Three cheers for............................

 ...................................India's moon landing:

radical amazement......................

 

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.       . . . get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

-Abraham Joshua Heschel

There's a time or three...............

..................................when this would have made life easier.

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Awakenings.............................

On that day, the wind didn’t just blow around Johnson but through him, to a part of himself he previously didn’t know was there. He calls it a “baptism of spirit”: in that instant, he felt like his molecules were taken out, swirled with the air, and rearranged so that he’d forever be aligned with these environments and yearn for them. “I had no idea at the time it was going to be the most significant moment in my childhood,” Johnson says.

-Excerpted from this story, which led me to Sheldon Johnson's wikipedia page, where this quote was found:  "I facilitate astonishment. I didn't join the Park Service for money; I get paid in gasps."

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Art..............................

One of the more interesting aspects of the Old School is the former boiler room.  From the beginning it had the potential for "cool."   The puzzle was how to deliver it.   After several go-rounds with our architect, we settled on a design that we hoped would elicit a "wow" reaction.  The jury is still out.  The rest of the building is almost complete.  Plans are for the first tenant to move in August 1.  The former boiler room, which has its own private entrance, is trailing.  We are at least a month away from finishing it.   The space has many unique features.  One of the most significant is its size:  1,800 square feet.  Another is the multiple levels.   Multiple levels require staircases.  Staircases require railings.   Railings can be cool.  At least we hope so.

Rough framing of the staircase to the second bedroom.  Wooden rails are only
temporary, for safety purposes.  Likewise the support posts.  Ultimately, the
staircase will be supported from the roof structure, not the floor.

Having your main man be handy with welding and working with metal
is a definite plus

About halfway finished with the railing.  Rather than spindles
(building codes do not allow for open railings in residential
units), half-inch glass panels will be fitted in between the posts.  

Finding something beautiful............

My Sweetie cashes in her Giant Eagle reward points....

Your basic buzzer beater.................

thanks craig

We nourished your extremism............

An interesting take on the "endless capacity for masochism and self-loathing" that some tribes revel in can be found here.

The kids will be just fine.............................

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From the "Life Is Strange" file.................

"According to economist Glen Weyl, the average salary of a top-25 hedge fund manager is more than that of all teachers in the Chicago school district combined."
-as excerpted from here

The brain asks, "Could this possibly be true?"   The Oracle Google was consulted.  The Chicago Public School system employed 22,519 teachers for the 2013-14 year (total employees of CPS, same year, = 41,579).   Since the average pay for a Chicago Public School teacher is a bit more that $71,000, that would mean, for the above quote to be true, that the average salary of a top-25 hedge fund manager was $1,598,849,000.  Seems difficult to believe. Yet, a few more clicks on Google and we find this, In total, the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers and traders made $24.3 billion in 2013.   So, in conclusion, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that in 2014 your basic top-tier successful hedge fund manager made more money than all of the teachers in the Chicago Public School system combined.  Holy career choices, Batman.   Hope he/she created a ginormous amount of value.

You might think this is a close-up snap-shot of.......

......................Kurt's grilling-ready charcoal, but actually it is a photo of the rarely-seen center of our very own Milky Way galaxy:

People, can you get your mind around the notion that, according to scientists' estimates, there are 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe - and,  "the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter which contains 100–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets as well."?  The mind reels.

larger photo and description is here

Every once in a while.......................

.......we just need to reflect on what an amazing species we are...

Extreme playing.....................................

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A behavior modification technique...........

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Ta-da............................................

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Top 25 inventions from 2014...................

..............and the year's not over yet.  Some of these are cool, some are amazing, and some could lead to who knows where.  It is stuff like this that forever makes Malthusians look silly.

Flash floods.....................................

Imagine the practicing.................................

Fifty years ago...............................

Mass hysteria:  The Beatles visit Cincinnati, Ohio.  The local Juvenile Court Judge believes that parents were "bugs" for allowing their little darlings to attend.  If only we had listened:

Oh, Wow. Bet you a dollar you've never seen (or heard) this one before...................

The Beach Boys and Annette Funicello.....The Monkey's Uncle