xkcd on Legos and organ donors. This is brilliant. Thank you to Craig M. for posting.
Baron de Meyer’s “Dance Study,” ca. 1912. Taken from the Met’s website. Here is what they say about it:
[Dance Study], ca. 1912
Adolph de Meyer (American, born France, 1868–1949)
Platinum print
12 7/8 x 17 1/8 in. (32.7 x 43.5 cm)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949 (49.55.327)
De Meyer photographed the dancer Nijinsky and other members of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes when L’après-midi d’un faun was presented in Paris in 1912. This photograph, the only nude by de Meyer, most likely portrays one member of the troupe in a costume whose source remains mysterious.Citation: “Adolph de Meyer: [Dance Study] (49.55.327)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pict/ho_49.55.327.htm (October 2006)”
Theater program cover illustration for performance of Israel Zangwill’s play, The Melting Pot: The Great American Drama (1916, first performance 1908). Via Wikipedia.
Dream Anatomy, Govard Bidloo (1649-1713)
The exhibition that this is taken from is extraordinary.
Of course, the truth that very few people want to say out loud is that for-profit insurance companies are actually doing the smart thing by denying coverage to sexual-assault victims. If you've been raped, you're probably going to require expensive one-on-one therapy and who knows what other sorts of treatment. You're a bad risk. Why not deny coverage? At least, that's how it looks to me. Someone can explain to me if I'm getting it wrong somehow.
Weaver’s Needle, a rock spire east of Phoenix. Description: “Weaver’s Needle from Fremont Saddle at the top of Peralta Trail… Weaver’s Needle is a thousand foot high column of rock that forms a distinctive peak visible for many miles around. Located in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona, Weaver’s Needle was created when a thick layer of tuff (fused volcanic ash) was heavily eroded, creating the spire as an erosional remnant with a summit elevation of 4553 ft.” From Wikipedia. I used to hike here regularly.
The text reads:
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity.
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects; thus began Priesthood.
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And a length they pronounc’d that the Gods had order’d such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, ca. 1790-1793. Full text here.