automatonophobia

The brilliant Kottke, maker of fine hypertext products, introduces us to a new type of uncanny valley in the form of composite three-dimensional masking.
While trying to capture the essence, the thing in itself, of personalities or politicians, one found that a sort of ventriloquist’s dummy is created and despite transferring personæ to different individuals, the original speaker still reverberates through gestures and facial expressions that come across as familiar and recognisable but look awkward and alien on the face of another. The eeriness and conflicted vocal cues is probably best illustrated in the video demonstration of the technique with talking-heads and statesmen found at the link above. The fear of anything that impersonates a living being is called automatonophobia (as in an automaton), which can include wax-figures and mannequins too.

leader board or it’s the plumber, i’ve come to fix your sink

Although pandering and sycophancy takes place during every political campaign (remember Joe the Plumber) and democracy and civics is not so broken and beaten down that such demagoguery will carry the day, I do really fear for what choices America might commit itself to. Albeit one is generous to call the political views of this serial-candidate—having threatened to contend in every presidential election since 1988—a platform, there are some serious concession to people’s basest insecurities that’s sure to resonate, despite how fraught with disastrous and back-handed consequence those plans are.

porta sancta

Recognising what the world needs now, Pope Francis threw open the Mercy Gate of the Lateran Archbasilica (the Pope’s church as the Bishop of Rome) and declared an extraordinary Jubilee Year—a decade earlier than the next scheduled time of forgiveness and reconciliation, which are announced periodically at quarter- or half-century intervals.
Ordering the door to be unbricked (sealed in earnest outside of these periods), the Pope promises that this message of grace will counter the violence and fanaticism in the world—and in people’s hearts. Quite a few basilica-major around the world, including Saint Peter’s in the Vatican and Santiago de Compostela in Spain, have their own Holy Doors and their own tradition and millions of pilgrims are expected to pass through these thresholds over the next year. The Papal Bull—Misericordiæ Vultus—allows for bishops everywhere to declare his own Mercy Gate for this Year of Jubilee. After the ceremony and reflection, the façade of San Giovanni in Laterano became the canvas to promote mindfulness of another urgent threat to peace, environmental degradation, with a light-show of projected images of the natural world.  His Holiness is primed to act on Mother Nature’s behalf as well.

744 evergreen terrace

Long before there was such a concept of the internet leaking and before people could find the others and engage in fancy-dress parties (and prior to the advent of home-owners’ associations that might have not permitted such an addition to their neighbourhood), the ever-intrepid Atlas Obscura places this national landmark on the registry: the Simpsons’ home.
Back in 1997, the television franchise, partnering with one of the cola-war belligerents, offered one lucky winner a dream home that was as true to the show as architects could execute with real world materials and the laws of physics. Presently, the unique home is camouflaged amongst the ticky-tack of suburbia but one can still detect the nuanced façade. It’s a little sad to see it having faded into the background—once painted and furnished to order—and to discover that the winning family choose the cash prize instead of moving. I understand it might have been an odd experience at first, but the spacious and resilient house was surely something enviable, especially for the likes of Gil Gunderson or Frank Grimes.

5x5

sinister: Rorschach-like battery of tests reveals how hand-bias shapes how reality is perceived

foley artist: absurdist gallery of the everyday items used by resourceful minds to create sound-effects

him that you call tiamat: protesting government support for churches, Iceland’s newest “religion” attracts more converts by refunding the tithe

perustulo: Finland plans to provide every citizen with a basic income

ancien régime: marketers newest cachet invokes the mood and trappings of pre-revolutionary France—the last time wage disparity was so high