http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pwhomeandgarden/~3/O7HwAxuRo14/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/?p=1522

Today is the FOURTH of a rip-roaring SEVEN-DAY “Countdown to Christmas” contest series here on Pioneer Woman. Every day between now and the 25th (and on the 25th itself), I’ll be awarding some sweet e-cards so that a few lucky winners can do one of the following two things:

1) Freak out and get in some last minute ordering

OR

2) Order yourself some sweet loot

The world is your oyster! Have at it, baby.

 
TODAY’S PRIZES:

First Prizes: 1 (one) $400 Amazon.com e-card.

Runner Up Prize: 3 (three) $250 Amazon.com e-cards. (Awarded to three randomly selected players.)

 
TO ENTER

To enter the 4-Days-Till-Christmas Contest, just answer the following question in the Comments section of this post:

“When do you take down your Christmas tree? Are you superstitious about getting it down before New Year’s Day, or do you stretch it out through the 12th day of Christmas?”

I’m a Valentine’s Day tree-taker-downer…but I’ll cover that in therapy.

 
RULES

One entry per person, please.

Winners will be announced Tuesday morning at 8:00. E-cards will appear in each winner’s email inbox within 24 hours.

Good luck, darlings!

Love,
P-Dub

P.S. Tasty Kitchen is having its own kitchen-geared Christmas Countdown Giveaways all week – find them here:

Tasty Kitchen Christmas Countdown Giveaway

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pwhomeandgarden/~3/7Ddk6VhvyLc/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/?p=1519

Here are the winners of the 5-Days-Till-Christmas contest:

First Prize – 1 (one) $300 Amazon.com e-card:

#7991 Shea – “We spend the morning at our own home, then head to my parents’ house for more merriment!”

Runners Up Prizes – 4 (four) $200 Amazon.com e-cards:

#2059 Lene – “We’re Danish and celebrate Christmas Eve, so I spend the 25th at home by myself, enjoying the previous day’s overdose on family, love and Christmas.”

#4182 Jonda – “Going around to thirty different houses… unfortunately. One of these days, we’re just going to STAY HOME and anyone who wants to see us can just come over to our house!”

#10055 Clark Walker - “This year I’ll be spending my Christmas at my wife’s parent’s house.”

#20353 Irish Chick 77 – “I am always home or at my childhood best friend’s house through the back fence. She got married this year so it is going to be different… curious to see what happens.”

Congrats, winners! Contact prizes@thepioneerwoman.com to claim your Amazon cards.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thepioneerwoman/~3/r3Ze-mfBgJ8/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/?p=5824

Christmas program. Church. Hustle bustle. Anticipation.

 
 
Angels. Python flats. Gladiator sandals.

Perfect.

 
 
Stage. All set. Ready. Go.

 
 
Teenagers.

 
 
Teenagers reading. Impressive. Mature.

 
 
Mary. Joseph. Cute. Too cute.

 
 
Shepherds. Messy hair. Mother. Lost comb.

 
 
Mary. Mary yawning.

 
 
Mary, please. Don’t pick.

 
 
Oh no. Mary picked.

 
 
Shepherd. Might pick too.

Please. Please don’t.

 
 
Man. Wise Man. Strong man. My man.

 
 
Shepherd.

 
 
Strange shepherd.

 
 
Baby. I birthed him.

Scar. It’s there.

Bikinis = no more.

Think I care?

I don’t.

 
 
Angels. Angels singing. Sweetness. And light.

 
 
Made it. Didn’t faint.

Her mother. Would have.

 
 
Blurry.

Oh well.

Doesn’t matter.

Love that guy.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/celebuzz/RfKn/~3/DU_-3LfotUg/big_fug122109.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/9NhN27bokEs/contemporary-african.html

Contemporary African Art Since 1980, a new book by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, is the most comprehensive collection I've ever seen of modern art from or about Africa, by African artists.

A disclaimer first: my mother, Monica Rumsey, was the book's copy editor, and that's how I learned about it. I kept pestering her to share photos and details as the project took shape, and am now very excited to blog that we've obtained permission from the publisher and distributor (Damiani Editore, and DAP) to publish a large, exclusive gallery of wide-format images here on Boing Boing— these spectacular works are shown after the jump.

The book explores how political, social, and cultural changes over the past thirty years have shaped urban, indigenous, and globalized "diasporic" art forms. Contemporary African Art is a roadmap of change and of evolving identities.

(Image above: Guy Tillim, "Mai Mai Militia in training near Beni, eastern DRC, for immediate deployment with the APC, Army Populaire du Congo" 2002)

Important works by some 160 artists are included in this beautifully illustrated, 320-page book, which unfolds in chronological order and covers an array of mediums: painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, drawing, and collage. I've blogged before about some of the artists represented in this book, but when I saw the finished product, I was thrilled to learn about dozens whose work I had not seen before.

About the book's co-authors: Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor is Dean of Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute, and editor and founding publisher of the African art journal Nka.
And Chika Okeke-Agulu is Assistant Professor of Art and Archeology and African American Studies at Princeton University, and editor of Nka.

Many thanks to the artists, authors, and publisher, for allowing Boing Boing to share a collection of featured images here. Where possible, I've also added links to the artist websites, for your happy exploring.

Amazon Link.

Abu Bakarr Mansaray, "Sector A'Bubak," (1997)

David Goldblatt, "Saturday Morning at the Hypermarket: Semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition, Boksburg, Transvaal, 28 June 1980"

Samuel Fosso, "Le Pirate" (1997)

Kendell Geers, "Counting Out Song" (aka "Tyre") (1988)

Chéri Samba, aka Samba wa Mbimba N'zingo Nuni Masi Ndo Mbasi, "Les Pantalons sont Defendus"

Bodys Isek Kingelez, "Ville Fantome" (1996)

Willem Boschoff, "Kykafrikaans" (1980)

Yinka Shonibare, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (Africa)," (2009)

Jo Ratcliffe, "Nadir no 15" (1988)

Lalla Essaydi, "Les Femmes du Maroc / Grande Odalisque" (2008)

http://www.scatoday.net/node/14773

read more

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/nathan-myhrvold-on-geoengineering-and-penguin-poo/

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=23525

http://whedonesque.com/comments/22697

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140368330446&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Buffy Season Eight #23 signed by Tom Lenk. Benefits go to the CBLDF.

The auction details the CBLDF this way:

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. They have defended dozens of Free Expression cases in courts across the United States, and led important education initiatives promoting comics literacy and free expression. For additional information, donations, and other inquiries call 800-99-CBLDF or visit http://www.cbldf.org or http://www.myspace.com/cbldf.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/zQyH-xEqCi8/suicide-shower-guate.html

(Click for super grande). I'm traveling in Central America. I took this snapshot in a K'iche' Maya village in Guatemala where people bathe using a traditional tuj (Maya sweat bath of hot rocks and steam and herbs). I think the family whose home this is in installed it for visiting aid volunteers from the US, a long time ago. But they only get running water a couple times a week for a few hours at a time, and it's full of pathogens, at that. Perhaps in part for that reason, the family themselves never ever use this thing. Guess what? I can assure you that I will never ever use it, either.

See how the electric wires go right into the incoming stream of cold water, to heat it up? Yeah.

A friend who lives in Costa Rica says they have 'em there, too, and they call them "suicide showers." Am I just a big old scaredygringa, or do you also find this gadget terrifying? Boing Boing readers, if you've seen these contraptions (or have used one and lived to tell), I'd love to hear your harrowing tales in the comments.

Image link, and here's another snapshot that kinda shows you the context (not terribly high quality photo because I shot on iPhone).

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/_w5NARdWNKM/mardi-gras-photos-fr.html

Galleria Mar Doré (disclosure: a project on which I'm an advisor) has just launched an online exhibition of rare vintage photos from Mardi Gras in New Orleans, taken in 1956 by an engineer who loved technology, photography, and the rich culture of midcentury Louisiana. His name was John Mizenko, and he was also an avid ham radio operator. That's him at left, with his radio gear. His call sign was W5KAC. His daughter Mar Doré found a box of these, like a time capsule, after he passed away.

"I discovered my father's slide collection tucked away in a cabinet inside metal slide trays loaded with carefully written notations," says Mar. "It was as though after all these years he'd left me a gift."

She had them digitally scanned at very high resolution, and is presenting them online and in limited-edition giclee prints (you can buy them for $339 each, and the printed versions truly are stunning). I've asked her for permission to display some of them here on Boing Boing during this holiday week. Maybe Mardi Gras and Christmas/Hannukah don't seem like they ought to go together, but hey, why not? Fun, food, loved ones, reckless abandon, music, lots of sparkly decorations: there's a lot in common.

Today, we'll start with the photo presented above: Children in Mardi Gras costume, 1956 New Orleans Mardi Gras. Cowboy costumes for "Carnival" were popular in the mid-fifties. After the jump, a scanned 1956 advertisement which ran in the Times-Picayune for this very costume, offered at the now-defunct Maison Blanche New Orleans department store.

Here's the online store where you can purchase reproductions. More about the exhibit here. Members of Mizenko's family have shared their rememberances of his life and work here.

Here is a snip from his daughter, Mar, who recovered the images and is presenting them (and offering prints):

My father's photographs of the Mardi Gras take me back to the New Orleans of my childhood. I've returned to New Orleans in order to explore the history of my father's photographs and the extraordinary places I visited with him as a child; my grandmothers house and my aunt's house on Joseph street, the horse races at the fairgrounds, beignets at Cafe Du Monde, oyster po′boys, and Magazine Street. I remember perching on a wood ladder when I was six, arms outstretched in eager anticipation, ready to catch my share of Mardi Gras loot. I am happy and proud to present this priceless collection of photographs by my father John Woodward Mizenko and the radiant memories they contain. His love for New Orleans is manifested in every frame. It has awakened me and brought me home. No wonder we loved him.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/yzyEP7W0D8k/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=222853

Freddy used to hunt birds the same way as any other cat. Until he found a military bolt-action rifle in the basement…

dont needz a gun. just needz a wet kitteh.

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: Coyotekitty via Advanced Lol Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/guKbUhDQyJo/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=224150

Today’s LOLMart Shirt of the Day is available to purchase THROUGH SUNDAY ONLY, and then it will be gone forever!

Longcat is looooooong.

He’s one of the oldest memes out there. In other words: He’s been around for a looooooong time. I think, by golly, it’s about time he had his own shirt! Don’t agree? Then so looooong to you! (Editor’s note: Yes, the author of this post is paid per use of the letter “o.”)

Just how loooooong is Longcat? Loooonger than the Statue of Liberty? I think you mean taller, but yeah, he’s longer than that.
Looooooonger than the Great Pyramid? Again, I think you mean taller, but yes.

We know you’ve waited a loooooong time for a shirt as cool—yes, I was tempted to type “cooooool”—as this one. If you buy enough, you could fill a looooong closet with this awesome, limited edition shirt.

LOLMart t-shirts are priced at only $15 (that includes FREE US ground shipping!) and make the perfect holiday gift for a friend (or for yourself).

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/science-question-fro-3.html

This question—which comes to us from an Anonymous reader, asking for his or her formerly toddler own self—may sound like a zen koan, but I assure you, it has an answer. And probably not the one you're expecting. It's really a prime example of why I love doing the Science Question from a Toddler series—I get these questions that, on the surface, sound very "Duh", but end up leading to complex places.

So, what do the blind see?

It depends on the blind person. But the stereotypical assumption—that blind people live in the sort of black nothingness the sighted see when we close our eyes—is actually the most rare of all the possibilities.

What the blind really see varies quite a bit, depending on the cause of blindness and its severity, said Dean Bok, Ph.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, and a researcher who's worked with the organizations Research to Prevent Blindness and the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Many people who are described as blind can perceive light. Even those who must use a cane or guide dog to get around are more likely to see the world around them as an indistinct fuzzy blur, rather than a formless void.

And that blur is likely to be in black and white.

You probably remember from grade school that there are two structures in our eyes—cones and rods—that enable us to see and perceive light. Rods are related to night vision. Cones to color vision and what we see during the day. But there's a bit more to it than that.

"Cones are extremely important, not only for color, but also for acuity," Bok said. "The ability to read fine print is from cones, not rods."

Basically, the worse your vision is, the less color you can usually perceive.

But what's really astounding is how new, high-tech treatments are changing what some blind people see. Cory Haas is a 9-year-old boy who lives in New York state. A couple of years ago, Bok told me, this boy was one of the people whose sight was limited to fuzzy, mostly colorless blobs. He couldn't read. He needed help walking. Today, Cory Haas can ride a bike and read books with large print. His sight is nowhere near perfect, but he's gone from being legally blind, to being just another kid who has to wear glasses.

The secret is gene therapy. Haas was born with a kind of degenerative blindness called Leber's congenital amaurosis. There are at least12 different kinds of LCA, but Haas' is caused by a defect in a single gene—rpe65.

"That gene produces an enzyme that bends Vitamin A into the form that we need for vision. Then it's ready to be attached to a group of proteins called opsins, and used by color and black and white photo receptors. That's what triggers the visual response," Bok said. "If you don't have the enzyme, you'll never see. Kids who have a totally non-functional rpe65 gene can't see at all. Some with a crippled gene have a semblance of vision but are really legally blind."

Because this type of blindness is based on a single, small gene in the retina, it's relatively easy for scientists to fix. They take an adeno-associated virus—a virus which is usually present in humans but not known to cause disease—remove most of its genes and patch a shiny, new, properly functioning version of the rpe65 gene into it.

Once injected into the eye, the virus goes to work doing what viruses do, i.e. invading cells and using their machinery to replicate its genetic information. But, in this case, that information is the rpe65 gene. Within a few weeks or months, the person has a supply of working rpe65 genes, churning out the enzyme they need to see.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/100-word-fiction-win.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/solve-my-storys-mars.html

Here's how you get to Mars: first, you boost for $A days at $F gees, which gets your ship really *moving*. Since there's nothing in space to stop it -- except a few stray hydrogen atoms and the odd gust of solar wind -- it'll just coast Marswards pretty much forever. So you switch the engines off and ride your momentum ever and ever Marsward. If you've timed it all correctly, Mars should also be moving toward *you*, swinging around the Sun at $B km/h and closing fast.

Once you're closer to Mars than you are to Earth, you flip the ship over, so that your main antenna array is pointed at the red planet, and reboot the ship's computers, bringing them back online running a Mars-compliant OS that runs on Martian time. Then, $C days later, you turn the engines back and boost *away* from Mars for $D days, because $B km/h and closing fast is *fast* -- fast enough to turn your rocket into a cloud of atoms and a giant shockwave if you run *into* Mars instead of going into a gentle orbit around Phobos Base for transfer to a ground-shuttle.

We were almost at turnaround, which meant that we were nearly equidistant from Mars and the Earth. That meant that almost no one was playing the game anymore, because it was at $E seconds of latency, meaning that a message sent to Earth took $E/2 seconds to get there and $E seconds to get back.

* the whole trip needs to take 90 days
* they have to stop boosting after an initial thrust, coast, reverse, and thrust again
* g-stresses from thrust can't exceed healthy limits for juvenile civilians

Given those parameters, what's the right answer for $A, $B, $C, $D, $E and $F above?

First correct answer will win, um, a signed copy of any of my novels (you choose), inscribed and posted to the address of your choosing (to be sent after I get back from holidays in the second week of September).

Update: In response to several commenters: you can put Earth and Mars in any plausible starting position that is justifiable from the point of view of a space-launch where the date can be picked far (a decade, say) in advance.

Also updated to make thrust a variable as well. Any thrust is OK, provided that it won't harm a ship full of baseline civilians, including juveniles.

(Image: Mars the Red Planet, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from jasonb42882's photostream)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pwphotography/~3/B_A7rUP9MkY/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/?p=1723

 
Here’s the final group of black-and-white submissions I’ve received over the past week-plus through the PW Photography Assignments group on Flickr. I’m really not kidding when I say that the time I’ve spent perusing the hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of black-and-whites has really helped me define the things I love about black-and-white photography. I’ll write about those things in a separate post.

As of this post, I’ve now posted five groups of submissions. Here are the links to the first four. Look upon the loveliness!

Black-and-Whites – Group 1
Black-and-Whites – Group 2
Black-and-Whites – Group 3
Black-and-Whites – Group 4

I’m currently reviewing all five groups, and will post two “finalists” from each group at 8:00 tonight. Then, first thing Tuesday morning, I’ll post the winner(s). It’s not going to be easy.

I might enlist your help, so stay tuned!

By Gwenhyfr. This is lovely.

By Quite.Ordinary. Pretty, sexy, lovely.

By Susie Allison. I love the capture—such a sweet moment!

By Debra Chenault. What a raw, natural expression!

By Mimi & Lulu. What a beautiful bunch of children!

By Ty Anderson. Oh, this is just delightful.

By Lindsay Collette. I’m in complete love.

By Melissa Dawn. My gosh—look at the resemblance! I’m in awe.

By Amy in Austin. Ooooh. I love the subtle focus of this. You have to search a little to find the subject, a footprint in the sand.

By Tiny Portraits. Hi, Zach! I like you, whoever you are.

By Amy Ball. Good buddies!

By Modoga87. Oh, yes. I’m likin’ it.

By Hope Feathers. What an angel.

By MMB Photography. I love the lighting and contrast and the punk and the water and everything else.

By Loriorbyn Photography. I’m freaking out inside on many, many levels.

By Melissa Brewer Photography. I’ll never understand how photographers can do these self portraits. This is divine!

By Sbang919. What am I looking at here? It’s too much for me to behold.

By Amy Ball. What a shot!

By Ginny Dodson. Hey, fella! Lookin’ pretty sharp today. Lovin’ the shades!

By Tzk333. Times Square…this is completely magical.

By Patty Runs. This is splendidly beautiful.

By Lorne Chesal. Oh my. Oh dear. Oh Lord.

By Jessie Whittle. Neat shot.

By Simdog Gang. It was difficult for me to choose which of the three shots I liked best. I love her face!

By DVM’s Wife. Amy, I love this. You guys are very brave.

By Dphock. “Will you play ball with me?” Ugh. I can’t handle it.

By KGoose4. Ha! My hair looked like this at church yesterday.

By L Flickinger. And with that…I’m done.

I can’t handle prognathic creatures.

See you tonight!

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/are-americas-ground-.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/technical-explanatio.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/21/happy-chanuko-weird.html