Life in the WG

[lifeinthewg]

These things are just swamp coolers that you hang on the wall. No engineering genius involved, FFS…

[metmuseum]

Plaque of St. John. 12th century. Credit line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464585

[lifeinthewg]

I love this piece, even in its damaged state, because the damage reveals the technique that was used to make it: Lengths of flat silver wire are bent into shapes defining the image and are attached to the silver backing either with silver solder or by means of a light coat of clear enamel. Then the spaces between the wires – the cloissons – are filled with colored enamel powder and fired in a kiln. Different colors of enamel fire (melt) at different temperatures, so they must be fired in order from highest firing to lowest.

I took two semesters of a cloisonné jewelry class as part of an Art minor in college, and hope to pick it up again as a hobby someday.

[thebestcomicbookpanels]

Strange Tales #99 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee

[claudette-monet]

Rainlit Evening in Paris by Claudette Monet

[lifeinthewg]

How can it be “rainlit”? Rain doesn’t illuminate…

[onlyinsfca]

“It is a good thing the early settlers landed on the East Coast; if they’d landed in San Francisco first, the rest of the country would still be uninhabited.”

— Herbert Mye

[hellooldsmelly]

[lifeinthewg]

Are these the grannies of “The Bangles”?

[women-who-do-sci-fi-and-fantasy]

Carrie Fisher at the Savoy Hotel, July 31, 1974

[lifeinthewg]

Sweet and 17…

Always repost Carrie.

[metropolicinema]

[lifeinthewg]

Always repost Carrie.

[grossnational]

[lifeinthewg]

Mine was gold and my helmet was white, but yeah, this was me at 14.

[country-born-raised]

Linda Ronstadt

[lifeinthewg]

Always reblog Linda…

[briannyssey]

dude star wars is so good and/or bad and/or mediocre sometimes, depending

[lifeinthewg]

[lifeinthewg]

I am beginning to think that reporting an ad for showing up too often triggers the algorithm to increase the frequency with which you see it. The ad for that “miraculous” air conditioning unit is the worst offender. And it's bullshit. The website claims that the unit uses a patented filter to “strip heat from the air at a molecular level”, which is nonsense. Heat is an energy state, not something that can be “filtered out.” Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed to a different type of energy, or transferred to another object or material. This cooler is simply an evaporative cooler; a pad is moistened by water from a reservoir, and air blown across the pad evaporates the water, which cools the air because water has a high specific heat; that is, it takes a large amount of energy to raise the temperature of water, so as the water changes phase from liquid to vapor it absorbs energy from the air, cooling the air. This type of cooler is only effective in low humidity conditions, and will raise the humidity in the room where it is used.

So you see, it's not some new high-tech innovation, it's just a centuries-old technique that has been repackaged to be sold to stupid people.

[beammeupplease]

The Viking Sea Raiders

Albert Goodwin

[lifeinthewg]

Vikings did not use lateen sails.

[quakerjoe]

[lifeinthewg]

I. Love. This.

[quakerjoe]

[thehandthatfeedsme]

CRAP it is!!!

[lifeinthewg]

I had to laugh at this passage from a 1952 road test article in Motor Cycling, a British motorcycle magazine – ‘not one of your pansy “Rapides” or “Black Shadows” but a real quick’un’.

Granted, the Black Lightning was (still is) a wicked fast 998cc beast, but the Rapide and the Black Shadow were nothing to sneeze at.

What I really love is that the date of this article ties in nicely with what is probably the best motorcycle-related song ever written, Richard Thompson’s 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.