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Alternative Lifestyle

Alternative Lifestyle

Here’s looking at Loo, kid

Loo =  toilet (UK) Public works are often joyless, utilitarian, just-get-it-done affairs.  Whether it's a road, or a bridge or even public restrooms, it makes you wonder why a little je ne sais quoi can't be in the building specifications. Happily, though, that's not always the case.  And here are some fine examples of where good taste…

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Aria of the desert

Isn't it a delight when you run across something so unusual, so unexpected and somewhat puzzling, as well?  We here at Matouring love that kind of thing - it gives us faith that not is all normal all of the time. Here is an example: Marta Becket's Amargosa Opera House.  Located on a barren junction of…

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Like, how much actual money is there in the world?

If you added up all the money from all the countries in the world, how much would it amount to?  The short answer is, probably a lot. All jokes aside, to make this question answerable, let's start by asking, "How much money is there in actual United States dollars?" Since the statistics for the U.S. are…

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Never too small

There's a wonderful series on YouTube called Never Too Small.  It's short videos created by clever (usually young) people who, by choice or by necessity have taken an often tiny space and turned it into a comfortable and sensible dwelling. What we like about this channel is that, although the individuals have likely been forced…

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Mooooove

Very simply . . . Corsican cows won’t give up beach home to tourists, post lockdown.  Can you blame them? Or, is this a portend of things to come?  Have the non-human species finally had enough, and are collectively fighting back?  Between Covid, murder hornets and mother earth, herself, providing us with one disaster after…

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Y’know, homophobia, Seoul style

People are people.  It feels (to us, anyway) that as the world gets bigger and, at the same time it gets smaller (social media) it doesn't necessarily get any better.  And who would know better than our LGBTQ+ friends?  And their problems can happen anywhere. This article is about how Seoul’s LGBTQ+ district came back…

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Ninety days is not enough

If you like Europe (we sure do) you may often find that when you visit for a long time, even ninety days (the current limit) might not be enough.  There's just too much to do. Of course, you can maximise the rules by staying within the ninety day limit, take a rest for a short…

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Science!

During the Airlines Confidential podcast, former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza told an interesting story about trying to figure out whether a new route would be profitable. In normal times airlines have great data – required and reported by the federal government.  But, some looked at telephone data and remittance data to get a sense…

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You can get anything you want

You can get anything you want at the former site of the restaurant immortalized by Arlo Guthrie. ARLO GUTHRIE’S 1967 SONG “ALICE’S RESTAURANT” is a staple of Americana, one that has been synonymous with Thanksgiving ever since a radio station played the nearly 20-minute antiwar tune on the holiday. Deep within the Berkshires, however, Alice’s…

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I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid you can’t write that

Machine-written literature might offend your tastes but until the dawn of Romanticism most writers were just as formulaic. Since its inception in 2015, the research laboratory OpenAI – an Elon Musk-backed initiative that seeks to build human-friendly artificial intelligence – has developed a series of powerful ‘language models’, the latest being GPT-3 (third-generation Generative Pre-trained…

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Robo cops

Do you find yourself going non-linear when it comes to those freaking crank / automated / scam calls that distract us to exhaustion? You're not alone.  Luckily, Google comes to the rescue again with not one, but two nifty services that you may want to look into. Read more here courtesy of USAToday.com Best Buy have all sorts…

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Ahh . . . go climb a tree

The pandemic has inspired many  to jump into nature. Over the last 360 days, we have attempted new nature activities like kayaking and spelunking, sought out remote hideaways, and found inner peace on long hikes. Maybe we even hugged (or spoke to) a few trees, because we were just so elated to be out of…

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High in the Spanish desert

This is for all 24x7 party people.  2022 is the year to look forward to, and Spain is the place - the Monegros Desert, Aragon, Spain, to be specific. Starting 30 July, 2022, the Monegros Desert Festival commences.  Of course there will be drinks, and music and dancing and, perhaps, nudity.  But the star of the…

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How slow can you go?

How many of our readers recognise our main picture? If you're of a certain age, you may recall "dial-up" to get your Internet.  Modems, blistering 128k transfer speeds, mortgage your child monthly fees. This article talks about speed - but slowing down.  And not as in being lazy, but as in stopping to smell the…

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A bag tied in the middle

Every so often, a human mass movement comes along that subtly alters the zeitgeist of we humans.  It could have been the art enlightenment in the 1920's.  Or perhaps it was the peace and love Hippies in the 1960's.  But one of these movements has persisted - the Chautauqua Institute. Chautauqua was an adult education…

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People, get ready

For years there have been jokes about the "tin foil hats" people:  the doomsayers,  the mountain men, the survivalists, the crazies, the Government Plot believers.  Others would look askance at them, walk to the other side of the street to avoid them. Well, there is no doubt that mother earth is struggling, and we humans may…

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I wasn’t really naked. I simply didn’t have any clothes on.

PRUDES:  look away now. Inspiration comes from the most unusual places.  You can never predict what an artist will do to make a statement or grab your attention. Art comes in all styles, from the Romans to the Renaissance the Impressionists and beyond.  And so much of it has been saved for us by museums,…

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They walk among us

Do you fully recognise that "they are among us?"  Do you fashion yourself as an extraterrestrial hunter?  Do you have the knowledge, desire and hardware to search for them? The US Pentagon says there’s no explanation for “unidentified aerial phenomenon” detected by pilots over the years. But scientists use tools such as the SETI Allen…

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