"Ancillary Materials"

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

On the 2nd-12^th days of Christmas, ARW gave to me…

• I took a lot of art history classes in college, but I was never taught just how often snowball fights were depicted in art through the ages — including in Medieval prayer books, of all things. My favorite piece in this collection of snowball-fight themed art here though, isn’t a painting; it’s a photograph of three Princeton students post-snowball fight and, frankly, I don’t think they were throwing snow at each other.
• This tweet about an owl sighting literally made my entire year.
• And so did this video of what happened after dark in a Texas suburb.
• I thought I’d found you the best the internet has to offer when, a couple of weeks ago, I brought you a scholarly article about James Bond’s flagrant disregard for infectious diseases. Turns out I was wrong. This list of (rumored) unusual deaths on Wikipedia is just as good. My favorites? The victims of the 1518 dancing plague; the multiple — yes, multiple — people who died because of misbehavior with pears; and the painter who died from laughing too hard at his portrait of Aphrodite, the model of which was the elderly lady who had commissioned it.
• If you’re a fan of podcasts, Scientific American just launched a new podcast entitled “The Lost Women of Science.” A little bit history, a little bit science, a little bit gender studies — what’s not to love?
• Did you know that, during the Great Depression, people used to take out newspaper ads and hold evening vigils to celebrate the blooming of their night-blooming cacti? This New York Times Style Magazine article is a beautiful exploration of the different types of night-blooming flowers and why we’re so drawn to them.
• If you’re a “foodie” like me, and/or or just appreciate some high-quality food writing (or pictures of food), Whetstone Magazine is worth exploring. These essays highlighting the cultural significance and history behind South Asian foods (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan) are worth your time. This one on a battle over dessert ownership; this one on the edible weeds foraged from Goa’s Socorro Plateau; and this one on Goya Bori (food art that resembles elaborate jewelry) are some of my favs.