uidentifisert flygande objekt

Informed by Geoff Manaugh’s ever excellent BLDGBLOG, we learn that a Norwegian valley due to a collusion of geochemistry is a natural battery.
One of the parallel ranges is rich in copper and the opposite side zinc with a vein of sulphur in between. Even if there is adequate explanation for what’s known as the Hessdalen phenomenon and its ball lightning that were often taken for alien craft or even stranger things, it’s no less remarkable that Nature can prefigure human invention and makes me think of those infernal coal fires around the world or the naturally occurring nuclear fission in the central Africa. I wonder what other genius lies outdoors that we’re unable to recognise yet.

6x6

journeyman: a travelling itinerant gardener rents yards across the US and makes a living off of selling the produce

polly want a cracker: escaped companion parrots in Australia are teaching wild birds to speak English, via Nag on the Lake

paper-towelling: celebrating a decade of Martha Stewart’s resolute blogging

mcmansions: the most grievous architectural transgressions by those who’ve more money than taste

kæmpe: hidden, whimsical wooden giants outside of Copenhagen

so much for so little: seven decade old short film by animator Chuck Jones presents a compelling case for singer-payer, universal health-care 

in franklin’s tower there hangs a bell

Via the always marvellous Nag on the Lake, we learn that to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the legendary concert hosted at Cornell’s Barton Hall of the Grateful Dead, the campus carillon will be playing some of the band’s best known songs. I am really enamoured how bell towers have been enlisted for tributes and send-offs and hope the trend continues. Read more about the celebration that takes place on Monday at the links up top.

lèse-majesté

Via Boing Boing, we discover that three protesters who railed against the confirmation of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions to the office of US Attorney General affiliated with the women’s rights group Code Pink are potentially facing jail-time for disorderly conduct during the hearings.
Two had donned Ku Klux Klan hoods and the third fighting conviction merely burst uncontrollably in a bout of laughter when then-cohort Alabama Senator Richard Shelby claimed that Sessions’ history (who was previously denied a lower court federal judgeship for his record of bigotry and whom had been previously chastised by Shelby for his views) of “treating all Americans equally under the law” was clear and well-documented. I would too need to be escorted out of the chambers had I been there.

miktion

An upcoming meeting of a Niederösterreicher Green Party (die Grünen) chapter will be teaching woman how to urinate whilst standing—a talent that’s taken for granted, until confronted with a lack of facilities or woefully unsanitary ones.
Far from a frivolous topic, hygiene is a huge issue in developing countries especially and directly impacts women’s health—with a toilet and adequate plumbing being part of the dowry and condition of pre-nuptial agreements even in places where females might not have had much of a say in such matters. One of the councillors organising this summit laments that they’ve always brought up important and controversial issues but haven’t garnered this much attention in the dozen years that they’ve been hosting these gatherings.

princess leia’s stolen death star plans

Go ahead and say it aloud. For the fortieth anniversary of the launch of the Star Wars saga and incredibly for the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the Beatles’ monumental SGT Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I’m surprised these two cultural touchstones are only a decade apart), we’re presented (by way of Waxy) with the pitch-perfect musical stylings of Palette-Swap Ninja merging the two. Doing justice to both franchises with a five year labour of love, the complete album is set to new lyrics that tells the story of A New Hope. Check out all eleven videos at the band’s link above.

holy rollers

Remember when we had the chance to organise and launch a meaningful and effective protest against tyrants and eroding liberties? I do—because that was four blessed months ago. There were concerted efforts in the States to block efforts of the tele-communications industry to eviscerate internet-neutrality and we could rally against overt and covert discrimination but now (and both under the aegis of ‘freedom’) and surely by design there’s little time to mobilise.
Dear Leader is to capitalise of the fervour of his base of supporters to undo a raft of civil rights and a half century of progress in America—that was once a model, however imperfect, for the world to aspire to—and, informed by his viceroy’s convictions and unpopular experiment, is to deliver via Imperial Decree Executive Order that would allow companies to take exception with their customers and employees should their lifestyle—or reproductive choices—present a personal ethical challenge. Religion ought not to be hijacked for such ends, and don’t dare conflate it with Sharia law and those roving bands that check for compliance under threat of severe punishment, because in the eyes of Dear Leader Islam is an ideology and not a matter of faith and therefore not deserving of the protection of the law.

gadheim, gadfly oder the centre cannot hold

Though among the first to acknowledge that things fall apart and that Brexit was a step backwards for everyone, residents of a tiny Franconian farming village in the county of Würzburg are overwhelmed and excited by all the attention that their native Gadheim (DE) is getting, since once the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union is finalised, they will become the geodetic centre of the EU.  This bittersweet title was taken from a suburb sixty kilometres to the northwest called Westerngrund that captured the centre (due to the way geography of the EU) from 2013 onward when Croatia joined the now twenty-seven nation bloc. Hopefully, when Gadheim relinquishes its claim, it will be over expansion and not over another member’s departure.