ausländische militärstandorte

Though less than a tenth of US troop presence remains from levels around the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and stationing the American military has been fraught for both host and sending nations at times, the army’s announcement to add fifteen hundred troops to the roughly thirty thousand currently in Germany is a far more welcome alternative to what the Commander-in-Chief’s druthers—threatening to remove all troops from Germany if the country failed to pay its membership dues. America’s footprint got significant smaller in Europe in 2012 with the closure of several outposts and the announced re-basing of the headquarters in Heidelberg but this announcement, which will deploy soldiers to Ansbach, Grafenwöhr, Hohenfels and Baumholder in 2020 may signal a re-strengthening of a presence and partnership that is welcome by many.

paradise gardens

Messy Nessy Chic correspondent Francky Knapp delivers a nice retrospective look at eccentric Baptist minister Howard Finster (*1916 - †2001) called to spread the gospel through Paradise Gardens, open air church office, home and studio in Summerville, Georgia in the southern US, peopled with nearly fifty thousand pieces of outsider, naïve and visionary art—genres which overlapped in Finster’s repertoire but he was largely responsible for gaining their purchase in in popular culture.
In the mid-1970s, Finster’s sculpture garden began receiving national attention and was commissioned to execute four painting for the Library of Congress, acting on divine orders to create sacred art, the subjects being as diverse and iconic as aliens, UFOs, Ronald Reagan, Elvis Presley, etc. In 1983, the band REM filmed their music video for “Radio Free Europe” on the grounds of Paradise Gardens and two years later, Talking Heads commissioned cover art (pictured) from Finster for their album Little Creatures (“And She Was,” “Road to Nowhere”).
Notwithstanding Finster’s success in introducing millions to his style and inspiring the likes of fellow artists Keith Haring and Purvis Young, he remained committed to this mission of religious outreach, saying he’d managed to sneak in twenty-six verses of scripture into that cover and to think of the millions it’s reached. Learn more and see a whole gallery of Finster’s works at the links up top.

the manila pact

Though considered ineffectual and was formerly dissolved in 1977 after key members withdrew their support, on this day in 1954 the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan as well as France, the US and the UK formed the mutual defence collective called the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) as force to countermand the spread of Communism in the region. Although failing to halt Soviet influence and the existence of the treaty was cited as the US and Australia as justification for involvement against North Vietnam and large-scale military intervention, SEATO leaves a legacy of educational and vocational endowments that support research and outreach projects to this day.

snap pack

Danish pilsner Carlsberg will replace the usual plastic ring binding used to secure multipacks of beer with a specially formulated glue that’s has both the properties to hold the aluminium cans together securely for transport but are still easy to separate and with no residual stickiness. Reducing its plastic use by the equivalent of sixty million plastic bags a year, the global brewery ought to be applauded for demonstrating that with just a little ingenuity, we can be better stewards of the environment. Skål!

hyperaccumulators

Thanks to Super Punch, we learn that there is a class of highly-specialised trees that have evolved a particular affinity for normally toxic metals.
As the appropriately named Doctor Antony van der Ent explains to the BBC’s science desk, a species that they are studying in New Caledonia has high concentrations of nickel in its sap (latex) that researchers speculate may be a defence against insect predation. Under threat from deforestation from strip mining activities and slash and burn farming, scientists hope to study how the mechanism, called hyperaccumulation, works and perhaps to harness it to purify soils contaminated by industry or waste or even passively mine the ground for metals, harvesting the accrued resources with the plant—an extraction strategy called phytomining.

when life gives you lemons

Derived ultimately from the Arabic word for swindler, mafioso did not necessarily carry the negative connotations on the island of Sicily where it took on the qualities of swagger and fearlessness and the mafia itself arose, as presented quite fascinatingly by Æon Magazine, due at least in part to the success of another Arabic transplant, the lemon.
The unification of Italy (previously Sicily was ruled by a Bourbon dynasty and the residents of the island probably viewed the mainland as just another in a long succession of colonial powers) intersected with the medical insight that citrus would prevent scurvy in sailors on long ocean voyages and translated to a huge windfall for those who kept orchards on the island. More and more groves were planted to keep up with demand and in order to prevent loss of the valuable fruit through theft, guards were employed to supplement the unreliable or non-existent defence that local police or the courts could provide. Eventually such protection, merited or otherwise, became customary with a growing cut of the proceeds going to wardens who had established themselves as fixtures of the marketplace and de facto authority.

thunderbirds are go!

Messy Nessy Chic delivers an amazing appreciation of the universe of Supermarionation, conceived by puppeteers Sylvia and Gerry Anderson, whose sets and scenery are truly something to behold even if one might dismiss the preternatural uncanniness of the cast, marionettes whose faces referenced contemporary celebrities.
Spanning several stand-alone series and broadcast throughout the 1960s and later in syndication and homage, one iteration became the first television programme in the UK filmed entirely in colour and Thunderbirds itself, considered the most commercially successful series of the genre, enjoyed a merchandising success unrivaled until that of Star Wars. Visit the link above to learn more and to see more clips of the shows.