over-extended: the Swiss will vote to effectively ban banks from creating money by lending more than they have in reserve
Via the inestimable The Browser comes a really fascinating piece on the supply chain logistics of the banana trade and the demands it manufactured to satisfy. Like the Egg Council, Juan Valdez and the California Raisins, who really can be bullies and not just advocates for farmers, Big Fruit created various banana republics in the process of perfecting its delivery techniques, inciting coups throughout Central America and even precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis and enduring tensions, all in the name of ripeness and minimal flecking.
The other aspect to this drama lies in the monoculture of the produce—at least as it’s presented to shoppers in the West. Whereas we might have an embarrassment of choice when it comes to apples and oranges, exotic bananas are all clones of one cultivar—threatened with extinction with the irreversible march of one fungal disease. The way bananas are marketed and grown make them especially susceptible to being wiped out by pandemics, and interestingly the type of banana consumed just one human generations had vastly different characteristics—fruitier and creamier and with a much slicker peel, and hence all those jokes about slipping on a discarded skin that seems physically impossible in the supermarkets of today.
Just before Christmas (Sun in first Capricorn and Moon in ninth Gemini, just a day’s breadth from the Soltice), the historic Boleskin Manor on the shores of Loch Ness, owned by mystic Aleister Crowley and subsequently bought by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame (for its connection with majick) was partially destroyed by a fire that had broken out in the vacant residence.
Crowley choose this spot for its particular geographic resonance (appearances of the Loch Ness Monster could be attributed to certain demons and familiars from his pantheon) with his philosophy of Thelema and his mission of occult outreach and made some major modifications to the house to these ends. Ostracised as a traitor and corrupter of youth, Crowley repaired to a commune in Cefalรน—by Palermo, Sicily—to establish his church, an anti-monestary in this ancient Greek outpost, until being banished under the same suspicions by Mussolini. Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same was filmed on the grounds of Boleskin and the motto “do what thou willst” features prominently in the band’s discography, as well as enjoying other pop culture appearances. The Sicilian abbey is currently on the market, though in grave disrepair.
As first seen on The Queen is not Amused, researchers have found lionesses in Botswana that have evolved to express more traits, like the mane, colouring and roar, of their male counterparts—perhaps to better protect their families from potential abusive mates or perhaps to sneak up on prey, since it is the females that do the lion’s share of the hunting and a lithe gazelle might not be so quick to react to a marauding but outwardly loutish lion.
Not that it is any less non-canonical, I think that name signifies “Jesus-brother” rather than a specific individual, and after all Jesus is really named Immanuel, God is with us. Fleeing the Holy Land, Jesus returned to Japan, carrying the only two relics that could be salvaged, a lock of His mother’s hair and Isukiri’s dismembered ear, to retire and become a rice-farmer. The family that claims descent from the Messiah are devout Buddhists.
Dangerous Minds shares an interview with bon-viveur and iconic gadfly Quentin Crisp, wherein he reviews and rates his favourite gangster films, as the portrayal of violent death can be rather life-affirming.
Most of the movies that make Crisp’s top-ten list are classics from the Howard Hawks, Prohibition era (strange how most of the mob comes out of nannying) but interestingly also include a couple contemporary (to the time of the critique), like Millers’ Crossing and Reservoir Dogs. Mister Crisp (perhaps most unrecognised to modern audiences as Queen Elizabeth I in the adaptation of Virginia Woolfe’s—another poisoned-pen—Orlando) was himself celebrated as the titular character in the Sting song Legal Alien/Englishman in New York.
Though sometimes touted with great optimism as the desk-side Industrial Revolution, democratizing manufacture and taking the power away from big business (and one ought not to curb one’s aspirations on this account), invoking how inkjet printers did not put the publishing magnates into arrears Wired! magazine presents more of a tamed but nonetheless important speculation on the possibilities of 3D printing with modelling to help artists and artisans perfect their final product.
Sort of like confronting a first draft with red ink and the necessary detachment from one’s own words, 3D modelling and experi- mentation allows one to explore folds, contours and stresses nearly as on the native media and approach the potters’ wheel, as it were, with a bit more confidence. But what do you think? There’s probably much to be gained by the return of cottage-industry or the ability to assert some independence from the factories and sweat-shops or even one’s warranty and service-agreement by being able to produce one’s own quasi-unauthorised replacement parts. Perhaps the desktop revolution did not occur with printing and self-publishing (at least, not to order) in part because the presses were so cheap but the ink so dear. Designing our own printers, however, perhaps we won’t let that short-coming materialise, unless we are placated with instant delivery on demand and the tumult of obsolescence.
