Medieval Smiley Face

Medieval smiley face

This is a true feel-good doodle, drawn by a medieval reader and found in the lower margin of a 13th-century page. The surprisingly modern-looking smiley face is wearing glasses and seems to float towards the text in a balloon, quite content. This little scene made my day.

Pic: Conches, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 7 (main text 13th century, doodle 14th or 15th century).

dont be mean 

I try not to post much political content on this blog, but considering that I posted this in a fit of frustration last night, I feel obligated to point out that there's a lot of equally (or more) terrible stuff going on in the United States and all around the world and I would be remiss if I neglected to even mention it.

I'm sure I missed some things, so feel free to fill me in.

Edit: There's also a lot of misinformation being spread around. Do some reading before you react (whoops) and check your sources (including all of these)! However, even if events and reactions are exaggerated it's entirely appropriate to still be mad that these things are actually still issues in 2013. I swear, some of these are equivalent of a 60 year-old throwing a tantrum by rolling around on the floor, crying loudly, shouting at mommy and daddy and kicking at anyone who comes too close, except on a global scale.

Edit 2.0: According to sharingpurellwithhowardhughes " People’s assessment of the ousting of Aussie PM Gillard is actually incorrect". Thanks!

LOSING ALTITUDE KICKSTARTEEEER! 

Just about 600$ away from the half way funding mark!

These samples are so pretty!! Losing Altitude is a small project set to produce an art book and a deck of cards of threatened bird species. The art book (available in soft and hard cover) will feature a quick blurb of information about each depicted bird that will include conservation efforts being made for them.

I don’t believe kickstarter allows direct charity projects? But many artists in the project are choosing to donate the proceeds of their work to a bird focused charity (the charity is not chosen yet, I guess we’re crossing that hurdle when funding actually happens.)

My bird of choice will be the Ivory Gull. Rough drawing of that is in the works, hopefully soon, before the kickstarter is over I can post that.

The funding goal is 5,500!

So please go look at the kickstarter.

Please reblog in addition to or in place of donating if you’re unable to donate? Spreading the word would be so helpful! 

The Strange Beauty of Diatoms and Phytoplankton - Full Gallery