Saturday, 11 November 2017

elfter-elfter

I went to the other bank of the Main river and joined compatriots (despite not dressing up—I’m sure a union suit would have kept me warmer) in the courtyard of the Osteiner Hof of Mainz as we celebrated the beginning of the so-called fifth season, Fasching, that carries one’s spirits through the dreary days of winter all the way through until Lent.


Friday, 10 November 2017

emperor’s new clothes

Trying to understand what was driving the seeming profusion of America’s Dumbest Criminals Cornell University psychology professor David Dunning and graduate student Justin Kruger formulated what they termed the “illusion of confidence” to limn a particularly incredulous case ripped from tabloid headlines.
In 1995, a bank-robber reasoned that a liberal splash of lemon juice would render his face invisible to security-cameras—and as dumb as this seems, a quick mental review can probably conjure up other funny and tragic examples of modern day charms and talisman. This leap of hubris came to be known as the Dunning-Kruger effect—describing one’s inability to recognise his or her shortcomings despite ongoing critique and feedback. While all of have veils that were not willing to pull back and would benefit from being disabused, incompetence forever shuts out the possibility for honest self-assessment and flexibility needed for basic performance.

Thursday, 9 November 2017

intensifier

Coming across the notice that the Canadian broadcasting standards council has decided that a certain explicative is perfectly acceptable to use in French language programmes because it does not carry the same sense of violence and vulgarity as it does in English parlance and thus remains subject to censorship struck me as amusing and made us recall the unusual and charming curses of the Quรฉbรฉcois. What do you think?  Does the lingua franca still have hegemon is a truly bilingual society?

6x6

c/2017 u1: passing interstellar object receives an official designation

cut and paste: a previously unknown Waldseemรผller globe gore (a two-dimensional map whose segments are to be put onto a sphere) to be auctioned off, via Nag on the Lake

gรถrliwood: historic German town of Gรถrlitz near the Polish border named best filming location in Europe

a crack in the sky: a cache of recently declassified material on the last time the US conducted atmosphere nuclear tests, via Paleofuture

o brave new world: on the resonances of writing and what comes of surrendered that script—even temporarily

the giving tree: two landscape photographers travel the world to showcase some choice arboreal overachievers