From my recent Locus review of The Disappearances, a WW2 era fantasy that includes a curse, a literary mystery, some grave robbing, and the disappearance of the stars:

Anyone interested in architecture should read this book by Stewart Brand. Brand won a National Book Award for the Whole Earth Catalog, and is a co-founder of Global Business Network, a futurist research organization fostering "the art of the long view." How Buildings Learn features a lot of illustrations and insights about building and buildings. I especially enjoy the comparison of two structures on the campus of MIT:

The legendary Building 20 (1943) was an artifact of wartime haste. Designed in an afternoon by MIT grad Don Whiston, it was ready for occupancy by radar researchers six months later... In an undertaking similar in scope to the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb, the emergency development of radar employed the nation's best physicists in an intense collaboration that changed the nature of science. Unlike Los Alamos, the MIT radar project was not run by the military, and unlike Los Alamos, no secrets got out. The verdict of scientists afterward was, "The atom bomb only ended the war. Radar won it." ... Author Fred Hapgood wrote in 1993 of Building 20, "The edifice is so ugly that it is impossible not to admire it, if that makes sense; it has ten times the righteous nerdly swagger of any other building on campus... Although Building 20 was built with the intention to tear it down after... World War II, it has remained... providing a special function... Not assigned to any one school, department, or center, it seems to always have had space for the beginning project, the graduate student's experiment, the interdisciplinary research center.

In a later chapter, Brand describes famous architect I.M. Pei's third MIT building, known informally as the Media Lab and formally as the Wiesner Building:

It may have been my familiarity with MIT's homely, accommodating Building 20 just across the street that made the $45 million pretentiousness, ill-functionality, and non-adaptability of the Media Lab building so shocking to me... Nowhere in the whole building is there a place for casual meetings, except for a tiny, overused kitchen. Corridors are narrow and barren. Getting new cabling through the interior concrete walls - a necessity in such a laboratory - requires bringing in jackhammers. You can't even move office walls around, thanks to the overhead fluorescent lights being at a Pei-signature 45-degree angle to everything else.

The Media Lab building, I discovered, is not unusually bad. Its badness is the norm in new buildings overdesigned by architects...

Brand finishes How Buildings Learn with a list of good books, writing, "They are the texts I would reach for if I was going to work on a building..."

As it so happens Justyce's grades have allowed him to gain entry to one of Atlanta's most prestigious private schools where seemingly every teacher has at least three degrees. Most of the students are bright, many come from well to do families such as his best friend Manny whose parents are successful professionals. As you would expect, the campus is not very diverse and some of the students display white privilege (perhaps a bit too predictably by lamenting the fact that minorities have it "easy") Justyce's way of dealing with the many, many changes occurring in his life is to write letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He's studied the Civil Rights leader's speeches in class and is trying to reconcile the words and the values espoused therein with the realities of daily life. As if that isn't complicated enough, there is also the not so small matter of the evolving relationship with his debate partner SJ.

I've read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and this novel is just as gripping, timely and relevant. Stone does a great job balancing the heavy stuff with some touchy feely stuff so it isn't too hard to digest. Well worth a read.

It follows criticism that a move away from the "stay at home" slogan could confuse the public.

Mensen bewust besmetten met coronavirus is snelste manier om vaccin te testen, maar kunnen we dat risico wel nemen?  Gazet van AntwerpenHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Tubeke krijgt geen licentie en zakt naar tweede amateurklasse  Het Laatste Nieuws
2. Tubeke vangt bot bij BAS en zakt naar tweede amateurklasse  sporza.be
3. Tubeke krijgt geen licentie nationale amateurs en zakt voor het tweede seizoen op rij  Het Nieuwsblad
4. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

Valerie De Booser poseert op zwoele wijze. En haar nieuwe liefde? Die reageert ZO! (foto)  Zita.beHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. IJsland wint virtueel Eurovisiesongfestival, België eindigt ...  De Standaard
2. IJsland wint 'virtueel Songfestival', België eindigt vijfde | Eurovisiesongfestival | Showbizz  Het Laatste Nieuws
3. IJsland wint alternatieve Eurovisiesongfestival online, België wordt vijfde  VRT NWS
4. België vijfde op (virtueel) Eurovisiesongfestival, IJsland w...  Het Nieuwsblad
5. IJsland wint online Songfestival 'Eurostream 2020', België 5e  songfestival.be
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Zijn hitlijst was lang, zijn invloed op latere iconen zoals The Beatles en Prince immens: flamboyant rock-'n-rollpionier Little Richard (87) is niet meer  Het Nieuwsblad
2. Rock-n'-rollpionier Little 'Tutti Frutti' Richard (87) overleden  Het Laatste Nieuws
3. Rock 'n' roll-pionier Little Richard is overleden, herontdek zijn grootste hits  VRT NWS
4. Little Richard drukte zware stempel op de rock-'n-roll  De Tijd
5. Muzieklegendes over Little Richard: “Als ik zijn muziek beluisterde, kon ik God horen”  Het Laatste Nieuws
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

Samsonite plant ontslagronde in Oudenaarde  De TijdHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Hoog spel rond Brussels Airlines  De Standaard
2. Moeten we Brussels Airlines redden of niet?  De Tijd
3. Lufthansa Group verdubbelt in juni het aantal vliegtuigen in dienst  Luchtvaartnieuws.nl
4. Akkoord tussen Swiss en Lufthansa: blauwdruk voor Brussels Airlines?  Trends
5. Lufthansa groep vanaf juni met 160 vliegtuigen de lucht in  Up in the Sky
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

KMI waarschuwt met 'code geel' voor onweer in groot deel van het land  Het Laatste Nieuws

1. Fauci en twee andere leden van coronateam Witte Huis in quarantaine  De Standaard
2. Meer dan 4 miljoen coronabesmettingen in de wereld  De Tijd
3. Live: Reproductiegetal Duitsland stijgt tot 1,1 | Al drie leden coronateam Witte Huis in quarantaine  Volkskrant
4. Drie leden coronateam Witte Huis in quarantaine  RTL Nieuws
5. Aantal coronadoden in de VS stijgt met ruim 1500  Telegraaf.nl
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

Italiaanse vrijwilligster 1,5 jaar na ontvoering in Kenia bevrijd  De MorgenHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

75 nieuwe coronadoden, 83 nieuwe ziekenhuisopnames  De Standaard

1. Als de viroloog “nee” zegt en de handelaar “ja”: moet je maandag al meteen gaan winkelen?  Het Nieuwsblad
2. Het dilemma: moet ik maandag gaan winkelen?  De Standaard
3. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Oud-schepen die herstelde van covid-19 hield illegaal barbecuefeest  De Standaard
2. Burgemeester Veerle Heeren misnoegd na barbecuefeestje bij van corona herstelde ex-schepen  Het Belang van Limburg
3. Burgemeester misnoegd na barbecuefeestje bij van corona hers...  Het Nieuwsblad
4. Goedele Liekens reageert op illegale barbecue met ex-schepen: “Voor alle duidelijkheid, ik was daar niet hè”  Het Laatste Nieuws
5. Ex-schepen die herstelde van corona en OCMW-raadslid aanwezig op illegale barbecue, politie legt feestje stil  Het Laatste Nieuws
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Medium-intensity earthquake strikes Delhi, adjoining areas; 3rd amid Covid-19 lockdown  Hindustan Times
2. Earthquake of magnitude 3.5 hits Delhi-NCR  Times of India
3. Earthquake in Delhi: Tremors felt in national capital region  The Financial Express
4. Magnitude 3.4 Earthquake Strikes Delhi, Epicentre Near UP Border  News18
5. Breaking news live : Eathquake tremors felt in Delhi, adjoining areas  Times of India
6. View Full coverage on Google News

The Kansas City Chiefs will look to repeat as Super Bowl champions in 2020, but their regular season schedule won't offer any concessions.

Mary Pratt, who played for the Rockford Peaches and Kenosha Comets in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, has died

There are mixed feelings among executives about the idea, ranging from frustration to begrudging acceptance.

WATCH: Dalls wins Game 2 of Stanley Cup Final vs. Buffalo | Stars CLASSICS

WATCH: Stars Take Game 3 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final | Stars CLASSICS

Stars CLASSICS Highlights | 1999 Stanley Cup Final Games 2 and 3 vs. Sabres

Yao Ming offers options for restart of Chinese basketball

Being Office MacGyver of the day has never been easier.

So, you're snowed in your house with two feet of snow and need a way out, but are too lazy to shovel. Luckily, you happened to have a welder, some steel, a bicycle, a 3.5HP go-kart, and some wood laying around. So what do you do? You make a plow to get yourself out!

No need to be embarrassed, you'll perfect that wheelie technique eventually.

~NSHA

The circulation desk at Delft University of Technology. I'm Jealous.

How MacGyver keeps his keys

Listen to this glorious innertube attached to the exhaust mod. Honestly, this is so much more entertaining than the whistle tips.

I'd rather flood than die from fungal infection.

[polldaddy poll="5354098"]

WHITEBEARD so f*cking awesome even He-Man joined his crew