anima mundi

Adding an extra dimension of respect and upcycling, reviving the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle among the environmentally-minded (we might also add another r-word in refusal of what does not avail itself of one of the other options in the first place) that’s in danger of becoming a platitude, we thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to the Japanese concept of mottainai (もったいない) exclaiming lament over waste and regret of something not being used to its full potential.
The sustainable antidote to affluenza—the plague of throw-away culture and disposable society, the term and its meaning correspond with other aspects of Japanese culture and reverence for resource and repair, mottainai premises that if one values an item intrinsically—to include its packaging—there’s no reason for waste at all. Much more to explore at the links above.

sars-cov-2

When the outbreak first occurred and the scale and scope began to become more appreciable, there was speculation whether the novel coronavirus might be China’s Chernobyl moment, a cover-up and a public-relations disaster that was on par with the physical legacy in terms of trust for the Soviet leadership by the people—and while criticism for China may continue from both ends, both faulting them for silencing early responders and more the enduring surveillance apparatus meant to monitor and control its spread—the metonymical characterisation is probably better hitched to the United States of America for its obfuscation and inadequate response.
The press and medical science, both institutions that Trump and authoritarians revile in general, are sorely needed to be brought into the fight and unwillingly to enlist their unbegrudging help, the regime has turned to bombast and denial and equating ignorance with containment. Not only does this moment lay bare the precarity of the US dysfunctional healthcare system and labour market, millions of those just getting barely getting by with no margin for contingencies to fall back on and uninsured, far more afraid of the bill than maintaining a clean bill of health, it threatens to dismantle the façade that Trump and his ilk were good for business as the world economy adjusts to deal with old, new realities that lurk at the periphery along with their usual cadets of xenophobia and conspiracy.

a kind of spouge

Dalton Sinclair Bishop (also known by his stage name Jackie “Manface” Opel), of Bridgetown, Barbados (*1937) had his promising career as a song-writer and performer tragically cut short this day in 1970, killed in an auto accident in his hometown. Though his discography and legacy with standards like Higher and Higher, You’re No Good, and When a Man Loves a Woman are in themselves unimpeachable, Opel is most famous for his invention of a genre of music called Spouge (sometimes spelled Spooge) as a fusion of ska and calypso styles that was very popular in the mid-1960s, both regionally and further abroad, influencing hymns, gospel music and sea-shanties amongst the diaspora. Instrumentation was originally limited to cow bell, bass guitar and steel drums but eventually expanded to trombones and trumpets—and even synthesizers with the style’s perennial rediscovery and homages.

approaching pavonis mons by balloon (utopia planitia)

A few days ago, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured this collapsed opening in a shield volcano (Peacock Mountain) in the Martian Tharsis region—originally discovered during the Mariner 9 mission in 1971 with the gentle rise and general topography near the planet’s equator making the feature a good candidate for the anchor of a space elevator, tethered to the captured asteroid of Deimos—and teased that the protected environment within the cavern could be a promising refuge for hold-out Martian life forms. Long before being imaged again by a Mars orbiter in 2011, it was the subject of the eponymous Flaming Lips’ song from their 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The next phrase of the exploration programme, due to land February 2021 includes a rover called Perseverance equipped with a drill to extract and study core samples and an aerial drone, which could peer down into such places.

hamsterkauf

Those Germans have a word for everything—including one that perfectly captures the FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out) effect compounded with panic-buying, from the reputation that the humble rodent has for hoarding food within its own cheeks. Supermarkets are displaying notices that yes we have no Desinfektionsmittel, Toliettenpapier, und so weiter. Perhaps reflective of the Zeitgeist, the term—or its verbal form hamstern, gehamstert, will join the borrowed ranks of Zivilcourage, Schadenfreude and Doppelgänger soon.

panoseti

While primarily designed for the study of natural phenomena like pulsars and evaporating black holes two experimental telescopes at San Jose’s Lick Observatory, due to come on-line soon, are also being conscripted for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence as part of a pulsed all-sky near infrared optical survey.
As laser beams are less energy intensive and less susceptible to degradation over great distances researchers postulate that coded pulses of light might be a preferred form of communication, especially on an interstellar scale, and something outside of the radio range where SETI has traditionally looked. Although not specifically calibrated to search for alien megastructures, looking in the infrared spectrum might pick up on the residual heat of a Dyson Sphere, a theoretical construct popularised by the recently departed Freeman Dyson (*1923, first proffered by science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon in a 1937 novel) of an alien civilisation advanced to the point that they could contain and harness the output of a star’s power.

operation lumberjack

On this day in 1945, during the Battle of Remagen, Allied forces unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge, by the United States Twelfth Army Group under the leadership of General Omar Bradley, that spanned the Rhein and enabled them to establish a bridgehead on the eastern shore—essential to the success of Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operation Plunder that hinged on the smoothly timed advancement of several flanks to carry out a decisive invasion of Nazi Germany and hastening its surrender. Under constant assault and bombardment by Nazi forces until its ultimate collapse ten days later, the crossing remained intact long enough to allow forces to gain a foothold in the strategically important territory, taking the Mosel, Eifel and Köln and preventing German units there from re-grouping and launching a counter-attack.

subpar parks

Having been reminded recently how placing everything at the mercy of critical reviews and reception leaves nothing sacred, graphic designer Amber Share’s project, we discover courtesy of Boing Boing, really spoke to us: finding the one-star ratings left for each of the sixty-four US national parks, like the appraisal pictured for Sequoia National Park founded in 1890, and hand-lettering a poster in WPA (see previously) style. See a whole gallery at the artist’s website and at the link above.