When I was looking for calls for papers, I was excited to see one devoted to Georgette Heyer as a romance writer!

I was also rather amused that this cfp for an issue dedicated to the Mayan apocalypse on Dec 2012 won't be coming out until May of 2013. WE'LL ALL BE GONE BY THEN!!! lol

La Vie Electrique: Written in 1892, this futuristic story ( Read more... )

Ozzy and Rex are so smart, someday we're going to see them having this conversation. On second thought, scratch that: Ozzy can't see laser pointers.

( more randomness )

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, was a tall gangling man with "strong legs and arms" and a ruddy appearance that led the novelist Frances Burney, when she first met him in 1775, to compare him with a rough-hewn Jack Tar: "he is a tall, stout man & looks weather-proof as any sailor in the navy". Portraits by Gainsborough and Zoffany reveal a ( Read more... )

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It was traditionally held that after his death on the cross, Christ descended into the realm of the dead and liberated the spirits of the righteous. This was known as the Harrowing of Hell. In medieval art, the penitent thief who hung next to Christ on the cross is sometimes depicted as accompanying Christ in the Harrowing ( Read more... )

my computer can't seem to handle ANYTHING right now, which indicates that i need to clean off my tabs. :)

A not-quite-mobile-phone from 1922!

Improving classical paintings with cats

Tamar of Georgia: "King of Kings and Queen of Queens"!

The word ampersand is a conflation of the phrase "and per se and", meaning "and [the symbol which] by itself ( Read more... )

Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

Trying to sell Barad-Dur?

Finally, MLA weighs in on how to cite a Tweet.

The Eglinton Tournament of 1839 was a re-enactment of a medieval joust and revel held in Scotland on Friday 30 August. Widely ( Read more... )

In a discussion of the changing attitudes toward suicide in 18th-century Europe:

The free-thinkers were counter-attacked by battalions of clerical irregulars; a small number of notable philosophers tried to stay neutral or deserted the free-thinking cause. Churchmen all over Europe fired fusillades of sermons at the defenders of suicide and ( Read more... )

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The Wearing of The Green ( Read more... )

Naturally-occurring foam in hog barns causing said barns to EXPLODE.

Monty Python wedding cake topper, found by morallydiseased

Sleeping for 8 hours straight each night is unnatural: and a relatively recent practice!

RIP Jan Berenstain, co-creator of the Berenstain Bears

Recent rediscover of the head of Henry IV of France. Guy had a very interesting life!

( Read more... )

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"You know what he's like after a few novels!"

I'm trying to revise my bibliography for bibliography and methods and it is absolutely MADDENING. So I'm taking a break to clear off my tabs. :)

( World's funniest joke, how a parasite may be manipulating your brain, 10 things people never tell you about the British, and more )