lord of the flies or standing-water

With the emergence of the Zika virus (never mind humanity’s peerless co-existence with malaria that has been symbiotic forever and other dread maladies that joined the party as we grew more bold in bending Nature to our will), some pundits are calling for the eradication of all mosquitos.
Perhaps such a feat is possible, as man has proven his destructive capacity time and time again and perhaps here is the chance to use those vicious powers to a more virtuous end—but I am not buying that we are that good at targeted-killing. Mosquitos are not the low-hanging fruit that dodos and unicorns are, and surely there will be unforeseen consequences for the ecosystem that we could not appreciate until it’s too late and perhaps make matters far, far worse. I don’t want to see anyone else suffer and we should not shy away from the effort—but the whole interest, regardless of the feasibility, smacks of a campaign-promise or unthinking slogan, like the war on drugs. One should not toy with the health and safety of others—especially the most vulnerable among us and it should make one angry that the feigned concern is more for the sponsorship dollars tied to the two big sporting events that will happen in Brazil this summer, but perhaps, quixotically, like another presidential candidate’s confirmation that he would indeed travel back in time to kill Baby Hitler and advert the Holocaust and WWII, it won’t carry much credence and perhaps even backfire before we’re dumb enough to try. What do you think?

'merica and mobile vulgus

Given the over-abundance of shrillness and inanity that we’ve been subjected to already, one could be excused for forgetting that the US presidential campaigned season has not officially kicked off yet until today.
It is a little inexcusable that I didn’t read this excellent primer from VICE—dismissing it as more strident boilerplate rather than anything with civic-value—and am certainly glad that I did, in order to better appreciate the travesty and hopefully the opportunity. The antiquated ceremony and vetting process are really highlighted in the first state caucus’ rather monolithic demographics and relative isolation—which are arguably the biggest head-start any bloc of voters is afforded for dashing away from the “real America.” The baffling complexity and the buoying media sentiment are the sleight of hand and window-dressing of democracy—rather ochlocracy (the marching protesters in Athens with their OX! signs are not identifying themselves as members of an angry mob but rather saying no to further austerity measures), pandering to the majority and dispensing with minority protection.

sometimes you feel like a nut

6x6

radio goo-goo, radio ga ga: discover songs by country and decade, via the splendiferous Everlasting Blört

subtitle: Emojini analyses images and assigns the appropriate pictorial captions

fail: the internet responds in kind when a doctored photograph is lauded by a big camera company

take me to the renaissance festival anon: report of the world’s largest medievalist congress held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, via the always interesting The Browser

lossless: long departed computer scientist David Huffman not only gave the world data-compression techniques but also applied mathematical origami to all sorts of things, like automobile air-bags

prestidigitate: despite rumours to the contrary, cartoon characters exported to Japan are not given a little finger to show that they are not affiliated with the Yazuka mafia; on The Simpsons, only the hand of God has five digits, via Reddit