picture postcard

Via the always brilliant Nag on the Lake, we discover a website that an avid photographer named Mike Wong is crafting that heat maps where and when in the world photographs are taken and plots the most popular locations. What a nifty idea and one can zoom in and find out what’s most photogenic in one’s own neighbourhood.

more cow-bell

We learn in Switzerland, the process of attaining citizenship is often contingent on subjective factors, including the opinion of the community that one wishes to join. Although I share some of the applicant’s views on advocating for animal rights, a Dutch woman who has resided in Aargau for all of her adult life has had her citizenship petition rejected for the second time.
Despite meeting all other legal requirements and the lack of formal concerns from authorities, locals have a say in the matter and view her vocal campaigns for among other things banning cow-bells (those huge one’s that might be a discomfort for the cows are only worn on special, ceremonial occasions) as strident and confrontational—and to her neighbours for whom herding is a way of life anything but integrated. Community members don’t often invoke their veto power but did recently reject a long-time American’s application for not being able to name the local lakes and a Kosovar family for wearing jogging pants to their hearing. What do you think? The Dutch woman is refusing to compromise acting on her opinions for the sake of a Swiss passport—which speaks to her convictions, of course, but strengthens the case for her neighbours to voice their opinion as well.

tatsache kontrolle

An attorney from Würzburg is suing a social media giant and the right wing Alternative for Deutschland political party, rather unprecedentedly, for slander and propagating fake news on behalf of a Syrian man residing in Germany—whose rather nice selfie taken with the Chancellor has been ill-used.
All sorts of rumour-mongering outlets that pretend to be legitimate journalistic sources (as far as it’s convenient for them) have cited the image and continue to do so with the sensational captions and headlines asking whether Merkel took a picture next to a terrorist, and going further to accuse the refugee of all sort of heinous acts meant to sway public opinion and transpose his face to those behind terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany. Whilst abuse and defamation may not violate the standards of the global, online community, such behaviour is illegal in German jurisdictions and the internet platform host to the spread of libel as well as those who share it are being held to account.

7x7

bowie.net: prescient 1999 BBC News Night interview with David Bowie regarding the emergent world wide web

urban league: a primer on why cities grew where they did

track 61: an intrepid team of urban spelunkers explore FDR’s custom train car underneath Grand Central Station, via the always marvellous Nag on the Lake

hic sunt leones: the Phantom Atlas chronicles how we filled in the gaps of our geographic knowledge with centuries of fictitious locations

time and tide: beach installation of mirrored poles captures the reflected sunrise and sunset

shyriiwook: woman goes into labour wearing a Chewbacca mask

curds and whey: a dairy factory in the western Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar boasts a circular viewing gallery around its central courtyard that offers visitors a demonstration of cheese-making

tiny don

Though I feel at times that the outcome of the US election was more due to voter apathy rather than tugging enthusiasm or manipulation plied by foreign influence—and the US has done more than its fair share of nation-building, and Russia may have chosen to attack Clinton over the embarrassing revelations of the Panama Papers that she helped bring to light, I’d never dismiss the curdling effects of subverting the work of government to outside forces.
There’s more than enough corruption and lobby-interest that state-actors are beholden to already. Possibly those who called Trump the Manchurian Candidate weren’t that far off the mark, but until or unless one can connect the money, something about the scenario doesn’t strike me as wholly strategic. As much as the US is still being propelled forward on the fumes of exceptionalism, America can’t call itself a Super Power without acknowledging the same for its once and former arch-nemesis, as both are fraught with the same post-industrial and image problems—which flatters neither side. That old antagonism didn’t just sublimate and there’s still animosity and not much room at the top, and Putin has drawn support from vast swathes of the Russian population in part because of the struggle against Western powers. If the US and NATO partner states simply conceding to Russian demands, would the people continue to suffer Putin as their leader.  Don’t the two need each other to pin the blame on?