DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Hudson Rowan’s design as seen on the Ulster County Board of Elections website.
• A 14-year-old student’s design for an “I voted” sticker which features a spider-like figure with a human head has gathered more than 170,000 votes in a design contest after his bid went viral on the internet. The Ulster County Board of Elections in New York state data showed votes for Hudson Rowan’s design had accounted for the vast majority of the 181,900 votes cast in the contest with his nearest rival, 14-year-old student Wendy Stewart, garnering 6,500 votes. Rowan told The Times Herald-Record that he had decided “to do something different” from the typical patriotic designs featured on the stickers handed out after people have voted. “It’s a head with legs with colours,” he said, describing it as having a “vibrant, psychedelic, happy, crazy theme.” John Quigley, the Republican commissioner for the Ulster County Board of Elections, described the design as “unique” while Ashley Dittus, the Democratic commissioner, said it had “struck a chord with people”. The sticker is expected to be used for a November poll in the county.
• A music festival with a difference was held in Florida last weekend – the difference being that it was held underwater. The 38th annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival featured a range of nautically-themed hits – from the Beatle’s Yellow Submarine to the theme song from The Little Mermaid – played through waterproof speakers which were suspended under boats parked inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Divers and snorklers made up the audience, many of them wearing sea-related costumes. The event, which was held on the Looe Key Reef – the only living coral barrier reef in the continental US, aimed to raise awareness about protecting the marine environment.
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The ‘Manhattanhenge’ phenomena seen in 2017. PICTURE: d26b73 (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
• In New York City residents enjoyed a rare moment twice earlier this week when the sunset aligned with Manhattan’s grid of streets on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. The phenomena, dubbed ‘Manhattanhenge’ by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in a reference to the UK monument Stonehenge, only takes place four times a year – twice in spring and twice in summer.
