first-past-the-post

Via Imperica, one is invited to build one’s own fantasy Parliament using a Generative Adversarial Network (see previously here and here) to create perfectly plausible virtual members.
Despite inherent bias built in to artificial intelligence that tends to reflect back to us our worse inclinations, I think that these representatives might turn out to be fairly agnostic though there’s no way to gainsay or guarantee that they would turn out any better than the current sitting legislative, apparently willing to squander progress, trust and goodwill by creating one set of rules for the governed and another for the ruling and expect the underclass to gladly accept more austerity and isolation in the bargain. Do let us know how your rotten borough, your pocket constituency fares.

silesian pallas

Polyglot, polymath and one of the most important contributors to stellar cataloguing, star charts and calculating the course of the planets of the early modern era, Maria Cunitz was born in present-day Wołów on this day circa 1610 (†1664).
Her work Urania propitia—generous Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, corrected and simplified the logarithmic tables of Johannes Kepler—which while serving purely for astrological forecasts were rooted wholly in astronomical observation and calculations—and included sections for tabulating future solar and lunar eclipses, computing the mean motion of astral bodies across the firmament and the use of stars for navigation. Aside from the more accessible presentation of methodology, the book’s publication in Latin and German gave it a far wider readership and helped establish German as language of the sciences.

minitrue or signal-to-noise ratio

Accruing no irony for the fact that Trump has his soapbox and megaphone by the graces of the provision of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which shields social media platforms from being sued for libel and leaves posting and moderation up to the internal policies of the host (since in this case freedom of the press is determined by whom owns said press) so long as those decisions are enforced in “good faith,” the same which he proposes to undermine—perhaps fecklessly with an executive fiat, is the last, best safeguard that any outlet has in carrying his threats, incitements and character assassinations since no one would want to risk the liability of amplifying such lies if there was not a reasonable guarantee of being immune from prosecution.
This legal aegis has of course emboldened Trump to take his message to greater extremes (not to mention to legislate and publish policy changes via tweet) and is the sort of sensationalism that underwrites the apparent free cost and freedom of speech that is served up on these commercial platforms that are draped—or swaddled, in the robes of a public utility, and mostly likely as with earlier efforts to confirm a media bias will prompt no change—including doing less than nothing to combat disinformation—may signal a chilling when it comes to hosting statements critical of the regime, which is full-stop propaganda. This side-show is of course a cruel distraction from the abject failure of the United States to respond to a health crisis made far worse by the government’s abrogation of responsibility and leadership and a push to reopen businesses and return to a loathsome status quo that wasn’t expressed in pent up purchasing and hiring to stimulate the economy and get people’s livelihoods restored but rather satisfy the entitled desire of people to be waited on and to make up for lost time with gun violence and police brutality.

tma-0

According to the director’s original vision, the iconic and arresting prop from the 1968 cinematic adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey and a character in its own right (see previously) was to be a transparent hulking block of acrylic.  After having the two tonne megalith delivered—fulfilled by Stanley Plastics, a speciality company near Portsmouth, it failed the camera test and Stanley Kubrick went with the matte black basalt structure that we’re familiar with.
The Tycho Magnetic Anomaly has an exacting ratio of 1 : 4 : 9—1 : 2² : 3³, suggesting that the sequence extends out beyond our three spatial dimensions. Although the transparent version was mothballed and gathered dust in a studio backlot for years, the rejected prop did see a second career in the hands of Slovakian artist Arthur Fleischmann (*1896 – †1990), who was generally besotted with modern materials like Lucite and Perspex (also creating the UK Pavilion for Expo70) carved it into a sparkling “Crystal Crown,” unveiled by the Queen herself on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee. The commemorative artefact can still be visited at St. Katherine Docks just downstream of the Tower of London.  More to explore at Amusing Planet at the link above.

studio ghibli

Realising that I’m guilty of usually lazily punting away the pronunciation of something until compelled to say it out loud and was surprised to hear that the above entertainment company properly said with a j-sound as /dʒɪbli/ rather than with a hard g-sound as /gɪbli/—see also, and found its origin and etymon, that is—the true and literal sense—and sound of a word according to its derivation.
Suggesting that they would take the industry by storm—in homage to the success of its founding animated production Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984, the executives chose the Italian word Ghibli, the name for the desert sirocco that blows in from North Africa—itself rooted in the Arabic qibliyy, قِبْلِيّ, with a hard g. Incidentally the Germanic equivalent term is Föhn—from the Latin Favõnius (favoured), the Roman god of the West Wind, used to describe an arid, katabatic wind, and colloquially also the word for a blow-drier (Haartrockner).

jure uxoris

Buried in the churchyard of the chapel of Saint Peter ad Vincula (in Chains) of the Tower of London, another Royal Peculiar like Westminster Abbey, where she was imprisoned and executed unrepentant with no crime articulated against her, the feast of the martyrdom of the Blessed Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (*1473 – †1541) is celebrated today—advanced one day as Augustine of Canterbury already occupied the actual date with her estranged son Reginald the last Catholic to hold that office before the split of the Church of England—on the order of Henry VIII.
Niece of kings Edward IV and Richard III, Margaret was one of the few members of the House of the Plantagenet to survive the War of the Rose and though once reduced to poverty was able to restore herself and her immediate family, titled in her own right—the other being Anne Boleyn, Marquess of Pembroke, also executed under the orders of the same. Though having no designs on restoring the dynasty and presenting no real threat to the king’s legitimacy, Margaret was disposed of, ostensibly on the intimation of treason, for being a power and independent individual—not to mention a landed woman of means whose property could be repossessed.

bubble wand

For a few weeks now I had been wondering if creating a force field of soap bubbles or frothy foam might not disable viruses lingering in the air but fretted over the diversion of resources and efficacy versus the very real promoter of effective behavioural shifts in gamification and dressing up, accessorising—and while there still might be elements of window-dressing and gimmickry in some of these entrants in a sponsored competition, I liked how the idea was championed as a way to reframe hygiene in a society learning to deal and cope with COVID. Other honourable mentions included a clever doorbell that dispensed a dollop of hand sanitiser for arriving visitors, proposals for public washing-up stations and disinfectant doses encapsulated in a seaweed membrane so as not leave plastic litter. Learn more about the call for submission from Dezeen at the link above and get inspired yourself.

we can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again

Loath as we are to call any extra attention to Trump’s doltish antics that try to reel the world back into the idea of American exceptionalism or that humanity and its gracious hosts needs more of it—we’ve moved beyond the Anglo-Saxons in general as a matter of fact, his resurgent attack on the social media platform that is undeniably his bread-and-butter is a bit irresistible.
Cruelly appropriating the death of a reporter’s intern (at the same time disavowing that of one hundred thousand others) whom had soured on the former object of his admiration and cheerleading as leverage to discredit, his most diverse amplifier checked the veracity of his claims (plus his unfounded condemnation of mail-in ballots as voter fraud), wounding Trump’s notorious thin-skin and earning a punishing hiding from on high, citing how conservative viewpoints are silenced and threatening retribution. Let’s see how this one develops.  Close your account—that'll learn ‘em.