penumbra

Via the art and design blog, Colossal, Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alakbarov is showcasing some his beautiful installations that are created by light, shadow and perspective. Some of his work is being exhibited at the Phillips de Pury and Company Galleries in London. The artwork is very much worth persuing for any reason (both websites too) and seems to be a good warm-up in showing people around the world creations of contemporary Azerbaijan, in anticipation of the EuroVision song contest to be held in Baku later this year.

The EuroVision tradition itself, which discovered ABBA among others, began as a way to test the level of integration of broadcasters, in technical terms, across borders but endured as a gala challenge that has expanded with the idea of Europe. The far-flung Caucasus certainly seems to be an exotic and wild place, and those qualities and identity decidedly lend allure and are unapologetic, but exchanging host-duties allows outsiders to recognize what more there is to discover.

marco polo or year of the water-dragon

Today marks the first day of festivities for the Lunar-Solar Spring Celebration, more popularly rendered as Chinese New Year. Though there is a lot of regional variations and private, family traditions, this time for reunion and renewal is an affair spanning several days to nearly a full two weeks, with different auspices and ritual attached to each day of the festival. There seem to be a lot of birthdays observed in this period, too—the second day, according to some traditions, is the birthday of all dogs, for instance, and the ninth day is the birthday of the Jade Emperor of Heaven. I can't say for certain there are Western analogues and I would like a better cultural understanding the significance and symbolism. Understanding is not only in what's parallel at first glance and sometimes seeking the familiar carries with it the risk for over-simplification. The Chinese calendar, whose years are reckoned from the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor, cycle through more than just a mythological menagerie and the ruling animal is also paired an element, making for a sixty-year series. Asian astrology is more akin to Western Numerology and the animal year of one's birth only determines one’s outward projection, while inner perceptions are flavoured by months, days--true animals, and even by hours, secret animals. On the most basic level, water dragon is "hidden dragon" and most have an optimistic outlook for the coming months. Another event coinciding with Chinese New Year is Croatia’s plebiscite for European Union membership. The Croatian island of Korčula, a thalassocracy in its own right, along with the Most Serene Republics of Venice and Genoa, claims Marco Polo among their native sons--sort of like the competing Belgian, German and French claims for Charlemagne. It was through the travels and writing of Marco Polo that Europeans were first exposed to the lands of the Orient, and his reconnaissance and engagement helped inspire the golden age of exploration. Although I guess no one knows when or where Polo was born but I do wonder what the secret animals of his hours said of his character and ambition and what the timing of this decision has in store for Croatia.

chickenhawks or mad libs

Make up your own jokes and statements or insert the name of your website into these meme templates.

talons or red-herring/black-flag

It is indefensible to earn fortunes by giving away the property of others, like the group of individuals behind a popular file-sharing web had accomplished. The vicious attacks and entrapment on the part of Federales, pressed into service by Hollywood who in turned leaned on international law-enforcement to make the apprehensions, is going to extremes.

Despite the example made of any one company, new havens and facilitators will bud up like the heads of a Hydra and the alternatives will never be exhausted. The cosmopolitan character of this sting operation, business incorporated in Hong Kong, owned by German nationals resident in New Zealand, whose piracy knew no bounds and face extradition to the US, hinges on the brief rental of server space in the US state of Virginia, which was just enough to breach convention and to invite the wrath of America. The United States has needed to back-peddle on some rash and heavy-handed moves in the past without sufficient cause, and while I do doubt that there is anything exculpable in the company’s flirtation with US jurisdiction, agility may have cost accuracy and certainly due-process. Lawfulness ought to be upheld that respect the rights of the individual, however, the mechanisms and balances that keep the processes of justice in check should not be trounced and abandoned for the sake of unseemly expediency. The blowback by pseudo-anonymous individuals too was to be expected but maybe also nothing to be celebrated neither--since it is only revealing capabilities and provoke a bigger crack-down and considering the pattern of strategies and outright smugness of aggravation (including involuntarily conscription of computers to launch attacks), I would not be surprised, if this faceless organization wasn’t another honey-trap, a false-flag, of the powers behind all these offensives in the first place, stirring up more concern and justification to continue their excessive campaigns.