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New York Rises: Photographs by Eugene de Salignac is a collection of photographs taken by Salignac as photographer for the New York City Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures from 1906 to 1934. The photos are on display at The Museum of the City of New York through September. Some are also featured in an online BBC gallery. The photo above shows workers painting the Brooklyn Bridge in 1914. Link to event site. Link to gallery. -via Look at This
Local Harvest is a locator service for foods grown nearby. You can find farmer’s markets, groceries, and restaurants that sell or serve locally-grown organic produce or grass-fed meats by entering your city or zip code.
People worldwide are rediscovering the benefits of buying local food. It is fresher than anything in the supermarket and that means it is tastier and more nutritious. It is also good for your local economy–buying directly from family farmers helps them stay in business.
You can also read up on products and trends in the food industry. Link -via Transbuddha
The Belgian army has declared war against … hairy caterpillar! Here’s the story:
A mini-platoon of soldiers will be deployed to the Belgian forests to tackle a plague of hairy caterpillars that are causing allergy outbreaks in humans.
Procession caterpillars, so-called for the way they march in lines through forests, are covered in long, toxic hairs which cause dermatitis and respiratory problems and account for up to 80 percent of doctor visits in the affected area.
"A bit less than a platoon, about 24 soldiers and airmen, will be deployed to help the fire brigade and civil protection authority combat the caterpillars," Belgian military spokeswoman Ingrid Baeck said yesterday.
Don’t piss off the emergency nurse at King-Harbor Hospital, you may end up dying in the emergency room lobby:
Turning to Rodriguez, the nurse said, "You have already been seen, and there is nothing we can do," according to a report by the county office of public safety, which provides security at the hospital.
Parked in the emergency room lobby in a wheelchair after police left, she fell to the floor. She lay on the linoleum, writhing in pain, for 45 minutes, as staffers worked at their desks and numerous patients looked on.
Aside from one patient who briefly checked on her condition, no one helped her. A janitor cleaned the floor around her as if she were a piece of furniture. A closed-circuit camera captured everyone’s apparent indifference.
LA Times has the full story: Link
Think school is hard now? The Pedagogic Museum in Montevideo, Uruguay, showed what school was like back in the days:
And what a different time it was, education-wise. Students rarely carried high-caliber revolvers to class, beating up teachers was against the rules for grade-schoolers, and visible tattoos had to be smaller than a dinner plate.
The museum tells of traditions such as gags and donkey ears. Children were made to hold water in their mouths until their cheeks hurt, hold bricks in outstretched arms, or kneel on grains of corn. Want your kids to see the exhibits? Well, the museum is in Uruguay, but that’s not all that much further than Disney World.
Sadly, the article lacks more examples of museum displays: Link
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Stanford researcher Caitlin O’Connell discovered that elephants can hear with their feet:
She was supposed to find ways to keep elephants out of farmers’ fields. While observing them, she started to notice certain odd things.
"Normally, they would hold their big ears out like a parabola and scan back and forth," O’Connell said. "But to detect distant noise and vocalizations, they’d freeze and lean forward and put weight on their front legs. Sometimes they’d even lift up a front foot. All of them would do this at the same time — it was too coordinated to be a coincidence."
The behavior sometimes occurred when another herd approached or a ranger drove by in his vehicle.
"On a most fundamental level, the research is showing elephants have a whole modality for communicating that we haven’t thought about," O’Connell said.
EnglishRussia has a neat collection of handdrawn American movie posters in Belarus. This one is of Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler (what likeness!) in 50 First Dates. Link – Thanks Dougall!
We had tiger and piglets before, but the zookeepers in china found something new: a group (a streak? an ambush?) of tiger cubs had befriended some newborn chicks!
Workers at Zhejiang Wenling Zoo in Taizhou city put the chicks in a cage with the four month-old tiger cubs.
A zoo spokesman told People’s Daily: "We wanted to bring out the savage nature of the tigers while they were still cubs."
But keepers were surprised to see the tigers initially shy away nervously from the chickens.
"Then in no time, they started playing together. Maybe in their eyes, there are no enemies, only friends," added the spokesman.
Link – Thanks Hanah!
Just one day before his wedding ceremony, Ed Leedskalnin was dumped by his girl. Heartbroken, he set out on a lifelong quest to create a monument on his lost love … for the next 28 years, Ed carved a fantastic castle out of 1,100 tons of coral rocks!
This is the result: Coral Castle – via Papelera21
We’ve featured Eric Staller’s ConferenceBike before (You know, a tricycle pedaled by 7 people – kind of what a bike would look like if it were designed by a committee ).
Now, they’ve got a video clip of the ConferenceBike in action! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | ConferenceBike website – Thanks Freshome!
Every now and then, there comes a short, funny, and mindless Flash game that will entertain you for a couple of minutes.
Like this one called Screamin’ Bean by Simon Panrucker (screaming by Paul MacMahon). The premise of the game is simple: just click, and keep on clicking. On the bean, that is: Link – Thanks Kiera!
