itsinthetrees:

ultimotango:

During World War II, Josephine Baker served with the French Red Cross and was an active member of the French resistance movement. The French Resistance was a group of individuals who helped to win the war against the German Nazis enemy with undercover work. Using her career as a cover Baker became an intelligence agent, carrying secret messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music. She was awarded honor of the Croix de Guerre, and received a Medal of the Resistance in 1946. In 1961 she received the highest French honor, the Legion d’Honneur from French president Charles deGaulle.

She would also tuck tiny notes into her skirts when she did burlesque routines, and would dance up to the intended recipient and let him pluck it out.  Really brave, really smart, really interesting lady, on top of all her artistic talents.

My grandmother, who grew up in Paris before and during WWII, used to tell me stories of watching Josephine Baker perform - her father used to take her to the shows.

(Source: brandos, via muggleotter)

bee butt on Flickr.

Happy Spring, my friends!

apsies:

Two orphaned baby burrowing owls, nicknamed Linford and Christie, have moved into the home of their keeper Jimmy Robinson. The owlets were hatched in an incubator at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, and are now being hand-reared by Jimmy.

My latest life goal is to hand raise a burrowing owlet. Because, obviously.

(via npr)

Hammock plus library. Exactly how I pictured heaven.

(Source: bou-geotte, via theinteriordesign)

funkysafari:

Animal of the Week Fact: Japanese Cranes have a patch of red skin on the crown. This patch of skin becomes brighter red when the crane becomes angry or excited.

photo by Stu Price

scotlands beauty [3] by elfis gallery on Flickr.

I’m having one of those days where nothing goes terribly wrong but nothing is quite right, either. It puts me in a mood to stare at pictures of Scotland and to daydream about being in the good Scottish countryside, far way from the irritations of real life. If you could be anywhere else today, where would you go?

[Kongen og Dronningen, Bispen, Norway] (LOC) by The Library of Congress on Flickr.

Fire wrecks a forest (LOC) by The Library of Congress on Flickr.

WPA poster.

A book mark would be better! (LOC) by The Library of Congress on Flickr.

A great olf WPA poster against dog earing pages. Coutrtesy of the library of Congress

publicradiointernational:

British company Pavegen has developed a new paving tile that captures the energy of footsteps and turns it into electricity.

On a small scale, one day’s worth of foot traffic over a few tiles could power one street light overnight. In another recent field test at a music festival, dancers stomping on a dance floor with Pavegen tiles generated enough energy to recharge their mobile phones.

The company’s first big field test will come this summer at the London Olympics. Pavegen will be installing its system just outside the Westfield Stratford Shopping Center, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest urban shopping malls. The tiles will be placed on one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares leading into nearby London Olympic Park. Depending on the foot traffic, the company hopes its tiles might be able to power the mall’s entire lighting system. More.

(Image: Pavegen)

(via npr)