National Gorilla Suit Day!

Wow. This was completely off my radar. There's always next year I suppose.

Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say

Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale—the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born. The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city. More.

Sunday evening crazies

All heck breaks loose!

Early agriculture in the San Fernando Valley

Late 19th and early 20th Century photos from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Another "no caption needed"

From Hemmy.net

Tiger Nest Monastery in Bhutan

Leo Palmer Photography

The coast is clear!

From Cute Overload.

Bali Hai Yule Log

Why have a plain ole brick fireplace when you can have this malevolent-looking Tiki Hearth?

It would look great with the spore lamp.

Spore Lamp

This light makes me think of some creature in a science fiction film that mutates when some unfortunate soul touches it. I wonder what wattage it takes?

Happy Fifth, Chipmunk!

L.A. traffic and one more Hummer

Here in L.A., we have a deputy mayor for transportation who drives a Hummer. To those beyond the Southern California fringe, this may seem fitting and, maybe it is. Our urban sprawl is addicted to automatically assuming that we need more lanes and freeways without giving enough consideration to other longer-term options. After reading Robert Caro's book, The Power Broker, it seemed to me that more roads only means more cars.

More about the Hummer story here.

Monorails, anyone?

I was born in the Clambake Nation

The Renewing America's Food Traditions map celebrates the many distinctive regional food traditions on the North American continent by featuring a "totem food" key to the identity of each region. These totem foods are more than just important commodities--community feasts, household rituals, song, stories and the nutritional well-being of residents have revolved around these foods for centuries. More.

Tummy Tub®

The Tummy Tub®, designed in the Netherlands by childcarers helps to ease the transition from the comfort of the mother's womb.

Eee Eff Gee

Calligraphy is the art of decorative handwriting. From a formal point of view we are talking about decorative ways of representing the ideas of glyphs that we have in our mind. This same idea can be translated to the domain of computation, the result is what I call computational calligraphies. More.

Fun for kids and kid-like adults.

It nevers rains in Southern California. It snows.

For the first time today, I saw snow at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Wow. From our local CBS-affiliate: "Jack Frost visited the Southland again Wednesday, bringing snow and ice to parts of the region and prompting the National Weather Service to issue winter-weather advisories for local mountains and the Antelope Valley." More.

Woodland home

"You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour)." More . . .

Scenes from China

Some very beautiful photos from China.

Santa Susanna Mountains

To the south of the San Fernando Valley are the Santa Monica Mountains. To the north of the Valley are the Santa Susannas. Episodes of the TV series Bonanza and Zorro were once filmed here, along with many others. The first discovery of oil in California was on the north side of these mountains. A well there became famous as the longest-producing well in the world, having been capped in September, 1990 after 114 years.

How To videos

I stumbled upon this site when looking for information about how to train my dog to sit. There appear to be a variety of topics - ever wanted to know how to "choreograph a sword fight?"

Russian skyscraper

This 12 story tower is located in northwestern Russia, via Neatorama.

Why are we stopping?

1878 Picture Book of Africa

Camp Heidi

Imagine the pride you'll feel while popping this open next to that monolithic Winnebago next door. Yodel - eh - ee - hoo! Kind of cool.

The most beautiful painting you've ever heard

"By early October, the summer tourists have left Martha's Vineyard. Marcia Smilack, camera in hand, walks slowly along a barren dock, waiting for something in her peripheral vision to evoke the sound of a cello in her ears or the feel of satin on her skin. When it does, she stops, points her camera at the water, and waits to hear or feel it again. Then she shoots her picture."

Read on.

Let's return to 1959

Boob tube from Predicta!

While you're at it, why not pick up a 1959 Ultimas shown below. Via Neatorama.

Timeline of picture books in the English language

Search for "timeline"