Canadian Town Cancels Halloween Trick-or-Treating Due to Polar Bear Siege

Posted on October 25, 2014 by

The children of one small town in northern Canada are on the front lines of climate change. In Arviat (map), a hamlet of 2,300 people in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, that means no outdoor trick-or-treating this year for the first time.

Over the last several years, shore ice has diminished along the western edge of Hudson Bay, forcing the annual polar bear migration closer and closer to town. That means bear-human run-ins have become increasingly common. Arviat is now a town under siege by polar bears.

Not your usual excuse for bringing kids indoors for Halloween, I am forced to acknowledge.

Via Slate.

Transi Corpse Sculptures

Posted on September 28, 2014 by

Popular in western Europe during the Renaissance, the art form depicts a deceased person during the transition between life and death — the corporeal husk of a departed soul.

From the late 14th century onward, some tombs were also adorned with recumbent transi sculptures. In contrast to the usual serene depictions of eternally sleeping saints, these “cadaver tombs’ showed the effects of death in stark detail.

The effigy of French doctor Guillaume de Harsigny is emaciated and noseless, while Belgian sculptor Jacques du Broeucq‘s 16th-century “l’homme à moutons” (“man eaten by worms”) shows a decaying body riddled with the wriggling creatures.

Clearly, evidence of medieval necromancy. Or the well-documented but poorly-reported on zombie outbreak of the Middle Ages.

Via Slate.

Brief Delay Before Next Post…

Posted on September 15, 2014 by

Sorry, guys, this last weekend’s move combined with Comcast being…well, Comcast means I am still without Internet.

In theory this should be resolved tomorrow, so we should be back to posts as normally scheduled Wednesday morning.

Many apologies for the unexpected interruption.

Please Excuse The Dust…

Posted on July 18, 2014 by

Hey guys,

I am in the process of moving over the site to another provider, so there may be a little disruption in the Sunday to Tuesday timeframe, so if you see anything irregular, that is likely why.

Specifically, this will mean there will be no posts on Monday while this happens.

Many apologies for any inconvenience,
Geoff Tuffli

Peeking

Posted on July 17, 2014 by karmakatspice

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Goldfish

“They say dreams are the windows of the soul–take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts.”
-Henry Bromel

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Mockingbird

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”
-Harper Lee

Keepers_by_yamiaki

Keepers

“The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.”
-John Adams

Via yamiaki.
Quote via The Quotations Page.

Padlock and Key circa 1580

Posted on June 11, 2014 by

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To become a master locksmith an apprentice had to produce a ‘masterpiece’. Here the locksmith demonstrated his skill by creating a robust and secure lock and refining its appearance with delicate etching.

Similar patterns decorated other 16th century goods and furnishings, from embroidery to tooled leather. Designs circulated among craftspeople through printed versions on paper and were widely recommended in pattern books.

From V&A via Hominis Aevum.

Bursting Balloons

Posted on June 4, 2014 by karmakatspice

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Taken with a slighly shorter delay such that the rubber is still retracting. You can see that when my fingers aren’t extended, the rubber has a tendancy to catch.

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Water balloon just after burst. Yes I got wet. Very pleased with this one, particularly the rippled texture on the rubber.

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Less rounded form on this one. More like my hands are containing the blast, rather than supporting it. You can just see the sides of the balloons near my hands.

going_up

This one was both fun and challenging. Required extra attention in dealing with the string and making sure the orientation worked out.

Via Edward Horsford.

prettyawfulthings

Strange and odd and pretty and awful things.

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Canadian Town Cancels Halloween Trick-or-Treating Due to Polar Bear Siege

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