Sue Roberts is a sculptor, who depicts contemporary people. I really like the ones she mad that show the false façades people put up, while hiding their painful or hidden emotions.
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| Needing |
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| The Nice Guy Next Door |
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| Insight |
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| The Pleaser |
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| Talons |
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| Letting Go |
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| Held Close To The Heart |
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| Within Reach |
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| Storm Within |
Animals give each other names!
For the data-loving dendrophiles, NYC Parks has mapped every streetside tree in the city
Brilliant song about a sociopath! Written in 2004 by the Mitguards. Pity the title is Born Without a Conscience because sociopaths are created, not born (unless they're psychopaths, but psychopaths too are almost always created, nature via nurture). Still, an excellent song and appropriate for many.
From Swarthmore University's History 41: The American Colonies, the amazing journal entries by Christopher Columbus about his voyage West, intending to arrive in India.
Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492)
and Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542)
The world's oldest known water was found in an ancient pool below Canada in 2016, and is at least 2 billion years old.
Back in 2013 scientists found water dating back about 1.5 billion years at the Kidd Mine in Ontario, but in 2016, deeper investigation revealed an even older source buried underground.
The initial discovery of the ancient liquid in 2013 came at a depth of around 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) in an underground tunnel in the mine. But the extreme depth of the mine – which at 3.1 kilometers (1.9 miles) is the deepest base metal mine in the world – gave researchers the opportunity to keep digging.
"[The 2013 find] really pushed back our understanding of how old flowing water could be and so it really drove us to explore further," geochemist Barbara Sherwood Lollar from the University of Toronto told Rebecca Morelle at the BBC back in 2016.
"And we took advantage of the fact that the mine is continuing to explore deeper and deeper into the earth."
In a phase 2 clinical trial, researchers found a one-hour inhalation session with 25% nitrous oxide gas improved depression symptoms for over two weeks
Oooh, a very cool car design history infographic webpage
Enamelling is a technique which is closely associated with goldsmithing and jewellery art, as well as with precious metalwork of all types. Derived from the Latin word "smaltum", the Old French word "esmail", and the Anglo-Norman French word "enamailler", enamelling emerged during the era of Aegean art as one of the first and most spectacular methods of making metal more colourful, without the need for precious or semi-precious stones. In this technique of decorative art, vitreous enamel (in the form of a powder or paste) is applied to a metal surface and then subjected to intense heat, which melts the enamel turning it into a brilliant glass-like substance which also gives the metal a hard, long-lasting surface. By varying the ingredients, this glass-like coating can be made semi-transparent or opaque, while its colour is regulated by adding various metal oxides such as iron, cobalt, praseodymium and others. Enamelling is related to other types of art - especially mosaics and ceramics, as well as painting; moreover, in its reliance on metallurgy, it has affinities with glass production - see, Stained Glass Art: Materials & Methods - one reason why it flourished during the era of Romanesque architecture when the demand for stained glass soared. Modern enamelling is exemplified above all by the exquisite Fabergé Easter eggs supplied to the Romanovs in St Petersburg. Enamel has been used to embellish a wide range of metal items, including: weapons and equestrian trappings; domestic items like mirrors and vases, ecclesiastical objects, including reliquaries, altar-screens, caskets, chalices and crosiers; drawing room items, such as decorative items, snuffboxes, bottles, candlesticks, etuis and thimbles.
Welcome to the Order. Welcome to Your Mortality.
The Order is about making death a part of your life. Staring down your death fears—whether it be your own death, the death of those you love, the pain of dying, the afterlife (or lack thereof), grief, corpses, bodily decomposition, or all of the above. Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety of modern culture is not.
An awesome story
Linda Zall is disclosing how she toiled anonymously within the intelligence agency to help scientists intensify their studies of a changing planet.
Milena Marić Einstein and husband, 1912. Credit: ETH Zurich Archives (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Know their names, black people killed by the police in the US
Sublime bluegrass
Out of nearly 3 million Michiganders who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, only 246 have contracted COVID-19 and three people have died from the virus, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the MDHHS, those people tested positive 14 or more days after the last dose of their vaccine. Between Jan. 1 and March 31, 117 of the 246 had hospitalization data entered and 11 were hospitalized.
The MDHHS said the three people who died were all 65 years or older, and two of the three were within three weeks of completing their vaccine.
The link between COVID and smell and taste disturbance became apparent in March 2020 as the pandemic swept around the globe. To date, nearly 100 million people have been infected with coronavirus. Around 60% will have experienced smell and taste disturbance – with 10% having persistent symptoms. This means that about 6 million people – and rising – have this symptom. So what can be done about it?...
We agreed that the best treatment is smell training and that vitamin A drops may also be a treatment option to consider. ...
Lemon and orange rind, nutmeg, clove, mint, eucalyptus, ground coffee, coconut and vanilla are all common items that can be used. A good guide to the technique can be found on the charity website Fifth Sense...
More recent studies have suggested that the four smells used for training should be changed every 12 weeks. The results of this new approach show that greater recovery of smell function can be achieved. Further research also shows that the longer the training continues for, in terms of number of weeks, the better. So keep going as it’s not an instant result.
Yikes. Funny scary awful images of not safe conditions on the Boston Home Inspectors Instagram page.
This new season of black mirror is wild: This woman from Myanmar was recording her aerobics class. Unbeknownst to her, she records the military Junta arriving to the parliament for a coup d'etat in the background
Gossamer muslin, made in India and Bangladesh
The original muslin from Bengal, in eastern India for clothing, quilts and sheets was not made of the cotton that grows on bushes but from a distinct type of cotton that grows on trees. A much softer cotton. So gossamer it's like spinning spider's web silk. The stuff of fairies.
It is usually handwoven into fabric that is sheer, super light weight.
The Indian name for this tree cotton is "phuti karpas", pronounced footee karpass. The Latin name is Gossypium arboreum.
There is more heavyweight muslin out of regular shrub cotton used for all kinds of things too, like bags or ordinary sheeting fabric. This post is about the very fine muslin, made of "tree cotton", handwoven in Bengal India.
In Kalna, West Bengal, we visited Rajib Debnath. He and his father Jyotish are reviving the art of muslin jamdani weaving.
The raw cotton is spun by hand into a thread finer than a hair from my head (see below). The cotton is handpicked in Kerala and Maharashtra and then spun by women with very good eyesight.
Jamdani is a fine muslin cloth on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white.
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| Different types of cotton plants |
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| How tree cotton looks, Gossypium arboreum |
“What’s muslin?”
Muslin, he said, was the name of a legendary cloth made of cotton, fit for emperors, which used to be made way back in the past. Muslin from Dacca had been the finest, he said, from where it used to be shipped to the far corners of the world.
THE WORD “MUSLIN” is popularly believed to derive from Marco Polo’s description of the cotton trade in Mosul, Iraq. (The Bengali term is mul mul.) A more modern view is that of fashion historian Susan Greene, who wrote that the name arose in the 18th century from mousse, the French word for “foam.”
Muslin today has come to mean almost any lightweight, gauzy, mostly inexpensive, machine-milled cotton cloth. The word has lost all connection to the handwoven fabric that once came exclusively from Bengal.
The cliché in India and Bangladesh is that 6 yards of fabric is so fine, it can pass through a finger ring
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Durga Puja Off White Behula Dhakai jamdani Saree Soft Finish Women Formal Sari from West Bengal hand Weaving 603 |
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How fine muslin can pass through a finger ring. Its revival has improved livelihoods of many spinners and weavers (Photo by Gurvinder Singh)Reviving Muslin
Rajasthan, India is famous for its super soft muslin sheets and lightweight quilts, called razai. These quilts are lightly filled with cotton or kapok. Fairy soft, lightweight sheets are made of muslin, often called mul mul in India. |
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| The Killian Kurta at Lucknowi Arts on Etsy |
