the usual suspects or noble-lie

The German press has been nursing a real scoop, patiently, in the emergent scandal of the so called Panama Papers—an unbelievably huge and historic cache of incriminating documents that perjures several prominent figures of public-trust. The implication and betrayal of, for example, the government of Iceland, whom were elevated on a mandate of reform and anti-corruption, is tragic and disappointing but hardly surprising, along with the broader clientele of this holding-company that manages hundreds of thousands of shell-businesses and front organisations globally in attested tax-oases and money-laundering schemes. Nearly every country is participating in one way or another, but the conspicuous absence (at least so far) of the US and Atlantis strikes me as singularly odd. One might reasonably suspect that Plato’s Republic might have indeed kept itself pristine by not confusing self-interest for the Good.

It seems that America is, however, an unlikely candidate for propagating this noble-lie (politically expedient fable) on such a scale without itself being taken in—especially one with the locus in one of the former client-states, itself. I wonder if such a revelation weren’t allowed to incubate for so long in order to selectively discredit dissenting voices. America, despite its outward stance and unique policy of universal-collection (only copied by Eritrea, a practise condemned by the US State Department as a way for dictatorships to ensure funding and punishing immigrants by dint of where they were born), is a tax-haven itself and far from above-board. What do you think? It’s a bit like New Zealand on the globe often being obscured by a geopolitical legend or countries being greyed out due to lack of data. Multi-national corporations have no allegiance, obviously, but are also not completely untethered from their homelands. Those with political power rarely exceed their expectations and are deigned worthy for doing their jobs without too much destructive moon-lighting, but if we are so easily satisfied, I wonder if we deserve better—having dubiously made disloyalty into a virtue. In this environment, everyone is pressured to be an entrepreneur and to supplement one’s income in one way or another: going to unethical and opaque lengths is bad enough, if only skirting the law as it’s been handed down, but hiding one’s questionable and subversive investments, as this legal firm facilitated as well, seems even worse.

vector construction

The always stunning Colossal features a beautiful wire mesh project of artist Edoardo Tresoldi, which recreates the frame—as suggested by the archaeological evidence—of an early church once located at this site in Puglia.
Though the structure appears rather gossamer, it is quite substantial and hosts the different architectural elements that would have supported the original building. Though in our minds’ eye, the tragic loss of the historic heritage in places like Palmyra at the brutal hands of the Cosplay Caliphate is cemented already as exquisite ruins and Tresoldi’s architecture, though true to form, is more inspired and interpretive rather than memorial, perhaps his talent could be deployed to showcase some of the other scars of warfare that weren’t captured in the spotlight of mindless infamy. Be sure to visit the artist’s profile at the link up top to see some more of his signature installations.

cheese it, the mads are calling!

Although never wholly out of sight and out of mind with projects like Cinematic Titanic and live-shows in the years since Mystery Science Theater 3000 went out of syndication, there has never been a reunion event to get the all the Mads and their hapless experimental subjects back together again. As Mental Floss happily reports, they’ll be on stage late this summer but tickets are going on sale shortly. In case you are curious, the name of this blog is an homage to players of MST3K.

decade or joyful mysteries

I spied an unusual piece at the Flohmarkt today, which I was eager to learn more about. It is indeed a single decade (referring to the ten round beads around the circumference that represents one iteration of Hail Mary) rosary ring, but like traditional rosary are not to be worn around the neck, this counter is meant to be rotated with the thumb and forefinger.
Inspired by Basque and Irish designs for more discreet articles of the faith when practising Catholicism was persecuted, these were also distributed to soldiers going off to battle so as not to get tangled up, especially during WWI. One could keep count of the traditional five decades by moving the ring to the next finger.  I am not sure if this is one of those, since it has the microscopic inscription ITALY on the obverse but perhaps as it is intricately worked and I am happy to have learnt something more about praying the rosary.

go canada!

Collectors’ Weekly curates a fine gallery of the collected and concerted advertising campaigns of the Canadian-Pacific holiday-making enterprise.
From the earliest days when the trans-continental railroad was complete, the company ran a screen-printing workshop, employing some of the finest graphic artists, like Thomas Hall and Norman Fraser, to create iconic and timeless travel posters to allure travelers to venture far and wide within its expanded empire that progressed from trains, to planes, cruise-liners and even resort hotels. Be sure to visit Collectors’ Weekly to be treated to much more of this dazzling, vintage ephemera.

doctor zaius, doctor zaius

A Kazakhstani scientist with the alliterative name of Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was a pioneer in the early 1900s in the field of artificial insemination.
Praised and later eulogised by sociologist Ivan Pavlov, Ivanov’s chief accomp- lishments were in the field of animal husbandry and of interest to horse-breeders, but reportedly his research also dabbled in controversy, hoping to create ape-human hybrids, called humanzees—for no particular reason. Early trials failed and the premature death of simian donors and the aftermath of the Soviet revolution put a stop to his further experiments. Contemporaries even composed an opéra-bouffe called Orango to lampoon and chastise Ivanov’s ambitions, but it was not staged until 2011 to somewhat less knowledgable audiences. Let’s be sure to thank the Frinkiac for the ease in finding this appropriate illustration.

hacktivist or equities and securities

The US Federal Bureau of Investigations dropped its suit against one global technological giant, served a backhanded measure of victory to the company for having the integrity not to relent in the face of the governments dragnet policies of surveillance, once the agency realised that there was a back-door way, a security flaw to exploit, to access a user’s data, telemetry, call logs and contacts despite (or perhaps in spite of) the company’s refusal to cooperate.
This one subpoena was arguably a matter of national security and public safety but there would be no way of putting this genie back in the bottle once even one exception was made. The company begged-off, in fact, that they were unable to engineer a work-around to the device’s security protocols, but now the FBI has contracted its work out to another company that could apparently bypass the safety measures, but no one is quite sure how. I find it a little incredulous that purely technical means were applied, but it’s hard to say—especially not that the FBI is magnanimously offering its newly-acquired expertise to help local law-enforcement to shoehorn their way into the phones and gadgets of relatively small-fry criminals (or suspected criminals) to keep tabs on their entire networks and supposed syndicates. There’s a legal provision that could be invoked called “equities review” that could force the former plaintiff to disclose what recourse they found that led to them dropping the case, arguing that it’s better for companies to be made aware of an exploitable flaw so they can patch it instead of affording a few then a lot of parties entry, but I suspect it will be hard to compel the FBI to reveal its sources and stooges.

billboard and hoarding

Though the ways advertising space is appraised these days might be somewhat transformed, I think we can all be nostalgic over Messy Nessy Chic’s appreciation of the faded art of hand-drawn artisanal signage with its distinctive type-faces.
Though it’s only an echo of the craft, we’re often treated to ghost signs or brickads preserved on the façades of older buildings after the business has long since disappeared or the nice, bold penmanship of daily menus written on blackboard easels on the sidewalks before cafes and restaurants. There are a few professionals who still ply the aesthetic but I am hoping that there’s a bigger revival.