I got my camera. I got my tripod. I am took some wonderful photos of the astronomical events that have taken place recently that were visible in my home town.
For example, the lunar eclipse:
The opposition of Mars:
The Perseid meteor shower:
The Geminid Meteor Shower:
You get the idea.
I was searching for something else entirely when I came across these photographs of the building of the Empire State Building. The post was about corporate negligence about safety issues. That aside, I think the photos are interesting and beautiful. These is something so lovely about fine grained, black and white photos with high contrast. These are attributed to sociologist and photographer, Lewis Wickes Hines.
No such thing as OSHA back then! Amazingly, it is believed only 5 people died during the construction and one of them was hit by a truck. Interesting photos taken during construction of the Empire State Building.
Breviceps macrops
This is the desert rain frog that lives in Namibia and East Africa along the coast. I understand that when threatened it gives out a ferocious roar; watch the video below.
On April 10, 1963, the nuclear submarine Thresher was lost when it was doing scheduled depth tests off the continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean. The disaster and the reasons behind it have been shrouded in secrecy. This secrecy was the order of the day during the Cold War, but still exists, especially when it talking about the submarine fleet.
And here is the Ballad of the Thresher by the Kingston Trio:
“For a certain set of artists and thinkers, Legos are not mere child’s play, but objects of both abstract and formal perfection.”
When Bjarke Ingels, the visionary leader of the Danish architectural firm BIG, first heard about the competition to build the Lego House, a museum and activity center near the toy company’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, he gathered his staff. “If there was one building that BIG was founded to build,” Ingels announced, “this is it.”
For Ingels, Lego proportions have a mystical perfection that “borders on the Da Vinci code.” Like most enthusiasts, Ingels refers to them as “bricks,” not “Legos”; he doesn’t see them as toys, but as tools for “systematic creativity.'”
Some LEGO history:
“When Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded Lego in 1932, the company made wooden toys, but after World War II, it switched to plastic. The Lego brick as we know it today was developed in the mid-1950s. From the start, it was a feat of classic Scandinavian design: clean, practical, reliable and somewhat revolutionary with its “clutch power,” which made it easy to snap and unsnap. Today, Lego enthusiasts marvel that those first Legos still fit perfectly with the current ones, and that six identical eight-studded bricks can be combined in more than 900 million ways. “The human condition is, sadly, divisive,” the British television host James May said on an episode of his show “Toy Stories,” on which he explored a full-size house he built entirely out of Lego bricks. “But there are simple spiritual experiences that unite all of humanity in unqualified communal joy: sex, the dance, foot massage — and to those I would add the simple sensation of pressing Lego bricks together.””
I don’t think I posted this video of James May’s Toy Story that shows how a battalion of volunteers built him a LEGO house. Here is a short clip of the results.
Vermont’s youngest librarians – This article is reblogged from Publishers Weekly ShelfTalker
When I moved from New York City to Vermont, I had a little fantasy of finding a house that had its own library, a light-filled, high-ceilinged room lined with bookcases and windows, and at least two big window seats with cushions. I imagined pitchers of lemonade and an open-door policy for the neighborhood. I wanted to share my big collection of books with families, and I imagined letting people check them out with old-fashioned lined cards tucked in pockets inside each book. While my library fantasy turned into opening a bookstore, I recently met someone who had the same home library fantasy I did and made it come true. And he’s only 11.
I met Aidin at the Flying Pig’s event for Jarrett Krosoczka a couple of months ago. He was waiting in the signing line with his parents and had a bright presence. He was one of those kids who seems remarkably easy in his own skin for such a young person: articulate, relaxed talking with adults and other kids, not shy. The kind of kid who grows up to be a political leader or who invents new ways for remote villages to gather water. At some point in the conversation with his family, it came out that Aidin had started a reading group last summer for his friends — around 15 kids, though not all of them come to the chapter-per-week discussions. One of his favorite book group picks so far was Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He also turned his personal library of around 200 books into a lending library, and made and hand-delivered library cards for every kid in the neighborhood. His aunt had a special stamp made to mark his book’s endpapers, and Aidan uses that space to write due dates underneath the stamp.
Because Aidin also has other goals he’s working on (he’s an athlete in training with his eye on breaking some records), Aidin’s younger brother, Foster, age 6, has also been pressed into service. According to the two kids, Foster is the library assistant, responsible for “bookkeeping, making sure the books are in good condition, that they come back in time, and that kids know the library policies about due dates and treating books nicely.” Wow. That’s quite a chunk of responsibility for a first grader, but it seems to be going smoothly so far. (Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that an older sibling already so adept at turning thoughts into actions is pretty good at knowing how to delegate. I had an older sibling just like that, and she is now executive director of an amazing nonprofit organization.)
I was so charmed and impressed by Aidin and Foster’s make-it-happen ingenuity. I hope their library continues to grow, that the reading group discovers ever more treasures, and that we get to see what other community-building schemes they cook up over the years.
Article by Elizabeth Bluemle
Just for fun – I am listening to British accents. A charming clip by Steven Wilson on Never Yet Melted.
Our lovely, local, independent bookstore sponsors an Edible Book Fair every April. Everyone is invited to submit a totally edible interpretation of a book. The entries are displayed, judged, and eaten. The set up and the voting takes a couple of hours. You can’t imagine how quickly the displays are devoured!
The book I chose was The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli which is the Recipient of the 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book.
I humbly announce that our entry (above) consisting of a fondant-covered red velvet cake watermelon with watermelon slice-shaped sugar cookies won the award for Most Appetizing. The prizes in the contest are, not a surprise, books! It is a lot of fun to see what people – kids and adults – come up with.
Edible Book Festivals have become a global event, read more here.
Tuesday would not be complete without tattoos:
Spray around the room at night before bed, repeat if necessary
You can’t be too careful.
The Flying Cats of Woodbury Place
Cmdr. Sam Vimes in mid-leap captured on my iPad
Sam’s new brother, Hobbes, also in mid-leap
Both kitties in a quieter moment. Hobbes arrived on Tuesday evening. Both are Maine Coon Cats. We are happy for the addition to our family and thank Cousin Linda for these furry blessings.
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Firearms, fibers, any news or behaviors that make me say, "hmm, let me take another look at this."
I still miss my man, but my aim is getting better.
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