Death Valley National Park: Death Valley Explorer Episode 1.
“For many, the name Death Valley invokes a sense of fear and danger. In this lowest, hottest and driest place in North America, extreme heat and aridity characterize the landscape. Yet in this land of surprises, life has found a way to thrive.
[…]
Death Valley Explorer is a video podcast series that highlights the rich environmental and heritage landscapes of Death Valley National Park.”
NPR The Two-Way: Mercury Will Cross In Front Of The Sun In A Rare Event. Here’s How To Watch.
Space.com: Transit of Mercury 2016: Full Coverage of the May 9 Event. They also have a viewing guide: Mercury Transit of the Sun on May 9: How to See It and What to Expect.
NASA has a simulation of how the transit will look from the US: 2016 Mercury Transit Path.
Astronomie.de: Merkurtransit 2016.
In Deutschland ist der Merkur-Transit zwischen 13:12 und 20:40 Uhr (mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit) zu beobachten. Leider ist der Merkur zu klein, als dass man ihm mit dem bloßen Auge sehen kann; man benötigt ein Fernglas oder ein Teleskop – aber natürlich mit geeignetem Sonnenschutz!
Valerio Vincenzo: Borderline, Frontiers of Peace.
“Today, with 26 countries belonging to the Schengen Area, 16,500 km of borders can be freely crossed. The attribution of the Nobel Peace Prize to Europe in 2012 has confirmed the historical importance of this slow, almost imperceptible, but radical change.
With the help of a GPS and detailed maps, I have conducted many trips along these “erased” borderlines, with the intention of capturing the essence of these now-peaceful crossings.
Even if sometimes these pictures have been taken thousands of km away from each other, they all provide images that are far from the stereotype that we tend to associate with the notion of border. What is a border anyway?”
Link via MetaFilter.
Hoodline: Meet Dr. Color: How Bob Buckter Repainted San Francisco. His website is DrColor.com.
“Quick: imagine a colorful San Francisco Victorian. The way it looks in your mind’s eye probably has something to do with Buckter’s decades of steady influence.
[…]
One vista he hasn’t directly touched is the famed “postcard row” of painted ladies on Alamo Square. He’s done other historic work on the park, but not on that uniquely iconic stretch of Steiner St. They are “a bit understated for my taste,” he says.”
Link via MetaFilter.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the nuclear catastrophe in Chernobyl.
McClatchy DC: Ruined Chernobyl nuclear plant will remain a threat for 3,000 years. “30 years since Chernobyl may seem like a long time, but it’s really just the start. Below reactor’s ruins is a 2,000-ton radioactive mass that can’t be removed. How do you protect a site for as long a time as Western civilization has existed?”
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: The Chernobyl Disaster: How It Happened. “On April 26, 1986, a routine safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine spiraled out of control. Follow the dramatic events that led to the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.”
Links via the 30th anniversary commemoration thread on MetaFilter, which contains more excellent links and interesting discussion, as usual: “This was the day, of course, when we learned we were wrong.“
I posted about Chernobyl on my weblog several times in the past: April 26, 2006, 20th anniversary; May 2, 2006, Artikel aus der Zeit; May 28, 2007; April 26, 2010; November 18, 2010.
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