It's been a week...

A week of meetings-with-acronymns.  And it ain't over yet, still two more proposals to write today.  (unexpected deadline, surprise, surprise)  Stumbled across some ideas for up over The Shop this morning.  No, I'm not going full-tilt inferior desecrator, but I do kind of dig the doors.

Modern Geography

From the Washington Post:
40 Maps that Explain the World
40 More Maps that Explain the World

I'll refrain from commenting on the current state of secondary education in the United States beyond saying that these two web pages could be the core of a damn fine year-long course.

In the meantime, let's all be happy

because you can reference those 80 maps anytime you want, interspersed with all the recess and bathroom breaks you wish.

Elrond's Airplane

Well not exactly, but if Tolkien's elves ever did build airplanes, they'd probably look something like this:

It's actually a pre-WWII Italian design that never quite flew, then got hidden somewhere in France during the war.  You can read about this beauty's re-creation here at the Bugatti 100p Project's page.

Like Two Hands of Winter...

... coming together to hold onto the Coast one last week to freeze out Mardi Gras:

Sorry Winter, the parade must go on!

1st Annual Seahorse Parade

Good down-home parade, but man was it cold!  Down into the low 40's by the time it was over.  Here are some pics:

The signature float, the USS Seahorse.  Note bow cannon fire.

Here comes the Ugly Pirate float!

And there goes the Ugly Pirate float.  Ultimately they won the Best Float Prize, which is darned cool because they really did have the best float.

Like.

One of Frank Underwood's "Barn Find" series:

Mmmmm, nice.  It's going to look good in the office.

New Krewe & a New Night Parade in Town

The Mystic Krewe of the Seahorse, and they're having a Lundi Gras night parade starting at the waterfront in Bay St. Louis and only a half-block later, going right past my favorite bar.  Sounds good to me.
Here's their web site, and here's their history page from the web site.  Interesting stuff, all ties back to the last events of the War of 1812.  (Though there were a few typos... "Last Navel Battle"?  I'll be sure to keep my shirt on for that one.)

This is gonna be fun.  Probably take Tuesday off though.