rendition

When the German government failed to respond to the extradition demands of Turkey to turn over some four thousand suspected dissenters and dissidents who were party to the failed coup attempt thought to reside in Germany, the Turkish government accused Germany of harbouring terrorist elements, which will boomerang back and destroy Germany. The tense exchange comes right after a series of purges and censorship of the press. It is unclear which persons of interest Turkey is hoping to be offered up or whether radicals are of the established variety (Berlin said to antagonise Ankara over its tolerance for the Kurdish minority) or if they recently fled the country. There was not a rush of political asylum-seekers but many lawyers who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the coup did seek sanctuary in Germany.

franchisement

There’s a rather austere neo-classic sculpture now kept in the US Capitol (finally being put on display rather than being hidden in the building’s crypt as it was for the first few decades after it was presented to Congress) that features the busts of three pioneers that helped secure the right to vote for women—anachronistically not until 1921. The likenesses suffragettes Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott appear as an ensemble evoking the colossal monument at Mount Rushmore but there’s obviously an unfinished rough bit. Although the artist’s original intent is unknown (possibly signifying that the job of achieving universal suffrage was not done), legend holds that this space is reserved for the first female president.

lordy, lordy

Revisiting a post from the beginning of the year for the benefit and edification of all our fellow-travelers (regardless of your year of matriculation and whether or not you are a Scorpio or Ophiuchus), we inspect the select cavalcade of things (forty plus one) attaining their fourth decade this year.

with my sword and magic helmet or electric youth

Fast Company features a suite of wearables—an exoskeletal enhancement, that impart super powers on those who don them.
There’s a harness, a truss that provides gentle nudges to keep one oriented and an earpiece that promises to filter out unwanted environmental noises and enable people to have a conversation that rises about the general din without shouting themselves hoarse, but what I found most clever was a concept (that’s been in development for several years apparently) called the Ouijiband, referencing those involuntary, nervous motions that move a planchette across a Ouija board, that would attach to the user’s wrist to guide and refine one’s dexterity—be it improving on a surgeon’s hand or as a mechanical trainer to perfect one’s tennis-swing. What do you think? Once we have these prosthetic-assists available, is it negligent to try out anything without them? There is the question of ego versus responsibility on one hand, if one indeed foregoes the short-cut in the first place, but what happens to play and experimentation if none of us are willing to doff our accessories?

aladdin sane

It seemed to me that emojis had heretofore reflected a rather limited range of career options—police officer, princess or palace guard—but happily the credentialing body who enriches our vocabulary and their vocations have made glam rock star something to aspire to (among others) as an homage to David Bowie.

stuffing the ballot

The crack investigative team of one (Matt Novak) writing for Paleofuture and employing his usual methods of freedom of information request filings serves us a brilliant retelling of the largest bio-terror attack heretofore perpetrated on US soil was a mass food-poisoning calculated to influence the turn-out of a local election back in the autumn of 1984 in rural Oregon.
An outpost of a utopian cult movement (although there was more than a touch of hedonism allowable to the members as well as business acumen with discos, hotels and restaurants owned and run by the community) called Rajneeshpuram established itself in rural Oregon. Members managed to purchase thousands of hectares of forest and even an entire village and campaigned to get themselves elected to town boards to ensure that zoning and building permits were favorable to their cause. The Sannyasins, as followers are known, became more aggressive in their politics, however, including bussing in some four thousand homeless veterans to pad the voter rolls (who were summarily dismissed from Nirvana after registration and abandoned in Portland) and most infamously making over seven hundred residents violently ill with salmonella that’d been pilfered from a university laboratory. It’s thought that this outbreak in September was a trial-run for a bigger attack to be launched in November to make sure their opposition was indisposed and couldn’t make it to the polls.  Be sure to visit the link up top for all the salacious details of this voter-intimidation stunt.