7x7

general strike: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger calls for a boycott of social media as a Declaration of Digital Independence, via Slashdot

imts: an exploration of mobile telephony (see also) from the 1940s onward

move fast, bank things: a helpful primer on a social media giant’s currency roll-out

a different kind of energy: US presidential contender Marianne Williamson

hang a yield sign in your rear window to prevent cars from passing: driverless vehicles are highly susceptible to spoofing

soffa sans: IKEA releases a new font in response to people testing the limits of their Vallentuna sectional planning tool

one of these things is not like the others: nepotism is not easy on the eyes

jour du déménagement

Previously we had encountered a statutory day on which leases expired in old New York, obligating renters to re-locate previously but had no idea that it occurred elsewhere much less was still a tradition upheld in Quebec, courtesy of Nag on the Lake who has some personal experience with must surely be a day of collective mania, wherein up to a quarter of a million households across the province and tens of thousands in Montréal alone not totally satisfied or otherwise tethered to their current accommodations lift up and change apartments.
Although formerly urban leases ran from 1 May to 30 April, like in the historic case in New York above to prevent landlords (seigneuries) from evicting tenants during the winter months, the provincial government decided to move the event to the summer, so as to be less disruptive to school children and place it on the national holiday, today—Dominion Day, Fête du Canada / Canada Day, so the people who chose to take part in this tradition were not sacrificing a day of work or extra time off. Movers assisting those not entirely doing it themselves were also entitled to holiday pay for their work.

dansk porno

Having legitimised literature two years prior and passing legislation in the Folketing to the effect a few weeks earlier, on this day in 1969 Denmark became the first country in the world to legalise pornography in all formats. Aside from restrictions put in place for the protection of children and animals from exploitation, people in Denmark have had unfettered access to porn (see also) for the past five decades, wagering that sunshine is the best disinfectant and people would have a healthier relationship with a subject that was not a social taboo.

five, four, three, two, one

The urban redevelopment council of the large Berkshire city adjacent to Heathrow will help sponsor the creation of a Thunderbirds-themed hotel near the eponymous Slough Trading Estate (industrial park) where the Supermarionation series (Thunderbirds are not Slough—it does not rhyme with go) was filmed and produced. The hotel, which will also be part of a permanent residential hub each of whose five storeys are named after a Thunderbird Machine, is slated to open in 2021. More to explore at the links above, including a dedicated Gerry Anderson (*1929 – †2012), the shows’ co-creator, website.

4f

Via the inestimable Nag on the Lake, we learn that an exemplar of the iconic protest poster that captured a symbolic act of defiance of Bill Greenshields (previously) burning his draft card—though it was suspected that Greenshields at the time was an undercover agent trying to incriminate others, designed and distributed by activist Kiyoshi Kuomiya (*1943, in a Japanese-American internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming – †2000) is being sold at auction. Using the pseudonym Dirty Linen Corporation, Kuromiya got out copies of through mail order, encouraging people to share with mothers and the White House, but was eventually caught by the FBI and charged with for using the postal service for trafficking in lewd materials. Read more about Kuromiya’s life and career dedicated to social justice at the links above.

common ära

Doing some research with some historic church texts in German, I kept running across the abbreviation v. u. Z.—unfamiliar but I quickly surmised its meaning from context clues as “before our era,” a way of BC/AD without a specifically Christian reference point. Ironically—while this term is used in contemporary, secular papers as something synonymous with CE/BCE, it was being used here in a hagiographical and historic milieu to avoid the paradox that Jesus’ birth year did not coincide with the beginning of the era, but rather from three to six vor der Zeitrechnung.