The World's Weirdest Necklace?
I know the Victorians loved their odd decorations - from hair brooches to beetle-wing tea cosies, but I think this necklace made of humming bird heads might be really going too far:
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July 28, 2010
July 26, 2010
They Step on Ya! Walk on Ya!
Stop work, it's Monday afternoon cartoon time (M.A.C.T.), which I believe is now official government policy. What could be more suitable for a rainy Monday than a Tex Avery cartoon about a misanthropic cat? Keep watching for the freaky moon creatures at the end. This version seems to have French subtitles, which makes it also educational.
July 13, 2010
London Superstition
The Lovett Collection of Superstitions at the Cuming Museum is a set of charms from London donated by Edward Lovett in 1916. There's a brass acorn, above, used to protect against lightning; a soldier's charm used to ward off the evil eye:
various objects to cure ailments, like a horseshoe to keep away nightmares, a bag with a child's caul used to protect against drowning:
a necklace of acorns worn for diarrhoea; bread and hair given to a dog to cure a child's whooping cough; a catskin for rheumatism:
and a mandrake root said to have curative powers:
What's most surprising is how recent all these medieval-seeming curios are - but then there's a shop in Brixton Market that sells lucky charms that look just like this one to protect sailors from drowning to this day:
July 3, 2010
If you've noticed a bit less linking around here lately, it's because I'm now doing a lot of that stuff on Twitter, so you should really follow me there.
If you're not on Twitter - don't be scared, it's a friendly and useful thing once you get going.
Hanny's Voorwerp
The Awl has the cheering story of Hanny van Arkel, a 24-year-old primary school teacher in the Netherlands, who one day idly clicked through from Brian May's website to Galaxy Zoo, a site which posted a million galaxy photos and asked readers to help classify them.
When she spotted an unidentified blue smudge on one of the pictures, Hanny became the discoverer of what astronomers named Hanny's Voorwerp, a cloud of gas being hit by an x-ray jet from an active black hole.
To have a go at finding your own astronomical phenomenon, go here.