burstingcrystal:

SIGUR ROS – SVEFN-G-ENGLAR

wonderful video

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distant-traveller:

Wisps surrounding the Horsehead Nebula

The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas. To bring out details of the Horsehead’s pasture, amateur astronomers at the Star Shadow Remote Observatory in New Mexico, USA fixed a small telescope on the region for over seven hours filtering out all but a very specific color of red light emitted by hydrogen. They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours. The resulting spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion. Two stars from the Orion’s Belt can be found in the above image.

Image credit & copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory

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velvethatlady:

pre-raphaelisme:

The Black Brunswicker by John Everett Millais

The painting was inspired in part by the exploits of the Black Brunswickers, a volunteer corps of the Napoleonic Wars, during the Waterloo campaign. And in part by the contrasts of black broadcloth and pearl-white satin in a moment of tender conflict. The painting depicts a Brunswicker about to depart for battle. His sweetheart, wearing a ballgown, restrains him, trying to push the door closed, while he pulls it open. This suggests that the scene is inspired by the Duchess of Richmond’s ball on 15 June 1815, from which the officers departed to join troops at the Battle of Quatre Bras. In a letter to Millais’ wife, Effie Gray, Millais described his inspiration for the work, referring to a conversation with William Howard Russell, the war correspondent of The Times:

My subject appears to me, too, most fortunate, and Russell thinks it first-rate. It is connected with the Brunswick Cavalry at Waterloo…They were nearly annihilated but performed prodigies of valour… I have it all in my mind’s eye and feel confident that it will be a prodigious success. The costume and incident are so powerful that I am astonished it has never been touched upon before. Russell was quite struck with it, and he is the best man for knowing the public taste. Nothing could be kinder than his interest, and he is to set about getting all the information that is required.

The same letter states that he intends it to be “a perfect pendant to The Huguenot”, Millais’s first major success, which portrays a similar scene featuring two lovers gazing at each other longingly. Originally Millais intended the two paintings to be even more similar than they are by repeating the motif of the armband used in the earlier painting. He wanted the soldier to be wearing a black crepe mourning armband, with “the sweetheart of the young soldier sewing it around his arm”. The armband idea was quickly dropped as it does not appear in any extant preparatory drawings. Millais reduced the presence of Napoleon to an engraving after Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which is framed on the damask-hung wall, and which “perplexed the critics with the possible intricacies of cross purposes and rival jealousies” according to the reviewer from Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. This refers to the fact that some critics took the print to imply that the female character was an admirer of Napoleon, and so she was trying to prevent her lover from joining the army for both personal and political reasons. As the critic of The Times surmised, “her reluctance is due in part to a romantic admiration for this great conquerer.” Other critics suggest the print was intended to allude to both the Waterloo campaign and to more recent events, particularly Napoleon III’s repetition of his predecessor’s crossing of the Alps by his attack on Austrian controlled Italy in 1859. Cr: Wikipedia

The woman is modelled by Charles Dickens’ daughter Kate Dickens Perugini, who was a portrait painter herself and closely associated with the pre-Raphaelites.

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steepravine:

Late Night Special: Moss And Mushroom Covered Log

(Marin, California – 4/2014)

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natgeofound:

A young girl plays in a replica of a lunar-module in Toronto, Canada, August 1975.Photograph by Robert Madden, National Geographic Creative

Excuse me; that’s Princess Leia.

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dendroica:

Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens) (by cometoseemerganser)

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vintagegal:

 _{’The Lady of Shalott’ – John William Waterhouse (1888) (via)}

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thebrainscoop:

Thylacine – Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

I’m in Washington, D.C., spending time with my sister after speaking at a conference in Baltimore this weekend. At the last minute I asked if we could go to the NMNH – every time I visit D.C. I vow to see another museum but in the end it’s truly my favorite and deserves a stop every time. Kris Helgen – zoologist, Curator of Mammals, discoverer of the Olingito – pinged me when he saw I was there and asked if I’d be interested in going behind-the-scenes – duh YES. 

So, that’s how I ended up meeting a Thylacine yesterday, formerly the top predator in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Known for their unique gait, ability to open their mouths more than 120 degrees, and the fact that they were the largest carnivorous marsupial to exist during modern times, the Thylacine became extinct after habitat loss and overhunting in the early-mid 20th century.

These particular individuals (the large one, female, mother of the smaller pup) came from the National Zoo around 1910 as they attempted to launch breeding programs in order to sustain populations. Additionally, disease in their native habitats contributed to the thylacine’s untimely extinction before the animals could be effectively bred in captivity. Rumors exist today that these fantastic creatures may still be roaming in parts of Australia, but as of now, there has been no solid confirmation of such claims. 

Big thanks to Kris Helgen for taking the time to show me around! Stay tuned for more photos from our adventures at the NMNH soon.

Animal Diversity Web: Thylacinidae 

The thylacine chapter forms a memorable part of The Song of the Dodo.

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llamapunk:

gandalf1202:

Claude-Oscar Monet – The Museum at Le Havre [1873] on Flickr.

This is an important work which dates from a key period in the artist’s career. In the early 1870s Monet lived mainly at Argenteuil but made frequent trips to his home town, Le Havre, on the Normandy coast. In 1872 and 1873 he painted several views of the harbour at Le Havre. The view here is taken from one of the walls of the inner harbour looking across to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The museum was destroyed during the Second World War and has since been replaced by a modern structure.

[National Gallery, London – Oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm]

what is going on over there in the sails on the left side of the painting? are they having A Problem or is it just perspective?

The mainsail on that boat is in the process of being raised or lowered.

There are two halyards on a gaff-rigged sail; the throat halyard (which attaches to the gaff near the mast) and the peak halyard (which attaches to the gaff away from the mast). While raising or lowering the sail it’s normal for it to be in a state in which the peak halyard has not been tightened enough to actually raise the gaff and tighten the leech of the sail; that’s normally the last thing that happens when hoisting, and the first thing you undo when lowering.

You can see the lowered (or not yet raised) peak halyard in the painting. Also, it looks like there are several people standing around the base of the mast, which makes sense if they’re hoisting or lowering the sail.

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This is a fascinating “ask” I got a few days ago. I’m not sure what it’s referring to in specific, tbh. So I’ll go general here.

I think the point of art, a lot of the time, is to attempt to infuse meaning into a world that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s why there are so many books written on the structure of movies and the idea of what a hero’s journey should entail. Why we have classes based around dissecting archetypes, studying paintings and their artists, learning what chord progressions stir up what kind of emotions. 

More than that, though, it becomes obvious that humans spend a lot of time attempting to infer meaning from the world around them. Not just art, but everything. Not just people who call themselves artists, but everyone. I don’t know enough about science-y things to really know why that is, just that it is. 

I probably had OCD as a kid. I had a lot of issues with patterns and counting and numbers and very little control over any of it. It’s faded gradually over the years, but some variance on an obsession with patterns has always been a part of my life. When I was in school, I’d try to recognize cycles, predict future events based on obscure similarities that lined up, often steering things in that direction without even always realizing it. Because I wanted things to make sense. I wanted some way to understand and relate to the world and figure out cause and effect for all the shit that happened so that I could believe things could be different. I didn’t want to understand that everything in life was subject to five million different factors and a lot of them were just left up to chance. That takes away control, it takes away the ability to understand.

A lot of religion lends itself to the idea that there’s a higher power in control of everything, and that if you just understand that everything that happens is part of some Divine Plan, you’ll find the peace to accept it. Everything has meaning because it is part of that Divine Plan.

When you don’t believe in religion, that kind of gives way to the train of thought that everything is meaningless. We’re here, for whatever reason, to live and die and be buried and that’s all it is. That strips away our control. But to quote a great line from Angel, “if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.” Similarly, if everything is completely meaningless, then the only meaning that exists is that which we create.

And we do. Constantly. No matter what you believe, we all spend our lives searching for meaning in the world, finding things that are meaningful to us, infusing meaning where we can. To deny that would be to deny being human. 

You don’t have to find meaning in the things I find meaning in. I don’t find meaning in a lot of things most people do. We’re all wired differently like that. But to tell people not to find meaning in something is just silly. And kind of sad.

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dappledwithshadow:

9 versions of Morning on the Seine, by Claude Oscar Monet

c. 1897

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lolshtus:

This Is What a Baby Raven Looks Like

Nope. Not even close to what a baby raven looks like.

This is a precocial chick, so probably a shorebird or rail of some kind.

Ravens are altricial, so their babies look much more gawky and helpless, with pinfeathers and whatnot, rather than fluffy and cute.

Here’s an actual baby raven:

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redhousecanada:

Concordia Yawl at Rockport Marine

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gandalf1202:

Claude-Oscar Monet – The Museum at Le Havre [1873] on Flickr.

This is an important work which dates from a key period in the artist’s career. In the early 1870s Monet lived mainly at Argenteuil but made frequent trips to his home town, Le Havre, on the Normandy coast. In 1872 and 1873 he painted several views of the harbour at Le Havre. The view here is taken from one of the walls of the inner harbour looking across to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The museum was destroyed during the Second World War and has since been replaced by a modern structure.

[National Gallery, London – Oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm]

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trolliweirdlyawesome:

Why I lie.

We all have our reasons.

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azspot:

Tom Toles

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shipwreckedcomedy:

Gifs make us happy! (x)

It’s taken me a little longer to get into chapter 2. Having rewatched them, though, they’re very much growing on me. :-)

Looking forward to Monday.

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rainbowrowell:

andiree:

An anon requested I draw characters from my favorite contemporary novel, but I draw Eleanor and Park all the time. Instead, I drew Cather and Levi from Fangirl by rainbowrowell. They’re very adorable.

Whenever Andiree draws my characters, I sigh so loud, people can hear me in Wyoming.

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boobiesmcfeels:

skip-to-the-end:

sylvysparrow:

fuckyeahmovieposters:

Macbeth

STOKED

OKAY

dreammmm casssttt

Already afraid of her Lady M.

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