firehose

Let the festivities begin! Today marks the opening of the 28th Annual Oregon Brewers Festival. The near week-long celebration of beer—Oregonian and otherwise—kicks off today at noon at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, but even if you don’t already have your ticket to the Brewers Brunch hosted by Lompoc this year, blow off work and partake in the parade that figuratively and literally leads to the official opening of the fest. This year’s co-grand marshals are the brothers Widmer, Kurt and Rob, participating in their 28th straight festival.

Once inside the gates—free for all to enter including mini hopsters in case you’re providing mommy or daddy daycare—attendees will discover a total of 115 beers brewed by 102 different breweries spanning 47 different beer styles. If that sounds like more than usual, that’s because this year, for the first time ever, in addition to the 90 “main” beers lined up along seemingly a mile of beer tap trucks, there’s an International Beer Garden featuring five breweries from New Zealand as well as eight returning Dutch brewers. All in all, just 189 national breweries shy of a Liquid UN.

A full half of the participating beermakers hail from Oregon. The five Kiwis are: ParrotDog, the Garage Project, Panhead Custom Ales, Tuatara, and Yeastie Boys. The Dutchies you may pass on the left hand side are: Kaapse, Maximus, Oedipus, Oerseop, Ramses, Rooie Doop, RUIG and Uiltje. The latter, I’ll note, poured an Imperial IPA at a beer festival in the Netherlands that, upon tasting, I noted “tasted like home” meaning Portland.

The event draws some 85,000 beer lovers from around the globe so it’s a good thing it’s spread out over five days. Having said that, the sooner you go, the shorter those lines will be. Check back in a day or two for our favorite 4-oz samples—IPAs and fruit beers and whatever other craziness they’ve devised, oh my—from inside the gates.

Oregon Brewers Festival: Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Wed-Sun from noon – 9 pm (Sunday until 7 pm). Free. Pay-as-you-drink.

couldnt sleep so i spent the Whole Night scribblin this weird leek bird

Although Brian Michael Bendis co-created the titular character in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Jessica Jones, he did not work on the show — but he’s seen a preview of the first two episodes, and he gave them a solid thumbs-up on his Tumblr this week. In fact, he credits his own lack of involvement as the reason why he can endorse the show with “no ego fanfare”:

I was going to be the hardest on it. Harder than any of you. Jessica is a part of my DNA. A bad Jessica Jones show would have hurt me deeply. BUT it is faithful and lively and everything that I could personally have wanted from the show.

Bendis went on to lavish praise on the show’s screenwriter, Melissa Rosenberg, who may be best known for managing to adapt the Twilight books for the silver screen. More importantly, Rosenberg also wrote the 2002 underground cult TV show Birds of Prey. Back in 2002, TV adaptations of comic books were scarce; these days, we’ve got Daredevil, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham … the list goes on. Now, with Agent Carter on the docket for another season and Supergirl on the horizon, the stage has been set. The time is right for Jessica Jones to emerge and light the world on fire! Or, uh, she could let Luke Cage do it. That works, too.

(via Tumblr, image via ComingSoon.Net)

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Transparent has been the subject of much debate about trans representation and erasure (The Mary Sue’s Marcy Cook wrote earlier this year, “Transparent has made so many mistakes that it’s clear they are not deserving of the plaudits and awards they’ve received, and they are certainly not deserving of trust from the trans community”).

But despite the series’ failings, Transparent‘s primarily female directorial team differentiates the show from typical dude-dominated Hollywood fare. Transparent is also one of only three series for which a woman is nominated in the top writer-director categories at this year’s Emmys. (Male creators, by contrast, have a robust 20 nominations in that field.)

Speaking to Variety, series creator Jill Soloway called on men in Hollywood to wield their power responsibly and help female creators get their due:

I think, as the ACLU is investigating the illegality of keeping women from directing positions, male creators, showrunners, producers and directors have to really face the immorality, their own immorality, of hiring their friends, of telling male stories, of perpetuating male privilege through protagonism. So that means the male gaze — men as subject, women as object — is business as usual for men to be able to keep telling their stories from their point of view. (They need to) really offer women the chance to write, to direct, and then to empower them once they are writing and directing, and say, ‘tell your story, tell your story!’

[…] I really applaud Judd Apatow for, over the past few years, using his privilege to give access to people like Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer. Paul Feig is doing the same thing, helping the all-female Ghostbusters get made. They should be examples to other men who have power and give access to female creators that they admire.

Soloway’s take on male privilege in media is spot-on, and cisgender privilege is no different. As Hollywood’s gender divide continues to get the scrutiny it deserves, cis creators should also prioritize “giving access” to the trans writers and directors that they admire.

What do you think of Soloway’s comments, friends? Are you a Transparent fan?

(image via Shutterstock)

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Data from the New Horizons mission have revised Pluto’s diameter to just 2370 kilometers across. That’s smaller than the moons Triton, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, Europa, and Titan, not to mention Earth’s own satellite. In more immediately relatable terms: Here’s what it would look like if someone plopped Pluto onto Australia.

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Glass artist Ben Young (previously here and here) just shared a glimpse of his latest sculptural works made from layers of cut laminate window panes. The bodies of water depicted in Young’s work are usually cut into cross-sections akin to textbook illustrations, creating translucent geometric islands that can appear both monolithic or chamsic.

“I hope viewers might imagine the work as something ‘living’ that creates the illusion of space, movement, depth and sense of spatial being,” Young says. “I like to play with the irony between the glass being a solid material and how I can form such natural and organic shapes.” The self-taught artist, furniture maker, and surfer has explored the properties of cut glass for over a decade at his Sydney studio. Here’s a bit more about his processes via Kirra Galleries:

Each of Young’s sculptural works are hand drawn, hand cut and handcrafted from clear sheet float glass made for windows, then laminated layer upon layer to create the final form. He constructs models, draws templates, makes custom jigs and then cuts the layers with a glazier’s hand-tool. The complexity comes from the planning phase, where he says “I do a lot of thinking before I even start to draw or cut.” He then sketches the concept by hand and creates a plan using traditional technical drawing techniques: “I work with 2D shapes and have to figure out how to translate that into a 3D finished piece. Sometimes my starting point changes dramatically as I have to find a way to layer the glass to create certain shapes.” The texture and colour of the glass varies in every piece according to its thickness and arrangement.

Young opens a new exhibition of work along with artist Peter Nilsson titled Float at Kirra Galleries this evening in Melbourne.

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Termux is a terminal emulator and Unix environment bringing powerful terminal access to your Android-powered devices.

Termux works directly with no rooting or setup required. At first start a minimal base system is installed automatically - you decide what to do next.

Google Play

Check out this rad “Thread Screen” build by BREAKFAST for Forever 21, “a 2000 pound machine that uses 6,400 spools of thread to display Instagrams that are hashtagged with #F21ThreadScreen.”

Here’s today’s live stream:

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Microsoft Band now supports tiny web tiles that pull from RSS feeds, making it easy for anyone to create apps through their web service. More good news appears in The Verge’s article:

Alongside the web tiles feature, Microsoft is starting to open up its Health platform to third-party developers. New APIs will allow developers to access Microsoft Health activity data and create apps. If a Microsoft Band owner completes a run, then a developer could access that data and create an app to map out the entire run. It’s another key part of Microsoft’s plan to create a full Health platform that others can plug into.

From the Microsoft Health developer site:

Microsoft Band web tile preview allows developers to deliver information to Microsoft Band from virtually any data source on the web, in just a few easy steps!

Write tile code once in simple JSON code and let the Microsoft Health app do the rest for you – adding web tiles to Microsoft Band, periodically fetching web resources and delivering it to the web tile on the Band.

Does all this sound familiar? That’s because it also happened eight years ago when you could get MSN Filter news on your SPOT Watch!

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

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Artisanal Landlord Price Hike Sale

enemacklemore:

when you have to kill off an entire crew on a spaceship at 7 and be at the met gala at 7:30

The government's bid to strip U.S. citizenship from the worship leader of Portland's biggest mosque is a rarity.

It's such a rare move that when Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye recently reached out to the downtown firm of Nelson Smith Immigration Law, lawyers acknowledged they had never handled a revocation of naturalization case.

Immigration lawyers Philip Smith and Nicole Nelson represent Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye.Nelson Smith LLP 

In fact, when they reached out to other immigration lawyers, they found that none of them had ever handled one either, said Nicole Nelson, whose firm represents Kariye, the imam of Masjed As-Saber in Southwest Portland.

Justice Department lawyers filed a civil complaint Monday that accuses Kariye of repeatedly misrepresenting himself – name, age, travels, association with Islamic groups, arrest record, and experiences as a mujahideen guerrilla in the Soviet-Afghan War – to acquire U.S. citizenship in August 1998.

For those reasons, they allege, the 53-year-old native Somali lacks the moral fitness to remain a citizen.

"I believe the goal is to deport him," Nelson said in an interview Tuesday with The Oregonian/OregonLive.

She has learned that some foreign-born Americans facing revocation of their naturalization have simply signed away their citizenship. But Kariye won't be one of them. Nelson said she'll file an answer to the government's allegations by Sept. 18.

She remains baffled by the Justice Department's timing.

Twelve years have passed since Kariye pleaded guilty to obtaining a Social Security card by fraud and underreporting his income to obtain state health care benefits. By then, he had already become a naturalized citizen, and the government could have made its play to revoke his citizenship at that time.

"There doesn't seem to be anything new," said Nelson, who will fight the case with partner Philip Smith.

Agents of the FBI and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement investigated Kariye's travels and associations, discovering that he had direct dealings with Osama bin Laden during the war in Afghanistan and an Islamic group, Maktab Al-Khidamat, which the U.S. now describes as a defunct terrorist organization.

Kariye is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that accuses the FBI and its Terrorist Screening Center of violating the constitutional rights of several people placed on the U.S. no-fly list.

Nelson hopes that Kariye's case to maintain his citizenship can be consolidated into the no-fly case because of an "overlap of factual findings."

majestic

This lifelong Oakland Athletics fan's first LGBT Pride night marked a new chapter, both for her and Major League Baseball.

[Editor's note: SB Nation's Sarah Kogod trailed Jamie Neal on the biggest night of her sporting life. Jamie's account appears below in italics.]

Jamie Neal is waiting for me on a bench outside of O.co Coliseum ahead of the Oakland A's LGBT Pride game against the San Diego Padres. It's a cool June night and Jamie is wearing an A's warm-up jacket, skinny jeans and black flats. Her hair is professionally styled, make-up applied in just the right neutral shades with a subtle smoky eye.

She is listening to music while waiting – "Regulate" by Warren G feat. Nate Dogg – and she seems calm and collected.

Inside, she is not calm and collected. Jamie is nervous. After 33 years as Jason, this will be Jamie's first baseball game as a woman.

*****

I contemplated canceling my trip to O.co several times over the week before the actual game. Surely I could have caught the summer bug going around and lets be realistic, the night would go on without me the same as it would have if I were there, right? But I promised myself that I would go to this game and give myself a chance to see what I could do as Jamie.

Showered and clean-shaven from head to toe, except for a stupid spot on my hand that of course I missed because, obviously, I started putting on my makeup. I don't know if I was sweating because of how nervous I was or because the bathroom I was using had poor ventilation, but I had to bring in a desk fan in order to not sweat my face makeup off.

Hours and hours spent watching YouTube tutorials from people like Jaclyn Hill paid off in spades as I applied my Urban Decay foundation, my Benefit blush and bronzer, and eye shadow from the three Naked pallets by Urban Decay I brought with me, just to make sure I had the colors I would want and need for this evening. I just want to blend in, so I went with golds and browns for my eye shadow choices because they are close enough to my skin tone that they won't draw too much attention and any mistakes I make won't be as noticeable.

I get my makeup done and start fumbling through the clothes I brought with me to put together an outfit that is fitting of a baseball game in Oakland. Pilfering through the dresses, jeans, jackets, and tops I brought with me, I finally chose to wear black flats, dark blue skinny jeans, and a grey v-neck t-shirt. I also brought an A's jacket that I had bought when I was still living as Jason. I knew that the jacket would cover my non-existent cleavage and make me less self-conscious about areas I feel I am lacking as a woman. Dressed and ready to go, I fix my hair, take a few selfies to share with some friends, and I'm out the door and on I-80 headed to Oakland.

*****

There is not an active out LGBT player in any of the four big professional sports. The atmospheres in the locker rooms and stadiums haven't traditionally been encouraging to the cause, but they're changing slowly. Currently, 18 Major League Baseball teams have a game in June dedicated to LGBT awareness, and June 17 was the A's first LGBT Pride night in the club's history. When it was announced during spring training, some objecting season ticket holders expressed outrage on Twitter that their money would be going to support LGBT awareness. Eireann Dolan, girlfriend of A's pitcher Sean Doolittle, responded by offering to buy those fans' tickets, no questions asked. Dolan, whose moms are "hella gay," as she puts it, started a GoFundMe campaign to buy back the tickets with the promise that she and Doolittle would match the first $3,000 raised. In the end, no disgruntled season ticket holders took Dolan up on her offer and the campaign raised more than $40,000.

"I never had done anything prior to this as far as getting actively involved in the cause," said Doolittle. "But this has been amazing to see the response that we’ve gotten from our fans.

A lot of our fans are members of the LGBT community, so it was important to send a message. There's just no room for that kind of discrimination in a ballpark."

Most of the donated money came from fans, but Doolittle said that some of his teammates also got involved, donating money and asking how they could help.

"I knew I had plenty of support in here," he said, gesturing to the A's clubhouse. "I also have teammates who say they don't understand why it's a big deal. It's like, read a comment section when someone comes out. That's why it's a big deal."

Half of the money was donated to local LGBT groups and the rest was used to purchase 950 lower level tickets to the A's Pride night that were then donated to LGBT youth groups in Oakland.

A recent survey revealed that an alarming 41% of transgender people have attempted suicide. That number is higher among transgender youth.

The initial negative response to the night and the ensuing surge of support from Doolittle, Dolan and other fans led Jamie to make the decision to come out as transgender. On April 6, she made her announcement on Twitter.

*****

April 6^th was significant to me because it was just days after my birthday and the night of my birthday celebration. As I lay in bed after the party, I thought about how wonderful it would be to live every day as I had that night -- in some way, living as Jamie without being nervous or ashamed. The negative reaction to the LGBT night was disheartening, especially being that the A's play in the Bay Area, but it wasn't entirely shocking. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions, but when it comes to the way some people view and treat the LGBT community, nothing really shocks me anymore. I suppose that's an awful thing because it means there has been enough of it to desensitize me to it and that is a shame because the things that are done to and said about our community are pretty horrific at times.

The way Sean and Eireann handled the negativity was as classy as it gets. I couldn't ask for better people to set expectations than those two and everyone else they inspired to donate to the cause. What a wonderful and selfless thing that Sean and Eireann were able to do and how amazing for them to bring a whole community and its supporters together for a wonderful night at a baseball game.

April 6th was by no means the start of Jamie. My mind flashes back to when I was in seventh grade at Bernal Middle School in San Jose, CA and I went to a San Jose Sabercats game with a church group. I had snuck into my mom's room and borrowed a pair of her nylons to wear underneath my jeans. My little secret that no one would ever know about. I felt like I was getting away with something right in front of everyone. At the time, my mom and I were fairly close in size, so the nylons fit like a glove. I got a chance to just sit back and enjoy being myself in a world that wasn't accepting of who I was. I had an opportunity to understand what my heart could feel like because I was being true to myself, even if I was the only one aware of what was going on. The nylons were restricting and I was aware of them the entire evening, but the physical feeling I got from the nylons will forever pale in comparison to the way they made me actually feel. My heart was full, I had an enormous smile on my face, and there was nothing anyone could do to take that away because this was my little secret.

Jamie isn't a secret anymore, but the walk to the stadium makes me feel as free as I did that day in seventh grade. The wind catches my hair in ways I am not used to. I see people glance at me and go about their business, and I see some people flat out ignore me...a fairly typical day in the life of anyone.

This would prove to be the most significant walk of my life.

There is no fear, no embarrassment, only anxiety and nervousness for how I would be received. No one makes a scene, so that helps to set me at ease. I'm not embarrassed to walk to will call dressed as a woman because there is nothing shameful about being a woman, but I am nervous because I think of all the wonderful women I know and I don't want to do them wrong. I don't want to be an embarrassment to women when the majority of women I know have supported me unquestioningly.

*****

The atmosphere in the stadium on this night is nothing short of celebratory. Rainbow everything – flags, socks, wigs and signs – fill the stands. The team runs rainbow graphics on the scoreboard and hands out rainbow wristbands with Oakland's logo stitched onto to them. One daring fan parades through the lower level with a sign that read "Get a load of Sieman," a play on one of the A's players' last names.

It is clear that that the stadium is overwhelmingly supportive of the LGBT community, and seeing this makes Jamie relax. She has conversations with the fans around us, talking about the team, the weather and where everyone is from. These are the same conversations she had as Jason, and it furthers her realization that her gender is scarcely a concern to anyone around her. Aside from almost removing her wig for the national anthem as a result of being conditioned to remove her hat out of respect, the night is event-free for Jamie.

We talk comfortably for a while, but more than halfway through the game I realize that Jamie is shifting around uncomfortably in her seat.

*****

I have to pee.

Clearly I don't want to use the restroom because, well, it has the potential to be a huge ordeal, and anyone who knows me knows I hate ordeals of any size. Sarah offers to go with me and reluctantly, I agree. Had she not been there, I surely would have waited until the game was over to try to find the least crowded bathroom I could have found.  Unfortunately, that is not an option because two hours of driving, seven innings of a baseball game, and two enormous drinks is not a recipe for being able to hold out until the end of the game to use the restroom.

At any typical game, the only reason I would hesitate about going to the bathroom is because I don't want to miss any of the game. Having never been in a women's restroom, nervous doesn't begin to describe the emotion that I feel thinking about going into a women's restroom to use the facilities. The trepidation is probably more due to the fact that I am nervous about all of the conservative thoughts I've read about why someone who was born a man would want to use a women's restroom rather than what I actually thought would be my experience in the women's restroom. Am I really just a pervert who wanted to join women in the bathroom? Am I really abnormal and an abomination?

Nope. I am just another woman whose bladder is far too full and have to use the below average facilities to relieve pressure and hopefully that relief will help me stop waddling like a duck as I walk because I have to pee so bad.

We make our way up the aisle and that feeling of being watched crept over me again. Everyone's eyes are on me and I immediately think it is due to the fact that I am presenting myself as a woman. Then reality kicks in and I remember that everyone looks at everyone walking past and convince myself that this is no different. Be real, Jamie. The world doesn't revolve around you. Gosh.

Sarah and I find a bathroom near the top of our section and I take a deep breath. I walk in and find a stall that I could get to fairly quickly. I rush in, make sure my shoes are pointing in the right direction, and breathe a huge sigh of relief. The bathroom is completely non-descript, nothing exciting, but my heart is pounding out of my chest. As I walk out of the bathroom stall, I have a slight panic attack as I look for a sink to wash my hands in and realize that I'm in the middle of a women's restroom and probably look like a deer in headlights. I finally find a sink, turn on the water after fumbling with the handles for what feels like forever.

****

For many transgender people, the restroom issue is the source of incredible anxiety. Some establishments have graciously adopted the policy that patrons can use the bathroom of the gender they most identify with. Most public places don't offer such an accommodation, turning the simple act of using the restroom into a stressful and potentially dangerous situation.

Jamie revealed that when she goes out with friends, she makes sure to research ahead of time multiple places near the bar where she can go and be safe if she feels unsafe as a transgender woman. She also says that she tends to not use bathrooms, choosing to hold it in discomfort rather than face the possibility of harassment or worse.

Currently, 37 states do not have laws that permit pre-op transgender people to use the bathroom they're most comfortable in, leaving it up to each business owner to enforce their own restroom rules. It has led to stories of bullying, harassment, arrests and charges of trespassing.

Both well before the game and that night, I reached out to multiple people within the A's organization to ask how they would handle LGBT situations, specifically the issue of bathroom use. With multiple transgender fans in attendance, were staff trained to respond to harassment complaints? Would transgender fans be allowed to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with? If a cisgender fan complained, would stadium workers be trained to handle that complaint without discrimination?

The A's actively refused to answer my questions both before the game via email and in person that night, a concerning practice for an organization that was about to host thousands of fans who would most certainly benefit from knowing the answer.

Billy Bean, MLB's Ambassador for Inclusion, was in attendance for Oakland's Pride night and spoke with me before the game to help shed some light on the A's silence.

"Remember it's new," he said, of MLB teams support of LGBT issues. "It takes time, and that's probably the biggest challenge for me, is, on the left I have the art community wanting to push push push and on this side I see we have our foot in the door for the first time in 146 years."

Five days after the game, the A's finally sent an email response through a spokesperson. The only answer that specifically addressed the LGBT questions I asked was related to the bathroom issue.

"There are private family bathrooms available for all fans to use—including transgender fans—which are located throughout the stadium."

According to the team's stadium guide, there are only two of those family bathrooms.

Currently, there is no league-wide initiative to address issues like bathroom policies for transgender fans and there isn't a league-led program to train employees on LGBT sensitivity issues, leaving the initiative up to each individual team, and LGBT sensitivity training is not mandatory. Bean says that a cohesive plan is on his agenda and that he met with leaders from various LGBT groups to discuss how to move forward. He also understands that needs within the community vary.

"There's massive diversity within the LGBT community and to pretend that there's not is just generalization," he said. "We'll find a solution. Even the front offices haven't had it. It's not far away. The fact that I'm here is the start to that conversation."

*****

Billy, Sarah and I have a great conversation about the day in general and what the hopes are for the future. Billy reassures me that I am making the right choice, sharing that he is proud of me, and assuring me that all of these things are happening in the right time and that progressive steps are being taken to make sure everyone feels safe at baseball games. I can't articulate how amazing and meaningful that conversation is and how warm, caring, and genuine he comes across. I will remember this single interaction for as long as I live because it feels like there is no one else around at that moment, just he and I, and it isn't important what I am wearing or what the night is about. All that matters is that I am a person and I deserve to be treated as such.

As I drive back up to Marysville, CA, roughly two hours north of the Bay Area, I sit smiling, stuck on perma-grin, the entire way home. I didn't die. The world didn't end. I didn't get into a fight. The day was as perfect as it could possibly be.

I guess what I learned through this whole experience is this: My life mottos all work in a variety of ways and I am thrilled that there are people who view life through the same lens that I do because it means I am able to surround myself with quality people.

I'll part with this - be yourself. There is no more empowering, freeing, and wonderful feeling than people accepting you for who you truly are. It took me my entire life to this point to be honest and live my life the way I want to, but I will tell you that I have never had a more important day in my personal life than I did yesterday and yesterday was my best day. I was able to do what I love, with people who I am beyond blessed to know, as my true self and they never batted an eye, never cracked a joke, and never made me feel anything less than amazing and they're the type of people I want in my life.

As Oscar Wilde famously said, "Be yourself.  Everyone else is already taken."

Abandoned russian space station by Ralph Mirebs

via В спальне бога

Not since 1972 and the Apollo 17 mission has NASA released a full shot of the sunlit Earth. This month a roaming satellite called DSCOVR sent back the photo below, which shows our planet from about 1 million miles away.

NASA notes “it has not been possible to capture images of the entire sunlit side of Earth at once since Apollo 17″ though there have been images over the years composed of mosaics stitched together.

This shot is of Earth “taken at one moment in time,” as NASA poetically puts it.

Earth Studies

Beyond photos, the DSCOVR satellite will be used to measure ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties, and the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth, NASA cites.

Learn more about the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite and its mission on NASA’s site. The entity hopes to release more (and even better) whole-Earth photos beginning this fall.

Partisan of the Gardes ‘De La Manche’

• Dated: 1679
  
• Maker: Jean Bérain
  
• Culture: French
  
• Medium & Technique: iron, wood, textile/wrought, chased, engraved, gilded
  
• Measurements: height 2.58m; width 0.10m
  

The marriage by proxy of Charles II of Spain and Mademoiselle d’Orléans, niece of Louis XIV, was celebrated on 31 August 1679 in Fontainebleau. This was a chance for the King of France to welcome representatives from Europe’s leading figures and sign treaties with Sweden and Denmark, following the Dutch War. On this occasion, the Gardes de la Manche (King’s guards) were given new partisans, whose decoration expressed the royal ideology and world view of the King of France.

The Gardes de la Manche (literally “guards of the sleeve”) were the closest guards to the King, so close they touched his sleeve. In 1679, they were given new tabards and weapons. The Herculean symbolism, inherited from Henry IV, was replaced in their decorations by the solar symbolism adopted by Louis XIV circa 1662.

Indeed, the iron of the partisans represents the world (a globe) above which flies a chariot driven by Mars, the god of war (the King). This chariot, drawn by four horses, crushes the eagle (the Holy Empire) and the lion (often associated with England but representing Spain in this context). The King is crowned with the victor’s laurels by an allegory of Renown, under the radiant sun surrounded by the motto NEC PLURIBUS IMPAR.

Jean Bérain (1640-1711) was entrusted with making these weapons. In 1675, he began designing the costumes and decorations for the events - carrousels, funerals as well as parties and operas - held at the Court of France.

Source: Copyright © 2015 Musée de l'Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Photo: Pascal Segrette

Galactic Dimension

Maker installation project by royrobotiks is a huge pinball machine made with familiar everyday objects:

Galactic Dimension is a supersized pinball machine which I’ve built for Phæno – an amazing science center in the German city of Wolfsburg. The pinball was built on a steep ramp in the exhibition hall and has a gigantic playfield, which measures 3×6 meters in total.
Styled with UFO’s and other cosmic references, the pinball fits perfectly into the futuristic building designed by the star architect Zaha Hadid.

As a science center should stimulate creativity and inventiveness, I repurposed everyday items like hair dryers and office fans for the playfield elements, giving the visitors the idea that they could also build such a contraption at home.
The result is a fully playable machine, operated via a control desk where the score is displayed on a jumbo calculator. Needless to say – hunting the high score is galactic fun! Watch the video above to see the machine in action!

More about how the project was put together can be found here

Who is this tiny reptilian hero? This real-world Bubble Bobbler? According to owner Nick DeBakey, her name is Laura.

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