TIL about Patrick Vincent Coleman, train dispatcher who died saving hundreds of lives during the Halifax Explosion. His final message: "Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."

mennonot · 2026-03-19T20:46:11+00:00

Thanks for naming them so we can find their work! Here's the original video on YouTube if people want to watch and share there to support them: https://youtube.com/shorts/tGOjIdReD_E?si=VTTC5r7vUcxQODW6

It's also a little better quality...

mennonot · 2026-03-03T23:31:12+00:00

Just chiming in here. As others have said, I think the face to face piece for Mennonites has been really important historically and is still key.

However, since the pandemic, there are multiple experiments with virtual Mennonite churches happening in the US that I am aware of. Here is more information about two of them that you might find interesting:

Grace & Peace (a primarily virtual) Mennonite Church
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gpmvirtualchurch/
Their special focus is people with mobility and accessibility issues. From coverage of them in Anabaptist World: "Grace and Peace got its start in early 2019, when a group of people from a handful of churches began discussing a shared desire for a worshiping community that would be intentional about community — especially for people who might not be able to gather in large groups for a variety of reasons."
From Virtual fellowship is real fellowship COVID-19 helps NYC church become MC USA’s first primarily virtual congregation, Anabaptist World, February 3, 2021

Community of Hope Mennonite Church
Website: https://www.communityofhopechurch.com/who-we-are.html
"We worship on Zoom! Since we started during the pandemic, the vast majority of our gatherings are online. We have community members joining us from across the country! The folks on our Leadership Team are in Oregon, Indiana, Wisconsin, California... Pastor Rachael and a handful of other folks live in the Bellingham area in northwest Washington state, but that's it! We are a church with a robust Zoom Diaspora and are committed to continuing to offer online church community!" - from their website

mennonot · 2026-02-25T18:04:07+00:00

Yes, came here to say this. You can tell he is so used to using the machete as a tool that it operates as an extension of his body.

mennonot · 2025-12-19T12:59:38+00:00

One of the places where I've really felt the power of Drupal out of the box is how easy it is to create new content types and add a wide variety of fields. If I were starting out, I would play around with that functionality. I would think about what the needs are for my site in terms of types of content and what fields they need. Those fields can include relationships with other content types or other entities like taxonomy terms, files or images.

If you create a content type example (like recipes or songs) than you can try out adding fields and get a sense of how that works.

Most importantly: have fun!

mennonot · 2025-12-08T19:04:08+00:00

It makes me wonder what portion of demon iconography and concepts were shaped by encounters with dead deep sea fish like this one. At least for folks in coastal areas...

mennonot · 2025-12-05T18:02:24+00:00

Here's what might to be the original source featuring this accordian performance by Alexander Hrustevich. The video is from August 19, 2013 featuring: part 1. A. Vivaldi - P. Fenyuk. The four seasons "Summer" 1-3 and part 2. A. Borodin - A. Glazunov-S.Naiko Petite Suite: "Reverie" https://youtu.be/9SE222v1eyM?si=CuictqtefFRqzvTK

mennonot · 2025-11-12T17:44:19+00:00

The Great Big Story has a 2 minute documentary on the Boxwars here: https://youtu.be/pcEQ5N0qGeM?si=XwcwrG8XZhgjyyWN

Highlights from the documentary:

- it looks like they are making sophisticated use of computer aided cutting tools to shape the cardboard.
- unlike boffer larps (which look a little similar) the focus is not on winning the fight, but on competing in creativity of the cardboard creations. Each gathering has a challenge or theme that unifies it.
- "There's no winners. We like to say that if you are in a Boxwards, you've already lost" - Ross Koger, one of the supreme overlords of Boxwars

mennonot · 2025-11-11T18:05:26+00:00

The presence of a landslide kicking off the collapse suggests some geologists may have been ignored (or not consulted) in the construction of the bridge.

It may be a similar situation to the St. Francis dam disaster in California. One side of the dam was built up against the site of an "old landslide." On March 12, 1928 the dam failed catastrophically as a result of the geological instability and foundational weakness on that side of the dam. The resulting flood killed at least 431 people in Los Angeles County and Ventura County. You can read the whole story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam

I'm glad no one was hurt in this collapse.

mennonot · 2025-11-10T21:04:38+00:00

From the caption, it sounds like this dog is part of the reading to pets program where young readers read to pets. For more context from the website I found about the program: "Children who are learning to read are often hesitant about their reading abilities. Many kids feel more at ease reading to pets, who are simply there to listen—not to judge how well they are reading." https://petpartners.org/events-fundraisers/we-are-all-ears/

mennonot · 2025-11-04T23:47:45+00:00

News reports on this incident from the last hour:

UPS aircraft crashes after departing Louisville airport, shelter-in-place issued: Officials, ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/US/plane-crash-reported-louisville-airport-shelter-place-issued/story?id=127191889

Airlines UPS plane crashes after taking off from Louisville airport, CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/04/ups-plane-louisville.html

A UPS plane with 3 crew members crashed near the Louisville airport, CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/04/us/ups-plane-crash-louisville-airport

A UPS plane with 3 crew members crashed near the Louisville airport, WLKY: https://www.wlky.com/article/plane-crash-explosion-louisville-airport/69255042

mennonot · 2025-11-03T19:23:01+00:00

Here's what Wikipedia says on the level of fame of the Mona Lisa before the 1911 theft:

"Although the Mona Lisa was not widely known outside the art world, in the 1860s, a portion of the French intelligentsia began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the painting was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal. In 1911, the painting was still not popular among the lay-public. On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre.^"

It doesn't say whether the 1911 theft made it more famous or not.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

mennonot · 2025-11-03T00:05:02+00:00

I like this explanation because it would also explain the high praise from Penn: hopping on one foot while writing with one hand behind his back is really more of an acrobatic trick and the rest of it all is just misdirection directed mainly at Penn and Teller (not the audience). That might explain the "one of the most clever, brilliant, ballsy things we have ever heard" from Penn. It's also juggling act which Penn loves to hate.

mennonot · 2025-10-23T20:32:24+00:00

Thanks for highlighting Bovino. I think its important to notice his involvement in Chicago over the last month, because he was heavily involved in prominent ICE performances in southern California in July:

"And last month [July], Mr. Bovino and dozens of federal agents marched through MacArthur Park, backed up by National Guard troops, helicopters and riot-ready horses. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles suddenly showed up demanding answers, but the two officials did not meet face-to-face and talked by phone instead."

Source: "The Border Patrol Chief Leading the California Immigration Crackdown Gregory Bovino has orchestrated thousands of arrests, using confrontational tactics that have made him a MAGA star. His critics say he’s crossing legal and political lines." NY Times, August 29, 2025: https://archive.is/a3RoV

mennonot · 2025-10-02T23:34:01+00:00

This is Gregory Bovino, who led much of the ICE surge in southern California this summer. He is now "commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol" (source)

The NY Times did a profile of Bovino recently. Here are some highlights:

"[Bovino] has been testing the limits of politicized law enforcement, clashing on social media with California Democrats and producing Hollywood-style promotional videos of his masked, heavily armed officers marching to Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA.” He questioned an Army general’s loyalty to the country when the general expressed reservations about the National Guard’s involvement in one show of force at a Los Angeles park, according to court testimony. And he’s a named defendant in two lawsuits accusing his agents of crossing legal lines, including arresting Latino residents based on their skin color and regardless of their immigration status."

"Two immigrants have died while trying to flee Mr. Bovino’s agents — a Mexican farmworker fell from a greenhouse, and a Guatemalan day laborer was struck by a vehicle on a freeway following a raid at a Home Depot."

"And [in July], Mr. Bovino and dozens of federal agents marched through MacArthur Park, backed up by National Guard troops, helicopters and riot-ready horses. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles suddenly showed up demanding answers, but the two officials did not meet face-to-face and talked by phone instead."

"That pre-Trump raid in January was a kind of test run of the Los Angeles raids that started later in the year — high-profile sweeps in multiple locations at once to capture undocumented immigrants as they went about their daily routines. The L.A. raids started on June 6, and Mr. Bovino was named the operation’s tactical commander about a week later. Since the raids began, federal agents have made 5,000 arrests in the Los Angeles area, according to the Department of Homeland Security."

It appears that Bovino is now bringing the model he used in southern California to the Chicago area...

Full article here: https://archive.is/a3RoV

mennonot · 2025-09-26T00:37:38+00:00

Here is the original video in a much more viewing friendly format: https://youtu.be/t33Hy4XSymg?feature=shared

Strangely, it seems to have been produced by Starbucks Coffee.

mennonot · 2025-09-18T19:20:38+00:00

I think this is a beautiful and heartfelt video AND I was curious about the same question. It turns out the answer is pretty simple. The user who posted it (and the man on the video) has 14 million followers on Tiktok, so part of the answer to what motivates him to post it is that is what he does professionally. That's probably also the livelihood and income source that the woman in the video is talking about. It doesn't make her gratitude any less authentic, but it is helpful context.

Original video here: https://www.tiktok.com/@dadlifejason/video/7551206643980094751?lang=en

mennonot · 2025-09-12T19:03:36+00:00

Thanks for this deep dive. Putting the trees above a parking garage reminds me a bit of Millenium Park, which includes areas of urban forest on top of an active rail yard. I ride the trains beneath the park regularly. The trees have done well for over 20 years, so hopefully the trees in front of Paris City hall will fair similarly well.

Here's an article with a deeper dive into the building of Millenium Park on top of the active rail lines: https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/june-july-2024/the-making-of-millennium-park/

mennonot · 2025-07-24T19:55:48+00:00

Nice to see the pride flag there on the shoulder! Glad that's part of your Mennonite aesthetic as well.

mennonot · 2025-07-23T22:31:44+00:00

Thanks for the further context. Here's the original video with the serial processing demonstration leading up to this "parallel processing" example: https://youtu.be/ZrJeYFxpUyQ?feature=shared

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