it’s in the white of my eyes

Atlas Obscura has a very thorough and well-researched tribute to the so-called leader-ladies or “China Girls” that appeared at the head of film reels in order to help projectionists and developers calibrate the colour saturation and contrast. Each laboratory, studio and cinema had their own signature but unbilled matinee idols that were never mean to be seen by the audience. With the transition from analogue to digital, of course (read about the development of the JPEG format here), this custom is falling out of practise but one archivist with the Chicago Film Society has become their champion with a big gallery of these unsung and mostly unknown models. There’s no consensus on the etymology of the term, however.

Atlas Obscura hat eine sehr gründliche und gut recherchierte Hommage an die sogenannten Leaderdamen oder China Girls, die an der Spitze der Filmrollen erschienen, um Projektoren und Entwicklern dabei zu helfen, die Farbsättigung und den Kontrast zu kalibrieren.  Jedes Labor, Studio und Kino hatten ihre eigene Signatur, aber nicht berechnete Matinee-Idole, die niemals vom Publikum gesehen werden sollten. Mit dem Übergang von analog zu digital, natürlich (gelesen über die Entwicklung des JPEG-Format hier), dieser Brauch ist aus der Praxis, aber ein Archivar mit der Chicago Film Society hat sich ihre Champion mit einer großen Galerie dieser ungesund und vor allem Unbekannte Modelle.  Es gibt jedoch keinen Konsens über die Etymologie des Begriffs.

designated survivor

Not that we’ve seen any evidence that this regime has a modicum of respect for protocol or slow governance, perhaps the first order of business ought to be amending the twenty-fifth amendment of the US constitution to change the presidential line of succession to something more aligned with taking the keys away from Peepaw (that’s ever an unenviable task), since as it currently stands, it’s really some awful Hydra in the making.
In descending order of this American carnage goes first to vice-president, then the presiding officer of the house of congress, next to the second in charge of the senate (as the vice-president is the highest ranking) who is by tradition the most senior elected official of the ruling party, and then, should no one be willing to handle that political hot potato, it falls to members of the cabinet in order of the creation of the office, with Secretary of State being the most venerable and Homeland Security the least tenured posting. The precedence is established in the US constitution but was really defined and codified by the twenty-fifth amendment ratified in 1965, responding to the assassination of JFK but grounded in the incapacitation of Woodrow Wilson in 1919 (a stroke caused by the strain of a combination of arguing for the Treaty Versailles and women’s suffrage and advocating against prohibition) that was covered up by her first ladyship Edith Wilson who was making the executive decisions on his behalf for two years.

taste the rainbow

Thanks to the observant TYWKIWDBI, it’s apparently standard practise in the States to pass off substandard candy as animal feed. Disclosure came when a lorry overturned and spilt a shipment of Skittles destined for the ranch. The digestive systems of ruminants—at least in this instances, apparently are so different from that of humans, dietary concerns and the deleterious effects of so much sugar or food colouring do not apply.
Depending on market-fluctuations and farm subsidies, it’s cheaper sometimes to offload surplus or defective sweets this way. Even if it’s not technically “unhealthy” for the cows, it strikes as cruel and not a treat. What do you think? I wonder how wide-spread the practise is. I feel fairly confident that this wouldn’t be permitted in Ireland but maybe it could have accounted for those flocks of sheep tagged in tie-dyed colours.

swamping the drain or pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

While the world was distracted with the directive to enforce a ban on Muslim travel and immigration, Dear Leader restructured the subcommittee of the National Security Council that enjoys a standing invitation for the daily briefs, to include his chief strategist and minister of disinformation and disinvite the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national intelligence director—meaning they’ll come when summoned.
Past presidents have excluded their private counsels on the basis of not wanting to taint decisions that involve putting the lives of soldiers and civilians at risk with political or business motives. Even that lovable old war-criminal Bush II had the restraint not to let Karl Rove sit at the adults’ table. What this departure foreshadows is disturbing to contemplate, as if this break with tradition is a stress-test to see the tolerance people and officials have for autonomous action without respect for the system of checks and balances or the other branches of the US government. Coups d’État tend to invite counter-insurgencies.

damnatio memoriæ or diplomatic pouch

Though perhaps not at the levels of the paranoid power-holders of the Roman Empire (yet) nor of more recent lashings out by despots, depleting the ranks at the State Department of senior leadership and repudiating decades of institutional knowledge and highly specialised skills of career consuls without diplomacy or delicacy (no gold watch and pat on the back as they’re ushered out of the building) is very chilling.
While these ranking members of the corps serve at the pleasure of the sitting administration and out of respect tender their resignations, most key division chiefs remain, with many having tenures approaching four decades and beyond and serving both Republicans and Democrats alike, most remain at least until their replacements are vetted to ensure there is little underlap and disruption in the transition and many have remained to ensure continuity. For this purge, however, no one can recall seeing its like in their entire career—damning the memory and progress, it seems, of those that came before and going further to question the department’s role in process and protocol, the arrangements for the first visit by a foreign dignitary carried out (since the first invitee was compelled to stay away, don’t mention the Wall) without the involvement of State whatsoever. I imagine little consultation was sought when enacting the travel ban for Muslims.  What sort of immunities and courtesies can the world be expected to reciprocate when the US is acting-out?

lösegeld

Guests and management of a luxury hotel and ski resort outside of the village of Turracherhöhe that bridges the states of Styria and Carinithia recovered from its latest in a spate of ransom-ware assaults by paying a moderate but not insignificant sum of bit coins.
This was the third and final incursion against the hotel’s cyber-infrastructure and management regretted giving into extortion since (as partners in the tourist industry have pointed out, though also plagued with the problem) it only encourages the crime—sort of like the Danegeld, the tribute that the English paid to the Vikings for not raiding their villages, but the last attack was rather more off-putting and potentially dangerous for wealthy guests—this storied establishment originally only hosteled lumberjacks: the electronic key-card system was hijacked where not only could no new key-cards be issued or programmed, guests could neither enter or leave their rooms. The bit coin ransom was paid and the hotel made itself impervious to further attacks but reinstalling good old locks and keys—and not of the skeuomorph kind whose dividends maybe running low.

impoundment of appropriated funds

Though not as instantly fraught with dismay and foreboding as his other pronouncements of royal prerogative including the border wall with Mexico, the immigration ban for some Muslims and eviscerating healthcare for millions with no clear plan to replace it, Dear Leader has also charged the federal government with tightening up its cyber operations and identifying principle adversaries—which smacks as ironic since his own putative Russian dossier emerged and the dossiers of millions of swamp-critters are with China for safe-keeping and they’re not paying for that firewall either.
The other executive order is more contentious and drawing less attention but could eventually herald a massive change in the makeup and wealth of institutional knowledge and mission-readiness in the government: a civilian hiring freeze. Far from nimble and as efficient as possible, the bureaucracy of the executive branch, which includes the president’s armies, ambassadors and spies, is a measure of protection from rash or vaguely worded decisions. What do you think? Despite perceptions of expansion and redundancy, the American federal workforce has remained at about two million since the end of World War II. The scope and timbre of changing missions has been accentuated with government contractors and soldiers-of-fortune that are far more costly in the long run than those under its employ directly. What do you think? Supposedly after the hiring freeze expires, the Office of Personnel Management will have a clear and sober picture of how to proceed in eliminating positions by not filing vacancies after incumbents depart. Of course these decisions are not without broader consequences in terms of delivering the services that the government is still obliged to provide—especially considering that some of biggest welfare benefactors on both ends of the spectrum that were among Dear Leader’s support-base were those in red states that relied on government support and those corporate entities guaranteed government handouts and concessions that maximised their profit-margins. These ordered reassessments also come at a time when the government of the people has been working without a budget for over a decade, making it hard to project future privations. Perhaps that fiduciary guidance ought to have come first.

this sceptr’d isle

Of course timeless words never ought to be denigrated for a moment’s gain but their lessons obviously resound and need no champions or intermediaries:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptr’d isle,
This Earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves in it the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands—
This blessed plot, the Earth, this realm, this England!

Through the bleary-eyed and hysterical metrics of today Hobbits too for their love of the Shire—and perhaps for their near universal dismissal by other races, are seen as Little Englanders. Any great and enduring work can withstand these ephemeral sights, however, and lasts because, despite they’re often invoked and abused.