spirit of the law

In response to new legislation that stipulates that bars and similar establishments in India must be separated from highways by no less than half a kilometre, one existing pub has successfully skirted the law by compacting that space and time into a series of barrier mazes—like those set up for queuing at airports and amusement parks. As the purpose of the law is not necessarily to limit access and egress but to prevent patrons from stumbling into to traffic—which seems like a long way to stumble, local authorities let the innovative solution stand.

cross-roads

Though I can’t say for certain that many hikers will cross our path, we discovered that our new home, remote and rather secluded as it is, lies just behind the intersection of two of the European Long Distance Routes (the nearest point of reference shared by both trails is the City of Coburg), marked and maintained hiking paths that follows ancient trade and pilgrimage routes. From north to south, one stretches from Lapland through Finland and Sweden through Germany and Austria to the Adriatic coast, and from west to east, the other spans from Spain following el Camino de Santiago (der Jakobsweg) through France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic onto the shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. What an amazing journey to embark on and to think we are at if not the centre-point at least a nexus of sorts.

may Easter joys be yours

machinalia

Thanks to the always fabulous Everlasting Blört, we are introduced to the illustrations of Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965) whose grotesques of anthropo- morphised machines as self-toiling beings with distinctly human traits—though suspiciously cheerful, like cartoon depictions of happy and obliging livestock. Find more of Artzybashneff’s Machinalia at the links above, though keen-eyed, long-time readers may have come across his artwork here before with inventor and engineer Buckminster Fuller portrayed as one of his own signature geodesic domes.

wokey the bear

Via the ever inspiring Nag on the Lake comes a series of prints based on the original US National Parks promotional posters produced as a part of the federal arts offensive of the Works Progress Administration—except that Hannah Rothstein’s work shows what the fate of these treasured places will be if nothing is done to halt and reverse climate change. It’s a bit bleak but there’s hope yet, since if we work together and are truly committed, this vision is not an inevitable one.

with all the frills upon it

Not to attribute any redeeming qualities to the regime’s First Trumpet, but it turns out that while serving as assistant US trade representative for media and public affairs under the administration of Bush II, he volunteered as assistant to the Easter Bunny multiple times. This fact, I think, makes it all the more incredulous that no one thought to make any arrangements for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll until the last minute—which makes me a little sad that some kids will get to miss out on the experience but also a little gleeful that Dear Leader and his repulsive family don’t get another platform, especially on the back of a holiday.

moab or mopping-up

Whilst it is unclear whether the very un-surgical and indiscriminately destructive bombing raid on Cosplay Caliphate caves on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that Dear Leader authorised was just another costly (that initial figure of three hundred fourteen million dollars was not the price of the single operation but rather the entire arsenal of Massive Ordnance Air Blasts and the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the untested bunker-busting bombs that have three times the explosives on what was dropped on Thursday) but hollow publicity-stunt, it would do us all some good to stop to reflect on the past four decades of history in the land that’s been called on multiple occasions the graveyard of empires. Fearing the growth of Soviet influence in that country, the US Central Intelligence Agency (under the codename Operation Cyclone) financed and supported the Jihadi resistance to communist ideology and gave rise to the mujahideen directly and its cadet-branches indirectly. Many argue that it was the expense of carrying out the fight to retain a toe-hold in Afghanistan that bankrupted the Soviet Union and precipitated its dissolution. After the success of their proxy-war, the US quickly shifted its interests elsewhere and this sudden abandonment allowed more radical jihadi elements to take control—creating al Qaeda, the Taliban and successor groups.