If the earth gradually stopped spinning and was eventually still, the water would be drawn to the polar regions due to the flattened ellipsoid shape of the planet. We’d be left with two polar oceans, an immense “waistband” megacontinent, and a few scattered lakes.

Someone at Reddit posted these this morning; his dad, the author of these comics, died today and he wanted to share them. I’m actually shocked at how good they are. Here are a few in honor of Father’s Day; there are more at Reddit. (click for big version)

The region’s efforts have been especially focused on protecting its “superstuds” — bulls that have been carefully selected to produce calves with the optimal fattiness.

The studs, picked by local agricultural officials in a multiyear selection process, are monitored for the quality of meat from their offspring. Only one or two bulls out of the nearly 39,000 bulls born in the prefecture each year eventually attain superstud status. Tadafuji, the best superstud in recent memory, sired 220,000 calves, local officials say.

NYT. 220,000!

“And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.

I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.

I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.”

Translation of Leonardo’s résumé

Christopher Milk, Last Day Dream
Mike showed this to me a few days ago as a counterpoint to the far less compelling “The Last Three Minutes,” which clearly bites this.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

The theft of the Mona Lisa

The theft of the Mona Lisa

…One passerby noticed a man on the sidewalk carrying a package wrapped in white cloth. The witness recalled noticing the man throw a shiny metal object into the ditch along the edge of the street. The passerby glanced at it—it was a doorknob.

If anyone else noticed during the rest of the day that there were four bare hooks where the Mona Lisa usually hung, they kept it to themselves. Incredibly, not until Tuesday, when the Louvre again opened its doors to the public, did anyone express concern over the fact that the world’s most famous painting was missing from its usual place.