Bankers Life Company - 19440708 Post on Flickr.
Emperor Penguins - Escape Velocity
Aside from being clumsy on land, when underwater, penguins are highly maneuverable and can reach speeds of up to 18 feet per second underwater allowing them to evade predators with ease. How do penguins do this?
The secret is locked away in their feathers. They have a dense feather coating not only for heat insulation but for packing air inside. The dense feather layer contains a main stem and smaller downy feather-barbs branching off allowing for tiny air bubbles to be trapped. When the penguins want to increase their speed, they simply release the air bubbles (with muscles attached to the feathers) creating a friction reducing pocket around them nearly tripling their speed.
How cool would it be to launch out of water like that at 18 feet/second? I’m not sure I have enough protection for the landing though. Check out the infographic that accompanies the video I’ve linked below.
Emperor Penguins Speed Launch Out of Water - Video
Penguins Hit The Gas - National Geographic Infographic
(Source: the-science-llama, via climateadaptation)
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‘Our brains are dulled by the incurable mania of wanting to make the unknown known, classifiable…’
“André Breton, First Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924” (via wildcat2030)
An African elephant towers above herds of antelope and zebra as they congregate at a precious waterhole on the Etosha salt pan in Namibia, in a scene from David Attenborough’s new BBC wildlife series Africa
Picture: BBC (via Pictures of the day: 28 December 2012 - Telegraph)
1967 Czech poster for BOKSER (Julian Dziedzina, Poland, 1967)
Designer: Eva Galová-Vodrázková (b. 1940)
Poster source: Terry Posters
“Young boxer studies with a kind, knowing manager, grooming him for the Olympics. He fights the lead boxer, has a brief fling, and gets jailed for beating up a group he feels laughed at him during the drunken spree. But he is rehabilitated and gets a crack at the Olympics where he wins.” –Polish Cinema Database
“Within the souls of the awkward and the overlooked often burns something radiant.”
― Jo Ann Beard, In Zanesville
“The culture of giving books as presents is very deeply rooted in how families perceive Christmas as a holiday,” says Kristjan B. Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association. “Normally, we give the presents on the night of the 24th and people spend the night reading. In many ways, it’s the backbone of the publishing sector here in Iceland.” (via Literary Iceland Revels In Its Annual ‘Christmas Book Flood’ : NPR)
(via nouvellabooks)
Patti Smith with Lenny Kaye at CBGB’s, New York City, April 1975.
(Source: zombiesenelghetto)
F. Scott Fitzgerald died on this day in 1940, aged forty-four.
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Source: vintageanchorbooks, via laphamsquarterly)
how to be a cowboy, jim arndt: gibbs smith.
Very psyched about this list, featuring some of my favorite writers/think-y people on the best book they read this year. Such as! Katie Notopoulos, Emily Gould, Anna Holmes, Caterina Fake, Tavi Gevinson, Jenna Wortham, Natasha Vargas-Cooper, Edith Zimmerman, Willa Paskin, Mary H.K. Choi, Ana Marie Cox, Julieanne Smolinski, Sloane Crosley, Julie Klausner, Shani Hilton, Amy Rose Spiegel, Elizabeth Spiers, AND MANY MORE!
Also, P.S., if you are looking for a) a bookish holiday gift or b) a reading list for the next year (or two), this will be very useful.
These people have great taste. List includes terrific books by Jonathan Franzen, Ellen Ullman, Richard Yates, Denis Johnson, and many more.
