Pacific Northwest

Yesterday in Beaverton, the family and friends of a US soldier who was killed in a meaningless war were told a lot of tired nonsense about God, duty, and sacrifice for something or other...

On Monday morning, standing in a Beaverton church in front of a crowd and that son, U.S. Army Spc. John Alexander Pelham, lying in a closed casket draped with an American flag, the father of six confidently told them all, "He'll be bigger than death."
Pelham, who graduated from high school 2010, was killed in Afghanistan on Feb 12.
(Oregonian)

"Islam knows no love. Islam is a Satanic pagan religion," wrote an unknown and clearly unhappy person to the Islamic Center of Bothell.
(KOMO)

When a Port Angeles police officer and a police dog attempted to arrest a suspected motorbike thief on the foothills of the glorious Olympic Mountains, things did not go smoothly. The suspect, it is reported, kicked the head of the police dog (K-9 Bogey), and the police dog responded by teaching the suspect's leg a lesson with its teeth. The suspect lost this fight. The motorbike was returned to its owner. And the silent and immortal mountains will be around long after we are all dead.
(KOMO)


The United States

No need to say more than the headline: "Man Shoots Himself In The Head While Demonstrating Gun Safety."
(CBS Detroit)

A human being was jailed and charged for pouring hot sauce on a puppy's eyes.
(Time)

Budgets are tight, winter was rough, many US roads have become bad. What to do? Dump more and more resources into a form of transportation (the car) that is becoming less and less sustainable. “We’re throwing everything we can at it,” stated one "public servant" in Indianapolis. “We’re seeing our roads in the worst condition probably than we ever have.”
(Bloomberg)


The World

The headline of a story concerning a recent experiment conducted at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland: "Ants Use Their Babies As Life Preservers When Forming Rafts During Floods."
(WaPo)

If cars are going to be in the city, they must be small and move at speeds that are not deadly. This slowness will certainly take the thrill out of driving.


Just for the beauty...


The Universe

From a small galaxy to a big one, a stream of stars. The big galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy; the small one is Andromeda II. The stream of stars indicates that a collusion occurred between the two.

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(Science Daily; the pic from NASA)