bookofjoe

La Llareta, 2,000+ years old, in Chile's Atacama Desert

Photo caption: What looks like moss covering rocks is actually a very dense, flowering shrub that happens to be a relative of parsley, living in the extremely high elevations of the Atacama Desert.

Wrote Alexandra Wolfe in the Wall Street Journal:

Photographer Rachel Sussman has spent the past decade searching the seven continents for the oldest things alive. She documents 30 of those organisms in her book, "The Oldest Living Things in the World."

"Everything not saved will be lost" — Nintendo "Quit Screen" Message

The Dimensions of City Blocks

From Seth Kadish's VizualStatistix:

A block is by no means a standard unit of measurement.

Depending on the urban plan, blocks can be square or oblong, and can vary significantly in side length.

For this plot, I measured the median length of downtown blocks in six cities that have regular grid layouts — that is, the dimensions of their city blocks are consistent.

I've included blocks per mile along the outer axes, and the ratio of short to long dimension for each city.

For this value, one represents a perfect square while smaller values indicate more oblong blocks.

Data source: Measurements made using Google Earth.

"Winter Evening" — Giovanni Giacometti

Who knew this painter was the father of Alberto and Diego?

Not me until yesterday when I happened on this painting from 1905-6.

As the saying goes, the acorn does not fall far from the tree.

The artist created this work, oil on canvas, when he was 37.

Below, "Winter Fog," dating from 1910.

He died in Glion, Switzerland in 1933.

Teapot

Cast-iron-finish stoneware and bamboo.

Designed by Francis Cayouette.

Also available in sand.

£94.95.