PSA - Flares' recommended home exercise regime

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Naturally, in these days of the 'sheltering at home' panic, the staff at Flares is concerned for our regular readers' health and fitness. So we've slapped togeth--- uhhh… I mean we've carefully custom designed an exercise regime to insure the wellness of your body, mind and soul. Etc., etc.

These exercises, and those after the jump, are from the Public Domain Review's archives: Physical Training for Business Men (1917) and Swedish House-Gymnastics (1913).

The Unseen Enemy

This seems out of date even for 1945. I mean, the advice not to use your corn field as a latrine. Seriously, did that many farms not have outhouses back then?

Of course, if a question is asked it must be answered. Below are some pictures of old outhouses and privies. There are more after the jump and even more at Photogrammer for those with a twisted desire to look at outhouse pictures.

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Who Do You Love

Get ready for a hoodoo weekend with Elise LeGrow.

The salvage of the Murmansk

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The Murmansk was a Soviet light cruiser. In 1994 she was sold to India for scrapping. Enroute to India she ran aground off the coast of Norway. It was thought that she would break up in the harsh weather, but she stayed together as she turned into a rusted hulk.

By 2009 enough money was raised to begin salvage work. She was in too bad of shape to be refloated, so it was decided to build a breakwater and drain where she say so she could be disassembled. The salvage was completed in 2013 (via Deserted Places).  

Unheard songs and hearts of stone

From First Miss Soviet Union beauty pageant, 1988

The Fountain - Sara Teasdale

Oh in the deep blue night
The fountain sang alone;
It sang to the drowsy heart
Of a satyr carved in stone.

The fountain sang and sang
But the satyr never stirred--
Only the great white moon
In the empty heaven heard.

The fountain sang and sang
And on the marble rim
The milk-white peacocks slept,
Their dreams were strange and dim.

Bright dew was on the grass,
And on the ilex dew,
The dreamy milk-white birds
Were all a-glisten too.

The fountain sang and sang
The things one cannot tell,
The dreaming peacocks stirred
And the gleaming dew-drops fell.

Fever

Get ready for a pyrexic weekend with The Kabosy Brothers.

Wuhan Virus art

Illustration by Masashi Shimakawa

In my earlier post Plague Art I posted some old artwork from the Black Death and other historical pandemics. I opined that modern Plague Art might be scenes of the frenzied rush on the toilet paper aisle, but I had forgotten facemasks.

The image is by Masashi Shimakawa (I showed other of his work in the earlier post Illustrations of every day Japan by Masashi Shimakawa). I think it really isn't Wuhan Virus art because, as near as I can tell from the Google translation of the IG post it came from, it is actually an illustration from an article(?) called "Slapping the Door". I've repurposed it as plague art none-the-less.

Buying a smoothie in Saigon

The above video starts with its maker Harald Baldr buying a smoothie from a little shop in Saigon. He then goes on a short walk through some back alleys where he discusses real estate prices with his guide Tom and also runs across a number of women making money by cleaning and peeling onions for local restaurants. Below is a video he filmed of a small family owned flip-flop factory.

Plague art

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Whelp, with the Wuhan virus upon us it is time to visit older pandemics via art. These images, and those after the jump, are primarily of the Black Death, but there are a few other plagues tossed in for good measure. Hopefully, if we're lucky, future Wuhan Flu art will only be of rushes on the toilet paper aisle and not stacks of dead bodies.

Life Could Be A Dream

Get ready for fantasy this weekend with Street Corner Renaissance.

Exoplanets lead to an idiotic train of thought

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These are a series of artistic renderings of exoplanets from the image archive of the Hubble Space  Telescope.  As I prepared the images my mind, as it is wont to do, started aimlessly meandering.

Reincarnation. For those who believe in it they've either lived past lives in romantic historical times or, if they're of a more mystical Eastern mindset, they've been cows and what-not in their previous lives. It strikes me that all these new found exoplanets add layers of complexity to all that -- perhaps your previous lives took place, not on Earth, but as a warrior in a conflict in the Magellanic Clouds or as a sea creature somewhere in the belt of Orion.

Me? I'm looking forward to the next planet my essence lands on. I just hope it's not an ice world.

Time is a river

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His princess was dusty. Arpien should have expected that. Anything lying undisturbed for a hundred years would gather dust. He'd crossed the ocean to find the right sword for this venture, but neglected to pack a feather duster. ― Sarah E. Morin

Johnny B. Goode

Get ready for bumpkins this weekend with It Lives, It Breathes.

Supermarket food machines

A while back we looked at fast food from a 7-Eleven in Singapore. Today we return to Singapore to look at some supermarket food machines. The omelet cooking robots are pretty mesmerizing. That said, I did wonder how they kept them sanitized in between uses.

The Boxer at Rest

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The Boxer at Rest is a bronze Hellenistic sculpture dating from somewhere between 330 - 50 B.C. Rather than showing a heroic figure, it shows a battered boxer. His nose is broken, his lip is split and he has cauliflower ears as well as numerous cuts. The statue also has copper inlaid to represent splattered blood.