heisenberg or frisch gestrichen

The New York Times' technology blog has a post covering significant recent changes being released that redirect the traffic flow of the internet on the approach from the biggest and most ubiquitous internet search engine. After first changing its parameters a few months back so as to not so easily fall for website spam--pages that capitalize and snare hits with words popular searches but are hollow and without content, in addition to continual fine-tuning, parameters and rules in favour of freshness, timeliness, I suppose over other criteria like brute popularity or possibly definitiveness.

These structural changes, of course, which in turn molds and models the internet itself, being a repository also but immediately the sum of what seekers find and share, refer to something called an internet search algorithm. Knowing that an algorithm is not a formula or a mathematical proof but rather describes a set of rules, like a dogma (no one can hold all of the important tenants of belief or affiliation in his or her head all at once and at all times)--a rule of thumb that for all practical intents and purposes becomes something absolute and infallible (ex cathedra and within itself) given how many processes the computer-aided human mind can summon, brute and making the finite applicable for as far as one cares to extend infinity to. A lot of things taken as a rule are calculated with such heavy-handedness, and apparently one reason that the mainstream search engine are making the change is pressure from social networking platforms that have made freshness, instant and incessant updating customary. If search results are arbitrated truth, one wonders what tweaking is improvement and what is pandering over precision and bias.

flower drum song

A few weeks ago, our neighbour, sharing the plot of a crime-thriller that she was excited to plow through (auf englisch), asked if I had read any Günter Grass--and I think, enjoyed literature in general. She named off Die Blechtrommel, and I said that I had heard of that one, translating it "The Tin Drum Song," like Flower Drum Song, which is something, I think, completely different.

Since that exchange I had been a little obsessed about finding a copy and investigating it. Finding this vintage edition (1962) from our library, I remembered, vaguely, the cover illustration and think that there was a copy among my families books growing up. The story is intoxicating and is the perfect expression of the genre of magical-realism, which too is all about remembering and the supernatural talent of recalling what can't be recollected.

In translation, I am plowing through this saga as well. The cover image of the prodigious Oskar Matzerath also reminded me of another household artifact, though, this plate, I believe, was a much later acquisition. The novel promises to be a story that one incorporates, perhaps, anticipating the whole of it before the end, like a natural, musical progression or a consonant chord.

begrudge report

Quietly, and I am sure gratefully for some detractors to escape critical eyes and public debate, Palestine's ascension to the United Nations' UNESCO body (Gremium) has slipped away post-hast from the headlines and perhaps the public's attention.

While this awarding of membership that took place in Paris under split auspices does not recognize Palestine's full statehood, it does acknowledge their strife and strive and open up avenues towards membership in more UN institutions. Perhaps, if motives and agendas were bared for all to see, it was not diplomatically correct or expedient to force UN politics with petitioning to join what is primarily regarded as a cultural organization, but the attention on the detractors should not be excused with such interpretations and Palestine's membership marks an important first step. America, Germany and others voted their reservations, calling membership premature and perhaps counter-productive, but having let their stance be known, should have then been willing to engage Palestine as a partner, and not, as America has done, tried to delegitimize the whole body by begruding its membership dues. UNESCO, more famous as the accrediting agency for tangible culture, also does significant and important work (including within America, and no one is even asking what treasures Palestine holds) in promoting education and protecting the intangibles, which America's decision threaten and appear counter-productive and calculated.

demos

One of the great things about memes going viral, modular and remixed and remixed, is that that creativity is channeled into a sort of choose one’s own adventure type story. One template is pretty much accepting of any theme or expression. The same is true for democracy, a very Greek invention. Introducing this pomegranate (Granatapfel) of accepting the money and the terms of the euro-bailout fund as a ballot measure, a referendum for the voters of Greece, was an unexpected but necessary move. It is not quite accurate to compare the plight of Greece with that of Argentina’s decision to default on its loans years hence, since although both could survive this choice, Argentina was not part of a currency union, and the vox populi may well out-shout any usury and further anything more to do with membership in the European Union. The Greek people and future generations are going to be the ones who have to deal with the consequences (equally unenviable, it seems) of default or grand-receivership.