shush I am trying to sleep

book-aesthete:

The makers of Venice: Doges, conquerors, painters, and men of letters.
Margaret Oliphant. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [ca. 1900–1910].

Binding: Striking medieval-style vellum, front cover with inset chromolithographic illustration in jewel tones in raised, stamped and gilt frame; hand-painted foliate decorations in pink, green, blue, and yellow with stamped and gilt “studs” laid on, artfully scattered. Calligraphic title incorporating onlaid raised decorative capitals; spine with painted foliate decoration; back cover with fully-filling reverse-painted griffin in blue-green and gilt. Studs and other raised elements appear to be clay or ceramic; upper edges gilt and gauffered.

First published in 1887, this evocative study of medieval and Renaissance Venetian history comes from a Scottish-born novelist and historical writer who also published similarly titled works on Florence, Rome, and Jerusalem. Here it appears in a remarkable hand-painted, medieval-inspired binding with raised and gilt details.

John Campbell’s hourly comics are always quality. One comic for every waking hour of every day for the month of January for six years, plus a few extras.

theemeraldisle:

Storm clouds over the Wicklow Gap

“The 26 km section from Hollywood to Laragh is known as the Wicklow Gap Road and it is one of only two routes crossing the Wicklow Mountains from east to west, the other being the road through the Sally Gap in North Wicklow. The road through the Wicklow Gap is both an important regional route and a very popular tourist route as it travels through some spectacular scenery.”  (via)

ceiling of Paul Barrett Jr. Library at Rhodes College

batwhatever:

chicksdigthephoenix:

People being redirected to this Tumblr: stop looking at that fucking Batman picture and watch this.

((Please watch this.))

fourteen minutes, but

(Source: paranolives)

animalworld:

BONE EATING SNOT FLOWER
Osedax mucofloris
©NHM / Nature Online

Translated from the mixed Greek and Latin used in scientific names, “Osedax mucofloris” literally means “bone-eating snot-flower” which is an unattractive name for any species, even a sea worm that feasts on dead whales. These deep-sea siboglinid polychaete worms, are alo called boneworms, zombie worms, or bone-eating worms.

Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute using the submarine ROV Tiburon first discovered the genus in Monterey Bay, California, in February 2002. The worms were found living on the bones of a decaying gray whale in the Monterey Canyon, at a depth of 2,893 m (9,491 ft).

Lacking stomach and mouth, Osedax rely on symbiotic species of bacteria to digest whale fat and oils and to release the nutrients in a form that they can absorb. Osedax have colorful feathery plumes that act as gills and unusual root-like structures that absorb nutrients.

Male Osedax are microscopic dwarfs that live as “harems” inside the lumen of the gelatinous tube that surrounds each female. An individual female can house hundreds of these males in her tube. Source

Other posts:

Christmas Tree Worm

Venus Flytrap Sea Anemone

Pompeii Worm

Oaten Pipes

As if the name is not neat enough, it also has to be a whale-specific detritivore. After my own heart.

Except on the wiki page it goes on to say: “Some scientists think that Osedax is a specialist on whalebones while others think that it is more of a generalist. This controversy is due to a biogeographic paradox: despite the rarity and ephemeral nature of whale falls, Osedaxhas a broad biogeographic range and is surprisingly diverse. One hypothesis advanced to explain this paradox is that Osedax are able to colonize a variety of vertebrate remains besides whalebones.” The subsequently linked articles are available through Stanford.