fount of ambiguity

Ultimately sourced to the public affairs office of an aluminium manufacturer and required reading for all who matriculated through the agency, thanks to the CIA CREST scheduled releases to the public domain after fifty years the slim forty page, mimeographed volume on the intelligence service’s guide to semantics intersecting with proxemics, forensics and profiling through achieving clarity in communication and effective inquiry. The brochure in its entirety is available over at Muckrock and though somewhat dated still offers time-tested methods for recognising and deflecting fake news with means-testing that seems obvious but is something we’ve conveniently forgotten. The evergreen lament that “too much government is bad for business” is deconstructed through semiosis—offering that you will probably garner some enemies, at least temporarily rather than disabusing anyone—but some basic clarifying questions should be put to that rather meaningless (for the target) assertion.

the quicker picker-upper

While I try to ignore the boorish antics of Dear Dotard for as long as I can manage, the time in between one transgression that can’t be ignored until the next insult is galloping in frequency.
Given the fact that a majority of Puerto Ricans are still without essential services not to mention reliable internet connectivity, maybe the reaction to Trump’s reluctant visit to the island territory was somewhat muted (it’s just like making fun of the Amish, you Sh*t Gibbon), the game show, carnival-barker atmosphere was far more surreal than I could imagine. After calling-out the island’s indebtedness again, praising their optimal weather excepting the recent hurricane and saying that the number of casualties were acceptable given the scope of the storm, the humanitarian took it upon himself to distribute aide by lobbing paper-towels at the assembled crowd. No one should be allowed to forget that this is the nightmare we choose (no matter how we were influenced should we be tolerant or complacent) and that actions have consequences.

proletarskaya kultura

Calvert Journal contributor Samuel Goff gives us a rather tantalising preview of a collection of the bold illustrations, erotica, story-boards and caricatures of cinematic pioneer Sergei Eisenstein—probably best known for his silent films Battleship Potemkin and documentary on the 1917 October Revolution and later historical epics Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky. The experimental Soviet artistic institute that employed and supported the edifying endeavours of Eisenstein, who was also a leading influencer in the use of montage in filmmaking and editing, and his fellow creators was called Prolekult (Пролетку́льт)—a combination of the Russian for proletarian culture.
The visionary director’s graphic output was prolific, ranging from this frieze humorously depicting the start of the Trojan War to a dehumanising series called Idolatry inspired by events Eisenstein witnessed in Moscow during the terrors at the height of Stalinism, but was mostly unknown and went largely unacknowledged. The upcoming publication of a curated collection of his artworks called Eisenstein on Paper—with a foreword by Martin Scorsese—is attempting to remedy this oversight. Be sure to visit the link up top to learn more about Eisenstein’s career and legacy.

toblerone

Amusing Planet educates us about an unusual geological formation that occurs in South Tyrol in the hinterlands of Bolzano, Rifiano and Merano called earth pyramids (piramidi di terra in Alto Adige, Südtiroler Erdpyramiden).
These tall pillars formed out of the moraine clay deposited by retreating glaciers during the last Ice Age and regularly alternating periods of drought and torrential rains that wash the soil away. The boulders atop these spindly, precarious-looking structures prevent the soil directly underneath from being eroded away, and especially in sheltered Puster (Pusteria) and Toblach (Dobbiaco) valleys where they are protected from the wind make some truly outstanding scenery. The spiky confection is a Swiss product and has a different inspiration—a portmanteau of the creator’s name (Theodore Tobler) and a type of Italian nougat whose shape is meant to recall the Matterhorn (Il Cervino). I think we will definitely need to make a special detour on our next trip south to marvel at these uniquely frozen landslides. 

petit voiture

Just a Car Guy graces us with the bracing find of a 1903 model of a De Dion-Bouton vis a vis voiturette (a four-wheeler) charging through the streets of Paris, outfitted with pneumatic tyres, patented by a French inventor named Alfred Ducasble, to ride rough-shod over the cobblestones without sustaining wear and tear. Gifted toymakers turned automotive engineers Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux, under the patronage of automobile pioneer and marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, founded the automobile and railcar company in 1881 and originally made steam- and electric-powered models before turning to the internal combustion engine, and was until the 1920s the largest automotive manufacturer in the world, churning out a volume of two thousand vehicles annually from its factory on the banks of the Seine in Puteaux.

sphagnum, p.i.

From the science desk at Gizmodo we learn that algae are not monopolising the bio-fuel revolution and there’s another contender in the lowly but amazing moss. The superficial achievement of engineering a fragrant plant so a patch of one’s garden might smell of patchouli oil is just the beginning. If developed responsibly, moss could become a universal, self-sustaining medium (peat, turf was until modern times after all the only fuel resource we knew how to effectively collect and use) that could be genetically tinkered with on demand and deliver flavoured, edible, nutritious compounds to be moulded and presented as a mealtime skeuomorph, effectively the replicator from Star Trek.

iconoclasm

For its Branded in Memory project a marketing and demographics website challenged one hundred and fifty Americans (most of the corporate logos are global brands but there are some specific to American markets) to recreate—without peeking—a batch of famous marque emblems and afterwards arranged the entrants from least to most accurate. The results are pretty insightful and illustrate what logos reside in our conscious and which are somewhat less ingrained. Colours were consistently correct (unless one was attached to a logo that the company retired long ago). How would you fare? I think it would be a fun project to recreate this experiment for those (probably woefully uniform) shops on your local high street or for the labels from your usual grocery shopping inventory.

6x6

what you’re saying is called “internalized misogyny” face: McSweeney’s growing index of alternatives to resting bitch face

heartbreakers: Tom Petty’s daughter shares personal photographs and memories plus more tributes from Everlasting Blört

escuela nacional de arte: the abandoned, unfinished architectural masterpieces of Cuba’s state art school campus

southern exposure: Ernest Shackleton entertained crew members during Scott’s expedition to the South Pole with an illustrated magazine, which reminded me of this other travelogue

airs on a shoestring: a growing cartographic representation of over fifteen hundred samples of musical genres, via Kottke

electric sheep: the eponymous Replicant bounty-hunters, Bladerunners, were named after a black-market healthcare system set in the imagined dystopic Manhattan of retro-future 2009