Word of the Day
Skiff (n., SKIF)
A light dusting of snow that allows the ground to show through, revealing its contours and forms in new ways. It can also be a small flat-bottomed boat, if you hate the beauty of winter.
Gif of the Day
Hold the phoneSit downBlack and white gifsTurn to cameraInterventionA young Warner Herzog?
Link of the Day
Evolution of the Alphabet poster
From Matt Baker of the aptly named Useful Charts site comes this beauty:
It's fascinating to see the origin of letters, especially the ones that don't pass on their genes to future generations. (Theta and Psi, you two should've gotten together.) It's reminiscent of the fact that when a culture starts creating words for colors, the first two will be black and white, and then the third will almost always be red.
If you want one of the limited edition posters of this, they're available for sale at UsefulCharts.com, alongside Baker's other Writing Systems of the World poster and other works.
ScienceLinguisticsA-B-CEasy as 1-2-3As simple as do-re-miABC, 123, baby, you and me girl