current state of affairs

Status quo is a shortened version of the original phrase in statu quo res errant ante bellum meaning to maintain the way things were before the war and broadly refers to upholding accepted social and political norms. There is also a qualified sense of the term, the Status quo of the Holy Land Sites, which is an understanding and compact amongst the religious communities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem for their simultanea, that is places that are sacred to multiple faiths, that are not under a single recognised religious authority.
Originating from a eighteenth century decree from the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the arrangement has stood in essentially its original form until the present day and provides that the keys to the Christianity’s holiest sites have been kept in the same local, Arab clan for generations and that no common property may be altered in any way (especially to the impediment of pilgrims and holy rites), sometimes to the detriment of ancient structures needing upkeep, and is embodied by cedar wood ladder under a window of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that has been on-site since 1757 when a mason was engaged to do some restoration work on the ledge. This bureaucratic impasse, known as the Immovable Ladder (literally in Hebrew, “The Status Quo Ladder”), is symbolic of the internecine conflict and irresolution of the six Christian religious orders that share the space, but also reminds visitors that consensus and cooperation are also sacrosanct and inviolable, as well as something surpassing tolerance for one’s neighbours.

heat-exchange or household atomics

Via a regular Slashdot contributor, we learn that China will expend a great deal of time and effort researching into the potential revival of a Cold War era source of harnessing nuclear power using molten salt as a coolant rather than water.
The molten salt fission reactors were abandoned in the 1970s due to technical hurdles which today seem like far less of an obstacle and now it seems like an attainable, highly efficient fuel source. The higher melting point of salt allows for the accumulation of a vastly greater reservoir of heat to power turbines and the resulting nuclear waste is calculated to be only a sliver of that of conventional plants. There’s also a great interest in minimisation this sort of reactor for use in powering unmanned aerial vehicles, lift-off modules and eventually passenger aircraft that could circle the Earth multiple times at super-sonic speeds. Salt-based fission is likely safer and the public might be less risk-averse since there is the radioactivity involved is less energetic and an accident, especially for a drone, is more like dropping a hot-water bottle rather than a burning log.

pass the dutchie on the left hand side

The Oxford English Dictionary’s choice for word of the year, youthquake, is drawing a lot of criticism that the institution is stodgy and out of touch but we’ll stick our necks out for them, begging off that all the good alternatives, like post-truth and fake news (recall when that was relegated to waiting on queue at the supermarket checkout and it was just parsed in guilty glances?), were already taken and it’s also not as if academia could outright bemoan the prevailing belief that Millenials Ruin Everything.
Even though a “political awakening” is cited with young people engaged and voting en masse for Labour, we wonder if it’s not code somehow for negative quavering—hyper-sensitivity, safe-spaces, censorship from unexpected places, trigger-terminology and the accretion of accommodation and entitlement. The runners-up were focused on similar ideas and the board took longer than usual in announcing their picks.  If it were indeed unironic, I would find that even more disturbing. What do you think? Is this the OED’s way of trolling? If there is a coming of age to be reckoned with, it does not seem like there’s to be a peaceful transition of power from one generation to the next, just as our own éminence grises struggle to retain their hold.

l.a. looks

Reacquainted with the often praised through imitation or pigeon-holed as dated detritus of the 1980s (such are the wages, I think, of establishing a signature style) work of Patrick Nagel some time ago while trying to summon-up a Duran Duran video, we appreciated this overview from Dangerous Minds about the profusion of homages to be found in beauty salons—hair, makeup, nails and tanning. Of course, the trend is towards the bourgeois smug with sleeker and twee dandy gimmicks and cultural appropriation on offer with increasing frequency but (and I sadly had to witness my barber’s go from later to the former recently and did not know how to take the change) they’ll probably be window-dressing in the style of Nagel for some time to come. Be sure to check out Dangerous Minds at the link above and a place called Trashy Salon Art for more examples and to contribute your own.

front-business

Having recently learnt that there’s a specific name for the construction and preservation technique that aims to capture the elaborate fronts of buildings either for conservation or as a stage or film set is called façadism (Entkernung) reminded me of these flats erected by various artists in Paris and rural France to suggest that among other things about the nature of outward appearances that we lose out when only the shell of a historical treasure is saved, whereas provisionally, it is a technique that can be used to retain the character of a neighbourhood while the back office, so to speak, is reconfigured and repurposed. What do you think? It does seem aesthetically pleasing to retain the original appearance of an architectural ensemble, but also part of the practise seems like a sham and a folly, especially when an ill-fitting (like a fast-food franchise that gains a purchase in a historic district by blending in) enterprise can benefit from some window-dressing.

hastings rarities or slaty white-throated fairy-bellied ground tyrant

In response to popular demand from bird-watchers (birder is the preferred term for those who take the activity seriously)—and given our tendency to give our avian encounters strange and elaborate names as it is, the creative team at Lewis and Quark (accompanied by the brilliant illustrations of Carin Powell) gave their neural network the task of generating plausible bird names.
We’ve probably set that bar pretty low. Some of course came out ridiculous but most came across as majestic and legitimate-sounding, like the Cape Babbler or the Red-capped Lynert’s Leafbird and turning the license up a few notches resulted in fine and rare specimens like the Dusky Sicky-faced Petrel, the Iceland Reedhaunter, the Fawn-bellied Flowerpecker and our favourites, the Slender-eared Chat and the Mountain-rumpting Finch. Which one among these would you consider ornithologically likely enough to be common-name of the next newly-discovered species of feathered-friend?

inside voice

A major computer manufacturer is seeking to patent its plans for a virtual personal assistant to inhabit its range of gadgets that can detect and match the volume of the user, to reply with a whisper if the question or command is given in hushed tones.
The technical details are proving to be somewhat more of a challenge than expected and a filing does not mean the feature will be forthcoming. Perhaps Siri was taught to whisper in a saw-mill, not unlike some of the people that I work with who forget others can hear what they’re saying. While it may be more decorous for one’s secret-sharer to not broadcast questions that were meant to be discrete—even though in not sharing with our immediate company, we might be issuing missives to a potential audience of billions forever and ever—at the end of the day, state-of-the-art tools that prevent our needing to talk to or interact with another human does not impress much.