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‘Some Antarctic orcas use the cunning tactic of regularly hunting in packs and making waves to wash seals off floating ice, researchers have confirmed.’
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At the British Library, a fabulous photograph of men working in a Cornish mine in the 1890s.
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A recording of sheep-dog calls from 1911.
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‘neurobiologists have discovered that homosexuality can be turned on or off in fruit flies… by giving a drug that changes the way the flies’ sensory circuits react to pheromones.’
The robust London sense of humour was on display at Borough market last week, courtesy of the bloke selling Christmas trees.
Also of interest at the market, some fine-looking fungi for sale. I have no idea what puffballs are like to eat—mushroomy, probably—but they look impressive.
These pictures are hosted on my Flickr account. And it seems like an apt moment to plug my photoblog Clouded Drab again, since the photo on the front page at the moment was also taken at Borough Market.
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via things magazine: A remarkable set of photos taken at a south London school in the late 70s.
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I promise not to make a habit of posting links to lolcats, but these ones made me giggle.
Found while browsing the British Museum archive of 2D art, a walrus head drawn by Albrecht Dürer:
It looks even better viewed large. I think that deserves to be as famous as his equally marvellous rhinoceros.
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In The Mood For Love
I watched In The Mood For Love on DVD yesterday. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, set in Hong Kong in the 60s. One of the cover blurbs says it’s ‘like Brief Encounter remade by Kubrick and Scorsese’; I’m not sure about the Kubrick/Scorsese thing, but the comparison to Brief Encounter is very apt. It’s a film about two people not quite having an illicit relationship, or at least not quite having a sexual relationship.
Apart from anything else, it just looks great. it has a real period feel—not than I’m in a position to judge the accuracy of the details. It’s full of colour, but mainly a subdued palette, all greens and oranges and browns, off-whites, soft blues. And nearly all the action takes place in confined spaces, in apartment blocks, offices, alleys, noodle shops, and in artificial light. And it looks cramped: looking through it to find some screen grabs, it was striking how often objects intrude in the foreground.
Maggie Cheung drifts through the film looking exquisite and fragile in a sequence of beautiful cheongsams, and Tony Leung is is also extremely watchable, if not quite so fabulously attired. It’s moody and atmospheric and generally a pleasure to watch.