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| May 6, 2025 |
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In the UK they have Labour, and Conservatives (or Tories, traditionally; a name which I find useful for labeling all of our opponents, as this struggle between the cool and the crazy goes back at least as far as the Spanish Civil War, where they were labeled Loyalists; in contrast to the Republicans, who in that instance were the good guys). With
their elections in the news, let's look into the ANZAC political parties. Confusingly, the more mainstream Australian conservatives label themselves the "Liberal Party" (kinda like North Korea and East Germany having "Democratic" in their official names). They're allied in a Coalition with the minor & more extreme National Party (the latter conveniently referring to themselves as "Nats"). Over in New Zealand their National Party is still in power, where their left-leaning party is Labour, as is the Aussies' (except,
they drop the 'u' in their Labor). The Kiwis have more extreme right-wing parties, the ACT, NZ First and NZ Loyal; which are all in a coalition with their Nats. The Canadians more sensibly label their left-leaning party the Liberals. I remember headlines about their right-wing Reform party but that's history, didn't make it into the 21st century, instead replaced by their (again, sensibly named) Conservative Party.
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| May 1, 2025 |
- At This Is Colossal,
the
Ancient Japanese Art of Kumiko wood setting.
- Latest jargon: the kids are saying "six-seven" --
why?
- According to the Smithsonian, in our nation's
early years, those who lived in isolated areas of the Appalachian Mountains were
called mountaineers. The controversial history of the word "hillbilly".
- Sheets of blotter acid at the aptly-named Flashbak. Its
Institute
of Illegal Images is the most comprehensive
collection of decorated LSD blotter paper in the world. By
my reckoning at the time, in the 1970s I engaged in psychedelic
journeys some 40 times, but that was mostly via tiny, flat tablets although
blotter wasn't that unusual and I do remember once having some printed
with a simple Mr Natural.
...have to share one of Rafaela Santos' mesmerizing hand-painted stones.
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| April 25, 2025 |
From EC Crime SuspenStories #12, "The Execution"
- Knowable Magazine,
Evolution
of the nervous system. Without the anus, heads
and brains would not have evolved.
- What's your destination when you just want to watch
some random internet video? Here's a new one,
astronaut.io,
which serves up 8-second samples from recently-uploaded
YouTubes that have little or zero views. Doesn't
seem to be entirely random; too bad you can't go back.
- One more from Vintage Everyday,
Carl Wuttke,
a German landscape and architectural painter
renowned for his vivid depictions of both European and exotic locales.
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| April 22, 2025 |
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| April 19, 2025 |
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| April 15, 2025 |
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- Well-done South China Morning Post article on
Bamboo
Scaffolding in Hong Kong. I took today's photo there last
year, a street-level view of one of these scaffolds (with advertising
for piano lessons). Click for biggery.
- "Andy's Atomic Adventures" was in the
Classics Illustrated
Adventures
In Science special from 1957, reviewed here by Dreams Of Space.
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| April 8, 2025 |
Today's pic, noodling around with
Gimp (the free
Photoshop), starting point a 60s parking lot pic, scanned
out of the "Wheels" volume of the
Time-Life Science Library.
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| March 27, 2025 |
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- Having just read a book about how
Henry Flagler
made the 'Railroad Over the Ocean' to Key West happen,
here's three stunning views of the Overseas Highway, both old and new;
1 -
2 -
3
and a three-minute drone-view of
what
remains of the first highway, where they built it on top of the original
Bahai Honda railroad bridge.
- At Curbside Classics,
clipping illegal mufflers and lights in 1952, Where I learn
of fart can exhaust
systems and cats-eye headlight covers. The thoughtless;
the selfish, and the attention-starved tampered with their vehicles in
unsafe, antisocial ways seventy-one years ago, as they still do now.
- We saw one of these AI videos back in October but I guess that was
specific to the TV show. Rosie's much nicer in this one, and it has
Astro, too -- 1950's Super Panavision 70,
The Jetsons.
See also their take on
Game
Of Thrones (a show I've only heard about, but never seen).
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| March 23, 2025 |
- Wikipedia:
Colors
of the Day, in Thailand; traditional
Thai birthday colors. Saturday is Purple Day; Friday is Light Blue.
- Regulars is a short film by Emma
Kopkowski. 24 hours in the life of
Jake's
Diner, in Greensboro.
- I've enjoyed perusing the
Radio.garden
previously. Now, with a click of your mouse in the
TV.garden, tune
into stations all over the world. Fascinating -- my
new favorite internet time-sink.
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| March 20, 2025 |
I'm gonna get one of these for my car only it'll say RASH
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| March 16, 2025 |
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| March 12, 2025 |
early '50s Buicks had the best grills
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| March 8, 2025 |
- Look
and Feel Canadian Instantly!
- Wikipedia: the
Sinatra Doctrine was a Soviet
foreign policy under Mikhail Gorbachev allowing member
states of the Warsaw Pact to determine their own domestic affairs.
- And in the Washington Post,
Fashion designers used to be custodians for beauty. What happened? These are ugly times,
according to Rachel Tashjian, but that
makes a show like Prada at Milan Fashion Week, with its
deliberate awkwardness, so powerful. More critically, though, these
are æsthetically agnostic times...Everything looks like a
mess -- hair, graphic design, visual art, red-carpet looks.
In fashion, too many designers are doing things just to be weird,
or 'avant garde'.
(gift link)
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