madcap or photos of kittehs

As part of a series exploring the elasticity of the human brain, not just reserved for growing-minds, the Big Think revisits a discovery from last year concerning not just cat-people but also the larger possibility that as host to a toxoplasm taking up residence in the brain (accidentally since here it is shielded from the bluntest affronts of the immune system) that is bred exclusively in feline guts.

Effects of this mild form of zombi- fication—not necessarily with wholly unacceptable results and a third of the population may already be infected, which are perhaps extended to the string-section, does not validate the efficacy of blunt techniques of electro-shock therapy, lobotomies, psycho-pharmaceuticals and is no source of comfort to meditate on an alien conscience ruling our faculties (maybe in the same ways grains and fruit have orchard-keepers and planters well disciplined or how memes gravitate around pictures of cats), but it does demonstrate, nonetheless, that the mind’s native operating system is accommodating enough for new platforms and new ways of learning.

t-6

Though the Silver Lady will be able to conquer the upcoming Alpine terrain smoothly and I don’t imagine that this configuration would really reduce our footprint at campsites (though probably no one would ever tell us there’s no more space—not that we’ve ever really been turned away since there’s always room for a little Bully), this delightful Lego construction by Craig Callum, which really walks, is a pretty cool idea, nonetheless. I love all the little details, the classic pop-top and the Imperial logo on the grill. I’m not sure, however, how I’d feel about having to repel down every time I had to use the restroom.

apfelsinn or yes, we have no bananas

Several weeks ago, the excellent retro-repository and all-around Wunderkammer, Collectors’ Weekly featured an engrossing article on the seemingly accidentally romancing of the mango, elevating the exotic fruit for the people of 1968 China to a cult-like reverence.

The craze, propelled wildly by troupes of true-believers, was borne of a simple gesture (re-gifting really) when the Chairman distributed a case of fruit among the Republic’s factors, a present from a visiting dignitary and displaced the traditional Chinese fruity symbol of the peach for wealthy and prosperity.
The rather bizarre adoration of a piece of fruit reminded me of the relation, sometimes contrived and sometimes meant in a derogatory way, of the banana and East Germany.
The symbolism is not parallel but the banana was likewise an ideological hot-potato, representing by turns the excess of the West, the closed markets of the East and the ungood of such aspirations and appetites.
I did not experience all the subtleties of the days of scarcity and plenty myself and don’t know what politics and shrewd trades were going on behind the scenes of real and stereotypical jonesing for not fresh-produce, but rather bananas in particular (going on for decades, untold, though starting around the same time, and not just a passing fad), creators black-markets, et also by party elite and an enduring symbol of divides still being bridged.

hamster dance

On the last day of April twenty years ago, computer scientist in residence at the laboratories of CERN, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, gifted the world with the platform and language to host the internet—or rather the W3 as the world-wide-web was then known as. The original web page propagated to the public on that day has lapsed out of existence, but CERN has faithfully reproduced this exponential catalyst—really a patchwork of intranets and other projects released to the public, as an important look back at the sophisticated and hopeful origins of revolution.

Maybe this curation, including the earliest software and hardware and a retrospective study on the nature of legacy itself, will help the intent, of open dialogue and no claims of ownership on the medium (not something jealously guarded by an antiquated studio system and stubborn mandates) and aspirations to change society in positive ways not yet realised but maybe already anticipated, also to avoid lapsing and being taken for granted.

paperback writer or a book by its cover

I’ve seen a lot of cool vintage exemplars of illustrated book covers in English-languages editions, but German publishers were and are just as adept. It’s an unusual repre- sentational-rate to try to capture the expected thousand words with some abstract art and always results in this strange of sort brutal and non-glossy look. I wonder if a certain publishing house was responsible for this movement or if it was a certain and deliberate reflection of the reigning style of the day.