סלומה

Mermaid Syndrome (Sirenomelia)
A Peruvian baby dubbed the “Little Mermaid” because she was born with a rare condition in which her legs are fused. Nine-month-old Milagros Cerron – her name means miracles in Spanish – is one of only a handful of the estimated 1-in-60,000 to 100,000 people born with sirenomelia, or mermaid syndrome, to have lived more than a few hours, experts say.

From the waist up, Milagros smiles and babbles like any healthy infant. Below the waist, her stomach merges seamlessly into her legs, which are joined all the way to her heels. With her tiny feet splayed in a ‘V’, the impression of a mermaid’s forked tail is complete.

I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it.

Franz Kafka, from Dearest Father: Stories and Other Writings

Flora Magica, Hermann Försterling.

Adult female Hymenopus Coronatus (Orchid mantis) in a threat display.

If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.

Carl Sagan

Hydnora Africana. Traps beetles in it until the flower is mature, then releases them coated in pollen.

Safe House
Located on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, ‘safe house’ by Katowice-based architectural office KWK Promes is a two-storey residential house that aims to provide a feeling of maximum security for the residents. True to its name, the most distinguishable element of the design is the moveable exterior wall components that allow the house to be completely closed to its environment or open and connected to the rural landscape. While the initial read of the design might seem confining, the house, when in its open state, offers immense transparency while establishing a strong relationship to the site.

“Consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not “you.” The atoms in your body are 99.9999999999999999% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato. The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.”

— We Originated in the Belly of a Star, NASA Lunar Science Institute, 2012.

by Sunfrog1