my son is a high-quality person and i applaud his transparency

Never mind that the honeypot was most definitely a trap and that the Russians are quite skilled at cultivating useful idiots and that most people would have had the presence of mind to not rush in on a lark or the fact that Junior’s venture was considered worth pursuing for what it might’ve yielded in terms of dirty laundry—beyond the pale of normal oppositional investigation—but at the same time excused for its apparent failure to yield actionable intelligence as much ado about nothing, this voluntary disclosure, thanks to unrelenting pressure from the press, drastically reframes the past narrative of having no connections with foreign agents.
No member of Dear Leader’s crime syndicate has owned up to meeting with Russia officials and intermediaries until being outed by journalists. Moreover, Dear Leader certified that the encounter in question was over the embargo for American adoption of Russian orphans, ostensibly over the legislation that legalised same-sex marriage rather than rescinding economic sanctions for the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula. Whether or not Russia had incriminating evidence on candidate Clinton or on their Manchurian Candidate, it is becoming more and more clear that Dear Leader was currying favour as a way to access the Russian property market. A potential business opportunity was capitalised upon back in 2013 when hosting a beauty pageant in Moscow and Dear Leader deigned to appear in a music video (far more awkward than Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt on Michael Jackson’s Black or White) of a business partner’s son. We don’t expect a neat coda of this fugue any time soon.

alif, alef or mater lectionis

An Israel typeface designer and professor created a new script that combines elements of the writing systems for the country’s two official language, Hebrew and Arabic, into a mutual intelligible characters.
Her motivations for creating this hybrid abjad were not exclusive political (coming just weeks after the Knesset proposed removing Arabic’s status) the but also social and personal, describing how in bi-lingual or tri-lingual signage, she saw the Arab calligraphy as decorative and not something to be heeded on the same level as Hebrew or English. I am sure that is a common enough experience and many other audiences, for want of literacy, would see something written in Arabic as vaguely terrorising itself. In Aravrit, however, both languages are fused, inviting the reader to see them as co-equals and perhaps to comprehend something about their commonality. Visit Hyperallergic at the link above to learn more and for a demonstration of how the characters were split and reconfigured.

nutzhanf

Having legalised the possession of cannabis containing one percent of tetrahydocannabinol (THC) or less back in 2011, a major Swiss supermarket chain is now poised to add low-dose marijuana cigarettes to its line of other hemp-based products—Industrie- oder Nutzhanf. While the cannabinoid content is too low to induce a high, the manufacturers believe that it retains enough of its psychoactive properties to help relieve anxiety and pain management, and warn customers about smoking their product outside of the country, as the EU tolerance for THC in hemp is exponentially lower and policies vary greatly by jurisdiction.

heirloom variety

Indeed a thing we would not know if they did not blog intermittently, the distinction of open-pollination explained succinctly:
allowing crops to breed naturally, either assisted by resident pollinators, the wind or self-pollinating to produce offspring consistent with the desired traits of the parent plant.  We became impatient in the name of efficiency and the resultant, sustainable population explosion that came with the discovery of the Haber process at the turn of the century, which also ushered in the decline of open-pollinators. Monocultures and hybridisation have meant that the resultant seeds (a hybrid inbred) will not germinate or at least not in a predictable way, which is why modern agriculture has become reliant on a handful of seed providers—and the pesticides designed for them. At least one group is actively working to establish seed banks and a cooperative to educate consumers and farmers and give them a viable alternative.

butterfly in the sky

Regardless whether or not Reading Rainbow or Star Trek: The Next Generation registers on your nostalgia spectrum, you should do yourself the favour of checking out the new podcast series called LeVar Burton Reads. Drawing from different authors and a variety of genres (but with an emphasis, I suspect, on sci-fi), Mister Burton reads short fiction to his audience in a very engaging fashion. But don’t take my word for it.

grammatologie

To the dismay of some orthographic purist, the German Spelling Council (Rat für detsche Rechtschreibung oder RdR) the Eszett—ß will finally be given a proper capital (majuscule) form.
Instead of the rare but possibly confusing representation of a double S for the upper case letter, now people can officially exercise the option of using ẞ—großes Eszett. The pictured example is from sixty years ago but was an unofficial, unsanctioned capital glyph that the East German dictionary publisher designed for its own use, and there were other antecedents as well—going back nearly a century. STRASSE or STRAẞE now are both accepted but the same council session also decreed that certain Teutonicisms of foreign words like Joga or Ketschup are Verboten and the native spelling (more on spelling reform here and here) should be retained.

port sunlight

We really enjoyed the guided tour from Amusing Planet of the model villages (company towns) of the UK planned and constructed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the trailing years of the Industrial Revolution to house workers and their families.
Corporate barons in all trades from locomotion to mining, soap and chocolate created accom- modations and amenities that was far superior to the relative squalor of crowded working class neighbourhoods in urban centres. Although these pursuits weren’t entirely altruistic with landowners wanting to rid themselves of the eye-sores of cottages of the poor interrupting their views and some arguing the whole scheme was just the latest incarnation of feudalism with workers rather trapped and indentured (or indoctrinated) and with no choice other than patronising the company store, these settlements nonetheless pioneered retirement, medical benefits and union representation and helped enshrine and solidify the notion of labour rights. These purpose built villages were eventually integrated as regular towns and many contain listed-structures of historical significance.

standing order sixty-six

With the Trumpian effects of time distortion already punching holes in the fabric of reality, it’s scarcely possible to believe that this week marks a year since Theresa May ascended to the post of Prime Minister and leader of the UK’s Conservative Party after the passage of the Brexit referendum.
May’s professed political world view is rooted in the paternal and pragmatic philosophy of Benjamin Disraeli whose leadership informed what’s called One-Nation conservatism that while retaining the class system strongly advocated noblesse oblige and social justice for the disadvantaged and that indifference and apathy for inequities would result in violent revolution. Nonetheless, Disraeli’s agenda was oriented towards expanding the Empire and inspired fierce ideological battles from fellow populist William Ewart Gladstone who coined the term “Little England” to refer to the metropolitan Britain without its colonies beyond the seas. We’ll see what the future brings for incumbent and country.