mail-order or to be determined

BLDGBlog shares a glimpse of New Future Lab's latest print catalog that offers a dizzying array of products and services for shoppers in an imagined near future.

It draws on science-fiction and the speculations (and warnings) of futurists to imagine the marketing and packaging of some life-enhancing merchandise. The description of some of the items is appropriately tongue-in-cheek and there's a healthy bit of circumspection here vis-à-vis our own consumption and buying patterns, but a lot of these visions, gimmicks—neither too dark nor too utopian and post-commercial—could be realised in a few years time, perhaps kick-started by this very catalog. Though I am sort leagues better, it makes me think of those sleek, with some sort of retro-feeling, catalogs of promising, luxurious gadgets that they have on airplanes, which seem to always make for good reading-material.

pay the piper

One hundred prominent German authors have joined in protest with many members of the American literati over the apparently manipulative business model of one of the biggest book markets.
It seems that publishing houses who resist subscribing to the low royalty rates that the online retailer is pushing is finding delays with delivery and long wait-times for the availability of its titles, in addition to problems with negotiating contracts. On the side of the publishers, there have also been accusations of collusion in pricing and pittance to writers—over the pricing pressure that the seller demands. Authors certainly ought to have a say in their livelihoods and creativity should not be made to suffer over the petty embargoes of warehousing and shipping, but it seems that the strife was nascent at the beginning of selling books on-line: a very clever idea that took down those commercial libraries and pulp-cartels and provided a success way for people to expand their reading network (though at the expense of smaller shops). Along came electronic books, however, and the expectation of free or nominal costs for print not bound or committed to paper—and neither seller or sadly author can expect much of a commission. What do you think? Does this on-line book seller (diversified to all sorts of products now) pose a threat to literature—or are these just the advances and terms of a book deal taken to the shop?

rayon x ou petites curies

A brilliant dispatch from Mental Floss relates the story of Marie Curies' inspired frustration and determination not to sit idly by as the horrors of WWI intruded into her homeland.

Dissatisfied with mere fidutiary contributions and recognising that the trench warfare was rough-shod and merciless, Curie and her daughter undertook a harrowing journey—without hesitation—retrieving a ingot of Radium that she had isolated from a bank safe deposit-box in Bordeaux and invented the science of radiology, radiography and disciplines of nuclear medicine (which no one could question owing to its novelty), learnt to drive an ambulance and single-handedly triage field hospitals (the recruiting and training of medics came later) equipped with x-ray equipment to help surgeons better assess and treat battle-damage and provide some heavy-handed sterilisation. Eventually succumbing to her own life-saving techniques, I imagine that the ingenious scientist was all too aware of the risk in her methods, which make the artefacts (her laboratory equipment, notebooks and clothing that are still radioactive), while pushing for progress in the techniques, a legacy of danger, imagination and outright bravery.

minced oath or peacock not proud

The mire of war and meddling is always fertile ground for euphemism.  The US government, after the admission that humanitarian airstrikes are basically ineffective, more dazzle and sleight-of-hand, and that the refugee-corridor of those fleeing the violence remains unprotected, despite pledges that the combat phase of the Iraqi entanglement is over and there will be no more boots on the ground (parenthetically, in a combat role), is sending additional assessors to Northern Iraq to act as military advisers. These five hundred or so newly arrived troops are in addition to the force of eight-hundred acting as minders for the embassy and airport.
It’s a challenge to talk around the subject, just as it was with such figments as detainees for unlawful enemy combatants or Global War on Terrorism to Overseas Contingency Operations.  Naming-conventions aside and focusing on the real and immediate problems of the Iraqi people, I find this overall America programme of break-to-own (which is present in other aspects as well and not just military intervention) highly disturbing.  Among those stranded in the mountains and facing a slow but sure death, unable to return to their homelands, are the Yazidi, who ISIS wish to purge along with the other ethnic and religious minorities of Iraq to keep Islam pure.  The Yazidi are conflated as devil-worshippers by many outsiders because of their reverence for their chief holy caretaker, the Peacock Angel (Tawûsê Melek, مَلَك طَاوُوس).  Like Lucifer of other traditions, the Peacock Angel was introduced to God’s newest creation, Man, and asked to bow before him.  Both the Peacock Angel and Satan refused God’s request but for different reasons: the former out of loyal piety and the latter out of pride.  Both archangels were expelled, but the Yazidi caretaker is not regarded as a fallen angel but rather a redeemed one, who having repented, was forgiven.  Though this article of faith is much more than just a moral, I think there is a lesson to be learnt here about ethical obligations always trumping rhetoric and political aspirations.

meanwhile, back at the ranch

Isn't it a enjoy how everything is delivered just in time and in a neat little package to assuage the capitalists?

Mexico, which has a staunch reputation for protecting its native resources and treasures—even going so far as to forbid the import or shedding of American genetically-altered foodstuffs (but who would know, since Mexico only makes the news for its trespasses), has agreed after seven decades to relax the state monopoly on the petroleum industry and allow American and European concerns, chomping at the bit access to vast, untapped reserves. That such an announcement comes unheralded at the moment when American influence in the Middle East is collapsing and Russia threatens to cut-off the EU is quite a marvelous coincidence that bears no further investigation, as providence takes care of its own, even when the reporting is magical-thinking.

slack and dune or totem and taboo

Most know the Dune franchise of Frank Herbert and son popularly from the 1984 cinematic adaptation (by David Lynch no less) and its political struggle to control the production of the spice melange by a cast of esoteric and archetypal characters. As memorable and hopefully piquing as this portrayal is, the battle for control of Arrakis—complete with intrigues that hint at the importance of the commodity and the safe-keeping of the controlling-cartel—the spectacle, I think, pushed the back-story further into the background and left the author's vision and prescience just out of reach. With fears of a robot-holocaust ravaging humanity popping up in the news lately—and from all different directions, it might be worth taking a look back at the saga that was penned in 1965 but tossed into the a far distant dystopia ten-thousand years from now.
Thinking-machines eventually came to see no value in human life, as if our creations once achieving genuine independence and sentience would revere us as gods—humans do not even do a good job at that, despite superstition and other frailties that cannot be programmed—and proceed to exterminate those that they cannot enslave, humans not built of valuable rare-earth metals.  The revolt ended with the enduring dictum “Thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind,” with many fascinating institutions developed over the eons to compensate for the loss of convenience that the prohibition and taboo brought about. Even if not so heavy-handed as the active destruction of humanity and more the sorrowful decline of creativity, faith and manners, I expect matters to acceleration much more quickly than anyone is prepared for—and certainly before mankind is about to explore the stars. What do you think? I am not sure why there is this sudden, apparent resurgence over the dangers of a robot take-over. Maybe it is due to insecurity over jobs or the imitation of thought that data-mining can execute. No matter how near or far Singularity is, such warnings go unheeded at our peril.