591 - Elizabeth II, Queen of the South Pole

591 - Elizabeth II, Queen of the South Pole: It’s a question on the minds of many, this gift-giving season: What do you get someone who already has everything? The problem gets a bit more pressing if you’re the British Cabinet, and the Queen is coming round to visit. Their solution? Clever: two gifts - 60 table mats, and a chunk of Antarctica ...

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yay i was hoping i would be dead inside for the next few months

yay i was hoping i would be dead inside for the next few months:

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Planets

Look at these planets! Oh wait...

Your Little Brother Isn't Just a Maximum Dweebazoid—He Might Have Also Caused Your Depression

Your Little Brother Isn't Just a Maximum Dweebazoid—He Might Have Also Caused Your Depression:

I didn't grow up with siblings anywhere near my age, so I have no idea what it feels like to have some dickhead who looks like you constantly slamming doors and touching your stuff. (Or, conversely, to be that dickhead. Or both. Whatever.) And I was always jealous of people who did—like, maybe if I'd grown up with other kids in the house I'd be less territorial and rigid about my SVU time. Maybe I'd be able to hang out with people for more than a couple hours without feeling like I was going to crumble into dust and blow away from social exhaustion. Maybe I'd know about cool older-sibling stuff like "bands." (WHAT ARE BANDS, YOU GUYS!?) Having siblings close to one's own age seems, from an outsider's perspective, awesome. But a new study suggests that it might have its downsides too. More »

Bubble Wrap Suit

Bubble Wrap Suit:

You are probably tired of the common clothes you wear and are trying to come up with an idea to wear..(Read...)

Glow in the dark credenza

Glow in the dark credenza:

A striking credenza with a photorealistic luminous image of the full moon printed on its surface. Th..(Read...)

Puppy

That's not supposed to happen.

Anne Hathaway and Samuel L. Jackson Get in a Holiday Sad-Off

Anne Hathaway and Samuel L. Jackson Get in a Holiday Sad-Off:

Both Anne Hathaway and Samuel L. Jackson have movies coming out this holiday season that deal with some very bleak and heartbreaking content. Hathaway, of course, has Les Miserables, in which she plays a dying hooker working to support her child, and Jackson has Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, a film about a slave (Jamie Foxx) who attempts to earn his freedom by working as a bounty hunter. But now the big question: Who's movie is more tragic? It's a sad-off, motherfuckers! More »

Iconic Wright brothers photo was photographer's first

Iconic Wright brothers photo was photographer's first:








More than a century ago, a man named John T. Daniels photographed the most iconic moment in aviation history, when he captured the Wright brothers' first flight in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. History remembers Daniels as an "amateur photographer," but as PetaPixel explains, that's something of an understatement. Because although his black-and-white image is now widely recognized as the world's first photograph of manned flight, what's lesser known is the fact that it was also the first photo Daniels had ever taken.
In fact, Daniels had never even seen a camera before December 17th, 1903, when he accompanied Orville and Wilbur Wright on their trip to Kill Devil Hills. Prior to launching their Flyer aircraft, Orville perched his...
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The Little Golden Book of Words: A Rare Illustrated Gem from 1948

The Little Golden Book of Words: A Rare Illustrated Gem from 1948:
Places to go, things to do, people to meet, and other illustrated essentials of daily living.
The other day, I came upon typography czar Jonathan Hoefler’s brilliant remix of a mysterious vintage children’s chart and Milton Glaser’s iconic Bob Dylan poster. Naturally, I set out to find the origins of the vintage gem. Imagine my delight, as a hopeless lover of vintage children’s books, in discovering that it came from The Little Golden Book of Words (UK; public library) — a rare out-of-print gem by Selma Lola Chambers, originally published in 1948. The charming vintage illustrations by Gertrude Elliott, covering such favorite children’s book subjects as numbers, people, animals, and the seasons, pair each small picture with the specific word it depicts to help young children form the essential associations between words and their pictorial representations. Revealed in equal measures are the era’s distinctive aesthetic sensibility and its dated cultural biases regarding gender norms and social expectations.



















Sadly, like other gems from that era, this little treasure is long out of print — but you might be able to grab a used copy online or find it at your local library.
Thanks, Debbie

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Inside a Danish nonprofit's quest to build a DIY manned spacecraft

Inside a Danish nonprofit's quest to build a DIY manned spacecraft:








Even with a growing number of private spacefaring companies, leaving Earth remains the province of government-sponsored astronauts, wealthy tourists, or big-name entrepreneurs. Copenhagen Suborbital, a group of about 20 specialists based in Denmark, hopes to change that by building a cheap, donation-funded rocket and spacecraft that can carry passengers into suborbital (as the name implies) space. Motherboard's Xavier Aaronson has a great piece covering the project, which launched a generally successful — though not perfect — test rocket earlier this year.
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Prequel to the Doctor Who Christmas Special [Video]

Prequel to the Doctor Who Christmas Special [Video]:
Salivating for Doctor Who: The Snowmen, the Christmas special for 2012? Is the week passing too slowly to bear?
Well here’s a little prequel, “Vastra Investigates”. It’s a teaser of sorts for the episode to come:

Yup, I’m definitely still geared up for this!
[BBC]

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