MAGIC KIMONO

 

Watching Magic Kimono while waiting to start work, I ponder my recent fascination with South-East Asia. I am a perfect example of the role ignorance plays in racism.

I visited Singapore in my twenties, but I didn’t enjoy it the way I had enjoyed all my travels until then. It was my first Asian country. I don’t remember paying much attention to its people. Unlike the people who welcomed me in other countries, Singaporeans didn’t seem real to me then, but rather part of a world that felt totally alien, completely different from mine. My 1970s–80s Spanish upbringing had given me very little contact with that world.

And yet, I had always been drawn to Asian traditional architecture and spirituality, and to their communion with the natural world — probably a result of my love for early manga and anime, and perhaps also because one of the first books I ever read, though written by a Westerner, was The Good Earth, a story about the life of a family in rural China in the early 20th century. I even asked my parents to decorate my ample childhood room like a Japanese abode. All I got was a paper balloon lamp and a mattress on the floor.

Who knows what my life would have been like if I had ever considered migrating East instead of North. I know, I know — it’s pointless looking at the past that way. Just curiosity, not regret.

I am pleased I got to know more about our brothers and sisters from that part of the world at last, even if it took me this long.

Happy Sunday all.

xx
Lu

HALF-LIFE

 

Yes.... I knew of its existance a looong time ago : the half -alive are the call-center employees !!

on that note, I no longer belong to the queue of the unemployment gang. *sighs*

Time to moan about the opposite now! 

Love

Lu

VACCINE BEER

 

Independent's Vaccine-beer

I clicked thinking it was some sort of joke. It wasn't. Seriously, did we cross-over to a stupid version of our universe in the 2,000? maybe earlier because nothing of this is making any freaking sense anymore.

*drinks to the last drop of her old-fashion-kill-me-softly-beer and rushes to have a calories packed Mediterranean dinner just because*

WE ARE ALL TRYING HERE

 

I have a feeling this one might end badly—and I might have to shoot myself if it does. Netflix has a weakness for K-dramas with trauma-inducing endings.

That said, for now I’m loving it. Not just because the male lead is an incredible actor, and not even because I find myself at a similar crossroads as his character, or because the title (We Are All Trying here) is something I often repeat to "my little pea” when she’s in a dark place. I love it for its substance.

Let me share a nugget with you, my darling reader:

“Why do you find Director Hwang so hard to deal with?”

[...]

“To put it simply, he’s incompetent. Being incompetent is fine—but people who try to cover that up by talking nonstop are the absolute worst.”

“What do you mean by incompetent?”

“You’re a chef who can’t cook. A teacher who can’t teach. Should I go on?”

“You’re human, but not humane. Isn’t that peak incompetence?”

Woah. Savage. God bless good K-dramas.

And lovely people in real life, too. I’ve had the pleasure of spending this weekend in wonderful company—in both worlds. I hope you’ve all been just as lucky.

With lots of love. There’s nothing else. <3

Perhaps is a Good Thing I Didn't Like Science

 

Mystery surrounds death of NINTH scientist tied to US secrets as disturbing pattern grows

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Published: 20:00 BST, 7 April 2026 | Updated: 13:16 BST, 8 April 2026

Another scientist with ties to America's space program has now joined the growing list of deaths and disappearances around the US. 

Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), passed away on July 30, 2023 at the age of 59, but the cause of death was never made public, and no record of an autopsy being performed could be found. 

Hicks, who worked at JPL from 1998 to 2022, was credited with publishing over 80 scientific papers and was part of multiple teams helping NASA understand the physical properties of comets and asteroids.

Specifically, Hicks was involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth. He also worked on the Deep Space 1 Mission, which tested new spacecraft technology that flew by a comet in 2001.

While there have been no public allegations of foul play, Hicks' case marks the ninth person with ties to America's space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, which has set off alarm bells among US national security experts.

Moreover, three of these scientists had close ties to Hicks, as all of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab or participated in NASA missions there. Monica Reza, JPL's new Director of the Materials Processing Group, vanished without a trace in June 2025, just months after beginning her tenure at the NASA lab.

Two other men with deep ties to JPL died recently, including a long-time coworker of Hicks, Frank Maiwald, who died in July 2024 at age 61, with even less public acknowledgement of his untimely passing.

Meanwhile, astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 67, was murdered on the front porch of his home on February 16, 2026. The California Institute of Technology researcher's work was heavily supported by NASA's JPL, and Grillmair was personally involved with major space telescope missions led by NASA.

The Daily Mail has reached out to NASA, Hicks' alma mater at the University of Arizona, and the scientist's friends and colleagues for comment on the circumstances surrounding his death. 

Strangely, a series of online obituaries dedicated to Hicks did not mention any health issues before the 59-year-old's death, which appeared to happen suddenly, roughly one year after leaving NASA JPL.

A similar situation unfolded after Maiwald's death on July 4, 2024, when the prominent JPL researcher died in Los Angeles from unknown circumstances. 

Despite Maiwald being a JPL Principal - an award given to scientists 'making outstanding individual contributions' in their fields - there were no public comments from authorities after the esteemed scientist's death, and the only public record marking his passing was a single obituary posted online.

NASA and JPL have not commented on the deaths of Maiwald or Hicks, and did not reply to Daily Mail's inquiries into the nature of the scientists' work before their deaths.

In June 2023, just 13 months before his death, Maiwald was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds in the solar system and beyond.

As for the other JPL-connected scientist, Grillmair had contributed to the discovery of water on a distant planet, with colleagues calling his work 'ingenious' and adding that the research could point to signs of life less than 160 light-years from Earth.

According to his Caltech profile, he also worked on the NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor, infrared space telescopes that track asteroids. However, experts have also expressed concern that this technology has also been used in advanced missile designs.

The string of deaths and missing person cases has drawn the attention of Congress and members of the US intelligence community, who see a disturbing pattern surrounding experts with knowledge of missiles and rocket engines. 

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker recently told the Daily Mail: 'You can say these are all suspicious, and these are scientists who have worked in critical technology.'

Swecker claimed that multiple foreign intelligence services, including enemies and allies of the US, have been targeting Americans possessing secrets of the nation's technology for decades.

’China, Russia, even some of our friends – Pakistan, India, Iran, North Korea - they target this type of technology,’ Swecker revealed.

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett told the Daily Mail in March: 'There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I think we ought to be paying attention to it.'

Burchett was referencing at least four other investigations around the US in recent months, including the high-profile disappearance of retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland and the murder of respected physicist Nuno Loureiro.

original article in the Daily Mail

LONGING LONDON

Anhelando Iruya (Joaquín Aguirre) - Perotá Chingó (Aguas 2017) by Perotá Chingó

One of those days. Why do we always want what we cannot have? I used to dream of "home". Now I  am home I dream of you. 

Last night I saw your most beautiful bridge in the dark, I had a coffee in one of your hidden alleys, I walked on your shinny cobblestones. Last night I woke up in tears. First time I am without passport in years. 

I miss you old friend. Don't forget me.

SANITY TECHNIQUE

 

"In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane."

- Orwell. 1984