florilegium

explore-blog: Absolutely stunning book paintings by...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:00:46 -0400

Absolutely stunning book paintings by Russian-born, Rome-based artist Ekaterina Panikanova, a fine addition to this showcase of exceptional book art.

(↬ this isn’t happiness)

poptech: World’s longest domino chain of books to promote...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:05:59 -0400

poptech:

World’s longest domino chain of books to promote summer reading. It’s really long.

YEAHHHHHHH

other-wordly: pronunciation | ‘nU-mi-nusnote | The word...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:28:19 -0400

other-wordly:

_{pronunciation | ‘nU-mi-nus
note | The word originated in religious usage, but it can be applied to natural experiences as well as supernatural. It can also mean “suggesting the presence of something holy or divine”.}

magnificentruin: Robert Frank

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:56:50 -0400

magnificentruin:

Robert Frank

explore-blog: publius-esquire: Founding Father Pin-Ups, 2nd...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:37:57 -0400

How about a little XYZ Affair?

President Booty reporting for duty

Virginia is for lovers mmm

Raid my treasury

Ratify /this/

umff

explore-blog:

publius-esquire:

Founding Father Pin-Ups, 2nd Ed.: Tread on Me

And now for some subversive commentary on the objectification of women…

I believe you mean SEXersive SEXentary on the SEXification of HAWT

"Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls..."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:45:44 -0400

“Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.”

- The New York Times editorial is NOT PLEASED about the news broken by The Guardian about the federal government’s data collection on phone calls through Verizon (essentially everything but the actual conversation). The anger in the editorial is visible and sharp, and is an excellent interrogation of the necessity and effectiveness, as well as the morality, of measures like this one. (via thepoliticalnotebook)

"Ever since the 1500s, and for hundreds of years after, the only people who used @ were bookkeepers,..."

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:06:08 -0400

“

Ever since the 1500s, and for hundreds of years after, the only people who used @ were bookkeepers, who used it as a shorthand to show how much they were selling or buying goods for: for example, “3 bottles of wine @ $10 each.”

Since these bookkeepers used @ to deal with money, a certain degree of whimsical fondness for the character developed over time. In Danish, the symbol is known as an “elephant’s trunk a”; the French call it an escargot. It’s a streudel in German, a monkey’s tail in Dutch, and a rose in Istanbul. In Italian, it’s named after a huge amphora of wine, a liquid some Italian bookkeepers have been known to show a fondness for.

Even with such cute names to recommend it, though, @ languished in obscurity for three and a half centuries, only ending up on a new invention called the typewriter when salesmen realized that accountants and bookkeepers were buying them in droves.

In 1971, however, a keyboard with a vestigial @ symbol inherited from its typewriter ancestors found itself hooked up to an ARPANET terminal manned by Ray Tomlinson, who was working on a little program he’d come up with in his goofing-off time to send messages from computer to computer. Tomlinson ended up using the @ symbol as the fulcrum of the lever that ultimately ended up lifting the world into the digital age: email.

”

-
The unlikely evolution of the @ symbol. (via explore-blog)

I just love language history.

"My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 22:15:40 -0400

“My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude.”

- Warsan Shire (via petrichour)

npr: OK Go: A Tiny Desk Concert In 223 Takes We needed to...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 19:15:38 -0400

npr:

OK Go: A Tiny Desk Concert In 223 Takes

We needed to figure out the best possible way to move NPR Music’s Tiny Desk from our old headquarters to our new facility just north of the U.S. Capitol. So we had OK Go perform “All Is Not Lost” hundreds of times, as we transported the Tiny Desk from one home to the other.

Only OK Go can make moving look like fun.

wordonfire: Picture taken through Bottle Glass Windows at Good...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:42:18 -0400

wordonfire:

Picture taken through Bottle Glass Windows at Good Hope Plantation, Jamaica.

I went to Good Hope on vacation when I was twelve and it was kind of the first time I realized how much I like traveling. It’s weird (in a good way) to see this beautiful strange photo come up on my dash.

thecreatorsproject: Abstracting the Fleet: Dazzle Camouflage’s...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:53:54 -0400

thecreatorsproject:

Abstracting the Fleet: Dazzle Camouflage’s Influence on Contemporary Art and Design

Picasso claimed it to be a product of Cubist influence. Others attributed it as a play on the abstract chaos of Italian Futurist art. Vorticists from Britain, on the other hand, actually participated in the concept’s development, with movement artists such as Edward Wadsworth contributing some 2,000-odd designs for ship patterns.

Regardless of its roots, dazzle camouflage is arguably one of the most strikingly aesthetic tools of war ever employed. Shapes and stripes decorated along the outer surfaces of merchant and war vessels were intended to confuse enemy submarines of a “dazzle ship’s” exact nautical position. Beautiful, stunning, and, in practice, terrifying, it was a rare occurrence where art was the technology and war became a medium.

READ MORE

Dazzle camouflage is one of my favorite things. I first heard about it through 99% Invisible and I’ve been fascinated ever since. So much drama! So much beauty! Fleets of easter eggs sailing off to war…

explore-blog: Daniel Dennett on making mistakes as a hallmark...

Wed, 29 May 2013 15:34:52 -0400

explore-blog:

Daniel Dennett on making mistakes as a hallmark of human intelligence.

literaryjukebox: We waste so much energy trying to cover up...

Mon, 27 May 2013 18:52:53 -0400

literaryjukebox:

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.

It’s like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.

Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening

Song: “Green Gloves” by The National

iTunes :: Amazon :: Back to Brain Pickings

npr: nationalpost: Scratch and sniff cash? Canadians ask Bank...

Mon, 27 May 2013 11:51:00 -0400

npr:

nationalpost:

Scratch and sniff cash? Canadians ask Bank of Canada about maple syrup smell on new bank notes
The penny may be history, but some Canadians suspect the Bank of Canada has been circulating a new scent along with its plastic bank notes.

Dozens of people who contacted the bank in the months after the polymer notes first appeared asked about a secret scratch-and-sniff patch that apparently smells like maple syrup.

“I would like to know … once and for all if these bills are in fact scented, as I do detect a hint of maple when smelling the bill,” says a typical email from a perplexed citizen.

Said another: “They all have a scent which I’d say smells like maple? Please advise if this is normal?” (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

This makes me think of the great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist. — tanya b.

Between this and the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur quarter, I’m pretty sure Canada accidentally hired eight-year-old me as their treasurer. Plus there is a LADY SCIENTIST on the back of the $100 note! It’s official, Canada wins for best money ever.

Why’d you think I’d put out your fire?Why’d...

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:38:36 -0400

Why’d you think I’d put out your fire?
Why’d you think I’d put out your fire?
Don’t you know I breathe in fire, breathe out fire?

tUnE-yArDs | Fiya

"Impossible is a concept that makes one’s heart laugh and throw peanuts at the television."

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:52:19 -0400

“Impossible is a concept that makes one’s heart laugh and throw peanuts at the television.”

- Modern Love

emmauri: Cups, Anna Kendrick I’ve got my ticket for the long...

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:14:10 -0400

emmauri:

Cups, Anna Kendrick

I’ve got my ticket for the long way ‘round
Two bottle whiskey for the way
And I sure would like some sweet company
And I’m leaving tomorrow; what d’you say?

explore-blog: This is lovely – Diego Stocco makes music from...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:45:23 -0400

explore-blog:

This is lovely – Diego Stocco makes music from leaves and a turntable.

"We live today not in the digital, not in the physical, but in the kind of minestrone that our mind..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:04:48 -0400

“We live today not in the digital, not in the physical, but in the kind of minestrone that our mind makes of the two.”

- MoMA’s Paola Antonelli, mastermind of Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects, at a recent TED salon titled “Design Is Everywhere.” (via explore-blog)

Hey Marseilles | Heartbeats

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:09:00 -0400

Hey Marseilles | Heartbeats