The broadcaster Nord-Deutsche Rundfunk presented an interesting and tragic documentary illustrating the consequences of Western consumption and cavalier disposable attitudes and some of the unintended consequences of best-intentions.
Wednesday 25 January 2012
yarn-bomb or garment district
catagories: ๐, ๐บ, environment, labour
dash, pinch, grain
There is apparently a modest proposal circulating on the internet, which touches everything from credible sources to social-engineering to censorship to Orwellian thoughtcrime, and it is difficult to dissect the tone and earnestness but I think the suggestion that major search engines should either filter out or at least warn gentle-readers when they come across a website espousing fringe- or conspiracy-theories or pseudo-science has to be a provoking gadfly to raise all sorts of debate and get those debaters engaged. After all, who would be determining the criteria that would earn content an almost universal and discrediting label? The internet, beyond ensuring free-exchange of archival knowledge and new experimentation and even assertion, with or without suffering the rigours of the scientific method or peer-review, also is good at creating an environment that incubates such alternatives, perpetuating them and allowing others with similar convictions and suspicions to find one other. Whether confirming and reinforcing the "false" beliefs of another is a dangerous or irresponsible thing for adult and literate advocates and detractors alike should not be taken away from the individual, of course, and ought not be a matter for the facilitators (the search engines) to condone or condemn either. The printing industry was not expected to police the more outrageous tabloids and most were still able to raise the appropriate level of skepticism or curiosity while waiting on queue for the super-market checkout. Beliefs, mainstream or not, about the environment, diet and nutrition, vitamins, water-purification would not be the only matters subject to labels, but someone with sufficient passion to be assured that any other point-of-view is wrong and a risk to public-safety could extend uniformity to matters of politics and even religion too.
catagories: ๐ง , lifestyle, networking and blogging
Tuesday 24 January 2012
lite cavalry or jawohl
Having gone through a few rounds of base-closures, de-basing as it is called overseas and RIF (Reduction in Force) in the States, and emerged unscathed, I am uncertain what to feel about this next cycle of transformation, a reset for appraisal of America's military after quitting Iraq and poised to leave Afghanistan. Locally (vor Ort), people are nervous over the potential negative economic impact of loosing soldiers--or making European rotations unaccompanied, tours lasting only a year and without bringing one's family.
Monday 23 January 2012
penumbra
Via the art and design blog, Colossal, Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alakbarov is showcasing some his beautiful installations that are created by light, shadow and perspective. Some of his work is being exhibited at the Phillips de Pury and Company Galleries in London. The artwork is very much worth persuing for any reason (both websites too) and seems to be a good warm-up in showing people around the world creations of contemporary Azerbaijan, in anticipation of the EuroVision song contest to be held in Baku later this year.
The EuroVision tradition itself, which discovered ABBA among others, began as a way to test the level of integration of broadcasters, in technical terms, across borders but endured as a gala challenge that has expanded with the idea of Europe. The far-flung Caucasus certainly seems to be an exotic and wild place, and those qualities and identity decidedly lend allure and are unapologetic, but exchanging host-duties allows outsiders to recognize what more there is to discover.