bowiebranchia

Via fellow internet-caretakers the Everlasting Blört, we find a selection of nudibrachia or other species of marine opisthobranchia (sea slugs, from the Greek for naked gills, having shed their shells after their larval stage) fastidiously matched to the various outfits and personæ of the transcendent Sir David Bowie. All of these side-by-side comparisons (there are over three thousand known varieties though many are endangered) are amazingly elegant, spot-on and very satisfying.

exposure value

Not only were we very impressed with the designer skills of Helen Sham for creating a fully-functional, iconic Hasselblad 503CX medium format cameras out of LEGO (which may be added to its official line of models), we also appreciated the chance to explore the company behind the design.
Founded in 1841, the early years of the Swedish company consisted mostly of being a distributor for Kodak-Eastman products, offering that though the executives didn’t think the venture would be very profitable, at least they’d be able to take pictures for free and really came into its own, making military grade aerial surveillance cameras during the wars. The company’s success continued after the war and was again boosted when NASA began to exclusively use Hasselblad cameras for its Gemini missions in 1962. Prized for their compact size and modular lenses, the space agency continued to use custom-build Hasselblads for the Apollo programme and the images we have of our manned-mission to the Moon were captured with those cameras. Learn more about Sham and her other projects at the link above.

thanatopsis

Though perhaps wholly conjured up in my head, I seem to recall a ban (at least a seasonal one owing maybe to the impenetrability of the ground in winter) on death on parts of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, we nonetheless this overview from Futility Closet on other places where dying was or is currently prohibited, under threat of severe punishment. While some sacred spaces exclude both birth and death to maintain the purity of the place, most cases are enacted when room runs out at local cemeteries and graveyards. Unfortunately, the ban is repealed once the municipalities can secure more land to expand their grounds reserved for burial.  Visit them at the link above to learn more.

change happens at the edges

Historically—which will also be the first time the Armorial College gets to produce a crest for a same-sex couple though wisely rules were established some time ago—the first gay marriage in the extended royal family will occur later this summer on an estate in Devon.
With the blessings of his third cousin, once removed, the Queen (by statute the monarch must give ascent to the first six unions in the line of succession and in this case, the couple’s too far removed and already have heirs) Lord Ivar Alexander Mountbatten, geologist and gentleman farmer, will wed James Coyle. At the suggestion of their daughters, Mountbatten’s ex-wife will lead Mountbatten down the aisle and give him away.