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1/13/17 @coldsunnyday The ducks aren’t actually green. They’re untrustworthy creatures, and they’re lying about what color they are. Don’t listen to them.

It’s an optical illusion called “structural color.” Their feathers are black. The fluffy side bits of the feathers (barbs) are also black. The little hooks that keep the barbs all lined up (barbules) are also black. There are microscopic little ridges (tubules) on the barbules that are also black. But the tubules are exactly the same size as a wavelength of green light, so instead of absorbing green light the way a black object should, they reflect it and the ducks look green. 

If you put one of the ducks under a good enough microscope, you’d see that no individual part of it was actually green in any way.

Avian biology generally can’t produce blue or green pigments. Birds that look blue or green are lying about it. Don’t trust them.

Except for turacos. They’re actually green, and very pleased with themselves about it. Look at this guy, here’s a bird you can trust:

Call me Maybe preformed with bottles

> This is actually not terrible and fairly enjoyable.

Enhancement should say: Make things do stuff, better.

Otherwise I love the simple but insightful explanations, and the art.

A short ‘n sweet explanation of the 8 schools of magic from 5th edition!

Better quality photos of the embroidery for my mama. Currently being wrapped up with some handmade biscuits for Christmas.

There’s a park in Austria that turns into a lake every summer. When temperatures rise, the snow melts on the mountains surrounding Grüner See, or Green Lake, and fills the meadow with water - leaving benches, trails, and trees completely submerged in crystal-clear snowmelt. Source Source 2

Photo: Flickr, Roman Königshofer

Thrillophilia, an online marketplace for tours and activities, compiled a list of countries, cities, and destinations that many of us may have been say incorrectly all along. Each graphic features a side-by-side comparison of the common, incorrect pronunciation juxtaposed with how the locals say it.

Studio Ghibli Color Designer Michiyo Yasuda, has passed away. :’(

Michiyo Yasuda, long time animator & color designer of Studio Ghibli passed away 

Japan’s Mainichi has reported on the death of long time color designer and the chief of the ink and paint division of Studio Ghibli Michiyo Yasuda, who passed away of an undisclosed illness on October 5 at the age of 77. Yasuda started working at Toei Dogo before she was 20 and joined Studio Ghibli co-founders Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki on the 1968 anime feature Horus, Prince of the Sun aka the Little Norse Prince.

Yasuda later worked on Miyazaki’s ‘78 TV anime Future Boy Conan, pre-Ghibli feature Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Studio Ghibli’s features such as Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro,  Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo, as well as Isao Takahata works like Grave of the Fireflies. 

While Yasuda officially retried after Studio Ghibli released Ponyo in 2008, she came back in 2013 for Miyazaki's “final feature” The Wind Rises. Yasuda won an Animation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 from the Japan Movie Critics Awards.

Her career spanned over five decades, beginning as a tracer for animation before shifting into color work. She was present at the inception of Studio Ghibli, and continued to run the Color Department until her retirement following PONYO in 2008. Then returned to work for The Wind Rises. 

Read More: There are interviews and more of her art (basically Ghibli screencaps). Cause she basically has worked on EVERYTHING and created amazing worlds. for us to watch & live in…. http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/michiyo-yasuda-dead-studio-ghibli-hayao-miyazaki-1201735490/  http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/10/11-1/long-time-studio-ghibli-color-designer-michiyo-yasuda-passes-away http://goboiano.com/news/5251-ghibli%2527s-legendary-color-designer-michiyo-yasuda-passes-away-at-77 http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=1700

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiyo_Yasuda

 We are forever grateful for your incredible, filled with out of this world beauty artistry.  RIP Michiyo Yasuda.

Aretha Franklin, The Queen Of Soul, Has Died At 76

The music icon was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and won 18 Grammy Awards.

Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul and a music legend who enjoyed a career longer than many of her successors, died Thursday. She was 76.

Her publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, confirmed her death to BuzzFeed News in a statement, saying she died at her home in Detroit at 9:50 a.m. local time. The cause of death was advanced pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type.

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,“ her family said in a statement. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family.”

The family also said they had been "deeply touched” by the outpouring of love and support they had received in recent days, after word first emerged the singer had fallen ill.

“We have felt your love for Aretha and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on,” they said.

No other vocalist has reached the heights Franklin did during her monumental career. She is the most charted female singer in Billboard history, the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and the “greatest singer of all time,” according to Rolling Stone.