(Photo: Vinni)

On Saturday, I wrote about Cristina Vanko's project to send text messages via handwritten notes composed with a calligraphy pen. She observed that some of her friends felt touched by the process, as though Vanko's notes made them feel special to her:

11) It was indicated multiple times that people feel more "special" when they received handwritten messages. 

I understand that. In my early twenties, I used to send out written letters instead of email to friends. They were typed, rather than handwritten. Almost always I received verbal or emailed rather than written responses. But one friend mentioned once that every letter was like getting a wrapped present. My practice wasn't reciprocated, but it was appreciated.

In Verily Mag, Julia Hogan writes that we all should occasionally write and send letters by hand:

But now that communication is exponentially faster—thanks in great part to email and smartphones—the handwritten note isn’t just rarer, it has taken on a new kind of meaning. Receiving a handwritten note is that much more significant today precisely because the writer chose to take the time to pen a note, rather than an abbreviated message. [...]

You don’t have to be Shakespeare. No need to compose poetry or write pages upon pages. Just say what’s on your heart. Tell your reader how much you value their friendship, or simply thank them for a gift you’ve received.

Dress up your note. Stationery can make any note seem extra special. You can easily find unique stationery to fit your budget no matter how large or small. Check out handcrafted cards on Etsy. Paper Source, Papyrus, and Target also have a good selection.

Be creative. If you’re feeling crafty, make your own stationery! Take a trip to your local craft store and pick up a package of blank cards and envelopes, a rubber stamp, and colored ink.

And remember, you don’t need the finest stationery, the most eloquent language, or even a special occasion to send a note! A simple, “thinking of you” is enough to make someone’s week.

-via Marilyn Terrell

Neatorama presents a guest post from J. Tithonus Pednaud of The Human Marvels. This story is condensed from his forthcoming book After Life: True Tales of the Wandering Dead.

Most famous for his poems Prometheus Unbound, Cenci and Adonis, Percy Bysshe Shelley is widely regarded as a pioneer of the English Romantic movement. It is a place in literary history he shares with his friends and colleagues Lord Byron, John Keats and George Gordon. All four poets died young, within only a few years of one another, but it's the circumstances surrounding the earthly remains of Percy Shelley that are most intriguing.

The fact that his wife, Mary Shelley, kept his withered heart wrapped in silk and pressed in her leather bound copy of Adonis for over 30 years does seem odd - even for the author of Frankenstein. But the truth is that the preservation of her morbid memento is actually the least remarkable part of this true tale especially when one considers the serendipity and obsession involved in securing the heart of Percy after life.

On July 8, 1822 Percy set sail from Leghorn to Lerci in his refurbished boat, The Ariel. It was actually a trip home as the Shelleys had been living in Lerci, Italy for several years. The voyage was only fifty miles across the Gulf of Spezia. However, Percy and his two crewmen were never seen alive again.

At some point, The Ariel was forced under by a squall and all aboard her were drowned. For several days no bodies were found and the story would have ended there if Percy had not met an adventurous seaman by the name of Captain Edward John Trelawny six months earlier.

Percy and Captian Trelawny had become very fast friends in a very short period of time. Trelawny's affection for Percy was so rich that he personally trolled the coast for 10 days until he heard of three bodies that washed ashore.

The bodies had washed ashore in the jurisdiction of three different governments, as Italy was not unified at this time, and so Trelawny had to negotiate with the Lucca, Florence and Pisa governments to access and identify the bodies. Paying bribes out of pocket to circumvent quarantines Trelawny discovered that, in all three locations, law dictated that all bodies washed in from the sea were to be buried immediately. Further, the bodies were to be covered in quicklime to hasten their decomposition for fear of disease.

This meant that the bodies could not be exhumed or transported for a 'proper' English burial.

It sure looks like someone Photoshopped their craft project onto a separate background, but this one is floating in space for real! The cute little dinosaur was made by hand by astronaut Karen Nyberg on the International Space Station. Nyberg has been living on the ISS for several months now, and unveiled her craft project on Pinterest. She took a sewing bag with fabric scraps up with her, but used found material for the toy. It is made from Russian food pouch liners with a discarded t-shirt for stuffing, Nyberg's three-year-old son Jack will have a truly distinctive souvenir of the time his mother stayed away so long.

The dino is most likely the first stuffed toy made in space, but it is not the only stuffed toy on the space station. Soyuz commander Fyodor Yurchikhin brought a white dog and cosmonaut Oleg Kotov arrived at the ISS on Wednesday with a small black cat. Russian crews traditionally hang toys from their control panel to indicate when they reach orbit -that's when the toys begin to float. Flight engineer Nyberg is expected to return to earth November 11th.   

-via Metafilter

(Image credit: Karen Nyberg/NASA)

In his illustrations, Norman Rockwell showed American life, both idealized and troubled. He defined American childhood, particularly in his illustrations for the Boy Scouts.

Rockwell demonstrated serious talent from an early age. Pictured above is his earliest surviving work, rendered at the age of 17. It's is a scene from "The Deserted Village," a 1770 poem by Oliver Goldsmith. In the Smithsonian magazine, Deborah Solomon describes it:

It was incredible to see­—a marvel of precocious draftsmanship and a shockingly macabre work for an artist known for his folksy humor. Rockwell undertook it as a class assignment. Technically, it’s an illustration of a scene from “The Deserted Village,” the 18th-century pastoral poem by Oliver Goldsmith. It takes you into a small, tenebrous, candlelit room where a sick boy lies supine in bed, a sheet pulled up to his chin. A village preacher, shown from the back in his long coat and white wig, kneels at the boy’s side. A grandfather clock looms dramatically in the center of the composition, infusing the scene with a time-is-ticking ominousness. Perhaps taking his cue from Rembrandt, Rockwell is able to extract great pictorial drama from the play of candlelight on the back wall of the room, a glimpse of radiance in the unreachable distance.

Rockwell had been taught in Thomas Fogarty’s illustration class that pictures are “the servant of text.” But here he breaks that rule. Traditionally, illustrations for “The Deserted Village” have emphasized the theme of exodus, portraying men and women driven out of an idyllic, tree-laden English landscape. But Rockwell moved his scene indoors and chose to capture a moment of tenderness between an older man and a young man, even though no such scene is described in the poem.

Put another way, Rockwell was able to do the double duty of fulfilling the requirements of illustration while staying true to his emotional instincts. The thrill of his work is that he was able to use a commercial form to work out his private obsessions.

-via American Digest

I can relate. When I walk into a store this time of year, I am overcome by the desire to buy a table centerpiece and matching placemats, even though I've never used either one in real life. Or a comfy sweater, when I haven't even felt cold in several years. Or silk leaves, for some reason or other. And who can resist those bags of candy? Maybe fall shopping reminds me of my childhood, when school shopping meant new penny loafers and knee socks and plaid skirts and sweaters. Comic by Sarah See Andersen. Link  -via Pleated-Jeans

This is what happens when you have John Farrier for a librarian.

Honestly, we don't know who took the picture, but we know John will gladly take credit for the idea. The geekiness of your local librarian is a feature, not a bug.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

Update: The photo was taken by Grace Nuth, originally posted here. Yes, she is a librarian! -Thanks, Thomas!

Cristina Vanko calls her project "Modern Day Snail Mail." It began when she acquired her father's old gold-tipped calligraphy pen. She experimented with it and fell in love with that classic art form.

Ms. Vanko wanted to share with her friends the joy that she felt from using that pen. So, for seven days, she sent them text messages with it. She wrote out her texts, photographed them, then used the images to communicate with her friends. Ms. Vanko writes about what she learned from her experiment:

3) My personality shined through so well that one friend texted back "it's like you're here with us!"...but then she followed up a few messages later that "it's almost like you’re deaf and passing notes around in the room." [...]

7) You look super silly if you completely ignore all that you learned in English classes. Impeccable grammar and flawless spelling is necessary for a handwritten note. [...]

9) Writing a message and driving is more dangerous than texting and driving.*This is an educated guess. 

I would hope so.

Link -via Lustik

(Photo: NPR)

On the right, you see David Saltzberg. He's a physicist at UCLA and the science consultant for the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. There are scientist characters on that show. Prof. Saltzberg makes sure that what they say actually makes sense. NPR reports:

Every week, Saltzberg attends the show's live taping at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif. He makes sure the whiteboards are correct. For every new episode, they're covered by a fresh scrawl of formulas dreamed up by Saltzberg and admired by physicists for their scrupulous accuracy — and occasional shoutouts to what's happening in the world of science.

"The whiteboards have dozens of fans," Saltzberg jokes.

Saltzberg also reviews scripts in progress. They arrive with unfinished dialogue and brackets reading, "Insert Science Here." He fills in the blanks, as in an episode where Dr. Sheldon Cooper, a puffed-up theoretical physicist, keeps bumming rides from a neighbor.

Prof. Saltzberg also writes a blog devoted to the science of the show.

NPR -via Glenn Reynolds

Carol and Willie Fowler of Atlanta planned to host a large wedding for their daughter, Tamara. But Tamara canceled the wedding with only 40 days to go, and the restaurant was reserved. So they had the feast anyway, and contacted the organization Hosea Feed the Hungry & Homeless to invite 200 homeless people for the meal. And 200 people came to the four-course meal at a fancy restaurant with entertainment. Everyone had such a good time that the Fowlers plan to find sponsors and make it an annual event. Link -Thanks, Bill Badrick!

See pictures of the feast.

(Image source: Hosea Feed the Hungry & Homeless)

(YouTube link)

TrumanPDX sends an open letter to J.J. Abrams in the form of a video explaining what made Star Wars so special in the first place. I agree, follow what was great about the original trilogy without trying to outshine or out-CGI the prequels. But when he asks for fewer cutsie characters, well, good luck with that. After all, Disney is never going to pass up an opportunity for product marketing. -via Ryan Galloway

A dalek mis-recreates Schroedinger's famous experiment in its own way, ignoring the fact that it was always a thought experiment. Found at The Daily Dalek from Tone Cartoons. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

(Photo: Chicago Tribune)

John Pedersen's single engine plane suffered damage while he flew it this morning. He couldn't make it the O'Hare or Midway Airports. So he landed in downtown Chicago on Lake Shore Drive. Pedersen did his best to avoid hitting cars:

Pedersen. who said he had been flying for five years, had decided the drive was his best landing spot. If timed correctly, he figured, he could bring down the plane while traffic was stopped at a red light.

"You pick a landing spot that's not going to jeopardize anybody else," he said.

When the light on East Balbo Avenue turned red, he brought the plane down in the northbound lanes, its nose facing north.

It was a tricky landing, but he stuck it, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said admiringly.

Two cars actually hit the airplane after it landed – and then, mysteriously, sped off, Pedersen said. One can only imagine what their drivers were thinking.

Link -via Glenn Reynolds

(YouTube link)

One of the most memorable songs in the movies is the duet between Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in The Jerk. In this video, Ben and his four-year-old daughter recreate that duet when she couldn't sleep because of fireworks outside. She even does the harmony part! -via Daily Picks and Flicks

BBDO West designed this simple but eye-catching ad for the San Francisco Zoo. The sign says, "Meet a giraffe." Be aware that giraffes in stock at the zoo may look a bit different.

Link -via Pleated Jeans

If you have limited use of your hands, an e-book reader can be frustrating if not impossible to use. Instructables member XenonJohn has a great solution. He used a 3D printer to build a case that slips around a Kindle. Pressing on the arrows pushes the page-turning buttons.

Link