red giant/white dwarf

If marauding black holes, undetected meteorites or hostile alien invasions weren’t enough to worry about, astronomers have detected a distant, dying binary star system whose gravitational waltz manages to periodically eject planet-sized blobs of super-hot plasma into their solar system at trajectories of over one-tenth the speed of light.
Although surely it would be catastrophic for any residents of V Hydræ’s exoplanets to have cowered in the knowledge that once every eight years (or equivalent cycle) a deadly blast comes from the heavens in a civilisation ending event for at least the last four hundred years (if they managed to dodge it at all and aren’t the architects of this Death Star or this cosmic defence shield themselves), this stellar canon is too far away to threaten Earth.

the way ahead

As the brilliant Kottke informs, Barack Obama has written a thoughtful letter to his successor on crucial areas of “unfinished business in economic policy.”
Confronted by questions of America’s place in the world buffeted on all sides by anxieties and insecurities over globalisation and the quickening pace of change, which makes many yearn nostalgically for a time and a place that never existed (or at least we’d never want to return to, given all the trade-offs), the incumbent was prompted to recognise that many of these fears were waylaid—not rooted in prosperity and security alone, but by way of preamble was rather hijacked by division and disengagement, looking back (among others) to the Know Nothing Party of the 1850s. Obama admonishes his successor that America’s stance can still be a force of good, globally, and America must continue to craft and enforce laws and regulations that will decrease the income disparity between the richest and the poorest, restore innovation and mobility of opportunity and build a stronger foundation that includes a sufficient infrastructure and legal framework that prevents loopholes and the incentivising of profits at the expense of the exploiting the work-force or environment. Read the entire letter on The Economist at the link up top.

bombshell or weekend project

For those crafty-natured souls out there, Messy Nessy Chic is really throwing down the gauntlet with the catalogue of Pin-Up Houses that she features. These gorgeous tiny homes (with an even tinier footprint), gazebos and sheds from designer Joshua Woodsman can be assembled in a few hours and starting for just over a thousand dollars. Even plenty of step-by-step blue-prints are on offer for inspiration. Are you up for the challenge?

amphigorey

In the lead up to Halloween (all the more fraught with terrors should we consider the state it’s in without help from the infernal), TYWKIWDBI serves us a ghastly collection of black-humoured wit from Edward Gorey (more on the writer and illustrator here, here and here). Most—if not all of the panels, are highly unsettling: one, an abecedarium, documents (going through the alphabet in order) precocious children meeting their fates in twisted and atrocious ways, and two an appreciation of Gorey’s equally dark limericks. Visit the blog for more unfortunate mayhem, if you dare.

katzenklo

I really appreciated these DIY litter box beautification projects from the always marvellous Nag on the Lake.
I think people sometimes get frustrated with their cats and dismiss them as unhouse-breakable because, not appreciate of their pets’ sensibilities and comfort level. Litter boxes can be hideous looking things that humans may not necessarily want in their living rooms—although these are pretty spiffy, and instead hide them somewhere—usually the laundry room and then wonder why their cat can’t go in that place with the scary, rumbling jabberwocky. As a bonus, here is songwriter Helge Schneider performing “cat toilet.” Ja, das macht die Katze froh!

canting arms

Mental Floss presents an interesting assortment of emblems and symbols on national and territorial flags that tells the lore behind the scampering marten of Croatia, the Phrygian cap (hat on a stick) motif that represented manumission from slavery, and made me think of the aurochs, an extinct wild bull of Europe that’s on many coats-of-arms. I did not know, however, why Bermuda has, seemingly inauspiciously, a shipwreck on their flag and how that near-disaster inspired Shakespeare to pen to The Tempest—and nor did I realise that for its side bar of five intricately woven carpets representing the five chief tribes, the flag of Turkmenistan is considered the most vexillogically complex banner in the world.

all-terrain

This amphibious caravan from the German company Sealander really caught our attention. Not only is it a sleek and stylish trailer to be pulled on a hitch with a complete camping kitchen, bedding and storage, but when the opportunity presents itself, converts to a personal yacht with an outboard motor to punt around a lake. We’ve stayed a quite a few campsites where such a flexible arrangement would have been ideal.  Check out the links above for more details and a full demonstration.

beautifish

From the creator of Sad Dog Diary, Ze Frank (pronounced Zay) takes us to the magical undersea kingdom of the Angler Fish. Watch the whole fascinating nature narration at the link here.