hive-mind, motorcade

Hearing reports of the big trends at the Frankfurt International motor show (the IAA, die Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) were finally broaching the potential of driverless-carriages and that markets may be losing interest in gilding lilies (though coverage was somewhat tarnished by other events in the industry).

Thinking along similar lines as this interesting analysis and projection from Vox magazine, while I would not necessarily embrace having the one remaining risky and frenetic activity that’s allowed to us anymore despite the potentially deadly consequences of letting a human pilot a massively over-engineered craft taken away from us—shedding yet another experience for something overly-safe and sanitised, I would nonetheless being treated to a special valet service, where I did to fret about my particular parking handicap and be dropped off curb-side and trust that my vehicle will find itself an orderly place to keep itself until summoned. Transporters could negotiate among themselves the logistics of double- and triple-parking. Civil engineering would need to reserve far less space for idle vehicles. There are always trade-offs, I suppose, and it does seem particularly worrying for teamsters, lorry-drivers, whose role in supply and shipping would be as quickly made redundant and the demographic shift for the labour market would be as monumental as change that results any more intelligent (but not reduced, I think, but rather the opposite) traffic. What do you think? Is it time to take off the training-wheels?

5x5

undersea kingdom: discovering a little known, imaginative Disney theme park in Tokyo

gazetteer: beautifully crafted maps for abstractions

the peasant-look: ethnography of Ellis Island immigration told through striking portraiture

votive-offering: celebrity prayer-candles

hen house: deluxe daycare facilities for pampered pet chickens

the devil and the deep blue sea

If you have not yet treated yourself to the absolutely edifying oblectation of Futility Closet series of podcasts, I strongly recommend you began with their latest instalment on the forgotten story of gentleman merchant raider of World War I, Felix Graf von Luckner. This swash-buckling villain has been overshadowed by other semi-legendary figures of the time—like the Red Baron, but was turned hero for his humanity and persecuting war without causalities. Posing as a Norwegian logging vessel, Luckner’s captained his crew of privateers in a somewhat anchronistic sailing ship called the Seeadler through the supply lines of the Atlantic, confounding materiel delivery and treating his hostages as friends—a sentiment that was reciprocated, but that’s only the barest outline of the tale. It’s definitely worth working backwards as well to catch up on all the engrossing episodes.

einheit, zipfelbund

With a quarter-century of Germany unity being observed this weekend (and importantly, we’ve been afforded many reminders to reflect on the meaning and the different stages of the reunification process that led up to this formalised recognition), it seems especially poignant that this anniversary come at time when Germany is preoccupied with a refugee-crisis, which although of a different character, does revisit many of the same challenges.

Twenty-five years on, the West is portrayed as a gracious wrecking ball, welcoming their oppressed neighbours back into the fold, and though the exodus was not as overwhelming nor exotic, I am sure that there was a modicum of fear that these Germans, a whole generation cut-off from the free and democratic world, from the West’s perspective, might bring the same wrack and ruin that ushered in the dissolution of the Soviets. These East Germans, a trickle at first of brave souls escaping subjugation had become a regular deluge, had grown up with different conventions, atheist and conservative, and for many the clash of cultures still has not been resolved. Ossi und Wessi. Those are the same reservations that confront Germany and Europe presently. The observance was cemented in 1990, a little short of one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall in order to avoid Schicksaltag (the Fateful Day) already overloaded with meaning, but keeping the events linked—even in unlinking the dates—does allow the memory to reach back further to a time that witnessed an even larger refugee crisis not only perpetrated by the German people but one wherein they were also migrants. German citizens were exiled not only from new acquired lands but also from territories associated with German settlement for generations, like Gdansk, Kaliningrad and Prague and faced many challenges integrating into the metropolitan society. What do you think? What lessons ought to be taken away from this Day of Reunification?

5x5

alba amicorum: the Dutch friend books of the seventeenth century, via the Presurfer

optotype: via Kottke’s extensive archive of Quick Links, a gorgeous history of eye chart typography

percival lowell’s canals: NASA confirms that briny water is flowing on Mars presently

magic kingdom: Banksy’s Dismaland will be deconstructed and repurposed to house refugees in the Jungle Camp in Calais

legacy system: Norwegian government pressures its physicians to give up their beloved, reliable floppy discs