Divertimento

An explanation of why%20urls%20are%20so%20weird.
 
"An East Texas man ended up in the hospital after he fired a gun at an armadillo and the bullet bounced off the animal’s back and hit the man in his face..."

A grim report on the abysmal quality of water that Olympic athletes in Rio will encounter.

Bullfighting in Colombia is on a downward spiral.  "...although cities such as Manizales can pack the house, nationally the industry cannot support itself."

Video of a transporter bridge.

"Scatt, clad in a white hard hat, bright orange t-shirt, and sturdy pants, is one of a dozen interns who have been chosen to spend the bulk of their summer learning how to spruce up mausoleums, monuments, and headstones at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Recruited from trade schools, colleges, and social programs around the city, they are the first participants in the cemetery's Preservation Training Program, created in partnership with the World Monuments Fund. The 12 interns will receive nine weeks of training in the art of stonework restoration. "

An infographic about doughnuts.

Video of ISIS plundering an archaeological site.

A skier falls into a deep crevasse.

A table, probably in a pub, with a most unusual and creative design, crafted by Joe & Joni Rocco.

Cities can help put an end to puppy mills by mandating that pet stores can only sell rescue animals.

Remembering Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA scientist who kept thalidomide out of the United States.  "For a critical 19-month period, she fastidiously blocked its approval while drug company officials maligned her as a bureaucratic nitpicker."

A man in Washington, D.C. converted his storage unit into an apartment that he can rent out.  The Washington Post has an impressive gallery of photos.

Police in Bangladesh killed six tiger poachers.

Fortune magazine sees the imminent end of the cellphone contract era.

A $30 device will hack your car's electronics and unlock it.  "Kamkar’s device was used to successfully unlock cars made by Nissan, Cadillac, Ford, Toyota, Lotus, Volkswagen and Chrysler, and it also worked perfectly with a number of garage door openers, potentially giving the user access to a target’s home."

"According to the Defense Department’s annual “Base Structure Report” for fiscal year 2003, which itemizes foreign and domestic U.S. military real estate, the Pentagon currently owns or rents 702

overseas bases in about 130 countries and has another 6,000 bases in the United States and its territories."

Commentary and analysis of how/why Bernie Sanders is drawing huge numbers of people to his rallies.

Why "golf doesn't need the Olympics and the Olympics don't need golf."

Thoughts about Michelle Bachmann's belief in the imminent arrival of Biblical "end times" and its influence on her view of American foreign policy.

You have no time for this, but you will probably watch it all the way to the end anyway.

"Katie and her friends, it turns out, are guests at Camp Sundown, a charitable organization based in nearby Poughkeepsie. Run by Katie's parents, Dan and Caren Mahar, the summer camp brings together dozens of kids who suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic disorder that renders sufferers unable to tolerate ultraviolet light."   What a marvelous idea.  (Here's a link to the camp's website.)

Positions taken by the Republican presidential candidates on the subject of torture.

Little girl likes her grandpa better than her grandma.

More than you need to know about trucks on the highway transporting liquid aluminum.

"Always keep a safety pin on your key ring so you can fasten your keys to the inside of your pocket when you're worried about losing them (running, rollercoasters, etc.)"

A tattoo with black henna can cause painful and permanent scarring.

One person's list of the 100 best novels written in English.

An Alabama church has opened a gun range.  “This is an opportunity for us to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ in a setting that is completely unique. Even odd by some people’s standards. But who’s to say that church can’t happen right here...”

Gloom and doom scenario for world stock markets.

"The next time an annoying friend or relative attempts to argue that the Civil War was fought over anything other than slavery, here’s the definitive response delivered by Colonel Ty Seidule, a Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point."

Napoleon was NOT SHORT.   "Confusion about his height also results from the difference between the French pouce and British inch—2.71 and 2.54 cm respectively; he was about 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in) tall, which is above average for the period (for example, the average height of an English male was 165 cm.)"

The photos embedded today are of butterfly eggs, found in this gallery.  Credit for all to Jay Cossey.
Top to bottom:  Gulf Fritillary, Red Admiral, Monarch, Red-Spotted Purple, Bronze Copper, Question Mark, Cabbage White, and Giant Swallowtail.