explanatory proposition, fusion paranoia or cui bono?

Not that it matters much, but the latest subject of controversial satire in the making was in fact not Muslims but rather Islamophobia itself—nor that no institution was considered sacrosanct and off-limits to ridicule, but this calming and thoughtful reflection from the editorial staff of Boing Boing came across as another neglected spot of truth and clear-thinking.
While I do not think that it is anyone’s intent to correlate civic disengagement with religiosity or that caring about politics and faith excludes cohabitation and that secular sentiments only can make a good citoyen, it is worthy to note how fast-paced and frenetic events cause people on any side to loose their skeptical inner-voice and forget that people lie and lie often in public forums. France is the host and home of probably the least radicalised elements in all of western Europe, yet we all subscribe to the trickery of pundits and martyrs willing, whereas in a more refined venue, doubt would run rampant. Without risking running a-fringe, which shuts down more reachingly creative theories, such a retreat to a safe middle distance also risks empowering that same group of believers, who manufacture crises to exploit. Such thinking, almost superstitiously, cedes power to thuggish interests by legitmising the power and influence of the caliphate but also of every other boogey man that feeds off fears and derision and oversees the surrender of freedoms and privacy. Conspiratorial thinking is not aways on target but still provides a good and robust way to gauge the patterns of our conclusions.

mood board

Writing for Mental Floss, Miss Cellania introduces us to some clever alternatives to the boilerplate, filler text “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.” Sort of like the classic Kant-Generator, my favourite of the bunch is the Samuel L Ipsum. Unlike the other engines, however, that return gibberish based on a certain genre, the sample text that is delivered are actual blocks of dialogue spoken by the characters Mister Jackson has portrayed:

Do you see any Teletubbies in here?  Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name printed on it?  Do you see a little Asian child with a blank expression on his face sitting outside on a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it?  No?  Well, that's what you see at a toy store. And you must think you're in a toy store, because you're here shopping for an infant named Jeb.

And unlike the greeking that’s characterised the lorem ipsum (since it’s not even sensible Latin), one runs the risk of having readers focus on what the text says, rather than how the text-layout and type-speciment looks in the presentation.

hitch and bight

Laughing Squid features a splendidly executed teaching diagram of various knots and their application. The infographic, writ large at the link, is from the design studios of Fix and is called Tying the Knot. The expression “hanging on to the bitter end” and derivations like ‘til the bitter end is from rope tying terminology, referring to the working end of the rope, the length being worked and specifically secured to a bitt—the metal block on a pier. The opposite section of rope that’s not the anchor is called the standing end. I got the merit badge, I think, but I am not sure if I am the best visual learner when it comes to this skill and probably would need some hands-on instruction.

tres chic

The ever marvelous Nag on the Lake directs our attention to a brilliant assemblage of redesigned chicken coops with a Mid-Century Modern flair that are just as functional for their residents as they are stylish. The cosmopolitan ensemble of roost and scratch pictured is called ‘the Cocorico’ and was conceived by artist Maxime Evrard in protest to battery-farming conditions.  See more inspired coop couture creations at the link.

storefront or slate and shingle

Via the Browser, here’s one prognostication for the coming year regarding “distributed content” that’s a very good and quick study.

Already the publishing houses of the internet scuttle writing and reporting to select social networks, where their articles are handily propagated and garner much greater exposure in those wilds, rather than on their own tamer, manicured turf: their home page. The prediction is that news organisations and other forums will shed their own web pages entirely and only exist in that stream of consciousness. Sometimes hosting one’s own content does seem a little vainglorious or ungainly and unrefined, but—and even for all the flash and circulation—I imagine that it is still a better route to maintain some sense of place and ownership and pride for what one has made.

iconodule

Celebrated on the first Sunday of the Great Lent (1 March, this year), the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy celebrates the restoration of icons, holy images, to the Church, and the victory of the iconodules—those who venerate images, the iconophiles over the iconoclasts who considered the practise idolatry.

The service that takes place in churches on that day has come to present the defeat of heretical thinking in general but the mass remembers a historic event that took place in March of 843 when the icons were returned to the Hagia Sophia. Recursively, an icon was created to illustrate this auspicious event. I had always believed that the iconoclasm was an internal matter and one could easily imagine disputes arising, as they continue to do, over the sacramental nature of holy objects—whether they help the faithful to focus their attention or are vain distractions, but it seems that the division arose and sides were taken due in part—at least, to mounting outside pressures: with the rapid expansion of Islam—who were strongly against any human or divine imagery of any kind, the Church began to reassess its position. Did these Muslims, who were making inroads on Byzantine territory and even threatening Constantinople itself, have God’s favour because they had roundly rejected graven images? As above, the debate—and often violently continues—within and without.

dnd or bread and board

Collectors’ Weekly profiles the passion of one Edoardo Flores, a labour ombudsman for the United Nations who traveled the world for three decades, and amassed quite a few usual and culturally-telling do-not-disturb doorhangers from the hotels where he has stayed. These souvenirs gave him a taste for travel ephemera and the stories that they tell—what locals think of the tourists—and has since gathered thousands, lovingly curated.

root, third and fifth

Courtesy of Nag-on-the-Lake, comes an interesting look at the choreography and vision of Oskar Schlemmer through his avante-garde production called the Triadisches (Triadic) Ballet, scored by Paul Hindemith, which premiered in Stuttgart in 1922 and toured Europe to spread the spirit and character of the Bauhaus design movement.  A certain Euclidian transformation takes place for these dancers in elaborate and bulky geometric costumes.  There is more to discover at the link, including a recreation (the original musical accompaniment lost to history but reconstructed) of a performance staged in 1970.