tammany hall

One of the perhaps unanticipated outcomes of mass-immigration might lead to the revival of the old-fashioned ward-bosses, patronage and the “rotten” boroughs of seventeen century England (and perhaps it is already manifest in some areas).
The coming iteration of the political machine may not incite violence or condone such practises as cooping, gangs kidnapping, disguising and liquoring up people off the street in order to stuff ballot boxes in favour of the politician who has contracted them (Edgar Allen Poe was probably a victim of such abuse, which led to his death), but we could see a reciprocal courtship being formed between local councils and a particular, predominate group that has come to settle in one’s jurisdiction. In order for local officials to stay in office, it would be in their political interest to encourage self-segregation over integration. Politicians have always pandered to their constituencies—and to a degree (enforceable or otherwise), beholden to their demands, but the prospects for manipulation by bringing refugees and their suffrage into the picture raises the stakes in representative governance and the definition of community. What do you think? I certainly would not place it beyond the ambitions of some to encourage sectarian and internecine divisions in order seize and hold power—on the neighbourhood and national level. What does a block-party, a pride-celebration start to look like when you try to concede to everyone’s liking—especially when tastes are made mutually exclusive through insufferable tolerance?

lutte contre l’incendie

The always entertaining Neatorama directs our attention to an item that I didn’t realise was missing from our kitchen in this offer from Wine Enthusiast of a fully functional fire- extinguisher in the guise of wine bottle—though at a foot tall, I’d imagine its volume somewhere between a Marie and a Jeroboam, or possibly even delivering a Rehoboam’s worth of fire-fighting expellant and foam. Safety does not exclude swagger, and the price seems comparable with a standard, non-camouflaged unit and looking at the sales-site above, the vendor it seems will even recharge it, should one have needed it to quell something burning.

tea. earl grey. hot.

While not exactly the replicator from Star Trek that’s just as adept as whipping up a spot of tea, delivering an advanced 3D printer to the International Space Station to make spare parts is a pretty big leap forward—which is seeming really obvious now—that will surely begin to untether the team of explorers. Scheduled to be included in the payload of a launch for next month, this new model will replace a more rudimentary device that the crew has been experimenting with already. It’s curious how the problems of logistics can drive technology in unexpected ways.

royal-flush or en suite

After rioting and much public discontent of Fuad I of Egypt’s particular penchant for exercising his royal prerogative and dissolving parliament when it was seen encroaching on his power finally convinced the king to restore the previous constitution that brought Egypt and the Suez back under the control of British influence, reportedly he lamented that soon there will only be five royal houses in the near future, “Britain—and diamonds, aces, hearts and spades.” If not for an interesting and informative article from Mental Floss, I would never have suspected that King Fuad’s vote of no confidence might be referencing a contemporary craze in the 1930s that was promoted by an Austrian psychiatrist called Walter Marseille who thought the additional cards—comprising a deck of sixty-five—would make games—bridge specifically, more challenging and engaging. The fifth suit of the English tarot nouveau was the Crowns or the Royals (Eagles in American decks). Though Marseille’s theory of skill-building through gaming didn’t quite catch on, his other works (let’s play global thermal war) involving higher stakes had lasting influence in weapons disarmament and peace-keeping.

space oddity

While orbiting around the dark-side of the Moon, in the communications shadow cast by the intervening planetary body, the crew of Apollo 10 debated on whether to disclose to Mission Control they had picked up on the eerie whistling sounds of the music of the celestial spheres, for fear they might be grounded from future missions.
The entire affair was not suppressed exactly but went mostly unnoticed until 2008 after it came out in a memoir and the same bursts of errant sounds were heard on successive lunar visits and by other space probes, and technicians could be reasonably certain that the noise was some sort of feedback or interference or naturally occurring report—and not extra-terrestrial transmissions. The audio, however, had not been made publicly available until now, so one can judge for one’s self—though it smacks of a promotion-stunt rather than any kind of government-sanctioned UFO cover-up. Even if the explanation is a mundane one, it would have been quite jarring to encounter in the silence of the void.