Inside - Vadim Sadovski

an entertaining thing to do would be to replace every instance of “for ritual purposes” in any archeology article with “for funsies”

this is from a real diary by a 13-year-old girl in 1870. teenage girls are awesome and they’ve always been that way.

The last surviving sea silk seamstress

Byssus, or sea silk, is one of the most coveted materials in the world – but after more than 1,000 years in the same matrilineal family tree, this ancient thread may soon unravel.

“My grandmother wove in me a tapestry that was impossible to unwind,” Vigo said. “Since then, I’ve dedicated my life to the sea, just as those who have come before me.”

Like the 23 women before her, Vigo has never made a penny from her work. She is bound by a sacred ‘Sea Oath’ that maintains that byssus should never be bought or sold.

Instead, Vigo explained that the only way to receive byssus is as a gift. […]

“Byssus doesn’t belong to me, but to everyone,” Vigo asserted. “Selling it would be like trying to profit from the sun or the tides.”

More recently, a Japanese businessman approached Vigo with an offer to purchase her most famous piece, ‘The Lion of Women’, for €2.5 million. It took Vigo four years to stitch the glimmering 45x45cm design with her fingernails, and she dedicated it to women everywhere.

“I told him, ‘Absolutely not’,” she declared. “The women of the world are not for sale.”

The Seattle con season has just started...

If you’re suffering from post-con depression (like we are), there’s hope! Here’s a list of other awesome cons in the Seattle area that might be of interest to you:

Norwescon (April 2-5, 2015) norwescon

Sakura-Con (April 3-5, 2015) sakuracon

Shatterdome Seattle (May 3, 2015) shatterdomeseattle

PAX Prime (Late August)

BrickCon (October 3-4, 2015)

GeekGirlCon (October 10-11, 2015) geekgirlcon

Short Run Comix & Art Festival (October 31, 2015)

Jet City Comic Show (Oct 31 - Nov 1, 2015) shortrunseattle

Sherlock Seattle (was Jan 9-11, 2015) sherlock-seattle

Let us know if we’ve missed any and we’ll add them to the list!

storm over the serengeti. photos by nick nichols

Vintage postcard of ladies’ hockey outdoors at Banff

So apparently last year the National Park Service in the US dropped an over 1200 page study of LGBTQ American History as part of their Who We Are program which includes studies on African-American history, Latino history, and Indigenous history. 

Like. This is awesome. But also it feels very surreal that maybe one of the most comprehensive examinations of LGBTQ history in America (it covers sports! art! race! historical sites! health! cities!) was just casually done by the parks service. 

It was a colourful and fiery sunset at Warner Valley, Utah. Love the desert sunsets!

Maps about Coffee Locations Besides maps, one of my favorite topics to study on this website is coffee! Here’s a simple map I made by overlaying locations of coffee shops onto a map of the UW campus, and drawing some simple circles. Source: http://ift.tt/19zaaRJ

Mt. St. Helens

I’ll have limited copies of this in print at VanCAF17 this weekend, come see me at table D-11!