8x8

revamp: the classic Vespa (previously) reincarnated as an electric vehicle whose dash console is one’s mobile phone, via the always splendid Nag on the Lake

white noise: a multimedia appreciation of the pioneering electronic composer and sound archivist Delia Derbyshire, who also created the opening theme music for Doctor Who

peafowl: an Australian community is divided over whether the urbanised birds are a nuisance or nice to have around

electroconvulsive shock: a FOIA filing includes an unexpected manual on the use of “psycho-electronic weapons,” via Boing Boing

exonym: in order to disburden itself of its past as a British colony—and possibly reduce confusion with Switzerland—Swaziland will return to its precolonial identity of eSwatini 

flóttamaður: still at large, the suspected ring leader behind the mass theft of computers for bitcoin mining in Iceland escapes prison and flees to Sweden on the same flight that carried the Prime Minister

a state in new england: making the Massachusetts oath of office more concise and assorted other constitutional conventions

subliminal education: an educational material publishing house (previously) conducted a massive experiment in classrooms across the US to test the efficacy of its new material without disclosing the “interventions” (previously) to any of the unwitting students and teachers, via Marginal Revolution

walled garden

Prior to learning about this breaking development thanks to Super Punch, I was mulling the notion of reinstating part of PfRC’s and my personal media presence once the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect, but the company’s surprise decision to repatriate its Ireland-based international operations means that the new law will have magnitudes fewer beneficiaries.
The four hundred million or so EU-area residents that are creators and consumers of digital content will be covered, and had the headquarters remained in Ireland and under EU jurisdiction so would the rest of the global population of over a billion and a half users whose activities are banked there, with the exception of North American records which are stored in California. With only Europe cordoned-off, all other data from accounts around the world will migrate to servers in the US and the company will have far greater latitude in what it does with people’s history and demographics. What do you think? Though we are glad to be afforded at least a measure of protection and control (maybe, hopefully a meaningful one), it seems like a real jerk move on the company’s part to deprive the rest of the world by centralising its clearinghouses and now I don’t think in good conscience reanimate my account. What we let this company get away with informs how all other stewards of privacy and truth behave going forward.

frühling in wiesbaden

The weather today was splendid and enjoyed the vast park between the Bahnhof and the newly remodeled Rhein-Main Conference Centre (Congress-Zentrum) across from the city’s venerable art and natural history museum.

la révolution introuvable

A recent interview with EU parliamentarian Daniel (le Rouge) Cohn-Bendit who was one of the student-leaders during the unrest in Paris that ignited in May of 1968, ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the riots, had two rather pointed statements: during the protests, no one was asking us about our relationship with 1918 and, commenting on today’s atmosphere, Cohn-Bendit’s compatriots were fearless about the future, whereas things now seem a bit tremulous (with notable exceptions).

hex key

We learn via Slashdot that robotic engineering is on the brink of surpassing an important milestone in terms of dexterity, coordination, versatility and patience in assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, a complicated, hands-on experience that would have until just recently been too much to ask of even the most sophisticated robots.
Spending half its time modeling a plan (and a little guidance from its handlers what the end product was to be without the ability yet to just consult the manual) and the rest on putting the chair together, both novice teams finished the job in about twenty minutes. See a video demonstration of the competition and feat at the link above.

extended character set

Appreciating that as originally a Japanese convention, quite a lot culturally significant symbols would be represented in emoji, like the Great Wave off Kanagawa, Mount Fuji or a bento box. I was curious what the characters following zodiacal symbols meant.
Initially I felt a little underwhelmed with the list but took the chance to reflect on what strikes others as worthy of inclusion or shorthand for something else. For your edification: 🈁 is Koko for Here, 🈂 is Sa for Service Charge, 🈷 is the sign for Moon and signifies a Monthly Amount, 🈶 means Owned or Not Free of Charge, 🈯 indicates Reserved, 🉐 signifies a bargain, 🈹 a discount, 🈚 is for Free of Charge, 🈲 means Prohibited, 🉑 signals acceptable, 🈸 is the Japanese button for application, 🈴 is used to advertise that one has earned a passing grade, 🈳 is empty and available and used to mean Vacancy, ㊗ is the icon for Congratulations, ㊙ marks a Secret, 🈺 is the equivalent of “Yes, we’re Open,” and 🈵 indicates No Vacancy. The Alpha through Omega Omicron following are incidentally blood-types.

closed-circuit

Through a mesmerising clip that’s a rather voyeuristic illustration of the commuters’ rat-race and routine called Underground Circuit—comprised of a montage of subway footage, Nag on the Lake introduces us to the work of creative artist Yuge Zhou, whose common-thread of the patterns of human activity in urban settings is explored throughout her repertoire.
This particular work struck me as voyeuristic despite the faceless quality of those navigating the outer rings in a somnambulist fashion are nonetheless doing so to the rhythm of the drummers at the centre, a reference to the concept of Phra Phrom, the Four-Faced Awakened One, an auspicious figure of devotion widely adopted by the Chinese and other Asian faith traditions. Watch and listen to the whole video at the links above and discover more of her artwork.

ico or vires in numeris

Not content with having nudged public sentiment sufficiently for a pivot towards isolationism and fascism, reportedly the data-analyst company that scrapped data from untold millions of social-media users to spin those attitudes into a concerted, targeted campaigns that appealed to our insecurities and vanities did so with the ulterior motive of wading into the crypto-currency market, arguably a murkier place due to the slapdash competition than their initial, creepy harvest of personal information, with plans to launch an initial coin offering, eminent until a whistleblower came forward.
The blockchain architecture that frees electronic currency of traditional financial institutions was to be touted as a means of safeguarding one’s personal data, though it was unsurprisingly unclear how that would have exactly worked or whether the firm would disclose the fact that it had built dossiers on us all already. As chilling as this abuse of trust and opaqueness is and each of us should take action to signal that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable, it also strikes me as ultimately comforting and hopefully to know that society, both polite and impolite, does not quite descend into tribalism without a lot of help and manipulation—still easily duped are we.