I was browsing a few weeks of back posts on the yummy new blog musecrack, and this piece jumped out at me. The artist’s site is full of outstanding matte paintings and photomontage.
The image above is from the “sans nature, pas de futur” campaign at Fondation Nicolas Hulot. (You are supposed to be able to send an e-card with this and other images here, but it doesn’t work for me).
The NYT picked up this AP story originally from the Knoxville News Sentinel about bullseye-like “mini crop circles” on tree bark.
I admit, I’m puzzled, because
– that looks like an ear to me, not a bullseye or a crop circle.
– that looks like a moss to me, not a liverwort. Even zoomed in. But I hear it really is a liverwort.
I’d sarcastically observe that the hypothetical aliens aren’t going to get anyone’s attention by making itty-bitty crop circles on a tree in the middle of a forest. But this story got picked up by the NYT, so I guess I’d be wrong, wouldn’t I?
Those tiny aliens are so smart!
Light brown apple moths
Lance Iversen, SF Chronicle
Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle has a feature about the Australian light brown apple moth, an agricultural pest that recently appeared in the Bay Area. What makes this article by Matt Stannard (with pictures by Lance Iversen) especially enjoyable is that it’s not just about the invader moths – it’s about the man who discovered their arrival, retired UC Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell. Powell just happened to find an apple moth at his house in Berkeley; he just happened to recognize the nondescript moth from a research stint he did in Australia; and as a UCB professor emeritus, he knew the right people to call about his hunch.
Jellyfish room
Porcelain
Alissa Coe & Carly Waito, 2007
Via Ullabenulla.
(Regarding categories: of course cnidarians aren’t cephalopods, but jellies are part of the deep sea ambiance. . . and just imagine what a school of porcelain squid from this duo would look like!).
Iliad Cenotaphs: Echepolus
acrylic on wood
Jonathan Gabel, 2007
Poring over the hyper-detailed text of the Iliad, Jonathan Gabel has envisioned each soldier’s death-wound, recreating the negative space of the wound as an anatomical model.
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Nexican Pharmacy Poster (detail)
Dan Funderburgh
from The Artist’s Guide to Making Money
Male enhancement spam, cleverly recast as vintage advertising ephemera: Dan Funderburgh’s contribution to the The Artist’s Guide to Making Money (“Disclaimer: Do not expect any actual advice, tips, or tricks for making money. We can in no way guarantee that you will ever make money as an artist, or otherwise.”).
Via Good Magazine.
Anatomical Venus Wax Model at the Semmelweiss Medical Museum
by Curious Expeditions
Some posts on one of my favorite topics: first, Curious Expeditions had a first-hand account of a visit to the Josephinum. Then, Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society followed up by listing no less than fourteen other museums, almost all European, with notable collections of wax sculpture or moulage (La Specola is #2).
Of course, if you’re going to plan a summer jaunt to Europe to commune with medical models, why limit yourself to wax and moulage? Curious Expeditions also “ran into” an ivory obstetric figurine by Zick at the Semmelweis Medical Museum, and have a smashing flickrset of the occasion, from which I abducted the Venus image at the top of this post. I’m convinced Curious Expeditions are the new Rick Steves of the wunderkammer set. . .
image: honey in an istanbul market, from culiblog
Why doesn’t honey need to be refrigerated?
My mentor Tom (who taught me most of what I know about teaching) loved to ask this question on biology quizzes. It’s my favorite kind of question: it forces you to apply general scientific principles to a new situation, not a far-fetched one, but a common situation you’d never thought about before. Although I could reason it out, I was embarrassed that I’d never bothered to wonder why honey has such a long shelf life. There are many small puzzles like this in daily life, that go completely unexamined.
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This is so self-indulgent, I have to apologize in advance. But I couldn’t resist posting Lily Burana’s description of the redoubtable, delectable Hugh Laurie in House, M.D.:
Constantly described as “brilliant but flawed,” House speaks to the part of us that wants to believe that we are so amazing, people will withstand our dread obnoxiousness to bask in our brainy, radiant glow. (Salon)
Damn right!
Although Burana’s piece is fluff, it captures the silly, navel-gazing indulgence of the celebrity crush quite well. Hugh Laurie isn’t Gregory House. Everything, down to the American accent, is an act. Right? Right.
But then Laurie goes and says something like this to Men’s Vogue:
“Probably, I fear happiness because I don’t know what follows,” he ventures. “To say ‘I’ve accomplished something,’ or ‘I look around and I see that my life pleases me,’ that would feel like a kind of death. If things ever were good enough, I wouldn’t know what to do afterwards.”
Damn right!
Sigh.
You go, girlfriend.
From a window display in a comic book store in Toronto. Go see the rest of the photos for the Middle-earth doppelgangers of Beaker, Animal, the Chef, etc. (warning: Muppet blood is involved).
Via the essential Table of Malcontents, which has nearly obviated my need to blog at all.
