Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

Meet Juniper the vixen and her best buddy Moose the dog.

They are hugely popular on Instagram and it’s easy to see why. Here’s your major cuteness overload for the day.

Your immodest media whore and blog host Stan Flouride in the UK Daily Express on Friday, 2 Sep 2016

Half a century after the summer of love, PAUL WADE meets local historian Stan Flouride and visits the most colourful district in San Francisco.

Source: The HIPPY capital: Paul Wade immerses himself in Haight-Ashbury | Travel News | Travel | Daily Express

After news emerged about an underground reading room in Damascus, Fiona Macdonald discovers the places where writing has been hidden for centuries.

I am proud to have my name on a book rescued from destruction by religious fanatics in Timbuktu. I have no idea what the book is about and I am certain I will never see it in person, but here it is:

Here’s a great BBC article about some other secret libraries around the world, several of which were discovered by accident.

French sinologist Paul Pelliot in the Library Cave at Dunhuang in 1908 reading the manuscripts (Credit: The Musée Guimet)

The Vatican Secret Archives includes Pope Leo X’s 1521 decree excommunicating Martin Luther (Credit: Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Historian Erik Kwakkel discovered “hidden libraries” within Medieval book bindings (Credit: Erik Kwakkel)

For lovers of the written word in all its variations this is a delightful story.

Source: BBC “The Secret Libraries of History

And here’s a gallery of amusing signages, word play, and other abuses of language:

This Framingham, Massachusetts gem is a time capsule of that hideous* era of early 70s interior design. It has been modernized with wifi and such but still retains that amazing style.

*If you lived through the 70s you’re probably glad that design era has passed

(Unfortunately, I suspect that it won’t come furnished. Anyone who puts that much time and energy into acquiring and furnishing their home with all this 45+ year-old stuff will probably take it with them.)

For Sale: $624,900.

5 bed, 2.5 bath, 4,133 sqft house at 3 Hickey Dr. Fantastic Location, Lot & Floor Plan.

Custom Expanded & Impossible to Build at this price. 14 Rooms, 4-5 bedrooms. 4133+- sq ft of ‘elegant’ living.

Flexible living space, perfect for large & extended families. Inside & Outside is an Entertainment Paradise. Inviting 21′ living room, Large formal dining with separate serving room w/built in buffet. St. Charles Kitchen designed for high power cooking & entertaining with separate 12′ breakfast room w/sliders to deck.

Multi room Master suite with sitting room, ‘glamorous’ penny tiled bath, Cathedral ceiling, custom mirrored closets & private romantic deck. Spacious bedrooms with separate shared study/play room. 19′ family-game room w/wet bar. 2 private offices. Custom 40 X 21 heated gunite Pool of Olympic Gold Medal Quality with loads of decking. Park like grounds with brick patios, expensive & professional landscaping. Updated high end garage doors. Commuters Dream locale, fast access to all.

Source: 3 Hickey Dr, Framingham, MA, 01701 – MLS# 72057722 – Estately

 May 1921. Washington, D.C. “Charles Seeger, a composer, is a brother of Alan Seeger, the war poet. His wife is a distinguished violinist.” And their baby boy will grow up to be folk legend Pete Seeger.

Ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger, seated in automobile, with family, standing, L-R: wife Constance Seeger, concert violinist, holding son Pete , and sons John and Charles. The family is ready to leave Washington, D.C., for their 1921 “trailer trip” musical expedition to bring classical music to rural areas.

Source: Shorpy Historic Picture Archive :: If I Had a Trailer: 1921 high-resolution photo

Harry at the Dursley’s

However, some of these sketches were previously unknown to fans, like this picture of Snape on Pottermore’s Potions page.

Some of Rowling’s early illustrations are already well-known, such as a picture of Harry as a baby, which was included in an annotated first edition that sold in 2013 for £150,000 ($198,472).

GARY?

The 7 cm (2 ¾”) needle was made and used by our long extinct Denisovan ancestors, a recently-discovered hominin species or subspecies.

Scientists found the sewing implement – complete with a hole for thread – during the annual summer archeological dig at an Altai Mountains cave widely believed to hold the secrets of man’s origins. It appears to be still useable after 50,000 years. It was made of the bone of a large and so far unidentified bird.

Professor Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, said: ‘It is the most unique find of this season, which can even be called sensational.’ Picture: IAET SB RAS

Professor Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, said: ‘It is the most unique find of this season, which can even be called sensational.It appears to be still useable after 50,000 years.

 As of today it is the most ancient needle in the word. It is about 50,000 years old.’ The needle is seen as providing proof that the long-gone Denisovans – named after the cave – were more sophisticated than previously believed.

It predates by some 10,000 years an intricate modern-looking piece of polished jewellery made of chlorite by the Denisovans.

The bracelet was carefully polished and grinded, with a heavy pendant added in the centre, probably hanging from a short leather strap. Pictures: Vera Salnitskaya, Anastasia Abdulmanova

The bracelet was discovered in 2008, and scientists have since suggested it showed the Denisovans to be more technologically advanced than Home sapiens or Neanderthals. Scientists found that a hole had been drilled in part of the bracelet with such precision that it could only have been done with a high-rotation drill similar to those used today.

The cave lies in the Altai Mountains around 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the city of Barnaul. Prof Shunkov said: ‘We can confidently say that Altai was one of the cultural centres…where the modern human was formed.’

Scientist Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute, in Leipzig, Germany, has said: ‘The one place where we are sure all three human forms have lived at one time or another is here in Denisova Cave.’

The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography is part of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Source: World’s oldest needle found in Siberian cave that stitches together human history

This is another article about the V&A exhibit of which I am to be a part this September and though I am quoted twice in the first paragraph my name is never mentioned.

You Say You Want a Revolution, the V&A’s new exhibition, explores the birth of late-1960s counterculture that helped spawn Silicon Valley. Alex Needham takes a tour of where it all began, guided by former hippies and subversive visionaries …

Source: How San Francisco’s hippy explosion shaped the modern world | Culture | The Guardian