Thursday 19 April 2018

la rรฉvolution introuvable

A recent interview with EU parliamentarian Daniel (le Rouge) Cohn-Bendit who was one of the student-leaders during the unrest in Paris that ignited in May of 1968, ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the riots, had two rather pointed statements: during the protests, no one was asking us about our relationship with 1918 and, commenting on today’s atmosphere, Cohn-Bendit’s compatriots were fearless about the future, whereas things now seem a bit tremulous (with notable exceptions).

hex key

We learn via Slashdot that robotic engineering is on the brink of surpassing an important milestone in terms of dexterity, coordination, versatility and patience in assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, a complicated, hands-on experience that would have until just recently been too much to ask of even the most sophisticated robots.
Spending half its time modeling a plan (and a little guidance from its handlers what the end product was to be without the ability yet to just consult the manual) and the rest on putting the chair together, both novice teams finished the job in about twenty minutes. See a video demonstration of the competition and feat at the link above.

Wednesday 18 April 2018

extended character set

Appreciating that as originally a Japanese convention, quite a lot culturally significant symbols would be represented in emoji, like the Great Wave off Kanagawa, Mount Fuji or a bento box. I was curious what the characters following zodiacal symbols meant.
Initially I felt a little underwhelmed with the list but took the chance to reflect on what strikes others as worthy of inclusion or shorthand for something else. For your edification: ๐Ÿˆ is Koko for Here, ๐Ÿˆ‚ is Sa for Service Charge, ๐Ÿˆท is the sign for Moon and signifies a Monthly Amount, ๐Ÿˆถ means Owned or Not Free of Charge, ๐Ÿˆฏ indicates Reserved, ๐Ÿ‰ signifies a bargain, ๐Ÿˆน a discount, ๐Ÿˆš is for Free of Charge, ๐Ÿˆฒ means Prohibited, ๐Ÿ‰‘ signals acceptable, ๐Ÿˆธ is the Japanese button for application, ๐Ÿˆด is used to advertise that one has earned a passing grade, ๐Ÿˆณ is empty and available and used to mean Vacancy, ㊗ is the icon for Congratulations, ㊙ marks a Secret, ๐Ÿˆบ is the equivalent of “Yes, we’re Open,” and ๐Ÿˆต indicates No Vacancy. The Alpha through Omega Omicron following are incidentally blood-types.

closed-circuit

Through a mesmerising clip that’s a rather voyeuristic illustration of the commuters’ rat-race and routine called Underground Circuit—comprised of a montage of subway footage, Nag on the Lake introduces us to the work of creative artist Yuge Zhou, whose common-thread of the patterns of human activity in urban settings is explored throughout her repertoire.
This particular work struck me as voyeuristic despite the faceless quality of those navigating the outer rings in a somnambulist fashion are nonetheless doing so to the rhythm of the drummers at the centre, a reference to the concept of Phra Phrom, the Four-Faced Awakened One, an auspicious figure of devotion widely adopted by the Chinese and other Asian faith traditions. Watch and listen to the whole video at the links above and discover more of her artwork.

ico or vires in numeris

Not content with having nudged public sentiment sufficiently for a pivot towards isolationism and fascism, reportedly the data-analyst company that scrapped data from untold millions of social-media users to spin those attitudes into a concerted, targeted campaigns that appealed to our insecurities and vanities did so with the ulterior motive of wading into the crypto-currency market, arguably a murkier place due to the slapdash competition than their initial, creepy harvest of personal information, with plans to launch an initial coin offering, eminent until a whistleblower came forward.
The blockchain architecture that frees electronic currency of traditional financial institutions was to be touted as a means of safeguarding one’s personal data, though it was unsurprisingly unclear how that would have exactly worked or whether the firm would disclose the fact that it had built dossiers on us all already. As chilling as this abuse of trust and opaqueness is and each of us should take action to signal that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable, it also strikes me as ultimately comforting and hopefully to know that society, both polite and impolite, does not quite descend into tribalism without a lot of help and manipulation—still easily duped are we.

the worst view in the world

In collaboration with local artists, Banksy has introduced a line of keepsakes, we learn via Colossal, available at the gift-shop of his Bethlehem hotel (previously here and here) that are inversions of the normal tourist tchotchkes of famous landmarks with the West Bank barrier wall depicted in various stages of crumbling. The hotel has also recently released an album by several Palestinian and international performers and has hosted several other events that you can read more about at the links up top.

imagine a man of my stature being given away as a prize

Though semi-retired from the programme since 2014 and leaving a legacy that goes beyond the some two-thousand answering-machine and voicemail greetings recorded (I wonder what kind of exclusive club those lucky recipients have formed, the format only recently changed to expand to give winners the choice of any of the panelists’ or hosts’ voices), the passing of veteran National Public Radio reporter, anchor and score-keeper emeritus Carl Kasell is hard to reconcile, as he’s been a familiar voice that’s accompanied us for a long time.
Beginning as a news announcer for the weekend edition of All Thing’s Considered in 1975, Kasell hosted Morning Edition since its inception in 1979 until 2009. For nearly a decade, there was overlap for the radio personality as news presenter and his role as judge and arbiter on the weekly news quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!—a move which some might question given Kasell’s newscaster’s bearing and the comedic playfulness of the show but his deadpan humour not only worked but was sustaining for the long-running show, entering its third decade this year. Thanks for delivering developments of events great and small and thanks for all the laughs. Rest in peace, Mr Kasell.

Tuesday 17 April 2018

still-life with roquefort