this is great: apparently michelangelo had a servant who (like most people at the time) was illiterate… so he wrote this shopping list for her (dated 1518) complete with a menu of small pictograms to help with getting the daily groceries…
me news
sobremesa
interesting collection of untranslatable words in various languages, although strictly speaking they are translatable but do not have an exact equivalent word in other languages… but maybe i am being a bit pedantic :)
swastika laundry
utterly bizarre story i came across recently: a laundry business with an unusual name and logo, that used to be based in dublin ireland
they changed their name in 1939 adding the text ‘since 1912’ just to make clear that they didn’t have any untoward alliegances, but still strange to see this… the company exsisted under this moniker untill the late 60’s
zoetropes
i think that wired is stretching the definition a bit by calling these ‘150 year old animated gifs‘ but they are still worth a look
canary fog
amazing image of london’s canary wharf (business district) covered in thick fog yesterday, people on the higher office floors were actually above the fog…. (no idea who the image belongs to, via the BBC)