shutter-speed

Sometimes on a wind-shield tour, such as this in the countryside of Devon, I got lucky with the timing and captured this idyll of cursory curious cows watching us go by, but mostly as a still aggregated from a new feature on my gadget that captures a bit of what goes on before, during and after I take the photograph (the before part of my framing intentions being a little unsettling) that’s a bit like the next generation of animation appearing in Harry Potter newspaper columns, delivers a rather disturbing middling-focus like the aside of my wrist superimposed on the base of a ceremonial gateway wall along the wayside. Click to enlarge.  Have you tried this feature yet? I wonder if 4K videos might not produce chimera like panorama failures.  When I first noticed some twitching in the preview mode, I thought that I was just losing my mind.

from kent to cornwall or there and back again

Although one could be excused for thinking that the debates over the upcoming referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union or abandon it—the BREXIT—has been going on for decades, even prior to the Schinnen Agreement or the Maastricht Treaty, the discussion has only official started in the last few weeks, and pending this decision, H and I wanted to explore the south of England, from east to west, before such ventures might prove more of an administrative hardship.
Being on the fringes of the EU already with its border controls and separate currency and me holding a wonky status, I suppose it would not directly impact us—I always have to queue up to show my passport and get questioned whether I’m on holiday or on a mission (though on the return ferry, there were a couple of uniformed UK service members and I thought it was a treaty to travel in steerage like that). We saw that especially in the wealthier parts of the westernmost ceremonial counties that the sentiment, as displayed on shrill billboards, was to leave though no one polled us about the matter. Stay tuned for highlights of our travels from Kent to Cornwall and points in between. Let’s hope further adventures are not sullied by politics.

pour, oh pour the pirate sherry

PfRC will be taking a much overdue sabbatical soon. This time, we will be crossing the Channel and exploring south-west England. Stay tuned—same time, same station—for further adventures.

soporific or soda-jerk

From editrice extraordinaire Messy Nessy Chic, we learn that behind the domineering soft-drink empire’s decision to drop cocaine from its recipe in 1903 was only the tip, the last words of a crazed drug-fueled revelry that lent much credence to the Prohibition movement.
Though the treacly, family-friendly international brand might not like to own up to its heritage, the decidedly non-adult-beverage had its origins in an infusion of Bordeaux wine and said opiate: a Corsican chemist concocted a very potent cocktail called Vin Mariani in 1863, whose consummate consumers included Thomas Edison, Queen Victoria, Mark Twain, Jules Verne and Pope Leo XIII. The combination resulted in terribly epic binges—together, mightier than cocaine or alcohol alone, and eventually led to many jurisdictions banned both outright. In response, the tonic of John Pemberton, originally peddled as a coca-wine to the elite of Atlanta, was brought into compliance with the prevailing attitudes and its legacy went on to overshadow its roots.

post and lintel

The Markthal (or Koopboog—the horseshoe) of Rotterdam is an eleven-storey vaulted arch, completed in 2014, that frames a bustling farmers market within the complex.
The building also hosts retail and office space and some two hundred apartments that either have bay windows or glass panels in the floor where residents can observe the activity going on below. Aside from the unique design, the ceiling is decorated with some really incredible artwork, the largest installation in the world (according to some measures). The cornucopia (Hoorn des Overvloeds) fresco consist of four thousand panels and reflects the abundance available in the gallery below. Thanks to Presurfer for finding this marvel and be sure to check out the Amusing Planet post for some really stunning photography of the Markthal.

minas tirith

Boing Boing reports on one of the recent acquisition the Bodleian libraries of Oxford, a map of Middle Earth annotated by the author himself.
Tolkien was a little wary of inviting illustrators into the world of Hobbits, Orcs and Man, wanting to ensure that his vision remained true and imagination unprivileged by an inaccurate depiction, and used this map as a working-version of a poster commissioned to show the lay of the land. Notes reveal that places in Middle Earth have real world correspondence, with Hobbiton having the same latitude as the storied university town and further insights into the creative process.