Money can’t buy happiness or—if you’re a wealthy, 16th-century Tuscan—health. The Medicis, known as the “first family” during the Italian Renaissance, could afford to fund Galileo and da Vinci, but their privilege ultimately damaged their children’s well being, Nature reports. A new study of the Medici’s nine children shows that they suffered from rickets, or the bone-softening affliction caused by a lack of vitamin D from sunlight or food.
An examination of the bones, both visually and by X-ray, showed that six of the nine children bore convincing signs of rickets, including curved arm and leg bones — the result of trying to crawl or walk on abnormally soft bones. One of the children, Filippo (1577–1582), known as don Filippino, had a slightly deformed skull.
(Source: blogs.smithsonianmag.com)
willard suitcases project by jon crispin
Jon Crispin photographed the suitcases left behind by patients at the Willard Asylum for the Insane. When patients died, their suitcases, with all their worldly possessions, were locked in an attic and forgotten, until an employee of the mental hospital discovered them. They date from 1910 to 1960.
(Source: Daily Mail)
Russell Brand Destroys MSNBC Talk Show Host for Treating Him Like Shit #mademyday
(via infinitelysober)
Mal Bray
‘Slight Uncertainty’ by Czech artist Michal Trpák
(Source: ignant.de)
10 Things you Probably didn’t know about Ernest Hemingway
1. He was a failed KGB Spy
2. He once took a urinal home from his favorite bar and moved it into his Key West home, arguing that he had “pissed away” so much of his money into the urinal that he owned it.
3. Was known to use a machine gun on sharks to stop them eating his catch, and in 1938 he established a world record by catching seven marlin in one day.
4. He survived through anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, skin cancer, hepatitis, anemia, diabetes, two plane crashes (on consecutive days), a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebra, a fractured skull, and more. In the end, the only thing that could kill Hemingway it would seem, was himself.
5. Killed himself with his favorite shotgun bought from Abercrombie & Fitch.
6. Was charged with war crimes under the Geneva Convention when he took command and led of a group of French militia into battle against the Nazis.
7. In the Florida Keys, there are a lot of 6-toed cats, because Ernest Hemingway’s cat “got around” a lot.
8. Once examined F. Scott Fitzgerald’s penis in a cafe toilet and assured him it was of “normal” size.
9. His brother founded a nation off the coast of Jamaica that consisted of a raft and 7 citizens. It had currency, postage, and a constitution.
10. There’s an Ernest Hemingway lookalike society that holds yearly contests.
(Source: messynessychic.com)
“I Am My Lost Diamond” by Ambreen Butt
As part of the launch of its 2013 Summer Reading Program, the Seattle Public Library set a new world record for the “longest book domino chain”.
The chain, designed by two college students, took 27 volunteers, 2,131 books, seven hours and five failed attempts to complete.
No books were harmed during the filming of this video.
(Source: designtaxi.com)
