Morning Coffee

In case you wondering, here is NASA’s official 2012 disclaimer. Today’s awesomest thing: MIT’s transforming robot. The golden age of the bicycle vs the great bicycle menace. Elements of Color is your midcentury design porn for the week. And now…

Science is awesome! Now we can convert urine into brain cells. Behold the Obamadon. It is pretty crazy that there are still 10 living daughters of Union Army Civil War vets. 70’s Polish children’s books are pretty great. Even the…

I imagine you’d like to read Margaret Atwood’s thoughts on the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring. Slate loves space colony art too! Yes, but do they love Eastern European space age children’s books? I apologize for this brief venture into…

It’s true! Rich people will be able to walk on the moon pretty soon. It is important sometimes to celebrate the awful parts of London. Behold the snowflake! Children’s games and toys stripped of colors are pretty fascinating. And now,…

Georgian kindergartens are cooler than yours. Incidentally, every day is a good day to revisit crazy Soviet architecture. Old plant anatomy charts (are neat). James Cameron presents: giant crustaceans and maybe an Alzheimers cure. And now all the vintage toy…

Chillin’ out on the magnetic highway. Today in vintage illustration porn: WPA literacy posters and old kid’s stamps. Old timey explorer disputes are the best disputes. Curiosity is getting a new brother (eventually).

People sure are talking a lot about maybe going back to the moon. Dante’s monsters and mythical beasts. On genetic accidents and the origin of intelligence. Superfecundation is pretty nuts. And now some lovely mid-century technical children’s books.

Bad Kids Jokes is the best thing that happened to me this weekend. Perhaps you’d like to see one of Kurt Vonnegut’s writing prompts? It is terrifying when wax museums burn down. Constantly discovering ancient shipwrecks make civic improvements difficult.…

So yes, NASA probably DID find organic materials, but not on the planet we thought. Hurray for pinball based art! Planned cities seen from space. Lots and lots of old ships being found in the sea these days. It is…

Important morning news: Saturn is rad! Scandals in the OED! Yes, the US wanted to nuke the moon. Congratulations Eastern Hellbender for being born in captivity and on being both gross and cute. Perhaps the secrets lie in immortal jellyfish.

Today’s theme is “things Dan finds neat”. This 1930s illustrated guide to hypothetical alien life is my favorite thing today. This story about the official Chinese newspaper not getting that the Onion is a joke is my second favorite thing…

Let’s  just send all of the people to mars. In the meantime, let’s talk about life in Antarctic lakes. 16th Century German explosives. Your nose gets hot when you lie. Today my favorite things are Pelican book covers.