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If New England’s amnesia has been pervasive, it has also been willful, ... That’s because many of slavery’s markers aren’t hidden or buried. In New England, one need look no further than a symbol that graces welcome mats, door knockers, bedposts, and all manner of household decor: the pineapple. That exotic fruit, said Manegold, is as intertwined with slavery as the Confederate flag: When New England ships came to port, captains would impale pineapples on a fence post, a sign to everyone that they were home and open for business, bearing the bounty of slave labor and sometimes slaves themselves.

I can’t decide which confounds me more, that Airbnb seems completely oblivious to the slavery connections with the NE hospitality pineapple, or that every single media outlet reporting on it seems equally ignorant.

They can start with this article, if things like the Airbnb magazine for some reason matter in this world.

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Hydroids are small underwater animals that often live in colonies made up of individual polyps. The colony is interconnected through the gastrovascular system, which is responsible for both digestion and respiration. In the images above, a single polyp in the colony has been fed food dyed with a fluorescent tracer. The polyp serves as a circulating pump and, as the food is digested and the tracer released, more and more of the colony becomes visible. Watch the full video and read more about the experiment. (Video credit and submission: L. Buss Lab)

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Watch S4E7 - #GamerGate by Folding Ideas on Blip It's hard to accept that the one most reasoned analyses of gamergaters I've yet seen is from a hand puppet, but such is the world we live in today. (Don't let the Zizek recommendation put you off)

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The Marriage of Oberon and Titania, John Anster Fitzgerald

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Mildly disappointed this does not involve otter costumes. 

Did you know that otter volunteers are a pup’s best friends? Tiny rescued pups need formula eight times a day, and this means our sea otter program staff and volunteers work through the night to ensure pups get their daily caloric intake.

The “disguise” ensures that young pups don’t get attached to their human caregivers!

Learn more #SeaOtterWeek

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Votes Are Busting Out All Over part 1.

It's been a while since I've written one of these, thanks to an unusual dry spell in voting madness and some weird personal stuff. But now we're back, thanks to the midterm elections. Also, wellbutrin. 

Making up for lost time, there are about a million offices to vote for and surprisingly few ballot measures. Let's get this democraycy started. 

Governor: Jerry Brown will apparently walk away with this, although there are two other Democrats, six Republicans, one Green, one Peace and Freedom, and seven "no party preference," candidates on the ballot. I'm not sure if people realize this is an election, not an open casting call. It will be hard to resist the siren call of candidates like Nikolas Wildstar, whose campaign facebook page consists solely of the "V is for Vengeance" mask and the Malcolm X quote "Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice. If you are a man you take it" but I'll manage.  

Since, Jerry's got the whole thing sewn up whether we like it or not, and we'll have to vote again on this whole mess anyway com November, I'm tossing a vote Cindy Sheehan's way. She annoyed George Bush and wants to legalize pot. She won't win, but I'd like to encourage both those things. 

Lt. Governor: You know, that guy who isn't the Governor. Only eight people running, all of whom are actually allied with a real party. Even the cranks aren't interested in the Lt. Governorship. Current LG Gavin Newsom is so confident, he doesn't even bother to put information on smartvoter. Well if that's how you feel about it, I'm voting for the other Democrat, Eric Korevaar. He's a scientist! It's not all about the hair, Gavin, ya gotta play to the nerds in this state too.

Attorney General: Kamala 4eva, obvs. This office brings out perennial wingnut candidate Orly Taitz, who has dropped the birther thing in favor of nullifying everything, everywhere. 

Controller: It's at this point that I realize votersedge has info on not only on campaign funding, but also pictures of most of the candidates in one handy place. I can be both fiscally inquisitive and shallow. On the money side, John Perez has raised WAY more campaign money than anyone else, even the republicans. Whither Koch brothers? You just handing this one to the unions? Choice: Perez.  I'm in a union, dammit.

Insurance Commissioner: Voters edge doesn't even bother with this one, and none of the three candidates have provided any into on smartvoter. Tempted to flip a three sided coin to choose, but in the end go with Nathalie Hrizi. At least she put the effort into her website. Fancy! Also, national health is the quickest way to my heart. I didn't really expect to be voting for this many socialists so early in the game. 

Secretary of State: Again, the lead Democrat candidate, Alex Padilla, has raised way more money, $2.1 million, than the lead Republican, Pete Peterson, who has raised a paltry $139,000. Either the Republicans have given up, or there's something about Super PACs that I'm missing here. Going for the underdog again. Congrats Derek Cressman, you've both (weirdly) raised three times as much money as Pete Peterson, and you have my vote. 

State Superintendent of Instruction: Three nonpartisan candidates! One the one hand, Lynda Gutierrez is a women POC running against two white guys, on the other she provides no info, so ... no. Tom Torkalson gets the vote because as far as I can tell, he's not part of this charter school nonsense like the other white guy is. 

Treasurer: John Chiang, Democrat, is the only candidate whose listed as having raised any money at all. I find this all highly suspicious. I mean, I can believe the Green party candidate is broke, but are you telling me a white male, ex military republican like Greg Conlon hasn't raised any money? Voting for Chiang. Perhaps he's in the unions' pockets, but at least he's being transparent about it. Such is the sad state of our election finance laws. 

State Board of Equalization; District Three: I confess, I had to look up what this was. The SBE deals with tax assessment, which does nothing to explain why we are back to having a lot of write in candidates. I was all set to vote for Democrat Jerome Horton, until he listed "Archietech (sic) Taxpayers Bill of Rights" in his biographical highlights, plus he's endorsed by the California taxpayers Association. Dude, why are you a Democrat? Come out of the closet as a Libertarian, already. You win, Jan B. Tucker, licensed private investigator endorsed by Roseanne Barr! 

Crispus, this election has way more crap than I expected. I'm dividing up these posts. 

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stabilized star trek shot

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Members of the Venice Beach Girls Dare Club, a group of bathing beauties who do a new stunt every Sunday, playing tightrope basketball.

Venice, California, 1929.

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What do you do when you get a Facebook message from a man you don’t know who is 51 years old (which is 24 years older than you are) and it says “You seem interesting ….. and a little damaged. I think I’d like that” ?

I thought I meant that question rhetorically, exasperatedly,...

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Mark Ryden, 2012. The Cone of Memory.

Show at the Kohn Gallery 5/3-6/28!

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Good news!. You can see her entire wedding ensemble here (the shoes are great). I'd post the picture but the original was deleted, and it's only showing up on image search as some kind of internet ghost that I don't really understand. Although if you are going to wind-up an internet ghost, that's pretty much the perfect outfit for it. 

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"The fashion journalist Marit Allen wore this dramatic white gabardine and silvered PVC mini-dress and coat ensemble when she married the film producer Sandy Lieberson on June 10th 1966. It was designed by John Bates, one of the most innovative and original designers working during the 1960s." Victoria and Albert Museum collection

Dying to know what shoes she wore. 

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See the ground actually open up and move! (by Steve Goldberg) This gave me nightmares.

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The good news in California is that we have drawn down the water table to such an extent that very few of our soils are water saturated. When we analyzed what would happen in a big San Andreas earthquake - see this report for more info - we found that very few places had enough water to lead to liquefaction.

The next time someone criticizes you for that 30 minute shower, tell them you're only doing it for the earthquake safety benefits. I am Dr. Lucy Jones, USGS Seismologist & Earthquake Adviser for Mayor Garcetti – AMA : LosAngeles

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#NOSPINES

I bet you thought “There’s no way that someone could make a parody of Blurred Lines that pays homage to all the world’s invertebrates!!" 

Well, you’re wrong.

(by Carin Bondar)

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"The Sciences Sing a Lullaby"

-Albert Goldbarth