Measuring about 35 feet tall, it’s arguably the most spectacular feature of the gardens of Villa Medici at Pratolino, now part of Villa Demidoff, located about 7 miles north of Florence, Italy. A personification of the Apennine mountain ranges, it’s sculpted as though on that minimal margin between landscape and man, its smooth skin emerging out of the rough terrain or metamorphosing back into a mountain. He even has stalactites for a shaggy beard.

This colossal sculpture recalls the figure of Atlas in Virgil’s Aeneid, and also the architect Dinocrates’ proposal to shape Mount Athos into a man in honor of Alexander the Great.

With seemingly all the might of his hand, he squeezes the head of a monstrous beast, which spills a cascade of water out of its hell-mouth and into a fish pond.

Of course, the Appennino isn’t just a sculpture. He’s also a building.

Inside you will find a network of grottoes, their walls studded with shells, corals, pearls and crystals, and painted with frescoes of muscled men mining precious ores. In this way, Appennino is both mountains and abysses. You enter not only the belly of a garden giant but also down into the belly of the earth. There were also two working fountains, one of which portrayed Thetis, and located in his head is a chamber for a small orchestra.


The Appennino in 1911.




https://unusualplaces.org/the-appennine-colossus/

Just days after mass shootings left at least 31 people dead, a bipartisan group of congressional staffers is set to go on an outing to shoot skeet alongside gun lobbyists. The event comes every year, but its timing has a major gun safety advocate frustrated and troubled.

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a bipartisan group that supports hunters and anglers, organizes the yearly event. According to its website, the event is scheduled for August 6.

“This annual competition gives teams from the outdoor industry the chance to compete against other industry teams for ultimate bragging rights,” the foundation’s website says. “Additionally, this yearly event allows members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, Democrats against the Republicans in a friendly skeet, trap, and sporting clays shooting competition to determine the ‘Top Guns’ in Congress. Representatives of the conservation community and associated industry supporters also attend this event.”

A source familiar with the event said the “associated industry supporters” typically include members of the firearms industry, officials from the NRA, NRA lobbyists, and lobbyists working for gun companies. They routinely attend the event to socialize with congressional staff. A second source familiar said NRA officials are not expected to attend this year. And the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation enjoys support from a number of companies in the firearms industry, including Hornady, which advertises its bullets as “Accurate, Deadly, Dependable” and Thompson/Center, a subsidiary of Smith & Wesson. Richard Childress Racing, which belongs to former NRA Vice President Richard Childress, also sponsors the group.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ultimate-bragging-rights-at-stake-as-gun-lobbyists-and-capitol-hill-aides-go-skeet-shooting-tuesday?ref=home&via=twitter_page

CNN)Sixth-grader Ruben Martinez wants to hold up posters, pass out flyers and promote a challenge on Facebook he thinks will help his Texas community begin to heal from a devastating shooting that claimed the lives of 22 people and injured 24 others.

He calls it the #ElPasoChallenge.

Here's how it works: The 11-year-old is challenging each person in El Paso to do 22 good deeds for others --- one for each of the victims shot and killed when a white supremacist began firing Saturday inside a Walmart.



You can mow someone's lawn, visit a nursing home, pay for someone's lunch or dinner, donate to families in need, write someone a letter and tell them how great they are, hold the door for everyone, take flowers to someone in the hospital or leave a dollar on the vending machine for the next person, the young boy suggests, among other ideas in a list of "kind acts" examples.

The point is for people to "be kind to each other all day, every day," his mom, Rose Gandarilla, said. Her son's idea, she said, came after Ruben told his mom he didn't want to go shopping at stores anymore, asking if they could find a delivery service instead.

"He was having some trouble dealing with what happened," Gandarilla told CNN. "I explained to him that we could not live in fear and that people in our community are caring and loving. I told him to try and think of something he could do to make El Paso a little better."

So, Ruben went to his room on Sunday, brainstormed and came up with the challenge --- and he's already leading the way.

"Last night, he agree(d) to go out to do his first act of kindness," Gandarilla said Monday. "He chose to go deliver dinner to our first responders."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/us/el-paso-challenge-healing-trnd/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_medium=social&utm_term=link&utm_content=2019-08-06T13%3A00%3A04

Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging.



https://twitter.com/AmyMcGrathKY/status/1158411295852511233

Presidential contender Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Monday slammed President Trump's address to the nation about mass shootings that rocked the nation over the weekend, referring to the president's remarks as "bullshit soup."

"Listening to the president. Such a bullshit soup of ineffective words," Booker said in a text message released by his campaign manager. "This is so weak. We should quickly condemn his lack of a real plan."

https://twitter.com/ASDem/status/1158383302375563264
https://twitter.com/CoryBooker/status/1158385414652268544
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/456186-booker-calls-trumps-address-on-mass-shootings-bull-soup