ma bell

The congressman who represents California’s Silicon Valley wants to summon a telecommunications behemoth to testify before the legislature to account for over a half a million dollars in payments made to the consulting firm, shell company that Trump’s lawyer and ambulance-chaser Michael Cohen established in order to pay hush money to keep secret a tryst between Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels.
The payments from AT&T only came to light in the wake of the attempt to silence Ms Daniels and although AT&T claims it only secured the services of Mr Cohen to gain insights into the inner workings of the administration, it’s intimated that the company was buying influence with the Federal Communications Commission to persuade them to repeal regulations that helped enshrine the principles of net neutrality and anti-trust laws that might be roadblocks to company acquiring a media monopoly.

administratively embargoed

The newly-minted ambassador, officially credentialed and assuming the role just hours prior to Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, to the US mission in Berlin sent out his first missive, suggesting that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.”
It seems like everyone in that crooked cadre does not see words as a mode of communication to be exchanged, but rather as projectiles to fire out demands. Though Trump did not have the nerve (happily) to careen the world economy into chaos with a full-fledged trade war with his promised tariffs on steel exports but a trade war may yet materialise over this threat, given that America reserves the right to impose secondary sanctions on businesses that have dealings with Iran, in any capacity and any company sizable enough to do business with Iran would most likely have an American presence to subject to punishment. Though the US withdrawal from the deal, which was one of Trump’s campaign promises, was not surprising—the extent of punitive second- and third-degree repercussions is, determined to drive a wedge between the US and Europe that will result in greater consensus among those still party to the agreement (were it a treaty, Trump could not withdraw unilaterally): the EU, China and Russia.

manufactured crisis or the art of the repeal

Either out of boredom or malice, Trump again brings the world to the brink of disaster for no good reason, despite a vigourous round of entreaties from world leaders not to and vow for continued commitment to the cause, in breaking away from the robust and effective treaty with Iran that ensured that its rocketry and nuclear programmes were directed towards peaceful, civil aims and not weaponised.
Sowing discontent and mistrust geopolitically serves abjectly no purpose as Iran economically does little trade with the US and the pressure of further economic sanction would only manifest as hostile tensions, not to mention alienating and sidelining America’s allies and major trade partners. This sham of a world leader who is no negotiator, has been influenced by a few equally corrupt governments and advisors with an agenda and stand to profit off of this conflict—through oil and weapon sales. In response to Trump’s cache of adjectives deriding the deal, Iran’s president stated Trump was a “troublesome creature” and would attempt to continue to uphold its terms of the treaty with other parties but there was no guarantee that this move would not set off an arms race. This also signals to other countries, like North Korea that US commitment to peace and stability is rather disingenuous. President Obama, who helped broker the arrangement back in 2015 and who usually refrains from commenting on the bumbling of his predecessor, issued a statement shortly after the announcement that the US would not renew the treaty, “In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one administration to the next. But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers. Debates in our country should be informed by facts—especially debates that have proven to be divisive.”

6x6

basic birch: Gemma Correll presents an assortment of millennial plants

fairway: George Barris (previously) made Bob Hope a one-of-a-kind golf-cart that was a caricature of himself

hexagonal tessellation: high resolution gallery of the mathematically inspired woodcuts and mezzotints of M.C. Escher

kinopanorama: after decades of neglect, Moscow’s theatre in-the-round experience has reopened after a major refurbishment

net cetera: the “Be Best” initiative to combat cyber-bullying might be a touch derivative

isla del encanto: charming ensemble of colourful houseboats of southern Puerto Rico, which weathered Hurricane Maria

state of inebriation

We are treated to another example of persuasive cartography (previously) in this 1931 map of the Isle of Pleasure published by Houston, Texas draughtsman and architect H. J. Lawrence, two years before the experiment with Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933).

Lawrence makes his opinion on the temperance movement and the constitutional amendment that outlawed alcohol fairly clear as he charts his longing to return to the days when liquor was free flowing and not something reveled in covertly and at a high premium due to the black market. Be sure to visit the link above to see more detailed insets and instructions for mixing some of the Prohibition-era cocktails referenced on the map.

ticking the box

Artist Dima Yarovinski has created a rather visually arresting illustration of the contractual boilerplate that we pretend to give our assent to in her installation called “I agree” in the form of colourful unfurled scrolls.
Currently on display at the Aalto University of Helsinki, the footnote to each scroll gives the word count and the average time commitment it would take to read, comprehending the jargon or not, what terms that the user was accepting in exchange for their dalliance. Incidentally, the longest scroll is for Instagram and runs just over seventeen thousand words, which would take approximately an hour and a half to read through. Fine-print has consequences despite the innocuous reputation it likes to cultivate for itself.  I appreciated too how in the spirit of full disclosure, the source site in the discussion posts its parent publisher’s terms of service in full and with bullet points

cluster fact

We’re enjoying catching up by working our waythrough back episodes of the quiz-show podcast Go Fact Yourself created and hosted by frequent Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me! panellist Helen Hong and J Keith van Straaten. Clever and educational, each instalment is like every superlative sketch of Saturday Night Live celebrity Jeopardy! but with teachable moments, especially when players’ self-styled category of special knowledge take a deep-dive and are assessed against guest subject matter experts. I’d recommend beginning with the first episode but one really stand-out early podcast involved Disneyland and Michael Jackson is also a good place to start. Tell me what you think and about your own area of expertise.

zwischenstopp: nordheim vor der rhön

Lying on the continuum of the Streu, a tributary of the Frankish river Saale, like its easterly neighbor, the village of Nordheim is dominated by an ensemble of vernacular architecture known as a Kirchenburg or fortified church that dates back to the settlement’s founding over twelve hundred years hence that looks over its half-timbered houses and series of bridges that cross the northern bend of the stream.
The old footbridge features—as do many bridges across Europe—a statue of John of Nepomuk, a fourteenth century saint who was royal confessor and counsellor to the Queen of Bohemia. Despite threat of death, Nepomuk refused to betray the privilege of priest and confessor to a jealous King Wenceslas who ordered Nepomuk cast into the Vltava (Moldau) for being obstinate.
The martyr’s most famous representation is the figure on the Charles Bridge (Karlův most) in Prague on the spot where he was drowned. Because of his fate and discretion, John of Neomuk is the patron saint protector from drowning and floods as well as respect for the seal of attorney-client privilege, doctor-patient confidentiality and comparable arrangements.