Court-Saint-Étienne is a municipality located 40 minutes by car south-east of Brussels. Upon entering the local cemetery, one monument clearly stands out among the other graves: a grey limestone mausoleum resembling an oriental temple. 

This mausoleum belongs to the Goblet d'Alviella family. Originally from Court-Saint-Étienne, this family is well known in Belgium: several members have distinguished themselves mainly in politics since the 19th century. When the municipality decided to create the current cemetery in 1885, Count Eugène Goblet d'Alviella seized the opportunity to create a mausoleum that paid tribute to his family. Being a Freemason, he asked the architect Adolphe Samyn (also a Freemason) to design the monument. The work of this Brussels architect, as short as it was prolific, is characterised by a wide variety of styles: Egyptian, Neo-Romanesque, Baroque. This mausoleum was built between 1886 and 1888 or 1889.

Eugène Goblet d'Alviella, who was a professor of religious history at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), asked the architect to incorporate the phrase ‘the one being with more than one name’ in gold letters on each side and in four different languages. This phrase appears in a virtually identical form in a text by Aristotle (in Greek), in the Vedas (in Sanskrit) and in a hymn in honor of Ammon (in Egyptian). On the outer faces of the monument's columns, we can see symbols representing or designating the main deity in a dozen religions. On the inner sides of the columns, there are symbolic representations of life, death and the afterlife, again from a dozen different religions.

Through this iconographic choice, Eugène Goblet d'Alviella wanted to highlight the elements common to all religions. This is a symbolic representation of a fundamental characteristic of Freemasonry: the desire to create a space where all people are equal and can engage in dialogue. The borrowing of architectural details from many cultures and eras can also be seen as reinforcing this desire for universal equality. There are few historical monuments relating to Freemasonry in Belgium. With its unique eclectic architectural style, the Goblet d'Alviella Mausoleum is unrivaled. 

Mad Hatterpillar. Winner, Behavior: Invertebrates. Georgina Steytler showcases the strange headgear of a gum-leaf skeletonizer caterpillar. This caterpillar’s unusual headgear is made up of old head capsules, each retained with every molt. The resulting tower is believed to help deflect attacks by predators. Location: Torndirrup National Park, Western Australia, Australia.

This was my favorite among the photos from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year entries posted at The Atlantic.

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This is why he doesn't come back for humans any more.

Walking between gates 12 and 14 in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, you might see a sign for gate infinity — and that’s when you’ll know you’ve reached the Interimaginary Departures. While the rest of this terminal services domestic flights, this lounge sends its passengers to Narnia, Hogwarts, Panem, Middle Earth, the Emerald City, the Hundred Acre Woods, and hundreds of other destinations from the universes of literature, film, and video games.

Your first clue that Interimaginary Departures isn’t a normal gate is the fantastical FIDS (Flight Information Display System) board. But look a little closer and you’ll see even more magic. There’s a bright white wall whose elegant molding is not only visibly incongruent from the rest of the concourse but physically too, slicing through the lounge’s chairs and furniture at a seven degree tilt. There are rabbits, a la Alice in Wonderland, woven into the carpet and carved into the machinery. And regardless of time or weather, the gate’s doors are cracked ajar with a stunning white light. (A brass sign warns you that this is a portal between dimensions and most certainly not an exit.)

Visitors to the lounge can use the interactive ticket machine to print their boarding passes for Interimaginary flights, though not without answering a few existential questions first. If you stick around long enough, you might even catch a couple announcements to prepare passengers for their upcoming trips.

The gate was designed by Janet Zweig in 2021, though a full list of credits can be found in the exhibit’s floating bookshelf that faces the rest of the terminal.

[That “ease of concealment” is going to be difficult to change.]

Police recently came upon a shocking crime scene, discovering hundreds of bodies with “their heads removed from their bodies and organized in neat rows by facial expression”. I urge you to ensure no young children are around before you gaze upon this gruesomeness:

That’s the work of one sick puppy.

Previously in LEGO Minifigs: A Wild Hair

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/us/lego-theft-california-arrest.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uk8.73kH.vtBjCxJcRAZa&smid=url-share

By the late 19th century, St. Louis was one of the largest cities in the U.S. Like seemingly all such growing cities, it faced the problem of where to source enough water for its population. Much of the Mississippi River around the city was polluted, so it was decided to locate the St. Louis Water Works further north at Bissell's Point. Likewise, the city's water intake structures were built nearby at the shallow Chain of Rocks rapids. From here, water was funneled to the Water Works in underground pipes.

The first of these buildings, capped by a conical tower, was built in 1894 in a Romanesque Revival design by William S. Eames. The second one, actually located across the state line in Illinois, was constructed in 1913 in the Renaissance Revival style by Roth and Study. In addition to water collection features, the second one has living quarters for caretakers who would work on week-long shifts. To keep the water clean, they had to do without bathrooms.

The intake towers have not been used since 1993, when a flood inundated the towers’ pipes with mud and debris. Despite that, the towers remain as city landmarks and unique features along the Mississippi. Once or twice a year, maintenance crews come to check on the towers. Docking and climbing the access ladders is reportedly a difficult process, as one could easily get swept away into the rapids!