Add this being an election year to the series of crises that have fraught and jeopardised Europe’s attempts to shelter the displaced and the threatened (not to mention the spectre and reality of rising nationalism, preachers of hate and preachers of appeasement), it is little surprise that some German politicians are drafting a raft of proposals that would markedly change the country’s policy on immigration.
Though attested as measures to promote integration and public-safety, the reforms include, most provocatively, the banning of burqas and hijabs in public, following France’s rules. While other elements might be less sensational, the former seems the least worrisome considering that there is talk of relaxing doctor-patient confidentiality by introducing a duty to report even when the threat is not imminent, the expulsion of notorious characters for their potential to incite violence, or even removing refugees to massive encampments outside of European Union borders to wait it out until their respective conflicts at home end. What do you think? Whosoever champions one side or another seem unable in any venue to start a conversation that can be heard above the din of the repelling of opposites and the compacting of reasoned arguments down to their dread conclusions. One has to wonder if those policymakers are above that miasma of the democracy of the moment, in the thick of it, or are foolish enough to try to wield it.
Thursday 11 August 2016
hadj-podge
yestersol, solmorrow
myrmidons or pyric victory
We are living through the biggest war in the history of the natural world, as Kottke informs, had have been for a few of our generations and countless of the belligerents’ and we’d probably pay more attention to epic and global struggle happening underfoot and regard it as more than a nuisance if we did have our own battles to contend with.
The last years of 1800s a solitary stow-away from the marshlands of Argentina arrived in the port New Orleans, and this introduction of an invasive species resulted in the creation of a super-colony that has since spread all over the world, competing with native ants for territory and resources. As the battlefield has expanded and fronts and lines have grown together, the invading Linepithema humile have encountered their own diaspora, and strangely still recognises and treats them as kindred even when they have been separated by continents for over a century. These peaceful reunions, however, may end once the armies have vanquished all other competition.
Wednesday 10 August 2016
lying down with lions
รons after the dispatching of the woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and Neanderthals but too far removed from mankind’s driving the whales and buffalos to the point of extinction (and sadly too late for the passenger-pigeon), a new paradigm emerged for man’s relationship to Nature, captured by some enterprising toy-makers and some US presidential myth-making. Most are familiar with the lore behind Teddy’s bear, how in 1902 whilst on a domestic safari US president and avid hunter Theodore Roosevelt nobly pardoned a frightened bear—whereas behind the myth, sanitised like the received versions of fairy-tales, the account is not so cuddly.
A guide had captured a rather mangy sow and tied her to a tree to give Roosevelt the honour of shooting her. Roosevelt did decline, believing shooting such a poor prize to be beneath him, and instead ordered that the poor creature be put out of her misery. The guide disembowelled the bear and later the hunting party dined on bear steak. Gruesome as it was, marketers saw an opportunity after the cartoon depicting the moment of Roosevelt’s clemency was widely circulated and produced the teddy bear, marking the first time a formerly ferocious and parallel creature (menacing and sufficient unto themselves like lions, yetis or wolves) was tamed in plush-form. With self-assured supremacy, the careers of these separate and competing members atop of their respective food-chains were now at the pleasure and pardon of the great white hunter. Not realising the endurance of their idea, manufacturers feared that the craze would disappear with Roosevelt and tried to capitalise on the ascendency of William Howard Taft and oddly again with an animal that ended up being eaten. After the election, Taft was treated to a congratulatory banquet in Atlanta, Georgia where he was served an enormous opossum the size of today’s turkeys. Re-enforced on his victory-lap, Taft was presented numerous taxidermy and plush “Billy Possums,” the industry tried to launch a new craze to supplant the teddy bear that represented the old-guard of the Republican Party.
overseas lipogram or parts of speech
After reading about the novel efforts of two writers to produce coherent stories without the letter e—such constraining composition is described as lipogrammatical but the results usually are not so epic in scope (usually just avoiding the rarer letters), I was reminded how, by this illustration, the biggest compliment that two interlocutors can pay one another is being mutually intelligible in their message. Literacy is not in the parsing or omission but in being comprehensible, even when handicapped and leaning too heavily on other conceits. One’s audience is moreover not averse to being challenged and it’s not always necessary to be clear and concise with convenience-words, and some effort at unpacking meaning is a welcome thing—especially if those gentle readers don’t realise what level of exertion is being asked of them.
It is difficult to say what muse possessed these authors to eschew this one letter (as is the case with most every undertaking), but perhaps e was not the most penitent of choices. Though the alphabet that we have inherited from the ages is bereft of original meanings and there is no memory left in the symbols—what we pronounce as vowels unrepresented in the written word and all signifying much different sounds according to local language and extent of contact with outsiders, the story and pedigree that we are able to reconstruct for e seems a particularly cheerful one that encapsulates why writing and communication in general is something to be cherished and cultivated. Before passing almost unchanged from Greek to Latin, the letter developed from a Semitic one that linguists believe represented an out-stretched hand and ultimately from an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph (sacred writing) that expressed jubilation upon meeting a kindred spirit.
Tuesday 9 August 2016
can you picture that?
For their first live festival performance, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem rocked the audience at Outside Lands in San Francisco, a music, comedy and wine showcase that transforms Golden Gate Park every August into something otherworldly. Be sure to check out the link above from Laughing Squid for full-footage of the feature-act and more information about the venue.
sonic screwdriver
The always brilliant Dangerous Minds have uncovered a trove of Doctor Who episodes portrayed in the style of vintage Penguin paperbacks. This serialisation was imagined by Sean Coleman and more can be found at his tumblr blog and etsy shop, via the link up top. Whose Doctor Who was not an actual canon chapter but rather a 1977 documentary on the Whovian phenomenon hosted by presenter extraordinaire Melvin Bragg (In Our Time), and coincidentally this omnibus featured clips from most of the other episodes featured on the retro covers.
lost in translation
The Local, the German daily in English, recounts the unlikely misadventures of a Chinese tourist, who after losing his wallet, in Heidelberg, attempted to report it as missing, only to find himself in a asylum processing centre for over a week before be allowed to continue on with his European vacation. It’s unclear how this chain of events went unbroken for so long, but compliant and obliging, the man surrendered his passport in exchange for refugee documents and accepted the daily allowance that the centre distributed. Perhaps it’s not so strange or naรฏve to imagine that that might (or ought to) be the customary and expected reception for a traveler potentially down on his luck.
