ring of accolades

I am just as weary with the tedious, nauseating reign of Dear Leader and that praise-panel (Marion, don’t look at it. Shut your eyes, Marion. Don’t look at it, no matter what happens!) earlier this week really just about did us in. We however felt it was our duty to report on the probably roots of this insatiate need for flattery, which we learned likely came from Dear Leader’s role-model and touch-stone, Roy Marcus Cohn—attorney and chief-counsel behind what was truly the biggest witch-hunt in US history by aiding Joseph McCarthy’s investigations into un-American activities.
After helping to ruin the careers of countless real and imagined Communist-sympathisers and went on liberate Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of their lives for spying on the basis of rather dodgy testimony, Cohn began representing Dear Leader, along with other prominent Mafia figures and the management of Studio 54. Cohn’s counsel first came to public attention in 1973 when the US government accused Dear Leader of violating statute that prohibited the discriminatory practises in renting to tenants and Cohn audaciously launched a countersuit, which while failing did kind of give him a pass. And as if that was not enough, Cohn mentored Dear Leader in the most Machiavellian style that he should insist upon loyalty, reinforced often by having confidants recite a circle of accolades and introduced Dear Leader to the right-wing media moguls that became his campaign’s mouth-piece and dog-whistle. Roy Cohn died from AIDS-related complications in 1986 with posthumous speculation that Cohn was in a gay relationship, counter to his violently homophobic stance that was behind the so-called “lavender scare” parallel with McCarthy’s persecution.

in memoriam

Everyone is entitled to their opinions on terms limits and the scope and tenure of soft-powers and could probably summon up a dozen vexing counter arguments—but I think it can be said with confidence that if Helmut Kohl was not allowed to remain chancellor of West Germany from 1982 to 1990, the reunification probably would not have occurred.

The US and the UK preferred a weaker, divided Germany but the statesman was willing to throw his own economy in turmoil by a goodwill gesture to East Germany which dignified both powers and helped usher in an end to the standoff of the Cold War.   Had Kohl not then gone on to govern the whole of Germany for another eight years, the European Union as we know it with its trade partnerships, labour integration and common currency may have never been formed at all—and for keeping true to the course of geopolitics in a steadfast fashion whose alternatives seem rather unthinkable, Herr Kohl is owed a great debt of gratitude. We’d do him an honour in remembering how fragile such institutions are considering their precarious roots that only grit and resilience brought them about and the same qualities are essential in saving them.

bathyscope

Colossal exposes us to some of the latest denizens of the deep captured in photography for perhaps the first time with marine biologist and dive team leader of Moscow University’s White Sea research station Alexander Semenov.
These specimens are truly alien like the Pega confœderata that looks like section of air-cushion wrap to cushion fragile items in transit—seeming exceedingly delicate (here is a curation of another researcher’s approach in capturing and communicating the bizarre appearance and anatomy of the strange jellies, slugs and worms) and would indeed dissolve away if brought to the surface, existing in an almost solid state of being. These creatures are particularly at the mercy of our poor stewardship of the planet’s oceans as pollution takes years to settle to the bottom reaches of the abyss and once it reaches this terrain, there is no place else for it to go and toxins and other detritus becomes concentrated. These animals are already a mystery and we can’t pretend to know their threshold for human garbage.

what's that, flipper? timmy fell down a k-hole?

Controversially and perhaps dubiously, via Dave Log v 3.0, we discover that a group of marine biologists in the mid- to late-1960s (interestingly corresponding with the run of the television series referenced in the title) studying the cognitive abilities of dolphins were inspired to give the dolphins small doses of LSD to determine if that mind-expanding experience might be enough to break the language barrier, as it were, and facilitate communication between humans and the clever cetaceans.
Led by trained psychoanalyst Jon C Lilly, who in addition to being a close confident of Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary was already known for having developed the sensory deprivation tank and as a founding member of SETI (provisionally called the Order of the Dolphins for his battery of experiments), the aquatic mammals were carefully administered the psychoactive drugs as an alternative to invasive and potentially harmful brain probes. Unfortunately, these trials did not result in an immediate and comprehensive cultural exchange between the species (although there is word of a romantic tryst) and funding was eventually pulled, but no harm came of it and dropping acid did make the dolphin-participants much more vocal and chatty and even helped one member of the pod overcome his fear of human interaction and informs our notion of consciousness and being self-aware as well as respect for animal kind.

köttbullar

Charmingly, Nag on the Lake shares these recipe placards previewed in partnership with IKEA Canada. After arranging the ingredients according to the instructions (in the Nordic furniture purveyor’s signature style), the recipe can be popped into the stove too, being printed on parchment paper with edible ink.

social studies

Thanks to TYWKIWDBI for educating us in the cognitive bias described formally in 1999 known as the Dunning-Kruger effect (not to be confused with the Voight-Kampff test—she doesn’t even realise she’s a replicant) pertaining to incompetent persons suffering from delusions of grandeur.
Due to their aversion or inability for metacognition (thinking about thinking or simply self awareness), they self-assess as surpassingly qualified, despite lacking critical skill-sets. Secure and unaware, the most pervasive manifestation are those who over-estimate their driving abilities, raging that fellow motorists have no right to share the road or as laughably doltish criminals, which are fairly harmless. Hubris, however, can be a very dangerous thing, especially when the over-zealous and over-confident are aggrandised.