Thursday 15 December 2016

palimpsest

A series of religious tableaux dating to the Middle Ages in the Guild Chapel of Stratford-upon-Avon was conserved thanks to chamberlain John Shakespeare, father of the village’s most famous son, has recently been fully restored and is now available for public inspection.
In the wake of the iconoclast movement and the turmoil of the Reformation in England, such allegorical murals were ordered destroyed and replaced by, well, blank, unadorned walls in line with Puritanical customs and later painted over as styles changed, but reluctant to wipe out such ancient works of art, Shakespeare the senior directed workers to limewash the walls, preserving the originals under all those layers to be teased out later. Be sure to visit Hyperallergic at the link above to marvel at this unique gallery of images, rich in symbolism and narrative that are sure to contribute to our understanding of the medieval psyche as well as that of the Elizabethans.

civics lessons

On Monday, the electors of the US Electoral College travel to their respective state capitols to cast their votes. Most jurisdictions require the representatives to be faithful to the will of their constituency, however a few states allow electors the option to go faithless and, like in Texas, two electors have chosen to resign their commissions rather than assent to Trump and one individual will be going to Austin to vote for someone other than Trump.
Some suggest that up to twenty electors are seriously considering abstaining or changing their votes, which is something truly unprecedented, and pressure groups on both sides are plying their case. What do you think? The numerical constraints the such a system introduces might be by their nature flawed but is it the responsibility of the College to decide elections? Or to ratify the popular vote? Twenty possible dissenters nearly erodes that surplus of thirty-seven that cost team Clinton the presidency, but in the end is unlikely to change the results—still razor-thin no matter how it’s called. A few score of electors are asking that all, prior to casting their ballots, should be debriefed by the intelligence agencies in order to make an informed choice (arguably one not afforded to the general electorate) about the role that Russian interference played in the outcome. Many more are asking that that the ballot be delayed until the investigation is finished. Another affiliate branch within the College plans to abstain and thus narrow the gap to the point where the decision to turned over to the (Republican-controlled) Senate to anoint the next president.

meme-base or selective pressures

Courtesy of the always engaging Waxy from Andy Baio, we are treated to a year-long retrospective, parsed out on a daily basis, from New York Magazine’s select/all crew in the form of a memetic calendar. This is really brilliant: one can go to any date and see what was transmitted and trending on or around that day and be reminded of some of the accounts of pith and moment captured—despite the life-cycle and how meaning and context flees—that tell of the events of 2016.

Wednesday 14 December 2016

goodwill ambassador

After just two months in office, the United Nations decided that they had to strip Wonder Woman of her diplomatic credentials as a role-model for feminist empowerment, petitioners deciding that the super-hero was rather the antithesis, embodying the expectations of the established patriarchy.
Not only was the costume of the non-canonical goddess considered insensitive to much of the world that she represented with many present seeing her appointment as frivolous, more the objectification of women was so prominent in US headlines and politics to champion women’s rights with such an image seemed inappropriate. While I am very glad to learn that the UN has a memory for yesterday’s news, I do hope our heroine finds another engagement soon.

and the bells have flown to rome

Possibly a bit too harsh in their criticism though it doesn’t seem like city authorities are even trying, Rome’s official Christmas tree has been described infinite sadness and much like Rome herself: full of holes and covered in rubbish. Even if it is put up in a time of austerity—which compared to other Italian cities (there’s a video at the link that really rubs it in) does not seem to be the time to demur from celebratory ostentation, thrifty by no means need be paltry. What do you think? I can imagine some charitable souls clambering into the courtyard to spruce it up.

6x6

gaslight: those prim rows of street lamps originally were pilot-lights for burning off excess methane and prevent sewer explosions

glitter ball: surreal street artist transforms a construction site in Lyons into a disco floor

quartz revolution: the role of Soviet Russia in the spread of the wrist-watch

capcom: imagined movie and classic arcade tie-ins that look fun to play

fire-break: network of alarms scattered in Spanish forests hope to combat seasonal blazes

trongs: Japanese inventor designs utensils to make eating insects easier to handle

what was that? i couldn’t hear you over my freedom

With deft irony, the US president-elect has selected not just another avowed climate-change denier to head the Department of Energy (the government bureau responsible for maintenance and integrity of the nation’s grid electrical grid, nuclear power plant security, surprisingly, the nuclear weapons arsenal and for enticing innovation in the sector by doling out grants for clean-energy initiatives), he selected the one early sparing-partner and opponent, former Texas governor Rick Perry.
Perry infamously pledged that he would dissolve the DoE along with two other departments if elected president—only he could not recall Energy on stage, just Education (selectee Betsy DeVos, Amway Queen and strong supporter of charter schools and voucher-programmes) and Commerce (selectee Wilbur Ross, collector of Renรฉ Magritte’s works and specialist in buying out distressed businesses). It makes me think of that scene from The Simpsons Movie where Abraham starts speaking in tongues and writhing around in the church aisle, shrieking epa, epa, eeepa! The selectee for the Environmental Protection Agency is Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has sued the agency numerous times for trying to curtail fracking operations and regulating bovine methane emissions (failing each time) but is more regarded for his stance against other social issues and general litigiousness. Of course, cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the president and usually are not long-lived and there’s a lengthy history of sine cure and mismatched postings but Perry’s immediate predecessors both hold doctorate degrees in physics.

Tuesday 13 December 2016

non-state actors

I am indebted to the Happy Mutants at Boing Boing for bringing to our attention a matter of Brexit negotiations first proposed two weeks hence (I suppose none of us can be too hard on ourselves for missing the sensical compromises that present themselves every so often in this shrill and demanding newscape), seeing that we had completely overlooked the notion of ‘associate-citizenship’ that might be extended to UK citizens residing in the EU, so that they might be allowed to stay and afforded the same freedom of movement as enjoyed before.
Coming just as the British government announced a firm date to invoke Article 50, to tender its divorce-papers, this offer shows a tremendous amount of goodwill has been held in trust and whilst corporate entities might not expect nor deserve such kindnesses, it was hopeful to see that individuals might still be able to choose their affiliation with sovereignty independent of their representative governments. It is possible that the current regime might reject the proposal for its potential to undermine the will of the people it’s championing at the moment and the only recourse is paradoxically petitioning one’s local council that was either committed to leave or bremain in the first place. It also has me hopefully, personally, as a long term US expatriate, wondering if I might too be granted such an option, especially considering what by force I might be repatriated to.