après nous, le déluge

Though the breach did not result in any loss of the seeds stored within and scientists are working to make the structure more secure, the fact that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault built in 2008 and designed to weather an eternity of assault is already showing signs that it’s not able to withstand catastrophic, run-away climate change is a depressing prospect. The integrity and diversity of seed banks has already been demonstrated as vital to rehabilitating civilisation and there are multiple repositories all over the world, and while it is frightening enough to find this ark prone to flooding due to melting permafrost, it’s an even more arresting thought that there will be no place where these food crops might be grown because of radical changes in temperatures and long-term weather patterns.

vote of conscience or supermajority

There is a movement afoot, as TYWKIDBI informs, to effectively eliminate the US Electoral College without the need for a constitutional amendment—though we’ve heard that that process might be becoming less burdensome—called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Still working within the system of electoral votes and the critical-mass of those metrics, states pledge to throw their support behind the presidential candidate who has secured the popular vote, foregoing a process that was meant to democratise the ballot (conceived under rules that stipulated that the senate be prince-electors and not left in the hands of common voters—important matters rarely are) but through gerrymandering and redistricting has turned into something very asymmetrical and unbalanced with only a few “swing” states deigned worthy of attention to the peril of “safe” states and public opinion more broadly and rife for disenfranchisement. I wonder if such a strategy might work—regardless of the outcome, perhaps there are more protections afforded for the minority after each ballot. The articles that define how the executive branch is constituted specifically prohibit a collusion among states, whether expressly designed to curtail the constitution or otherwise, without the leave of the federal legislature, and the ruling party (or the one that is sure is waiting in the wings to take control) would not allow its power to be undermined.

paroled

Days after the release of Chelsea Manning from the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, having served the longest sentence in US history for whistle-blowing, Sweden revoked its European arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange which has kept him within the confines of Ecuador’s London embassy compound, claiming asylum, fearful that appearing in court might lead to his apprehension and extradition back to the United States to face espionage and possibly treasons charges. While Assange has been hostelled in relative comfort by his hosts for the past five years and was even able to release further tranches of incriminating documents, Manning’s seven-year imprisonment was on the other hand physically and mentally abusive and she was denied access to the online world in any form. Her commutation by President Obama fell short of the pardon that Assange had asked for as a plea-bargain that might see him repatriated, but Assange may willingly come to the US if guaranteed a fair trial.

fengsel or recidivism-rate

Recognising that for some, the loss of liberty is punishment enough, one progressive incarceration facility on a Norwegian island, garnering the reputation of the world’s nicest, is demonstrating itself as one of the most effective for rehabilitating criminals and has the lowest rate of re-offending.
The experimental prison on the island of Bastøy is just off the coast from Oslo and was once infamous for a violent uprising in an earlier incarnation as a juvenile detention colony in 1915 but since 1982 has embodied a model that is diametrically opposed to its roots—with inmates accommodated in cottages instead of cells, work the prison garden and are afforded other amenities, including high-quality education and skills-building programmes and guards that are trained social workers. The penal system of the Scandinavian countries is the exclusive bailiwick of expert criminologists and not the emotionally-charged plaything of politicians. Inasmuch as confinement is its own indignity (violence only begets violence) and can be reforming—for some victims of criminals, and there are murderers and rapists at this minimum security facility, no amount of punishment meted out could ever be enough. What do you think? Bastøy’s success rate suggests that taking vengeance out of the equation and replacing it with respect and redemption might be the best way to fight crime.

prêt-à-porter

Considering that at this juncture concerts and other venues make more money off of t-shirts than album sales and merchandising more than supplements a lot of media properties as well as the messaging and statement that individuals are eager and willing to present, we appreciated and enjoyed indulging in this history of what was originally called the “crew-neck” from its first literary citation to the advent of mass-produced screen-printing that really propelled the shirt has a vehicle for label and personal branding.
That first literary mention was in 1920 with the debut novel of F Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise with a mention of the article of clothing among his equipage for university—not that that moment in a book about traumatic emotions cushioned by alcohol and love twisted by status-seeking particularly launched or informs the career of the t-shirt as a mode of expression. Notably, one of the earliest examples of the garment—perhaps some might consider it a uniform and not brandishing a logo—in film comes nineteen years later with the release of The Wizard of Oz, where the attendants of the Wash & Brushup Company of Emerald City sport identical green t-shirts with “Oz” printed on them.

6x6

phantom pavilions: more wire frame architecture from Edoardo Tresoldi

aragog: for the bold, a paralysing cocktail that includes tarantula venom, via Nag on the Lake

anchors away: dispatching with human crews will make shipping on the high seas safer, cleaner and cheaper—and be disruptive for sailors’ careers, via Super Punch

pardon and prophecy: as you can imagine, she is an expert on politics and predicts that whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner

steering committee: a decency council to be assembled that will advise the Duma and help guide its decision-making

star wars, nothing but star wars: one cinema’s celebratory lead up to the fortieth anniversary of the franchise

i seem to be a verb

We were pleased to certify the veracity of a quotation by engineer and futurist Buckminster Fuller on the topic of policing the under-class by insisting that we all be kept occupied and not left to our own devices. Speaking volumes on the subject of universal basic income and technological redundancy, Fuller in 1970 answering to an environmental teach-in reported by New York magazine replied:

“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

Again, instead of being fearful of robots taking our jobs, we ought to welcome it, lest it this revolution, disruption be misappropriated once again.

when i’m sixty-four

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of SGT Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Boing Boing informs, the BBC is airing a documentary featuring biographies on every one of the sixty plus individuals featured on the album’s jacket cover, minus the Beatles.