tuppence a bag

I had the thought walking through the city the other day noticing the persistent scratching and pecking of pigeons amid all the rubbish on the streets and wondered if the two factors (pigeons aren’t pests, just opportunistic and very tolerable of human vermin) could be combined to achieve a solution. I don’t want to frame pigeons as underachievers but I don’t know if they can be trained—although doves seem very patient and compliant with prestidigitators and seen to have enjoyed their work as emissaries—to pick up and sort trash.
I’ll have to ask a friend who is a pigeon fancier what he thinks of my scheme. Maybe it’s simpler to train people to be decent and not litter rather than have someone else clean-up after us. In any case—that same thought has been turned into a real exercise at a historic park in France, where rangers and handlers are training rooks to spruce up the place and pick up any stray litter, human visitors being generally respectful about leaving nothing else behind, in exchange for a small morsel of bird food. What do you think? As with any intervention, there could be unforeseen consequences. Perhaps corvids are better at teaching other birds to execute clean-up missions. I think, especially with the insect population dangerously low with knock-on effects up the food chain, maybe this relieves some pressure on the competition for scarce resources by feeding the birds as a reward.

darling, it’s better down where it’s wetter

Via Boing Boing, we are treated to a rather remarkable demonstration video from Marine Imaging Technologies’ new HYDRUS camera. An array of eight underwater cameras whose perspectives are selectable as if the footage were in real time surveys a reef off the Cayman Islands under natural, low light conditions, giving one a taste of what live-cams undersea could offer.

vemödalen

Being introduced by Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals to the social media property whose motto of déjà (or presque) vu ambiance and directive to wander, roam and replicate struck us as immediately relatable and perhaps our own mugging for the camera, which we’d fancy as unique though signs indicate the opposite and also recalled the perfectly cromulent but made-up German-sounding word above.  
Vemödalen is the frustration experienced upon the realisation that’s one’s photograph has already been captured millions of times before and therefore less worthy of esteem or admiration. Naturally there’s a degree of the cliché in holiday photos and posing for the perfect shot that one should recognise and reconcile oneself to but it also doesn’t mean that one should stop (civilly, politely) taking and sharing one’s vacation slides.

the very model of a modern-age millennial

Here is the first stanza by award-winning writer Meg Elison whose verse is a clever adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan standard, the “Major-General’s Song,” which if you don’t know, please look it up so one can better appreciate how the author captures the hesitation, scansion and spirit of the satirical song.  I am older but have been known to caucus with this group.

I am the very model of a modern-age millennial,
I’ve got no cash, no house, no kids, and student debt perennial,
I know the rules of Tinder, and I’m not sold on monogamy
(For what it’s worth I think that stems from trouble ‘tween my mom and me)
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters on the gender front
Myself, I am nonbinary; your labels I so do not want
Been disillusioned by my expectations with a lot o’ stuff,
The skills with which I am equipped for life are frankly not enough

Go to McSweeney’s and check out the whole rhyme and refrain.

twitterati

Diplomatic relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia are in complete disarray after the kingdom’s asymmetrical response to what it characterises as meddling in internal affairs after the Canadian foreign minister and other diplomats expressed concern over the arrest of human rights activist, Samar Badawi who had recently spurred reform that confers more independence for women in allowing them to drive and to conduct some business without a chaperone—prompting a youth organisation to respond rather threatening for its trading and educational partner to mind its own business.
The medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan says.  Official government measures from the kingdom included the suspension of all trade and investment (part of this feud may be sourced back to a weapons deal arranged by the previous Canadian administration which the Trudeau government rescinded out of concerns of backing oppressive, authoritarian regimes), recalling its ambassadors, expelling the Canadian mission, ordering Saudi citizens being treated in Canadian hospitals to request discharges and transfers to facilities in another nation and for sixteen thousand students sponsored by scholarships studying at Canadian schools relocate at the risk of losing financial assistance. Other countries in the region joined Saudi Arabia in denouncing Canada for politicising human rights, which seems to me one of the chief if not the primary purposes of government. The US refused to weigh in on this affair, urging Canada and Saudi Arabia to work it together.

chimera

Inspired by the mythological character that’s half horse and half human, engineers at the Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, IIT) in Genoa have created Centauro, a strong and durable search and rescue robot capable of clearing debris and breaking through barriers.
With the aim of providing support to human first responders in disaster situations, Centauro is being taught to think for itself and the training will hopefully translate into faster reactions and independent problem-solving. Visit the link above for more information and a video demonstration of Centauro in action.

depth of field

Evoking the photographic aesthetic called bokeh (ボケ, Japanese for blur or haze) Cape Town artist Philip Barlow’s out-of-focus landscape oil paintings of cityscapes are a reflection of perception that outstrips more realistic depictions that ultimate grounds the real in the surreal. Discover more of Barlow’s work at the link above.