hobohemian

Collectors’ Weekly took a field-trip to the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa—an old railhead and switching station back in the days when locomotion was a form of social-safety net, and returned to share a really engrossing, in depth look at the lifestyle, code-of-conduct, origins and legacy of these itinerant workers who comprised a sizable demographic of America’s population spanning a huge historical swath from the aftermath of the US Civil War all the way through the Great Depression and the onset of World War II.
Returning, aggrieved from battle to find homesteads overrun, many men discovered themselves homeless and continued to soldier on in look of employment—this mobile workforce, not seeking hand-outs and wanting to preserve their reputation, helped to create the infrastructure, like the railways that created commerce and opened up westward expansion and became the conduits that the hobos relied on themselves. The culture of these migrant workers was a rich and nuanced one, fraught with danger and discrimination at times, and in addition to the formative force it was for America, it has also left behind some expressive fossils in American speech, like yahoo (a brute who’s proud of his wanton ignorance—possibly in deference to Gulliver’s Travels), working stiff (for those unfortunates tethered to a fixed home and job), junkie (an addict), chow (for food) and hunky dory. The article is certainly worth the read in its entirety and it always pays in spades to check out the website that celebrates curators of all sorts of stories.

5x5

walkabout: reflections on how a stroll makes our minds’ ready to wander and wonder
sea-view: in honour of World Oceans’ Day, tour Google Street View is taking to the waves

chalkboard gag: renovators uncover century old blackboard images in Oklahoma

culture vulture: petri dish hand print of after a day of play

sailor moon: realising Carl Sagan’s vision, Bill Nye’s experimental solar-sail has unfurled

libidinous or better living through chemistry

The magnanimous souls of the pharmaceutical industry have managed to create another product to fulfil a need that didn’t exist—sometimes I wonder how close marketing and rampant capitalism is to the ´pataphysical—this time, in pill-form, a drug whose litany of side-effects include stimulating a woman’s libido. It’s bad enough that we’re willing to cede our trust and confidence so lightly to institutions that deserve far more scrutiny, but what really galls me is that medical science considers the possibility of a woman not being a vamp at all times a greater “unmet need” than say a male version of the birth-control pill or something that might knock testosterone levels down a few notches.

ex cathedra or east of eden

I wonder if there are different flavours within Creationist camps that are particularly bothered with one aspect of scientific theory over another. I understand that the Catholic Church—though I would not class the whole organisation with the literalists and the fundamentalists—accepts the Big Bang and Evolutionary theories nearly as incontrovertible facts and necessary for the framework of the divine’s cosmology, saying that God is not a magician with a magic wand.

One item—and a big one—however does seem to follow from this line of reasoning that does strike me at least as a bit more dreary and disheartening than the usual retreat to the argument of receding origins: ethics and altruism admit of purely evolutionary origins as well. I am no scientist but the logic of the reasoning does seem to hold its own over sentiment, and can be presented something like this: the most successful individuals of a species are wholly self-interested (the opposite of charitable or altruistic) and would beg, borrow and steal from all other members of the community for his own interests. Pretty soon, selfishness would have be tempered with the idea of reciprocity but still the individual’s sense of egoism would serve them best. Within this environment of quid-pro-quo, the strongest would be those could renege on their end of the bargain while appearing to be cooperative and dupe others. In short order, however, people would become wise to these types and be unwilling to extend their trust and it would be a huge outpouring of energy to keep up this charade which is the stuff of psychopathy and traveling hucksters—having to go forth and find new communities to take advantage of. Rather than putting up an act, a far more efficient and effective way to convince others of one’s trustworthiness and reliability is to convince one’s self and become an ethical person and develop those delusionary institutions that reinforce that self-deception. Taking this stance was a significant departure from the pope-emeritus’ view that tolerated conflated and pedantic resistance, but Pope Francis also said of his predecessor, while making this announcement, that “no one could ever say of [Pope Benedict XVI] that study and science made him and his love for God and neighbour wither.” I think this pronouncement applies to us all.

sunday drive: stangenpyramide oder strawberry fields forever

As promised, I took a little detour to try to find for a second time the monument called the Stangen- pyramide (the pillar or rod pyramid) outside of Dreieich that marks the vista of the Frankfurt am Main skyline from the foothills of the Taunus. It turns out that the site was well-known at the outer edge of a golf course and I had just had bad directions and was being quite well patronised this fine day because of a stand nearby selling strawberries where one could pick them himself.
This symmetrical gradient of four hundred fifty-six columns on the high ground in the middle of the fields but with forested lands visible in the distance beyond the cultivation (the manicured golf-course included) is meant to make people reflect on that forest of skyscrapers ahead and the tangle of antennas and RADAR station that is a satellite installation the airport behind. Although my pictures didn’t do it justice (the towers of the metropolis just visible there above the tree-line), walking down the path that separates the two mirror-hemispheres does offer a pretty spectacular view from this promontory.

bird-watching

Over the past two weeks from our balcony, H and I have been noticing some strange ornothological behaviour. Nearly over the downspout for the rain gutter of our roof, a few little birds have not been feathering a nest but rather, it appears, tending a small garden plot.
The greenery that’s been planted there hasn’t withered away in the sun and looks to be growing. I would not make the leap yet that the sparrows are practising the rudiments of agriculture—although it is pretty clever if they have to foresight (just like not building a nest in a rain gutter) to think that the plants might flower and attract bees or other insects or at the very least act as a sieve or dam to capture bugs that are washed off the roof in the rain. We’ll have to keep an eye on these two and make sure they don’t take over the neighbourhood.

tenterhooks or looming large

In a brilliant gloss for Æon magazine, writer Virginia Postrel presents an an excellent exposition on how textiles and fashions parallel and drive technological advancement.
The broadest example lies in trade, captured famously along the Silk Road, the trade route that saw not only the exchange of cloth but of also knowledge and ideas between the Orient and Occident worlds, and the later shipping empires.
Research into natural pigments and dyeing techniques led to greater understanding the discipline of chemistry. The printing-presses of clothmakers (to imprint patterns) inspired Johannes Gutenberg to establish the publishing industry in the West. It was factories that housed the great power-looms and the flying-shuttle that drove the Industrial Revolution and gave manufacturing countries a distinct advantage, leading to a huge population explosive, lasting environmental impact, colonialism, labour-issues and societal upheaval from those who puzzled over what mass-production meant. The punch-cards that were the basis of programming these steam-powered jabberwockies to produce increasing intricate designs that led to the development of computers. Contemporaneously, cheap and disposable clothing represents the debate on exploitation, out-sourcing and off-shoring—plus our notions of consumption in general. Even if the shirt on one’s back is not yet a Wearable, it is still heir to all the excellence and dread of human achievement, and that is truly something to think about.