Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress, memory is the servant.

Simon Cox has a stunning and visually magnificent story on the BBC this week about the investigation and aftermath of two disappearances in 1970s Iceland.

Over decades and decades in Iceland people have gone missing without anyone finding anything out. They just sort of disappear.

Two of these mysterious disappearances in the winter of early and late 1974 led police investigators down a dark and treacherous rabbit hole of deception, frustration, and eventually torture.  Suspects were kept in solitary confinement for months without end; they were interrogated dozens of times without the presence of their lawyers; and they were forced to participate in re-enactments of theories of the crime that did nothing more than taint their own memories of what happened.  

Frustrated with the conflicting questions and the lack of physical evidence, investigators began to cross the already-grey lines with the suspected ringleader.

His head was put into a washing bucket of water and he was told if he didn’t confess he would be drowned. Of course he wasn't drowned but this is, and was, torture of course.  Then there was the mental torture - being deprived of everything, kept awake all night, not allowed to sleep.

Four decades later, the remains of the victims have never been found, and the suspected criminals cannot clear their minds or their memories: "Is it possible they killed someone in the apartment and I saw the whole thing and I can’t remember?"

The story is as beautiful as it is terrifying.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Julie and Scott Bradshaw are building a solar-power-generating parking lot in Idaho.  And it is working.

Thanks to two federal transportation grants, the couple have designed a parking lot and roadway surface that supports the weight of heavy trucks; generates solar power; lights up with LED markings at night; and heats the roadway to melt snow.  Once economies of scale kick in, the roadway surface not only pays for itself, but also generates revenue as it generates electrical power.

Their goal is to start with parking lots, sidewalks, and driveways before moving on to the heavy duty demands of roadways.  But can you imagine the potential?  Cover the parking lots at DFW airport with this surfacing - or even the runways.  Think of places in sunny climates where you have seen acres and acres of concrete: stadium parking lots, malls, schools, interstates through the desert.

You can learn more and support their Indiegogo campaign here.

Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.

Apparently, the "right" to hunt and fish is under assault in America by...well, somebody.

"Hunting and fishing and harvesting of wildlife are part of the American fabric,” [NRA spokesperson Catherine Mortensen] said. “We do feel it’s increasingly under attack by well organized, well funded anti-hunting groups."

Several states are pushing for state constitutional amendments to permanently codify a right to hunt and fish for residents.  It's a solution in search of a problem; it's also a bad idea to etch in stone certain specific rights that only apply to subsets of the population.

But Indiana state Rep. Matt Pierce, a leading opponent, said the amendment aims to solve a problem that doesn’t exist—and likely never will. “What you tend to hear from proponents is that they’ve heard of some nefarious conspiracy in which the Humane Society of the United States, in league with some multi-billionaire, will wash so much money into the political system that it will convince members of the legislature to outlaw hunting and fishing,” said Pierce, a Democrat. “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

It's not ridiculous.  This is exactly the M.O. of the NRA - washing so much money into the political system over low-visibility issues that they have completely re-written gun policy at the state level.  Guns in bars, guns in churches, guns on playgrounds; cities that require universal gun ownership; market-based attacks on safer "smart" gun technology.  When you pump national levels of money into local and state issues, you are bound to capture more than a few politicians along the way.

Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

It is easy for those who live in the mainstream heteronormative world to give no thought to the everyday privileges they enjoy.  However, for LGBT Americans, each day brings reminders of how cultural and governmental institutions are structured against them, and how far away true eqaulity remains.  Most of these structures are relics of past ignorance and discrimination, but they persist because sufficient will is lacking to press for needed change.  Today's example is the nation's archaic blood donation policies:

So as it stands, a married homosexual man in a monogamous relationship who practices safe sex and is HIV-negative is considered more of a threat to the blood supply than a straight man who just had sex with a prostitute. To put it mildly, this policy is preposterous; it's a relic from the 1980s that has outlived whatever usefulness it had and now simply formalizes discrimination. 

The American Red Cross has been pushing the FDA to revisit these requirements since 2006, yet in the sixth year of a Democratic administration, the rules remain in place.  With the widespread reports of blood shortage across the country, many in the aftermath of major natural disasters, it seems like it is time to raise the issue again.  As the ARC stated, "It does not appear rational to broadly differentiate sexual transmission via male-to-male sexual activity from that via heterosexual activity on scientific grounds."