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If there was ever a sign of a ruling party in trouble, it is a game plan that calls for trying to win by discouraging voting.

The latest sign that Republicans have an election-year strategy to shut down voter registration drives comes from Ohio. As the state gears up for a very competitive election season this fall, its secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, has put in place “emergency” regulations that could hit voter registration workers with criminal penalties for perfectly legitimate registration practices. The rules are so draconian they could shut down registration drives in Ohio.

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell’s office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell’s edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell’s rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

Mr. Blackwell’s rules are interpretations of a law the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature passed recently. Another of the nation’s most famous swing states, Florida, has been the scene of similar consternation and confusion since it recently enacted a law that is so harsh that the Florida League of Women Voters announced that it was stopping all voter registration efforts for the first time in 67 years.

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De oranje Wehrmachthelm riep weerstand op, omdat hij verwees naar een zwarte periode uit de Duitse geschiedenis.

Vermoedelijk gebeurt dat ook met de MeisterSchnurr, het nieuwste hebbedingetje voor de WK-supporters. Een oranje plaksnorretje, in de vorm van de (in het echt zwarte) snor van de Duitse nazileider Adolf Hitler.

Subtiel is anders, maar volgens de aanbieders is de snor een hit. Per twee te koop voor slechts vier euro.

Don’t go to Germany without one, luidt de slogan van de verkoper op de website Meisterschnurr.com. De hitlersnorretjes zijn daar niet alleen in het oranje te bestellen, maar in allerlei kleuren, al naar gelang het land waarvan je supporter bent.

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Dat een blauwe reiger kikkers, mollen en ratten eet is bekend, maar de vogel blijkt ook met kleine konijnen overweg te kunnen.

Fotograaf Ad Sprang uit Vianen zag tweede pinksterdag hoe de reiger behoedzaam een jong konijntje benaderde. Toen hij binnen stootafstand was genaderd, haalde de vogel krachtig uit en kreeg het pluizenbolletje aan één oor te pakken.
Terwijl het konijntje luid krijsend en spartelend aan z’n oor hing te bungelen aan de dolkvormige snavel, vloog de reiger weg met zijn buit. Hij landde 50 meter verderop langs een slootkant.

Daar verdronk hij het konijn, waarna hij het zó met huid en haar naar binnen werkte.

I don’t think this needs translating: the picture speaks for itself, the rabbit lost…

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What is happening to that volcano?

It’s erupting!

The first person to note that the Aleutian Cleveland Volcano was spewing ash was astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams aboard the International Space Station. Looking down on the Alaskan Aleutian Islands two weeks ago, Williams noted, photographed, and reported a spectacular ash plume emanating from the Cleveland Volcano. Starting just before this image was taken, the Cleveland Volcano underwent a short eruption lasting only about two hours. The Cleveland stratovolcano is one of the most active in the Aleutian Island chain. The volcano is fueled by magma displaced by the subduction of the northwest-moving tectonic Pacific Plate under the tectonic North America Plate.

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I’ve often thought about the new commonplace practices in society that someone from 1920 might find odd if they suddenly landed in the here and now. We all take them for granted, but if you pay attention, you have to find these phenomena weird. With only a couple of exceptions, all of the following changes are due to technology.

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Okay, let’s get to the meat of this essay. Perhaps the weirdest societal change has to do with digital cameras and the practice of framing shots in the preview window by holding the camera out in front of yourself. Even ten years ago, nobody would have predicted that most people would now take pictures this way.

We went to the moon and found something other than cheese. We cook food with radio waves. Racial equality. Kids with metal stuck through their skin. And Dvorak thinks the way we hold our camera’s is most surprising?

Wow.

Just… wow.

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