long ambients

We here at PfRC are celebrating the milestone of our four-thousandth post—this episode informed by the always excellent Nag on the Lake—with four hours of outtakes from musician and DJ Moby free to use however one sees fit. A year ago around this time, the artist arranged the unused riffs from other projects into an extended background ensemble that’s really an inducement for yoga, meditation or just rest and relaxation and active twilit dreaming.

the lay of the land or polders en meer

Having walked the streets of Amsterdam recently, it was interesting to read about the unique city’s long term landscaping plans.
Though not quite restoring the city to its golden age layout, civil engineers have a vision for 2020 of making the great arteries of commerce wider and deeper, more in keeping with the original urban design and more aligned with how the river wants to ebb and flow, by removing a lot of the concrete frontage that’s expanded around the city centre. In addition to enlarging select canals, there is also a colossal submerged bicycle parking-lot in the offering.

unquote or falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after

Recalling that fake news is not just any objective fact that challenges one’s world view and how the retraction is never as wide-spread as the misreporting, we are reminded of probably the most popular bits of folksy wisdom that war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill never said:
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” While the sentiment might be in the right place, there’s no evidence of Churchill having ever uttered the like and he was definitely not the first to whom this phrase or variation was attributed—heroes and luminaries of days past credited with authorship of this quip from Mark Twain, to Thomas Jefferson, to a fortune cookie proverb, to Jonathan Swift. I think indulging in this sort of generational modishness is akin to using props and publicity stunts to forward one’s agenda, and besides there are plenty of very fine things that public figures did without a doubt say.  Its origins, so far as anyone can tell, are rooted in a 1787 homily by Rector Thomas Francklin: “Falsehood will fly, as it were, on the wings of the wind, and carry its tales to every corner of the Earth; whilst truth lags behind; her steps, though sure, are slow and solemn, and she has neither vigour nor activity enough to pursue and overtake her enemy.”

vexing vexillogy or false-flag

Amid reports that Texas law-makers have introduced legislation that would enable them to impose fines on fellow office-holders for misrepresenting the Texas flag with the emoji for the Ecuadorian one (presently, states and other subnational regions* do not have their own emojis) and that Dear Leader’s supporters were pricelessly duped into waving flags with the Russian tri-colours at a conservative political summit before he addressed the audience (they were confiscated by ushers), the vice-president unfurled the banner of Nicaragua to show America’s commitment to Israel.
Granted the two flags do look somewhat alike on a tiny screen and we all make mistakes, but perhaps people should avoid shorthand and symbolism and particular forums if it’s only going to cause more and more political gaffs.

*Contentiously, Danish Greenland, Norwegian Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Caribbean Netherlands, Hong Kong, Macao, Spanish Ceuta and Melilla, French Mayotte, the US Virgin Islands, the Falklands, Gibraltar, Tristan da Cunha and the Channel Islands have their own flags, with perhaps more on the way.