kestää käytössä

We enjoyed watching this early 1970s commercial from Finland for the new Lada 1200 (domestically known as the ВАЗ-2101 or as “Kopeyka,” one one-hundredth of a ruble) but take heed as replaying it may summon a demon.

7x7

tusalava: life evolves and struggles to survive and thrive in a 1929 animated short from Len Lye—previously

datavis: climate scientists become tastemakers with “warming stripes”

sha na na: the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock venue line-up has been announced and some people are not impressed—via Miss Cellania’s Links

a coney island of the mind: ahead of his one hundredth birthday, a look at the uncompromising life and work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

parting expressions: a look into the nuance of saying sayonara (さよなら)

afforestation: the Bonn Challenge is engaging all of us to save the world’s forest—via Maps Mania

a month of type: the studio of Mister Kaplin animates the alphabet—having devoted a day’s work to each letter

technocracy

Previously we’ve demonstrated—anecdotally—that despots and robots don’t seem to mix well, and whilst people have anxieties over being made redundant through automation and that there are definite trade-offs to be found in unfettered technological progress, tempered by the consul of the past or not, a surprisingly large portion of Europeans recently polled, a solid quarter of respondents, would favour allowing artificial intelligences to craft and execute policy over politicians.
What do you think?  We agree that there’s some share of disillusionment and political estrangement contributing to this outlook and the paternalistic bent as well as the tendency to reflect and amplify our worst inclinations to some advancements shouldn’t be ignored—which is why transparency is vitally important—but we suspect there’s also a vote of confidence to be found here as well—that perhaps in coalition with machines, governance could be a fairer and more equitable process.

båly bay

An undersea restaurant on the Norwegian southern coast whose ground-breaking caught our attention a year and a half ago is celebrating its official grand opening and welcoming diners. Designed by the Snøhetta group to suggest an emerging periscope, Under (that word also means a wonder in Norsk) hosts up to forty guests, for whom I hope the liminal experience makes a lasting and profound impression, and serves a dual purpose as a marine research laboratory when not serving meals. Learn more at the links above, including a peek at the menu and where to book reservations.

to delight and disarm

We enjoyed perusing the extensive portfolio of Atlanta-based artist Rachel Eleanor, courtesy of Plain Magazine, whose illustrations and distinctive picture book style are indeed as resonant as her motto and modus operandi of the title. See more of Eleanor’s repetorie, which includes animation and branding campaigns for local events, at the links above.

ipad evenle

Nineteenth century civil engineer and utopian architect Thomas Stedman Whitwell—best known for his advocacy for model company towns—also wanted to reform toponymy, finding it confounding how there was a profusion of Springfields, Albanys, Clintons and Franklins in the United States, and so though new nomenclature ought to be based on latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates.
To that end, Whitwell published this table and accompanying article in 1826 in the gazette for New Harmony (Ipba Veinul located at 38 °11′ N by 87 °55′ W), Indiana (a failed utopian colony). It reminds us of the scheme employed by What-Three-Words though extensive elocution rules—as opposed to the natural language of the latter—had to be laid out to overcome difficulties in pronunciation and recall and in theory would could scale down past minutes and seconds to specific subdivisions, neighbourhoods and addresses with longer and longer garbled names. The idea failed of course to catch on—which is why the capitals aren’t called Lafa Vovutu (London) or Feili Neivul (Washington, DC).