red earth

Via Colossal, we are introduced to the detailed ephemeral warp and weave of artist Rena Detrixhe, who uses the sifted red earth from outside her Tulsa, Oklahoma studio to create intricate mandalas of blankets and rugs.
This dirt was collected by hand and is symbolic of the “beauty and pride of this place and also a profound sorrow,” witness to the forcible relocation of Native American populations with the Trail of Tears, further land-grabs and displacement, extreme weather, the hunting to the brink of extinction of the bison and the environmental disaster that the loss of grassland precipitated in the form of the Dust Bowl and presently the land of fracking.  Be sure to visit the links up top to see more of her work and the creative process.

senor and sensibility

Similar in principle to the technique of phreaking to hijack switchboard exchanges, hackers may be finding other outlets to violate the sanctity and security of our phones, drones and other networked, autonomous appliances (and driverless carriages) by targeting them with blasts of very specific acoustic signals.
These sound waves are not necessarily a way of commandeering a device directly but is a way of altering its perceptions, blinding it or throwing it off balance, by skewing its senses—either resulting in paralysis or propelling itself into surrounding obstacles. What do you think?  I do not see the point of creating smart toasters, baby-monitors, refrigerators, umbrellas (that beg to be taken if the weather forecast deems it necessary), and microwave ovens if they open up a path of least resistance to our wired ecosystem and doubt the convenience justifies the risk.  Even changing the reading of a small component could set off a cascade of a catastrophic effects.

burn after reading

To honour the conclusion of Sunshine Week, our intrepid friends at Muckrock—serial freedom of information act (FOIA) filers are kicking back the with the second best disinfectants—provocatively named cocktails to take the edge of redaction and glomarisation, like the Shirley Temple (Herbert Hoover style), Deep State, Intelligence Report, and We Were Never Here. I’d add Mistakes Were Made, and just need to figure out the ingredients.
The infuriating “Glomar response” is when the government declares its refusal to speculate on an ongoing investigation or address matters of national security and comes from the name of a salvage vessel that the Central Intelligence Agency commissioned to recover a sunken Soviet submarine in 1975. The plausibly deniable boilerplate that would go on to preface many more secrets went, “We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the information requested but, hypothetically, if such data were to exist, the subject matter would be classified, and could not be disclosed.”

hiobsbotschaft

As if to illustrate how foreign policy is superfluous in the face of the almighty mob that can be rallied with the megaphone that is social media (so who needs a State Department or Diplomatic Corps), Dear Leader found his particular style of statecraft under threat by the juxtaposition of a calm and collected German chancellor, meeting for the first time for a joint press-conference. Though there was some discussion of the United States not forgetting its immigrant origins (Angela Merkel did not deign to point out that Dear Leader’s own grandparents first immigrated to America and Canada as economic refugees, fleeing from poverty and then a second time as fugitives from the authorities), the talk at these usually highly scripted and choreographed affairs was decidedly icy and one-sided with Dear Leader dominating the direction.  At least she had her defenses up.
Per his usual modus operandi, Dear Leader belittled the role of NATO and accused Germany and all other member states of making far too little contributions to the alliance and forcing the US to finance the enterprise, bookending the matter with platitudes that claimed he was not an isolationist. This tact took up most of the allotted time and what remained of the awkward exchange was devoted to the serious but groundless accusations that Dear Leader whilst campaigning was wire-tapped by the out-going administration—and that was at least common-ground between himself and the Chancellor. Merkel failed to see the humour in that remark—since, if it wasn’t in jest, it amounts to an admission that US intelligence services did indeed eavesdrop on foreign allies and probably all the other surveillance that no one dared confirm or deny. The other implication being—if Dear Leader really were being bugged, it would be because he or Fearless Leader were in communication with the foreign powers that they disavowed all along. Reporters’ questions were turned back on them, suggesting that they should be interviewing the sources of the story—a news outlet, which never reported anysuch story.

the power of the purse or wait, wait—don’t cut me

Though presidential budgets are more of a publicity stunt to reaffirm policy commitments than working financial plans because it is the legislature that controls spending and many of the programmes and agencies have weathered great austerities of past regimes, Dear Leader may unfortunately get his way and enact the scorched-earth dismantling of bureaucratic protections that his svengalis want. Here is a selection of some the named initiatives targeted for elimination via the Washington Post—though with the caveat that many more, hinted at may be waiting in the gallows:

Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARAP working in close collusion with DARPA) E-branch—funding research into alternative energy
Corporation for Public Broadcasting—helps fund PBS, NPR plus other local, independent and commercial television and radio stations
Endocrine Disruptor Screening Programme—helps ensure that pesticides and other chemicals are not dangerous to humans and the environment
Institute of Museum and Library Services—providing grants for museums, libraries, zoos and parks
McGovern-Dole Food for Education Programme—providing subsidised or free lunches for poor school children
Woodrow Wilson International Centre—a foreign policy think-tank

Find the current, complete list at the link to the Post story above plus find further resources to learn about each programme, whilst they are still around.