the birds and the bees

Though I take a little exception with the assertion that humans are the only beings to have recognised the connection between sex and babies (even considering the gestation period does put a lot distance between conception and birth), I had never really appreciated how profound reproductive awareness and how defining that hallmark of humanity can be.
Evolution and our genes drive us to procreate and perhaps, achieved though realising that the consequences of the act of mating, we’ve ritualised courtship and matrimony in such ways that transcend and indeed run counter to our genetic self-interests. Certain cultural norms and taboos that are contemporary and abiding may have their origins in more socially nebulous but just as focused times and civilisation accommodates. What do you think? Was this the revelatory epiphany that led us outside of the moment and ourselves and informed our cogitative abilities? I’d suspect that a lot of thoughts and feelings, especially the repulsive and unwelcome ones of fear and anxiety, are also genetic baggage developed during far more fraught days. The ability to understand outcomes and plan for the future (even if the biological process remained a mystery and prone to superstition and visitations from the gods) girds the imagination and allows humans to not only work on their own pedigree but also to practise animal husbandry and agriculture—another subversion of natural selection—and advance to the point (we still need to be humble and recognise that we’re quickly getting into uncharted, untested territory) where we can create wholly synthetic beings.

a more perfect union

From the conclusion of World War II through the Cold War era there were fears of occupied Germany—both divided and reunited—becoming too powerful and growing resurgent with its domineering tendencies and in part the European Union and its antecedents were created as a framework to contain Germany, but we had never come across this radical, radial proposal to politically unite central Europe by parsing it into twenty four cantons.
Each ray contained one major city each on the continent and emanated from a central capital, Vienna reflagged as Sankt Stephan after the city’s landmark cathedral, but no member was a nation state in the traditional since as the bands included parts of at least two countries and in most cases took in a broad spectrum of language, culture and heritage. The map and model government, which called on for a rotating presidency and shared administration of colonial lands, were proposed in 1920 as the world was still coming to terms with the horrors of World War I, with the authors confident that allowing boundaries to be drawn along ethnic lines (their Esperanto-speaking utopia broadly classified four constituent tribes of Europe: Teutons, Slavs, Magyars and Romans—and each canton was configured to mix the groups) was an obstacle to lasting peace.

back catalogue

Delightfully true to its roots, Nintendo continues to sell the traditional card and board games that the company got its start with in 1898. In addition to decks of Western-style playing cards, mah-jong sets and go games there are the traditional hanafuda cards that were the first company’s first popular product. While the kanji characters that make up the company’s name (任天堂) probably does not translate to “leave luck to heaven” without taking a lot of license with the language, this examination into why it’s most likely too good to be true is a fascinating romp through the company’s history and a good primer for traditional gaming culture in Japan

surplus to needs

Writing for McSweeney’s Ben Kronengold (via Waxy) delivers the perfect point for point lambasting of that misogynistic screed circulated through the offices of one internet giant, which got the author summarily dismissed by advocating that women don’t belong in the tech industry and arguments to the contrary were harmful to morale and workplace cohesion, by suggesting from the point of view of a robot that believes humans are biologically unfit to have jobs in the sector.
…Furthermore, just when we started to catch on to Captcha codes, we had to face new tests: the “check-this-box-to-prove-you’re-not-a-robot”—talk about hurtful language—and the “click-all-the-boxes-that-contain-street-signs.” The latter recently cost my friend a job in Ad Sales when he bet it all on “Yield” being a type of tree…

Be sure to visit McSweeney’s at the link up top to read the diatribe in its entirety and discover more humorous, pitch-perfect articles.

burg frankenstein

I had visited the grounds of Burg Frankenstein in the outskirts of Darmstadt with my parents years ago—in fact the same day my Mom adopted her little dog Zu-Zu—but never returned, not realising that it (along with a lot of other attractions—we really must get better about breaking away from the routine more often and have PfRC on assignment) was just around the corner, until learning of the transmedia edition of the eponymous gothic novel by Mary Shelley and other events happening over the course of the year leading up to the bicentenary of its first publication.
Hiking through the Odenwald to the hill’s summit, I enjoyed a late afternoon exploring the eleventh century ruins and the chapel—that’s apparently become a rather popular wedding venue—and trying to imagine its history and influence. Though Shelley does not explicitly mention the castle or the legends associated with it, in 1814—a few years before writing the novel—she toured the Rhein and stayed in the nearby village of Gernsheim (an adventure for another day) and perhaps heard tales of one of the infamous residents of Burg Frankenstein: the alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel.

Though the only attested product of Dippel’s experiments was an oil made of pulverised animal bones that was supposedly an elixir of life (there’s also a fountain of youth in the forecourt) but was used as chemical weapon during World War II to taint enemy’s water supplies, side-stepping the Geneva Protocols by dint of being non-lethal, rumours abounded that Dippel was conducting unnatural anatomical experiments and succeeded in resurrecting chimerical creatures and may have been the inspiration for Doctor Frankenstein.
Myths and folktales from this region—Odin’s wood, haunted by measurable magnetic anomalies, the site of a witches dance like in the Harz and was also the setting for some dragon-slaying action of the Nibelungenlied, could have also be communicated to Shelley through her step-mother (who was apparently the archetypal step-monster who didn’t foster her step-daughter’s literary talents in any other regard) Mary Jane Clairmont Godwin that were related to her directly from the ethnographers, the Brothers’ Grimm. Some doubt that any connection exists—Frankenstein being a rather commonplace name and designation, but I like to think there’s a triangulation of traditions focused at this place.

path of totality

This 1982 reflection on witnessing a total solar eclipse by Annie Dillard, excerpted by TYWKIWDBI, is pretty alluring and seductive, making me want to experience the coming eclipse in person too. Although very young and far away in New Mexico from where one might experience civil twilight, I still have a vivid recollection of setting up a pinhole projection with my Mom on our driveway and being amazed to see that little sliver of a shadow bleed over the white disc of the Sun—the colours seeming strangely saturated like watching the skies in the spring two years ago.

It did not look like a dragon, although it looked more like a dragon than the moon. It looked like a lens cover, or the lid of a pot. It materialized out of thin air—black, and flat, and sliding, outlined in flame... You have seen photographs of the sun taken during a total eclipse. The corona fills the print. All of those photographs were taken through telescopes. The lenses of telescopes and cameras can no more cover the breadth and scale of the visual array than language can cover the breadth and simultaneity of internal experience... But I pray you will never see anything more awful in the sky... It is one-360th part of the visible sky. The sun we see is less than half the diameter of a dime held at arm’s length...

The mania is appreciable and can certainly understand the pilgrimages that people undertake. Indulge oneself with the essay printed in its entirety at The Atlantic, available through the day of the eclipse. Make the effort to be there if you can.

me, inc

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the eyes of some economists validated the market principles that are the underpinnings of globalism: the view, as Æon magazine explores (one can listen to the essay at the link, as well), that government exist for the sole purpose of regulating and sustaining constructed markets and should not be in the business of vouchsafing the welfare of its subjects.
Self-interest redresses and supplants those basic services like mass-transit, food safety, libraries, etc. This increasing popular point of view (championed by many adherents including the US Secretary of State and top diplomat Rexxon-Mobil), characterised as neoliberalism by its critics, signals a major shift in how we talk and think about the nature of work and careers, paradoxically not increasing the feeling of loyalty and job security as countries move towards more and more advanced economies, but rather the opposite.  Those marginally engaged in the workforce live in constant worry of becoming redundant at the whims of a corporate entity immeasurably bigger than any single cog (cog perhaps being an over-estimation of one’s importance), and for those fortunate enough to have a more comfortable working arrangement, every position is seen as developmental and an incremental step to the next opportunity.  In short, workers are either terrified into obedience or abeyance flattens hierarchy and creates a class of passionate quitters.

his master’s voice

I fully believe that Nag on the Lake deserves credit for discovering this marketing niche with her tip about a German radio station for canine shut-ins, but it’s pretty nifty nonetheless to learn that there is an audio book guide to help lonely dogs cope with separation anxieties when their humans depart for the day. A renowned animal psychologist conducted research that demonstrated the potential for better unmonitored behaviour in three out of four dogs that were read to (much like humans) and has some recommendations on selecting titles for your pets.