#maga

The Russian Duma, championed by the same conservative politician that codified the county’s rules on gay propaganda, is poised to decriminalise domestic violence, upholding the traditions of the good old days when youths did not sass their elders.
Of course, this is not limited to empowering parents to smack an incorrigible child without fear of reprisal but also drives women who are victims of violence further into the background by legitimatising such behaviour, so long as it doesn’t leave a permanent mark. Elsewhere, we learn that Japan is recalling its diplomats from South Korea over a statute erected in Busan that commemorates the so called “comfort women,” victims of sex-slavery under Imperial Japanese Army.

chariots of the gods?

I enjoyed reading this brief travelogue from Atlas Obscura about the Gothic “new” cathedral of Salamanca, the old city declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its rather anachronistic astronaut adorning its façade, which was added during a 1992 renovation that will surely present a puzzle for visitors of the distant future but is by no means a hoax—rather a contemporary signature of the masons doing the restoration work. This detail to discover and wonder about made me think of the Darth Vader grotesque that’s lurking high in the eaves of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

speech coach or elocution

In the near future, algorithms analysing voices might supplant recruiters and hiring officials, we learn via Marginal Revolution. Of course, everything’s an audition already and we’re all singing for our suppers but it seems unwelcoming and strangely paternalistic for a machine to judge your potential in ways that are far more accurate than we are resigned to accept.
Of course once computers begin to encroach on the bailiwick of human resources, it won’t just be one’s next promotion hinging on one’s tone or feigned enthusiasm—especially as machines and automation take more jobs from the market. The practical good—although we need to remember that formulæ aren’t completely above human bias since they’re programmed to look for specific criteria by humans—is finding the best fit for the employer and employee but being dismissed at the first peep would be heartbreakingly demotivating and I’m sure some would be encouraged to try to game the system. Maybe such analysts could also be programmed to collude with the connected world at large to spare our feelings and nudge us towards the ideal, algorithmically-determined vocation without our even realising it or having to face rejection. What do you think? Computation-coddling I think wouldn’t be very character-building but I imagine that those fortunate enough to be born into that environment would know nothing other than brilliant luck and impeccable timing.

jimadores

Bat-friendly tequila wrests one species from the brink of extinction.
The blue agave plant is exclusively pollinated by the lesser long nosed bat but as the nectar (the key ingredient in tequila) content is at its highest just before blossoming, farmers tended to harvest the plants before they flowered and relied on cloning to restock their fields. A joint US-Mexican initiative persuaded producers (jimadores) to set aside parts of their fields all allow some of the agave to reach maturity and bloom, thus feeding the bats, whose numbers are very robust after three decades of conservation, and reaping the benefits of cross-pollination for the long-term resilience of their crops.

kompromat

For shame on us all for spreading a fabricated story—if that turns out to be the case, without corroborating evidence.  The virulent nature of it, however, does not demonstrate a liberal bias in the media or a conspiracy within the highest echelons of the US intelligence service to discredit the president-elect but rather a reflection of us all: that this rumoured scenario is more believable than the fact a person displaying such an undignified demeanour could hold the office of president.
There was a moment—probably not more than two minutes sadly, when the whole world was of accord on the idea of fake news and were aligned to combat it but quite suddenly its definition expanded from just the propaganda-machines and mudslinging that yields headlines (generated for eking out a little revenue as much as if not more than for the ends of swaying public-opinion) of the outrageous variety to anything editorial or that one disagrees with. The press, no matter how they packaged or prefaced the story—whose salacious bits of course garner the most attention while being the least significant, true or otherwise, part of the dossier, were obligated to acknowledge it, even if it’s credibility seemed rather flimsy, like the notion that the sitting-president’s ascendency was invalid due to lack of American citizenship. Whether that decision to hold to journalistic responsibility possibly at the expense of short-term integrity of image bolsters or further erodes the fidelity of the press (that is, die Lügenpresse, the lying press and another term with the dubious honour of Unwort of the Year; Volksverräter—traitor of the people, was made equally infamous coincidentally just as the president-elect wondered out loud if we were living in Nazi Germany) remains to be seen. This is humiliating. I find myself more and more exhausted and can’t face the fact that this is only the beginning and there’s much at stake.

picture postcard

Via the always brilliant Nag on the Lake, we discover a website that an avid photographer named Mike Wong is crafting that heat maps where and when in the world photographs are taken and plots the most popular locations. What a nifty idea and one can zoom in and find out what’s most photogenic in one’s own neighbourhood.

more cow-bell

We learn in Switzerland, the process of attaining citizenship is often contingent on subjective factors, including the opinion of the community that one wishes to join. Although I share some of the applicant’s views on advocating for animal rights, a Dutch woman who has resided in Aargau for all of her adult life has had her citizenship petition rejected for the second time.
Despite meeting all other legal requirements and the lack of formal concerns from authorities, locals have a say in the matter and view her vocal campaigns for among other things banning cow-bells (those huge one’s that might be a discomfort for the cows are only worn on special, ceremonial occasions) as strident and confrontational—and to her neighbours for whom herding is a way of life anything but integrated. Community members don’t often invoke their veto power but did recently reject a long-time American’s application for not being able to name the local lakes and a Kosovar family for wearing jogging pants to their hearing. What do you think? The Dutch woman is refusing to compromise acting on her opinions for the sake of a Swiss passport—which speaks to her convictions, of course, but strengthens the case for her neighbours to voice their opinion as well.

tatsache kontrolle

An attorney from Würzburg is suing a social media giant and the right wing Alternative for Deutschland political party, rather unprecedentedly, for slander and propagating fake news on behalf of a Syrian man residing in Germany—whose rather nice selfie taken with the Chancellor has been ill-used.
All sorts of rumour-mongering outlets that pretend to be legitimate journalistic sources (as far as it’s convenient for them) have cited the image and continue to do so with the sensational captions and headlines asking whether Merkel took a picture next to a terrorist, and going further to accuse the refugee of all sort of heinous acts meant to sway public opinion and transpose his face to those behind terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany. Whilst abuse and defamation may not violate the standards of the global, online community, such behaviour is illegal in German jurisdictions and the internet platform host to the spread of libel as well as those who share it are being held to account.