by jove

Launched in August 2011 and crossing a distance of over eight hundred million kilometres, aided by several gravity-assists—sling-shot manoeuvres, the space probe Juno is expected today to enter a polar orbit of the gas giant—more like a star than a planet to our understanding, Jupiter for an eighteen-month mission to survey and study this out-sized world and constellation of attendant phenomenon born out of the extreme conditions fostered by the planet’s mass.
Flying just above the cloud-tops, approaching as close as it can be piloted to the perilous electric storms and crippling radiation that also makes direct communication difficult, researchers hope that Juno will be able to sound the depths of the thick atmosphere and determine the nature of what’s inside. The name of the mission is of course a mythological allusion to Jupiter’s (Zeus’) use of clouds to try to cloak his mischief and infidelities from his wife, Juno (Hera), but the King of the Gods was duping no one—expect maybe those mere mortals he exercised his droit du seigneur on, as Juno had the ability to peer through that misty veil. I wonder what surprises that this exposé will reveal and unveil over the next coming months—not to continue with that domestic drama metaphor too much longer.

fifteen thousand when we get to alderaan: purchasing-power or human capital

I had been ruminating this growing discussion over the question why the Star Trek and the Star Wars universes deliver us to such a starkly different future and past (presumably—but reference points are hard to cement for long ago and far away) for the past couple of days, and the comparison and contrast that space-faring civilisations and how that’s reflected in society. Whilst I believe that the trajectory lies mainly in the story-telling, exploration for its own sake and exploration for self-fulfilment and both franchises can be a reflection of the epic and there’s some cross-over and significant departures from the set course, it’s interesting to ponder the different outcomes and considering how technology either liberates economically or further enslaves.  Do you think either world-view presented will shape how we conduct our own exploration and colonisation? 

maker’s mark

Via Co.Design, we discover what happens when decision-trees and algorithms get to try their hand at logo design and corporate branding.
The robot, called MarkMaker, from Emblemmatic, first generates at random selection around a company’s name and then can deliver more refined and informed choices as it learns from your preference and is nudged in the right direction. PfRC sort of made it seize up but playing with it with simpler one word unicorns did deliver some interesting icons and wordmarks.  Give it a try for yourself and help this apprentice graphic-designer learn the trade.

one day, maybe next week

Days and dates from the year 1983 correspond perfectly to 2016, as Dangerous Minds excitedly points out through the lens of this magical and demonstrably timeless vintage (and official) calendar of Debbie Harry. This is the stuff of oracles, indeed, and maybe time is just an illusion and wonder what other correspondence that that year might hold for the present—but I agree without reservation that secret missive sent across the decades is to just dance!

5x5: link roundup

the hand-held’s tale: fascinating essay from Æon magazine would we went from a world where the powerful and elite only deigned to hold and handle symbols of power (ceremonial orbs and scepters) to a world where the slave and tycoon wield the same gadget

it’s sew easy: DIY Space Invaders kimono

avenida diagonal: Parisian graffiti artist’s huge mural on an apartment block in Portugal looks like a portal to another dimension and reminds us of disruptive camouflage

mirabilia: gallery of images from a thirteenth century Arabic treatise called “Marvels of Thing Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing”—mirabilia being the genre of study that aims to help explain some of the world’s geographical and cosmological puzzles

obvious plant: in efforts to make museum visitors slow their frantic pace and take time to really appreciate the art, British galleries are turning the experience into a scavenger hunt of sorts to find the fakes hidden among the masterpieces 

antication or computer says no

Though am I certain that more frequent- (and more sadly, first-time) fliers have far worst horror stories with far more invested and every once and a while we all need the rough reminder why it is that we have a splendid little caravan to ramble about in and have mostly forsaken the air-carriers for what they are (great-attractors of dormant Icelandic volcanos and terrorism), it was really sobering to experience one’s weekend holiday plans so transformed into their opposite.
Albeit air-travel might only be about reassurance (since there’s little else outside of the engine-room and shipyard that one can do) and the industry ought to attract such people with a native talent for customer-service, or at minimum—deflection, I cannot really blame the ground crew, since their silence and distain were clearly products of the received kind, fearful of losing their jobs if they went off script, it was extremely challenging not to be in the here and now when information was withheld about incremental flight delays until it was too late to find alternative transportation on one’s own.
This crowded and copy-cat market of discount providers has brought a lot of amateurs to the field, and I do assign blame to the business model whose overhead is on the knife’s edge and any cost-cutting measure, opacity and intimidation being foremost because they’re free, will be deployed. Admitting culpability is an expensive prospect, though the rioting mob of declined vacationers both coming and going either for business or pleasure whose simple request were rebuffed was incorrigible. Security was called in as angry fliers breached the counter and took pictures of the staff, distracting them while another captured what was on their computer screens. No goon-squad dispersed the lingering throngs but the host airport did not do much to correct the conduct of this under-performer. I would recommend doing research in one’s carrier’s track-record except that these issues are far too common-place, whether it be a discounter or a private jet. This was the first time that security-theatre was not the most harrowing part of flying, and for the privilege of being born aloft, for the time it took, we well could have driven there. Besides the employees themselves, I feel especially sorry for those who couldn’t have.

atlas obscura

Messy Nessy Chic shares her discovery in a beautiful and winding gallery of the amazing art nouveau backdrops of Belgian illustrator François Schuiten.
Son to a dual-architect family and with echoes of the surreal, Schuiten was able to conjure up fantastic urban landscapes the graphic novel series Les Cités obscures that debuted in the early 1980s and whose franchise—with spin-offs and with different collaborators over the years—continues to this day about the splintering of a parallel humanity into sovereign city states that fosters unique cultures and styles—sort of like the future that some internet tycoons have imagined of ocean-plying floating islands (or lassoed asteroids) of independence and popular consent. Schuiten’s imaginative artwork is furthermore a revolt (especially in the volume called Brüsel) against the phenomenon known as Bruxellisation, one not exclusive to his native city and perhaps a rejuvenation effort that his parents were complicit in (or rallied against), wherein historic district were demolished in favour of utilitarian, almost brutally so, modern buildings—perhaps the vision of the above tycoons. Browse the extensive arcade of images and learn more about Les Cités obscures and their contributing civil engineers at the link up top.

rectified readymades or metamix

Sometimes the remastering gets to be a little too much, like those list of factoids, listicles or treacly stories of unlikely animal friendships (like the very special but short-lived relationship between a grizzly bear and a pastrami sandwich) or zombified anything, for me at least. This gallery of “Twelve Disney Princesses Reimagined as Cats Reimagined as Sharks that are not Disney Princesses,” courtesy of Kottke’s Quick Links, perfectly captures that descend into absurdity and perhaps dankhood.