ultramar

Though the people of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the rest of the Caribbean will survive and come once again to thrive despite of Trump’s nihilistic disdain for brown people whose vote and adoration could never be curried in a way that counts with the help of individuals and the world, it is deeply shameful who the Dear Dotard would rather focus his efforts at driving yet another wedge through a precariously united society and fanning the flames of a culture war by politicising sportsball than spare a thought for his territories beyond the seas.
Apparently his reticence over the devastation that Hurricane Maria wrought and the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico—with a population of three and a half million American citizens (with an asterisk of course since they are mostly affiliated with the Democratic Party, non-Caucasian and they cannot vote in federal elections) was beginning to surpass the threshold of bad press as Trump started to terrorise and ingratiate himself on the island’s poor governor who is beholden to Trump’s whims now and in the future, who in turn praises the federal government for its aide, in the face of Trump begging off because of logistical challenges—the Atlantic Ocean. To redress this empathy deficit (and for whatever reason, Trump sees now as an appropriate time to raise the spectre of Puerto Rico’s already wrecked economy and its indebtedness to Wall Street) in the meantime, several cruise ships have been diverted and formed a flotilla to deliver vital food, water and supplies and ferry thousands back to the mainland. The extent of the damage and the hardships ahead are really yet to be fully formulated as there’s been little chance to survey and assess, and this recovery is not Dear Leader’s reality television—please don’t let this too become his show—but rather we pave the path to restore the lives and means of seeking a livelihood to the peoples of the Caribbean and to make this moment a pivot point where our compassion for one another and consideration of our choices for the planet and the climate come into sharper focus—with or without the leadership of America, which is sadly now, even in these moments of crisis that they’re supposed to be a source of reassurance, only a divisive force to play both sides against the middle.

console

We enjoyed pouring over these exacting, surreal schematic photographs of (mostly) Mid-Century Soviet æsthetic gallery of control rooms of power plants, flight towers and other utilities curated by Present /&/ Correct (sundries for the modern workspace) via Boing Boing. Unfortunately, there’s no captioning and not much further information to research, as we’d love confirmation that some of these spaces have been conserved (and I’m sure some have been) in their original state and still in use.

gyres and eddies

In order to draw attention to the daunting problem of oceanic pollution and the impending calamitous crisis of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a group of artists and activists are giving this whirling vortex of litter and plastic founded circa 1985 and the size of France all the trappings of statehood, with citizenship, passports, a flag, stamps and currency. On World Oceans Day observed a few months ago, the group applied on behalf of the Trash Isles to the United Nations for recognition and membership, in the hopes that with the primus inter pares effect, the world might start to take the problem with the severity it demands.

tåskkråbët

In a move that heralds the beginning of a vertical monopoly of sorts, Swedish furniture and lifestyle purveyor IKEA has acquired the San Francisco-based online platform TaskRabbit that allows people to contract freelance labour for a wide-range of services—including presumably assembling IKEA furniture.
The handyman services company has another sixty-thousand independent workers signed on and has already struck similar deals with other major on-line retailers to supplement installation and delivery. What do you think of the gig-economy—or rather the “sharing-economy” as the newly-minted partners characterise it? I can’t speak to the reputation of either company separately but something in the combined enterprise strikes me as exploitative and symptomatic of our rather precarious profit-models.

we don't deserve nice things

This post is maybe too morose and dejected for a fair early Autumn Friday morning, and though only learning of this particularly photogenic Swedish tree’s existence and demise, the episode struck a chord within me and how celebrity is a crisis of character. Naturally the Broccoli Tree did not seek out the fame that led to its destruction—that was the senseless vandalism of some Herostratic offender, but it nonetheless became too famous to be left alone. So called Hugs of Death usually don’t have physical targets but adoration amplified can have lethal consequences and seeing what became of this pretty tree seems a very powerful and poignant reminder of the dangers and responsibilities of stardom—especially the self-propelled variety.

memory hole

An archive dedicated to delving through a quarter of a century of radio talk shows to cull nihilistically embarrassing interviews between the provocative host and Dear Dotard has been silenced with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) order to cease and desist.
The broadcaster that is the rightful owner of this catalogue—and the investigative archivists ought to be lauded for their stamina as the original recordings were cringe-worthy enough without the abject horror knowing that America would one day elevate this D-List celebrity to high office—is refusing to air these back episodes, but if it changed its mind the Washington, DC-based litigant would happily drop its challenge. The intellectual property owners feel that Trump’s words might be too easily taken out of context and argue that there is no way to bolster the sessions with enough background to constitute a fair-use case—that is, deeming it research or of journalistic merit. These factors and shrill cries of infringement, of course stand in sharp contrast to the special dispensation afforded Trump for his entertainment value despite the fact his deportment clearly violates company policies on libellous and abusive speech. Dear Dotard has not just threatened North Korea with destruction via his medium of choice but has repeated hurled hateful and violent insults at individuals and whole groups of people that would merit a lifelong banishment.

tambo āto

For nearly the past quarter of a century the villagers of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture have strategically, meticulously planted dozens of varieties of heirloom and modern rice to create a colourful canvas out of their surrounding paddies. The scale and complexity of the works of art has grown every year—including Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji in 2007—have helped revitalise local tourism and is truly a community effort. Be sure to visit the link up top for more landscaped murals and a video presentation on rice paddy art, or tambo āto as it is called in Japanese.

vansploitation

Prolific custom-vehicle creator George Barris (previously) also designed and built the Love Machine that was the central figure (Vandora) of the film Super Van and spawned a sub-genre of romance on the road. As with some of Barris’ other creations, the chassis of the Love Machine went through several incarnations that avoided acknowledging its spotted past including an appearance as a shuttle bus on Back to the Future II and on the television series seaQuest DSV.