There's a hypnotic quality to Myth by Beach House that feels somehow perfect for autumn - music to watch leaves fall by, perhaps?
A sabbatical breaking post, but important given what's going on across the pond today.
This poster from artist Shepard Fairey isn't quite as striking as the now-iconic Hope poster he created for Obama's 2008 campaign. That said, it is, like Kamala Harris, the best we have.
Fingers crossed for today. Let's hope the orange man-baby retires from all walks of public life after this. Maybe leave politics and world affairs to the grown-ups, eh Don?
On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first ever living creature into space. Laika the dog (or "an experimental animal", as Moscow Radio described her at the time) was projected into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the satellite Sputnik II, inside a hermetically-sealed container with oxygen and food supplies. The date of the launch was chosen to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, and whilst sending a living creature into space was certainly a propaganda coup, animal welfare organisations were not impressed. The Soviet authorities said Laika died painlessly after a week in orbit but in 2002 new evidence revealed the dog died from over-heating and panic just a few hours after take-off. For Laika, briefly the most famous dog in the world, the space race was most definitely over.
On this day in 1975, the late Queen formally opened the UK's first North Sea oil pipeline, serving the Forties oilfield. Far from donning a hardhat and turning a giant wheel to do this, Liz simply had to press a gold-plated button. BP were opening up the North Sea with the help of a £370 million loan from the government - that's the best part of three billion in today's money. And all so that we could chase the dream of energy independence. How'd that work out, anybody know?
On this day in 2004, George W Bush won a second term in office as US president. At the time we thought him beyond satire, and couldn't conceive of a worse candidate for leader of the free world. Meanwhile, Orange Don was making notes and probably thinking, "Hold my beer. It's a great beer, the greatest beer ever. You don't even like other beer, that's fake news and the mainstream media." God help us.
