also “if it is necessary to die for the will of the people, I wish to be the first name engraved on that marble monument of hope” is just a hell of a line

but I will die on the hill that “doll in a showcase” is more true to what Cosette could imagine than “castle in the clouds” (and it gives you the lovely moment of serendipity when Valjean brings the doll with him)

this is very interesting, especially because the songs where I remember the French lyrics, they’re fantastic. now I want to go back and compare the whole score, because this thread is absolutely right about how good “I dreamed a dream” is in English

it has “paper ancestor money” printed across the corner

thankfully for my sanity I flipped it over

an extremely mulched corner of what seems to be a hundred dollar bill

tfw you’re raking leaf mulch and

In the footsteps of Linnaeus: scientists share their passion for species from tiny wasps to hairy plants – in pictures For his project ‘De Oförtrutna’ (The Relentless), photographer Christer Björkman pictured Swedish scientists working in the spirit of Carl Linneaus, the botanist who created the modern taxonomic syste...

well these are cute 🥲
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

otoh it’s pretty damn bleak that I can’t get more than two minutes of live weather during an active tornado warning before it gets cut off by ads for stupid phone games

but also

colleague just has three different species of deadly beans on her desk to compare with the surprise box of evil peas

I am so lucky

😃😃😃

The Integrity Orion capsule European Service Module is at left; the Moon occupies most of the scene, but mainly the night (unilluminated) side is visible. A portion of the illuminated lunar surface is visible at lower right. Crescent Earth, partially occluded by the Moon, is in the distance at centre.

Whoa.

Check out this photo from the Artemis II mission—the Orion service module on the left, the lunar limb at bottom right, and in the middle, a crescent Earth rising from behind the Moon.

It looks like it's sci-fi, but it's real. And just happened last week.

plants are great and so inventive at killing all sorts of things

tragically I have forgotten the death Oreo bean species

ziplock baggie full of medium size round black seeds with white edges

other colleague (whose office I had invaded) says “oh, have you seen the death Oreo beans??”

best colleagues ever

but also colleague just wanders in and says “hey look what I found in a box today” and brandishes DEATH PEAS at me

and says, “I’m pretty sure these are twice as toxic as ricin?”

love that people saw these deadly beans and were like ah yes I shall make jewelry and also murder weapons (unrelated)

(also now I want some jequirity pea earrings)

(I have also intentionally bought books I think have arsenic pigments)

POISON!!!☠️

(Rosary pea, aka Abrus precatorius)

Tiny battered plastic box with a paper that says POISON and has a lil skull and crossbones drawn in ballpoint pen

Side view of same plastic box, containing several small red beans with a black spot on each

Some days (most days) I love my job SO MUCH

Leo, former head of the Augustinian order, visits the site where Bishop Augustine (future saint) developed foundational texts to catholic just war theory, about which convert JD Vance is trying to popesplain right now.

screencap of a tweet with a photo at the bottom of JD Vance giving a talk, gesturing smugly with his hands Eric Daugherty • @EricLDaugh • 1h • JD VANCE RESPONDS TO POPE LEO: "When the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword - there is more than a THOUSAND year tradition of Just war Theory." "In the same way that it's important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology." "And I think that one of these issues here is that there has been - if you're going to opine on matters of theology, you've got to be careful, you've got to make sure it's anchored in the truth, and that's one of the things that I try to do, and it's certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they're Catholic or Protestant."

I’ve given this a great deal of thought, trying to come up with the perfect joke for this moment, and this is what I have so far -

POPE LEO: our religion teaches that this war is bad

VANCE: wow, who died and made YOU head of the Catholic Church??

POPE LEO: well, you should know, you were there

I absolutely co-sign this: here are three of my current desk rocks

Still sad I didn’t find a good fake monks with swords one in Monaco, tbh, but I love my Ampelmann from Berlin and my Viking ship from Oslo

I was just discussing what sort of magnet to get when we are in London!

A picture of a library shelf with a small rolled up note on it. The note says “read this” in child’s handwriting.

A picture of the note unrolled. In the same child’s handwriting it reads “beware of the future!!”

Still thinking about this note I found in the children’s section of the public library when I worked there back in 2018. This kid tried to warn us…

yes this

hm. insomnia?

Books as Luxury Items - Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I wrote about books as luxury items, specifically that books are being adopted by luxury brands at an increasing rate - Dior, especially, also Prada, MiuMiu, and now Coach book charms, in partnership with PRH.

IMO, books as a luxury aesthetic reveal cultural anxieties about reading and access.

Gospel Book of Otto III c. 1000 Manuscript (Clm. 4453), 334 x 242 mm Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich This is another miniature from the Gospels of Otto III (folio 139r). It shows St Luke with a piles of manuscripts in his lap (their bindings studded with jewels) exalting all the Old Testament prophets who foretold the coming of Christ. Web gallery of art image: https://www.wga.hu/html_m/zgothic/miniatur/1001-050/1/1gospel5.html

I love this photo of Saint Luke with piles of manuscripts in his lap from the Gospel Book of Otto III (c. 1000 CE)
(Manuscript (Clm. 4453), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich). Probably projection, but he looks traumatized by all the reading he still needs to do before the end of the semester.

!!!