Weekly Blog Round-Up

UPDATE: Ladybird & Andy - You gotta check this out: the Heavy Metal Band Names Flow Chart! On Comic vs. Audience, via Boing Boing.

WOW - look at the detail. The tear glistens!!! - Thanks, as ever, Terry from Idle Speculations

"awesome president is awesome" from Buzzfeed

Green roof on Huff Po

Why Former Energy Secretary Should Keep His Mouth Shut! Amen, brother! from TreeHugger.

I truly loathe Bush. I wonder if he will ever get his just desserts. Story from Gawker.

Poe in 50's Hipster Argot. If that's not your thing, just read Poe aloud. Both from Boing Boing.

Holy moly! crochet coral reef!! From Boing Boing.

Gotta love Gawker for their assessment of Obama Staffers' discontent with the White House tech environment. Muddle through like the rest of us, OK?

Too geeky for words - Planet of the Apes font from Boing Boing.

Obama's first act is to halt Bush's last-ditch efforts to wreck stuff. Via TreeHugger.

Roma (Gypsy) History - Here is a pretty detailed (harsh) account from the BBC of Roma suffering during the Holocaust.

If you like birds, there are some beautiful photos over at Peregrinations Ornithologiques!

Cheap food is back. So say we all. There is a spread in the Philadelphia Inquirer in this week's food section about Mac & Cheese - for exactly this reason - it's cheap!

And, finally, my horoscope (Pisces) from Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology:

Once every few years, a panel of Hindu and Buddhist judges in Nepal chooses a new "living goddess," a young girl who serves, until she reaches puberty, as an incarnation of the deity Taleju. One of the tests each candidate must pass in order to be eligible for the role is this: She must show no fear as she spends a night alone in a room filled with the bloody heads of ritually killed buffaloes and goats. I'd like you to consider the possibility of carrying out a more humane equivalent of that ceremony, Pisces. For one night, keep symbols of what you're afraid of in the place where you sleep. To do so would be an excellent way to earn the right to graduate to the next level of your spiritual evolution.

Wow! I saw this photo and it made me smile.

Romanian Gypsy contestants react with delight after being selected for the final of a Gypsy beauty and traditional dance contest in Bucharest.

I am fascinated by gypsies - the Rom. The movie "Latcho Drom" is what hooked me. And gypsy music too, love it.

I went to the Patron Saint Index, and found that the gypsies' patron is Sarah! [fascinating] Anyway, there it says:

Jewish Old Testament Matriarch. Wife of the Patriarch Abraham. A convert from paganism, she was the first female convert to the faith of Abraham. Nomad in the desert of Canaan. When she was aged 90, she heard angels say she would finally become a mother. She laughed at the idea, and when her son was born, she named him Isaac from the word for laughter..... Patron of Gitans.

It must have been her nomadic lifestyle that earned her the patronage.

My favorite Prada jacket

... on a real person! See the Sartorialist to see the photo! It's on the lady on the right. Enjoy!

And speaking of Romania, check this out over on Das Artes Plasticas! Wow! How mind-bendingly beautiful!

Enjoy the weekend, all.