ux or peer-review

Albeit the ubiquitous and public institution has weathered criticisms by academia in the past citing the platform for unreliable references and is constantly under siege by vandals and revisionists, Wikipedia’s record for dealing and dispatching with fake-news (following Cunningham’s Law) is far better than that of other social media networks.  Without question consumers of such streams of likes and like-mindedness ought to be encouraged to be more savvy, critical and literate when it comes journalism.
Like the argument espoused by Big Thinker Katherine Maher, social media users would be as quick to extinguish a self-serving falsehood as an encyclopædist in many cases but the difference in virality and endurance is not in giving users a means to conduct fact-checking but diverges much earlier—in the sequestered and opaque (probably even as unclear to the merchants of doom that profit from them) decisions of algorithms and market-models to promote one particular news item to one particular individual over another. Each user experience (UX) is of course unique and personal and no two people would be able to share that same tailored barrage of content, unlike being spectators at a sports event or rally or even being exposed to a suite of commercials on television. Until social engineers and mediators can be more forthcoming about the profit-motives and why, to the best of their knowledge, one headline, advertisement was served to you instead of another.

agente provocatrice

Though I am sure that such an endorsement rings as hollow as the phoney pretence of populism as something by and for the people (it has always been so) and will have the same stamina as mutual support from and for Russian, Turkish or Egyptian leadership, Dear Leader’s declaration for Marine Le Pen as being the strongest candidate is rather a breach of custom—not that foreign influence-peddling in the national elections of others isn’t a done thing these days, as world leaders traditionally refrained from siding with one contender over another. While governmental systems outside of the United States may have more mechanisms to avoid gridlock and can dissolve the legislature, the fact remains that Dear Leader’s aspiration platform is failing and the only successes it can celebrate are in its violent death-throes—which may still be the death of all of us. Systemic mistrust untethers identity and unity as much as any disruptive force—real or abstracted, and all are due careful scrutiny, lest we fawn over the solution that the easiest to obtain but comes at the cost of empathy and cooperation.

dollar $hark

Via Boing Boing, we learn that one of the masters of photo-shopped cultural epherma and effluvia, Sean Tejaratchi will be releasing a soft-cover review in the Autumn of the first four years of Liartown, USA (previously here, here, here and here). The publishers and underwriters have been no source of frustration or censorship to the process of putting this edition together, having honoured the author’s wishes to retain all the bad words, blasphemy and naughty bits.

dschungel book

I came across this curiosity at the local recycling centre, a paper back, coffee table format (Bilderband) travelogue of one Jürgen Hansen’s adventures across the Dark Continent. It was a somewhat paternalistic portrait of colonial African from 1952 (possibly daring for the first time, however, to look at Africa with an eye towards reconciliation, having lost its toehold on the continent), published in Hamburg, but contained the most amazing, vibrant little picture-postcard prints pasted on the pages.
It turns out that this promotional item, sponsored by the Sanella brand and the West German Margarine Union, was offered as the text only and in order to complete the album, one needed to acquire one hundred little lithographs—presumably as a bonus with a package of margarine. This volume was complete (two cards had come loose over the years) but they were all there and in pretty good condition, and it was a pleasure to look through and imagine how (most likely) a house wife doing the shopping was eagerly waiting for the next instalment to hit the shelves and paste the cards in her book that taught her all about Africa.  Click on any image for a larger picture. The shadows are less obvious then as well.

recharging station

Acknowledging that furniture shopping can be a very fraught activity, especially in the labyrinthine confines of an IKEA, as we learn from Swiss Miss, we liked this emergency relationship station that ought to be installed in every store to triage and diffuse those tense moments of indecision and commitment hot-potato. Click through at the links up top to see more of the work of Jeff Wyaski, the comedian behind the Obvious Plant solicitous, thought-provoking pranks.

sympathy for the devil

On the occasion of the three hundred fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the epic poem, Benjamin Ramm writing for BBC Culture presents a compelling argument for revisiting John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Influence and legacy is to be found lurking everywhere, perhaps only second to Shakespeare’s inspiration in English traditions though references may not be readily apparent.  Informed by the milieu of the English Civil War and republican age, the ten thousand lines of blank verse was indeed meant to “justify the ways of God to men” and help reconcile themselves to these turbulent and revolutionary times, championed of course by a menacingly magnetic Satan who is the most interesting character by far—and signals both allure and repulsion depending on the reader and the reading.

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.