butlerian jihad

Though there’s no definitive word yet on what form the property may take, it’s pretty exciting to learn that the creative team behind the likes of Pacific Rim (that Kaiju movie with the Voltron battle bots that I could watch over and over again and can’t quite point to what it’s got) has acquired the rights to Frank Herbert’s science-fiction classic Dune.  While I think the entertainment world is drowning in remakes and nostalgia (though it’s obviously appreciated and deserved over originality) and the David Lynch version is simply timeless, I’d be hard pressed to find another work deserving of a revival.
We could have a new film franchise, a Home Box Office-style television series with source material that could run for decades (sometimes I think that binge-watching might be trending in that direction—to occupy whole segments of one’s life) or something else entirely. Reminiscencing and wonder have sparked a lot of speculation what this announcement might mean, but largely absent is the underlining theme of the Dune Universe: the dangers of a cybernetic revolt and the commandment, “thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”

toner and fuser

There’s a brilliant cross-over essay from Tedium on Atlas Obscura that explores the invention of the Xerox machine—the 914 model debuting in 1959 and quickly becoming the most successful commercial product in history, its precedents and antecedents and the influences the new printing press had on the art and literature scene with collage, cut-ups, newsletters and the zine.
I especially enjoyed the fact that patent-attorney Chester Carlson’s inventive genius responsible for xerography (he was arthritic and hated queuing up to make copies of documents and knew that there must be a faster, better way) was a rather unique triangulation of processes that no one had associated prior and the appreciation of the copying techniques that came before—I remember ditto machine duplicates with their purple tint—and being reminded that some of those methods involved destroying the original to make copies.

a scanner darkly

The colour background that one sees when one closes one’s eyes is called Eigengrau (German for intrinsically gray) and is brighter than what we perceive as the blackest black because there’s no contrast behind our eyelids.
The term was coined by experimental psychologist Gustav Theodor Fechner in the 1860s while working at the University of Leipzig whilst studying the relationship between sensation and perception, famously recognising that not everyone will see the same colours as demonstrated by contemporary and toy-maker Charles Benham with his top. Just as the Eigengrau that people report is hard to measure and is subjective, the subtle arcs of colour (called Fechner colours or flicker colours) are not the same for every observer—and no one can quite say why. The flashing image might make some people dizzy, so click here to view it. What colour are the tracers that you see? Is it the same for this one (caution flashing images) too?

umbrage

Via Colossal, we are treated to the serendipitous sketches of Belgian film-maker and illustrator Vincent Bal who has transformed the shadows cast by various objects resting in the sun into creative, artistic Rorschach ink-blot interpretations. We really ought to banish harsh, shadow-dispelling overhead lights in the work-place if a stray item could inspire like this.

wag the dog

Though there’s already been no shortage of controversy and upset in this presidential campaign and subsequent regime-building—and I hope the world’s karmic balance won’t be tabulated against all the tin-pot dictatorships that US and partners have propped up over the years, government offices and government-controlled industries entrusted to family members—the choice of chief strategist, administration’s mouthpiece and sophist is facing the probably the single greatest amount of scrutiny and derision—that is, aside from the choice of president itself.
Pre- post-truth and foremost, Steven Bannon’s message crafting is what cost the opposition victory, although the conservation is forward-focussed—incredulously—and concerns what his continued presence and counsel might mean. With a career that began as a naval officer, then post-graduate studies at Harvard and a stint as an investment banker, independently wealthy through royalties off a popular television series (one that would needs be heavily bracketed) before taking up the golden-ring of yellow-journalism with the mission of giving an under-represented but not necessarily disenfranchised demographic a perspective. What do you think? If this assessment is true and advisors are capable of channelling rants and raves, Bannon sounds more trumpian than Trump.

pam 21-41

Covering the entire gamut of good manners and etiquette becoming to both an officer and a gentleman, in 1949 the US Army issued a fantastically illustrated Personal Code of Conduct publication for soldiers, not just acclimating those who found themselves newly stationed in strange and exotic locations but also a day to day guide for common courtesies like tact, self-control, respect for women and being ambassadors of good will. I agree that we especially need this sort of civics manual to fall back on in these times.