minimal republics

As part of an on-going series called “Stupid Borders,” Nag on the Lake introduces us to the work of artist and activist Rubén Martín de Lucas who cordoned off several one-hundred square metre parcels of land on the outskirts of Madrid and lived in then for a full day in order to underscore the very abstract and othering concept of national boundaries. Dangerous and deluded as such ideas may be, it is worth reflecting on how the accruing of the unreal—be it faith in a fiat currency or any type of self-interested association, has the fate of civilisation and the world entire hinging on it.

starfish prime

As part of a series of nuclear armaments testing called Project Fishbowl, begun in response to the USSR’s announcement that it would be withdrawing from a mutual moratorium on test launches, the above high-altitude explosion took place on this day in 1962 about four hundred kilometres above Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.
Though nearly fifteen hundred kilometres away, the afterglow and aurora was visible in Honolulu and the electromagnetic pulse it generated (part of the stated goals of the tests were to have a better understanding the disabling effects of the weapon’s fallout)—even in an era when electronics were not so pervasive and indispensable—knocked hundreds of streetlamps and cut off telephone communications. The radiation belt of high-energy electrons lingered in the atmosphere (see also) and caused at least six communications satellites to fail, including the UK’s first satellite, Ariel 1, put in orbit just in April of that year.

urban dictionary

Our thanks once again to Nag on the Lake for directing our attention to the 1909 compendium of nineteenth century slang by J Redding Ware called “Passing English of the Victorian Era.”
Some gems that ought to revived—though one needs to filter through a lot of phrases that have gladly passed out of fashion—include Puncheous Pilate, defined as the jocose address to another in protest of some small asserted authority, S’elp me, Bob, an appeal to the nearest authority at hand, Totty All Colours, a young person who has contrived to incorporate most of the colours of the rainbow into his or her outfit, and mafficking—that is, to get rowdy in the streets. Page through the dictionary and let us know what antiquated slang we ought to champion.

fruchtfolge

Though maybe I am just doing a better job paying attention—which certainly counts for something too—and being engaged with the consequences of our behaviour for the environment or maybe it’s the recently adopted legislation and agricultural reforms made to be more sustainable and friendlier for pollinators, while I’ve noticed that crop-rotation and allowing fields to be fallow for a season, recharging the soil by sewing clover or grasses and letting it rest, I don’t think I’ve seen before sections of land, vast swaths of it, wholly given over to wildflowers like I am seeing now.
It isn’t just the margins and shoulders along tractor trails that are teeming with blooms but also deep into the interior of grain crops, thick with cornflowers (Cyanus segetum, Kornblume—considered endangered due to over-use of pesticides), poppies (Papaver rhoeas, Mohnblume), baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata, Schleier-Gipskraut—that is, chalk-loving), thistles (Silybum marianum, Disteln) and daisies (Bellis perennis—pretty everlasting, Gänseblümchen), the fields are droning with the buzz of bees.