Rare vintage globes are being digitized so you can spin them online

The University of Southern Maine's Osher Map Library is making some of its oldest and rarest globes available in online models so you can rotate them from the comfort of your computer screen. The collection includes the library's two oldest: 1603 and 1607 celestial globes by Dutch cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Of course, there's nothing like spinning the real thing. But vintage globes are pretty fragile (usually made of plaster wood and paper), and some are in storage and out of reach.

[h/t: Motherboard]

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Brett Kern fuses 80's pop culture icons into Hellenistic sculptures

Brett Kern is best known for making ceramic art pieces that deceptively look like inflatable toys . But over the course of the last few months, the West Virginia-based clay master and professor have been working hard at finishing a new series of sculptures. The series is based on 80's pop culture characters and inspired by the Hellenistic period. In this set, you'll find everything from a drunken E.T. (a recreation of the The Barberini Faun ) to a Rafael/ The Dying Gaul mashup. Perhaps my favorite of the bunch (pictured below) is ALF Strangling Cat , which is based on the Greek original Boy Strangling Goose . "I am choosing characters that I sympathize with in some capacity," Brett was quoted as saying by Nerdist.com . "When I used to play Ninja Turtles, I pretended to be Rafael because he was the badass rebel that didn't want to listen to anyone else. Fittingly, my older brother was Leonardo and we clashed often." Br...

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