,000 BCE. (Mesolithic.) Found/acquired: Ain Sakhri. Small cave in the Wadi Khareitoun, south-east of Bethlehem in the Judean Desert.
A clustercommenter introduced me to this Mesolithic figurine, now held by the British Museum. I thought it might get buried in the great midden-heap of commentary, so I reckoned I’d bring it to the surface.
“Awesome and humbling,” says the commenter. I concur.