Sunday 2 October 2016

6x6

you down with opm: contractor that may have been responsible for that enormous Office of Personnel Management data breach is awarded handling a new secret security clearance initiative

we can be friends forever: Teddy Ruxpin is getting a reboot—raising not only the question of how technology cheats the imagination but also what’s our ethical responsibilities to creating toys with feelings and souls

sub rosa: some of the disclosed locations of the world’s most secret societies

time’s arrow: a Cosmos compelled to go from past to present to future may just be the limitations of the doting observer

durable solutions:  the architecture and design of refugee shelters is exhibited at the MoMA

drill bit: there’s a newly discovered species of bee in deserts of New Mexico that can gnaw through solid rock like a termite through wood and even can mix its own concrete 

mea culpa or presumption of guilt

Though in the Middle Ages one could defend their good character by assembling a jury of twelve of one’s peers that would attest unanimously under oath that the accused could not have possibly committed the act that he or she (or it with animals often subpoenaed), there was no concept of presumed innocent and the burden of proof was squarely on the charged.
The word culprit is a quirky portmanteaux word dating from times when the courts were becoming more formalised affairs, complete with a proper court recorder. Each docket in England and France began with the same plea of the accused—not guilty, or rather [not] culpable, to which the clerk would reply: [as charged] Prest, d’averrer nostre bille. A call and response that was a mixture of Latin and Old French that signified that the court was ready to present its case. It was abbreviated in the proceedings as cul: prit and became synonymous with the person of the defendant.

bearer instrument

In what sounds to me like the clever plan Bart Simpson once concocted to get Krusty the Clown’s autograph by sending him a cheque to cash (which if I remember right, inadvertently alerted the tax authorities to the entertainer’s off-shore bank accounts), as Weird Universe reports, a magazine sent measly, trifling cheques in 1990 to several billionaires to see who was miserly enough to expend the extra effort to cash them. Out of the two takers, one is currently campaigning for presidency of the United States.

champion charlie brown

On this day in 1950, Charles Schulz’ Peanuts four-panel comic strip (setting the format for others to follow) debuted in around a dozen major newspapers and slowly, over the years, the cast of children was introduced to boldly face a very sociologically and philosophically adult framework—with no grown-up supervision. What are some of your favourite memories from the franchise—arguably the longest story in the telling from a single narrator?

Saturday 1 October 2016

press, depress, mash, hit, punch

With a sense of nostalgia that really is resonant, Messy Nessy Chic curates a vintage gallery that pays tribute to the disappearing push-button—those real, physical knobs and switches that arrayed dashboards, control panels and cockpits as well as gadgets and household items that felt so satisfying to push, and highly tempting to do so despite what catastrophic results might ensue. It’s certainly worth scrolling through all the images, especially the concept cars of future-past, and worth it as well sticking around and exploring more of her website.

continuing-resolution

And here we go again, conscientious bureaucrats, with some reflections on the fiscal new year that’s really a frightening collusion of window-dressing scenarios but I think that the American public is as estranged or disengaged as it is divided to have much tolerance for speculation.
Amazingly and for the eighth consecutive year—though it seemed few were watching with baited breath (I believe that the Heisenberg principle applies to the news and governments and the mere act of looking at it changes outcomes)—the US government avoided a shut-down due to a deficiency of funding just thirty-six hours before FY 2017 began. With a day and a half to spare, that’s hardly exciting. And with the elections just a month away, no party wanted to be seen as forcing the other’s hand—despite that this manล“uvre only gains the operations the purchase until Christmas recess and then it’s a lame-duck presidency and congress and whatever the results, half the country will be gravely disappointed and in denial. I am sure that we’ll be dusting off those tried-and-true toolkits that we’ve honed to keep the bureaucracy grinding along.