Fall Recipes: Squash, Cabbage, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Apples

Fall Recipes: Squash, Cabbage, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Apples:

"The air is cooler and the days are getting shorter, but autumn still offers a bountiful harvest of fruit and vegetables. Bring fresh apples, potatoes and pumpkins to the table with these fall recipes from the Almanac recipe archive.

Whether it's from your own garden, a farmer's market, or a grocery store, fresh and local food has many benefits. Better taste, nutrition, and even cost savings."

"

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds: "

From scarlet to dusty gold,
to yellow flames,
to the rare
ashen emerald,
to the orange and black velvet
of our girdle gilded by sunflowers,
to the sketch
like
amber thorns,
your Epiphany,
little supreme being,
you are a miracle,
shimmering ..

Pablo Neruda - Ode to a Hummingbird [w]

Le Stokes

Le Petit Rubis de la Caroline, sur une Mimeuse

Oiseau-Mouche Ensipenne, Plumage Complete d'Adulte

Oiseau-Mouche Mediastin, Plumage Parfait d'Adulte

Oiseau-Mouche Avocette, Jeune Age

Le Tricolore, Jeune Adulte

Oiseau-Mouche de Loddiges

Le Buffon

L'Anais, Male en Plumage Parfait

La Caeligene

Colibri faux Brins-Blancs

Le Mazeppa

French physician and naturalist René Primevère Lesson (1794-1849) enlisted and served in the navy during the Napoleonic wars. In the 1820s he sailed around the world aboard La Coquille with a scientific expedition headed by Louis-Isadore Duperrey.

Chief among Lesson's duties during the voyage was collecting zoological specimens that served as the basis for a number of well regarded monographs. He is best remembered for the books he released on some of the most beautiful birds in the world: hummingbirds from the Americas and birds of paradise from New Guinea.

Notes on the Trochilidae family from the Internet Bird Collection:

• Small to tiny fast-flying birds, with extensively iridescent plumage, many with strikingly coloured gorget or crest; thin bill extremely variable, from short to extremely long, from straight to sharply curved; feet tiny.
• New World, mainly Neotropical.
• Wide variety of habitats, wherever suitable food plants occur, from sea-level up to c. 5000 m, with greatest diversity in submontane zone.
• 102 genera, 329 species, 684 taxa.
• 29 species threatened; 1 definitely extinct since 1600.

The cropped and spot-cleaned hand-coloured engravings seen above were sourced from Volume Two of 'Les Trochilidées ou les Colibris et les Oiseaux-Mouches Suivis d'un Index Général dans Lequel sont Décrites et Classées Méthodiquement Toutes les Races et Espèces du Genre Trochilus ; Ouvrage Orné de Planches Dessinées et Gravées par les Meilleurs Artistes' [1832], online at Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum.

• Birdphotos has high resolution photographs of a large number of hummingbird species.
• Via, or at least inspired by, Salzburg University Library's Book of the Month.
• Short Wikipedia biography of René Primevère Lesson.
• Previously: Gould's Hummingbirds (which post-dates Lesson by 60 years)

David Klein’s Gorgeous Vintage Travel Posters

David Klein’s Gorgeous Vintage Travel Posters: "
Modern airlines take note: There’s something about David Klein’s brightly colored, and often abstract illustrations for TWA that manages to inspire wanderlust much more so than any present-day ad campaigns. In fact, his travel poster for New York was considered so iconic that it became a part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in 1957. Click through to get a better look at his work, and let us know in the comments if you think Don Draper would approve.

Houdini: Art And Magic

Houdini: Art And Magic: "

The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles has not one, but two very appealing magic-related exhibitions opening April 28. The first, Houdini: Art and Magic, travels to us from New York. Featuring tons of Houdini-ana, the exhibition looks not only at the historical Houdini, but also at his enduring legacy. To that end, the exhibition includes a number of artworks by contemporary artists inspired by the Houdini legend, including such luminaries as Matthew Barney, Petah Coyne, Vik Muniz and Raymond Pettibon. The Skirball has created a second exhibition to give context to Houdini. This is called Masters of Illusion: Jewish Magicians of the Golden Age, and it focuses on Houdini’s predecessors, colleagues and competitors in both Europe and the US, focusing on the years 1875 to 1948. The exhibition examines more than 40 fascinating careers, largely forgotten, and contains many outstanding objects, all displayed in “period” environments meant to evoke vaudeville stages, Victorian magic parlors and the like. Both exhibitions feature vintage photography, gorgeous promotional ephemera, original props and costumes, and rare documents, and Masters of Illusion includes four renowned automata.

The Royal Weddng

"Under cool, gray skies billions watched from outside Westminster Abbey and on television worldwide as 1900 invited guests inside witnessed as Prince William and his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton were married in one of the largest events in London in decades. A little over an hour after they arrived at the Abbey to be married, the couple emerged on a red carpet and onto the streets to a peal of bells and into a horse-drawn carriage, heading toward Buckingham Palace. The prince had married what the British call a commoner; now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (titles granted by Queen Elizabeth II). The couple stepped out onto a balcony a short time later to greet the enormous crowd along the Mall - a tradition at royal weddings. They kissed for the first time in public as a married couple as a cheer went up from the crowd."

This Is Some Real Stuff: Virgin Mary Shows Herself In Center Of Gleaming Sun In Africa!?!

National Space Society and India Space Solar Power

"The United States and the world need to find new sources of clean energy. Space Solar Power gathers energy from sunlight in space and transmits it wirelessly to Earth. Space solar power can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems. Not just help, not just take a step in the right direction, but solve. Space solar power can provide large quantities of energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact." Read more:
National Space Society

National Space Society Blog

Space-based solar power



A new source of renewable energy

TED Talk on Space Based Solar Power

2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

Former Alice In Chains Bassist Mike Starr: In Memoriam

"On Tuesday afternoon (March 8th), former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr was found dead in Salt Lake City, Utah. The founding member of the seminal Seattle band was 44 years old and had struggled with addiction his entire life. His passing sent shockwaves through the rock world, and his death has devastated friends, fans and his former bandmates. In recent years, Starr had become more famous for his stint on "Celebrity Rehab" than he ever was as a musician, but his legacy as a key member of Alice in Chains should not be understated"


Read more about: Alice In Chains


RIP Mike Starr

Recall of Skippy® Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy® Reduced Fat Super Chunk Peanut Butter Spread, because it may be contaminated with Salmonella.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 4, 2011 - Unilever United States, Inc. today announced a limited recall of Skippy® Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy® Reduced Fat Super Chunk Peanut Butter Spread, because it may be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

The recall is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No other Skippy® products are affected by this recall.

List of Top 10 Ebooks Downloaded at Project Gutenberg

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"Who knew Project Gutenberg's top 100 ebook list could be as enlightening as some of the titles included on it? Every day, the service that works to digitize books in the public domain puts out a list of the top 100 downloaded ebooks from the day before. Taking a look at the list from this week, we see that while classics rule, they often have a sexy and/or servicey hook. Check out a recent top 10 and vote: read or shelve?"

"Kindle readers, take note: You may have been paying for books you could legally download for free--in nearly identical editions--elsewhere.

The titles in question aren't just public-domain books that have long been freely available at such sites as Project Gutenberg. They appear to be the exact Gutenberg files, save only for minor formatting adjustments and the removal of that volunteer-run site's license information.

Gutenberg contributor Linda M. Everhart complained in an e-mail in late October that Amazon was selling a title she'd contributed to Gutenberg, Arthur Robert Harding's 1906 opus "Fox Trapping," for $4." Read more

More Than 100 Suspected Mobsters Arrested

Among those charged are Luigi Manocchio, 83, the former boss of the New England LCN; Andrew Russo, 76, street boss of the Colombo family; Benjamin Castellazzo, 73, acting underboss of the Colombo family; Richard Fusco, 74, consigliere of the Colombo family; Joseph Corozzo, 69, consigliere of the Gambino family; and Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino family administration. For more ...

Read More About the Arrested

More than 110 alleged mobsters arrested - U.S. news - msnbc.com

Accusations include  'classic mob hits' on rivals and 'truly senseless' killings

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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