willkommen, bienvenue, welcome

Though Brexit has been deferred to a date no later than Halloween, it’s never too early to greet the partners that the UK is bidding adieu to, and this series of twenty-seven retro-style prints from Manchester-based graphic designers Dave Sedgwick and Stanley Chow called “Hello Europe” is a good primer and ice-breaker. Learn more and explore a whole gallery of the euro-centric posters at My Modern Met at the link above.

war & cheese

Addressing a moribund dispute over European transparently subsidising its airline industry with a quiver, a toolbox of tariffs and bars to trade meant for lower-stakes disagreements, our Roquefort is once again making headlines as the Trump regime is threatening to impose some eleven billion dollars in punitive import duties on EU products, including wine and cheese.
Of course, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones and the US, though delivery methods may be more evasive, supports its domestic airline industry as robustly if not to a greater extent with military contracts and other preferential treatment and the EU is preparing for retaliatory measures. It’s a tragically uncouth coincidence that trying to solve this fifteen year old standoff comes in the wake of airplane crashes that shake confidence in the competence of a US manufacturer. Though very antagonistic toward the World Trade Organisation in terms of begrudging its member dues and feet-dragging on the appointment of arbiters, America sees no hypocrisy in leaning on the body to enforce rules when it suits them.

event horizon

In a crowning achievement after two years of observations, ploughing through an incredible trove of data, using a globe-spanning network of telescopes, the team of astronomers behind the Event Horizon project (previously) have successfully imaged a composite picture of the radiant halo, the accretion disc of captured matter, around a black hole.
Data processing and transport—too much to transmit, the hard drives were collected and delivered via sneakernet, including from Antarctica, was the biggest time-consumer for this pioneering feat, which also dispels the doubts that Albert Einstein harboured for his own theoretical stellar career-path and tests Relativity bent to the extremes. The mass of six and a half billion suns has been ingested by the supermassive phenomenon at the centre of distant galaxy Messier 87, captured objects flung at nearly the speed of light before disappearing, never to escape. This silhouette of the infinite was actually the understudy, the project initially hoping to capture a snapshot of Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way, far closer but many magnitudes less massive and too faint to resolve.

♏

Via Kottke, we learn that premium members of an on-line retail giant are pitched a monthly horoscope that pairs one’s sign to recommended products and promotions.
This peculiar merger of astrology with cloying capitalism is moving into its fourth month so there seems to be a serious commitment to the service, penned by an editor who holds a master’s degree in existential phenomenological therapeutic psychology whose by-lines also include a magazine for teenagers and Pokémon, presumably the augmented reality experience. What do you think about that? Is it just in good fun or is it earnest, and is it even possible to be cynical about something that’s not real? Though possibly a late-comer to the booming revival in interest for pseudoscience and guidance no matter what form it comes in, the ploy is symptomatic of a much larger and lucrative trend that Americans are particularly eager to embrace and export.

caffettiera

Architect David Chipperfield has redesigned and reissued the iconic Moka Pot for Italian design line Alessi, launching it at the Salone de Mobile of the Milan Design Week.
The original was introduced to the public in 1933, invented by engineer Alfonso Bialetti (*1888 – †1970), this percolator making it possible for more of the coffee-drinking public to enjoy an espresso at home—since previous contraptions were large and unwieldly and not well-suited for domestic use. The trained metal-worker also introduced aluminium for kitchen-use whereas it had not been a common feature beforehand. The redesign is of course informed by Bialetti’s conception but is a hendecagon and closer to circular than the octagon. Perhaps this homage, Alessi being known for commissioning architects to create signature everyday items, will give the struggling Bialetti company the boost to recover and become fiscally solvent again, the once ubiquitous and must-have appliance having lost ground to coffee pads and pods.