älmhult almanac

Via Kottke’s quick links, we’re given an overview of the evolution of style and expansion of its global reach (from its humble beginnings as a single home furnishings store in the town of Älmhult, Sweden to the point of self-awareness in the acknowledgement we have reached “peak curtains”) through the lens of every IKEA (originally Ikéa) catalogue cover from 1951 to 2015. It’s funny how taste is cyclical and the latest iterations don’t seem much different than the earliest annuals.

kicking the can

The gauntlet for the pitched battle of the US budget and funding priorities has been apparently granted a lengthier reprieve than we expected—with the government bankrolled mostly at last year’s levels through the end of the fiscal cycle.
Dear Leader’s armies and border security detail saw modest increases—which are sure to be claimed as a major win, but the bulk of the concessions were skimmed off his vision for America with financial support remaining in place (for now) for the Affordable Care Act exchanges, research and community development grants and even the federal government helping to defray the costs to local municipalities in order for Dear Leader to be a geographical bachelor. I fear though there’s not enough time in the world to reconcile such differing world-views and achieve true and transparent cooperation.

bio-beton

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology are engineering a rather brilliant form of self-repairing structural concrete by mixing spores of calcifying (limestone-producing) bacteria into cement paste. Once cracks occur, the oxygen wakens the bacteria and triggers the healing process and after a few weeks the rift is again sealed.
In addition to vastly reducing the cost, the bacteria also leech carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process.

Forscher von der Delfter Universität der Technologie arbeiten eine ziemlich brillante Form von selbstreparierendem Beton. Sporen von verkalkenden (kalksteinbildenden) Bakterien werden in eine Zementpaste gemischt. Wenn Risse auftreten, wacht der Sauerstoff die Bakterien auf und löst den Heilungsprozess aus und nach einigen Wochen wird der Riss wieder versiegelt. Neben der erheblichen Reduzierung der Kosten, nehmen auch die Bakterien auch Kohlendioxid aus der Atmosphäre.

lido deck

In what seems like a scene from an increasingly more daunting and improbable action, demolition movie, as Super Punch informs, luxury automotive manufacturer Ferrari and a Norwegian cruise-line are teaming up to furnish the Shanghai to Tianjin route with a leviathan of a boat which will have a double-decker race track on board, among other amenities. Would you like this sort of vacation experience?  That’s a far cry certainly from a nice and sedate round of shuffle-board.

i am locutus of borg—resistance is futile

Via Gizmodo’s io9, we learn that a committed Star Trek fan’s vehicle insurance policy has been revoked after receiving complaints that his personalised vanity plates “ASIMIL8” is offensive to aboriginal peoples—despite the fact that it is clearly a reference to the cybernetic, Borg collective being framed by the other Borg catch-phrases “We are the Borg” and “Resistance is Futile.”
At first it might seem that people are being too sensitive, trigger-happy but Canada and the area of Manitoba in particular where the driver (also suspiciously named “Troller”) lives is particularly fraught with a history of indigenous people being forced to give up their culture and way of life and assimilate to the ways of European settlers and could despite the owner’s intent be interpreted as a political dog-whistle.  Canada is also embracing immigration, and those not familiar with the franchise might also be getting mixed messages.  It is better, I think, to err on the side of no offense given nor taken.  What do you think? I certainly hope there’s no broader movement afoot to misappropriate the Borg as a symbol of intolerance—I am confident that the Star Trek community wouldn’t allow that.

foley artists or lyre, lyre pants on fire

Via Marginal Revolution, with just a short voice sample a Canadian start-up company is claiming it can make one with advanced speech synthesising technology appear to say anything.
One could only imagine the nefarious applications quickly outpacing whatever prestige projects or continuity solutions that this service could deliver and thus contributing to the general disdain and distrust for journalism and the tabloidisation of the profession. Being able to quote a source just became a lot more questionable and fraught with doubt, but the potential drawbacks seem to wither compared to their benefits when one indulges in a performance of the eponymous lyrebird of Australia unparalleled mimicry, pitch-perfect for everything from individual human voices to the mechanical recoil of cameras advancing, makes it worthwhile.