• 10 ways bicyclists can avoid getting hit by cars (h/t Jack Bogdanski)

• Anatomy of the Incredible Hulk

• Brian Palmer: How Many People Are At Least 1/32 Native American?

• Daniel Kalder: “Right now it seems as if the leadership of the entire planet is coming up for election. At least that’s the impression I get from the news: there are changes of leadership everywhere, or at least in those places where the population is allowed to have a say in such matters. But when I look at the results, I can’t help thinking that the people coming into power are completely incapable of meeting the challenges of our times.”

• Daniel Terdiman: “For two months last fall, Eric Simons secretly took up residence inside the Internet giant’s Palo Alto, Calif., campus, eating free food, enjoying gym access, and building a startup in the process.”

• Esther Inglis-Arkell: 10 Science Concepts that Could Spawn Awesome Supervillains

• Fred Guteri: “NASA climate scientist James Hanson has warned of a ‘Venus effect,’ in which runaway warming turns Earth into an uninhabitable desert, with a surface temperature high enough to melt lead, sometime in the next few centuries.”

• Jim Goad: “I have trouble accepting the idea that Hitler was a vegetarian. He just didn’t seem that pushy.”

• Jim Romenesko: “Elmore Leonard liked Detroit Free Press reporter Tammy Battaglia’s piece about a roofer saved from electrocution, so he wrote her a nice letter. ‘I read your story the other day about the roofer narrowly dodging death and admire the way you wrote it,’ the crime novelist told the journalist. ‘What I admire the most is the sound of your writing, your effortless style.’”

• More Kalder: “I would therefore like to make a modest proposal, a test for those lacking documentation of their tribal lineage but who would nevertheless like to advance their academic or political careers by claiming to be a Native American. Can you rope a steer while on horseback and then cut out and eat its liver, like Herman [Lehmann]? Elizabeth Warren, are you ready?”

• Occupy Bilberberg 2012

• The Smoking Gun: Bacon Lover In Piggly Wiggly Rampage

• Timm Rautert’s photographs of the Amish (h/t Lucy Steigerwald)

Related articles

• The Scandalous History of Arlington National Cemetery (neatorama.com)
• Russia Can Survive Without Arshavin – Mostovoi (en.rian.ru)
• Philosopher Takes On the Myth of an Anti-Intellectual America (bigthink.com)
• Russia Can Win Olympic Volleyball – Obmochaeva (en.rian.ru)

• “A new study has found that playing Tetris can help reduce the impact of PTSD.”

• Candice Huffine is attractive.

• Katy Grimes: “A hearing at the [California] Capitol Monday proved once again that high-speed rail officials live in a bubble and are far too comfortable in their roles spending billions of dollars of other people’s money…However, despite all of the brown-nosing and friendly bureaucratic talk at the hearing, High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Dan Richard and board member Mike Rossi still came off as arrogant as ever, and were characteristically dismissive of the important lingering questions and challenges. The plan is still going to cost taxpayers nearly $100 billion, and at least $1 billion every year thereafter to operate. Voters who approved the system through Proposition 1A in 2008 didn’t bargain for a $100 billion train system, or such high operating costs, and are asking where the money will come from.”

• Matt Novak: “In 1922, eccentric magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback decided that the world needed a 1,000-foot tall concrete monument to electricity. Gernsback imagined that this monument might last for thousands of years, and rather than some static behemoth stuck in time, the interior of his monument would be constantly changed to reflect the technological advances of each new generation.”

• Munch‘s “The Scream” sells for big money.

• (Old) color photographs of Russian cities.

• Ricky Sprague: “…when [Tony Star/Iron Man] was trapped in Vietnam or the Middle East (depending on which origin story/reboot you’re reading or watching) he built himself a MOTHERFUCKING SUIT OF FUCKING ARMOR right under the noses of his captors, and then broke out of there, killed all of their balls, then decided to use his supersuit to, oh, I don’t know, just FIGHT A LITTLE CRIME FOR AWHILE.”

Related articles

• Who’s a clever birdie then? (english.pravda.ru)
• Former Drug Czar John Walters: Dumber Than You May Think (reason.com)
• Venezuela’s Great Patriotic Pole (english.pravda.ru)
• Casualties Grow in N. Caucasus Twin Blasts (en.rian.ru)

The strangeness has manifested itself in many good and many bad ways. Happily, this past week, the strangeness has been a very good, very fun thing.

Not all of the strangeness is fit for disclosure in blog-form.

Some of it is, though.

From Texas, the great Daniel Kalder sent signed copies of his excellent books Lost Cosmonaut and Strange Telescopes. He also sent the Polish-language version of Lost Cosmonaut, which looks really cool, although I can’t read a word of it:

D.K. was also kind enough to send several amazing photographs from his personal collection (© Daniel Kalder). Please don’t redistribute in any fashion.

Here’s a few from Kalmykia, the strangest of estranged Russian lands, IMHO.

__________________

Fuck All You Motherfuckers

Another nice bit of mail showed up in the form of this book:

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Brian Clark, the author, mentions yours truly in the “thank you” section, along with a diverse group of talented folks:

Thanks:

Skiba, Boyd, Emily, Vadge, Trace, Stephanie, Ruth, Iced Borscht and Lisa

Beautiful this strange world of ours, nyet?

Thanks to Daniel and Brian for adding to the past week’s excellence quotient.