(Photo: Romero y Azahar)

Bill Esparza is a food critic and taco scholar in Los Angeles. He says, “I’ve tried tacos in 27 states in Mexico, and every time I go to a new town I see something I’ve never heard of.” The vast variety of regional food traditions in Mexico offer more options that most Americans are familiar with. He’s narrowed his essential list of tacos down to 10.

Among those 10 is this temptation: the bone marrow taco. Esparza writes:

In the state of Nuevo Leon, one of Mexico’s steak capitals, you can get roasted marrow bones and a stack of tortillas for making your own tacos. These have become a trend at fine dining Mexican restaurants in Baja California and Mexico City, following in the footsteps of the great chefs of Monterrey, Nuevo León. If you’ve ever indulged in a hot tortilla slathered with a little butter, this is a whole other level of richness. The marrow gives it a concentrated flavor of seasoned, buttery beef. It’s a simple and powerful taste requiring a quality corn tortilla.

The further I scrolled down in Ghidaq al-Nizar’s Instagram page, the more amazed I was at what he can do. This Indonesian artist specializes in the use of coffee, but uses it in many different ways. It was his paintings with leftover morning coffee on leaves that first got my attention.

(Image: YouTube/Andy Morris)

At the moment, my kids embarrass me in public. But eventually, our positions will switch and I will be able to embarrass my daughters in front of their friends. And I shall. Oh, yes, I shall! My brony t-shirts will multiple in number and I will wear them whenever I pick them up from school or take them and their friends to the mall.

And I shall also dance. For a survey of children from 5 to 20 has revealed the most embarrassing things that parents do in front of their children. Coming in at the top slot is dancing in public, as this merry fellow is doing at a concert for The Vamps, which is some sort of pop band.

Dancing is followed by:

2. Public displays of affection - to children or with each other

3. Using outdated slang and trying to join in with "youth speak" or "youthful lingo"

4. Wearing age-inappropriate clothes

5. Telling cringeworthy stories, anecdotes or baby stories

6. Tidying up after children

7. Joining social media and friending children

8. Being useless at tech in general

9. Talking about the facts of life

10. Drinking too much

Read more about the survey at the Daily Telegraph.

(Photo: The London Evening Standard)

The betrayed ex-king famously raged in Act 1, Scene 4:

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!

Or as it is rendered in the ovine tongue:

Baa baa baa baa baa baa baa
Baa baa baa baaaaaa!

The Courtyard Theatre in London is presenting an experimental play called King Lear with Sheep. Here is a synopsis:

...A stubborn director is trying to put on a production of King Lear with a cast composed solely of sheep. As expected, his actors are both silent and mutinous. Much chaos ensues. King Lear with Sheep is an experimental re-evaluation of its famous predecessor that overturns theatrical conventions through the startling and revolutionary device of costumed sheep.

So it’s a play about the production of a play.

-via Dave Barry

(Photo: amanderson2)

Tim Love, a Top Chef competitor and native of the blessed nation of Texas, explains in First We Feast what you must do to get a proper eating and drinking experience in Texas. The first is a principle that all visitors to Texas should keep in mind:

You are always going to stand in some sort of line for great BBQ. Otherwise, you need to get up and leave.

Precisely! This is common knowledge in Texas, but may not be elsewhere. The locals know what is good barbecue. If they aren’t waiting for it, you shouldn’t either. There is, however, no waiting at my father-in-law’s handmade barbecue pit, although you must receive an invitation.

I will respectfully disagree with Mr. Love on this one, though:

Margaritas are basically the official drink of Texas. Make sure yours has fresh juices and good tequila (sorry, Jose Cuervo).

This is true only for breakfast. Pearl Beer and whiskey are perfectly acceptable drinks at other times of the day, notwithstanding the banana liqueur I hid in my father-in-law’s liquor cabinet as a joke.

The Hostess brand of snack cakes includes Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, and an assortment of other sweet confections. In the 1970s, it commissioned comic book stories in DC and Marvel publications promoting its products. In these classic ads, several of which you can view here, Captain America, Batman, and other heroes endorse Hostess cakes and good behavior.

Comic Book Resources has a regular feature called The Line It Is Drawn which challenges comic book artists to make funny images along a central theme. This time, it was modern versions of these classic Hostess ads. You can view them all here. My favorite is the rough Marv from Sin City selling Twinkies, courtesy of artist Nick Perks. It references a miniseries in the Sin City universe called That Yellow Bastard.

-via Geek Tyrant

This is the Zaamurets, a land cruising battleship. It was one of many modified or purpose-built war trains that carried destruction on rails. James Simpson tells its story in a longform article at Medium. From 1916 to the 1920s, it served (by my count) at least seven different armies in battles across the breadth of Eurasia.

Tsarist Russia constructed this behemoth, which originally had 2 traversable turrets with 57 mm guns, 8 machine guns, and a top speed of 28 miles per hour. In the midst of the Russian Revolution, it fell into the hands of the Communists, then into the legendary Czechoslovak Legion in its Anabasis-like march across the whole of Russia, then the White Russians, then an assortment of Chinese warlords, and finally the Japanese before disappearing into history. It’s an amazing story that you can read in full here.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

(Photo: Surf Dog Ricochet)

This is Ricochet, a therapy dog that specializes in helping people with disabilities. She used to handle small physical tasks, such as flipping light switches and opening doors. But now she's a "SURFice dog." After winning several dog surfing competitions, she began offering adaptive surfing experiences to people with physical disabilities, children with special needs, and veterans with PTSD. You can see more photos of her at work at My Modern Met.

The tiny sea sapphire has hexagonal guanine crystals embedded in the segments of its shell. They reflect the surrounding light in splashes of vibrant color. But you can enjoy its beauty for only a moment. When it reflects light right back at you, the sea sapphire vanishes from sight. The New Scientist describes how this little creature hides:

In blue sea sapphires, the distance between the crystals is about the same as the wavelength of blue light, so the animals appear blue.

The angle of light hitting the sea sapphire also affects the colour and lets it perform its disappearing act. For the species in the video, for example, the animal’s tilt of 45 degrees causes the reflected light to slip into the ultraviolet spectrum, and the animal becomes invisible to our eyes.

(Video Link)

Only male sea sapphires have such coloration, which they probably use to attract mates, just like how human males use fedoras.

-via Gizmodo

(Artist's rendering via the AP)

Behold The ARK. New York's Kennedy Airport is building a 4-acre facility on its grounds to house animals which are in the airport temporarily while traveling or for quarantine. When completed, it will have a bone-shaped dog pool, trees for cats, a private mating area for penguins, and stalls for horses. The Guardian describes the wonders of the world's first luxury and full-service airport terminal for animals:

For dog owners, The ARK will offer a 20,000-sqf (1,860-sqm) luxury “resort” run by the company Paradise 4 Paws, complete with bone-shaped splashing pools, massage therapy and “pawdicures with colored nail pawlish.” Dogs can watch flat-screen TVs and their owners can check in on them via webcam.

Cats will have their own trees to climb. And all animals will have access to a 24-hour clinic run by Cornell University’s veterinary college.

Planes can taxi directly to The ARK, which will permit animals to board and exit planes with less hassle and stress than ever before.

-via Scott Lincicome

One of the posters in the series says, "We Are Made of Our Childhood Books." The earliest books that we encounter can shape our lives. To advocate for the importance of school libraries in Japan, Miharu Mitsunaga of the advertising agency Dentsu Tokyo shaped and photographed book sculptures of kids for the Yokohama City Board of Education. You can see 2 more in the series at Spoon & Tamago.

(Photo: Whitby Gazette)

This is Da Vinci. You can call him Vinny. He's a foal born on a family farm in Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire, UK. His owner, Wendy Bulmer, noticed that that the white patch on his left side looks like the profile of another horse, from foreleg to mane.

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

(Photo: Mary Anne Cardinale)

On Thursday, firefighters pulled what appeared to be a dead cat from the scene of a fire in New Orleans. They were able to revive it with an oxygen mask designed specifically for dogs and cats. He is now in good health and has been returned to his owner.

-via Nag on the Lake

Rosie Pig calls herself "50% pig. 50% chihuahua. 100% party." But she can be a serious pig/dog, too. When moving day arrived, she dutifully rolled up in bubble wrap, then unwrapped upon arriving in her new home.

-via Drew Olanoff

(Photo: Rev. Joey Talley)

This is Joey Talley, a witch of the Wicca faith. She works in the tech industry of the San Francisco Bay area. Or, rather, she works for the tech industry. Computer programmers, software designers, and engineers call upon her to ensure that their businesses and equipment are safe from dark, mystical forces:

"Most people want me to protect their computers from viruses and hacks," she says, "so I'll make charms for them. I like to use flora."

Jet, a black gemstone energy-blocker, is ideal for debugging office hardware, Talley says; bigger or more vulnerable computer networks often require "a rainbow of colors to divert excess energy." If all else fails, she can cast a protection spell on the entire company, office supplies included.

Talley's foray into tech is still fresh enough that she sometimes calls it the "techno industry." That hasn't dissuaded savvy clients in the market for spiritual counseling, hypnosis, dream therapy, moon rituals, house clearings, potion-brewing, and other niche services. Her speciality? "I really like dealing with demons," she says.

She recounts a recent episode involving a startup whose office alarm was infected by an "invasive species." After multiple electricians failed to rout whatever poltergeist was causing the alarm to shrill at odd intervals, the company contacted Reverend Talley.

"I don't know anything about electronics, but I got the spirit out," she says. It's hard to tell whether she's boasting or apologizing.

This is a selection from a longform article by Jeremy Lybarger in San Francisco Weekly. It examines the incredible popularity of occult mysticism in Silicon Valley. Psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, and witches are thriving as tech companies consult them for clairvoyance and spiritual warfare.

-via Dave Barry