my green jumper

Navajo Code Talkers

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:51:21 +0100

“Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions and Marine parachute units, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native language — a code that the Japanese never broke.”

C IS FOR COOKIE!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:28:08 +0100

C IS FOR COOKIE!

via Buttersafe

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:38:36 +0100

via Buttersafe

Lyssomanes viridis - Magnolia Green Jumper Image: Copyright ©...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:17:59 +0100

Lyssomanes viridis - Magnolia Green Jumper

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)

“The Frightful Musicians,” 1891. Holland Cotter writes: The...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:31:43 +0100

“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.

Photo: Courtesy Patrick Derom Gallery, Brussels, 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Sabam Brussels

via NYT

garfieldminusgarfield: Original

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:04:13 +0100

garfieldminusgarfield:

Original

The Wordsmith

Sun, 03 May 2009 23:21:43 +0100

The Wordsmith:

The Sun interview Alasdair Roberts? Surely not…‽

My latest knitted effort! Took a while to put the pictures up...

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:07:32 +0100

My latest knitted effort! Took a while to put the pictures up but here it is / was. Photos at my flickr.

So bilious and saturnine, all in the noontime early.

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:24:05 +0100

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

Matthias Rath - steal this chapter

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:18:50 +0100

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!”

Elasmotherium (wiki)“There is nearby a wide steppe, and...

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:50:09 +0100

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

Thinkin’ Lincoln - #850 The Hellephant

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:37:50 +0000

Thinkin’ Lincoln - #850 The Hellephant

Peter: “Everybody pee so the brain-damaged horse...

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:25:26 +0000

Peter: “Everybody pee so the brain-damaged horse doesn’t feel bad.”

Omar listenin’! The Wire - Season 3, Episode 11...

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:12:25 +0000

Omar listenin’!

The Wire - Season 3, Episode 11 “Middle Ground”

Aaaaaahahahahahahaahahahahaaa! They’re both idiots!

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:49:46 +0000

Aaaaaahahahahahahaahahahahaaa! They’re both idiots!

To politicians, we're little more than meaningless blobs on a monitor. Bring on the summer of rage

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:36:04 +0000

“…It’s all over. The politicians have finally shut us out of their game for good and we have nowhere left to turn. We’re not part of their world any more. We don’t even speak the same language. We’re the ants in their garden. The bacteria in their stools. They have nothing but contempt for us. They snivel and lie and duck questions on torture - on torture, for Christ’s sake - while demanding we respect their authority. They monitor our every belch and fart, and insist it’s all for our own good…”

via Charlie Brooker @ The Guardian

Grizzlies reveal 'fancy footwork'

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:39:10 +0000

Grizzlies reveal 'fancy footwork'

Europeana: think culture

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:11:16 +0000

“Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration. It links you to 2 million digital items.

Images - paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects
Texts - books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers
Sounds - music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts
Videos - films, newsreels and TV broadcasts

Some of these are world famous, others are hidden treasures from Europe’s

museums and galleries
archives
libraries
audio-visual collections

Here is a list of the organisations that our content comes from. They include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the British Library in London and the Louvre in Paris.”

This looks like a pretty brilliant idea. It opened last November but crashed like a friend at the Festival when ten million people an hour tried to visit it! The beta version is now tentatively open. Hooray for digital resources!

About the Europeana

Binyam Mohamed torture evidence 'hidden from Obama'

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:32:00 +0000

Letter to president about Binyam Mohamed was blanked out, say campaigners as they prepare for Guantánamo prisoner’s release to UK.

Read the Guardian article
Read the letter [PDF]

via The Guardian

James Gunn’s PG Porn

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:15:28 +0000

James Gunn’s PG Porn