elodieunderglass

[elodieunderglass]

i'm sorry but this is the only submission to this trend that i'll consider giving any thought to

[elodieunderglass]

“Lord Byron gets up at two. I get up, quite contrary to my usual custom … at 12. After breakfast we sit talking till six. From six to eight we gallop through the pine forest which divide Ravenna from the sea; we then come home and dine, and sit up gossiping till six in the morning. I don’t suppose this will kill me in a week or fortnight, but I shall not try it longer. Lord B.’s establishment consists, besides servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were the masters of it… . [P.S.] I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective … . I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane. I wonder who all these animals were before they were changed into these shapes.”

— Percy Bysshe Shelley on the lifestyle of Lord Byron (via timemarauder)

[elodieunderglass]

An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell circa 500,000-300,000 years ago.

The maker appears to have deliberately flaked around the shell to preserve and place it in a central position. As a result this handaxe has been described as an early example of artistic thought.

From West Tofts, Norfolk.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Courtesy Alison Fisk

[elodieunderglass]

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Oh wow I’m obsessed with how the pillow end is supported. Is the whole thing cantilevered or is there a support of some kind…?

Artistic Bird-Shaped Canopy Bed Follow Research.Lighting on Tumblr

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I wish more ppl on political debates just did this

[elodieunderglass]

umm how to be a dog by andrew kane. btw.

[elodieunderglass]

Peacocks are hilarious, really. They really are just like

[elodieunderglass]

Brother Gregor never spoke and often spooked the neophytes with his appearance, but he was a gentle soul and a phenomenal cook and knew more ways to prepare a fish than the abbot knew hymns

[elodieunderglass]

Sea-Wing

[elodieunderglass]

some sort of earthworm woim, with leggie like arm tentacles and flatwormie eye spots

[elodieunderglass]

I love the Merlin app too (but not enough to try to get it to listen to tumblr on the same phone while cooking heuvos rancheros for a family of five on a Saturday morning, so hats off if you tried this.) my kids like to ask if they can CATCH BIRDS with it and then prance around outdoors holding my phone up “catching birds” while I go HMM okay!! Hope the phone case is Exactly as tough as the marketing material makes it out to be !!

i couldn't get an answer on mastodon-

anyone know what kinds of birds thesse are based on their call?

seem to be migratory

also anyone know why they seemed so confused about hwere they should be going?

eventually they did move along, but i didn't see which way as i had gone back inside by the time they left.

recorded in grays harbor county, washington

uhh... bird ppl...

@elodieunderglass maybe?

[elodieunderglass]

I like this!!

i couldn't get an answer on mastodon-

anyone know what kinds of birds thesse are based on their call?

seem to be migratory

also anyone know why they seemed so confused about hwere they should be going?

eventually they did move along, but i didn't see which way as i had gone back inside by the time they left.

recorded in grays harbor county, washington

uhh... bird ppl...

@elodieunderglass maybe?

[elodieunderglass]

That’s Not My Prophet?

Honestly thought I'd never hear the word "usborne" again. My mom used to live and breathe that company, and while I certainly don't regret a fair chunk, I do find it amusing as I look back now. I legitimately thought it had fallen off faster than Juice+.

In reference to a post where i mention my kid has the usborne “see inside germs” book.

So if people don’t know, usborne is a weird publishing company that has done indispensable books for British children for generations; they’re in every library, school and nursery, and have shelves devoted to them in every bookstore. They are how many people learned to read, and are the originators of many hyper focuses. They’re famed for doing educational lift the flap books for all ages, like “see inside your body”, as well as as the ubiquitous touch-and-feel series, “that’s not my….” In which a mouse comments improbably on various creatures not being their creature. “That’s not my dragon,” the mouse says, inviting you to stroke a dragon with a patch of fur on it, “its tummy is too soft. That’s not my dragon,” on the next page, where the dragon’s ears are lined with textured paper, “its ears are too bumpy.” This seems like such an inefficient way to find one’s missing dragon, a fact that simmers underneath you through endless repetition. Why does the mouse own so many things (pirates, ducks, polar bears) and why is it interrogating other people’s pirates etc by feeling their legs.

At any rate, turn a parents’ house upside down and these books fall out.

Which is why it’s completely hilarious that they are also an MLM.

Well. Kind of. In the old school sense. It’s less about signing up a pyramid scheme and more about getting a random citizen to buy a crate of perfectly popular books and try to sell them on from their home. It’s very traditional for Mums On Maternity Leave to do this. Pre-social media and online ordering, they’d hook up other mums at toddler group. Today, they post awkwardly on social media. The idea is that buying from another parent is cheaper than the bookstore, and they get to keep the markup. They get intense about things, and I believe they attend conferences. Nobody makes a huge amount of money and it’s unclear how undercutting local bookstores is helpful; it’s also basically the same RRP as Amazon I think.

And the books are perfectly respectable and sell perfectly well in bookstores.

So. Like. This marketing scheme is completely weird. Why?? Why does it still exist? People buy the books normally! You don’t need to promote them aggressively! You don’t need elaborate independent local middlemen schemes! You can just buy them! I have never understood this. I just file it under one of those weird mat leave hustles.

But don’t worry OP. They’re still going. They’ll never stop. The thing is that your mom got bored and online sales probably ate whatever residual profit margins were left and it’s probably very liberating for everyone to grow out of the “that’s not my cow” stage, but Usborne books are going strong.

#his tits are tooooo saggy. #that’s not my prophet his bush is too prickly #with the mouse gesturing to an innocuous thorny bush (shrub) #-and every parent sending themselves into orbit #that’s my prophet his beard is SOOO shiny and long