Litholife

f-featherbrain: William Bradley, 1895

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:54:14 -0400

f-featherbrain:

William Bradley, 1895

azspot: Matt Bors

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:19:13 -0400

azspot:

Matt Bors

The Magic Dogwood(Cornus florida subspecies urbiniana). A rare...

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:14:07 -0400

The Magic Dogwood(Cornus florida subspecies urbiniana). A rare Mexican version of the common American Dogwood tree. This variety is noted for its flower bracts, which are fused together, resulting in an amazing display of spirals and shapes.

f-featherbrain: Arthur Rackham’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales,...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:39:26 -0400

f-featherbrain:

Arthur Rackham’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1909

(via: animation resources)

baby marmosets

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:39:40 -0400

baby marmosets

Photo

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:14:49 -0400

m3zzaluna: a brave and formally dressed photographer shooting...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:10 -0400

m3zzaluna:

a brave and formally dressed photographer shooting the city from atop a skyscraper, mid-1920s

photographer unknown

neuromorphogenesis: Scans that prove Leonardo da Vinci was...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:52:34 -0400

neuromorphogenesis:

Scans that prove Leonardo da Vinci was right all along: New show reveals ‘startling accuracy’ of anatomical sketches which lay undiscovered for hundreds of years

The startling accuracy of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings will be highlighted by a new exhibition that compares the artist’s work with modern medical scans.

Long praised as one of the finest artists of the Renaissance era and a visionary inventor, da Vinci’s work as an anatomist was also well ahead of its time.

Da Vinci first began researching the human body to help him keep his paintings as ‘true to nature’ as possible, but the project soon took on a life of its own and he had ambitions to write an illustrated treatise on anatomy.

In the course of his investigations he dissected more than 30 corpses in hospitals and medical schools, filling hundreds of pages of his notebooks with detailed sketches.

Many of them date from the winter of 1510-11, when he dissected some 20 corpses at the medical school of the University of Pavia in collaboration with professor of anatomy Marcantonio della Torre.

On the 18 sheets of what is now known as Leonardo’s Anatomical Manuscript A, the artist crammed more than 240 individual drawings and notes running to more than 13,000 words in his distinctive mirror-writing.

The work, which has never before been shown in its entirety in the UK, covers almost every bone in the body and many major muscle groups.

Comparison with modern day medical scans shows how, despite his limited knowledge of medicine and the limited technology to hand, Da Vinci’s work was nevertheless incredibly accurate.

The artist’s insights could have revolutionised European knowledge of anatomy.

However, on his death in 1519 they remained among his personal papers and did not see the light of day for hundreds of years.

A spokesman for the Royal Collection Trust said: ‘Had they been published at the time, they would undoubtedly have been the most influential work on the human body ever produced.’

Much of the work anticipates 21st-century medical thinking, using the same sequences of images now used to train medics.

He also recorded the muscles of the shoulder and arm in eight different views, rotating the body through 180 degrees.

These drawings will be juxtaposed with a modern animation capturing the same sequence.

Similarly, a 3D film of a dissected shoulder will demonstrate the incredible accuracy of da Vinci’s many drawings of the bones, muscles, nerves and tendons of the shoulder joint, seen from every angle and in every position.

‘This area of the body has a complex range of motion, and Leonardo’s attempts to capture it in two-dimensional drawings are shown to be centuries ahead of his time,’ the spokesman said.

Other exhibition highlights include the first accurate depiction of the spine in history (1510); Leonardo’s notes from his post-mortem dissection of a 100-year-old man (conducted c.1508), in which he gives the first accurate descriptions of cirrhosis of the liver and narrowing of the arteries in the history of medicine; and the iconic and beautiful study of a child in the womb (c.1511), displayed alongside a 3D ultrasound scan of a foetus.

1957 … ‘Operation Survival” by x-ray delta one...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:01:40 -0400

1957 … ‘Operation Survival” by x-ray delta one on Flickr.

scanzen: The “Telephone Tower” in Stockholm. This was one of...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:47:42 -0400

scanzen:

The “Telephone Tower” in Stockholm. This was one of the main telephone junctions in Stockholm between 1887-1913. About 5000 telephone lines where connected here. After that the tower remained as landmark until 1953 when it was torn down as a result of a fire.

via Tekniska museet

mydaguerreotypeboyfriend: Samuel Clemens (a.k.a Mark Twain),...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:40:09 -0400

mydaguerreotypeboyfriend:

Samuel Clemens (a.k.a Mark Twain), age 15, 1850. Daguerreotype taken when he was a printer in Hannibal, Missouri.

Check out that baller belt-buckle! Are you as cool as fifteen-year-old Sam?

Update: That’s not a buckle! From a reader on Facebook: “He’s holding, with his right hand on its pistol grip (remember, these images are reversed), a typesetter’s composing stick, in which the metal type for his name are inserted, ready to print. He was smart enough to know that the image would be reversed, and thus show correctly in the photo!”

frontal-cortex: Mosquito eyes Frontal view to the compound eyes...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:24:37 -0400

frontal-cortex:

Mosquito eyes
Frontal view to the compound eyes of a moquito. The surface of each single eye has a rough appearance which gives them a violet shimmer in real life. Between and above the eyes fine scales, similar to the ones at butterflies can be seen. / FEI Image Gallery

Oliver Meckes

fixedsash: This is what summer is all about. Through most of...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:59:11 -0400

fixedsash:

This is what summer is all about. Through most of my 20s and 30s I too owned a convertible, and I can tell you that not much beats this scene right here: a warm summer’s day, top down, date in the seat next to you, and a gathering of friends. This photo exemplifies my unabashed love of summer.

One thing I hadn’t noticed until today is the guy isn’t driving, making this photo a good reminder of the changes for women that were taking place. The 19^th Amendment had only been ratified for about a decade to give you an idea of how things were evolving. So while the modern eye may see her in the driver’s seat and think “so what,” you have to take it a step further and see that this was probably the first generation to also think “so what.” One other note, this car didn’t have power steering (not available until the 50s), that means that even though this was a small car it still took some oomph to turn that wheel. With all of this in mind it really gives one a good sense of respect for that generation.