blowing raspberries

It appears that the universe tastes of raspberries.

Yes, raspberries.

We are living inside a gigantic pavlova, which is somehow quite heartening.

Image below shows recent experiments to capture this essence.

the philosopher’s stone

“The remarkable Ripley Scroll is, in simple terms, an alchemical manuscript that shows in pictorial cryptograms the production of the philosopher’s stone (the elusive ingredient that produces incorruptible gold out of lesser metals; and/or the elixir of life).” HT: Bibliodyssey

the waq waq tree

“The Waq Waq are mythical lands, associated with trees bearing humanoid fruits, which were sometimes located in Africa and sometimes in the eastern Indian Ocean.”

“In June 2002, the Bodleian Library acquired the unique complete manuscript of a hitherto unknown Arabic cosmographical treatise, the يKitāb Gharāʾib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn, known as the Book of Curiosities. The manuscript is a copy, probably made in Egypt in the late 12th or early 13th century, of an anonymous work compiled in the first half of the 11th century in Egypt. The treatise is extraordinarily important for the history of science, especially for astronomy and cartography, and contains an unparalleled series of diagrams of the heavens and maps of the earth.”

Emilie Savage-Smith and Yossef Rapoport (eds.), The Book of Curiosities: A critical edition. World-Wide-Web publication. (March 2007).