The Untergunther

The Untergunther is a French team whose activity is to restore the invisible parts of the heritage in total clandestinity.

In November 2005, the Untergunther infiltrated the Pantheon of Paris and, with the help of the professional clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot, started to restore the abandoned monumental 1850 Wagner clock before its irreversible state of defacement.

Once this restoration achieved, in October 2006, the Untergunther decided to meet Bernard Jeannot, the administrator of the Pantheon, in order to show him this work and to connect the clock to the bells.

After an enthusiastic welcome, Mister Jeannot suddenly changed his mind and decided to keep the silence on this clandestine restoration, frightened that this fantastic action was the proof of the incapacity of the French National Heritage administration, Monum, to preserve the heritage it is in charge of.

On the night of the 24th december 2006, the Untergunther came back to the Pantheon and fixed the bells to the clock which just rang for Christmas and a few days after because Mister Jeannot decided that this result of a clandestine restoration of an abandoned part of the French heritage was intolerable and had to stop.

(Source: urban-resources.net)

Thomas Bede, November 22, 1928 – Photograph by The Sydney Justice & Police Museum

Thomas Bede, November 22, 1928 – Photograph by The Sydney Justice & Police Museum

An idea’s been floating around for some time that whales more than chewed people — that they swallowed them, and people might have survived in the stomach. Jonah’s story came first, and then there were rumors from the 19th century Yankee Whale Fishery — whaling ships leaving New York and New England ports for years on the open ocean. I’d like to believe in swallowings, but it’s tough. There is no air in the stomach, for one. There are acids. And if we are talking about sperm whales, which we are most of the time, there is the deadly passage through the 30-foot jaws lined with 8-inch teeth.

Still, you’d like to think it’s possible. You want to believe in an animal that can fit you inside them — that you might be consumed not piece-by-piece, mouthful-by-mouthful as sharks and bears would eat you, but wholly; to be encased as your full self, womb-like. You want to believe in big animals like you did when you were a kid. You want to be powerless as you are leaning into hurricane winds or with your eyes closed or looking into the ocean.

— Swallowed by a whale — a true tale?

A London Street Scene (1840) by John Parry

A London Street Scene (1840) by John Parry

Superstring Theory

Superstring Theory

Calabi Yau Manifold

Calabi Yau Manifold

Newmanology

Newmanology

Newmanology

Newmanology

A study from the Netherlands finds allowing ideas to incubate in the back of the mind is, in a narrow sense, overrated. People who let their unconscious minds take a crack at a problem were no more adept at coming up with innovative solutions than those who consciously deliberated over the dilemma. But they did perform better on the vital second step of this process: determining which of their ideas was the most creative. That realization provides essential information; without it, how do you decide which solution you should actually try to implement?

— How the Unconscious Mind Boosts Creative Output

matthen: If you roll a circle inside one 3 times its size, it will actually trace out a 4 pointed star shape called an Astroid (this shape is traced out in the animation in orange).  But what if inside the smaller circle, there is an even smaller one tracing out a smaller Astroid?  This animation shows the intricate shape that is generated by adding the effects of all the Astroids.  [code] [also]

matthen:

If you roll a circle inside one 3 times its size, it will actually trace out a 4 pointed star shape called an Astroid (this shape is traced out in the animation in orange).  But what if inside the smaller circle, there is an even smaller one tracing out a smaller Astroid?  This animation shows the intricate shape that is generated by adding the effects of all the Astroids.  [code] [also]

(via fuckyeahgeometry)

The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, “loafer”—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means “to stroll”. Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of “a person who walks the city in order to experience it”. Because of the term’s usage and theorization by Baudelaire and numerous thinkers in economic, cultural, literary and historical fields, the idea of the flâneur has accumulated significant meaning as a referent for understanding urban phenomena and modernity.

The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, “loafer”—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means “to stroll”. Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of “a person who walks the city in order to experience it”. Because of the term’s usage and theorization by Baudelaire and numerous thinkers in economic, cultural, literary and historical fields, the idea of the flâneur has accumulated significant meaning as a referent for understanding urban phenomena and modernity.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Mr. Asimov on Libraries

Mr. Asimov on Libraries

As a result, a certain percentage of the population is going to follow their dreams and end up in a situation that makes them very happy, while another portion of the population is going to end up in dead-end jobs that make them unhappy. Those dead-end jobs need to be done even if few people will ever get much fulfillment out of them (I’m not saying that there isn’t somebody out there who could be happy in such a job, but that there are jobs that very few people could be happy doing). In essence, life is unfair because many people are predisposed by heredity or other factors to have natural talents in areas that aren’t lucrative and those people will wind up doing jobs that aren’t fulfilling.

— S. virens on To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion

I’m really looking forward to your follow-up posts, “You Guys, Love Isn’t Really All That Great” and “HEY, Who Needs a Soul Anyway?” FYI, just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. In fact it’s probably MORE worth doing. Also, the title of this article is pretty misleading. As the commenter above me says, if you seek out problems you care about to work on, that basically is following your passion in the workplace. Compromise and smart planning doesn’t mean you’re betraying your dreams… it just means you’re situating them in a more realistic way for the time being.

— Eric G on To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion