Diurnal Aural Experiences: Opeth’s “Eternal Rains Will Come” from Pale Communion (2014)

 

Dilapidated Joy

Vincze Miklós of io9 runs one of the better series on their site: Modern Ruins.  Obviously, given that I enjoy the thought of ruins and the taphonomy of such things, I really and truly appreciate this mess.  So, in honor of the stunning collection he’s put together, do it a favor and give it a gander:

Trashed Remains of Abandoned Disney Parks.

 

Opinion: “The Animated Life of A.R.Wallace” – NY Times

From the New York Times:

“Although Alfred Russel Wallace made one of the most important scientific discoveries in history, he’s been all but forgotten. A contemporary of Charles Darwin, Wallace was the other guy to discover natural selection – the evolutionary process whereby better adapted organisms are more likely to survive and pass on their traits than less adapted ones. Although two people discovered this theory, evolution by natural selection is virtually synonymous with Darwin. This is partly due to the lasting fame of Darwin’s opus, “On the Origin of Species,” but some argue it is also due to Wallace’s extraordinary modesty – he lauded Darwin’s work and humbly downplayed his own contributions. In 1889 he even wrote a book in support of evolution titled ‘Darwinism.'”

Go watch the video and read the article.

 

Photography: Iceland

 

From APOD on Twitter via: Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)

Beautiful, beautiful image capture here.

 

Bohemian Gravity

From io9:

 

In memoriam

From Caity Weaver of Gawker.

This is so delightfully existential.

“Kachemak was not afraid of dying before she was put to sleep on Saturday (“releasing her from a rapid decline in the last week from age-related infirmities”), because Kachemak was not aware that dying was something that could happen to her. She wasn’t unhappy about leaving the other sea otters. She didn’t worry about whether or not she would be remembered fondly. She didn’t reminisce about her lost youth or dream about all the things she had never done. The final moment of her life was not particularly different from any of the moments that proceeded it; she just kept on living right up until she didn’t. It was different, but not sad.”

Applause, Ms Weaver, applause.

 

A better way to eat.

The majority of human existence has been to find a simpler or better way to make things to make us happy.  Food is no exception to this at all.  From poppy seeds to cheese and back around to garum and worchestershire sauce, using the plants and animals we cultivate in a variety of interesting and flavorful ways is always interesting.

This article from io9 discusses a bit regarding this.

 

Fukushima

It’s been over two years since Japan was hit by a major earthquake and tsunami that destroyed many lives.  TEPCO, a major energy company, found themselves at the center of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.  A report finds that a storage tank from the clean up is at the center of another problem.

 

Holy shit.

 

Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids 
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech

Here are the mapped orbits of the potentially hazardous Asteroids. Need more be written?

 

 

Image taken from Silver Train at the Zurich Mdizinhistorisches Museum.

Often untrained, the Plague Doctor was the last, horrifying line of defense in treatment of the ill and disposal of the dead during the Black Plague in Europe.  The outfit is stunningly ominous: a grey robe with a hood that covers a leather or ceramic mask that typically had a beak and portholes for sight.  The beak was purely functional in regard to the scientific understanding of the time.  The miasmatic view believed that diseases assaulted their sufferers through poor air and being around death.

In contrast the doctor would have his cane, prodding the afflicted so that they would not have to touch the victim.  The doctor would smell of a mixture of pungent aromas and straw was thought to serve as a filter. Some doctors of note that served in the plague were Nostradamus and Paracelsus.