Into Nature, Off the Grid
It is with mixed emotions (as they say, and, yes, I'm being semi-facetious!) that I'm leaving now for a four-day camping vacation. While I'm very excited about being out in the wilds, I do love finding and sharing interesting things, and, sadly, there's no Internet connection where I'll be going! Still, who knows what I'll find when I'm there?
Great Leap Forward
So it seems that evolution can happen pretty quickly, too. A research team has found that a couple of DNA mutations about 500 million years ago made a whole lot of difference in our hormone composition, without which things like pregnancy, puberty, and kidney function would not be what they are: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130624152617.htm
The phrase "the Great Leap Forward" actually was used most (in)famously by China's Mao Zedong to describe his five-year plan (1958-1963) to modernize China, starting with industry and agriculture. It was a colossal failure, and between 1959 and 1962, it is estimated, about 20 million people died of starvation: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/great_leap_forward.htm
The phrase "the Great Leap Forward" actually was used most (in)famously by China's Mao Zedong to describe his five-year plan (1958-1963) to modernize China, starting with industry and agriculture. It was a colossal failure, and between 1959 and 1962, it is estimated, about 20 million people died of starvation: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/great_leap_forward.htm
Over Your Shoulder
A short interview with the man who created DuckDuckGo, the search engine that doesn't track you: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23724-why-ive-built-a-search-engine-that-doesnt-follow-you.html#.UcjTAustfgc
Twigonometry and Square Roots
Plants, it turns out, are a little more complex than we thought. They actually perform a kind of mathematical calculation to make sure they have enough food reserves to get them through the night: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22991838
Harry Potter and the Author's Outline
Readers and writers alike might find J.K. Rowling's spreadsheets interesting. No, not her financial ones, the really important ones. I mean, how did she keep all those plots, subplots, and characters organized through seven amazing books?: http://mentalfloss.com/article/26346/jk-rowlings-plot-spreadsheet
Life Imitating Art
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| putting the finishing touches to Seurat's The Circus POM photo |
The Pageant website with video: http://www.foapom.com/pageant-of-the-masters/about-the-pageant/
The Name Game
I don't usually look at these things, but something made me click on this site about celeb baby names, and then I couldn't stop. It's like a car crash. You don't want to know, but you look anyway. What did I learn? Well, that unlike Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's son Satchel, who switched to his middle name (Ronan) as soon as he could, most of these kids aren't lucky enough to have a more reasonable middle name to fall back on (slideshow): http://omg.yahoo.com/photos/worst-celebrity-baby-names-1371848287-slideshow/north-west-photo-1754517471.html
Sounds of the Forest
For 24 hours starting at noon on August 31, Scotland's Galloway Forest will be the site of a rather one-of-a-kind concert, courtesy of a self-proclaimed "noise terrorist" and the forest's two artists-in-residence. Their plan is to set an FM transmitter up in the middle of the forest, which, BTW, is the UK's first "dark sky park," that will broadcast music from various artists once only. Really. That one time only. Visitors will be given small radio receivers with headphones, and paths will be lit up at night.
The artists behind the concert are looking for compositions to fill the hours. There's an email address at the end of the article, in case you're interested in donating a piece: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/21/galloway-forest-radio-broadcast/viewgallery/305399
The artists behind the concert are looking for compositions to fill the hours. There's an email address at the end of the article, in case you're interested in donating a piece: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/21/galloway-forest-radio-broadcast/viewgallery/305399
Powerful Pictures
Walking to Europe
Trans-Atlantic flights may become a thing of the past in about 200 million years. Scientists have discovered a rift at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that could signal a new subduction zone that would pull the American and European continents back together, à la Pangea: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130619-iberia-america-europe-subduction-zone-supercontinents-colliding/
Can't Explain It, Don't Understand It
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| Beinecke Library |
Look! Up in the Sky! It's Supermoon!
The night of June 23 will seem a little brighter than usual, thanks to a supermoon. The next one won't be till August 2014 (story, video): http://www.space.com/21676-supermoon-science-full-moon-2013.html
Hot Dogs in Cars
The weather's heating up just about everywhere, and it's time for the yearly reminder about dogs in cars and how they shouldn't be there on a warm day. Even with the windows open a crack, the inside of a car can quickly reach intolerable temperatures and cause nerve damage and worse. Here is information about that and ideas about what you can do if you see an animal who seems to be suffering in a hot car (story, video): http://redrover.org/mydogiscool/how-hot-do-cars-get
The Satisfaction of Songwriting
from delanceyplace.com (http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=yo7g7qbab&v=001EXWmPNxFGZvuicqMNZSpcGYOsqYbT381q_XQsfelBIr6zjLQJSJb-gw4jNAiN647f5SD7sphmYUxUqygxNTB0WEPJWya45EcJ2ckyVOtSzryFC2r3VCGkn2mZaellaAi9b3rZJocKH8IWEz1PAoM-A%3D%3D):
In today's encore selection -- The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards on writing songs. For Richards, writing songs causes you to distance yourself, to become more of an observer -- a bit of a Peeping Tom:
"One hit requires another, very quickly, or you fast start to lose altitude. At that time you were expected to churn them out. 'Satisfaction' is suddenly number one all over the world, and Mick and I are looking at each other, saying, 'This is nice.' Then bang bang bang at the door, 'Where's the follow-up? We need it in four weeks.' And we were on the road doing two shows a day. You needed a new single every two months; you had to have another one all ready to shoot. And you needed a new sound. If we'd come along with another fuzz riff after 'Satisfaction,' we'd have been dead in the water, repeating with the law of diminishing returns. Many a band has faltered and foundered on that rock. 'Get Off of My Cloud' was a reaction to the record companies' demands for more --
In today's encore selection -- The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards on writing songs. For Richards, writing songs causes you to distance yourself, to become more of an observer -- a bit of a Peeping Tom:
"One hit requires another, very quickly, or you fast start to lose altitude. At that time you were expected to churn them out. 'Satisfaction' is suddenly number one all over the world, and Mick and I are looking at each other, saying, 'This is nice.' Then bang bang bang at the door, 'Where's the follow-up? We need it in four weeks.' And we were on the road doing two shows a day. You needed a new single every two months; you had to have another one all ready to shoot. And you needed a new sound. If we'd come along with another fuzz riff after 'Satisfaction,' we'd have been dead in the water, repeating with the law of diminishing returns. Many a band has faltered and foundered on that rock. 'Get Off of My Cloud' was a reaction to the record companies' demands for more --
The Summer of the Cookie
Some facts about the real thing: http://www.watermelon.org/FAQ/FAQ-FunFacts.aspx
You'd Better Believe It
Napoleon Bonaparte was actually on the tall side for someone of his time, we don't lose the most body heat from the top of our head, and sugar does not up kids' activity level. That last one is particularly well engrained in our public conscience, and I've never been able to convince moms of its veracity. Here are these and seven more truisms that, well, aren't: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/10-false-facts-most-people-think-are-true#
Compressing Cancer
A new study out of UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory points to an amazing and rather unbelievable way of fighting breast cancer. It seems that compression can force the cancer cells to behave more normally. In other words, while it won't prevent cancer, it may keep it from spreading (story, video): http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/squeeze-breasts-to-fight-cancer-study-says
The Orphans' Angel
I don't think I'll ever forget hearing for the first time about the Romanian orphanages, a horror that came to light after the country's dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown and the rest of the world got its first glimpses of what daily life had really been like under his rule. Twenty-three years later, where are those discarded children, now adults? And who is the man who stayed to help them long after so many others threw up their hands and moved on?: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22987447
Some background on the orphanages, the adoption deluge, and what we learned about the effects of early deprivation: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/romania/b1.html
Some background on the orphanages, the adoption deluge, and what we learned about the effects of early deprivation: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/romania/b1.html
A Mind for Fashion
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| the art of the brain wave |
Life Among the Leaves
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| one option: the Tree House Lodge in Costa Rica |
Mind-Machine Meld
My college freshman-year roommate ~ who graduated magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy, BTW ~ once told me she'd be perfectly happy to be just a brain in a jar. I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel that way anymore, but if she did, she'd be intrigued and gratified by some of the predictions and experiment abstracts that took center stage at the recent Global Futures 2045 International Congress: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/mind-uploading-2045-futurists_n_3458961.html?utm_hp_ref=science
A Pop Tour of Alphabet City
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| screen shot |
Coloring Outside Our Box
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| two galaxies, taken by Hubble telescope 2010 NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team |
The Spirit of DIY
It's a little too complicated for me, but it's a great tradition reborn: eau de vie, aka brandy, made at home using fresh fruit and served to guests or gifted to friends. What could be more personal and welcoming than that?: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/home-distilling-zm0z13fmzmat.aspx?PageId=1#axzz2WazH2NX8
End of the Line
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| AFP |
Photographs from the waning days of India's telegraph service (slideshow): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22903185
And speaking of the telegraph, you may have thought it was all about Samuel Finley Breese Morse, but really, it all began in France, with Napoleon and le système Chappe (story, video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22909590
Swell Pix
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| the 1964 U.S. Surfing Championships Tom Keck |
Laughing Through the Pain
Comedian Tig Notaro's mother died, she learned she had breast cancer, she had a double mastectomy ~ and she made the experience a very funny/moving/uncomfortable/funny part of her stand-up routine. "I can't really describe it," fellow comic Louis CK wrote on his website after seeing her onstage, "but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my life": http://www.elle.com/pop-culture/best/tig-notaro-stand-up-comedian-profile?click=main_sr
Whither Our Water?
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| The Chattahoochee flows through three states. wikipedia |
There are two basic doctrines that govern our use of surface water here in the United States, one for the East and one for the West. The principles they're based on reflect the times in which they were written. But now, of course, times have changed and the doctrines, as well as the laws based on them, are being challenged. Witness the cases of the Klamath and the Chattahoochee (print, audio versions): http://www.npr.org/2013/06/15/192034094/rivers-run-through-controversies-over-who-owns-the-water
One Dad's American Dream
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| Old Goldie and her family Kakassis family photo |
Kidding Around
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| quickmeme.com |
Angry Little Yellow Men
What does it say about us, society, and what we're teaching our children when new LEGO faces are getting angrier?: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/06/lego-faces-are-getting-angrier/
All the Sweet Green Icing
"MacArthur Park" ~ the song, not the place ~ is turning 45, and to celebrate, Jimmy Webb, the man who wrote it (inspired by scenes he witnessed in MacArthur Park) will be performing it (in MacArthur Park). "I have no apologies," he says now. "It's just had a kind of wild and wacky and, ultimately, I guess, a wonderful existence as a song": http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-macarthur-park-jimmy-web-20130615,0,6353317.story
Look, Ma, No Clothes!
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| freedom! Christina Cooke |
Up on the Tightwire
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| Herald-Tribune |
( ... one side's ice and one is fire) Nik Wallenda is getting ready to walk across the Grand Canyon (just outside of the national park boundary, rangers want you to know) on June 23. Without a harness, without a net. How high up will he be? “I tossed a rock over the edge, and it took eight, nine seconds to hit
the bottom,” he said. “That's
a long time to think”: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130608/article/130609677?tc=obinsite
Wallenda's walk will be televised live on the Discovery Channel (video): http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/nik-wallenda-beyond-niagara/videos/nik-wallenda-beyond-niagra-breaking-point.htm
Share Your Dream
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| August 28, 1963 |
The amazing speech (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
A Positive Performance
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| Ziadeh, right, and a few of her pupils screen shot |
A New Look at Sight
Among the many recent experiments and advances in helping the blind see is an idea that visualizes a new sort of solution. Instead of implanting devices into the brain or the cornea that bypass damaged areas, Israeli scientist Zeev Zalevsky hopes that his electrode-covered contact lenses will stimulate the cornea, which will learn to interpret those patterns as images: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/06/giving-sight-blind
'Something To Hang Onto'
An interesting ~ and way too short ~ interview with Qais Akbar Omar, the author of A Fort of Nine Towers. It's the story of his family's life in Kabul under the Taliban. Writing it was a form of therapy for him, Omar says. Even after the Taliban left in 2001, he had nightmares, so one day, "I sat in my bedroom, started writing, and couldn’t stop for two months": http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/06/qa-qais-akbar-omar
Paving Paradise
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| Pilgrims walk past construction near temple in Lhasa. from observers.france24.com |
Cat As Cat Can
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| Phoebe screen shot |
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| Phoebe's travels (in pink) screen shot |
Is Anybody Out There?
Not that anyone would want to think about this happening to him/her, but really, how do people survive solitary confinement? Because people do ~ not always totally emotionally intact, but they do: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22878268
The Thrill of a Chill Grill
Walk This Way
The Family That Time Forgot
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| the Lykovs' log cabin |
All the other Lykovs have died, and the youngest child, Agafia, continues to live in the family home. She was basically alone until 1997, when a geologist moved into a nearby cabin. Agafia recently celebrated her 69th birthday (story, slideshow, great video ~ in English!): http://www.vice.com/read/happy-69th-birthday-agafia-lykov-from-your-friends-at-vice
Shaking Sands
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| screen shot/youtube.com/brusspup |
Back to the Future
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| personal flying machines |
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| machine that controls the weather |
If the Cells Could Talk
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| © South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac/Marco Samadelli/Gregor Staschitz |
Unbelievable as it sounds, scientists were able to determine the exact cause of the death of a man who lived 5,000 years ago by looking at his blood cells. Ötzi the iceman was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps. It was long thought that he died from an arrow wound, but now it seems that it was a blow to his forehead that did him in. How do they know this? Because of bruising on the blood cells in his brain! (story, link to slideshow): http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23689-otzi-the-icemans-brain-cells-show-battle-damage.html#.Ubi8Xustfgd
Take to the Sky
Yet another evocative poem has landed in my inbox, courtesy of poets.org's Poem-a-Day:
Birding at the Dairy
by Sidney Wade
We're searching
for the single
yellow-headed
blackbird
we've heard
commingles
with thousands
of starlings
and brown-headed
cowbirds,
when the many-
headed body
arises
and undulates,
a sudden congress
of wings
for the single
yellow-headed
blackbird
we've heard
commingles
with thousands
of starlings
and brown-headed
cowbirds,
when the many-
headed body
arises
and undulates,
a sudden congress
of wings
OCDog
Apparently, dogs can have OCD, too ~ and if your dog does, you might want to read the tips at the end of this article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130610-ocd-dogs-health-animals-science-brains/
Glamping on Fifth Avenue
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| al fresco at the AKA Central Park |
Math for a Million
Billionaire D. Andrew Beal has been trying to figure out what's known as Beal's Conjecture for 10 years now, and he needs help. So much so that he's offering a prize to whomever can come up with the solution. Said prize, which started out at $5,000 in 1997, is now $1 million: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/11/solve-this-math-problem-win-a-million-bucks/
Common Law
Some of the best laws of life (and the people behind them), like Godwin's Law (a personal favorite), which states "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1": http://mentalfloss.com/article/51049/11-wacky-laws-named-people
Are You Game?
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| "Thomas Was Alone" Mike Bithell |
Behind the Riots
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| Protesters, police clash in Taksim Square screen shot/sky.com |
What a Long, Strange Trip
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| Follow Your Nose Films |
Everything Old Is New Again
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| mix tapes! LAPTOP |
Tick 2
Earlier, I posted a link to a great story about some people who study ticks and are monitoring their rise and spread (see "Tick ... Tick .... Tick ... ," May 2013). As we are now in the middle of tick season, which is generally May through June, here are some practical steps you can take to avoid them and the latest information on how to remove them: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/matchless-strategy-for-tick-removal-6-steps-to-avoid-tick-bites-201306076360
Vote for Zahra
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| screen shot |
Secret Agents
A reminder of a few of the more major U.S. security leaks over the years: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22839913
A profile of the latest person to leak government information, Edward Snowden: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100
A profile of the latest person to leak government information, Edward Snowden: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22837100
The Pharaohs of California
Wow. So Sorry ... ?
Anyone over a certain age will remember the horrible droughts in Africa in the late 1960s through the early '80s. Well, it turns out that they were caused by our air pollution: http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/06/06/pollution.northern.hemisphere.helped.cause.1980s.african.drought
Smaller, Stronger, Faster
Sounds Good
Highlights from the International Congress on Acoustics include creating sound zones in cars and a study that seems to show that the size and shape of one's skull are the cause of one's preference for certain musical notes: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350923/description/News_in_Brief_Highlights_from_the_International_Congress_on_Acoustics
Rolling Stones
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| Ben Greenburg/National Park Service |
In Peaceful Pursuit of Men-of-War
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| © Aaron Ansarov |
Mother Earth
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| Jeannette Gurung |
Pow! To the Moon!
A little something from wisegeek.com to trot out at your next cocktail party or the next time there's an uncomfortable lull in the conversation (and you want to make it even more uncomfortable!):
LEGO® bricks, the plastic toy blocks with grooves that make them stackable, have a standard height of about 0.4 inches (1 cm). Therefore, in theory, it would take about 40 billion LEGO® bricks to reach from the Earth to the moon, a distance of about 238,900 miles (384,400 km). From 1958 through 2008, the LEGO® company created about 400 billion LEGO® pieces. enough for 62 LEGOs® for each person on Earth. If all of those LEGOs® were stacked, they would form 10 separate towers that could reach from the Earth to the moon.
More about LEGO® bricks:
LEGO® bricks, the plastic toy blocks with grooves that make them stackable, have a standard height of about 0.4 inches (1 cm). Therefore, in theory, it would take about 40 billion LEGO® bricks to reach from the Earth to the moon, a distance of about 238,900 miles (384,400 km). From 1958 through 2008, the LEGO® company created about 400 billion LEGO® pieces. enough for 62 LEGOs® for each person on Earth. If all of those LEGOs® were stacked, they would form 10 separate towers that could reach from the Earth to the moon.
More about LEGO® bricks:
- Adults who actively collect and use LEGOs®, known as Adult Fans of LEGO
The Things They Wore ~ UPDATE
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| a cloak made for his wedding, left, and marking the Moritz of Saxony's death |
And speaking of fashion, when male train drivers in Sweden were told they couldn't wear shorts to work in hot weather, they decided to wear skirts, which, apparently, is just fine by their employer (story, video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22828150
UPDATE to the train-drivers story. Apparently, their employer now will allow them to wear shorts in hot weather. Darn!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22847008
Face It
A pilot study at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry seems to show that putting a face to the voices they hear may help some who are suffering from schizophrenia. In the study, patients who heard disembodied voices were given the opportunity to select an avatar that matched the voice they heard. Via computer, a therapist was then able to speak to them through the avatar in real time. Little by little, the therapist teaches the patient how to control the voice.
“Even though patients interact with the avatar as though it was a real person, because they have created it, they know that it cannot harm them, as opposed to the voices, which often threaten to kill or harm them and their family," explains Professor Julian Leff, one of the creators of the avatar system. “As a result the therapy helps patients gain the confidence and courage to confront the avatar, and their persecutor": http://www.care2.com/causes/how-do-you-help-schizophrenics-give-their-hallucinations-faces.html
“Even though patients interact with the avatar as though it was a real person, because they have created it, they know that it cannot harm them, as opposed to the voices, which often threaten to kill or harm them and their family," explains Professor Julian Leff, one of the creators of the avatar system. “As a result the therapy helps patients gain the confidence and courage to confront the avatar, and their persecutor": http://www.care2.com/causes/how-do-you-help-schizophrenics-give-their-hallucinations-faces.html
Of Movies and Motorcars
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| Henry Groskinsky/Time Life Pictures/Getty |
Five years ago, TIME put together a slideshow of 75 years of drive-ins: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1817546,00.html
Birth Right
The placenta is starting to get the respect it deserves for its crucial role in fetal development. It really is an amazing structure. Formed not by the mother but by the embryo ~ or rather, the blastocyst, the group of about 100 cells that will become a baby ~ the placenta and its workings are still a mystery to us, but one that is now being studied more seriously. "In reality, it’s an organ that is every bit as sophisticated as a liver or a heart," says Stanford University geneticist and immunologist Peter Parham: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/350741/description/Life_Support
Towering Rhythms
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Bertolozzi high above the Champ de Mars Corentin Fohlen for the New York Times
|
Just Because: 'The Paris Wife'
OK, I'll admit up front that I haven't read this book, or, actually, even heard of it. But it's taken over the No. 1 spot on my list, thanks to the Kindle ad on the back of a magazine that shows the first few lines of the prologue. They are really very good, so, intrigued, I looked up some reviews, which were also really very good (except Janet Maslin's in the New York Times). The Paris Wife is the story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. It's by Paula McLain.
Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris. Part of it was the war. The world had ended once already and could again at any moment. The war had come and changed us by happening when everyone said it couldn't. No one knew how many had died, but when you heard the numbers—nine million or fourteen million—you thought, Impossible. Paris was full of ghosts and the walking wounded. Many came back to Rouen or Oak Park, Illinois, shot through and carrying little pieces of what they'd seen behind their kneecaps, full of an emptiness they could never dislodge. They'd carried bodies on stretchers, stepping over other bodies to do it; they'd been on stretchers themselves, on slow-moving trains full of flies
PROLOGUE
Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris. Part of it was the war. The world had ended once already and could again at any moment. The war had come and changed us by happening when everyone said it couldn't. No one knew how many had died, but when you heard the numbers—nine million or fourteen million—you thought, Impossible. Paris was full of ghosts and the walking wounded. Many came back to Rouen or Oak Park, Illinois, shot through and carrying little pieces of what they'd seen behind their kneecaps, full of an emptiness they could never dislodge. They'd carried bodies on stretchers, stepping over other bodies to do it; they'd been on stretchers themselves, on slow-moving trains full of flies
The Big Empty
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| from thecommonwealth.org |
Mind Control
In another first for thought-guided electronic objects, researchers navigate a model helicopter through an obstacle course. It's the first time brain waves have been used to control a robot-type device (story, video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22764978
The Man Who Saved Manuscripts
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| Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara with boxes of manuscripts Eva Brozowski |
L.A.'s Poetree
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| "Uncle Ruthie" and her tree Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times |
Milk of Human's Finest
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| from lollyphile.com |
Great American Backyard Campout ~ June 22
 |
| from familyeducation.com |
So, don't say you weren't warned or that you weren't warned in time: the annual Great American Backyard Campout is on Saturday night, June 22, this year: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home/blogs/high-camp-13-must-haves-for-the-great-backyard-american-campout-13
You can register (it's free) and get all sorts of information here: http://www.nwf.org/Great-American-Backyard-Campout.aspx
Crocodile Years
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| "DIY Lacoste shirt" collegehumor.com |
Just Because: 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'
This book by the inimitable Carson McCullers ~ yet another of our wonderful Southern writers ~ was published on June 4, 1940. She was 23, and it was her first book.
In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way was an obese and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless gray sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and ips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other mute was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate and very soberly dressed.
Every morning the two friends walked silently together until they reached the main
1
In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way was an obese and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless gray sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and ips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other mute was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate and very soberly dressed.
Every morning the two friends walked silently together until they reached the main
One Man's Trash ...
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| one night's take screen shot from film Days in Trash |
Actress Ellen Page (Juno, The East) celebrates the freegan philosophy: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/ellen-page-talks-freegan-lifestyle-on-conan#
The Road to Utopia?
Is this any way to run city hall? In a small town in Andalucía, Spain, last summer, the mayor and his supporters stole food from a local market to give to the poor. People are building their own homes on land given to them for free by the local government, which also pays the initial cost of the materials. Professional builders employed by the town hall help the homeowner, and when it's all finished, the homeowner will pay €15/month to reimburse the cost of the materials. Those who aren't building can always work on the town's collective farm (video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22763464
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