noma

Though I suspect that religion is still a bit of a butinsky in human affairs, we can appreciate the elegant and simple formulation first developed in a 1997 essay by science historian and communicator Stephen Jay Gould.
Each nonoverlapping magisteria represents distinct domains and lines of inquiry, fact and valued respectively, and neither can claim jurisdiction over the other. What do you think? It’s hardly a settled matter and there’s of course a long continuum when the two certainly commingled and invocation is still practised but sometimes it’s helpful to lean heavily into the paradox to arrive at better and more emphatic conclusions.

incognito mode

Absent effective legislation or political will, Polish artist Ewa Nowak is staging her own intervention in the form of disruptive, masking jewelry that defeats facial recognition software (see also).  The business of surveillance does not police itself but at least countermeasures can adapt as well and such stands are especially urgent as such automated monitoring is not only used by state-players to track whereabouts, it’s also being aggressively adopted by the marketing industry to enchant and guide our shopping experience.

typecast and tunnel-vision

We found this discussion on the difference between the gymnasium of serendipities and the human- or increasingly algorithmically-jured recommendations that are designed to maximise engagement and prolong our stay in any of several walled-gardens from Kottke guest contributor Patrick Tanguay to be a particularly resonant one and worth considering in full.
Not that programming and curation is not a skill and many enterprises and endeavours have failed for lack of an organiser to marshal interest, one ought to hold prompts and suggestions in a healthy contempt  and be a touch wistful over our limited palette (sort of the apposite of FOMO) and suspicious of the customised world of news, entertainment and advertising presented to us, unique and inscrutable and tedious.

jovan musk

Weird Universe informs that one fragrance, Calvin Klein’s Obsession, has the particular endorsement of individuals of the feline variety, having near aphrodisiac qualities. Cats are keen on this scent due to one of its signature ingredients that make up the bouquet, a chemical compound called civetone, a pheromone originally distilled from the scent glands of the African civet that can be re-created synthetically with the chemicals found in palm oil. The cologne has allure for both domestic and wild cats.

mail order

Withdrawal from conventions—especially in the form of old, established treaties always have unforeseen consequences and benefits mostly those that are positioned to take advantage of what happens at the margins, negotiating between those inside and outliers.  One knock-on effect of Trump’s announcement  last year that the US would be quitting the one hundred forty-four year-old Universal Postal Union of which almost every other country in the world is party to could result in severe delays (or expulsion of the community mail rooms altogether) for US military and diplomatic staff stationed overseas receiving packages and parcels just in time for the holidays and the shipping season.
America would reconsider if it can renegotiate terminal-dues in such a way that does not economically advantage China, but given the ill-will that the administration has already fostered with host countries with tariffs and even suggesting that nations should pay protection money for the privilege, it seems unlikely that any wants to talk terms with the US.

agronomy-om-nom-nom

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are helped to the realisation that the dominate trend in gaming and by extension, simulations, is your garden-variety agricultural challenge, be that in fostering plants, foraging or cultivating a victory garden for one’s own survival.
I suppose that there’s a universal theme to all computerised games that could admit of the same analogy—though some instances are more obvious than others—and a certain stress-relieving quality that is present in and and common to the stakes of all diversions, though often times progress is measured differently and in the permission to fail and try again, there’s nonetheless something in the Zeitgeist that game architects and engineers are connecting with regarding anxiety and accomplishment. I hope that this skills and rewards can translate to being better, more engaged caretakers of the natural world we increasingly find ourselves estranged from.

a buccaneering buffet

Atlas Obscura presents a fascinating profile of ex-pirate and food writer William Dampier (*1651 – †1715) whose explorations were a span bridging the Golden Age of the exploits of Empire of Sir Walter Raleigh and James Cook with the later scientific expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, Dampier’s travelogue accompanying the latter on the HMS Beagle.
Though also responsible in part for propagating the portrayal of aboriginal peoples as less than human, ultimately court-martialed for cruelties perpetrated in Australia and whose valuing of cargo—an exotic staple crop, breadfruit, for export to struggling colonies—over the well-being of crew informed Mutiny on the Bounty (circumnavigating the globe three times, also inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels), without Dampier’s gustatory sense of swash-buckling and adventurous appetite, our palette might not have the taste for soy-sauce, bananas, cashews, barbeque or guacamole—to name a few. Fortunately, other delicacies sampled, like matinees and flamingos, did not catch on. 

7x7

gotham: photographer Amey Kandalgaonkar captures Art Deco Shanghai as informed by the dark backgrounds of Batman: The Animated Series—via Nag on the Lake

east-enders: a beautiful collection of photographs from the 1920s—via Strange Company

my geode must be acknowledged: the brilliant career of Russi Taylor (RIP, *1944 – †2019), actor who voiced Minnie Mouse and Martin Prince—among many, many others

reon pocket: Sony test-markets a wearable air-conditioner

e-plein: Renault may bring back its classic beach buggy as an electric vehicle

pen and ink changes: the British Library has dozens of instructional programmes on how medieval manuscripts were made—via the Art of Darkness

daily planet: visualising how a constellation of satellites work together to create a diurnal snapshot of the Earth—previously