shockeye of the quanwncing grig

Having recently learned that a shelved Whovian mini-series had been completed after decades of neglect, called Shada, focusing on the inmates of a maximum security prison planet, we were understandably excited that the first villain in this rogues’ gallery of poorly costumed bad guys was none other than the Cambridge bon-vivant Skagra whose campy uniform consisted of a floppy hat and silver cape with disco pants. From the Monarch to the Movellans (adversarial to the Darleks so I suppose an ally), there’s plenty of nemeses to call to mind as they try to thwart the Doctor and his companions and whose greater crimes may have been against fashion than the balance of power in the Cosmos. Who is your favourite?

roiling-stock

As if Christmas weren’t already coming early for many industry titans with the planned repeal of net neutrality consumer protections which is to include removing the burden of fair disclosure, it seems that the US kakistocracy has also expressed a willingness to ease the regulatory onus on the airlines by no longer requiring them to be upfront about fees for baggage and handling, seat-selection, boarding-priority and other services described as optional. These rollbacks would make it much harder for consumers to compare fares and would eliminate the reporting requirement that stipulates that the airlines publish what profit they make from these ancillary fees for things that used to be a courtesy. I wonder what affronts are to follow.

dig dug

Stock-market traders leveraged a design weakness in bitcoin and other virtual, sometimes-cryptocurrencies by treating what was meant to replace money as an investment vehicle and that greedy impulse has created potential obstacles in becoming the better stewards of the environment that we absolutely have to become, as Things Magazine explores from several angles.
As the speculative value of the electronic currency goes up, the computing power needed to maintain the protocols of the network increases exponentially and thus the power needed to run the platforms and despite vanishingly small returns, the computing power needed to “mine” for new coins. It’s hard to keep one’s sights on savings and efficiency and reducing one’s carbon footprint while carpet-baggers are willing to spend presently a day’s worth of the electricity needed to power nine Western households on virtual spelunking. There’s still a profit to be made and there have been examples of calculated efforts to use greener sources of energy—like geothermal sources in Iceland to power server farms but that’s after plane-loads of cargo were dispatched there. What do you think? It strikes me as demoralising and I don’t trust this scheme to drive us toward innovation. If we continue on the same trajectory mining for virtual currency will soon surpass the energy needs of the entire industrialised world and that could in no way be a sustainable situation.

spomenik

From the Serbo-Croatian word for monument, we discover via Calvert Journal, there’s a well-curated, well- researched catalogue of the thousands of memorials to World War II erected under the direction of Josip Broz Tito’s regime in Yugoslavia from the 1960s to 1990. We only encountered a few during our trip to Croatia but then again we were not equipped with a map to seek them out, nor did we appreciate their historical context and intent to unify an amalgam of people through large scale community art project. Uniquely, the abstract geometric objects (previously) were proposed as a means to decontextualize conflict and remembrance and a departure from the usual monuments of Soviet heroes—which more than a quarter of a century after the fall of the Iron Curtain, still elicit discussion and debate in all forms.

truth in advertising*

Any industry could be accused of extorting its customers with hidden fees and fine print and internet service providers are probably already among the worst culprits and if the Federal Communications Commission chooses to award the telecoms the gift of repealing the restrictions and consumer protections afforded under net neutrality, we learn via Slashdot, ISPs won’t be required to disclose what sort of extra costs individuals might incur should they exceed their data caps and terms of their monthly plans. Companies also won’t be required to be forthcoming about penalties for switching plans or providers nor about promotional and introductory rates and how quickly that trial period might lapse.

hoedown

Via Super Punch, our attention is shifted to the profoundly strange and fraught development of square dancing in the US. Though rooted originally in European folk dance, the American version of it is a big departure that saw a revival in the 1940s and 50s as a romancing of cowboy pastiche and not having the historical context and provenance that I thought.
Make of this what you will and do explore the thread at the link above for more dance-conspiracy, industrialist Henry Ford and educator Dr Lloyd “Pappy” Shaw strongly prompted the wholesome activity as a counterbalance to the deleterious influence of jazz and pushed to make modern Western square dance (as distinct from New England quadrilles and that of Appalachia whose dances are a direct descendant of Scots traditions) a national dance. While it certainly does not seem as provocative and divisive as American Confederate monuments erected decades later and only to intimidate and I don’t know how nefarious the above characterisation is, it is a little shocking to learn and I wonder if our Cosplay Nazis might not adopt and champion the return of this trend. Then I am confident that the forces of good would prevail in when challenged to settle their differences with a dance-off.

unboxing

Via My Modern Met, we are introduced to the Japanese craft and cloth called furoshiki (風呂敷), a traditional wrapping medium and technique that seems like an appealing alternative to the customary pile of crumpled papers that is the detritus of the holidays.
Originating during the early Edo period, the practice was first devised as a way for bathers to bundle their clothes after disrobing at public spas and avoid a wardrobe mix up and eventually extended its meaning to include packaging wares for transport or to present and decorate a gift. Furoshiki has seen a decline—remaining all along the preferred way, however, to pack bento boxes as the cloth insulates and doubles as a place-mat—but is now enjoying a resurgence thanks to growing attention to our impact on the environment.

raison d’être

There is a concept in Japanese culture—especially enshrined among the population of Okinawa—similar to the French philosophical invocation above called ikigai (生き甲斐), which is generally translated as “a reason for being.”
Finding one’s true calling and intrinsic worth is not an easy task and not one that’s admitting to short-cuts (I think that one of the most important lessons that’s at least a glancing acquaintance if not something learnt and taken to heart, is that prayer—in whatever form you give it to include mediation and mindfulness—is not supposed to be petitionary but the chance to reflect and to assemble and articulate what’s missing or what’s falling short plus garner solidarity and that affecting change takes work) but the search and discovery (it’s hard but not elusive or impossible as deriving meaning and satisfactory from life is far from being unattainable) is character-building and gives searchers a reason to persevere.