Though my adopted specimen was not getting adequate sunshine for some time, once I found a better spot for this particularly hardy succulent that goes by many different common names—the pancake plant, the Chinese money plant, the UFO plant—it’s begun thriving.
First described and collected by Scottish botanist George Forrest (perhaps a further example of nominative determinism) at the turn of the last century while exploring the southwestern Yunnan province, this evergreen with circular leaves known in its native land as ้้ข่ was rediscovered in 1945 by a fleeing Norwegian missionary who took cuttings back with him and introduced them in his home country, propagating them throughout Scandinavia. Not a detrimental transplant it spread in the wild and was exchanged as houseplants under the radar of researchers and it was not until 1984 that the P. peperomiodes was formally identified and where it came from was known.
Monday 2 April 2018
pilea peperomiodes
7x7
ะฟะธัะฐะฝะบะฐ: a collection of traditional Ukrainian folk design on egg shells ahead of 8 April Orthodox Easter
walking simulator: virtual tourist have free range over the landscapes created for immersive gaming experiences—even the old, abandoned levels and worlds from long shelved titles
worldcon 76: finalists announced for the 2018 Hugo Awards for science-fiction and science-fantasy plus the 1943 Retrosepctive Hugo Awards, via Super Punch
rotten tomatoes: the US has decided it will no longer regulate genetically-edited crops if it can be show that the tweaks are just a short-cut to selective breeding programmes, via Slashdot
fermi’s paradox: an illustrated lesson in astrobiology from Maki Naro and Matthew Francis
tears of a clown: downfall of a once flush service-sector career field
a is for attenborough, b is for brexit: design agency counters with an alternative abecedarium of twenty-six coins to the Royal Mint’s rather pedestrian release of the A to Z of Britain
my god, it’s full of stars
On this day fifty years ago, Stanley Kubrick’s theatrical adaptation of the Arthur C Clark science fiction novel had its initial release at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC.
The cultural impact of this work is nearly impossible to gauge in totality but among the many ground-breaking firsts of the film (previously here, here and here) was the appeal to the possibility of space-tourism (projected already for the turn of the millennium) and product placement and brand tie-ins with the hotel-restaurant chain Howard Johnson’s (effectively defunct in 2006) presence on the station with its Earthlight lounge. Back on Earth, there was a 2001-themed kids’ menu for years after.
Sunday 1 April 2018
we all live in a gaudรญ submarine
Architectural photographer Anthony Lindsey captures the handiwork of several artists-in-residence studying at Granny’s University of the Imagination in order to renovate the master bath in the fashion suggested by Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil what would happen if the Yellow Submarine were to crash land on the beach house of Antoni Gaudรญ i Cornet (previously inspiring here, here and here). Their alma mater is the private home of Jaina Bee who presented a restoration project to some creative and crafty friends who’ve transformed the campus into an ever evolving artistic expression. Visit their home page at the link above for a virtual tour of all the rooms and perhaps arrange a tour in person.
apparatchik or all politics is local
With coverage of forty percent of American households—after the anticipated approval of currently proposed sales and mergers which are expected to get the rubber-stamp of approval as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was not only rubbishing net neutrality but was also tasked with removing the regulatory hurdles to media dominance in local markets, the Sinclair Broadcast Group has stakes in or outright ownership of some two-hundred thirty television affiliates all over the country (check to see how high the propaganda might be dialled up in your neighbourhood here) and has operated as a conservative ideology-forwarding mouthpiece for some time.
First infamously censoring reporting that did not portray Republican leadership in a flattering light like the broadcast of ABC news anchor Ted Koppel’s reading out of the names of the US soldiers killed in the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in April of 2004, the group then in October of the same year, just ahead of a presidential election, ordered its stations to play a documentary that characterised the Democratic challenger to the Bush dynasty as a coward during the candidate’s tour of duty in the Vietnam war.
Political bias has continued to influence programming choices and journalism on the local level—surely burying stories deemed inconvenient or problematic and throttling others in line with their agenda if not dispensing with local news altogether. Stations have for the past two years been required to run the political commentary segments of one of the Trump regime’s Svengalis multiple times a day. And now, local news outlets have to make this rather chilling and Orwellian loyalty pledge (supercut above from Deadspin) to combat fake news wherever detected. Read more at the link up top.
