Pretty accurate really....

 

Can anyone foster? ;-)

 

If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.5 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as your dog.

 

The only constant in life is change.

 

Ahh to have a pet tortoise.....

 

WatchDuty for tracking wildfires.

 Tracking the wildfires in Cali and other states with WatchDuty.

Great example of useful software that really aggregates data for people.

WatchDuty

Bob Dylan's Long-Lost Newport Folk Festival Electric Guitar Found

> I love that they found this historical guitar.

Bob Dylan's Long-Lost Newport Folk Festival Electric Guitar Found:

On July 25th, 1965, Bob Dylan walked onstage at the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his 1964 sunburst Fender Stratocaster and tore through a scorching three-song set. It was a crucial turning point in his career, and it quickly became rock & roll legend — the moment when Dylan transformed from a protest folkie to a rebel genius. But the guitar Dylan played on that mythic afternoon went missing for the next 47 years — until recently, when a team of PBS researchers told New Jersey resident Dawn Peterson that she had it in her home. 

Peterson’s late father, Victor Quinto, was a private pilot who worked for Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, in the mid-1960s. “After one flight, my father saw there were three guitars left on the plane,” she says. He contacted the company a few times about picking the guitars up, but nobody ever got back to him.”

Last fall, Peterson asked PBS‘s History Detectives to help verify her find. The 1964 Stratocaster came with 13 pages of typed and handwritten song lyrics tucked inside its guitar case — but host Wes Cowan was skeptical at first. “It’s so important, historically and culturally, that I couldn’t have imagined Bob Dylan would have just left it on an airplane,” he says. 

Photos: Previously Unseen Bob Dylan Lyrics From 1965

In fact, Dylan says that‘s not what happened. “Bob has possession of the electric guitar he played at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965,” his attorney, Orin Snyder, said in a statement. “He did own several other Stratocaster guitars that were stolen from him around that time, as were some handwritten lyrics.”

But experts make a strong case that the guitar in question is the same one Dylan played at the festival in 1965. Vintage-instrument specialist Andy Babiuk was convinced after PBS asked him to compare it to close-up color photos from Newport. “The more I looked, the more they matched,” Babiuk says. “The rosewood fingerboard has distinct lighter strips. Wood grain is like a fingerprint. I‘m 99.9 percent sure it‘s the guitar — my credibility is on the line here.”

History Detectives also called in Dylan memorabilia collector Jeff Gold, who often helps auction houses authenticate items for sale. “A vast percentage of the stuff I get shown isn‘t real,” he says. “By nature, I‘m a defeatist. But this was obviously real.”

The lyrics that came with the guitar are evocative fragments: “There‘s bullets in my eyes but I still can see/It‘s just these headaches that are killing me.” A handful of lines appeared on tracks that Dylan recorded for Blonde on Blonde in 1965 and 1966. “I own a manuscript of ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie,‘ and there‘s this line, ‘the six white horses,‘ ” Gold says. “In one of these manuscripts, Dylan had written ‘six flying horses,‘ and then above ‘flying‘ he‘d written ‘white‘ and ‘the.‘ It was obvious the same person had written both of them.” Other fragments within the lyrics wound up on “Medicine Sunday,” an early version of the Blonde on Blonde song “Temporary Like Achilles.”

The episode of History Detectives (which also includes a brief interview with this reporter) airs on PBS Tuesday July 17th at 9:00 PM EST.

If it‘s real, the guitar is estimated to be worth as much as $1 million — but does Peterson legally own it? Maybe not. “It’s his guitar until he makes an affirmative act to give it to someone else or sell it,” says lawyer Josh Grier, who represents artists including Wilco. “I think if they put it up to auction, Dylan has a claim to the proceeds. If he finds out beforehand, he might be able to stop from from doing it.” In 2005, Peterson wrote to Bob Dylan’s management and requested that he waive any claim to the guitar. Dylan’s team declined, and said that the guitar should be returned. For now, Peterson is keeping the guitar in a secure, climate-controlled environment; she has not decided whether to sell it. “I have to discuss it more with my husband,” she says. “Things have crossed my mind.”

This is a story from the August 2, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

I love the Far Side!!

 

On this day in History Jan 20 1997 - The Golden Spruce

On this day in history - Jan 20 1997:
The Golden Spruce, a unique Sitka spruce tree with golden needles, was located on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Considered sacred by the Haida people, it was illegally felled by Grant Hadwin, a forestry engineer, as a protest against the logging industry. The tree's destruction caused significant cultural and environmental damage.

I have always been facinated by beautiful ancient trees. So many have succumbed to arborcide:
Sycamore Gap - Famous tree that was felled along Hadrians Wall in
Sycamore Gap: trunk of England's well-loved tree will be removed : NPR
Treaty Oak in Austin. Tree is a alive but a little lopsided in Austin Texas.
Treaty Oak (Austin, Texas) - Wikipedia

Discovery Tree One of the first Giant Sequous ever discovered and was chopped down shortly after. This tree as at least 1,100 years old at the time of its arborcide.
Discovery Tree - Wikipedia

The Loneliest Tree in New Zealand. New record holder since the previous record holder was mowed down by a drunk driver in Africa
The World's Loneliest Tree - Atlas Obscura
Last Tree of Ténéré - Atlas Obscura

I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned - Richard Feynman

"Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole." -- David Lynch

Zeus The Screech Owl With Stars In His Eyes

Zeus The Screech Owl With Stars In His Eyes:

Owls are known for their incredible eyesight, with vision far superior to humans, allowing them to track prey in the dark.

But Zeus, a blind screech owl, stands out with his extraordinary, galaxy-like eyes. Despite his blindness, Zeus survived into adulthood before being rescued by a wildlife learning center.

Now, he’s the star of the facility, captivating visitors with his cosmic gaze and inspiring awe from all who come to see him.

Zeus has lived in the Wildlife Learning Center in California for many years.

(Via Bored Panda)

The post Zeus The Screech Owl With Stars In His Eyes appeared first on Moss and Fog.

All they need now are Googly Eyes! This Giant Smiley Face in Oregon Appears in The Trees in Autumn

This Giant Smiley Face in Oregon Appears in The Trees in Autumn:

The Pacific Northwest is home to a lot of timbered areas. You can spot huge hillsides that have been timbered and replanted, by the size and uniformity of trees.

There’s one particular hill, however, that stands happily apart from the others, literally. With an enormous orange smiley face 300-feet in diameter, this replanted area brings a dose of friendliness to anyone that sees it.

Photo via The Oregonian.

When the Hampton Lumber company replanted this hillside in 2011, it did so with a mix of evergreen Douglas Fir and Larch, which have needles that turn golden and fall off in autumn.

the result is a prominent smiley face in the fall, when the Larch turn colors, and brighten the hillside.

The face should be visible for the next 30 to 50 years in the fall, until the trees are big enough for harvest.

Read more on The Oregonian.

In the wintertime, the Larch trees lose their needles and the green face tree face stands proud. Photo by @abovethenorthwest.

Photo via The Oregonian.

Photo via The Oregonian.

Here is Oregon has a quick video of the hillside smiley face.

Images Dave Killen | Credit: The Oregonian

The post This Giant Smiley Face in Oregon Appears in The Trees in Autumn appeared first on Moss and Fog.

He have been chatting with them for 300,000 years at least...

"Little Wing" Cover - Peter Autschbach, Joscho Stephan, Nico Deppisch

Guy has the coolest guitar I have ever seen. Beautiful version! "Little Wing" Cover - Peter Autschbach, Joscho Stephan, Nico Deppisch:

This epic guitar song was composed by the epic guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
I'm using a Gittler guitar Model AFSE. It's made of titanium and has a Teflon coating.
Video recorded by Malte Weber at Gypsy Guitar Academy, Audio-Mix by Peter Autschbach.
www.autschbach.de
www.gittlerinstruments.com
@JoschoStephan

Darrel - Funny animation short.

Frost Flowers: Beautiful but Rare Wonders of Nature

Frost Flowers: Beautiful but Rare Wonders of Nature:
Back in 2012 we published a feature about frost flowers - you can read the original here (which includes all the science!).  Created in the autumn or early winter, the frost flower is a morning phenomenon.  Ice is pushed through in extremely thin layers through the stems of plants, creating and astounding whirl of beautiful patterns.  We thought we would take a look and see whether any new frost flowers had been caught on camera since then.  We weren’t disappointed.  So here is a collection for you, embedded from the photographers' pages on Flickr.

For the first time, he knew the night for what it was ...

Human Exceptionalism??

Mantra’s Murals Collect Enormous Butterflies in Building-Size Specimen Cases

Mantra’s Murals Collect Enormous Butterflies in Building-Size Specimen Cases:

French artist Youri Cansell, a.k.a. Mantra (previously) continues to brighten neighborhood streets and large cities alike with his vivid insect murals. Drawing on a fascination with nature and its preservation, he creates monumental specimen cases on buildings around the world, filled with a wide variety of butterflies.

The artist recently completed his largest mural to date in Miami, positioned on the rooftop of the Southeast Financial Center building. Nestled into the surface of a characteristically organized case, a range of colorful butterflies rest alongside the structure’s utility systems.

Detail of progress on mural in Miami

The mural features numerous species, including the endangered Miami blue butterfly that’s native to South Florida. “It’s always a pleasure to paint in Miami, a city that thrives on its vibrant mix of people and cultures—much like the butterflies in my mural, which represent a diverse selection of specimens,” the artist says.

Additional recent projects include a giant glass-fronted display on the side of a building in Brooklyn and a towering, narrow composition in downtown Houston. Find more on Mantra’s website and Instagram.

Houston, Texas

Brooklyn, New York

Crans-Montana, Switzerland

Breda, The Netherlands

Detail of progress on mural in Miami

Rombas, France

Detail of progress on mural in Miami

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Mantra’s Murals Collect Enormous Butterflies in Building-Size Specimen Cases appeared first on Colossal.