Pop Culture

Lena and Dmitry of Design Atelier Article make a damn fine pair of bookends. They make other things, too — hooks, candle holders, clocks — but their bookends are worthy of any design-focused home store: think CB2, West Elm, Z Gallerie. And this is what I love most about Etsy — sure, you're going to find the Regretsy-worthy there, but more often than not you'll find pieces that any home (or body) would be proud to display. It's an honest-to-goodness 21st-century treasure trove. DesignAtelierArticle's bookends run from the angelic: to the athletic: and everything in between: You can browse the rest of Lena and Dmitry's shop here.

Yahoo announced today that it is buying blogging site Tumblr for $1.1bn, mostly in cash. In the posting, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made clear that the cooler, younger company would not be smothered by her firm's notorious corporate culture, under which many other purchases have withered and died. I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr! We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster. Yahoo! even set out to prove its noble intentions with a amusing animated GIF, adorning its post with a flashing remix of the "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON POSTER", edited to say "NOW PANIC AND FREAK OUT." Amid the announcement's language of respect and cultivation, however, Reuters' Ant DeRosa spotted a purple sheep already making itself comfortable: This is the first scary part of the new post-Yahoo Tumblr: Marissa Mayer writes: “Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology” But as we all know, Tumblr's users have been clamoring for Yahoo personalization technology. This pressure from within surely played a strong role in shareholders' calculations. Meyer also promised seamless advertising opportunities that enhance the user experience, another well-defined idea that's sure to please the crowd. Indeed, what DeRosa calls the "scary part" bodes well for the heightened efficiency of Yahoo!'s usually-tardy purchase management and integration efforts. In the past, it's often taken several months or even years before any change at all is heralded in one of its many acquisitions. Here, though, it took mere a mere 24 seconds to read from the introductory paragraph to Yahoo!'s announced intention to make a curiously unappetizing, corporate-sounding revision to the product. Using this as a normalizing metric for future developments, I feel confident that we can offer the following predictive timetable for the ongoing evolution of Tumblr. 8 a.m., Monday, May 20, 2013. -- Official announcement 9:32 a.m. - First implementation of traditionally unappetizing, corporate-brained, systematic revision of the product. 9:40 p.m. - Reports filter in of infant seizures, nightmares, following the first major apperance on national television of David Karp's eyes. 10 a.m. - First big TOS revision. Yahoo reports in a press release that the company had observed "positive uplifting sharp intakes of breath" from users paid to read them. 12 p.m. - Brunch. 1:15 p.m. - It is observed that there has yet to be a second unappetizing, corporate-brained, systematic revision of the product. People start getting nervous. 2:18 p.m. - Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! will be profitable by 3 p.m. 2:50 p.m. - EXIF data stripped from photos; it is Terry Semel's fault. 3:40 p.m - Tumblr! press releases start to contain the phrase "a good fit" with alarming regularity. 4 p.m. - Just when everyone thought it would never happen, a great mobile app is launched. In the resulting flurry of excitement and social activity, long-dormant accounts are reused for the first time since the morning. Embarassing hours-old avatars are updated. 4:45 p.m. - Tumblr! logo appears in a leaked powerpoint umder the heading "Sunset." 4:47 p.m. - Yahoo! denies that Tumblr! is to be sunsetted. 4:52 p.m. - Buzzfeed runs a list titled "40 bizarre Tumblr pages from the web's good old days." 4:55 p.m. - Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! is to be sunsetted. 4:56 p.m. - Yahoo! announces that Tumblr! is to be turned off at 4:59 p.m. 4:58 p.m. - The Internet Archive completes a massive project to backup Tumblr before it goes away. 5 p.m. Yahoo! announces its acquisition of Medium.

Dan from the Journal of Ride Theory passed me a copy of the original prospectus for Disneyland -- a rare and wonderful document I've never seen or even heard of before. I'm delighted to bring it to you today. Dan explains: I like it because I get the sense it's an edited transcript of Walt just making up fun stuff on the fly. I have no evidence for that, but I know he was good at telling stories without a script, and there's something about the phrases used that sounds a bit like Walt talking off the cuff. But what do I know? I found it ten or so years ago, in the files of Eyerly Rides in Salem. They had a contract to build the Dumbo ride and a windmill Ferris wheel for Disney, but the deal fell through when Lee Eyerly got cancer. Also, Walt insisted the ride must load everybody all at once, while the Eyerlys knew from experience that was an inefficient way to work the queue. At one point, somebody at Eyerly went to a bookstore and bought a Little Golden Book (or something) of Dumbo so they could have reference pictures in order to design the fiberglass elephants. Take Walt being intractable, add the Eyerlys insisting they knew their business, then throw in cancer, and the deal fell through -- amicably, as I read the documents. Arrow Development got the contract for Dumbo. It barely worked on opening day and queues have been long for that ride ever since. The Ferris wheel idea wasn't built until Disneyland Paris. I've got a LOT of transcripts of phone calls on that deal, and a few drawings/diagrams. Scanning all those documents is a one-of-these-days project. Read it all the way through for an example of horrible, casual racism. Disneyland Prospectus (Thanks, Dan)

The Twelve-Fingered Boy is John Hornor Jacobs's debut young adult novel and it's amazing. It's a horror novel about Shreve, a kid from a tough background who is stuck in juvie and makes the most of it by running a black-market candy dealership; and his new roommate Jack, a quiet kid with twelve fingers and twelve toes. Jack is not the kind of kid who thrives in juvie, and Shreve takes him under his wing, trying to teach him how to get along on the inside -- but he's not very successful. Jack's extra fingers mark him out among the kids, and the worst of them smell blood when they see him and begin to circle. But that's the least of Jack's problems. Far more worrisome is Mr Quincrux, a strange man from an unnamed government agency who seems to have the power to make the omnisuspicious guards and wardens go into a trancelike state. He's very, very interested in Jack, and particularly in how Jack landed in juvie -- an unexplained attack on his foster siblings that we quickly learn had something to do with telekinesis. Shreve quickly discovers that Mr Quincrux is an emissary for something much darker than any mere government agency, and as things escalate and Jack's powers come to the fore, it quickly becomes necessary for the pair to break out and hit the road. Great horror novels demand likable characters -- people whose danger we can't help buy emphathise with -- and Twelve-Fingered Boy has a pair of two of the most likable characters I can remember meeting. Shreve is fast-talking, tough-as-nails, thoughtful and honorable; Jack is quiet, gentle, scarred but indomitable. Their adventures hopping trains and sneaking across the country to unravel the mysteries of the plot are part Huck Finn, part X-Men. The scary stuff in this book -- and there's some really scary stuff here -- goes beyond the usual scares of kids' horror, and is truly the stuff of nightmares. This is a book that mesmerizes like a venomous snake, and while it comes to something of a conclusion at the end of 264 too-short pages, I was delighted to learn that it is only book one of a trilogy. I'll be on the watch for the next two volumes. The Twelve-Fingered Boy

In this episode of Mommy in Chief we have a special treat! The fabulous actress and comedian Kym Whitley stopped by the studio to share her joys of being a new mom, her organization and new show “Raising Whitley” airing every Saturday at 9pm on OWN. For more information about Kym Whitley’s Don’t Feed Me [...]

Mole Miner Key Ring (sold individually)Do you have trouble finding that itty bitty key hole on your door? Enlist the help of the adorable Mole Miner Key Ring from the NeatoShop. This little mammal is used to finding his way around in the dark.The Mole Miner Key Ring features a little mole dressed like a miner. When you press his tail hie miner's helmet light goes on. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Keychain and Key Covers. Link

The Ancients made this mysterious device and redditor getoffmypropartay painstakingly reassembled it. There's no Dial Home Device, so we must manually dial an address. To which world should we travel first?Link

Or is this more of a business thing?

The author' mother, Vivian Baxter, was ahead of her time.

Messy...