A thoughtful addition for visitors who don't have (or have access to) large-tire wheelchairs. Via
07 June 2018
Shin-bruiser
Illegal in many states and localities (the parking, not the hitch per se), as discussed at the MildlyInfuriating subreddit.
In praise of blue spruce
We have several spruce in our yard, and I'm always impressed each year when the blue spruce put out their new growth in that light-blue or teal-bluegreen color (not sure how to name the shade), which contrasts so nicely with other garden plants in terms of color (and texture). The older needles in the proximal parts of the branches revert to a more conventional green; there probably is some survival advantage to the blue hue, but I don't know what it is.
In the winter the large spruce hold the snow beautifully:
This is NOT a time-lapse
It's a normal moonset occurring, as always, during a sunrise (being watched by the people on a volcano in the Canary Islands). As explained at APOD, the video was taken with a very long lens.
Whale autopsy
Behold the state of our oceans.
A whale has died in southern Thailand after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, with rescuers failing to nurse the mammal back to health. The small male pilot whale was found barely alive in a canal near the border with Malaysia, the country’s department of marine and coastal resources said.
The whale vomited up five bags during the rescue attempt.
02 June 2018
blindekuh
blindekuh restaurants in Basel and Zürich serve patrons in the dark.
blindekuh is one of the largest private-sector employers for people with impaired vision. In our restaurants and through our cultural activities, we create valuable jobs, foster dialogue between sighted people and those with visual impairments, and open up new perspectives for young and old alike.
blindekuh – the name means "Blind Man's Buff" in German – was founded in 1999 and was the first establishment of its kind in the world...
The blindekuh concept has been copied successfully several times. blindekuh Zurich, the world's first restaurant in the dark, opened its doors in September 1999. It was followed in April 2001 by the "Unsicht-Bar" in Cologne and in June 2002 by "Nocti Vagus" in Berlin. Another "Unsicht-Bar" opened in Berlin in September 2002, then came "Dans le Noir" in Paris in September 2004, "Taste of Darkness" in the Dialogue Museum in Frankfurt, and a further "Dans le Noir" in London. blindekuh Basel opened in February 2005. The "Unsicht-Bar" in Hamburg followed in September 2006, then "Dans le Noir" in Moscow just two months later. The concept has since spread outside Europe, and blindekuh is constantly receiving requests from around the world for support with launching similar projects...
The blindekuh enterprises are self-supporting, so they receive no state subsidies. The concept is labour-intensive, partly because operating in the dark makes certain processes more difficult and also because guests need more information and a higher level of service than in a conventional catering outlet. Employees benefit from good working conditions and wages above the market average. Our cultural events in the dark and our staff's high availability for the media, schools and other interested parties add to the concept's costs. For these reasons, blindekuh relies on donations.
The kindergarten school play has been cancelled
In April 2014, the Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, New York, sent a letter to the parents of its kindergartners, confirming rumors that the school would not be going ahead with its annual play.Continued in the June issue of Harper's Magazine.
Dear Kindergarten Parents and Guardians,We hope this letter serves to help you better understand how the demands of the twenty-first century are changing schools.The reason for eliminating the kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and careers with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers, and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind.These kids, the letter implied, could not spare two days from their regularly scheduled work.
"Ultimate Monopoly" board
Apparently this is real, but was banned by the manufacturer for copyright reasons. Discussed in a post at the Gaming subreddit.
U.S. fertility at a historic low
As reported by Vox:
American women are having so few babies these days that the fertility rate has hit a historic low, according to stunning provisional data just published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of births in the US dropped by 2 percent between 2016 and 2017, to 60.2 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, continuing a general downturn that started with the Great Recession of 2008. It’s the lowest the fertility rate has been in 30 years...The teen birthrate has dropped by over 50% in the past decade:
“To put this in perspective, the [total fertility rate] hovered above 3.0 in the early 20th century, declined to replacement levels of about 2.1 in the 1940s; reached a peak of 3.7 in the post-World War II baby boom; and then declined rapidly to relatively stable low levels in the 1970s,” researchers from Columbia University, the University of Illinois, and other universities wrote in a commentary about the new data in the Hill...
There are various reasons for this, as Vox’s Sarah Kliff has explained, but one major one is we have better access to birth control. Women these days are just as likely to be sexually active as they were in the past, Kliff reported, but how they use contraceptives has changed: ..More data and commentary at the link.
“It’s not ‘the sky is falling’ — but our country needs to adjust to the reduction in the fertility rate,” said John Rowe of Columbia. To do that, he laid out a few potential approaches. “One is keeping older people in the workforce longer. The second is technology — relying on animation, robots and [artificial intelligence] to boost productivity in the absence of workers. A third is increasing immigration. The [final] is boosting the fertility rate,” he summed up. Keeping older folks in the workforce is probably among the most attractive solutions, Rowe argued, since it keeps people’s minds and bodies engaged and the Social Security trust fund replenished. “But we need to start the processes now,” he added, “because the downturn in the fertility has been going on for several years. And it’s going to take two decades or so to get the policies in place and change employers attitudes.”
Behold the evolution of the cradle
I spotted the above device in a local Target store last month and had to go online to figure out exactly what it was:
The 4moms® mamaRoo® infant seat bounces up and down and sways from side to side, just like parents do when comforting their baby. Select from five unique motions (car ride, kangaroo, wave, tree swing and rocka-a-bye) and five different speeds. Choose from four built-in sounds or connect it to any MP3 player.I'll defer passing judgment; I'm sure there's nothing that can go wrong and that it's secure from hacking.
The adjustable seat reclines to any position for maximum comfort so baby can lie flat to rest or sit up for play. The mamaRoo is Bluetooth enabled so you can control the motion, sound, speed and volume from your compatible smart device!
Keep baby’s attention with the toy mobile which now includes interactive, reversible toy balls (mirror, rattle and crinkle toys).
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