Scandinavian Catwalk
The daredevil stunt plane Scandinavian Catwalk performed this epic light show at Australia’s 2019 Avalon Airshow. The plane shoots a stream of fireworks and laser beams, perfectly timed to the music, all while performing flips and rolls in the sky.
Ghost Vocals
Saw blades on a Subaru
Trotify
ARTHUR: We have ridden the length and breadth of the land in search of knights who will join me in my court of Camelot. I must speak with your lord and master.
GUARD #1: What, ridden on a horse?
ARTHUR: Yes!
GUARD #1: You’re using coconuts!
ARTHUR: What?
GUARD #1: You’ve got two empty halves of coconut and you’re bangin’ ’em together.
ARTHUR: So?
Top 15 Global Brands
TheRankings posted a great video infographic of the top 15 global brands as they have traded places between 2000-2018.
Spoilers: watch how Google and Apple rocket up and out.
Paradox of Automotive Electronics
As someone currently working in this space, Ed Sperling has some good observations about the difficulty auto makers are having adjusting to the rapid change occurring in their industry.
Shturmovshchina
Russian: штурмовщина, IPA: [ʂtʊrmɐfˈɕːinə], last-minute rush, lit.storming
Shturmovshchina was a common Soviet work practice of frantic and overtime work at the end of a planning period in order to fulfill the planned production target. The practice usually gave rise to products of poor quality at the end of a planning cycle.
The Heart of St John Vianne
St John Vianne is the patron saint of parish priests. Considered a slow learner who struggled with academics, he even got lost when trying to get to his first assignment in the tiny town of Ars, France (pop. 230 people). It was a difficult time of rebuilding as the French Revolution’s reign of terror had previously forced repression of Catholics. But his patient work with his tiny flock began to spread. Known as a great mystic, he spent long days in the confessional with people who would flock to him from all over Europe and the world. By the end of his life, almost 20,000 people a year would go to confession with him and many miraculous events are well documented by those that confessed with him.
The shrine of Ars has entrusted his incorrupt heart of St John Vianne to the Knights of Columbus who are hosting him traveling the US. His heart will be arriving here in the Pacific Northwest the first week of March. Find the locations and dates here, but act fast because his relics will only be at some locations for mere hours:
https://www.kofc.org/en/events/vianney.html#/
Brief info about St John Vianne from wikipedia:
Around 1790, the anticlerical terror phase of the French Revolution forced many priests to hide from the regime in order to carry out the sacraments. John Vianne’s parents were ardent Catholics and gave often to the local poor as well as raised John with the same faith despite the persecution. After the Catholic Church was re-established in France in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte,
John entered the seminary, but struggled academically. Considered too slow, he was returned to Abbé Balley. However, Balley persuaded the Vicar general that Vianney’s piety was great enough to compensate for his ignorance. The seminarian was ordained priest on 12 August 1815.
He was then appointed the priest of Ars, a town of 230 inhabitants. Vianne got lost trying to find the town and two young men tending flocks in the fields pointed him in the right direction. With Catherine Lassagne and Benedicta Lardet, he established La Providence, a home for girls.
As parish priest, Vianney realized that the Revolution’s aftermath had resulted in religious ignorance and indifference, due to the devastation wrought on the church in France. At the time, Sundays in rural areas were spent working in the fields, or dancing and drinking in taverns. Vianney spent time in the confessional and gave homilies extorting people to turn towards God.
Despite the tiny parish of just a few hundred souls, Vianney came to be known internationally, and people from distant places began travelling to consult him as early as 1827. By 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached 20,000 a year. During the last ten years of his life, he spent 16 to 18 hours a day in the confessional.
The hours he spent in the confessional were surrounded by mystical experiences for both he and his confessors. Numerous tales are told of his humility, holiness, and miraculous knowledge of people’s sins and the disposition of their souls.
Oregon Ranks worst in Mental Health
The nonprofit Mental Health America recently ranked Oregon the worst in the country for mental illness rates and how little access to help for it we provide. That study says we have some of the worst rates for homelessness, high school graduations, and child abuse. All of which link to mental illnesses.
Sadly, it is not surprising when you see the masses of homeless camps, mentally ill, and drug addicted wandering the streets in downtown Portland. The famous movie ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest’ was filmed in Salem Oregon – which some said was one of the big nails in the coffins for state-sponsored mental health services.
Read some of the sad history of Oregon’s Mental Health services here:
http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/about-2/oregons-mental-health-history/
Other sources: