crowd-sourced

Some with the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council might be smarting over its decision to ask the internet to choose the name for its newest research vessel that will ply the Arctic seas and was expected to christened after a great explorer or naturalist. Instead with due ceremony in the finest naval tradition, Boaty McBoatface will be launched on its maiden voyage in 2019. I heard this on Radio 4 yesterday, but Boing Boing had the scoop and ran with it. One of the Happy Mutants was advertising a product from its emporium under a similar moniker, and I thought to myself, “you had me at McBoingface,” not yet knowing the reference.

We wholeheartedly agree with Belgium’s reaction to this assault, as this further attempt at destructive social-engineering—baiting the innocent and peaceful with yet more aspersions as it’s exactly what the Cosplay Caliphate is hoping to engender. Sewing distrust and fear only promotes their cause by backing those who fled that way of life and outlook into a corner, and those who recruited a handful of listless losers to do their bidding did so that we as hosts could no longer discriminate and assault those migrants living among us and block the escape-routes of those who have no share in this and are themselves terrorised. Our thoughts and prayers are with the suffering, but this, as the corridors of power of the European Union, is an affront to us all. “French-fries” are of course Belgian cuisine become a contribution to the entire world.

Þörungar

Via the always brilliant Nag on the Lake comes happy and hopeful news that a design student named Ari Jónsson of the Reykjavik Academy of the Arts has made a prototype, fully biodegradable plastic container out of powdered algae, an agar-like binding material that allows the vessel to keep its shape while holding something—like a full water bottle—but quickly decomposes once empty. While we’ve gotten somewhat better about recycling, more than half of all plastic packaging is used once then tossed and becomes an unwelcome and eternal addition to the environment. Read the full article at Dezeen magazine for more brainstorming and innovative solutions to problems both wee and seemingly overwhelming.

ohrwurm oder he do the song about the knife

Making the rounds in cyber-space and probably a subject already familiar to you all, the realisation that the Dire Straits number “Walk of Life” can foster a happy-end out of any exposition is one of those perennial re-discoveries that I absolutely treasure.
Regardless of whether it always holds (the exception makes the rule) and whether it’s appropriate as we tend to go very dark by making light, it is another one of those sandbox moments, like the jaunty Yakety-Sax theme or the Tetris song. When I was in elementary school, I remember our PE teacher choreographing a complicated dance routine that we’d all be nancing around and having fun for to that tune and “Centerfield” from John Fogerty (Put me in Coach—I’m ready to play) and a medley other other songs. Maybe Miss Boozer wanted us all to be background dancers, and I think was a nice wish. Too few films, I think, end on an upbeat and ironic note—and I think that maybe “When the Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)” from The Jewel of the Nile by Billy Ocean might be another suitable candidate, rather than opting for an orchestral bombast. Maybe it ought to be made an honour to be part of a soundtrack again, like for James Bond openers. What songs would you recommend for this treatment?

grotesque or come out of the garden, baby, you'll catch your death in the fall

Growing up, I remember how my parents hung frightening Hieronymus Bosch miniatures in the living room. Far from finding it tortuous, abusive or nightmare-inducing, however, I always found myself fascinated with the detail of the little creatures and enjoyed making up stories about them.
I was excited to learn about this immersive exhibition, sponsored by Google’s Cultural Institute, not on Bosch himself but rather on one of the visionary artist’s important influences, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This panorama, buffeted by the latest that virtual-reality technology can deliver, pulls one into the canvas of the 1562 Flemish masterpiece “The Fall of the Rebel Angels,” and makes the observer witness to archangel Michael’s expulsion of Lucifer, and that transfixing, psychedelic fall from grace from a privileged point of view. If you happen to visit the Belgian Royal Museums of Fine Arts, please let us know what it was like. Further, I was unaware of the internet giant’s artistic initiatives and would like to learn more about their projects as well.

contrast and harmony

Via Public Domain Review and John Ptak’s Science Bookstore, comes the beautiful, modernist colour analysis charts of æsthetic maven Ms Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1902), whose pixelated palettes look like something in between the works of artist Piet Mondriaan and Pong or Tetris tiles. From mummy-wrappings to butterfly wings, Vanderpoel’s plates stir the viewer’s imagination for composition and compliment. Pursue a gallery of dozens of deconstructed illustrations at the links at the top.

significant digits or the life of pi

Sadly, we missed out on enshrining the day reserved on the calendar for the appreciation of Pi some how this year, but ought push out some belated returns, thanks to this investigation prompted by the never-forgetful Kottke.
While modern computing can deliver Π calculated out to some thirteen trillion decimal places, in search of patterns in the chaos, space agencies only have needed to use a value of the ration calculated out to about fifteen—fewer than the numbers one can count on this pencil if you magnify the image, to send out all our emissaries over billions of kilometers. One might wonder if rocketeers loose fidelity with that level of precision, but it turns out that rounding the value to fifteen decimal places, but if the distance Voyager I is from Earth is the radius of a circle with a circumference of over a hundred billion kilometers, yields a circle that’s only off by a few centimeters difference. The Universe is unimaginably vast and exceedingly small, yet scientist pronounce that to describe a circle that would envelop it all, we would only need about twenty-five more additional decimal places to calculate out a circumference of billions of light-years where there would be less than one hydrogen atom’s breadth between that pi and the pi out to the nth decimal. That’s amazing and I wonder what it means that we can push so far out with numbers to the point where it seems meaning and relevance fall away.

constitutional conventions or prairie home companion

A bit like the decision of Illinois to make its official language American, which requires I think a bit more than cursory curiosity to get to the bottom of it, the territory of Minnesota, when the US Congress through its enabling acts, invited voters to join the union in 1857, factious fighting in the corridors of power in Saint Paul kept resulting in a gridlock and the failure of the new government to produce a state constitution. Facing this impasse to accession against the will of all constituencies, two constitutions were drafted, one that the Republicans found acceptable and one palatable for the Democrats of the territorial government.
Aside from being transcribed on plain white paper and blue tinged stationary respectively and differences in grammar and syntax (neither party would relent to the other’s victory but the antagonism had no real substance to it), both of these documents upheld the letter of the law in essentially the same way and both documents were submitted to Washington, concluding the convention. Despite the fact there was no difference between Republican and Democrat editions and I think that Minnesota’s founders never intended the members of one political party to be subject to a different prevailing policy to those on the other side of the aisle, it does not seem like a very good precedence in any terms. I wonder if the oddity is still on the books, or if eventually, one or the other parties conceded. I realise that there are other versions of America’s national constitution out there—with transcription errata, like editions of the Bible with damning typos—but without a definitive copy, what would it mean to make amends?