the long and the short of it

We enjoyed this grand tour of the continent through superlative toponymy—with of course the crowning achievement for the longest placename being a village in Wales (pro pronunciation help here), but we also get to visit Italy’s contender on the shores of Lake Maggiore and the pictured postcard from the Dutch village of Gasselternijveenschemond plus a few one-letter wonders through a variety of art and artefacts from the collections of a Europe-wide consortium of museums.

reeperbahn

We quite enjoyed this peek into the industries of rope-making and yarn-spinning that gave Cable Street of the East End and Whitechapel through the lens of the late eighteenth century company of the Frost Brothers when it was documented in illustrations and photographs in 1905. Like the above-titled way in Hamburg, the area began as a straight grounds where hemp fibres were twisted into ropes for the ships that would anchor on the Thames between London Bridge and the kilns at Limehouse.

your daily demon: amon

Ruling from today through 24 April, the first degrees into the House of Taurus, this seventh spirit is an infernal marquis presenting as a fire-breathing wolf with a serpent’s tail but will assume human form if compelled by his sigil and facilitates the reconciliation of feuds and smooths relationships between friends. His name is thought to be a conflation of the Punic (Carthage) deity Baal-hamon, he who induces to eagerness, though others source him as the Egyptian sun god Amun Ra, the deified pharaoh and his later fusion with hawk-headed Horus. Countered by the angel Achaiah, Amon commands forty legions.

1600 pennsylvania avenue

Via friends of the blog Everlasting Blört and Nag on the Lake we are treated to the changing interior touches that each new US presidential administration (see also) brings to the executive office, the Oval Office completed during renovations in 1909, and the choice of art, artefacts and personal effects have a symbolic resonance. The vignettes tied to each presidency as told in décor are pretty interesting—like how Dwight Eisenhower kept the furnishings of his predecessor Harry S. Truman without any significant changes other than managing to destroy the floor by neglecting to take off his golf spikes when returning from the putting green he had put on the back lawn. The tradition of keeping Swedish ivy on the mantle goes back to the Kennedy administration and the current runner was rooted from the original vine.  More at the links above.

shake shack

In the aftermath of the April 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires that ravaged San Francisco over five thousand refugee shelters were constructed to replace the tent cities that emerged in Golden Gate Park and other areas to prevent a follow-on public health crisis. Most of the sturdier habitations—cottages (it reminds us of this image) for which tenants paid a $2 per month rent—have been demolished over the ensuing century but at least a few dozen remain, conserved by a following of dedicated residents. More from JWZ and the San Francisco Chronicle at the link above.

timelapse

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we discover the latest suite of features from Google Earth—which has been giving us a privileged perspective on our planet for fifteen years now—includes a chronological dial that allows one to peer into the past four decades of satellite telemetry with a cache of some twenty-four million archived images (see also here and here) to better visualise the toll that de-forestation, desertification, intensive mining and agriculture, urban-sprawl, pollution and global warming takes on the environment.

cinematic titanic

Starring Rex Reason, Faith Domergue and Jeff Morrow, the 1955 sci-fi vehicle This Island Earth, its concurrent critical acclaim was in part—not to detract from the pretty solid script—due to the novelty of Technicolor, was given a second lease on life with its MST3K treatment as the show’s first feature film, premiering on this day in 1996. With elements of The Last Starfighter, Earthling scientists are recruited, abducted by extra-terrestrials from the planet Metaluna to perform the alchemy necessary to defend themselves from an invader alien called the Zagons, learning too late that this effort only covers up and conspiracy to relocate a doomed population to Earth along with their irreconcilable differences.

dos-1

Also known by the technical designation in the acronym for long-duration orbital station, to the public and press the first launch of the Salyut (Салют, salute or a hail of fireworks) programme occurred on this day in 1971, becoming the first space station (see also) from the Soviet Union and was aloft, crews conducting experiments, astronomical observations and docking manuevers until October when deorbited and replaced by the new generation module, The final vessel of the programme (DOS-8), called Zvezda, became the core of the Russian section of the International Space Station.