via Buttersafe
my green jumper
myspace/mygreenjumper // facebook/mygreenjumper // flickr/mygreenjumper // email
Show me the power that man cannot harness
To turn towards malice or work into woe
Be it the stars or the moon or the planets
Or the tide of the ocean in ever encircling flow
Or everything under the ever encircling sun.
Alasdair Roberts - Riddle Me This
Show me the power that man cannot harness
To turn towards malice or work into woe
Be it the stars or the moon or the planets
Or the tide of the ocean in ever encircling flow
Or everything under the ever encircling sun.
Alasdair Roberts - Riddle Me This
Jul 04
Jul 02
Lyssomanes viridis - Magnolia Green Jumper
Image: Copyright © 2008 Scott Justis
Classification
- Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
- Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
- Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
- Order Araneae (Spiders)
- Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)
- No Taxon (Entelegynes)
- Family Salticidae (Jumping Spiders)
- Subfamily Lyssomaninae
- Genus Lyssomanes (Translucent Green Jumpers)
- Species viridis (Magnolia Green Jumper)
Size
Female length: 7-8mm, male length: 5-6mm (1)
Identification
Legs and body pale translucent green. Red and white scales on top of head around eyes. Males have noticeably long jaws.
Range
North Carolina to Florida, west to Texas. (1). BugGuide also has several images from Virginia.
Habitat
In woodlands, on large leaves such as those of Magnolias.(2) Also found in low bushes. (1)
Jun 26
“The Frightful Musicians,” 1891. Holland Cotter writes:
The Belgian painter James Ensor, who has a survey of hilarious, gruesome beauty at the Museum of Modern Art, is a puzzle to fans and strangers alike, a classic insider-outsider.
The Belgian painter James Ensor, who has a survey of hilarious, gruesome beauty at the Museum of Modern Art, is a puzzle to fans and strangers alike, a classic insider-outsider.
Photo: Courtesy Patrick Derom Gallery, Brussels, 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Sabam Brussels
via NYT
Jun 04
May 03
» The Wordsmith
The Sun interview Alasdair Roberts? Surely not…‽
Apr 23
My latest knitted effort! Took a while to put the pictures up but here it is / was. Photos at my flickr.
Apr 22
So bilious and saturnine, all in the noontime early.
Alasdair Roberts - So Bored Was I (Dark Triad)
Enthralled was I, so enthralled was I
as I walked the woods and the mountains high.
As I walked the woods and the mountains high
all in the mornin’ early.
Then coming from an urn nearby
I heard the sound of a baby cry.
And I paused a while and I gazed inside
the cry was mine, the babe was I.
I was bilious I was saturnine
as I walked from shrine to wayside shrine.
So bilious and saturnine
all in the noontime early.
Then coming from an old mash tun
I heard the sound of a young man come.
And I paused a while and I gazed inside
The come was mine, the man was I.
So bored was I so bored was I
I stifled yawns, I swallowed sighs.
As I strode mid tombs and sarcophagi
all in the evening gloomy.
Then coming from a broken throne
I heard the sound of an old man moan.
I paused a while and I gazed upon
The man was me the groan my own.
Then they moaned and came and cried
and raised their voices in Dark Triad
Saying the music of our tethered sphere
is only silence failing.
It’s mere distraction, mere veneer
while we wait the great unveiling.
Oh yes the music of our tethered sphere
is only silence failing.
Mere distraction, mere veneer
while we wait the great unveiling.
Dark Triad, Dark Triad, Dark Triad.
SPOILS; out May 4th
Apr 13
» Matthias Rath - steal this chapter
Reblogged from Ben Goldacre’s blog Bad Science
“This is the “missing chapter” about vitamin pill salesman Matthias Rath. Sadly I was unable to write about him at the time that book was initially published, as he was suing my ass in the High Court. The chapter is now available in the new paperback edition, and I’ve posted it here for free so that nobody loses out.
Although the publishers make a slightly melodramatic fuss about this in the promo material, it is a very serious story about the dangers of pseudoscience, as I hope you’ll see, and it was also a pretty unpleasant episode, not just for me, but also for the many other people he’s tried to sue, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and more. If you’re ever looking for a warning sign that you’re on the wrong side of an argument, suing Medecins Sans Frontieres is probably a pretty good clue.
Anyway, here it is, please steal it, print it, repost it, whatever, it’s free under a Creative Commons license, details at the end. If you prefer it is available as a PDF here, or as a word document here. Happy Easter!”
Apr 08
Elasmotherium (wiki)
“There is nearby a wide steppe, and there dwells, it is told, an animal smaller than a camel, but taller than a bull. Its head is the head of a ram, and its tail is a bull’s tail. Its body is that of a mule and its hooves are like those of a bull. In the middle of its head it has a horn, thick and round, and as the horn goes higher, it narrows (to an end), until it is like a spearhead. Some of these horns grow to three or five ells, depending on the size of the animal. It thrives on the leaves of trees, which are excellent greenery. Whenever it sees a rider, it approaches and if the rider has a fast horse, the horse tries to escape by running fast, and if the beast overtakes them, it picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn, and tosses him in the air, and meets him with the point of the horn, and continues doing so until the rider dies. But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner.
The locals seek it in the steppe and in the forest until they can kill it. It is done so: they climb the tall trees between which the animal passes. It requires several bowmen with poisoned arrows; and when the beast is in between them, they shoot and wound it unto its death. And indeed I have seen three big bowls shaped like Yemen seashells, that the king has, and he told me that they are made out of that animal’s horn.”
Ibn Fadlan, medieval traveller
“There is nearby a wide steppe, and there dwells, it is told, an animal smaller than a camel, but taller than a bull. Its head is the head of a ram, and its tail is a bull’s tail. Its body is that of a mule and its hooves are like those of a bull. In the middle of its head it has a horn, thick and round, and as the horn goes higher, it narrows (to an end), until it is like a spearhead. Some of these horns grow to three or five ells, depending on the size of the animal. It thrives on the leaves of trees, which are excellent greenery. Whenever it sees a rider, it approaches and if the rider has a fast horse, the horse tries to escape by running fast, and if the beast overtakes them, it picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn, and tosses him in the air, and meets him with the point of the horn, and continues doing so until the rider dies. But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner.
The locals seek it in the steppe and in the forest until they can kill it. It is done so: they climb the tall trees between which the animal passes. It requires several bowmen with poisoned arrows; and when the beast is in between them, they shoot and wound it unto its death. And indeed I have seen three big bowls shaped like Yemen seashells, that the king has, and he told me that they are made out of that animal’s horn.”
Ibn Fadlan, medieval traveller
Mar 14
