päntsdrunk

Though perhaps not as wholesomely shareable as the Danish concept of hygge and perhaps not as resonant as another word in the language jingfin that has prompted millions of Chinese to declare themselves spiritually Finnish, we appreciate that the Finns also celebrate the concept called kalsarikännit—roughly translated as the state of pants-drunkenness, extolled in a book by journalist Miska Rantanen subtitled the path to relaxation.
The government of Finland (which back in 2015 also created a pair of emojis to convey the concept) offers the definition of “the feeling when you are going to get drunk home alone in your underwear—with no intention of going out.” Anecdotal evidence plus the country’s consistently high global rankings for happiness, openness, equality and egalitarianism suggests that there’s something to the practise and the balance it brings. Read more at Kottke at the link above.

galvanic response

Not to be outdone by one traditional retailer’s patent of a shopping cart that registers biometric feedback of customers via sensors embedded in the handle to gauge and assess one’s response to various stimuli and better tailor advertisements and enticements according to one’s mood, a virtual re-seller whom consumers voluntarily erect a shrine to in their homes will use aggregate data to determine and detect if suppliants might not be feeling a bit under the weather or nursing a cold and peddle an appropriate prescription to them.
The proprietary personal assistant foregoes the need of a consultation since it could detect an encroaching hoarseness in one’s voice or signals that betray a cognitive delay from a bad night’s sleep that could portent something serious. What do you think? While gimmicky, phoney artificial intelligence might be an easy and attractive thing for businesses to foist on people, this tawdry and manipulative deportment engenders distrust and justified creepiness for actual smartness.

ōsaka banpaku

Via Dark Roasted Blend, we discover a virtual menagerie of cybernetic beings and early robots through an appreciation of the demonstration models created by famed architect and engineer Arata Isozaki.
The duo Deme and Deku were created for Expo’70 Osaka pavilion (previously) had heads with separate control rooms mounted in eye stalks—one which perceives the environment and relays telemetry to the other which instructs the robot how to perform its repertoire of movements and expressions and standing, tower above seven meters in height. Additionally, the world’s fair featured the first spherical concert hall, designed by Karlheinz Stockhausen (previously), debuted the first IMAX film and had exhibits of early mobile phones, local networking and Maglev trains. Learn more at the link above and find a whole gallery of images including video footage of the robots in action, plus maybe find other robot pals we might have forgotten.

hanchō-hōchō.

Last week after decades of operation, the largest fish and seafood exchange in the world, the historic Tsukiji Market (築地市場) of Tokyo held its final tuna auctions but there was little time for nostalgia for the workers of the market with the whole mammoth administration and daily inventory displaced and set up in Toyosu, a subdivision created out of reclaimed land on the waterfront of Kōtō and freeing up the valuable mid-town real estate that the sprawling marketplace and underlying infrastructure occupied.
The great migration, quite the undertaking, was documented by photographer Mizuho Miyazaki, as featured on Spoon & Tamago at the link up top. The title refers to the giant knives skilfully wielded by merchants, fish-mongers to cut and prepare flanks of fish for sale and distribution that captures the eye and admiration of buyers and tourists, but we were happy to see an appreciation of forklift drivers whose unglamorous jobs are too often overlooked but who really run the pre-dawn logistics that makes the whole enterprise possible

der once-ler

Recognising that (beyond the intrinsic value of trees and woodlands in themselves) afforestation and reforestation efforts are as important as reducing emissions and that every little bit helps, Berlin-based search engine Ecosia (previously) the Guardian reports has offered the energy company that owns the land that the remnant of Hambacher Forest a million euros to purchase the parcel and preserve it in perpetuity.  Ecosia’s search machine is in an browser overlay that is non-intrusive and generates revenue through advertisements which are used to support tree-planting and other conservation campaigns and one can learn more at the links above and get updates at the organisation’s own blog here.

flintheart glomgold

Though we should not expect much in the way of business acumen from an individual who managed to lose money running a casino and has filed for bankruptcy multiple times but I was surprised to hear, despite stating his every intention to personally capitalise on high-office, that Donald Trump has actually lost (to his consternation and envy for the success of more legitimate businessmen) over a billion dollars in wealth since the 2016 election.
His strategically located Washington, DC hotel is doing a brisk business by visiting dignitaries those who wish to curry favour with the US despot as are his tacky resorts and the plenipotentiary powers that come with members’ dues, but those ventures combined with aggressive tax-avoidance and outright evasion are not able to rehabilitate the family brand, sullied with a bothersome reputation of sexual predation, bigotry, wilful ignorance and imprisoning young children.

the kessler syndrome

The night skies of the Dutch town of Almere, as Dezeen reports, are host to a project from designer Daan Roosegaarde, known for his massive installations that combine technology and art in urban environments, that track and visualise in real time the nearly thirty-thousand registered pieces of orbiting space debris that envelops the Earth with neon green laser lights, evoking the juxtaposing nostalgia for monochrome monitors and radar traces with the other-worldly and alien.
Perhaps it strikes some that fretting over space junk is an indulgent luxury but as the artist reflects, these sizable objects are a threat to keeping the channels of communication open as well as advances in exploration itself—the title referring to the nightmare situation of collisional cascading where the low Earth orbit becomes so over-crowded with waste that safe space travel becomes untenable for generations and we lose our motivation to explore. The abstract threat, a feeling shared among stargazers surely, becomes immediate and encourages the audience to think about solutions and ways to upcycle the detritus of past missions. Learn more at the links up top.

linkrot

Via Messy Nessy Chic’s peripatetic exploration, we are treated to a fascinating tour of the physical campus—a former Christian Science church—of the Internet Archive, a project which has curated what’s approaching four hundred billion websites in the past twenty-two years.
With bots scouring the web at all times and collecting presently a half a billion new pages weekly, this operation as well as choosing what to conserve for future generations given limited space and resources is not for the meek and is a good reminder to appreciate your local librarians, especially given that much like in real life, those for profit industries flush with cash and influence lean too heavily on foundations like the Internet Archive and Wikipedia who count on the work of countless volunteers and the donations of those who believe that their pursuits are worthwhile and worth preserving. PfRC apparently made the grade the first time back in 2015. See where your contribution to the on-line world resides on the shelves and stacks and consider making a financial contribution. For all the justified angst over the panopticon of the internet committing everything to one’s permanent record, the fact is that websites and connections wither away and require a substantial amount of upkeep and intervention to conserve the past, particularly when the present acquires a selective memory.