10 non-work-related items that I found fun or interesting

Why are rabbit’s feet considered lucky? via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker on 10/26/11
At Anthropology in Practice, Krystal D’Costa looks at the cultural history of the rabbit's foot as a good luck charm, and attempts to figure out why bunny feet ended up being imbued with such significance. After all, owning that foot didn't turn out to be particularly lucky for the rabbit. But then, that may be part of the point.
It’s an interesting article, and D’Costa finds connections to both European hedge-witchery and African-American trickster legends.

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
When Groucho Marx met T.S. Eliot. The antic Jewish wit and the morose anti-Semite shared a friendship and a compulsion: extreme frankness... more



The Scariest Zombies in Nature via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza

From Smithsonian:
Once the fungus invades its victim’s body, it’s already too late. The invader spreads through the host in a matter of days. The victim, unaware of what is happening, becomes driven to climb to a high spot. Just before dying, the infected body – a zombie – grasps a perch as the mature fungal invader erupts from the back of the zombie’s head to rain down spores on unsuspecting victims below, starting the cycle again. This isn't the latest gross-out moment from a George A. Romero horror film; it is part of a very real evolutionary arms race between a parasitic fungus and its victims, ants. More here.

Women by Robert McGinnis via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris

Robert McGinnis (born 1926)is known for his illustrations of over 1200 paperback book covers, and over 40 movie posters, including Breakfast at Tiffanys (his first film poster assignment), Barbarella, and several James Bond films.
Wikipedia

Thank you to The Painted Anvil

I think this one is my favourite of those included in the post – view them all

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The biologist and the billionaire. What's E.O. Wilson doing on the southern edge of Africa's Great Rift Valley? Stirring up controversy, of course... more

James Gurney paints a mud puddle by Mark Frauenfelder via BoingBoing
One of many reasons I admire artist James Gurney so much: he finds beauty in almost everything.

Yesterday I took my car to the shop because it needed an inspection. The rain was pouring down. There wasn't much space in the waiting room. So I sat under the awning out back between an old rusty engine and a forklift.
While I waited, I sketched the mud puddle beside me. The rain streamed off the corrugated roof and splashed the water, making big bubbles. The puddle was a sea of overlapping ripples.

James Gurney gets his car inspected

Ten Mistresses Who Changed History via 3quarksdaily by Abbas Raza
Elizabeth Weingarten in Slate:

Before Monica Lewinsky, Camilla Parker Bowles, or Marilyn Monroe, there was Hagar – the world's first known mistress.
According to the Bible, Hagar was an Egyptian slave sent to the bed of her master, Abraham, by his barren wife, Sarah.
Several millenniums later, the mistress remains a tenuous position, as historian Elizabeth Abbott explores in her new book, Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman, out this week [of 31 August]. Since Hagar's era, however, a handful of women have learned to parlay their scandalous relationships into positions of power – and some have changed history in doing so.

More here.

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
5-by-8-inch cardstock, about to be thrown away: the trade-school report cards of strangers long dead. Paul Lukas delivered a precious few to where they belong... more
Before you click on the “more” I have to warn you – if you have any interest in social history you will a) want to look at http://www.slate.com/authors.paul_lukas.html and you will find that you’ve lost a lot of time enjoying yourself.

Inside the sea caves of Devil’s Island via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Last year, when I posted here about the history of the lighthouse at Devil's Island, Wisconsin, several of you noticed the island's extensive network of sea caves, carved into the sandstone cliffs by splashing waves and moving water. This year, when some friends and I went on a little paddle through the caves, I took along a video camera. It doesn’t quite capture the eerie awesomeness of floating into the dark with Lake Superior behind you, but it’s still pretty neat.
Apologies in advance for the occasional sudden jerky movements and possible audible swearing. Devil’s Island is also home to a large population of biting flies and my ankles are, apparently, quite tasty.
Video Link

Bathing suit law, USA 1922

(Click here for full size resolution)
June 30, 1922. Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrell, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee.
National Photo Co.
from http://www.conradaskland.com/ via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT